As a realtor, you may have experienced a major shift in the last ten years. Clients are beginning to buy houses in a different way, often beginning with online market research and a clear vision of precisely what they want out of their future home.
For best-in-class realtors, digital marketing has come to the forefront of their marketing efforts. From generating new leads to completing successful sales, the real estate industry is now reliant on digital marketing.
Real Estate and the Importance of Digital Marketing
Social media was one of the first game changer for realtors seeking ways to get noticed online. From purchasing Facebook Business Ads to sharing photo albums of new listings, various social media platforms allowed real estate professionals to build a brand and a booming business.
With every real estate professional using social media platforms, how can modern real estate brokerages and realtors further differentiate themselves in a saturated market? Your digital marketing strategy must be solid and should create a greater impact to your business. Here are some ways to make sure when buyers go online to look for a home, they find you:
1. Make sure you have the best IDX website that drives traffic and helps you capture and cultivate leads. Now, we’re not talking about just any old website here. Ubertor has been helping Realtors around the globe for 20 years now. We’ve helped shape the Real Estate industry by providing technology innovations to Real Estate firms, brokers, agents and help them sell their listings and build their brand.
2. Get social. Make sure you take advantage of Facebook real estate marketing tools, have a presence on Twitter, and Instagram. But more than that, be active on your social media accounts. Post regularly, share when you get positive reviews or press, promote your properties and interact with your followers.
3. Make your listings shareable. Of course, you want to have simple, prominent social share buttons, but that’s not all. You can make your listings more shareable by ensuring they have responsive layouts and clear photography.
4. Take advantage of all of Facebook’s advertising tools. Facebook may have started out for socializing, but now it’s a key marketing tool for real estate agents to increase their buyer and seller leads. In addition to advertising, you should enable reviews and services, create and use Facebook Groups, upload a Facebook cover video and use Facebook Live at your properties to give prospective customers a behind-the-scenes look at your listing. You can also post 360-degree photos and videos that can help you more accurately communicate what space looks and feels like.
5. Create an email newsletter and send email blasts to your database. This is one of the best ways to leverage email marketing to contact new leads and stay in touch with former customers. They’re a great place to share content like upcoming open houses, market reports, or recent blogs you’ve posted.
6. Create an email and text drip campaign. This kind of campaign makes sure you’re customizing your communications based on where your prospect is in the sales cycle. If they’ve attended an open house with you, send them an email highlighting similar nearby homes on the market. If they’ve reached out to express interest in working with you, send them a blog post you’ve written that outlines things new homebuyers should know. If you give your customers content that is pertinent to their situation, they’re more likely to take the next step.
Digital Marketing Improvements You Can Make Today
Develop buyer profiles: Buyer profiles are the ideal clients that you are trying to target through your content. From new homeowners to existing agents, take time to map out who your audience is, what they do, their average salary, and other characteristics that might impact their decision-making processes.
Start posting relevant content: Whether it’s from your blog or another trusted real estate professional in your brokerage, high-value content is what attracts readers and builds your reputation for being a well-informed expert online. Try to update your company blog once a week, and include valuable content for a variety of buyer profiles.
Work on improving your SEO: Increasing your rankings on the search engine results pages of sites like Google and Bing isn’t as hard as you may think. Take a couple of minutes weekly to review popular and industry-related keywords on Google Ads and make sure to include them throughout any copy you develop.
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The internet has made it easier than ever for real estate agents to provide a useful service to their prospects. That’s why it’s so important to take advantage of these digital tools and create an integrated online presence, driving more qualified leads to your site.