For the last ten years, the real estate industry has experienced both highs and lows. During 2006, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) had its highest recorded membership of 1,357,000; however, this number dropped drastically due to the housing market crash. At its lowest point, the NAR had 999,000 members, but this number increased to 1,100,000 in 2014. Since that time, the competition between real estate realtors has revved up dramatically.

Since the competition is high, realtors must have both great online and offline marketing skills if they want to stick out from the rest.

Although home buyers continue to use the expertise of real estate agents, they usually conduct plenty of online research before choosing an agent. According to NAR, around 92 percent of home buyers search the internet before they get help from a real estate. Thus, it is very important that agents develop a strong online presence. So, if you are not currently online, then you are making it much easier for other realtors to stay on top.

The following are the 35 best real estate marketing ideas for real estate agents that want to beat out the competition.

1.Establish a Social Media Presence

Open an account on top social media websites such as Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram. Advertise your real estate properties with social media users, and make a point to interact with them.

2. Put Social Media Buttons on Your Property Pages

Many home buyers usually want to show their favorite home pictures with friends and family. Your website should make it simple for them to accomplish this. Put social media buttons on your property pages. This ensures that users can email and share properties.

3. Monitor Your Top Competitors

Are you keeping track of the competition? Make sure that you know what they are doing? What type of websites do they have? Do they spend a lot of time on social media sites? Watch what they are doing. If they make mistakes, don’t make the same mistakes. If they are successful, copy their recipe for success.

4. Don’t Make It Hard for Anyone to Contact You

Ensure that your contact information is on each of your website pages. The best way to accomplish this is to create a professional “contact us” page for your website.

5. Get Great Business Cards

Purchase professionally produced business cards and hand them out to potential home buyers.

6. Take Advantage of Local Images

When you think about it, you’re doing more than selling one home. You’re also selling a whole town or city to the home buyer as well. Each property page should also highlight the city or town where the home is located. Include beautiful high end local images that wow potential home buyers.

7. Produce a Good Offer that Can Gets Leads

For instance, produce an ebook that tells home buyers what they should consider before purchasing a home, condo or even duplex. Or you could create an ebook that tells home buyers what to look for when choosing their next home. As a way to get email addresses that you can use later, offer these ebooks to new potential home buyers. Creating an ebook is one of the best real estate marketing ideas available.

8. Find and Use a Great Photographer

In order to showcase the best homes, you must have great photos of those homes. If the photos are less than great, it won’t pique the interest of buyers. This is why you must ensure that the photos on your website are high end. Find an experienced photography pro that specializes in home photos. If you are a great photographer, you could take the pictures yourself. But keep in mind that you might want to actually use a professional since this impacts your bottom line.

9. Put a Virtual Tour on Your Site

Most people want to quickly see which properties are available. They basically want to see as much of the property as possible before going to the location. Accessing a virtual tour is one of the best ways for buyers to see a property. Create a virtual tour with great views and music that will wow buyers.

10. Obtain Sponsorship of Locals

Think about sponsoring organizations in your community. If you sponsor local sports teams or school events, this makes it possible to put your business logo on items such as school uniforms or flyers. This is great exposure for your business’ property listings.

11. Create an Animated Video

Create an animated video for your real estate company. If the video is interesting, cute and contains high quality, this can garner plenty of interest for your rising brand. Also, it makes your business seem more personable and approachable. Since you are trying to sell the local area as well, consider putting local landmarks in your video as an added touch.

12. Take Advantage of Pinterest Boards

Pinterest is all about highlighting beautiful pictures. Use it to your advantage when advertising your property listings. Consider producing a Pinterest board for every property listing. Make sure that each board highlights not only the properties, but all that the surrounding city or town has to offer.

13. Ensure that Your Website is Mobile-Friendly

Most people are tech savvy and they don’t like to part with their phones. As a matter of fact, it was proven that 80 percent of online activity is done via mobile phones. It is imperative that your website is mobile friendly to make it easier for internet users to find your property listings. The smart move is to create a mobile app that potential home buyers can use to browse property listings.

14. Produce a Real Estate Newsletter

One of the best real estate marketing ideas involves using email to build client relationships. Use your website to get email addresses to use for email marketing campaigns. When people subscribe to your email campaigns, give them the best real estate information available. Tell them about future open houses or new homes that are on the market. If you have listings in different locations, make sure that you create a newsletter for each area or create one newsletter for sections for different geographical areas.

15. Begin an Email Nurture Campaign

Help your clients find new listings based upon the previous things that they’ve done. It will be like leaving a breadcrumb path for them to find their dream home. For instance, if they attended past open houses, send out emails about other available properties. If they were present at your first home buyer’s seminar, give them a copy of your new ebook that talks about very important home buying tips. Give them the right content so that they know how to take the next step. Remember, this will depend on where they are on the breadcrumb path.

16. Create a “My Business Page” on Google

Google My Business is one of the most recent of Google’s location based pages. It is basically just like Google+ and Google Places for Businesses. When you create this type of page, new house hunters can locate your business on Google+, Google Maps and Google Search. This is one of the easiest real estate marketing ideas to leverage.

17. Think About Specializing

If the competition is really high, consider specializing in order to get ahead of the competition. Become the authority in a specific type of real estate, or you could become known as the person who helps single moms, couples, pet owners or singles find new homes. If you can brand yourself in a specific niche, it could help you stand out from the competition.

18. Tell Emotional Stories

Tell emotional stories with the use of great photos and interesting testimonials. Most people like to hear wonderful stories that are powerful and emotional. If the stories are memorable, you’ll never run out of new clients.

19. Host a Webinar

If you are an outgoing person, consider hosting a webinar. It is a good way to get more exposure for your real estate business. It can have a simple theme such as “The Top Things to Consider When Buying a New Home.” Consider re-purposing your YouTube videos. This is a smart way to ensure that your content stays fresh.

20.Take Advantage of Social Media Advertising

Learn how to use social media ads to your advantage. Don’t shy away from spending money on these ads to help expose your brand. Since organic reach is decreasing on websites such as Facebook, taking advantage of social media advertising is one of the best ways to get the attention of potential clients. Facebook ads can grab the attention of your targeted real estate market.

21. Use Traditional Mail Advertising

Some may think that sending flyers in the mail is useless, but traditional tactics still works. This is especially the case if you can pinpoint specific real estate markets. Send targeted flyers to potential buyers based upon the zip codes where you promote various real estate properties.

22.Write for a Local Publication

If you want to be successful in real estate, you must know how to target your market. Make your presence known in local magazines and newspapers. One of the best ways to do this is to write a column for one of these local publications. Don’t use the platform to make sales pitches, or this will only turn off buyers. Use the column to show your expertise within the real estate industry.

Make the column informational and show that you know everything about the local real estate market. Tell them about current housing prices and known trends in the local area. List five or ten reasons why buying a home in a particular area is a smart investment. For example, maybe the town has great schools or an extremely low crime rate.

23.Provide Free Seminars for Home Buyers

Share your real estate knowledge with local home buyers by hosting free seminars. Give them information on how to buy different types of real estate. Tell them what to expect when they acquire a new mortgage.

Keep in mind that “inbound” is very important, and this is not just based upon the online market. The average buyer wants to obtain free information before making an investment. Thus, the same type of info found during a webinar is the same info that can be obtained during a home buying seminar. Yes, it won’t be as easy to pull off as creating a webinar, but it will get the attention of potential home buyers. It will allow you to establish physical leads that you can use to your advantage at a later time. Set yourself up as the realtor that home buyers will remember when they are ready to purchase.

24. Create a Brand

Creating and maintaining a brand is very important. Think about putting your brand on tangible items such as pens and koozies. People love these types of freebies and will use them every day, which means they’ll see your brand every day.

25. Form Partnerships with Local Businesses

Partner with local companies to help build your real estate brand. It’s as easy as purchasing new coffee mugs for restaurants that have your logo on them. Or you could offer to purchase new placemats that also display your real estate logo. There are many ways to get your name out there, so learn how to be creative and make it happen.

26. Get Testimonials from Satisfied Clients

When a company has great testimonials from satisfied clients, this shows that a company can be trusted. If a buyer is satisfied with a new home purchase, ask them for a testimonial. This shows that they had a great buying experience overall. It helps even more if the testimonial includes a photograph of the customer and the new home. Display all testimonials prominently on your website and social media sites so that they will influence others to make a real estate investment with your company.

27. Build an Attention Grabbing Real Estate Website

Remember, most people like to conduct online research when making a home buying decision. Then they will call a realtor. Many follow the same process even when they are just renting a property temporarily. They want to look at maps of various real estate listings and take virtual tours as well.

If your website does not make it easy for a buyer to find the perfect house, you are going to lose potential buyers. Ensure that the listings are factual and that the photos are breathtaking. Provide the ability to use Google Maps and Google Earth. Also, don’t forget to tell them about other interesting things such as restaurants, schools or even landmarks within walking distance of their favorite properties.

28. Make Sure Your Real Estate Property is Simple to Navigate

You could have all of the best information in the world, but if your website is too difficult to navigate, no one will stick around long enough to decipher it all. Make sure that your website visitors have a good search experience. Give them what they are looking for by providing a simple and interesting website.

29. Include Local-Oriented Copy

People use search engines to conduct online research. Make sure that your website contains plenty of local related keywords that will bring them to your particular site. For instance, Dodge City real estate, Dodge City single homes or Dodge City 3-bedroom home.

30. Take Advantage of Zillow

When it comes to the real estate industry, Zillow is the top marketing platform because it provides around 48% of all real estate traffic. Chances are, no one will see your listings if you are not listed on Zillow. As a realtor, you can advertise your listings on Zillow. Although the fee may be a little expensive, it is still worth every penny because of the exposure it provides. Hopefully, you’ll receive a good rating from Zillow users.

31. Use Innovative Apps

Take advantage of schedule sharing apps to show property listings to potential buyers. This can save time because you won’t keep missing each other’s calls or emails to schedule property showings.

32. Send Closing Care Packages to Clients

Remember, the client realtor relationship does not end once the property closes. The client can provide future home sales via friends and family. The client may know someone who is moving in the future. Or the client may want to move again within the near future. Thus, send a care package to clients after a property closes. Put movie tickets, gift cards or restaurant coupons in a care package.

33. Stay in Contact

Keep in touch with past buyers. Send birthday cards or new yearly calendars to ensure that past buyers remember you when it is time for them to make a new home purchase.

34. Get Referrals

Make it easy for past buyers to refer new home buyers to you. Create a referral system.

35. Take Advantage of Call Tracking

You cannot be a realtor without getting a handle on call tracking for paid search campaigns. The average person uses a phone when they need to talk to a realtor for appointments or real estate showings. Yes, you’ll get new calls, but it’s smart to track which ads are bringing in the traffic.