132 Ways to Promote Your Real Estate Business
Ideas that are guaranteed to help you establish yourself in the minds of your customers and to generate leads.
1. Use a personal brochure instead of a business card
2. Give out poinsettias to your farm during the holidays
3. Give a return-address stamp as a closing gift with your name on it
4. Give a scholarship at a local high school in your name
5. Take buyers a home-cooked meal on closing day
6. Lease a panel truck with your name and logo and offer the use of it for free
7. Promote that you give a credit toward travel expenses for buyers who come to town and buy
8. Pay for a tech person to hook up your buyer’s computers when they move in
9. Pay to have all the locks re-keyed for a new buyer
10. Have an emergency fund you use to cover anything unexpected at closing
11. Give US flags to past customers before Memorial Day or July 4th
12. Have an Open House sign made that will attach to your car to park in front of your Open House
13. Have a logo and use it on everything you do
14. Start your own book club and brand all the materials to you
15. Give new smoke alarms and/or carbon monoxide detectors to a new buyer
16. Give out beach bags with your name and info as gifts
17. Do free seminars for clubs and organizations
18. Give a birdfeeder, bird bath, binoculars, etc to new buyer with great yard
19. Have labels of your business cards and use on water bottles at open houses
20. Video your customer testimonials and mail a DVD of it to listing prospects
21. Have your website mentioned in your voice mail message
22. Pay to have your personal brochure inserted in the Sunday paper
23. Give pre-printed change of address cards to buyers or sellers
24. Give a gift certificate to a framing gallery as a closing gift
25. Have a “thank you for visiting” card for open house visitors with value added (like a coupon)
26. Give a home records organizing book to first time home buyers
27. Send a coupon for free ice cream to an expired listing with a note about “getting rid of the bad taste” of not selling
28. Hand out fake money with your photo and a message at floor time or open houses
29. Have the refrigerator or pantry filled when new buyers move in
30. Commemorate home buying with anniversary cards
31. For first time buyers, give a fire extinguisher, first aid kit, etc.
32. “Either you love your new home or I resell it free” guarantee
33. Sponsor a kids’ sports team and provide free (labeled) water bottles to fans
34. Keep cheap rain ponchos around to give out to customers
35. Offer “Outrageous service” and then do it
36. Become a feng shui specialist
37. Give out your personal brochure at conventions and business meetings
38. Offer information or discounts on the back of your business cards for retention
39. Write a column in the local newspaper for your area
40. Have a picnic lunch pre-packed to serve when out showing homes all day
41. Host a radio or TV call in show on real estate or be a guest on one
42. Treat buyers or sellers to a spa treatment following moving day
43. Teach a course at a local college on some aspect of buying or selling a home
44. Offer a free coupon for something in exchange for an email address
45. Put a flier box with info by your beach chair on the beach in season
46. Make friends with community gate guards and take them food and drink for your open house
47. Send your sellers out to lunch on you during an open house
48. Have a laminated, water-proof business card to give out at the pool or beach
49. Send out market statistics as graphs and pie charts, not just verbiage
50. Take past customers out to dinner on the anniversary of their sale
51. Have the home professionally cleaned before closing (for buyer and seller)
52. Take a survey of your farm area on pertinent topics, then distribute the results
53. Send cards for Groundhog Day or Snoopy’s birthday
54. Take prospective buyers wanting boating to see properties via boat
55. Pick up customers in a limo
56. Take a photo of your buyer in front of their new home upon contract approval
57. Wear a t-shirt with your name and logo everywhere
58. Do a listing presentation at a restaurant to a prospective seller
59. Put your listing presentation on a CD and mail it out
60. Publicly thank referrals in your monthly newsletter
61. Automate your listing presentation to run on PowerPoint while you view the home
62. Mail a personal note to sellers after showing their home to thank them
63. Promote all the area listings at your open house on a printout (w/out addresses)
64. Put your buyer services on a CD and hand out at open houses
65. Become identified with a charity or cause and include info about it in your marketing
66. Give a membership to a local zoo or nature place as a closing gift
67. Rent a movie theater each year for all your past customers
68. Give out personalized area maps at floor time and open houses
69. Hire a babysitter to accompany showings if buyers have kids
70. Send professional looking brochures to all neighbors of listings
71. Send birthday cards to the children of past customers
72. Offer to speak at Career Day at schools and bring giveaways with card attached
73. Give passes to area attractions to out of town customers after showings to keep occupied
74. Use sunshield in car windows with your contact info and logo
75. Take digital photos of homes you view to give to prospects at the end of the day
76. Take your customer’s kids to the movies on moving day
77. Publish your own guide book to
78. Run a slide show on your laptop during open house of all available area properties
79. Ask customers for the names of 5 friends who would like your card
80. Send notes to past customers during national health awareness months
81. Send personal notes to people in the news (weddings, letters to the editor, etc.)
82. Do a mock virtual tour of a FSBO’s home and send it to them
83. Take a first aid and CPR course or sponsor one in your area
84. Volunteer at the area
85. For buyers relocating from up north give a tropical plant at closing
86. Distribute flags in your farm area prior to national holidays or buy the clubhouse a new flag
87. Distribute hurricane info kits in your neighborhood door to door
88. Become the best friend of on-site property managers
89. Put your website address on your car
90. Put virtual tour disks in your info box instead of fliers on listings
91. Donate a portion of each commission to charity and don’t tell anyone (it makes you feel good)
92. Offer a drawing at an open house that requires emailing the winner
93. Put the virtual tour of your listing on a CD and mail one to each neighbor
94. Have preprinted note cards with a photo of the new home for your buyers
95. Have more than one kind of business card
96. Give a closing gift to the pet
97. Post virtual tours of neighborhoods on your website so you can email links to customers
98. Help sellers clean out closets and pay to have the stuff carted away
99. Give out mouse pads with your logo
100.Have multiple domain names that point to your site
101. Put a company sign or t-shirt on your dog and go for a walk
102. Write frequent letters to the editor that are not controversial but informed
103. Use virtual assistants for marketing and admin (i.e. elance.com)
104. Put your pet’s face on your business card or ad
105. Send jar openers to marriage or birth announcement notices in paper for baby food jars, with note
106. If you own a boat or jet ski, brand the sail or craft with your info
107. Donate school supplies and brand each item or pack with your label
108. Sponsor a hole in a local golf tournament
109. Become an expert in something: military, seniors, golf, boating, relocation, foreign, etc.
110. Give a scrapbook as a closing gift with photos of the new owners in the home on the first page.
111. Buy a home with you and get the first 6 months of lawn care free.
112. Give a personalized door knocker as a closing gift.
113. Throw a housewarming party for the new owners that you mail invitations to and host.
114. Take a small Christmas tree to your open houses during the holidays using jar openers as ornaments and have extras to give away.
115. Park your branded vehicle near the road, not the building, for greater exposure.
116. Have a “Desperate Sellers” seminar.
117. Have a seminar on the Certified Gold Seal Program.
118. Create a “vote for me to be your Realtor” campaign during election years.
119. Put your listings on Craigslist in other markets (like up north when it’s snowing there)
120. Reverse trick or treat FSBOs with information and candy.
121. Have a garage sale at your listing with the home for sale too.
122. Print a team's sports schedule on the back. Fans will keep them handy and keep your name in front of them
123. Have custom M&Ms made with your name to give as gifts
124. When leaving a good tip in a restaurant leave your business card as well
125. Put your business card in with your check when you pay your bills
126. Have a business card designed as a bookmark and leave one in library books you return and put them in real estate books in bookstores
127. Wear a t-shirt that says “ask me about the real estate market” when you run errands
128. Wear a chef’s apron and have a portable grill at open houses and give out a list of “sizzling values” to your customers
129. Have coloring books printed that are branded to you and take them to pediatricians’ offices
130. Donate a portion of your commissions to a charity and wear a pin that promotes that charity everywhere you go to start up conversations, which lead you to say you donate from your commissions.
131. Give your buyers a Watson cookbook and the ingredients for one of the recipes as a closing gift.
132. Order customized jar openers to give out for special occasions – like your wedding.
* Get the approval of your branch manager before trying anything that involves a company policy
