An easy New Year’s resolution for any agent is to find more clients or close more sales in 2025 than they did in 2024. But how do you turn this goal into action, and then, results? Reaching out to past clients is often a good idea, but be careful that this strategy doesn’t become a crutch. If you’re only talking to people you’ve already done business with, then that could limit or even shrink your network of active business.
It’s a new year, so time to meet new people, and then hopefully bring them onboard as clients. What are some proven strategies to reach new leads and turn them into first-time clients?
Host CMA consultations
CMA, or comparative market analysis, compares a home’s value against ones that recently sold. Homeowners, too, could be feeling self-reflective at the start of the new year. So, highlight that you offer CMA services in your promotional materials and this could pique the interest of homeowners who are considering selling.
Once they take the meeting, you can also educate them on other market topics that may be confusing them—say, why mortgage rates aren’t currently coming down.
A CMA has the potential to attract “new to you” clients but ones who are not first-time buyers (but might be first-time sellers). Even if they put off the decision to list now, there’s a good chance they’ll remember you for when they are ready to commit to a new home search.
Another way to catch leads’ attention is to offer the CMA free of charge, which can reduce pressure to commit while easing them into the meeting—but if you take this route, you should also work to prevent their “too good to be true” alarm from going off.
Start a newsletter or a blog
Social media is absolutely essential for agents to reach clients; a compelling Instagram photo of a listing can attract interest as much as a Zillow listing of the property can. Many other agents, though, go a step further in their posting-as-marketing and host whole newsletters or blogs.
To kick off the new year, why not give it a try yourself? Use your existing email list as the foundation, and to grow, make it a newsletter worth subscribing to with compelling real estate updates or stories from other facets of your life.
Unfortunately, quality content isn’t all you need to attract followers. To get your newsletter seen, learn how to interact with Google’s algorithm; track keywords, competitor blogs and zero in on what is working. Then within what that data reveals, find something of value to say—writing about keywords just to get noticed will make potential readers roll their eyes at clickbait. SEO-first might get you some traffic in the short term, but it could also damage your brand’s prestige.
Use past clients to reach new ones
There’s a way to kill two birds with one stone—reach out to past clients and ask them for referrals to their neighbors. Be upfront in your intentions, because no one likes underhandedness, but act like a friend, not a salesperson—frame it as an “anyone in need of help?” offer.
One way to stay in touch is sending past clients holiday gifts. Think, a fun calendar or a charming photo frame. These gifts can encourage them to capture memories of the house you helped them land and the family they’re raising in it.
If your clients have children, consider something just for the kids. Knowing that details about their family shows you have genuine interest in them versus just sending generic gifts en masse.
Be sure to consider clients’ age when deciding how to reach them. For example, younger people might be quicker to respond to an Instagram text than a mailed paper card.
Look to your community involvement
A new client doesn’t have to be someone you’ve only just met. Mixing friendship with business can be tricky, but if someone in your social circle needs the help only a REALTOR® can offer, odds are they’ll trust you to have their best interest.
Hobbies both solo and team-based can give you skills and advantages for business, but only team activities allow you to network without consciously networking. If you make any friends from, say, a community sports league or a volunteering group, make sure they know what you do so if/when they decide to list, they come to you first. The relationship can even gradually build; first, they may just need some real estate advice, and if you put your best foot forward, they’ll remember that and, once more, go to you for the real transaction.
Keep up consistent marketing strategies
If you’ve been trying a marketing strategy like social media or leaving mailer after mailer in the same neighborhood, keep at it. Treat the process like one that will eventually yield success, even if you need to shake-up some details (like the content you post or graphic design on your mailer) to achieve that success.
Say someone has been getting your mailers consistently for three years, and only now decides to sell their home. Name recognition means you will likely be one of the first, or even the first, agent they reach out to.
