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The real estate market, by 2021, should increase by 2.3%. More residential and nonresidential buildings will be created. Better deals will get sealed.
Real estate agents will get busier. More rookie agents will join the industry. Competition among real estate agents will tighten.
How then, as a real estate agent, would you stand out from your competitors? As with many industries, implementing a digital marketing strategy is the new normal.
To get ahead of your competitors, you need to start taking digital marketing seriously as it is crucial for building brand awareness for you as a real estate agent, widening exposure, and attracting more eyeballs to your business.
This article discusses the importance of digital marketing for real estate.
Why is digital marketing important for real estate?
Source: pexels
Today, many realtors and brokers undervalue the critical roles of digital marketing in the real estate business.
Not only does digital marketing promote brand awareness, but it also helps keep brands unique among competitors.
Following are some reasons why digital marketing is necessary for your real estate business:
Many people look up search engines for information
Today (more than ever), everyone turns to a search engine for virtually every piece of information.
No one wants to waste time asking information from a friend or the next-door neighbour when, in a few minutes, a smartphone or computer can get the information.
You’d, therefore, want to establish a presence online to boost brand visibility. After all, this is the place where your leads hang around and you do not want to miss out on people finding you in their searches.
Effectiveness of video and mobile marketing
Mobile and video marketing has continued to prove its effectiveness.
Several research confirmed that mobile ads campaigns are more effective than other online norms. Many people browse their websites using smartphones, so it’s not surprising to see why.
Also, videos increase conversion. Video and mobile marketing is an investment. For example, landing pages with video tend to boost conversion by up to 80%, according to Hubspot. Watching a video that presents a product could facilitate the buying decision of a potential customer and convert the audience to leads.
On top of that, search engines rank video content. Google is always on the lookout for contents that engages the audience, and posting a video has been proved to be increase engagement (not surprising, given that YouTube is the second most visited website after Google)
Online reviews are important
As with any business, establishing credibility is critical. Online reviews are one of the easiest ways to gain trust and credibility from customers. On your Google business page, for example, customers can write a review of their experience of your services.
A couple of positive reviews on your page can establish trust from prospective customers when deciding to try your service for the first time. This trust is a significant factor in the real estate niche where you’re trying to entice your customers into parting with their money to make big investments in property.
Ease of performance tracking
Physical banner printing might look like the real deal, but the question is, how well do they convert? How are you able to track your performance? No way. You cannot monitor the number of people who viewed them per day or measure your success rate.
With digital marketing strategies like pay per click (PPC), you can track your performance and see how well (or poorly) your ads are faring. That way, you’ll know where your traffic is coming from, what strategy to implement, what works for your campaign, and what doesn’t.
Easier to reach the target audience
Not everyone in your locality will see or pay attention to your poster or banner put up around town.
It becomes more challenging if you’re trying to reach people beyond your locality. That’s where digital marketing comes in handy.
Digital marketing allows you to target and reach an audience beyond your locality — all in just a few clicks.
Paid ads in digital marketing help you target those who are looking for landed properties and not just the uninterested general market. In a nutshell, your advertising can always reach the right audience with digital marketing.
Freedom to go paperless
Going digital lets you save on the cost of printing. By going paperless, you’re also saving the environment. Plus, the cost that could have gone to paper printing can be used for other strategies such as Facebook or Instagram ads.
Multiple opportunities to get creative
Online marketing gives you the freedom for creativity. You are allowed to think right out of the box, explore different demographics, test different campaigns and lots more.
For example, you can use Instagram’s “Ask me about anything’s” function to get feedback from customers about whatever they need from you.
Everyone else is going digital
Almost all realtors are implementing or planning to implement one or multiple campaigns.
Every realtor, including the newbies, is into digital marketing. So what are you waiting for? The digital marketing industry keeps growing every day and you should make haste to establish an online presence as soon as possible or be left behind.
Strategies that realtors can use to maximize leads
Undoubtedly, the real estate market is saturated. How can you stand out from the crowd? Here are proven strategies that realtors can use to get more leads.
1. Create email campaigns
Emails are one of the most converting digital marketing strategies in the real estate world.
They allow you to connect, engage, and compel with your new leads while keeping existing customers interested in your service.
According to a recent report, 86% of consumers would prefer to receive emails.
Always make sure that the content you create is relevant to what the audience is looking for.
2. Develop a user-friendly website
According to statistics, over 40% of real estate website visitors come from the mobile source.
So if your website is not properly optimized for mobile use, you might be leaving a lot of money on the table.
A mobile-friendly website should include the following features.
- Pictures fitted to mobile screen size
- Faster loading speed.
Implement a live chat feature. People are always on the lookout to ask questions.
Be sure to be available whenever you’re needed.
3. Pay per click advertising
Pay per click advertising, also called PPC, is a digital marketing strategy popularly integrated by real estate professional business owners.
Pay per click ads are used to directly target potential leads.
The main benefit of a PPC advert is that you’re not going to get charged until someone clicks on your ads. According to research, marketers average over 2.47% conversion rate with Adword.
PPC algorithm targets those who have searched for terms related to the service you’re offering from Google or similar search engines.
4. Content marketing (add relevantly and SEO optimized content)
Content marketing is the hallmark of a responsive real estate website. A mobile-optimized, highly responsive website with no valuable content is a total waste.
Content marketing is a critical part of SEO and the best way to have your website indexed.
Website content helps you build credibility, reputation, and connect with the audience.
Write articles, guides, and reviews that’ll help them make informed home-buying decisions. In a nutshell, your website content must solve a problem and answer a question.
5. Virtual tour hosting
Most successful digital marketing experts in the real estate industry implement the virtual tour hosting strategy.
Not only does this strategy generate faster revenue for marketers, it also helps customers streamline the home buying process.
Purchasing a home is a difficult process, and that’s why customers need you as a marketer to help ease the whole process.
To create a successful virtual tour, here are some pointers to keep in mind:
- Avoid digital illusions; use actual footage of the home
- Make sure your video is responsive and engaging, both on desktop and mobile.
- Create a 3D and user-friendly tour.
- Develop a social media marketing strategy
When we talk about social media marketing strategy, we’re not talking about the occasional posting on Facebook. We’re talking about a full-fledged social media marketing process which is what gives you results.
Here are a few processes to follow –
- Make new or existing lists
- Create touching stories
- Write relevant blog posts
- Create team bios
The goal is to share varied content and listings relevant to what your customers are looking for.
6. Invest in SEO
Implementing a powerful SEO strategy will scale your website to the top of the search engine result.
Unfortunately, search engine algorithms keep changing day by day. That’s why you should always stay updated on changing algorithms.
It’s important to spend more time on SEO than ever. Keywords are an integral part of SEO. They are what users use to search for information online.
Always do keyword research and have them added to your articles and blog posts. Other SEO elements to consider includes –
- Backlinks
- Social media pages
- Online directories
- Title and meta descriptions, readability, snippets, etc.
Update your blogs regularly.
Summary
While almost every real estate agent and broker implement one or more digital marketing campaigns as a part of their business, it all comes down to how well the strategies are utilized.
Focus on creating digital content that aims to solve the problems of the homebuyer and answer their questions. Leverage multiple online strategies to improve your chances of getting found by potential customers.
Ultimately, it’s not only about how many people you reach but the quality of the conversion.
