If you’re looking to make it in the real estate industry, marketing is not an option; it is a must. You have to be out there in your potential clients’ faces, reminding them you’re offering the best deal. In the current housing market, being able to reach as many potential homebuyers as possible is key to increasing your revenues.
With the ubiquity of the Internet and social media, marketing has become easier, cheaper, and faster to do. You no longer have to splash out for a tiny space in the classifieds section of the daily. Gone are the days of breaking the bank for prime-time ad slots on TV or radio. Here are a few tips for digital marketing for real estate online:
Dominate on Social
The National Association of Realtors says that 98 percent of older millennials are looking for a new home search online, and 89 percent of baby boomers do the same. The first step to winning the hearts and minds of your future customers online is to have a solid website. Your website should not only show off the houses you’re selling, but it should also be a tool through which you actively engage with potential buyers. Successful online real estate marketing also harnesses the power of social media. With 57 percent of realtors spending one to four hours a week working on their social media presence, you need a thoroughly planned and well-executed social media strategy to stay competitive.
Your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube accounts shouldn’t just be used to shout about your updated listings. They should provide a means for you to connect with home seekers genuinely. To effectively use Facebook as a marketing tool, you need to first create a useful business page. You can use the contacts on your personal profile to begin growing a following for your business page. Simply create a group with contacts who you feel fit your target demographic and invite them to like the page. Posts on the page can be similarly targeted at a specific group instead of being blasted out to all your friends.
The beauty of Facebook is that it allows you to combine text, graphics, and video to great effect. Facebook posts can include eye-catching shots of a house that give viewers an enticing view of both the interior and exterior of the home.
Use Virtual Staging
Staging is an essential part of closing any real estate deal. Few people, if any, are willing to buy a house they have not personally surveyed every inch of. However, many potential buyers just don’t have the time to visit every property they have interest in physically. To avoid the prospect of losing out on a sale just because the interested party can’t travel to the site, you can bring the home to them through virtual staging.
Not only does virtual staging make house shopping more convenient, but it also brings real estate agents and homeowners huge savings. Instead of having to burn fuel every time prospects want to be taken around the site, they simply need to login to your website or download an app. This way, they don’t even have to inform you when they want to take a tour of your home. Staging apps may even be more convincing than your best sales pitch, as some of them allow prospects to play around with furniture arrangements and color schemes.
Having a virtual staging feature on your website or offering a staging app also frees up time for you. You ou can use the time you would have spent giving tours generating more leads online.
Dip into Experiential Marketing
Experiential marketing, as the name suggests, means letting customers experience a product before buying. When it comes to real estate marketing, this may include inviting potential buyers to “experience” a home during an engaging event with multiple prospective buyers present. To host a successful event, you’ll have to generate enough buzz on social media to attract the attention of potential buyers. To do so, you may have to bring social media influencers on numerous platforms into the mix.
Take Advantage of Drone Photography and Videos
With countless real estate agents competing to attention online, you need to have content that really stands out. Well-composed aerial shots are the best way to go. You can share these striking images directly with your followers via social media or add them to your website’s gallery.
In addition to photos, it is important to include high-quality videos of properties on your website. However, be careful that the videos you add don’t slow down your website. Brief clips should also be posted on social media to spark the curiosity of followers.
No More Hard Sale
As technology has rapidly changed over the years, so has the work of real estate agents. With customers becoming more and more tech-savvy, agents need to up the ante on their own digital skills. By incorporating these techniques and following some additional ways, you can wield the power of the World Wide Web and other technological advances to capture the attention of future homeowners. You’ll be well on your way to developing and executing a cost-effective marketing plan for the digital age!
2018 ·
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