What are the best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies?
How can you use social media for real estate agents?
And what’s the deal with digital marketing for real estate investors?
I’m about to answer all that and more.
Listen:
You know you have to invest in digital online marketing as a real estate agent. In 2018 there’s simply too many rewards on the table for those who properly invest in real estate marketing online.
You hop online, you search Google for advice on how to do online marketing for realtors. And lo and behold what do you see: a bunch of companies selling you services, some low-quality guides that just scrape the service of online marketing in real estate, and nothing that really tells you just how exactly to do this thing.
Well listen:
I’m about to present to you the best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies.
Obviously, I cannot cover everything in one single blog post, but here’s a promise: by the end of this guide you will have a darned good idea how to get started in online marketing for real estate.
As a professional online marketer in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, I’ve seen pretty much every online marketing strategy real estate agents can use. I know what the best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies are, and what the worst ones are too.
Realtors have been loving my guide to real estate copywriting and writing real estate ads.
Today, I’m going to share my best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies. Plus, I am always here to chat with you about your project if you would like to contact me.
Let’s get started.
Overview of the best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies
If you want to succeed as a real estate marketer online, you need to know the best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies.
Online marketing encompasses all aspects of marketing on the internet. It is one of the main tools through which realtors can generate leads. And in 2018, it’s arguably the most effective type of marketing for real estate agents and investors.
Hard thing about it is this: there are so many different types of online marketing for realtors to know.
Here’s a short list:
- Email marketing
- Search engine optimisation
- Social media marketing
- Search engine marketing
- Content marketing & Guest posting
- social media content for real estate agents
- real estate influencer marketing
- Youtube
These are the broad terms for the various online marketing channels for real estate.
One of the keys to succeeding in online marketing as a realtor is knowing which channels to focus on and how to leverage them.
Knowing precisely which online marketing channels to focus on for real estate is quite the art. It depends on your brand and your clients.
Truth is:
There are ways to benefit from nearly all these different online marketing options. The best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies for you will depend on your business and your clients.
Let’s take a look at how to use the different online marketing channels as a realtor.
Search Engine Optimization for Realtors
Search Engine optimization is the art and science of creating content for real estate blogs in such a way that it ranks highly on Google. I’ve created a separate guide to show you everything you want to know about SEO for realtors.
Google is one of the best means of generating leads for real estate with online marketing.
So how do you do it?
The key to successfully using SEO in real estate online marketing is to target the right people using the right keywords.
For instance, one of the best real estate online marketing ideas for real estate investors is to use content marketing by producing content around the theme of selling properties, targeting keywords such as “sell properties fast”.
The key is to:
- Analyse your buyer personas
- Find the keywords prospective clients would search for in Google
- Create content around those keywords
- SEO the content
So is this a good option for to marketing real estate online?
If you have opened a real estate website, SEO is essential for bringing organic traffic to your site. Whether you wish to conduct your own SEO or hire an SEO professional will depend on the size of your site (sites with hundreds or thousands of pages can take hundreds of hours to SEO, so this is a serious undertaking).
Either way, for anyone with a realtor website, SEO is imperative.
Social Media Marketing For Realtors
In 2018, your real estate online marketing strategy must include social media marketing. There are just too many people using social media and too many options for you to ignore it.
That said, you do not need to use all the different social media marketing platforms. If you are on a limited budget or are working with a limited team, it’s best practice to choose one or two social media networks to focus on.
After all, it takes time and money to get high quality social media content for real estate agents.
Because of this, most online marketing experts consider it best practice to focus on one social media platform at a time.
Let’s investigate the different platforms available for social media marketing for real estate agents and investors.
Facebook for real estate agents:
There are over 2 billion Facebook accounts worldwide. So naturally you will be able to find prospective clients on Facebook.
That said, in order to save you time and money, it’s essential to know how to find and segment your audience so you target only prospective clients.
There are many ways to use Facebook for online marketing as a realtor:
- For starters, Facebook Audience Insights is a great way to find your demographic and learn about their psychographics as well.
- There are many excellent options in Facebook advertising for realtors
- Facebook is also an exceptional way to interact with customers on social media
- And realtors with popular Facebook pages can reach thousands of people every time they publish a post.
The key to successfully using Facebook for real estate is to be able to find and target your demographic and then to produce the right social media content for real estate fans (i.e. your prospective clients)
Creating a successful Facebook page can be a lengthy process. That’s why many realtors use Facebook ads instead.
When using Facebook ads, realtors can target highly specific demographics and can even target an audience based on annual income.
The scale and accuracy of Facebook advertising makes it a good option for social media marketing for realtors.
Twitter for realtors:
Twitter is the go-to social media network for being informed of recent trends and events.
Where Facebook content is best when personal and emotive, Twitter content is best factual and of-the-moment.
There are around a billion Twitter accounts, so naturally you can target prospective clients on Twitter.
But is there quality in Twitter for real estate?
Twitter is a good option for real estate investors and agents who share information about the latest trends in real estate. It’s a fast way to get the words out about events. And Twitter does have some excellent advertising options for real estate agents (including the ability to target people who use specific emoji!).
While an option, Twitter is not as good as Facebook for most real estate agents, unless you are often publishing the latest news and trends or you want to become an influencer in the real estate market.
Instagram for realtors:
Instagram is an image-centric social media network where the quality of your photos is the number one factor in your success.
Instagram enjoys one of the highest loyalty rates between customers and the brands marketing on the platform. So, the followers you get on Instagram are likely to stick around.
Plus, Instagram has excellent advertising technology and the ability to track leads.
Because of these pros, Instagram is a good option for your real estate online marketing plan, especially if you are often producing high quality photos of properties.
One of the best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies is to take high quality photos and videos of properties that you’re staging, and then upload them to Insta. This will generate high levels of engagement, which means more people will see your content,leading to increased lead generation.
Here’s a great article about the benefits of marketing on Insta.
LinkedIN for realtors
As a professional network, LinkedIN is an excellent marketing channel for realtors who do influencer marketing online.
One of the setbacks of LinkedIn is that it does not have the same level of engagement and is arguably the least “social” of the social networks.
So, should you use LinkedIN for real estate?
Yes if you are interested in becoming an authority in your field (if you are a real estate investor who gives presentations, for instance). And Yes if you wish to use influencers marketing, as LinkedIN is a great way to connect with influencers in real estate.
One of the best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies is to create a few extremely high quality articles on LinkedIN. These will get shared by fellow real estate agents and investors, which will increase your publicity and massively boost your brand reputation.
SnapChat for realtors
SnapChat has been on a steady incline recently, with more and more people signing up.
Its demographic is predominantly under 35, making it a good option for targeting first-time home buyers.
Comparatively few agents use SnapChat for real estate. This leaves open the possibility of becoming an influencer on the platform.
One of the best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies is to create viral content for Snapchat’s younger audience and thereby target a (comparatively) under-represented demographic on a (comparatively) under-represented social media network in the real estate industry.
Checkout this guide for more on using Snapchat for real estate marketing online.
Pinterest for realtors:
There are many benefits of Pinterest for real estate agents. 10% of Pinterest users make over $100k a year and the median age is over 40. So, there are certainly prospective clients who can reach via Pinterest.
One of the best reasons to use Pinterest for real estate is that it can drive a lot of traffic to your site, and studies show that Pinterest traffic converts better than most other social networks.
Provided you create high quality photos of properties, there is a lot in Pinterest for real estate agents.
This is a no brainer, but one of the best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies is to create high quality blog posts with exceptional unique images and publish them on Pinterest. This is perhaps the quickest way to generate traffic for a new real estate website.
What do to: Choose one platform to focus on with your social media marketing. Realtors who focus on one platform tend to perform better than those who market on all. Once you’ve chosen a platform, research its options to get a firm understanding of how you can use social media marketing for real estate.
Search Engine Marketing (Adwords) for Realtors
One of the best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies is to use Adwords and Bing ads to target prospective clients based on your current marketing data.
Search Engine Marketing refers to paid advertisements realtors can place on Google, Bing, Youtube, and any site showing Adsense or Bing ads. There are million of such sites, including many of the leading real estate blogs and websites.
The problem with Adwords and Bing ads is that they are notoriously expensive.
To show an ad for the term “buying a house”, for instance, costs approximately $10 per click. However, you can reduce the price of Adwords ads by creating high quality landing pages. plus, the ability to precisely target your audience means you won’t be wasting money reaching disinterested people.
As an Adwords certified marketing professional I am happy to help you create highly targeted ads that save money and generate leads.
Email Marketing For Realtors
Smart realtors know that there is a heck of a lot in email marketing for realtors. In fact, many online marketing experts consider email the most valuable of all online marketing channels for realtors.
Here’s why you should invest in email marketing for real estate:
- With email marketing you are in control and you are not at the mercy of algorithms like you are on Google and Facebook
- Email marketing has some of the most advanced options for targeting prospective clients
- Realtors can automate email marketing, meaning your email marketing is working for you even while you sleep
- Another great benefit of email marketing for realtors is that it is highly trackable. There’s a lot of valuable data in email marketing that you can analyse to improve your overall online marketing plan
Real estate email marketing is a deep subject and I won’t pretend to be able to cover in full in this post—though I am happy to help if you would like to contact me.
That said, here are the general steps involved in using email marketing for realtors:
- Choose an email marketing service (I use MailChimp)
- Create landing pages (pages where leads can sign-up to your email list)
- Embed email sign-up forms in your real estate website
- Create automated workflows that send emails to new subscribers every day / week / once a month (your choice)
- Analyse the open rate of emails and track how your email marketing is generating leads for real estate sales.
Some realtors I have spoken to are surprised when I tell them about the benefits of email marketing for realtors. Truth is: This is one of the very best real estate online marketing ideas and strategies.
Guest Posting and Content Marketing For Realtors
Content marketing is the art of creating content that markets realtors indirectly. The purpose here is not to create salesy content. The purpose is to create very high quality, helpful content that will make prospective clients love you and your brand, thereby generating leads.
One type of content marketing is guest posting.
Guest posting means creating blog articles / infographics and other content to be published on third party sites with the aim of generating interest in your business.
There are right and wrong ways to leverage content marketing for real estate:
- Always create content that is genuinely useful
- Do not create content that is overtly salesy
- The aim is to generate leads
- The aim is not merely to produce tons of content
- It is better to produce one piece of very high quality content than thousands of spam articles (yes, even for SEO)
- Guest posts should only be placed on publications that relate to your business (real estate)
- For best results, work with an exceptional freelance copywriter
Influencer marketing for real estate
Here is arguably the future of online marketing for real estate: influencer marketing.
This is arguably the best real estate online marketing idea.
Experts predict influencer marketing is going to grow even more important over the coming years. So now is an ideal time to invest in it.
Influencer marketing is marketing in which you leverage power players in the real estate business. This includes bloggers, large social media pages, Youtube creators, and anyone else who has a large following or the ability to influence your business.
The key to successful influencer marketing is finding the right influencer to work with. This requires analysing both the influencer and their followers to check that a) the influencer represents your brand values, and b) their followers meet your demographic. Failure to do this will result in wasting your marketing budget.
Read Kissmetrics guide for an intro to influencer marketing.
Once you have found an ideal influencer to work with, it’s time to produce content with them, and it is imperative that the content be perfect for both you and them. This will likely mean several meetings online to discuss the content creation and style.
Provided you can find the ideal influencer to work with, there are many reasons to invest in influencer marketing as a realtor.
Youtube for real estate agents and influencers
Youtube is the second largest search engine in the world and many experts consider it to be an absolutely essential part of online marketing for real estate.
Naturally, the key here is to produce high quality videos that showcase your real estate business.
The biggest mistake I see from realtors on Youtube is that they showcase properties for sale and put absolutely zero personality into their work. This will get you nowhere.
The absolute most important way to use Youtube as a realtor is to showcase yours and your brand’s personality.
- Read my guide to creating a successful Youtube channel for more on this.
One of the best real estate online marketing ideas is to create Youtube content that shows off your personality in a really human, personable, likeable way. This will make you a human in an often overtly business-ey industry—which is an attractive prospect.
Now here’s how to win in online marketing for real estate agents and investors
We’ve now looked at the most important channels for online marketing in real estate. And you’re probably excited to get started. So, what should you do next?
Here’s how to succeed in real estate online marketing as an agent or investor.
- Before you begin, make sure you know your own business. You must have a very firm grasp on your brand personality and values. These will form the backbone of your online marketing.
- Make triple sure you’ve created brand personas that are accurate—otherwise you’ll be marketing to the wrong people.
- Choose a few marketing channels to focus on (I recommend SEO + SEM, Facebook + one other social media network, and either Youtube or influencer marketing depending on whether you yourself want to get in front of the camera or if you’d rather find an influencer to represent you)
- Either learn the basics or hire a pro. Some online marketing for real estate is expensive (Facebook ads / Adwords) and it is definitely a serious time investment. For that reason, either learn the basics or hire a pro now in the beginning—and preferably someone who will be there with you long-term rather than this vigilante marketers who want to make a quick buck writing a guest post or two. I’m personally the type of real estate marketer who commits to my clients, so I can see them succeed in the long term.
- Focus on content that is genuinely helpful or genuinely entertaining (or both). This is huge. The biggest mistake you can make online is to produce salesy content. It will turn people off and damage your brand reputation. Always create content that is genuinely helpful or genuinely entertaining.
- Analyse. Analyse. Analyse. You cannot get enough data. The more you interpret your data the stronger your real estate online marketing will be.
If you would like to hire my real estate online marketing services, contact me, PMHarrison, today.
