Today, many home buyers and sellers search for and make their buying decisions online before they ever engage with a real estate professional. Digital marketing for real estate goes well beyond marketing properties. As a real estate professional, you need to win at every stage of the online customer journey so they choose you to be their agent and digital marketing is your blueprint.
In other words, you need to use different digital marketing tactics to target the right audience, generate new leads, and complete sales. So, how do you go about this? When it comes to digital marketing real estate professionals, what are the best practices? How do you ensure that your clients complete their journey and make that online buying decision to work with you? Let’s find out in this article.
Why is Digital Marketing for Real Estate Important?
Digital marketing has become an imperative for many businesses today. Unlike the traditional form of advertising, you can reach your audience and market your services at a reduced cost. But, more importantly, today’s modern consumers are making their buying decisions…the agent with whom they want to contact…online. Digital marketing for real estate professionals goes well beyond the established online marketing of properties. It is a strategy for winning buyers and sellers to choose you as their agent.
Here, digital marketing fo real estate raises brand awareness for you and your company across different channels making you more visible to potential buyers and sellers in your local market. As potential clients proceed through their online research, you want to be easily found and have your information accurate and consistent across multiple general (like Google) and real estate industry-specific sites (like Zillow). A steady stream of positive reviews on multiple review sites helps potential clients know they can trust you. This is today’s word-of-mouth. Once they find you, make it easy for them to contact you and to enter into a representation agreement with you.
Digital marketing for real estate follows the same principles of digital marketing for all businesses. Potential clients go through a journey which consists of multiple stages. You must win at every stage of this journey or online searchers may end up in the hands of another agent if you don’t shine at every stage.
Five Best Digital Marketing Practices for Real Estate Professionals
Raise Awareness
As consumers begin their online search, the first thing to do is to raise awareness about you and your brand. For real estate professionals, the medium is real property, but the brand is the professional. Let people know who you are, what you do, where you can be found, and other vital information. To do this, you can start by reaching your target audience through various digital strategies such as social or search advertising, email marketing, and traditional forms of advertising such as billboards. What works best will depend on your local market and your budget, but you want to be sure that you can track and analyze every tactic so you know what’s working and what’s not.
To start with social advertising, you can connect with a large number of buyers and sellers on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more. To do that, you can leverage ads on these social networks to reach a very targeted audience. This may be part of your property marketing plan, but you are using the property as a medium to credential yourself as well.
Finally, you can utilize video marketing to achieve your goal. YouTube is a perfect spot for this. Here, you can publish new videos that display a virtual tour of a new property or create testimonial videos to build your brand’s image. Irrespective of the strategy, ensure that you are achieving the goal of raising awareness of you and/or your company.
Let your Buyers and Sellers Find You Easily
Digital Marketing isn’t all about advertising and marketing to individuals. Sometimes, you need to work to let your potential customers find you with ease. That implies that you need to enable customers to make contact with you both offline and online.
There are dozens of online listing sites specific to real estate as well as more general (but critical) sites like Google and Facebook. Here, there’s a balance of listing properties such as MLS and sites that contain syndicated MLS information about properties. Make sure that YOU are well represented.
Keeping your information current on so many different sites can be daunting, but there are listing management tools that can help. You want to be everywhere buyers and sellers are looking and you want your information that they find to be accurate and consistent.
Manage your Online Reputation
Reputation Management for Real Estate is critical at every point. Think about this. Will a Realtor attract and retain clients if he keeps getting negative reviews on his channels? Of course not!
Many consumers interact with a business only if it gives them a satisfying experience. In most cases, many choose to listen to other people’s experiences and opinions about a particular business. Without these reviews, they are unlikely to make purchasing decisions. This also applies to the real estate industry.
With some powerful management tools, the chance of having a poor reputation is slim. Besides, you can position yourself as an expert in the industry to manage your online reputation. You can research by unveiling information through blog posts, infographics, or case studies. By positioning yourself as an expert and employing a reputation management company, you can be rest assured about negative reviews and solidify your relationship with your clients.
Covert your Audience.
After you have raised awareness, enabled your customers to find you with ease, and managed your online reputation, then customers will be ready to perform business transactions with you. Your website is the typical conversion point in the modern customer journey. For some businesses, this would take the form of an eCommerce website. In digital marketing for real estate professionals, the conversion step may take be lead form completions on your own website or affiliated sites like Zillow. A consumer filling out a lead form is a solid conversion goal.
On your website, you can incorporate new listings, guiding content that will enlighten them on the home-buying or home-selling process, and provide services of related professionals such as lawyers, home inspectors, include your contact details, and a strong call-to-action such as “Contact us today”, “make an appointment now”, and more. In the crowded field of real estate, it is important to pay special attention to content that differentiates you from other agents.
Get Positive Reactions
Positive reactions are essential for every business. Online reviews and social mentions can indicate that a client had a satisfying experience and will be visible to the next potential client search for a real estate pro.
Facilitating a smooth buying or selling transaction for your clients is, of course, the primary way to provide a great client experience. However, don’t discount the online portion of that experience. Use tools on your website that make it easy for potential clients and existing clients to do business with you. This could be clear, “what to expect” content, online agreements to establish agency relationships, e-signature for contracts, and more.
Tools to Simplify Digital Marketing for Real Estate
Real Estate pros and their teams can benefit from the kinds of insights and efficiency that comes from a central digital marketing dashboard. We offer a free Business Center that provides visibility to the entire digital journey. It’s free forever, however there are upgrade options available if needed.
Get your free Digital Marketing Business Center
It can be overwhelming focus on the entire online consumer journey, yet it is important that you do. If not, you may be spending money for marketing that ultimately sends potential clients to another agent if your brand is lacking in any of the stages of the online journey. We’ve created an Online Business Toolkit that helps real estate professionals conquer digital marketing. It encompasses tools to help improve the ROI of digital advertising, manage your business listings across multiple sites, simplify social media marketing, drive more positive reviews, and more.
