The days of expensive direct mail, radio and TV campaigns are coming to an end, and more and more real estate agents are turning to digital marketing to acquire new clients and sell more homes.
As the chief marketing officer of Marketing 360®, I regularly work with real estate agents who are ready to take advantage of a digital approach to their marketing efforts. With booming housing markets in many parts of the country, how do real estate agents adopt a successful approach to digital marketing? Here are eight tips that I have seen to be extremely effective:
1. Establish a niche.
Buyers and sellers are looking for local experts in their price range, target neighborhoods and property type. Focusing on a specific neighborhood, property type and price range will allow for a more targeted campaign that will reach the right audience.
2. Build a website.
An important step in reaching the right audience is building a highly convertible website that is mobile optimized and targets your niche. Using an internet data exchange (IDX) listing program for your website allows for great functionality and SEO value to ensure your website is being found.
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
• Make requesting more information easy with contact forms and clear calls to action.
• Make properties easily shareable on social media.
• Incorporate plenty of local images to evoke a connection with visitors right away.
3. Make the most of social media.
Building a strong social presence is imperative for success, especially on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Share videos and photos of properties. Post tips for buyers and sellers, and highlight local hot spots to ensure there’s a constant stream of content on all platforms. Also, consider putting some of your marketing budget into social ads, which can be extremely powerful.
4. Create video content.
Creating videos about specific properties is great and takes very little effort. Live videos on social media, for instance, are a great way to showcase a property using just your cell phone. FAQs and tip videos are also a great way to keep people engaged. Buying and/or selling a home can be stressful, and providing answers to frequently asked questions or quick tips can build trust and help with a steady stream of video content.
5. Use customer relationship management software.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a foolproof and organized way to keep notes on leads, current clients and properties. CRM software can also help send automated emails for holidays, birthdays and other special occasions to keep leads and clients constantly engaged.
CRM software can also be useful to sort clients by neighborhoods they’re interested in, the number of bedrooms wanted, etc., so you can quickly alert your pipeline of clients about new properties.
6. Build a strong online reputation.
More often than not, consumers turn to online reviews before making decisions about what to buy, what service providers to use or who to work with when buying or selling a home. Ask every buyer and seller to leave a review. More positive reviews lead to more business!
7. Dominate the first page of Google.
When buyers and sellers begin to search for a real estate agent, they will likely turn to Google. Showing up on page one for the top niche keywords that buyers and sellers are looking for is key. Proper website optimization, like ensuring title tags and meta descriptions are optimized, building pages for specific niche key terms and regularly updating your blog can help with organic ranking. Since organic ranking takes time, investing in paid ads to ensure top placement is also important.
8. Run remarketing ads.
Running remarketing ads on Google’s display network, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc., will catch the people who have already visited a website or social page or watched a video. Consumers often spend weeks or months researching service providers, so staying top of mind is of utmost importance, and this can be accomplished with remarketing ads. Changing ads regularly to showcase new properties will keep people interested and engaged.
Investing in marketing is extremely important, and investing in digital marketing can give you a major advantage over your competitors who are still using old-school tactics. Reach the people who are already looking for you by incorporating these strategies into your 2019 marketing plan. Happy marketing!
