Every real estate agent needs to understand the value and range of different marketing approaches. We’ve outlined the key new real estate marketing strategies below together with some tips on how to get better results.
Website
Your website should not just feature properties you have for sale, it should be a resource that features information to help potential clients understand the different stages of buying and selling. Look to feature answers to key questions buyers and sellers may have when they’re researching the market. It should be the place you drive traffic to from your social media and email marketing.
It’s important to consider your clients experience at every stage of their journey. You can increase the amount of times your listings are clicked on by 400% with some simple photography edits. Agencies like BoxBrownie charge about $2 per photo, so it’s a no-brainer.
Social Media
Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or even TikTok (no judgments!), social media can provide you with a targeted audience. The trick is to post content that is genuinely engaging that people want to look at. Consider using social media higher up your marketing funnel rather than trying to convert people to use you as their agent straight away. We see agents using social media successfully to build awareness and start a conversation in their communities. They do this by posting about their local neighbourhood, market conditions or sharing beautiful images of ‘property porn’. (You know what we mean). Being able to target posts by location can be a powerful way to build your brand locally. Make the goal of your social media posts to be to encourage people to join your email list. Consider tools like HomePrezzo that allow you to create more content more often.
Email Marketing
While social media may seem like the queen of the prom right now, email marketing is the king of the new real estate marketing. That’s because email marketing can do some seriously heavy lifting when it comes to nurturing and converting leads. Done well, it’s email marketing that really brings all the different elements of your marketing together. Email marketing has the highest return on investment of any marketing delivering $42 of value for every $1 you spend. That’s because if someone has given you their email address, they’ve signalled that they see value in being connected to you and hearing from you. The challenge is to live up to that promise.
Download our whitepaper for a guide to the ROI and pros and cons of different marketing channels.
Josh Phegan explains the unique power of email for real estate agents below.
Targeted Content Marketing
The decision cycle for someone who is in the property market can be 12-18months. They are not ready to buy and depending on their preferences won’t need to be in contact with you every day. This doesn’t mean you leave them alone - on the contrary these contacts need your advice more than anyone. Content written to solve the pain points experienced by the different property personas is critical. This could be delivered in the form of a blog post, in an email or via Whatsapp. The options are: write it yourself (time consuming), hire a content writer (expensive) or use a tool like RealEstate Content to access pre-written articles. Video content and reports are also highly effective ways to provide useful information about your market and you can build these in just a few seconds with apps like HomePrezzo.
SMS
The big mistake many make is to restrict yourself to one distribution channel. People consume content and engage through different channels. Using channels like SMS or Whatsapp is an important part of Real Estate Marketing. Around 30% of real estate web traffic occurs on mobile devices (MessageMedia.com), so SMS can be a great way to stay in touch using a more conversational tone. When combined with email, SMS becomes a powerful 1-2 punch (hint: watch this space!)
