To build a referral-based business, you must leave no stone unturned. Friends and family aside, local businesses are another wonderful real estate referral opportunity for every agent. You just need to know how to engage with them the right way.
Cooperation with local business owners goes far beyond leaving your flyers in their shops. Yet not all agents actually grasp the chance to build thriving business relationships with other businesses in the area.
If you are struggling to get more referrals, here are three no-brainer ways to do so.
3 real estate referral opportunities with local businesses
1) Mention them on your blog and social media
Have you ever met a business owner who would say no to free promotion? Featuring local businesses on your blog has a variety of benefits:
- you are sharing locally relevant info with your own audience;
- you are working to boost your SEO as this kind of content positively affects your local rankings;
- you are building personal connections with other local businesses and showing them you’re open to referral opportunities.
You can do a review of a local business or an interview with its owner. Start building your relationships with local companies and your referral database will grow.
2) Promote their special deals
Your social media and email campaigns are perfect tools to spread the word about daily or weekly special deals local businesses are offering. People are always interested in hot deals and this strategy can also help you increase awareness and traffic.
Another way to advance this strategy is to create a local directory where owners can submit their special deals/coupons. Again, no business owner will say no to free promotion while you might soon get a bunch of new referrals.
3) Launch local marketing campaigns
If you’ve been running your own real estate blog, you know all too well that producing content is challenging. But if you could partner with another local business to create an evergreen piece of content relevant to both of your businesses, that content can rank really high. It can also create new real estate referral opportunities for you.
For example, you can partner up with a local mortgage broker, home decorator, lawyer or property developer. You can then create content that would address your audience’s needs from various perspectives. This content will do some passive prospecting for you online and will get you ranked higher.
Even large brands are using this strategy to co-promote themselves. For example, Chase Home Lending partnered up with Google to create a joint report on what home buyers are searching for online:
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Final thoughts
Put together a list of ten local businesses and use one of these ways to reach out to them. In a couple of weeks, your referral database will start growing.
