Attention Realtors: 4 Proven Tips for Getting More Online Reviews

Free Tips for Launching Online Reviews Like a Pro
Free Tips for Launching Online Reviews Like a Pro

 Do you want to know how to become the “Best and Most Reviewed Realtor” in your market?

Here’s a hint – There are a lot more options than getting liked on Facebook or followed on Twitter.

Everyone knows that word of mouth advertising is important in building a successful business, but to take that advertising to the highest level it is important to have quality reviews on many platforms and often this can be done for free.

 Practice and Repeat these 4 tips often to build your Online Reviews

  1. Make it easy to be reviewed – Easy wins
  2. Provide something of value – Creative ideas to help you stand out
  3. Be where you need to be online – Over and above Facebook
  4. Give clients the best service – Obvious, but do something outside the box

Make it easy to be reviewed.  Let’s be honest, no one likes “completing the 10 minute survey at the end of this phone call”.  If you are like most people, you would hang up unless you are rip snorting mad and want to tell the world.  Well, if you have given someone top level service, closed one of their biggest transactions of their life, maybe given them free nuggets of information along the way, AND if you make it easy for them to review you, then you will probably get the raving review.  So how do you make it easy?  4 simple ways:

  1. Along the way if a client compliments you, write it down for later.  By doing this, the client doesn’t have to come up with something to write which many have a hard time with.  You can just bring up the quotes from earlier and ask if they would allow you to post them on your site and better yet, they post them on sites about you (see sites below).  An example of one we had recently before we even had the final approval that we saved was “I just wanted to take a minute and thank you for pushing this through for us.  I know we are not your only customer but you sure made it feel that way.”
  2. Make an email template that has easy to follow links.  If you create an email or online template with links, the links should go straight to the spot to type in the review whenever possible.  Clients will not want to look hard for how to recommend you.  We use this as a follow up tool and it works well for our clients
  3. Do it right away while the feelings are hot.  Even though your clients should still remember how much you helped them down the road, it is so much easier to write down the comments when the emotions are high and on the front of their mind.  So use that to your advantage and it will be easier for your client as well.
  4. Remind clients to copy the recommendation before posting.  No one wants write a new review from scratch several times so to improve chances of getting reviews on multiple sites (which is what you want), remind your client to copy and paste the review to several sites (see sites below).

Provide something free that has value to the client.  This is often something that is before becoming a client of yours and can be something you provide that helps a client be educated about the home buying/selling process and to make a decision.  Some ideas to provide clients early

  1. Mortgage education – Feel free to use our smorgasbord of articles to share with clients so that they are educated about credit, mortgage programs, down payment rules, pitfalls to avoid when buying, and many other areas.  It is important to talk to us early too to provide helpful information and to get pre-approved early
  2. Provide a free value analysis or sales comparison.  This is already pretty much a standard among agents but make this easy for clients to get from you in exchange for their contact information.
  3. Assist Veterans in getting their Certificate of Eligibility and/or DD-214.  Sometimes these can take a while or the DD-214 may not be legible enough.  Request a DD-214 hereRequest a Certificate of Eligibility here
  4. Have already made templates you can share with a prospective client.  Make sure that you have helpful information that you can easily share regularly and easily.  No need reinventing whole emails each time so make an easy to share template for important areas that will serve your client.
  5. Provide solutions to problems.  Show clients how you can address any issues up-front such as…
    • Make the house financeable – Condition is important to mortgage loans
    • Home staging – Make the home show well to buyers
    • Share areas you can help – You have helped solve problems for previous clients, so talk it up to your clients how you can do the same for them
  6. Help in other areas of their life that have nothing to do with Real Estate.  Be careful on this as you want to mainly come across as the expert Realtor, but you can still provide areas that can help clients in other areas.  Some examples may include
    • How Grandparents can follow grandchildren’s accomplishments online
    • Recommending local experts for landscaping, CPA, financial advisor, etc, and
    • Share local festivals, activities, hang outs.
  7. Provide coupons for local businesses.  Without much work, you can obtain a lot of discounts for area restaurants and businesses.  You can find a lot of eager businesses that may share higher discounts for  your clients because you have people new to the area and they a chance to win their business early.
  8. Provide utilities contact information.  When buying a house, it helps to know up-front who the contacts are for internet, phone, water hook up, electric and other areas so this is a must share.

Be where you need to be online.  Like mentioned above, there is more than Facebook and for Realtors, there are a lot of places you need to be.  Basically, you need to make sure that anywhere buyers and sellers find online for reviews, you must have a complete, easy to read, and informative profile showing the areas you cover and have a ton of quality reviews.  Here are places you need to be in addition to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest:

  1. Zillow.com:  A very popular website for buyers to find homes for sale and very search engine friendly so it is imperative that you have a lot of reviews on your profile.  You can also answer questions in a community forum type area which helps you be found as a realtor too.
  2. Yelp.com – Yelp is a great site for people to find LOCAL businesses and strong reviews will put you at the top.  Create a business account and there is an easy “Review” button to share with clients.
  3. Google+:  It is Google.  Should I say more?  Visitors can “Write a Review” which shows up when people are googling for services like you.
  4. Angieslist.com.  They advertise a lot on tv so if you have a highly reviewed profile, you get free advertising to their client list.
  5. Realtor.com.  This is obvious, but make sure that you have a very complete profile and there is an easy place to “Write a Review” and to “Recommend me”.  Try to get reviews since they say so much more than a thumbs up.
  6. YourWebsite.com:  Make sure that your website(s) are full of great reviews and linked to the sites mentioned in this list along with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest.
  7. Homes.com:  This site is similary to Zillow and Trulia, but just not as popular but it does rank high on searches for homes in local areas.  So that means you need to be there.  Homes.com has an area for clients to “Endorse” and write a short review.  Not many agents have a lot of endorsements so it is easier to rank high on this site.
  8. Stik.com is a website that uses Facebook to connect people who need high-value services (Real Estate being one of them) with trustworthy professionals their friends recommend.  Learn more
  9. Testimonialtree.com collects testimonials but also prompts clients in an easy way to share them on their own social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more.  You can share on your social media platforms easily with a free or upgraded account.

Give client the best service.  The obvious is return phone calls, arrive on-time, be courteous, and give expert advice.  Do things over and above so that your clients can’t wait to recommend you with 5 star service.

So, if you can provide some of the free items above and make reviewing you easy, you can turn a happy client to a “Happy to Review You Client“!  Then the one happy client becomes a loudspeaker telling the world that they should choose you as well!

We are happy to meet with you to strategize more on gaining market share as well as tips on how to create a fully complete, SEO friendly, informative, and easy to read online profile so you will build those “over the top reviews”!

Share this article with your office or real estate partners.  We hope you found this helpful.

Written By: Russell Smith