27 Ways to Get Listings

them. You can build a relationship with the people running stories at the local news channel, or the people writing for the local paper. You want to try to be a resource for real estate in your area. My dad is a real estate agent, and he connected with a local paper, a local blogger, and even the local radio station. He would offer real estate stats about his market. As the market was changing, he was their resource for a lot of questions, and it made him look great. He could easily repost his involvement with these PR opportunities to his social media accounts, positioning himself as even more of an authority. This is a really good way to put yourself out there and to strengthen your position. #25: Advertising to Generate Leads Traditional advertising is still a terrific way to promote your business. There are obviously a lot of ways to do this, but I want to talk about the three most important ones. Before I get into those, there is something you should take into consideration anytime you're going out and doing advertising, especially online advertising: Think about how you position your offers. There are two ways to do this. ● Unbranded Advertising The first method is not to advertise yourself specifically as a real estate agent, but rather offer something of value that might compel potential home buyers and sellers to interact, even if they aren’t specifically looking to sell their homes in the immediate future. To avoid any legal issues with these types of ads, you do need to disclose that you're a real estate agent — you can include something in small print at the bottom, like “This ad is not intended to solicit business from homes already listed with an agent. This is a paid promotion by AGENT of BROKERAGE in LOCATION.” For example, you could run an ad promoting a “Find Out Your Home’s Value for Free!” service. With that said, we've seen house value ads like this explode on Facebook over the past few years, so you need to word or design yours in such a way that it stands out. As more agents have begun to post them, their effectiveness has decreased. But creating an unbranded ad, so to speak, can be a really good idea. Granted, there are pros and cons to this approach. Pro: It's easier to track your return on investment. If you're using a unique domain name and a unique phone number for that service, you can track your specific ROI from that ad.