Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Real estate marketing can be tricky. If you're having trouble thinking up new tactics and strategies on your own, here are some of the best ideas for growing your real estate business.
There's no school like old school, and that's why you need to begin your real estate marketing. There are quite a few traditional methods for marketing a real estate business, and they include the following:
The written word still gets around. Whether you take out ad space in local newspapers, talk to your local 24-hour diner about being listed on one of their placemats, or get yourself listed in the phone book, it's the first step in increasing your visibility as a real estate professional.
The costs of advertising on local radio and television can certainly be high -- realtors spend around $250,000 a year on these two combined -- but they certainly wouldn't do so if it wasn't effective. This type of marketing helps catch the attention of people during their morning commute or at home while they're watching their local news like no other.
Related to print advertising, direct mail involves sending brochures and flyers out at bulk rates to potential customers in a more targeted way. You can choose a specific zip code or neighborhood to receive your marketing materials based on what location from which you want to seek new customers.
Building your real estate business is all about coming to be seen as a part of your community. One of the most effective ways to do that is to partner with local businesses or sponsor community charities or fundraising efforts. An example of this would be helping to sponsor a charity event for ending homelessness, for example.
This ties into the partnership and sponsorship method above. Everyone loves getting free stuff at local fairs and events. You can have plenty of items made up and have your company logo printed on them to give away. Items like pens and pencils, wall calendars, t-shirts, tote bags, or any other type of everyday object that gets a lot of use are perfect giveaway items.
Moving away from traditional ways to engage in real estate marketings, we now have digital methods that involve leveraging the internet in all its forms.
Did you know that in 2016 alone 80% of home buyers used the internet to find a new property? This means that you've got to have your own website up and running so that you'll be able to compete with other real estate businesses. No website, no way you're going to be an effective realtor.
That being said, your website needs to be more than just an online listing of your contact information and a brief bio of you or your staff. Your site should add value to its visitors in the form of real estate-specific blog content. You should also use your site to highlight MLS properties you have available for sale.
Just as you're listed in the yellow pages, make sure you're listed with the de facto ruler of search engine results as well. Google offers a free business listing service that ensures the name of your business, its address, phone number, and website address are all easy to find when it comes to internet searches for real estate professionals.
Google's a great start, but there are other online business listings that you should be active on as well. Sites like Yelp allow business owners to manage their company profile by adding images and responding to feedback. Anyone visiting your Yelp page will see how engaged you are, and that helps build your brand in a positive manner.
There are a number of major MLS listing sites out there. From Zillow to Trulia to Realtor.com and others, many of these listing sites allow real estate professionals to register for better lead generation. The Zillow Premier Agent program is an excellent example of one of these registration services.
A subset of digital marketing, social media marketing is diverse and deep enough to deserve its own section. Here are the many methods you can use to market your real estate business through social media.
Did you know more than 72% of the US population uses Facebook? Or that the 800-million Instagrammers, 500 million of them are active daily? Ignoring social media -- or even just limiting your social media activity to one platform -- means you're missing out on major lead generation opportunities.
Social media marketing is much different than traditional or even digital marketing. Your marketing efforts need to be split between informative and engaging content and strict advertising at a ratio of 80% to 20%. Otherwise, your social media followers will feel you're not authentic.
If your real estate company is sponsoring a local community event, use your social media channels to promote it to your community. Even if your company isn't involved as a partner or a sponsor, sharing local events helps solidify your role as a community member, which will help prospective clients remember your company in the future.
Social media is a two-way street. You're looking for interaction and engagement with your followers, as this will build brand awareness and loyalty quickly and positively. Answer questions regarding real estate, home improvement, or other related things, or run raffles contests for free branded merchandise and you'll see engagement increase.
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