Marketing is one of the most important components of running a real estate business. A successful realtor must master two important things: 1.) the relationship-building process with buyers and sellers, and 2.) how to market their services in effective ways.
An influx of new buyers has created new housing demands, putting pressure on real estate agents’ ability to develop creative marketing ideas. According to NAR, there are currently 1.46 million Realtors in the United States as of 2020 — those who hope to attract new homebuyers or home sellers will need to develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Keeping this in mind, all real estate marketing strategies must consider the unique needs of the target audience in order to be effective.
As a leading digital marketing partner for real estate agents, RealDigi Ads has compiled six proven real estate marketing methods for your agency to review. By implementing some–or all–of these real estate marketing strategies, you can reach a wider audience and, ultimately, generate significantly more leads.
1. Build a personal lead capture IDX website
In this new era of real estate shopping, buyers and sellers both usually begin the process by going online. Studies show that 90% of home buyers use the internet to find information about a new home purchase, 76% of home buyers set up a home visit for a house they found on the internet, and 41% of home buyers found their first home online.
Without a personal IDX website displaying who you are and what you can offer, it is difficult to get noticed. A personal website gives your real estate agency an online resume of sorts for potential prospects to see. It is also important to include listings on your site and update them as much as possible.
As you grow, your website can be updated to include more features. To get started, include the general basics like who you are, your experience, location, and why you are better than other real estate agents. Having a unique value proposition will be very beneficial.
2. Run paid advertising campaigns
Paid advertising is a great way for real estate agents to start getting noticed online. There are a few paid advertising platforms to consider, such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads. All three are popular channels to generate new, local real estate leads. Many of these platforms use the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) pricing model, meaning you won’t need to pay for advertising until someone actually engages your digital ads.
As the world’s most popular and widely used search engine, Google offers Realtors access to an unprecedented and unmatched audience of prospects who are actively looking for real estate services. Running paid ads on Google through RealDigi Ads can give your real estate agency an edge over the competition for more exposure, accurate reporting, reliable ads, and in-depth research.
3. Use video marketing
The popularity of video is changing the dynamic of online real estate marketing. If you can find ways to use video marketing in your strategy, there is a better chance for your content to be seen by the masses. As a medium, videos combine both sound and visual effects, resulting in a more stimulating advertising experience. Platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are excellent mediums to include in your strategy with high-quality video.
The best real estate marketing ideas utilizing video include video walkthroughs, virtual showings, and video testimonials. Each strategy requires a personal touch that makes your content unique.
Be sure to include videos on your website and in your emails. It is a great way to engage viewers and stand out from your competitors. In fact, it’s so effective that 73% of homeowners say they are more likely to list their home with a realtor who uses video in their selling strategy.
4. Collect email addresses
Building an email list is an incredibly effective long-term strategy for building your brand in the real estate industry. You will always have an audience that you can reach and prospects you can stay connected to.
Consider enabling forced registration to view listings on your website. Once you’ve done that, you can then send drip email campaigns, offer unique content like blog posts or a newsletter to stay engaged with your audience.
Better data allows for betting marketing ideas in the future. Email is one of the best mediums for gathering data en masse, empowering your real estate agency to make more productive long-term marketing decisions.
5. Ask for testimonials
Happy customers are almost always willing to write their real estate agents a positive review. But sometimes, you just need to have the courage to ask. For example, 69% of home sellers have said they would gladly write a review for their real estate agent if requested, and 41% of home buyers choose a real estate agent based on a recommendation.
After working with a client, be sure to always reach out with a phone call or email to ask for a positive review. Use tools like Yelp or Google review to collect reviews. Once you have gathered a few positive reviews, you will then be able to post them on your website, social media, and other platforms.
Providing excellent service to clients is the best way to develop better relationships, increase referrals, and become a successful realtor. Clients remember great experiences and won’t hesitate to recommend you to their friends and family.
6. Create your social media presence
There are so many different platforms to incorporate into your social media strategy that it may seem overwhelming at first. Don’t worry. View these platforms as opportunities instead of hurdles. Powerful platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can offer organic reach to individuals searching for your services. TikTok has also recently become a popular platform for real estate agents, particularly those that hope to reach younger homebuyers.
Be sure to optimize your social media profiles with beautiful photos to be found easily. State what you do in your bios and use the platforms to interact with potential leads. By developing a presence across multiple platforms, you’ll be able to reach a wider pool of possible homebuyers or sellers.
On your website, add social media sharing buttons to pages. This is a way to expand organic reach so that an interested buyer can share a property with a friend easily.
Social media is often where other marketing strategies for real estate come together. You can promote your website on your pages, post video marketing content, run paid advertising, collect email addresses, and ask users for testimonials.
Real estate marketing tips: FAQ
How to market local real estate
With hundreds of different marketing options available to generate leads, we have found that Google Ads is the best option to capture interested home buyers’ attention. Google Ads offers the perfect mixture of affordability, ease of use, and visibility for real estate agents across the world.
Google Ads offers real estate agents the opportunity to build an online presence through a lead generation machine that reaches billions of people every day. When done right, through the proven methods of RealDigi Ads, Realtors can use Google Ads to capture lots of real estate leads.
How can I improve marketing for my real estate business?
As a real estate agent, marketing is an absolute necessity. If you are struggling to develop new real estate advertisement ideas, refer to our top tips for some inspiration.
We recommend implementing a diverse combination of Google Ads, email marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing into your strategy to see better results. Real estate marketing requires a consistent effort to maintain online visibility for potential new leads.
You can also improve your real estate marketing by upgrading the tools you use. The top tools include RealDigi Ads for Google Ad campaign creation, a lead capture website that includes email drip campaigns and text autoresponders as well as a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. RealDigi Ads offers a platform that makes Google Ads easy for Realtors and when combined with other marketing tools such as a lead capture website, CRM, email drip campaigns, etc., you can send leads directly to your website to capture email addresses and push new prospects into your pipeline.
What is the best real estate marketing tip?
There are many different real estate marketing tips for agents to consider, but the most important is consistency. Start by choosing a strategy to implement and stick with it. Many of the best marketing strategies for real estate agents will take a considerable amount of time before they begin yielding results.
For example, your new personal website will not be flowing with incoming traffic after a day or two. It requires promotion on social media through paid ads and SEO. By maintaining consistency, you ensure the steady growth of your entire brand as a real estate agent.
Collect reviews after every successful interaction with clients. Ask for referrals. Do the little things well, and they build up over time.
How can I stand out in the real estate market?
Before you can stand out in the real estate market, you need to find your niche. For example, the location and style of the home will play a significant role in your visibility in the market. Real estate advertising can get expensive if you try to market to everybody.
Start by niching down to a serviceable market that you can appeal to. After you decide on this, it is time to apply an omnichannel approach. This means you will be everywhere. From social media to billboards to local businesses, your face will represent the real estate market you are targeting.
Use signs, online ads, and social media posts to appeal to your audience. The more often you are seen, the more likely you will be remembered. By staying visible and providing valuable content to your audience, people will associate your name with their local real estate market.
How do you create a real estate marketing plan to attract leads?
The biggest mistake many real estate agents make is trying to do everything at once. Instead, there needs to be a step-by-step plan written down for how you can correctly promote yourself.
For some real estate agents, marketing, in general, is something entirely new. This is where a digital marketing partner such as RealDigi Ads can help. Having professionals who understand a platform like Google can beat the steep learning curve to allow you to start effectively advertising right away.
If you are not ready to run ads, there are other realtor advertising ideas to consider. To create your real estate marketing plan, identify your goals and what success would look like for your marketing efforts.
Once you can align your goals with a specific result, creating your plan is easy. You can use our top six tips to begin building out an effective marketing plan.
