Real estate agents who want to increase brand awareness and attract new clients must engage in online reputation management. 

According to a study by the National Association of Realtors, the Internet is an essential tool for all generations of home buyers. 

Therefore, online reputation management for realtors is more crucial than ever before. An online reputation strategy drives more homebuyers and sellers to your website.

A positive reputation influences buyers’ decisions and builds brand trust. This post highlights critical pillars of real estate brand reputation management in 2023.

Practicing the brand reputation strategies highlighted in this post can drive more sales to your business. 

Establish Your Online Profiles 

In today’s competitive real estate market, it can be difficult for realtors to stand out online. A strong online profile can make a difference and set you apart. 

Here are effective strategies that realtors can use to build a strong online presence. 

Develop a professional website.

Building a professional real estate website is the first step in ensuring a solid online presence. Your website should provide information about your agency, showcase listings, and contact information. 

Ensure you have a mobile-friendly website with clear navigation. Include professional photos and videos of your properties and optimized property descriptions. 

Here are crucial elements to have on your realtor’s website:

• Mobile responsiveness
• Live search feature
• Interactive property listings
• Beautiful images and high-resolution videos
• Customer support features
• Compelling CTA and lead capture forms
• Informative, engaging, and optimized blogs 
• Simple to navigate/clear navigation buttons

Having all these features on your realtor’s website would be great. However, if your budget is tight, start with the basic features and add others as you scale the business. 

Optimized Social Media Profiles 

In today’s digital era, social media has become an indispensable tool for real estate professionals to connect with potential homebuyers and sellers.

To leverage the power of social media, it is crucial to create professional profiles on various social media platforms where your target audience is most active.

By showcasing your properties on social media profiles, you can capture the attention of your followers and encourage them to share your listings with their networks.

This, in turn, can help you expand your reach and attract more potential clients to your business.

Here are the best social media practices for realtors:

• Create a social media strategy
• Post consistently
• Create engaging, educative, and interesting social media content
• Respond to follower’s reactions and comments 
• Track and analyze metrics

Creating an effective social media strategy is one of the essential steps when building your brand online. You may talk to a social media management agency to boost your performance on social media. 

Remember, social media marketing is evolving consistently, and keeping up with the latest trends is essential. In that regard, hiring a social media management agency can be the best approach. 

Create Agent Profile On Major Listing Sites

Savvy real estate agents have profiles on online listing websites like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com.

Your bio on the primary listing websites is vital to your online marketing strategy and could be the breakthrough to a successful career. 

Your bio information is the first introduction to the potential buyers or sellers; you can use it to connect with clients personally. Use the profile to demonstrate your abilities and industry knowledge and share deep community connections. 

It is essential to add a professional image, share background information, and let the readers know how they would benefit and enjoy working with you.  

Here are some best practices to bear in mind when creating an online profile on major listing sites:

• Find bio inspirations
• Showcase/highlight your value
• Make your bio sound natural
• Include professional and personal details
• Describe your exposure and achievements

Writing a professional bio on major listing websites is a creative way to increase online visibility. An excellent biography is your door to more clients. Therefore, you should optimize it effectively.

Develop An Online Content Strategy for Reputation Campaigns

Now that you have created a website, have social media profiles, and are active on main realtors’ listing sites, developing a content strategy is next. 

An effective content strategy will help you unlock long-term success, keep fresh ideas flowing, and ensure your followers are engaged constantly. 

A proper content strategy will encourage engagement and make more people visit your online profiles.

So, what is a content strategy, and how can you create a winning one?

Ideally, a content strategy refers to how you create, post and manage helpful content that you produce. It’s all about content that is valuable to the reader.

In essence, the content strategy should highlight the ethos and purpose behind the content that you want to create. 

Here are essential questions to answer when creating a content strategy to boost your online reputation.

• Why are you creating the content?
• Who are you targeting with the content?
• What problems are you solving for your audience?
• What content formats do you plan to use to deliver the message effectively?

These responses to these questions should be an essential part of your core content strategy. Great real estate content has the power to convince potential buyers and sellers. 

Here are the benefits of a great content strategy for your real estate business:

• Establishes and nurtures trust
• Drives organic traffic through SEO
• Supports your real estate business through a constant online presence
• It sets you and your real estate business up as an industry authority

To help your content marketing strategy, add an active blog to your company website. High-quality content on your website or blog is a great way to attract search engines. Ensure the blog content is meaningful, informative, and valuable.

Then, when creating content, prioritize website user experience. Meaningful and informative content makes the users want to stay and attracts sharing. Leverage the power of visuals with infographics, interactive images, 3D videos, and quality images. 

Finally, when you have created content for your social media or website, invite the target audience to subscribe to your content. You want to ensure a consistent content strategy so they know when to expect a new post. 

Encourage Every Client to Leave a Review

In today’s digital age, customers will check online reviews to determine a brand’s efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery. 

With just a few clicks, customer reviews can spread quickly and build your reputation or even damage it. Thus, customer reviews are an essential pillar of reputation management.

While some may see customer reviews as a double-edged sword, there is no denying that customer reviews are a crucial pillar in the success of your business.

If you are struggling to figure out how to encourage your clients to leave reviews, consider these tips:

• Start by asking for reviews directly. More often, your customers will be happy to leave a positive review. 
• Create a process of asking for reviews when customers are happiest
• Include review links in emails and newsletters
• Automate the review ask process
• Start the review conversation with an open-ended question
• Follow up on review requests or add an awaiting review reminder on the customer accounts page 

Automating the process of asking for and monitoring customer reviews can boost your business reputation significantly. 

Online reviews are essential because they help with SEO, especially if you are targeting local clients. Featuring reviews on your website, social media profiles, and listing sites lets you appear on SERPs for real estate branded search terms. 

Conclusion

Referrals from past home buyers and sellers have sustained real estate agents in the past years. 

While referrals remain crucial to finding new business, most of your business will come from online searches. Most future clients will only contact you if you have a positive reputation online. 

Due to this reality, having a solid online reputation is essential for your business.