Promoting your biz to RE office managers

[hallmarkrealtorsupport]

I called several managers for local real estate offices and it didn't go well! They were immediately defensive and did not want to hear what I had to say. I felt like I was trying to sell them snake oil! I admit I am not good at cold calling, but I was really suprised at the the frosty reception. Plan B was to stop into the office and hopefully meet them and give them some flyers. Didn't get past the receptionist...

Has anyone had any success talking to RE office managers and getting them to help promote you? How have you approached them? What has worked in getting your foot in their door?

[Your Virtual Wizard]

I once stopped into a real estate office, spoke to a receptionist and left some flyers. I never received a call back and then realized this was not the approach.

Although real estate professionals are not my target market anymore, when I was looking for work, my blog on ActiveRain was clearly the leader in getting the attention of real estate pros. After ActiveRain, my blog was the next winner in attracting RE customers.

Twitter and FB were not so popular at the time which now seems like eons ago but those were the two which stood out.

Another approach I took was to sign onto real estate agents' newsletters and comment their articles and ask questions.

I want to bring up one clever event that another VA in my area did one time. She sent out a postcard to residents (not sure where she got the addresses but I am sure that is public information) and set up a place to shred people's documents. She took donations which were offered to a non-profit which in turn made for news and a nice press release. If you can think of something like that to attract office managers, you may build a nice email list where you can send out your own newsletter and start 'nursing' these leads.

Janine

[Cathryn Jones]

I've been a real estate VA for quite some time. I have found that personal referral is a great way to market my business. One agent refers me to another agent or to the broker in the office. I think cold calling will be a challenge for this niche.

ActiveRain is a great suggestion along with BNI or any other networking groups that you have in your local area.

Best wishes!

[kmgoldman]

ActiveRain, RealTown and RealVoice are all real estate networking sites. Become a member and contribute, contribute, contribute.
Agents are like other consumers, they don't want to see you post 10 reasons you need a VA each week. Be subtle and helpful. REVADirectory.com is a great place to post an ad for some good incoming SEO. It's really cheap and growing all the time. Also, there will be an REVA RFP there again. So check that out.