Across every industry, the digital disruption is complete. Real estate is no exception: 94% of millennial home purchases begin with the homebuyer looking at websites to narrow down properties by price range, neighborhood, and other criteria. Homebuyers are spending more and more time on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops, and every real estate professional or organization needs to have a robust digital marketing strategy.
Why is digital marketing valuable for real estate?
Sponsored listings on heavy-hitting aggregates such as Zillow and Streeteasy are great, but you should take your digital-marketing strategy in-house and deal directly with potential buyers. You should:
- Engage with potential homebuyers
- Increase their brand awareness
- Improve communication and outreach with an existing customer base
Success with content marketing for real estate
What does an effective digital marketing strategy look like for a real estate professional or organization? The size of your organization, budget, and goals will define your digital marketing strategy. Do you want to:
- Establish yourself as an expert through enriching content?
- Make it easier to communicate with existing clients?
- Reach out to new customers?
Defining your goals will help you choose which channels you focus on, and what kinds of campaigns you run across these channels. One of the most useful marketing channels for real estate is a dedicated content marketing platform such as a separate blog, a social media page, or a section of your website. The numbers don’t lie: according to
- Advertise new properties
- Boost listings that have been particularly tough sales
- Share a success story
- Provide advice for homebuyers or fellow real estate professionals
One principle of content marketing is digital storytelling—the use of multimedia (text, images, video, and more) to tell a cohesive narrative. In the context of real estate, this can include video walkthroughs, or using 360 videos to provide a more immersive—and informative—experience for your potential homebuyer.
The other side of the coin: outreach marketing
Content marketing is only one half of the equation. No strategy would be complete without outreach marketing. Directly appealing to potential and existing customers through mailing lists has never been easier. Email marketing software allows you to develop a system that is automated but not impersonal and is customized to needs. Analytics offered by this software such as click-thru rate will provide you vital insight.
Most homebuyers begin with a Google search, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a crucial aspect of digital marketing. By increasing your organic reach and hopefully securing one of the coveted top Google search result slots, you’ll see your conversions increase significantly.
Digital isn’t just the new normal for younger generations—84% of baby boomers went online at some point in the home buying process in 2017, making it clear that home buyers across all demographics are relying on these platforms to provide services that used to be exclusively provided by a knowledgeable realtor. Success in digital real estate marketing depends on adjusting to emerging technologies while maintaining clear goals, a strong brand, providing consistently enriching content, and fixing any shortcomings revealed by analytics.