As a Realtor, you always have to be focusing on how you can do better. You know there are plenty of other real estate agents out there, and your local market only has so many homes for sale. To beat your competitors, it helps to get ideas for marketing strategies that you might use to step up your game in getting more prospects and closing more sales. The following are a few tips that you should try out. You might already be doing some of them. Even if this is the case, you may find areas for improvement in implementing these methods.

1. Optimize Your Website for Conversion

Every Realtor on the planet probably has a website by now, so you need to make yours stick out above the fray. Make sure it has a design and layout that grips the user's attention. The content on the site needs to hold their attention as well. Use only high-quality photos for pictures of properties, and add video tours of homes to really keep people interested. Use property descriptions that make them want to find out more about a home. Also, give pertinent information about the neighborhood such as schools, parks and other areas of interest.

Once you've got their attention, the content needs to sell them on why you are the best person to help them find their new home. List any credentials and achievements you have in real estate. Perhaps you were a top producer at your local office for a while. Let these prospects know this! Obviously, you want a “contact us” page on your website with your name, address, phone number and email address.

Closing is one area where a lot of people in sales drop the ball. You may have a beautiful website that perfectly shows and describes properties, but that's not enough. You need to get them to take the next step. Be sure to have calls to action on your website. A contact form that they can fill out for more information is common, but because this is common, you need to spice yours up a bit. Offer them a free incentive to send them your contact information that doesn't cost you much time or money but that they will find valuable.

When it comes to converting visitors into clients, it's easier to convert someone who is already very interested in what you have to offer. To ensure you have a steady flow of targeted traffic to your website, you want to implement the next step on this list which is search engine optimization.

Related: How to run a paperless real estate business.

2. Focus on Local SEO

Because Realtors sell property in a given geographic area, you want your website to appear high up in the search engine results pages when people are searching for Realtors or property in your particular area. You need to realize that a lot of other Realtors are doing this too, so you need to rank well under many geo-targeted keywords in your area.

For example, if you sell property in Atlanta, Georgia and its suburbs, literally every other Realtor will have pages on their website that are optimized for the keyword phrase “Atlanta real estate” and all the variations of that such as “Atlanta homes,” “Atlanta properties” and many others. You want to have separate pages on your website that target many different keywords related to the town names and neighborhood names in the Atlanta metro area. While thousands of Realtors will be competing with you to rank highly on search results pages under “Atlanta Realtors,” there will be far fewer under “Kirkwood Realtor” with Kirkwood being an Atlanta neighborhood. You need to spread out under more specific keywords where you'll face less competition. There won't be as much search traffic under each of these as there will be under more general terms, but you compensate for this by optimizing various pages of your site for far more of them.

3. Have Listings on Websites Specific to Real Estate

Beyond search engines, there are websites that offer listings that are specific to particular industries. If you were a travel agent, for example, it would be smart to advertise on TripAdvisor, Travelocity and Expedia. As a Realtor, you'll want to be listed on sites such as Zillow and Trulia. You'll also benefit from a presence on Realtor.com.

There are also websites in localities around the country that may not be devoted to real estate but have separate sections for various different products and services. CraigsList is a good example of this. Under the “services” section they have a heading called “real estate.” Listings on this site are free, so it's worth a try to use it for expanding your outreach. Related: 3 Benefits of Zero Broker Split Real Estate

4. Have Separate Landing Pages for Your Geo-Targeted Ads

Landing pages are an essential part of digital marketing. A landing page is a distinct page on your website that is built around a single conversion objective. For example, let's say you decide to do some pay-per-click advertising, and you bid on the keyword phrase “Kirkwood Realtor.” If a person clicks on your ad and just gets taken to your homepage, the chances of them converting into a customer will not be very high. You should have this ad linked to a landing page on your website that talks specifically about homes in Kirkwood and perhaps one or two nearby neighborhoods such as Edgewood and East Lake.

This approach means creating a lot of fresh content with these keywords because Google does not like seeing duplicate content on different pages of your website. That said, it is worth the time or expense since you may have to contract out the content writing for all your needs. The stats on using landing pages versus not doing so are clear. Companies with 10 to 15 landing pages increase conversions by about 55 percent over those with fewer than 10. Those with over 40 landing pages increase conversions by over 500 percent. Think of all those extra commissions rolling in from the same geo-targeted pay-per-click ads just because you changed the page on your site that those listings and ads bring people to.

5. Make Helpful Contacts in Your Area

While promoting online is imperative in 2020 and beyond, it is not everything. Unlike having an e-commerce website where people can buy your products from anywhere, selling real estate is an intrinsically local business. For this reason, you should do what you can to increase your local outreach.

Network With Other Realtors

One way to do this is by joining professional real estate organizations and then going to any functions, meetings or events that are held. You may meet Realtors who don't specialize in the same neighborhoods or market niches that you do. You can build a referral system in such circumstances if they get a client looking for a home where you are familiar with the neighborhood.

Network With Divorce Attorneys

Divorce is a big reason that many people need to quickly sell a home. Given this fact, you should try to connect with some divorce lawyers in your area, and set up a referral agreement with them. Make sure they have some of your business cards on hand to give their clients who suddenly need to unload a home. As an added bonus, if you do a good job for them, you might be hired to help them buy a new home.

Join Local Clubs and Organizations

You should try joining local groups centered around any number of random interests you may have. This can mean sports clubs, hobby-related clubs, book clubs or anything else. You'll be out and networking with the community in general. Your occupation will come up in casual conversation with untold numbers of people this way. Have your business card ready to hand to anyone who asks for it. With over 60 percent of Americans owning a home, chances are that most people you run into will need a Realtor's services at some point in time to buy or sell a home.