Real estate marketing is a tricky business. It’s hard enough helping clients buy and sell homes, never mind acting as your own advertising agency. And there’s always something to update and something new to try.
If you’re looking for real estate marketing tips that will make your job easier. Whether you want to do more email marketing, social media marketing, video marketing or something completely different, there’s sure to be at least one strategy here that will help you broaden your reach and increase your exposure.
The competition in Real estate Marketing is fierce, and these days you’ll need expert online and offline marketing skills to set yourself apart from the pack.
While real estate agents are still key in the home buying process, buyers are increasingly looking to do more leg work online before involving the experts. A study from the National Association of Realtors showed that 92% of buyers use the internet to begin their house hunting quest, driving home the vital need for real estate agents to have an active online presence. If you’re not active, engaging, and networking online, then you’re missing out.
Here are some useful tips which will definitely help you while marketing your project.
1. Set Your Presence on Social Networks.
Make sure you have social media accounts on all the big networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and even Instagram if you snap a lot of house pics. Interact with users, share good press, and promote your properties.
2. Add Social Sharing To Your Property Pages.
Chances are, home shoppers are eager to share their top housing pics with friends and family, so make it easy for home buyers to email and share various properties online by adding social sharing buttons.
3. Keep An Eye On Competition.
What are other realtors in your area doing? What do their websites look like? How active are they on social media? Take note of what competitors are doing – then avoid their mistakes and replicate their success!
4. Make Yourself Easy to Contact.
Put your contact info on every page of your website. Ideally, make an impressive contact us page that grabs attention.
5. Create a Awesome Business Card.
Get an awesome looking business card and hand them out like pizza flyers on a Friday night.
6. Hire a Photo Pro.
Successful real estate marketing relies heavily on great photography. Bad photos will diminish interest in even the greatest of properties. It’s absolutely vital that you have gorgeous photos of your properties. Hire a professional photographer (preferably with experience photographing homes and architecture), or, if you have sophisticated equipment and are confident in your abilities, have your own hand at it. Just remember this is one of those scenarios when it pays to bring in the professionals.
7. Create a Virtual Tour.
Your clients’ time is precious, and they want to understand as much as possible about a property prior to visiting in person. Virtual tours are a great way to give a comprehensive, accurate preview of the property for potential buyers.
Here’s one example of a virtual tour (although you’ll find some aspects of this video are quite outdated). If you make your own, I’d beg you to not use music that resembles the soundtrack of The Sims.
8. Animated Video.
Consider outsourcing a quality animated video for your real estate businesses. Short, cute, high-quality cartoon videos can help establish your brand as well as give a touch of personality. You may even want to consider featuring local landmarks or sites in your animated video to make it ultra-unique and targeted.
9. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly.
Tech-savvy consumers spend tons of time on their mobile devices. In fact, a recent study has shown that 80% of Internet users use their mobile devices for online activity. It’s paramount that your website is mobile friendly. Even better, consider creating a mobile app that potential buyers can use to review listings.
10. Create a Newsletter.
Email marketing is one of the best strategies for building client relationships. Collect emails from your website, local outreach, or any other methods you can think of. Send your email subscribers the stuff they’re looking for – notices about upcoming open houses, new houses on the market, news about seminars you’re offering in the area, etc. (Note: if you work in different geographical areas, you’ll want to segment your newsletter subscribers based on their location, ensuring that they only get relevant emails and updates from you).
11. Build Your Google My Business Page.
Google My Business is the latest in Google location-based pages. If you’re feeling confused, don’t worry – it’s basically the same idea as Google Places for Businesses and Google+ Pages. Setting up a Google My Business account makes it easy for users to find you in Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+. Trust me, this one is a no-brainer.
12. Host a Webinar.
If you feel comfortable enough, hosting a webinar can be a great way to garner attention for your business. Host a “12 Little-Known Things to Look For In A New Home” webinar, providing a Q&A at the end for questions. Webinars can also be repurposed as YouTube videos, with can serve as valuable video content that can live permanently on your website! Here are some more tips on putting together a great webinar.
13. Saddle Up For Social Ads.
Don’t be afraid to dish out dough for paid ads on social media. With organic reach dwindling on many popular social networks like Facebook, paid Facebook ads are often the most effective way to get in front of clients. Facebook has tons of great targeting features that ensure you’re only paying to get noticed by your key target audiences.
14. Become a Columnist in Local Magazines.
When it comes to real estate, it’s important that you get laser focused on local. Getting yourself in local magazines or newspapers is a great way to get the word out about you and your brand. See if you can write a column or feature for local publications. You don’t want to be blatantly salesy – today’s consumers don’t like to be pitched to. Instead, try to showcase your knowledge. Write about how rising prices of houses on the market shows that the town is doing well, or list the reasons why your regional area is becoming more popular (maybe it’s the revitalized downtown area or improved school system).
15. Host Free Seminars For Home Buyers.
Make yourself and your knowledge available to the community by hosting mini-seminars.Remember, marketing today is all about inbound, and that doesn’t just apply online. Users want you to share some of your knowledge for free before investing time and money in you. A home buying seminar is the local equivalent of a webinar. Yes, it will take time and energy, but attendees will walk away impressed and will have established a relationship with you. That relationship will be worth its weight in gold when they’re ready to shop for a home.
16. Get Branding.
Branding is your buddy – that means pens, drink koozies, and all those other freebies people love. Give out some branded goodies at local festivals and events to spread your brand.
17. Partner With Local Businesses.
Developing relationships with other local businesses will be key for your real estate marketing efforts. See if you can get local breakfast joints to let you buy them a set of new coffee mugs with your logo on them, or buy a place on their paper placemat setting. Don’t be afraid to get creative with local partnerships.
18. Ask for Testimonials From Former Clients.
Testimonials are tremendous trust signals. Showing that real, live people endorse your services means the world to potential clients. When a homebuyer has had a great experience with you, reach out to them and ask for a testimonial. If possible, try to get a photo of them as well. Make the most of these testimonials by placing them strategically on your website and sharing them now and then on social networks.
19. Create an Awesome Website.
Today’s consumers like to do a lot of legwork themselves online when making major purchases, and that includes home buying as well. I myself have only rented, but even when renting a property I’ll Google Map the address, use Street View to get a feel for the area, see which businesses are within walking distance, look at home photos, and, ideally take a virtual tour of the property.
Make it easy for users to access all this information – make sure all your property pages have great photos, virtual tours, and easy access to Google Maps and Google Earth. List the hot spots nearby and their respective walking distances (mention the bus stop that’s just a five minute walk, or the Starbucks at the end of the block).
19. Keep In Touch.
Stay in touch (even months and years later) with past buyers in order to build in that good relationship. Send anniversary cards, holiday cards, etc to stay fresh in their minds. When they have a friend who is ready to buy, they’ll pass along your info.
20. Leverage Call Tracking.
Real estate is one of those industries that absolutely must use call tracking in their paid search campaigns. Most people use the phone when trying to find a realtor or make an appointment to view an apartment, condo or house. If those calls come about because someone saw your PPC ad, you want to be able to track which ads and keywords are driving calls.
About the Author:
Mr. Devesh Barodia, is a successful real estate marketing strategist. He has more than twenty years of marketing experience for various prestigious real estate projects in Central india.