The Top 10 Real Estate Agent Marketing Ideas for the Holidays

While we all love to indulge in the holiday festivities, if you’re a hungry real estate agent looking to close the year with more sales, you may see this slower time as a bit of a burden.

However, while you may not be attending closings left and right, that doesn’t mean this time can’t serve as a valuable opportunity to set yourself up for success in the new year! If you want to set up a framework in 2023 to exceed last year’s sales, now is the time to work on the marketing, networking, and planning you may not usually have time for. You can use this time to nurture relationships with past clients and put yourself on the radar for new ones.

In this article, we went over the top 10 real estate holiday marketing ideas to focus on as an agent. Keep reading to learn more!

Table of Contents

• Holiday Cards
• Appreciation Packages
• Social Media Contest
• Promote a Charity
• Newsletter
• Event Hosting
• Holiday Swag
• Festive Open Houses
• Vary Marketing Materials
• Find Motivated Sellers

1. Send Out Holiday Cards

As the holidays approach, one of the easiest ways to market and stay on top of mind is to send out holiday cards.

Consider sending past clients handwritten notes mentioning important data about the property or simply expressing gratitude for their business and mentioning that you hope they’re enjoying their new home for the holidays. Many people display holiday cards on their fridges, bulletin boards, etc. So, by sending out holiday cards, you’re not only reminding past clients of your services (potentially prompting referrals), but every visitor that person gets may be seeing your note with your name, logo, and brand.

2. Send Out Holiday Appreciation Packages to Past Clients

If you’re tight on money, sending out holiday cards is a perfectly acceptable way to show past clients you’re thinking of them and appreciate their business.

However, if you can splurge a little more, why not take it up a notch and send them a holiday-themed care package to express your gratitude? Consider what your clients may need at this time of year and add it to your holiday care package.

Hot items people may appreciate around the holidays include:

• Wrapping paper
• Bows
• Food to serve at gatherings (like cheese, meats, and crackers to add to their charcuterie board)
• Holiday-themed serving dishes
• Gift cards for holiday shopping or hosting
• Holiday movies

Everyone can use a little help around the holidays. Offering some small items to help get your contacts through it will not go unnoticed!

3. Run a Festive Social Media Contest

Did you know that social media usage spikes more than 70% during the holiday season? Why not take advantage of this additional traffic?

A great way to gain followers and attract more eyes to your page is a holiday giveaway. What you choose to giveaway doesn’t have to be expensive. You can make a basket/box for under $50, and users will likely line up to win it!

Social media giveaways are an excellent way to boost the number of people who see your pages, as your criteria should prompt users to like, share, comment, etc. In turn, the more people interact with your post, the more views you receive organically on your page.

Compared to what you may spend running ads, this can be a more cost-effective way to spread the word about your page while offering a fun holiday gift to one or more lucky winners!

Pssst! Read this article to learn more about building your social media presence as an agent.

4. Promote a Charity on Social Media and Encourage Followers to Get Involved

While giving away a prize package is one way to get social media users involved with your page, you can also promote a charity and commit to donating based on user engagement.

For example, say you want to donate to a charity that helps impoverished children receive gifts around the holidays. You could share a post highlighting the charity and encourage users to comment, like, share, etc., and in turn, you’ll pledge a certain amount of money for each interaction.

It is the season of giving, after all. Since many people tend to feel more generous around the holidays, help them contribute to a great cause while increasing traffic to your social media pages.

Important: If you’re going to run a social media campaign for a charity, you may want to reach out to the organization to ensure they’re okay with you using their name, logo, etc. Some of these organizations will want to see your social media posts before you share them, and they may offer a custom donation link.

5. Create a Holiday Real Estate Newsletter

Newsletters are a great way to use your industry knowledge to build credibility and educate your network.

As you’re looking for ways to keep your contacts’ attention around the holidays, why not create an informational, fun newsletter? In this newsletter, there are a variety of topics you can cover, like

• Holiday home safety (e.g., avoiding fire hazards with dry Christmas trees, energy-saving hacks for lights, the importance of de-icing driveways/sidewalks, etc.)
• Highlight any holiday events for the month or season in your community (e.g., holiday parades, special movie showings, fundraisers, tree lightings, etc.)
• A homemade holiday decoration tutorial
• Tips for decorating your home for the holidays on a budget
• Fun facts about real estate (extra credit for making them holiday-themed!)
• A rundown of the local real estate market with insightful data and stats that you have collected

And so much more!

This is a fun and festive way to stay in touch with your contacts while maybe even teaching them a thing or two.

Pro Tip: If you have a little more time, you might also want to plan your newsletter content calendar for the next year.

6. Hold an Event For Past Clients

Direct mail and digital marketing methods can be excellent ways to stay in touch with busy contacts who may not have time to attend an in-person event.

However, if you can find enough interested people, you may want to consider throwing a holiday party for past clients and allow them to bring a few guests. Not only is this a fun way to catch up with past clients, but you may meet potential new clients in their network.

7. Create and Send Holiday Swag for Branding

While you likely have your regular swag/promotional items you hand out at events, closings, etc., you may want to consider creating some special items for the holidays.

Think about clothing or objects people may use around the holidays or winter that you can put your logo on. If you’re sending out holiday care packages, as we mentioned earlier, make sure to put some in as a little surprise!

Not sure what to create for the holidays? Here are a few ideas:

• Mugs
• Winter hats
• Ornaments
• Holiday treats
• Advent calendars
• Custom cookie cutters
• Elf/Santa hats
• Snow globes
• Ice scraper mitts

Handing out new promotional items for the holidays is beneficial for pleasing the recipients. However, it’s also a great way to advertise your business name and logo if people are wearing/displaying these objects where many people will see them.

8. If You’re Working on Selling a Property, Add Some Holiday Flair to the Open House

If you’re planning on holding open houses in the month of December, why not add a little holiday flair to the experience?

For example, set up a hot cocoa bar, a tray of holiday cookies, or have a Santa stand-in to get pictures with any kids that may accompany their parents to the open house. Not only will these aspects make the open house more exciting for people that already planned on going, but they may encourage more people to stop by!

Pro Tip: If you have any of these components at the open house, don't forget to advertise them on your social media channels!

9. Vary Your Marketing Materials

Varying your marketing materials is important at any time of the year, but it’s especially important around the holidays.

At this time of year, consumers are being bombarded with marketing materials. From emails to postcards to magazines, there is no shortage of other businesses trying to grab everyone’s attention around the holidays.

To ensure your contacts don’t get bored with the same materials, make sure you’re sending out different types of marketing materials. For example, if you’re only sending out postcards and mailers, one of your contacts may toss them at first glance since they’ve been getting so much “junk mail.” While they may be interested in what you say, the overabundance of mail around the holidays may overshadow your materials if you’re not trying different approaches.

Varying your approach also increases the odds that consumers will see and take in the materials you’re sending. Every person has their own preferred method of contact, so take that into account when reaching out.

10. Seek Out Homeowners Who May Need to Sell Around the Holidays

We’ve talked about reaching out to past clients and working on relationship-building around the holidays, but what about landing new listings?

While fewer people will choose to list around the holidays (according to Bank Rate, fall and winter are the worst times of the year for homeowners to sell), there will always be some people who have no choice. You can find these homeowners using real estate data software like PropStream.

Finding Motivated Sellers With PropStream

Many Americans have reported that their average holiday spend for 2022 will be over $900. So, with other financial pressures like inflation increasing the cost of goods and services, homeowners in financial distress may be even more motivated to sell around the holidays.

With PropStream, you can narrow down homeowners with the highest selling motivation using our filters and Quick Lists, like:

• Pre-Foreclosure
• Vacant
• Pre-Probate
• Bankruptcy
• Liens
• Tax Delinquencies
• Divorce
• Failed Listings

These are just a few of our capabilities; we offer 11 other Quick Lists and hundreds of additional filters to narrow your search!

Once you’ve found a potential pool of new listing leads, save them to a marketing list before crafting your marketing campaign within the software.

Psst! Want to learn everything you need to know about using PropStream as a real estate agent? Head to our PropStream Academy agent portal to sign up for our free agent course or attend our interactive Lunch and Listings webinar!

How Will You Use the Holidays to Achieve Your Goals in the New Year?

With a slowdown in business, one of the best ways to rev up your business for the new year is by focusing on relationship-building, branding, and marketing to old and new prospects.

However, while the pool of motivated sellers may be smaller around the holidays, that doesn’t mean you should stop looking for listing leads in tandem with your branding efforts. With PropStream, you can uncover these homeowners in minutes!

Want to try PropStream on for size and enjoy 50 free listing leads?

Sign up for our 7-day free trial today!