In the real estate business you need to play to win. A license and company website get you in the game, but these are just the necessary pieces to set the board. To stay in real estate long term, you need to step up your real estate game. With a little practice and creativity you can better utilize the tools provided by IDX Broker to sell more real estate.
Step Up Your Real Estate Game
When you first get your IDX Broker account, you have pre-built search pages styled to match the rest of your website. For a solid opening, plug links to these pages in your navigation and boom, you provide your visitors with a property search. This is a grand start and certainly meets the minimum requirements for any real estate agent. Website — check; property listings — check; search functionality — check. But what if you want to move beyond check to check-mate? You may be in the game, but here are some tips to go up a notch and take your real estate website from amateur to pro.
Make Blog Posts Sticky
Add IDX widgets to blog posts about specific neighborhoods. This adds interesting, relevant content to your news worthy posts to keep you at the top of your readers’ mind. You can really write about anything relevant, like local festivals or a neighborhood undergoing restoration. Just add a little bit of dynamic content from an IDX widget to add a level of strategy. One example could be a write-up on a car show in your area and then make a carousel widget that sits on the page, displaying houses with 2 car garages for gear heads.
Create Solid Landing Pages for Ads
You need to advertise, but sending clients to your homepage is not as effective as a targeted campaign. Create Facebook and Google ads that are focused on foreclosures or a hot subdivision. Once you have the copy and images prepped, send your clicks to a targeted page. Create a saved link that pulls only the properties that you advertised. Then visitors will get immediate satisfaction when they get to your site. For more information about this tactic, check out our blog post about Facebook ads with IDX Broker.
In addition to spending money on ad campaigns, you can take advantage of the built in social sharing features of IDX Broker. Use the ShareThis add-on to push your property pages and saved links to social channels and capture organic traffic on your site.
Build Your Niche
When it comes to real estate websites, you aren’t the only player in the game. National sites that feature homes all over the country and even local agents are pushing for the same end-game. It may be time to switch the game. Instead of trying to compete on the large scale, change the tempo. Find your niche market and be the best you can be in this arena. An expert in condo sales will draw in more qualified leads that can convert to sales than a generic agent who happens to also sell condos.
Be Creative
Play to your creativity
There is no one right way to use IDX Broker. Find some ways to be different and stand apart from the crowd. You may have bought IDX Broker because it’s not a cookie cutter solution. Now do something with it. Use custom CSS to make the widgets and pages stand out and strategically place your branding in front of your visitors at all times. Create even more widgets and pages to serve your market and niche in ways as unique as you are.
Your website and IDX solution are not set and forget it. To get the most return on your investment you have to maintain them, build them and breath freshness into them. Put a little work in on a regular basis for maximum payout. Just like regular study can improve your chess game, regular contributions to your website can give you the edge to win. To learn more about how the pieces work together, please visit our Knowledgebase or learn.idxbroker.com. Now that you have the pieces, place them wisely and rule your market.
