Prospecting for buyers and sellers is a time-consuming activity. For real estate agents, there’s nothing better than someone contacting you directly for your services. But in a tough, tight housing market, how can you stand out from your competitors?
The answer: Be visible where your target audience is spending their time. A staggering 95% of consumers used online tools during their home buying journey. And it’s Google that dominates online search, with more than 85% of U.S. market share. So, it’s crucial for real estate agents to demonstrate their strong reputation in Google search results.
The most effective way to prove your worth online is to obtain a verified Google Business Profile and generate positive reviews, which live on your profile. When people look up local real estate agents or search for your name specifically, your online presence will attract attention and help you build trust with your target audience. Homesnap Pro+ helps you accomplish these objectives, and spurs buyers and sellers to get in touch with you.
Pro+ Step 1: Verifying Your Google Business Profile
Maybe you’re wondering: What’s a Google Business Profile? It’s the helpful business-specific information box that appears in Google search results. On a desktop computer, the profile is prominently displayed on the right side of the screen. On mobile, the business profile appears at the very top of the page.
As a real estate agent, your Google Business Profile will contain your basic contact information, including phone and email, a link to your website, a business description, photos, content posts, and, importantly, your verified ratings and reviews.
The process to claim your Google Business Profile is straightforward – but can be slow. After authenticating your identity and credentials you may wait up to a month for Google to verify your business. Why slow your momentum? Pro+ is able to accelerate this process by instantly verifying you thanks to our Google Premier Partner status.
Additionally, Pro+ will complete your profile with synced information from your Homesnap account so that it has the necessary information to go live faster.
Pro+ Step 2: Generating Positive Google Reviews
Once you have published, verified Google Business profile, it’s time to start generating positive reviews.
Every positive review you solicit is a stamp of approval. The more people who say they enjoy working with you, the easier it is to build trust with those who read your profile. If nobody’s endorsed your services online, people could think you’re inexperienced or incompetent. Consistency is important, too, because people look at the date when reviews were left. If the most recent ones are from months ago, people could reasonably assume you are no longer an active real estate agent – or, worse, that you haven’t been able to attract new clients. Ideally, you would obtain at least one new review per week.
The difficulty with review generation is that it takes up time you could be spending with your clients. You need to message your contacts individually and follow up periodically with those who have yet to leave a review.
Pro+ members generate reviews much more easily. They have access to the One-Click Review Tool, which significantly speeds up this workflow and gets you reviews faster. The One-Click Review Tool is integrated into your Homesnap profile. This makes it easy to select all your contacts and, in one click, send them a review request. The One-Click Review Tool automates up to three follow-up messages on your behalf so you don’t need to worry about tracking down people who haven’t left a review yet.
Once you improve your presence on Google and establish a strong reputation through positive reviews, you will be well on your way to fielding direct contacts from people who need a real estate agent. Accelerate that timeline with Pro+. You’ll instantly be verified on Google and can start using the One-Click Review Tool immediately to generate positive reviews. Join Pro+ today, establish a winning online presence, and start hearing from buyers and sellers.