By James Sheldon
For a lot of Estate Agents both in the UK and worldwide, operating in an extremely competitive market is normal. While this will likely never change, Agents are always on the lookout for ways to get ahead and elevate their presence both online and offline. Each listing on your website is just as important as the next, how are you currently promoting and announcing each listing? It is all too common that agents do not shout about their new listings, one social media post is not enough.
If someone is considering buying or selling a property with your agency, they want to see total proof that you can and have been doing a great job. Having confidence in a brand can heavily swing a user’s decision in your favour. We all have experienced ‘Social Proof’, whether we are aware of it or not, and the concept cannot be overlooked when it comes to the Real Estate industry.
While the value of this concept cannot be tracked within a metric directly, throughout this blog you will find out why the biggest Estate Agents are taking advantage of Social Proof within their website, content and lead-handling processes.
Both offline and online, the psychology of social proof when done correctly is how some of the largest Estate Agents promote extreme levels of confidence within their brand. Evidence that other people have had a great experience selling or buying a property can only increase the chances of other users taking up the opportunity to do the same.
This is not exclusive to Estate Agents, and although eCommerce could not be further away from what Agents are used to, the stats are very telling that the concept works:
Social Proof builds confidence and trust, allowing your Agency to increase the number of leads, enquiries and overall, revenue.
If we focus on the property industry, there are more than enough ways that your Agency can take advantage of this concept:
If you were to add asking for a positive review or testimonial part of your process when dealing with your clientele, you can easily improve your Social Proof status over the course of a few months. Just understand, not everyone you work with will provide a review, but if you were to put this into place and keep it up, you will build up a significant amount of positive reviews and testimonials. It would be ideal if you were able to automate this with a CRM system, following up when appropriate.
Then, make sure to share your reviews and testimonials on your social media platforms, send them out in your newsletters and use them at industry events, in proposals and wherever else you may find applicable.
Adding Social Proof onto your website can also be easily done. It may be subtle, but it can really help your website convert more visitors!
Get those positive reviews and ratings onto your website, take pride in them as they are really important. By the way, Property Webmasters don’t take this stuff lightly, as you can see from the image below we really do practise what we preach!
You may be thinking, “all Estate Agents feature reviews, this is normal”. And while that is correct, how many of them feature hundreds or even thousands of legitimate reviews, with credible sources like Google, Yelp and more. Invite users to take a look at your reviews, link directly to them via your website.
A growing number of Agents are also adding “Sold” or “Under Offer” tags to their listings, why do you think that could be? In order to gain users’ confidence that they are active, working hard and selling property!
Showcase stats of how many listings you have sold, how much money you have saved your clients and give real examples of properties that you have managed to sell, keeping some of the sold portfolio on your website as Social Proof is a no-brainer.
As mentioned above, testimonials are an exceptional way of gaining social proof. Traditional written testimonials are great, but video testimonials are becoming more popular. Allowing a user to see a genuine recommendation in video format gives off a more authentic feel and increases the level of credibility once again.
Seeking validation through social media has reached a new level. But if we are being completely honest, the number of likes, followers, engagement and informative content definitely has a role to play in whether we purchase that product or enquire about a service.
Let’s face it, if you see an advertisement on social media from a business that only has 13 likes on its page, no mention of employee numbers, no regard for location and not mentioning a clear lack of quality content, some doubt may creep into your mind as to whether this is the business for you.
This example is amplified further within the property industry due to its competitiveness. if your agency’s last post was months ago, and your following is non-existent, you could be faced with more problems when attempting to display the competence of your services.
That very much sums up the meaning and importance of social proof. Many businesses are fully aware of the importance of the concept, making their business appear substantially larger than they actually are. Gaining users’ trust with ease and building upon the successful foundations they have and continue to lay.
Some of the above you will have already done organically, without realising the importance. If you really want to take your marketing strategy to the next level, then asking for the opinion of an expert could definitely be the way to go. At Property Webmasters, we provide content like this on a regular basis, signing up for our newsletter could help you see the Property Industry from a different angle.
Or, if you would like to see how your estate agency brand could look in a new AgentPlus website solution, why not request a free no-obligation Mock-Up? We will send you a live preview of how a new website could be displayed!
