Marketing your real estate business isn’t something you can switch on and off like a tap. Unlike property marketing, which sees a burst of marketing over a few short weeks, brand marketing requires an ‘always on’ approach.
When you’re starting out in real estate, it’s tempting to think that a bit of marketing or sales effort here and there, combined with a couple of property listings, will be enough to grab attention and get your name known. But this approach to promoting yourself is more like a slow dribble than a steady flow.
When the market or the number of listings you are managing slows down, the natural instinct is to scramble – i.e. throwing cash at a quick lead campaign – hoping for a magic fix. Then, when business picks up, it’s easy to sideline your brand marketing efforts in favour of the daily grind (or the excitement of finally upgrading your car) because, for now, you’ve got enough business.
This stop-start, minimal investment approach is one of the biggest reasons real estate professionals struggle to build sustainable success. Instead of attracting a steady stream of opportunities, you’re stuck in a cycle of feast and famine, where business comes and goes in unpredictable waves.
But here’s the thing: marketing is never a quick fix; it’s a long-term game that requires regular investment. The goal is to keep your real estate brand visible, whether things are busy or slow. The real secret to long-term success? Consistency. You must show up in multiple places and be seen regularly so that when potential clients are ready to act, you’re the first person they think of.
Let’s dig into why this approach makes all the difference.
Only dipping a toe in won’t get you to the end of the pool
Brand marketing isn’t about instant gratification. Building trust and authority in your market requires showing and staying in view on multiple channels. Your prospects need to see your brand everywhere and repeatedly – on social media, in their inbox, in a Google search, with physical signage – before they feel confident in reaching out to you.
Only using one or two marketing activities won’t generate enough touchpoints. You need to be everywhere, all the time, to remain top-of-mind. Landlords, home sellers, and property buyers are more likely to choose an agent or agency that appears active and engaged and shares relevant and timely advice.
Here’s why your competitors are pipping you to listings
Here’s the truth: your competitors are investing more than you to promote themselves. They hire expert marketing agencies and spend significant funds each month on their brand marketing. That, coupled with slick sales processes that follow people who are actively looking at their ads or website, ensures that they retain greater market share.
Without regular, always-on marketing efforts, your competitors are afforded an opportunity to swoop in and take listings from people you’ve been talking with for years.
“Winning at real estate marketing is a case of ‘the most visible’ and ‘memorable’ agent wins.”
They’re running Meta ads, building databases, creating video content, optimising their websites for search engines, and maintaining regular client contact.
If you’re only dabbling in brand marketing and have a stop-start approach, you’re falling behind. Prospective clients notice which real estate business is active in their socials. Property owners will judge your ability to market their property based on your ability to promote your own services. So it’s a double-edged sword!
You miss out on creating a sustainable listing pipeline
Sporadic brand marketing also creates peaks and valleys in your lead generation efforts. Instead of consistently having a steady flow of prospective clients reaching out to talk to you about their homes, you’re left with long gaps and no inbound calls or emails.
For example, if I were to turn off all the campaigns that I run to promote my business and its marketing services, I know that in three months’ time, we’ll have fewer clients. I am in the exact same boat as you. In fact, every business is in the same boat; whether it is Coca-Cola wanting to retain a higher market share than Pepsi or a local restaurant wanting to ensure they have bums on seats on Friday and Saturday nights, marketing is the lifeblood of our business success.
A lack of marketing consistency is particularly damaging in the real estate industry, where building trust and nurturing leads over a long period of time is key. At any given time, around 5% of homeowners will be looking to transact, which means the remaining 95% are happily living their lives and in danger of forgetting that you even exist.
Consistent marketing efforts ensure that prospects who aren’t ready to act immediately remain engaged and primed to reach out when the time is right, creating a reliable pipeline. You can’t possibly ring everyone in your database each month, but your marketing messages can and do get seen by everyone each month multiple times. Marketing keeps you visible and provides a soft well, whereas sales calls, texts or outreach emails can feel stalker-ish.
Marketing takes time – a year at a minimum
Marketing is a long-term investment. It often takes at least a year to see meaningful results. A well-executed brand marketing strategy builds momentum gradually, keeps your brand highly visible, establishes followers, fans, your reputation and ultimately, that all-important factor = trust.
“Brand marketing is not about quick wins; it lays the foundation that supports long-term growth and sustainability.”
Consistent marketing allows you to test, refine, and scale your efforts, ensuring that your financial investment, your marketing budget, pays dividends over time.
Failure to track your marketing results
Marketing on a small scale often leaves you in the dark about how well your efforts are performing. Without regular campaigns and a consistent marketing budget, it’s difficult to measure return on investment (ROI) or refine your approach. When marketing is sporadic, the data you collect is fragmented and doesn’t provide a clear picture of what’s working and what isn’t. This makes it harder to optimise your efforts and can lead you to feel frustrated, believing your efforts were wasted.
Marketing is about testing and evolving — there’s no one-size-fits-all. What works for one real estate agency in one property market might not work for another in a different housing market. Hence, marketing strategies need to adapt to changing conditions. Without consistent effort, you won’t have the data to understand what’s truly driving results for you.
The lack of continuous tracking also leads to misconceptions about marketing’s effectiveness. You may feel your efforts aren’t paying off because you can’t directly link them to new leads or sales. But, successful marketing often takes time to show results and should be part of your broader business strategy. By investing in continuous campaigns, you can gather valuable data, track performance accurately, and adjust your promotional tactics for better results.
“Brand marketing also underpins your sales efforts. It warms up prospects ahead of you talking or texting them.”
Let’s face it: it’s far easier to have a conversation with someone who sees you online all the time than someone who asks you to repeat your name and tell me where you are calling from. It’s impossible to convert someone when they are completely cold.
You can’t compete in the digital-first world
Marketing today is digital-first. You want to leverage Google ads and SEO so that you appear when someone searches for a real estate business like yours. You want to make use of social media platforms such as Meta and their algorithms that reward consistent promotional activities. When you stop-start your marketing continually, you lose the algorithmic advantages. Competitors with always-on campaigns are favoured by these platforms, making it increasingly difficult for you to catch up.
The importance of an annual marketing budget
Marketing requires more than effort – it requires a dedicated advertising budget. One of the most common mistakes is underinvesting in advertising relative to your revenue or your real estate business growth goals.
If you’re aiming to significantly increase your listing numbers and revenue over the next one to two years, you need to invest dollars. That is the only way to ensure this goal is a reality and not just a pipe dream.
Those real estate businesses, or agents, that opt to spend peanuts on marketing are the ones that get frustrated with the lack of results and say that marketing doesn’t work. But just like every other aspect of life, marketing does work if you put in the effort and properly fund your campaigns. It’s like trying to lose weight without sticking with a consistent diet and calorie deficit. Or trying to run a marathon without any training or time pounding the pavement ahead of time.
“Brand marketing is an accelerator for your business, and your budget needs to reflect the scale of your ambitions.”
A clear rule of thumb is to align your spending with your desired outcomes: the more aggressive your growth goals, the larger your financial investment should be. One of the biggest mistakes real estate businesses make is treating their marketing spend as optional or redirecting it to other areas when cash flow tightens. To see meaningful results, you need to allocate a consistent percentage of your revenue to marketing each month and commit to it.
The exact percentage depends on where you are in your business journey:
- Newly launched real estate agencies: If you’re just starting out, your brand doesn’t yet have the recall, social proof, or referrals that more established property agencies benefit from. This means you’ll need to invest a larger percentage of your revenue (or future revenue) into building your brand and generating leads.
- Established real estate agencies: If your business already has strong brand recognition and a steady stream of referrals, you can afford to allocate a smaller percentage of your revenue towards your annual marketing budget. However, this doesn’t mean cutting your marketing budget in its entirely. Ongoing investment ensures you maintain your competitive edge, retain your market share, and stay highly visible at all times.
Why struggle with marketing when you can outsource?
Keeping up with brand marketing can feel like a full-time job — because it is!
Between creating content, managing social media, running ads, and analysing data, marketing your real estate business can easily pull your focus away from what you do best: listing properties and negotiating deals.
Outsourcing your marketing to a specialised real estate agency allows you to leverage industry-specific expertise while saving time and resources. Agencies like Hoole.co know what works. We can handle all aspects of your marketing and ensure your business stays highly visible and the most competitive without you needing to employ and manage additional staff, liaise with marketing suppliers or wrap your head around the day-to-day details. With me at the helm and my crew of creative talent, we ensure your brand marketing happens auto-magically, and you never skip a beat (or post or ad campaign).
A smarter way forward with brand marketing
Remember …
- The next time property listings are low, don’t panic. Don’t throw money at a one-off lead campaign that catches prospects off guard and appears out of the blue.
- When things are going well, resist the urge to cut back on your marketing efforts. Instead, think long-term. A marketing strategy isn’t just about solving today’s problems; it’s about building a resilient, recognisable brand that thrives, no matter what the property market throws your way.
By outsourcing your brand marketing to a specialist marketing agency that knows the ins and outs of the real estate industry, you’ll save time, money, and stress. More importantly, you’ll position your real estate business for consistent growth and ensure you’re always one step ahead of the competition.
Why struggle to keep on top of your brand marketing when you can have a team of experts at Hoole.co doing it all for you?
Ready to get professional real estate marketing help?
If you’re a real estate professional who wants to take your business to the next level with marketing tailored to your brand and clientele, book a free 1-hour consultation with me, Melanie Hoole. I’ll give you on-the-spot recommendations specific to your situation and career stage and show you how digital marketing can help position you as the local real estate expert. I look forward to talking with you.
Written by Melanie Hoole
My team and I specialise in helping real estate and property professionals perfect their personal brand, build a first-class digital profile and implement inbound marketing activities to attract leads. If you are unsure which direction to take with your digital marketing contact me for help.
