If you are a broker, a developer or a property manager in either residential or commercial real estate, you know that experience is a key ingredient to success.
But how do you show potential customers that you have the experience they are looking for? Anyone can say, “I have been in the business for 20 years”, but that doesn’t mean much. What your customers really want to see is that you are a seasoned real estate professional with the relevant track record. This is crucial in order to build credibility and trust to get new customers on board.
Market your track record with an Experience Map
When we started talking to real estate professionals using the Mapme platform to build their Experience map, we heard that they had finally found the ideal solution to demonstrate their track record. They had found an effective marketing tool to deliver relevant content in a highly visual format.
The experience map is the ideal resume format for real estate professionals. It can be viewed on all devices from mobile to desktop and delivered through your website, emails, Facebook page, and other social media.
What are the strategies to build an effective Experience Map?
Make it visual
Include at least one photo for each location. Make sure your photos are good quality with a minimum resolution of 800px wide. If you have video or 3D tours like Matterport, add them.
If you don’t have any photos or videos available for some of the houses, use a placeholder image like this one “sold by example”
Make it personal
Include small anecdotes and stories. Show that you had a real personal connection with the buyer, the seller, and the house. Customers are looking for real estate agents who care. You can even include a quote or testimonial from the seller or buyer. In short, make it interesting for potential customers looking at your experience map.
Which information should be included?
In addition to the visual content (photo, video, 3D tour), include a short description of the sale. For example:
Sold by John Smith brokerage in Jan 2017 for $2,850,000, $150,000 above asking price.
You can also include a short description of the house, but in most cases, it is not necessary. Remember, the experience map is designed to build trust, no need to overwhelm your potential customers with too many details.
Show depth, show coverage
You can show depth and/or coverage. The choice is yours and depends on your current selling strategy.
If you focus on a specific geographic area, no need to show deals out of that area. Show the depth of your success in the relevant area.
Make it relevant with categories
If you are a residential real estate broker, and you have a potential seller for a $5M home, they will not be interested in your track record selling houses for less than $1M. They are looking for relevant success.
You can either create different maps targeting different types of customers or create categories so that your customers can focus on the most relevant information for them.
If you have a wide price range of houses you sold, organizing them by price range can help demonstrate that you have the relevant experience in the price range of a potential customer.
The price range might not always be the right or the only useful category. For example, you can also organize your map by “Buyer Side” and “Seller Side”.
In any case, remember to keep it simple. Usually, 3 or 4 categories are enough and will keep your Experience Map easy to browse for your customers.
What if I just want to show my flagship sales?
This can be a good strategy. Building trust and credibility is not necessarily about quantity. You might even think about creating customized Experience Maps for high-value customers.
Who should have an Experience Map
Real estate organizations are very diverse and come in different shapes and sizes. So your Experience Map should reflect the type of real estate organization you belong to.
For Brokers, the Experience Map should reflect the past sales of your brokerage firm.
If you work in a small team of 1-3 agents, you can create an Experience Map around your team sales and you might consider organizing the map by agents using the category feature.
If you are a solo agent, make your Experience Map personal by adding your photo on the map overview.
Should my Experience Map be updated regularity
Yes, it is a living lead generation marketing tool and you want to update it regularly in order to include your latest deals.
How do I create my Experience Map?
It’s easy to build your Experience Map with Mapme. No technical skills or programming is needed.
We created a guide with step by step instructions to create an experience map.
You can also always contact our support team and we will be delighted to help.