16 New Year’s Resolutions for Real Estate Agents in 2021

The best way to start the new year off right is to just pick up the phone and start dialing. Whether it’s new leads, old leads or your sphere of influence, this is the closest you’ll get to making personal connections without talking face-to-face.

Try dedicating one hour each day to making calls. You can even set it up as an appointment in your calendar. That way, you hold yourself accountable.

Social media is an important part of building your brand. With millenials making up the lion’s share of new homebuyers, you best believe they’re checking your social media pages. Posting daily on social media is not only good for branding, but it’s also good for establishing yourself as an expert in your local market.

Don’t have time to go digging for new content? A Keeping Current Matters membership includes a personalized blog and graphics that make it easy to share to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more.

If we learned anything this year, it’s that video is an invaluable tool for communicating with your sphere, at any time, from anywhere. Top agents are already finding ways to use video to build their businesses. If you’re not doing this yet, you could be missing out on key opportunities to reach your audience, especially in times like these.

Whether it’s a weekly market update, new listing tour or buyer/seller tips, videos are a great way to generate engagement and establish authenticity with your prospects.

Fun fact: 85% of buyers and sellers want to work with an agent who uses video.

If you’re not sure where to start, KCM personalized video is an easy way to get professional real estate videos without the hassle. Just download and share!

On December 31st, more expired listings hit the market than any other time of the year. This often overlooked resource could be a great way to hit the ground running in 2020.

Before you start dialing numbers or sending emails, make sure you have your expired listing strategy ready.

Show them a strong marketing plan, come prepared with statistics and give them a reason to trust in agents and the home selling experience again.

For the 3 Steps to Winning Expired Listings, download our free eGuide.

Forming relationships with the businesses in your community is one of the best ways to build good rapport, keep you top of mind all the while opening up your sphere of influence.

For example, try partnering up with a local hardware store to offer discounts or coupons to your buyers and sellers. The same goes for painters, plumbers, electricians, or anything else a new homeowner might need. Small businesses were some of the hardest hit in the pandemic, and many of them may be extra grateful for the extra business.

This type of marketing strategy is equally as important as lead generation and building genuine connections with your community should always be a priority.

Webinars are one of the best and easiest ways to learn something new. They don’t require travel, are often free and don’t last longer than 60 minutes. It’s a very low-cost and low-time commitment way to expand your education and develop new skills.

Identify the areas you want to work on in 2020 and look up webinars that can help close your knowledge gap. We recommend checking out Boomtown, Tom Ferry, Jared James and KCM!

This small task can mean significant time savings in 2021. If it’s been a while since you last update your sphere of influence, make this one of your first tasks of the new year.

Not only will you avoid spending time chasing leads that aren’t relevant, but you’ll also probably add some that could turn into new business.

The new year is a great time to assess what’s working in your business-and what isn’t. There are so many tools and technologies out there that can help streamline your processes-letting you focus more time on your clients and closing deals.

If you’re not sure where to start, check out our Top 5 Tools for Real Estate Agents and see if something piques your interest.

If you found that your lead generation was a little lean last year, this could be a good time to amp up your digital marketing efforts.

Take a course, swap out photos or start a blog. This could make all the difference for your business in 2020.

A new headshot is more than investing in your business, it’s about investing in your brand. This is a great way to kick off the New Year with confidence, and a more professional you.

On the other side of that, amateur photos or headshots of yesteryear can send the wrong message: inauthenticity and unprofessionalism.

In an age where social media is important for marketing and promotion, your headshot is often one of the first things people notice. Make your first impression count! Branded content is where it’s at.

No longer reserved for recipes and personal diaries, blogging has become an important part of marketing strategy. This goes twofold for small businesses like real estate.

Blog are an inexpensive way to drive traffic to your website, great for customer engagement and building trust with your audience in a more personal and conversational way.

The idea of starting a blog is easy but the execution can be intimidating and time-consuming. If you don’t know where to start, try KCM personalized blogs. The pre-written content is delivered daily and can be a great way to get the benefits of a blog without the hassle of actually writing them!

Wake up, shower, coffee, energy bar, and you’re out the door.

Does this sound familiar?

Sometimes you convince yourself that those extra 30 minutes of sleep matter more than anything else. In reality, they may be hurting you more than they help.

If you look at the habits of highly successful real estate agents, a morning routine is an important part of staying productive, organized and energized.

It’s even been linked to success in sales fields *ahem real estate.*

Feeling a little rusty on your marketing strategy? Could your scripts use a boost?

A conference could be just what you need.

Not only do they help stay fresh and current on real estate trends, they’re also a great way to get your face out there, rub elbows with top agents and re-energize your sales strategy. Bonus points: many conferences and workshops have no gone digital. Get all the education you need without the hassle or expense of travel.

Tom Ferry, the #1 rated real estate coach in America, offers a number of different types of conferences that focus on specific areas of an agent’s business.

Remember, it’s an investment in you.

It’s no joke that agents spend a lot of time in the car.

But are you capitalizing on those minutes driving to and from showings and back again?

If you’re not, podcasts can be a great way to maximize productivity without adding one more thing to your “to-do” list.

According to Boomtown, here are some of the top podcasts for real estate agents this year:

• Kevin and Fred’s Next Level Agents Podcast
• Harvard Business Review Ideacast
• Hack the Entrepreneur
• Tom Ferry Podcast
• Caravan Confessions

Whether you’re looking for a laugh or a new marketing strategy, podcasts offer a little bit of something for every real estate agent.

If there is one big lesson we can take away from this year, it’s that one of the most important parts of being a real estate agent is knowing what is happening in the market. Why? Because your clients look to you to be their trusted advsior.

Being knowledgeable helps give you an edge over the competition and builds trust with your clients.

The Monthly Market Report is a 60-minute snippet about what is currently happening in the market, why and how it will affect the real estate market. It’s one of the greatest tools you could have for communicating the present market, and what experts predict for the near future.

Email marketing is often one of the most crucial yet overlooked parts of a business’ marketing. If done right, you can convert leads faster than a snap of the fingers. If not, you could send probably future clients running to the competition.

This new year, go through your email marketing and see where you could refresh your content. Sometimes changing out some wording and adding a new signature is all they need.

Whatever you do, just avoid these 7 email mistakes that could be costing you clients.