What is Marketing? What is the Purpose?
Marketing is the process of connecting your services with the right people. At its core, marketing is about creating awareness, building trust, and guiding potential clients through a journey. You've likely heard of the funnel analogy, this is a useful representation of how the marketing process functions. At the top of the funnel, you have a wide audience who may or may not know you. As people move through the funnel, you qualify and filter them until only serious, ready-to-work-with-you clients remain.
In this article, we’ll focus on top-of-the-funnel marketing and conversion tactics. Let’s dive in.
Step 1: Identifying Your Value Proposition
Before you can market effectively, you need to know what makes you valuable. Historically, agents were gatekeepers of information. Listings were once printed in books, and clients depended on REALTORS® to access them. Today, property data is available instantly online. The role of the agent has changed — clients no longer need you for access, they need you for guidance, expertise, and convenience.
Ask yourself: How do I bring value to the process? Do you provide peace of mind by handling stressful negotiations? Do you offer market insights backed by thorough research? Do you save clients time by managing paperwork and marketing costs? Your answers shape your value proposition.
Step 2: Identifying Your Niche
A strong marketing plan always starts with knowing your audience. Who do you enjoy working with most? First-time buyers? Growing families? Downsizers? Investors? Identifying your niche helps you tailor your message and stand out.
Ask yourself questions like:
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Who are my ideal clients?
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What income level, life stage, or goals do they share?
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Are there clients I naturally connect with?
Create a sample profile by filling out a questionnaire: age, career stage, family size, hobbies, pain points, and goals. This exercise makes your ideal client tangible and easier to market to.
Step 3: Determining Your Top of the Funnel Marketing Techniques
Now that you’ve defined your value proposition and niche, it’s time to explore how to bring people into your funnel. Think of top-of-funnel tactics as attractants — wide-reaching efforts designed to introduce people to your services. They don’t all convert immediately, but they spark awareness and start the relationship.
Organic Attractant Techniques
Social Media: Tell Your Story
Social media is your stage to showcase who you are. Share stories, post videos, and show the behind-the-scenes work that proves your dedication. This is one of the most personal ways you can build trust among potential clients en masse. Each video and each post you share gives potential clients a window into how you operate. The wider that window is, the more people you will attract to work with you. Some examples of techniques that work well from local agents:
Behind the scenes storytelling: Give potential clients a window into your day-to-day work. Show them the time and effort you invest in researching properties, preparing for listing appointments, and crafting tailored marketing plans for each home. Even personal moments showcasing your day-to-day can be huge attractants! These small glimpses into your process highlight the value you bring and demonstrate your professionalism. More importantly, they showcase how you do things differently than other agents — and that difference becomes your strongest point of differentiation.
Educational Content: One of the best ways to build trust is to share what you know. Use your expertise to teach potential clients about the parts of the process they may not understand. For example, if your niche is first-time home buyers, walk them through what it takes to get pre-approved for a mortgage. If you specialize in development clients, break down the approvals process and explain what makes a property attractive for future projects. You can even create and share a hotlist of properties you believe are strong opportunities for your niche. By educating your audience, you position yourself as the go-to expert in your area — and that confidence is what makes people want to work with you.
Listing and Open House Showcases: One of your biggest assets as a REALTOR® is access to property — and every listing or open house is a powerful marketing tool. Use these opportunities not just to promote the home itself, but to highlight the level of service you provide. Show how you prepare the property, the marketing materials you’ve created, and the effort that goes into hosting a successful open house. Even if visitors aren’t interested in that particular home, they’ll see the professionalism, attention to detail, and strategy you bring to every transaction. This turns your listings into living examples of the value you offer, helping potential clients imagine what it would be like to have you represent them.
Newsletters: Share Stories and Wins
Send monthly newsletters that highlight your business wins, client successes, or even personal stories. Use video, if you feel comfortable, people connect more deeply when they see and hear you. Always include links to items of value, like a downloadable guide or a featured property. If someone downloads your buyer’s package, you now have a reason to reach out and ask about their goals.
Open Houses: Face-to-Face Connection
Hosting open houses is one of the most effective, low-cost ways to meet potential clients. Visitors are already showing intent by attending. Use tools like open house apps and your CRM to collect contact information and follow up. Small touches, like sending a thank-you email or additional property suggestions, keep you top-of-mind.
Paid Attractant Techniques
If you have a budget to invest and know your niche, paid outreach can expand your audience quickly. Focus on low-cost methods that get your name out to a wider audience. Some examples:
Bus benches, billboards, magazines, print advertising: High-visibility ads like bus benches, billboards, and magazines can give your brand strong exposure at a relatively low cost. The key is tracking results and being ready to follow up. Use unique phone numbers, QR codes, or landing pages to see which ads are working. Always point people directly to your website or phone number, and have a clear plan for responding when leads come in.
Direct mail campaigns: Postcards and letters are a classic way to connect with your neighbourhood. Add a QR code that links to a landing page and include a simple hook like “See the latest listings in your area.” Direct mail works well for promoting open houses, new listings, or market updates. A great example is sending a card for a new listing — sometimes neighbours share it with friends or family who want to move into the area, creating warm referral leads.
Social media ad campaigns: Use paid ads to promote clear, specific actions — like downloading a buyer’s guide, requesting a market report, or signing up for a hot list. These work best when the offer is valuable and easy to understand. Direct users to property search pages or squeeze pages that capture their contact information, so you can follow up and turn interest into leads.
Listing Marketing as Lead Generation
Finally, your current listings can be powerful attractant marketing tools. A well-marketed property not only sells a home, it also shows potential clients the level of service they can expect from you. Even if you don’t have your own listing, you can showcase the effort you’d put in. For example:
Social media campaigns: Use tools like Property Boost to quickly create Facebook and Instagram ads for listings. Set-up smart campaigns to automatically follow-up with these contacts with texts and/or emails.
Print marketing: Distribute flyers, brochures, and feature sheets using BoldTrail’s design centre. These can be created for any listing, print them out and say, "look at these materials I designed for a listing presentation!"
Paid advertising: Place ads in real estate magazines. Pemberton Holmes has a few options available, or contact your existing advertising reps to see if there are any promotions going on you can leverage!
By consistently showing your process — staging, photography, marketing strategy — you prove your value to potential sellers and build credibility with buyers.
Step 4: Converting In-Bound Leads to Clients
Once you’ve filled the top of your funnel, the next step is conversion — sifting through a large pool of interested people to identify who is both motivated and qualified to transact. This stage is all about moving leads from curiosity into commitment.
The process begins with setting up follow-up systems for inbound leads. Depending on how that lead came in, you’ll want to use different approaches:
Automation Features & Drip Campaigns: For impersonal lead sources — like downloadable buyer’s guides, hot lists, or other items of value — automation can handle the first touchpoints. Drip campaigns (emails, texts, and calls triggered when someone submits their info) ensure no lead falls through the cracks. These campaigns keep the conversation warm until the client responds.
Once you receive a reply, it’s time to transition away from automation into more personal outreach.
Tip: see this how-to for setting up landing pages that trigger smart campaigns.
Personal Outreach: If a lead contacts you directly — through DMs, your website chat, or a personal referral — always follow up personally. Reference their specific question or concern, and aim to move the conversation toward scheduling a meeting. Personalized responses build trust quickly and help you stand out in a crowded market.
Set an Appointment: Your primary goal in the conversion stage is to get in front of the lead, either in person or virtually. An appointment allows you to uncover their needs, answer questions, and start forming an agency relationship. From here, you can position yourself as the trusted advisor who will guide them through the buying or selling process.
What’s Next?
Feel like you’ve mastered your lead generation systems? Great — that’s only the beginning. The next step is learning how to guide your clients once they’ve entered your funnel. In our next article, we’ll walk through the client journey for buyers and sellers — from the first consultation, to active representation, all the way through to closing and beyond.
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