In today’s day and age, there are many ways to market real estate online, but like any industry, there will always be competition. As the number of competitors increases the ability to reach your target audience becomes harder. So, it is crucial that you do everything you can to stay one step ahead of your competitors and maintain a well-run online real estate marketing campaign.
Reaching your target audience takes time, especially as there are many real estate businesses out there. Having said this, there are several tried and tested tips and tricks that can help boost your real estate marketing campaign to the next level.
Creating and maintaining a successful online marketing campaign involves Search Engine Optimization, relevant and engaging content, and social media marketing just to mention a few. Neglecting these important marketing elements could leave you wandering around in a crowd of competition, struggling to reach potential customers.
Create a well-performing website
Anyone involved in online marketing will know how important it is to create a professional website. When it comes to the real estate industry having a well-rounded website can be the be-all and end-all of a business. Home hunters always look for a trustworthy realtor whenever considering investing in real estate, and professionalism often reflects security and trust.
When setting up your website be sure to pay attention to the appearance and performance. Performance metrics such as loading speeds and relevant content are also aspects that you should be optimizing regularly. You need to ensure that your site is user-friendly and that visitors can easily navigate their way around. Keep your layout and content simple and easy to understand so that potential customers know exactly what your business offering is.
First impressions really do count, so you don’t want your site to be a confusing mess that takes ages to load. Tailor your content to the needs and demands of your target audience with a regularly updated blog and FAQs.
Another very important point is that appearance is a key driver of real estate marketing success, so you should always be using high-quality images and videos. Now you may be asking yourself, but wouldn’t high resolution images increase loading times making for a slower site? You could implement techniques such as Lazy Loading to minimize loading times and a CDN (Content Delivery Network).
3D and virtual reality are the way forward
Whether you like it or not, the world of online marketing is changing and especially for the real estate sector this is a huge step forward. There are loads of 3D platforms out there such as matterport.com, siradel.com, and 3dmapping.cloud. These platforms can create a three-dimensional accurate mockup of any building giving the user the ability to view the property as if they were there. Eventually, all communication with the internet could be in 3D or virtual reality so it’s a great idea to get to grips with the technology before it becomes mainstream.
Real estate photography
Real estate marketing and professional high-quality images go hand in hand. Potential clients and home hunters often make a judgment from the first glance, so you need to make your real estate listings stand out from the crowd. One effective way of doing this is to use professional photography that clearly depicts and sells the property that you are trying to sell. The images you use need to project the overall property as a whole package, not as a separate entity with four walls and a door. Professional real estate photographers use wide-angle lens cameras and delicate Photoshop refining to create appealing images that show off exactly what it is you are trying to market.
Create video tours
Perhaps not as captivating as 3D virtual reality, video content can offer a much more personal insight into how a property is in real life. You could consider filming on a high-quality camera or smartphone and to go that extra step you could invest in a drone and shoot some birds-eye footage of the property, letting prospective buyers get a sense of what they are looking at.
Posting regular video content, that guides a home buyer through the listings as if they were there will create great customer service and it shows that you are thinking of your clients’ convenience. But don’t just take my word for it take a look at these amazing statistics from biteable.com:
- ‘Does video really sell houses? The stats all point towards ‘yes’. Videos attract 300% more traffic for nurturing leads.‘
- ‘Real estate listings with video receive 403% more inquiries than their videoless counterparts.‘
- ‘85% of buyers and sellers want to work with an agent that uses real estate videos for marketing.‘
- ‘86% of homebuyers use video to research a particular community.‘
- ‘70% of homebuyers watch video house tours.‘
Keep the following tips in mind when creating your real estate marketing videos to ensure you are posting regularly to the right people at the right time.
Traditionally there may be peak seasons when it comes to real estate marketing when homebuyers have saved up and are on the hunt for a property to buy; however, there is no real way of knowing when a prospective client will visit your site. So, for this reason you should be posting regular video content on your site so that potential customers will want to keep visiting and engaging with your content.
Embrace your individuality when creating video tours and content. Why? Well it’s pretty simple, because of the sheer volume of competition that exists nowadays on the internet, it can be like looking for a needle in a haystack when it comes to surfing the internet for real estate. Creating memorable and unique video content not only helps increase customer engagement but also builds brand awareness.
Mix the subject matter up regularly. What do I mean by this? Basically, you shouldn’t be trying to sell a property or apartment in every video that you post. This can become monotonous and drive users away; instead, you should mix things up with tutorials, top tips, and guides to help first-time buyers. By having content diversity you can maximize your customer reach because you will be more likely to meet the needs and demands of a much wider audience.
Ensure that your call to actions are always accessible and do exactly what they say on the tin. You want to make sure that you are offering potential clients the option to follow through with a subscription, purchase, or appointment, so it’s a good idea to include CTAs regularly, along with sign up forms which are a great way to gather quality leads.
