Few jobs grant you the freedom and flexibility that exists in the world of real estate. As a real estate agent, you can dictate your own schedule and choose what clients you want to work with while simultaneously earning a respectable income.
However, there is a downside. As a real estate agent, you work purely off of commission. If you don’t know how to market your services, you won’t have any clients.
We want to help you perfect your real estate marketing strategy. Follow along with our complete guide on the latest and most effective real estate marketing trends.
Build a User-Friendly Website
First, every modern entrepreneur needs to have an online presence. We are living in the digital age. If a consumer wants something, the first thing they do is pick up their smartphone to search for it online.
This applies to people looking for new coffee pots on Amazon, as well as local residents looking for new homes. If you want your real estate career to thrive, you must have an online presence where local house hunters can find you.
For this reason, your real estate marketing strategy should begin with a user-friendly website. Provide your website visitors with a positive experience. Your website needs to be professional and charming.
It should load quickly but offer a wide variety of different media, such as pictures, videos, text, infographics, etc. Similarly, it must be intuitive and easy to navigate.
Finally, ensure your site is optimized for mobile devices. Almost 9 in 10 Americans own smartphones. This means most of your website traffic is going to come from people using smartphones and other mobile devices.
Use SEO to Drive House Hunters to Your Website
Once you establish an impressive website, you need to find a way to infiltrate the housing market organically. This is where search engine optimization comes in.
SEO is the coding implemented in your website content that will direct search engine users to your site. Search engines like Google use SEO crawlers to find the most appropriate content based on a user’s keyword search.
For example, if someone in your area is looking for “the best realtor near me” or “how to buy a house,” your SEO ranking for these types of keywords will determine whether or not they find you. If you rank high on Google, your website will be within the first few results of these searches. This will drastically increase your leads and land you more clients.
Boosting Your SEO Rankings
If you want your website to rank high on Google, you need to create a blog and fill it with relevant articles. Write articles full of keywords that are relevant to the real estate industry and your local area.
You should also register your website with Google My Business, which will help increase your local search result rankings. It also gives user’s a quick look at vital information, such as contact info, hours of operation, services, etc.
Then, ensure each webpage has an appropriate meta description. The meta description is the blurb beneath website links on search results pages. It should tell users what they will find by clicking on the link.
Finally, work on your link-building strategy. Include internal links on your pages that lead visitors to other pages on your site. These can lead to other blog articles, contact pages, etc.
The Google algorithm also looks for external links. These usually lead to data sources, statistics, and other content that’s related to your website.
Finally, work on acquiring backlinks from other sites. These are links from other blogs and business websites that lead to your website. Backlinks verify your credibility to Google and other search engines.
Establish a Strong Presence in Your Community On Social Media
Developing a presence on social media is one of the most beneficial real estate marketing strategies. These platforms are ideal for any real estate agent or real estate firm for several reasons.
First, the vast majority of Americans use social media apps. We log in several hours a day scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tik Tok, and YouTube.
By marketing your services and house listings on social media, you can significantly increase your brand awareness in the community. Due to the nature of these platforms, they’re also perfect for posting pictures and videos of the homes you’re selling.
Organic Social Media Marketing
One of the best things about using social media for real estate marketing is that you can do it for free. Create a professional page on Facebook and Instagram and encourage all of your personal friends and followers to like and follow those accounts.
Then, you can post content and home listings to start naturally building up your online presence. Ask your current followers to share your posts or tag their friends who are in the market for a new home.
You can also run special promotions like raffles and contests to accelerate your growth. For example, you could do a cash giveaway based on points people earn by following your account, sharing your page, and engaging with your content.
Paid Social Media Real Estate Marketing
Smart marketing experts will tell you that organic social media marketing can only take you so far. The truth is, there’s nothing wrong with paying for more exposure.
Paid social media advertising makes it easy for you to target specific demographics of people with your marketing message. You can choose which users see your ads based on their location, gender, hobbies, interests, viewing history, and more.
Just as importantly, paid ads provide detailed analytics regarding the performance of your ad campaign. You can see how many people saw your ad in their feed and how many people engaged (likes, shares, comments, follows, link clicks). This engagement is broken down even further to show you what demographics of users were engaging.
You can use this conglomeration of data to improve your real estate marketing strategy. We recommend running A and B ads simultaneously to see what users respond to best. Try varying styles and tones of marketing to see what method is most effective.
Provide Online House Shoppers With Virtual Walkthroughs
As noted earlier, the majority of consumers begin their shopping experience online. This is especially true in the housing market. Before leaving the comfort of their homes, people will browse available houses in their area using their phones or computers.
As such, you must ensure you’re listings are standing out from the other available houses. You can do this by providing online shoppers with virtual walkthroughs.
Virtual walkthroughs allow buyers to see every square inch of a home as they navigate their way through it. It’s also a powerful motivator. If a buyer is interested and can see the whole home, they’re more likely to schedule an actual walkthrough, which could lead to an offer.
Market Your Listing on MLS Sites
Taking a closer look at online house shopping, understand that a large number of buyers use popular websites like Zillow, Homefinder, Trulia, and other multiple listing sites. If you want your properties to sell quickly, you need to affiliate with these sites.
Listing your client’s houses on these sites will increase their visibility drastically. These sites provide buyers with important information, such as:
- House square footage
- Property size
- Number of rooms
- Number of bathrooms
- The age of the home
- Property tax history
- And more
Furthermore, buyers trust these sites because they are so popular. Naturally, they will automatically place more trust in the homes listed here.
Use Aerial Footage of the Property
One of the biggest advancements in the real estate marketing industry is the use of drones. Drones are able to fly above the property and take aerial footage.
This gives buyers a better understanding of the property and the surrounding area. They can see how the home sits on the lot and how everything is laid out.
By making a one-time investment in a drone that provides high-quality videos and pictures, you can add value to your real estate marketing strategy. Check out the DJI Mavic 3 to take a look at a top-tier drone.
Create Valuable Content for Your Website
Content marketing is an important tool in your real estate marketing arsenal. By creating content for your blog, social media pages, and email campaigns that readers find valuable, you can build credibility in your services.
For example, if someone looking to sell their home finds helpful tips and guidance on your website, they’ll be more likely to trust you. Then, when it comes time to actually put their house up for sale, they’ll be more inclined to call you, rather than another realtor.
Naturally, creating content for your blog will also improve your SEO ranking. As noted earlier, this will lead to increased website traffic and better lead generation.
In the housing market, there is no shortage of topics to cover. Use your content to teach people about the home sales process, both from the buyer’s perspective and the seller’s perspective.
Implement a Referral System
Another fantastic real estate marketing tip is to get your current and past clients to spread the word. As a real estate agent, you get paid about 3% for each home you help sell or buy. Use part of this income to provide an incentive for your clients to market your services for you.
For example, offer clients a $300 incentive to bring new clients to you. If you help the new client sell or buy a house, the client who referred them to you will get a cash reward.
You can use the contact information you have to send mailers reminding people of this referral system. You should also include it in your emails. People will need to be reminded of this promotion if it is to be effective.
Email Campaigns
Speaking of emails, creating a large base of email subscribers will help you stay relevant as a real estate agent. As noted above, you can send past clients reminders about your referral system.
However, you can also use emails to showcase houses you have for sale to people who are shopping for new homes. Sending emails about hot homes that have just hit the market can be a great way to get your foot in the door with a new client.
To gain more subscribers, provide incentives through your website and social media pages. For example, a subscriber might get a $500 discount off of your real estate services. Or maybe you’ll provide extra services pro bono for subscribers who decide to sell their house.
Publish Client Reviews
Modern consumers are intelligent and well-informed. Before we buy anything or hire anyone, we want to verify their credibility. Therefore, we rely heavily on customer and client reviews to help us make the right decision.
Do you have a list of client reviews and testimonials? If not, you need to start changing that.
By publishing reviews left by your previous clients, you can give prospective clients the peace of mind they need to hire you. They will be more likely to trust you to lead their house-hunting journey if they can see that you’ve helped other homebuyers.
If you don’t have reviews, reach out to your old clients and ask them to do you a solid by leaving you a review. They can leave reviews on Google, which you can copy and paste to your website and social media pages.
Invest in PPC to Drive Up Website Traffic
Finally, we understand that real estate marketing is difficult. It takes time to establish an online presence, particularly with SEO.
While you’re spending time creating content for your blog and improving your organic SEO rankings, consider paying for higher visibility on search engines.
Pay-per-click marketing is an advertising tool that allows you to pay Google for the privilege of ranking on the first page of specific searches. You can choose which keywords and keyword phrases you want to rank for.
Then, you pay Google for each website click your paid promotion gets. You can set a maximum budget, like $5 a day or $20 a week. Once your budget is reached, your ad will be temporarily disabled.
Are You Having Trouble With Your Real Estate Marketing?
There are endless ways to market your real estate services and expertise. We hope that our real estate marketing guide provides you with the information and inspiration you need to generate more leads and secure more clients.
And remember, you can never learn too much about your trade or the marketing industry. If you want your business to continue to thrive, continue to stay apprised of current marketing trends and consumer habits.
Look through the rest of our blog to find more marking tips and insight. Our website was created to help entrepreneurs like you find success.
