The real estate industry has had some exciting ups and downs over the past decade. The NAR (National Association of Realtors) membership hit its all-time high back in 2006 with 1,357,000 realtors before dropping drastically with the housing financial crisis.
However, since its rock bottom in the year 2012 (with 999,000 members), it has been increasing gradually. With almost 1,100,000 members in 2014, the competition among realtors is really heating up. Nowadays, you'll have to keep an eye on digital marketing trends in real estate to stay yourself apart from the pack.
Since modern shoppers go for brands that provide on-demand, personalized experiences, traditional media are no longer sufficient. That's why digital marketing real estate agencies should move with the times and embrace digital transformation to impress their potential clients.
Turning to best real estate digital marketing mediums as a touchstone of your marketing strategy is one of the right directions to go.
Why Is Digital Marketing Important For Real Estate?
One of the most critical factors that make digital marketing in real estate sector is its affordable pricing and reachable. Digital Marketing for real estate in India is implemented to maximize the reach out rate to the target users through various channels, such as:
- Social Media
- SEO or Search Engine Optimization
- Blogging
- PCC or Pay-Per-Click
- E-mail Marketing
According to the studies, there has been a phenomenal increase in the number of leads (at least 300%) from marketing real estate online via 12 digital marketing channels for real estate. Undoubtedly, buyers are more interested in the personal buying experience. When it comes to high monetary value products; digital marketing helps real estate developers create a significant impact on the buyers.
With the help of digital marketing, real estate developers and agents can reach the target audience while creating a lasting impact. Since most people hunt for houses online, it has become a platform for home buyers and sellers to get what they're looking for in just one click.
Benefits of Digital Marketing for Real Estate Industry
If you're still questioning, how will digital marketing benefit you? Apart from getting noticed, digital marketing enables realtors to stay ahead in a drastically saturated market.
Did you know? Nearly 69% of home shoppers who take action on a real estate website begin by typing a local term into a search engine. Those who adopt a digital approach take a higher route than traditional marketing efforts. Here are the top benefits of digital marketing in real estate industry.
Boost Brand Exposure
Reaching more clients online is a prerequisite in today's digital markets. Real estate branding concept includes utilization of visual content to generate more leads online, improve customer engagement, and bring more web traffic to your websites and social channels.
Smart distribution of VR content will help track brand awareness boosting on social media for real estate developers. Moreover, it will help create a stable personal brand where trust and transparency are the top qualities.
Improved ROI
Assign the proper budgets for the right marketing tactics, and generate the best ROI. This is why a digital marketing strategy can help ensure you are integrating everything together and that your digital marketing campaigns for real estate align. Less wasted time and money.
Brand Building
Building a brand is all about what clients think about the product, service, or the organization itself. The real estate industry is very competitive. With digitalization, realtors have to face competition from local realtors and realtors from other states. Hence, only having an internet presence won't be enough.
Realtors have to build a strong, positive online reputation among their target audience. Branding for real estate company/project can be accomplished by using the right digital marketing techniques such as posting informational content, interacting with clients, answering their queries on time, etc.
Unforgettable User Experience
Consider the homebuyer's experience for a moment. Before they get in touch with a real estate professional, 92% of them will search on the web. If you're investing in web-based marketing channels and revamping the online discovery process, you'll be helping these buyers find the right property quickly.
Hence, they will associate your brand with top-notch user experience and professionalism. You'll become a business they can trust to deliver the right offer where they feel most comfortable.
Cost-efficient
The cost involved in real estate projects is usually very high. Real-estate professionals look for ways to decrease their expenses. Therefore, digital marketing is more effective and cost-efficient than traditional marketing techniques.
through Digital Marketing
9 Ways Real Estate Builders/Developer Can Promote Their Business
Undoubtedly, the real estate market is saturated. Being a real estate builder, how can you stand out from the crowd? Here are some proven strategies that real estate developers can use for their branding in real estate business.
1. Website: Develop User-friendly Website
How many times have you opened a website just to close it due to its slow loading? With so many links and photos, realtor websites can sometimes be a web developer's worst nightmare.
However, with the help of a well-experienced, professional web designer and an understanding of what your clients are looking for, real estate developers can develop a responsive website optimized for mobile browsing.
As per the statistics, over 40% of real estate website visitors come from a mobile source. So if your website is not optimized for mobile use, you might be leaving a lot of money on the table.
Your mobile-friendly website should have the following content in order to give your clients the best experience:
- A list of all new listings
- Content that can guide them throughout the home buying process
- Links to relevant services such as lawyers, movers, and home inspectors
2. Content Marketing (Add Relevant and SEO Optimized Content)
Content marketing is essential for a responsive real estate website. A mobile-optimized and highly responsive website with no valuable content is of no use. Content marketing is a vital part of SEO, and it is the ideal way to have your business website indexed.
Website content really helps you build credibility, reputation and connect you with the audience. Write articles, guides, and reviews that'll help them make informed home-buying decisions. In a nutshell, your website content must solve a problem and answer a question.
3. Online Reputation Management Techniques
Real estate is one such business in which image and reputation are incredibly critical. If negative word-of-mouth spreads, you know your business is in deep trouble. But, with the help of digital marketing for real estate developers, you can get more clients by adequately maintaining a positive online reputation.
Online reviews directly affect the way how people will spend their money. Transforming reviews into sales is essential in most industries, but it's critical in real estate builders for two significant reasons:
- Buying or selling a house is really a huge deal, both financially and legally.
- Receiving reviews is an actual number game. You cannot afford to let any of the satisfied clients slip through the cracks.
People are leveraging the Internet to find builders & homes. Thus, it is essential to engage in ORM techniques to increase visibility for your real estate agency.
4. SEO: Invest in SEO
Implementing a robust SEO strategy will scale your website to the top of the search engine result pages. Unfortunately, search engine algorithms change on a daily basis. That's why you need to stay updated on the latest SEO algorithms.
Keywords are one of the integral parts of search engine optimization, and users use them to search for information online. Always do thorough keyword research and add them to your articles and blog posts. Other SEO elements to consider include:
- Backlinks
- Social media pages
- Online directories
- Title and Meta descriptions, readability, snippets, etc.
5. Video: Create a Virtual Tour
Your client's time is precious, and they want to understand as much as possible about a property prior to visiting you in person. Virtual tours are another great way to give a comprehensive, accurate preview of the property to potential buyers.
6. GMB: Build Your Google My Business page
Google My Business is the most important in Google location-based pages. If you're confused, don't worry. It's usually similar to Google Places for Businesses and Google+ Pages. Setting up a Google My Business account will make it easy for users to find you in Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+. Believe me; this one is a no-brainer. It is also one of the simplest digital marketing for real estate business that you must try on.
7. Testimonials: Ask for Testimonial from Past Clients
Testimonials are tremendous trust signals. Showcasing that real, live people endorse your services means a lot to potential clients. When a homebuyer has had an excellent experience with you, get in touch with them and ask for some testimonials.
If possible, you can also ask for a photo from them. Make the most of these testimonials by placing them strategically on your website and sharing them now and then post on social media for real estate ideas.
8. Keep Local: Include Local-oriented Copy
Make sure you include some local-oriented keywords in your copy to make sure your content is found by buyers while Googling online for homes in your area.
9. Social Media Marketing
Its one thing to just post real estate-related content on your Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and LinkedIn accounts every once in a while; however, a full-fledged social media marketing strategy is what yields the outcomes you're looking for. Here are some ideas of helpful content to post on your social media channels:
- Case studies
- New or existing listings
- Relevant blog posts
- Success stories
- Team bios
The essential rule of thumb for developing an effective social media for real estate companies is to share varied content. Even though sharing listings is a crucial factor of your digital strategy, you have to make sure that your content is helpful to a broad audience, not just leads in the market for a new home.
How Can Real Estate Agents Promote Their Business?
Here are couple of ideas on building digital marketing strategies for lead generation real estate brokers/agents available in the market.
1. Create Email Campaigns
No matter the industry or domain, an email nurture campaign is one of the most valuable tools for lead generation real estate idea. A well-rounded campaign will ideally funnel potential clients through pre-determined actions depending upon their buyer profile and previous engagements with you.
According to Smart Insights, the typical open rate of emails in digital marketing for real estate agents is around 27%, with a click-through rate (CTR) of nearly 3%. However, the more relevant your content is, the more likely users will be interested in opening the email to see what you're offering.
Send your email subscribers the stuff they're really looking for – notices about new houses on the market, open houses, news about seminars you're offering in the area, etc.
2. Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-per-click advertising, also called PPC, is a digital marketing strategy popularly integrated by real estate agents. Pay-per-click ads are used to target potential leads directly.
The primary benefit of a PPC advert is that you aren't going to get charged until someone clicks on your ads. As per the research, marketers have seen over a 2.47% conversion rate with Adword.
PPC algorithm targets those who've searched for terms related to the service you're offering from Google or similar search engines.
3. Influencer Marketing
The word-of-mouth strategy for the internet is called influencer marketing. Influencer marketing uses digital marketing for luxury real estate professionals and famous bloggers to promote branded content to their fans, most of which would qualify as a relevant audience.
Social Medial Ad Campaigns
Don't be afraid to dish out dough for social media paid ads. With organic reach dwindling on popular social networks like Facebook, Youtube, Google Ads, paid and organic ads are frequently the ideal way to get in front of clients.
There are various benefits of social media for real estate that Youtube, Facebook, and Google Ads offers. You can use some great targeting feature that can ensure you're only paying to get noticed by your key target audiences.
These ads are often made up of text-based, image, or video advertisements that encourage users to click through to a landing page and take action.
Most Google Display Ads and online advertising campaigns are charging on a cost-per-click (CPC) or Cost-Per-thousand-Impression (CPM) basis. Your display campaigns can be displayed in several shapes and sizes, which include the following:
- Banner ads
- Interstitial Ads
- Video ads
4. List on Real-estate Portal Sites
The best property websites are classified sites, which give you an option of selling and renting properties with just a few clicks. Additionally, you really need to be on there if you're looking for any chance of being discovered – you may ignore the sun, but it will still burn you!
By listing on trending sites, it can allow you to advertise as an agent on their website. This can be pretty costly, but considering the huge role they play in home buying, it's probably your best bet. After all, all these sites account for 48% of all site traffic for real estate searches on the web.
Conclusion
While almost every other real estate agent and broker applies one or more digital marketing ideas for real estate business, it all depends on how well the strategies are built and utilized.
Focus on creating digital content that solves the homebuyer's problems and answers their questions. Leverage various online strategies to double your chances of getting found by potential customers.
Ultimately, it's not just about how many people you reach but the quality of the conversion.
