Q: As a sales associate, I’ve used virtual tours a lot. But how can I use them as a manager?
A: Akin to yesterday’s photo albums and slideshows, today’s digital photo presentations — virtual tours — create marketing opportunities at nearly every turn. Try these ideas in your business.
- Broker Networking
For your associates’ new listings, send an e-mail containing a links to virtual tours to other top area brokers in your “First Alert” network (Be sure to have their advance permission.)
- Market Area Tours
Prepare multimedia tours of your market area for associates to send to out-of-town prospects. Consider a broad overview (basic maps are good) as well as community-by-community tours. Neighborhood scenes and lifestyle photos can be interspersed with individual property pictures in these area tours. Create presentations for each neighborhood or subdivision you serve and add them to your Web site to brand yourself as the “community expert.”
- Referral Source
After a business meeting or convention, create a virtual tour of the event, including photos of people you met. Send the virtual tour as a follow-up reminder of their having met you and make a gentle referral request, such as “We’re never too busy to handle your real estate referrals.”
- Self-Promotion
Create an “About Us” virtual tour that includes photos and information about yourself, your team, your services, your office and company. Use individual staff photos instead of group photos to avoid expensive updates when personnel changes occur. Your associates can use this tour to introduce themselves to prospective buyers and sellers, of course, but it’s also good for showing out-of-town referral professionals the full lineup of services their customers will receive from your firm.
Meet the expert:
Dan Gooder Richard is a Virginia-based writer and author of “Real Estate Rainmaker Guide to Online Marketing” and “Real Estate Rainmaker Successful Strategies for Real Estate Marketing” published by John Wiley & Sons.
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Q: As a sales associate, I’ve used virtual tours a lot. But how can I use them as a manager?
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