DIGITAL MARKETING FOR REAL ESTATE
Effective Strategies, tools and ideas to boost your sales
By Erick Guillermo (2022/03/11) Licenced Digital Marketing Master at The International Institute of Digital Marketing ™
- Keywords: Real Estate-Digital marketing-Social Marketing-SEO-Paid Advertising-Web analytics
Your Customers Are Online so let’s ensure they see your products or services.
Digital Marketing has become the most important element for businesses. With over 4 billion internet users and well over 3 billion social media users it is vital that all business invest in a well-planned digital marketing strategy based on some topics that I’ll externalize in this blog.
The real estate business is likely one of the most vulnerable, as economic performance has a significant impact on its success. Real estate businesses have had to make adjustments to their everyday business operations as a result of the ongoing pandemic.
In a time when practically every consumer uses the internet to entertain themselves, educate themselves, make purchases, and build a business, it’s important to remember that. Real estate companies may gain a lot from a digital marketing strategy that helps them contact their target audience, which is now spending a lot more time online.
Throughout my blog I’ll explain every single step to boost your sales in Real Estate Business.
- Define the customer you wish to serve and where to find them
The youth demographic is fairly significant around the world, and many young people are eager to buy or rent their first home as soon as possible. Your real estate firm could specialize in assisting young people who are looking to purchase their first home or are first-time buyers. You might even have a soft spot for young couples who want to have a family and need more space for their children.
Couples wanting to retire are typically a good niche market to target. Your distinguishing feature must set you apart from your competition. That isn’t to say you should exclusively serve your niche market, but having a set of skills is usually advantageous.
2- Prepare your budget for marketing
Digital marketing is the newest and most effective method of reaching out to your target market. One of its key advantages is that it is low-cost and does not require the use of paper. Even while the expense of advertising is far lower than it once was, it is still prudent to set aside funds for your company’s traditional marketing needs.
Because brochures and flyers play a significant function in selling to your clients and demand some investment, not all of your marketing will be digital.
Now let’s see how you can get potential leads.
For most businesses who do not have the resources to host a website, the first step should be to register a profile on Google My Business. It’s an excellent tool for announcing your presence to potential clients and informing them of where they can find you and how to contact you. Google offers this service for free to small local companies, allowing them to develop an online presence and communicate with customers without the hassle of maintaining a website.
4- Email marketing
Email marketing, according to Mailchimp, is a marketing activity aimed at promoting a business’s product or service. Clients can learn about new products, discounts, and other services through email marketing, which tries to educate your audience about the value of your brand and what it stands for.
Email marketing helps to maintain relationships with existing customers while also establishing a line of communication with future customers. Email marketing is an excellent method for nurturing leads.
You have more control over emails, they are more personal, they are used by every demographic, and you can quickly educate your future clients.
5- Create a website for your business
Until recently, creating a website required hiring a web developer and paying hefty fees to keep it up and running. Today, there are a number of online organizations that offer services that allow you to design websites on your own for a little monthly price.
As part of a package, these internet businesses may also offer you the option of developing your company’s logo and brand. A list of websites that provide free website building has been compiled:
Due to the constant bombardment of information, both online and offline, it has become increasingly challenging to maintain and recruit clients.
As a company, you must ensure that the website you develop is user-friendly, optimized for online and mobile use, and contains relevant content. AgentImage includes a list of conditions that your website must meet in order to help you reach your company’s goals:
For user navigation, the website must have a well-planned structure.
Your website’s content should address your users’ most frequently asked questions.
The website should be responsive, meaning that it should work well on both desktop and mobile devices.
Neighborhood guides are a crucial element to include on your website since they provide information about prospective locations of interest to visitors.
Through videos and blogs, provide the most recent real estate news and trends.
Promote what your company has to offer.
Client testimonials, high-resolution images, and videos should all be included.
The latest trend in real estate marketing is 3D home tours. Visitors can get a better glimpse of houses than a camera can provide thanks to this new trend.
Include a list of both new and old listings on the market; properties up for auction are also a good option.
Make a mortgage calculator available.
6- Social media
There are numerous social media channels on which you can interact with your audience. Facebook, LinkedIn, and the Whatsapp chatbot are the three most important for real estate, and here’s why:
6.1- Facebook
According to Oberlo, Facebook will be the social media king in 2021, with 2.8 billion users; 59 percent of social media users will have a Facebook account. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Facebook made $27.2 billion in advertising income.
Facebook is used by 200 million small companies, and 65 percent of consumers under the age of 35 prefer it over any other social networking platform. This is an excellent way to reach a large audience.
Using Facebook advertisements might help you reach more people and possibly uncover a new niche market outside of your chosen area that you can tap into.
6.2- LinkedIn
According to Leadsbridge, LinkedIn is the greatest social media site for real estate companies. LinkedIn, although having the most members, is the most professional channel for promoting your business, with a conversion rate 277 times greater than Facebook.
The majority of the content shared on LinkedIn is business-related, so chances of seeing photos or videos of kittens, dogs, or other personal kinds of enjoyment are minimal. Your network is more likely to view your company’s posts.
Professionals who are looking for new business prospects, new career opportunities, or to expand their professional network utilize LinkedIn. Because most LinkedIn users are wage earners and home owners, finding new clients to provide your real estate services is easier and more trustworthy.
6.3- Whatsapp chatbot
With over 1 billion users, Whatsapp is the most commonly used messaging program on the planet. Whatsapp chatbot, according to Chatbotsmagazine, is software that works on the encrypted Whatsapp platform.
Users of Whatsapp can communicate with the chatbot using the chat interface, just like they would with a real person. According to Marutitech, it has numerous advantages for a real estate company, including:
- Lead generation
- Lead qualification
- Site visitation confirmation
- Automation scheduling
- Virtual property tours
- Document submission
- Build lasting customer relationship
- Track conversations
- Property submission
- Payment reminder
- Seamless after-sale support
It is critical to optimize your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles in order to improve lead conversion. Make sure your profile is easy to read and represents your company accurately. Contact information, a business address, and a description of what you do, how you do it, and why you do it are all required in your bio.
Create information that is entertaining, straightforward, and easy to understand. Avoid any uncertainty regarding the product or service you’re offering, and always include a CTA (call to action) that encourages them to go to your website.
To schedule your posts in a timely manner, use a social media scheduling application like Heropost or Hootsuite. It’s a good idea to do some research on the ideal times and days to publish on your various platforms in order to ensure that your target audience sees your message and responds.
Create open forums where followers can participate in real estate topics. This is one of the most effective strategies to identify possible client wants and frustrations that you can address. Remember to participate in the discussion areas.
Due to the limitations that the global pandemic has caused, businesses have had to move all operations online. Video marketing has become an important aspect to digital marketing now more than ever; especially in real estate marketing.
According to Digitalsuccess, videos are a good substitute for property viewings, and virtual tours are also a good option. This allows a potential buyer to look at available houses from the convenience of their own home.
The following are some of the most important video marketing tactics to consider:
7.1- Branding videos
This is where you employ your brand logo and aesthetic to advertise your firm on a regular basis. To promote the latest bargains on your website, use images, keywords, hashtags, and voiceovers, and always include a call to action.
7.2- Live videos
The popularity of live streaming videos is slowly growing. Real estate agencies can use this occasion to show off the behind-the-scenes process of presenting a home, renovating a home, or going through the buying process.
Live streaming gives clients a more personal experience and allows them to feel more involved in your company.
Several social media platforms offer the function, which may be utilized to highlight exciting events that your real estate agents are involved in or planning.
7.3-Listing videos
Make movies of the properties on your website that are for sale. As if the guest were going through the property, the film must flow smoothly from one area to the next.
7.4- Testimonial videos
Inquire of previous customers about their experiences with your organization, emphasizing what they liked most about it.
7.5- Agent videos
Post videos of your real estate agents discussing who they are, where they went to school, their accomplishments in the profession, and their abilities. Agents might also discuss why they enjoy working for your firm.
7.6- Advice videos
Answer questions about the real estate sector to engage your audience. Provide information on how to become a real estate agent to students interested in becoming agents.
Teach first-time buyers about mortgage loans, renting vs. buying, and how to refurbish a home to get the best possible price.
8- Paid advertising
Simply put, paid advertising is advertising that you pay for rather than advertising that is earned or owned (organic marketing). Marketers pay for ad space on various websites where potential clients can be found, which is known as paid advertising.
A bidding procedure between marketers and ad space owners determines the price of ad space. PPC is the most common type of paid advertising (Pay-per-click).
8.1- Pay-per-click
According to Colorwhistle, PPC is a cost-effective technique of lead generation for real estate. Advertising can show at the top of the search results page, the bottom of the search results page, or as banner ads on third-party websites using Google, Bing, and Yahoo’s services.
When you win a bid to have your ad appear at the top of search engine results, you simply have to pay a tiny charge each time your ad is clicked. When the keyword you bid for, such as “apartments,” is searched, your ad displays at the top of the search engine results page.
PPC is advantageous to real estate marketing since it increases traffic to your website and ensures a return on investment. Your adverts can be targeted to your particular target market, so you won’t be wasting money if they’re seen by the wrong people.
When your PPC ads are successful, the amount you spend is a fraction of the return on investment you will receive.
9- SEO strategy
According to Moz, search engine optimization is the process of enhancing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website via organic search engine results. Search engine bots “crawl” webpages in order to collect data that will be indexed.
Algorithms examine indexed webpages to decide the order in which pages should appear in search results for a certain query based on ranking parameters.
9.1- How to make your website search engine friendly in order to high rank.
The amount of traffic your website receives is determined by the keywords you use. Your website will appear at the top of search engine results if you invest in the proper keywords.
- Choose the right keyword that is specific
- Choose keywords that do not have too much competition
- Choose keywords that have enough traffic
- Choose keywords that are relevant
- Try to rank for more than one word at a time
There are a number of free keyword search tools available to assist you in determining what your potential clients are thinking and discussing.
Make a localized list of keywords and phrases to target your audience, and look into the terms your competitors are utilizing as well.
9.2- Analysing competitors
It’s usually a good idea to look at what your competitors are doing to attract new customers. This allows you to assess your performance and identify areas for improvement.
It also allows you to leverage on your competitors’ strengths and shortcomings, as well as identify risks and opportunities.
Yes, conducting a SWOT analysis on both your company’s and your competitors’ digital marketing is always an excellent idea.
9.3- On-page SEO
On-page SEO refers to the practice of making changes to your website in order to improve its search engine ranking. This is how you can accomplish it:
- Create unique and relevant website content
- Make use of correct heading tags (h1, h2, h3)
- Do not exceed 65 characters in your title tags
- Keep your URL short, descriptive and include keywords
- Ensure that your meta data description is relevant to your webpages
- Formulate a good internal linking strategy
9.4- Off-page SEO
The main goal is to perform a time-consuming operation of improving your website’s domain authority by obtaining links from other websites. It entails obtaining backlinks from high-ranking websites to your website.
It’s a crucial habit because one of the variables that influences your website’s search engine ranking is how much authority it has; how trustworthy it is as a source of information. It’s important to remember that buying links to influence SEO rankings will result in a penalty. Black-hat SEO is the term for this type of deception.
9.5- Here are off-page tactics
- It’s a crucial habit because one of the variables that influences your website’s search engine ranking is how much authority it has; how trustworthy it is as a source of information. It’s important to remember that buying links to influence SEO rankings will result in a penalty. Black-hat SEO is the term for this type of deception.
10- Measuring website traffic
It’s critical to monitor website performance after all of your efforts to increase your website and social media presence. This can be accomplished by utilizing analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Leadfeeder. It’s critical to first determine your KPIs (Key performance indicators), which are measurable values that can assist you determine how well your digital marketing initiatives are doing.
When it comes to building a plan for formulating KPIs, according to Klipfolio, it’s critical to first define your company’s goals. You must know how to reach your goals and when you want to accomplish them. This procedure will assist you in determining where you should use a KPI dashboard to measure performance and with whom the data should be shared. When defining a KPI, consider the following questions:uld be shared. These are the questions to ask when defining a KPI:
- What is your desired outcome?
- Why does this outcome matter?
- How are you going to measure progress?
- How can you influence the outcome?
- Who is responsible for the business outcome?
- How will you know you’ve achieved your outcome?
- How often will you review progress towards the outcome?
Web analytics is the process of gathering, reporting, and analyzing information from websites. The purpose is to assess the success or failure of your organization’s goals and objectives by analyzing acquired data. Web analytics can assist in identifying areas where user experience can be improved.
The following are some of the advantages of using a web analytics tool:
- Measures online traffic
- Tracks bounce rate
- Optimizes and tracks marketing campaigns
- Finds the right target audience and its capitalization
- Improves and optimizes website and web services
- Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
- Tracking business goals online
11- Traditional marketing
Although digital marketing is the most popular kind of advertising, conventional marketing is still effective in a number of businesses. Having pamphlets, flyers, and business cards on hand for property viewings and open houses is a must. This type of marketing can help real estate agents establish a name for themselves in the community and contribute to the development of their personal brand.
12- Keep up with the latest real estate news and trends
It is critical to be aware of developments in the real estate business so that you can deliver the finest information to your customers and assist them in making informed decisions. Your expertise can easily be compiled in email newsletters that are sent out weekly to your email lists, or in a blog. It’s always a good idea to learn more about your craft so that your clients can trust you and invite others to do the same.
Conclusion
Having a digital marketing presence is no longer an option, especially in light of how the unprecedented epidemic has impacted our lives and the way organizations work. Whether you are new to the real estate sector or have a long track record, there are numerous advantages to becoming digital.
Key points to take away:
- Study your target market and find where they are
- Make use of the free advertising tools available online
- Content is king
- Optimize your website to attract increased traffic
- Measure your digital marketing efforts
I hope this information is helpful to boost your sales in the real estate industry or any niche you are into.