The importance of digital marketing for real estate business can be inferred by learning about a Mumbai-based real-estate business that leveraged digital marketing to generate 3700 leads, 1080 site visits and eventually a booking of 215 flats. The prices of their apartments were higher compared to their competitors; thus, their biggest challenge was to convince the target audience of the advantages of leading a luxurious lifestyle in the most desirable location of Mumbai.

Another real-estate business aimed at building brand awareness and generating high-quality leads for their real-estate project in Pune. Their pain point was having huge competition in the affordable housing segment. Then how were they able to generate 9000 plus leads and meet their target of lead conversion with 600+ bookings per month in such a competitive scenario is interesting to know.

Role of Real Estate Digital Marketing in Business Growth

The reason why these real-estate businesses were able to achieve what may sound impossible to you is that they knew that digital marketing for real estate is not just listing the property online, it’s about building and executing a 360-degree digital marketing strategy. By making a 360-degree digital marketing plan for real estate, we mean ensuring that you leave no gaps in your strategy for your clients to slip out.

A Joint Study from The National Association of Realtors® and Google gives some important insights to prove why we’re saying this:

• Over the last four years, real estate-related searches on Google have increased by 253%.
  
• Online reviews form an important part of the buying process
  
• YouTube and video content satisfy consumers' demand for research
  
• Websites and local search phrases are very important to buyers

These insights clearly imply that today you have no other option but to follow some good real estate digital marketing strategies in order to establish a brand name and close more leads. Let’s look at some important digital marketing strategies for real estate that can help you gain a competitive edge like those above-mentioned realtors!

Generate High-Quality Real Estate Leads and Increase Your Sales with the following Digital Marketing Strategies:

1. Have a Responsive Website

If you want to experience the benefits of digital marketing for real estate, having a website is the bare minimum requirement. Today when 90% (1) of house buyers use online searches during their buying process, you will miss out on a huge pool of potential clients if you don’t have a website. Consider your website as your opportunity to put up in-depth information, accolades, stunning digital photographs, and 360-degree virtual tours. You can also link your website to your social media pages. Having said that, make sure your website has a responsive design (one that automatically adjusts according to the different screen sizes), loads quickly, and is easy to navigate.

2. Implement Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Now online marketing for real estate agents should not just mean making a website and adding some content now and then. To generate qualified leads and stay above your competitors, a sound SEO strategy is what you need. In simple terms, SEO for real estate means appearing in search results when buyers look for a real estate agent to purchase or sell a home. A lot goes behind making this happen including analysis of competitors, creation of optimized content particularly for local searches, building backlinks etc.

3. Run Google Search Ads

Google search ads work on pay-per-click model, where you pay only when your ad gets clicked on.  While running search ads, you use Google to target a certain keyword and place bids against other advertisers who are using the same keyword. A maximum daily budget can also be set for your advertisement. Though you need to take a lot into consideration while doing paid marketing, here are some tips that can go a long way-  use geo-targeting to prevent your ads from being seen by people of irrelevant locations, separate the ad groups for the different kinds of properties, and create a landing page that converts.

4. Do Social Media Marketing

Consistent posting on social media can help you become more visible, strengthen your brand, and create a personal connection with potential customers. According to a NAR survey, the three most popular platforms used by realtors are Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram with Facebook topping the list. Remember that your aim should be to educate your audience and not just sell. You can talk about things like tips on buying a home, minimizing clutter in your home, latest design trends, current market scenario, elements of luxury housing etc. Coming down specifically to Facebook Marketing, create a page for your real estate company as well as a group where potential clients can contact you. You can even automate your messaging to respond to frequent questions like opening hours, price ranges, etc., and even schedule appointments. Facebook ads is another good way of getting faster results. No matter which platform you choose to advertise on, make sure you use a combination of video, carousel and static posts.

5. Engage Prospects with Video Marketing

With so much of content all around, one of the biggest marketing challenges is to break through the clutter. Talking about real estate in particular, video has been found to engage audience and satisfy more than one research needs of property buyers like community-related information, a tour of the inside of a home, customer testimonials, comparison of different companies etc. No wonder why videos increase a website's organic search results by 157% and increase the number of inquiries for your listings by 403%! Another point that surfaced in the study was that YouTube is the most sought-after destination for property buyers. You too can leverage videos to create virtual tours, neighborhood tours, educational content, and showcase client testimonials. Since you’re doing this to make people “buy” your property as their “homes”, do focus on emotions and include the right call to actions.

6. Do Email Marketing

Email is one of those marketing tools that allow you to segment your audience and send unique information to each category. This helps you to provide your potential customers with the information they need to advance in their buying journey.

Some email marketing strategies that have been proven to work are- having a moderate frequency of sending emails (1 per week usually works well), having a clear call to action, providing some valuable information, including testimonials, personalizing emails, optimizing them for mobile phones etc.

7. Retarget your Prospects

Retargeting is getting people who have already visited your website to see your brand again and again. You will be amazed to know that prospects that have been retargeted have a 70% (2) higher conversion rate. One way of doing this is that you will feed a list of emails you've received from your leads into some platform like Facebook or LinkedIn which will then display your ads to those people.

Another way it is done is when someone accesses your website or engages with an advertisement posted by you, they consent to receiving cookies that will help future ads target them. Apart from social media, you can also use Google Display Retargeting for the purpose. Another cost-effective way of retargeting is sending SMS and WhatsApp. Yes, you heard it right, you can not only use these mediums to schedule appointments with ease but nurture your prospects by sending them exciting property images and personalized messages.

8. Get yourself Listed on Real Estate Websites

A quality property listing is essential to successfully generate leads. A thorough parameter for a good listing would be having an appropriate title for a property that also highlights its USP, accurate information, high-quality photos, and its location on a map. To keep it current, any information about the property that changes should be updated right away. Some popular options to get yourself listed on are HomeBazaar.com, 99acres.com, MagicBricks.com, and Housing.com.

Conclusion:

Digital Marketing for realtors can be overwhelming considering the fact that they are usually occupied with word-of-mouth marketing or buyer consultations. We cannot deny the fact that practically almost every real estate agent and broker is trying to use one or more digital marketing tactics, but what makes a difference is how realistic the goals are, how well-rounded the strategies are and how well the plan is implemented.

So, if you are planning to implement digital marketing services for your real estate business, Channel Technologies can be your reliable real estate digital marketing agency.

Contact us for a free digital marketing consultation!