The right marketing strategy is one that puts your property before the eyes of a prospective buyer. And herein lies another catch: the traditional buyer who would scour real estate ads on print magazines and newspapers is becoming a rare phenomenon. Today, such a buyer can be spotted on social media platforms such as Facebook groups and Pages.
According to propertiesonline.com, 88% of people looking to buy a home start their property search online. They spend most of their time online searching for available homes and only contact a real estate agent when they have an idea of the property they want. So, which are the most effective real estate marketing strategies you can try?
Here are six effective real estate marketing strategies for experts:
1. Get a Search Engine Optimized Website
Your website is your true ‘real estate.’ It is the home of all your property listings. All your other marketing strategies should lead potential clients to your website. Since you have absolute control, you can display your properties and pitch to clients directly, making it one of the most effective real estate marketing strategies.
However, for it to be effective, your website has to be easily ‘discoverable,’ which means it must be properly indexed in the search engines. Major search engines use certain algorithms to rank websites, and only those that are search engine optimized stand a chance of appearing among the top ten searches.
2. Establish a Strong Social Media Presence
Social media is the key to some of the most powerful real estate marketing strategies. When setting up a social media presence, a Facebook page is a good start, but it is hardly enough. Turning ‘likes’ and ‘friends’ into customers is not a walk in the park. The first thing you need to do when establishing your social media empire is to choose the right platforms. Beyond this, you need to understand how to use the platform of your choice thoroughly.
Remember, your potential market is scattered across various platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, among others. When choosing a social media platform, get a few that are likely to bring you the most impact. Managing too many profiles could end up spreading you too thin. Before building an online following, make sure your profiles are filled out in such a way that they attract the right followers.
Once your social media platforms are up and running, keep publishing engaging content consistently to engage your followers. You need to give your followers a reason to keep coming back. At the end of the day, you want those ‘fans’ to become ‘clients,’ and for this, you need to constantly engage them by publishing fresh, interesting, relevant and entertaining content.
3. Leverage Email Marketing
Once people subscribe to your list, they in effect give you the right to send them relevant emails. A visitor to your website may sign up to receive your newsletter. At this stage, they may just be casually interested in your services. Your goal is to convert them from casual observers and into actual clients.
To build an email list, have a sign-up form on your website and politely request visitors to subscribe. When visitors give you permission to send them emails, they are likely to convert into paying clients. As long as your follow up emails are relevant and targeted at subscribers who have agreed to receive them, your conversion rate will be high.
4. Send Newsletters to your Subscribers
To keep your subscribers updated on what the market has to offer, send them a periodic real estate newsletter. The e-newsletter should contain local events such as festivals, concerts, new restaurants, shopping mall openings, etc.
The goal here is to bring to the attention of your subscribers to the important events where they are likely to engage with your products. Other relevant newsletter content should include important tips and advice when selling or buying a home, new listings, links to your recent YouTube videos and blog posts, surveys, quizzes, etc. Make sure the newsletter is short and sweet.
Selling real estate depends on one key thing: effective marketing. If your property is not visible to potential buyers, it simply does not exist.
5. Optimize your Search Engine Advertising
If you want to spike your marketing campaign, search engine advertising is the way to. This strategy works on the basis that people searching for products or services online are keenly interested, and if you have what they are looking for, chances are they will be paying you a visit. To have your website appear among the top ten searches in most search engines puts you at a great advantage.
Since the benefits of SEO takes quite some time, you can jack up your marketing by paying to appear at the top of searches for particular keywords. This is also called pay per click advertising where you pay for every click to your website.
6. Advertise on Social Media to Attract New Customers
Now that you are off to a professional start with an SEO website and a robust social media platform, your next step is to take your social media campaign a notch higher. To do this, you might want to consider setting up advertising campaigns on the various social media platforms you are on. Your ads should, however, be razor targeted to ensure pre-qualified audiences are reached first.
Attempts to target too broad an audience will only lead to frustration. Facebook, for instance, charges higher rates for ads that have a low relevance score, which is the basis upon which they determine how much your ads will cost. If Facebook thinks your ads are not relevant to the targeted audience, the prices go up.