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April 2021: The experts’ predictions from the end of 2020 are slowly becoming this year’s trends. Like every industry, real estate must keep up with technological progress and the consumer demands that shape it. Having a website with property listings and advertising on Google is no longer enough to compete and to remain relevant. Marketing evolved to embrace all kinds of channels and technologies that meet potential buyers wherever they are. Here are the top 20 real estate marketing trends of 2021.
Live video is big on almost every mainstream social media channel. The most popular is Facebook Live, but many realtors broadcast live on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn Live Video, YouTube Live, and several others. Live videos enable real estate professionals to engage with their viewers in real-time, potentially gaining qualified leads and more followers on their respective social media channels. The type of content shared via live video is at the latitude of the broadcaster. It can be anything from a video tour of a listed property to Q&A, DIY home improvement tips, discussions, news, and webinars covering all kinds of industry-related issues.
Still a novelty for many realtors, drone videos offer exceptional advantages for marketing luxury properties and not only. They can show the house for sale and its grounds from above, but real estate marketers can also use them for other types of aerial videos unrelated to sales. For example, they can show entire neighborhoods to attract the home buyers’ interest in a specific area, or just views of parks and other attractions to generate engagement and gain more social media followers.
Empty homes don’t look that great in pictures or videos. Realtors may choose to present them furnished to perfection to help buyers imagine what their future homes may look like. Statistics show that some 38% of real estate agents said they stage homes prior to listing. Modern software makes it easy to entice buyers in novel ways without costly furniture rentals, renovations, or hiring interior design experts. Virtual Staging Lab and IBD Luxury Home Staging are two popular choices for virtual home staging.
Working remotely because of the COVID-19 global pandemic affected the real estate industry too. Virtual brokers are one of 2021’s disruptive trends. Several services emerged to save time and cut costs, to benefit realtors and buyers alike. eRealtyAdvisors and The Virtual Realty Group are two of the several services for virtual real estate agents.
Many realtors choose to invest time, money, and energy in building microsites for listing luxury homes and not only. These sites are powerful lead-generating tools, allowing agents complete control over the content they want to display and share on social media sites while avoiding sharing commissions with third parties. Agents should still take advantage of listing properties on Zillow and other sites. Still, they allow buyers to focus their attention on one property with the single listing website instead of browsing among too many choices.
As we mentioned before, 3D Walkthroughs are excellent to help potential buyers see and explore the property in immersive 3D (not possible with photos or 360° video tours), getting a sense of actually being there. With this technology, you eliminate in-person visits, a trend that emerged from the social distancing, long-distance travel, and quarantine restrictions imposed by governments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Automating all kinds of time-consuming tasks allows real estate marketers to focus on closing deals rather than impractical efforts. There are marketing automation tools for everything from social media ads to lead generation forms and email funnels. Several third-party marketing agencies offer automation services or software designed specifically for the real estate niche. Some of them include Spacio – for open house marketing, Follow Up Boss – for syncing leads from all channels, LionDesk – for customer relationship management, and the list goes on.
Another trend emerging from the need for social distancing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, closing a deal online involves remote online notarization and electronic signature forms. Services include Notarize, Qualia, and NotaryCam, among many others. Online notarization services may not yet be available in all the states.
AI is not a new trend, but its need becomes more evident with social distancing and other restrictions that limit in-person interactions during the coronavirus epidemic. For example, integrating chatbots that can assist potential buyers 24/7 may boost qualified leads and customer satisfaction that will only benefit your real estate business.
Using predictive analytics driven by big data and machine learning, real estate professionals can better understand their targeted audiences, evaluating buyer wants and needs, as well as other key industry factors, including property value, improvements, and so on. Predictive analytics helps marketers refine their marketing strategies and message to generate more leads, eventually boosting sales and revenue.
Besides these real estate marketing trends of 2021, brokers should still employ traditional marketing strategies, like developing solid social media profiles and engaging with their followers, listing properties on third-party sites like Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com. Google Ads are still a powerful tool for real estate marketing. Facebook is becoming a strong Google competitor, so advertising on this platform could be an effective means of driving more leads and sales. Email marketing is still strong in 2021, with realtors finding creative ways to keep their email database actual and the readers engaged. SEO continues to provide outstanding value, and content marketing still pays off.
Besides these strategies, real estate professionals could consider community outreach and charity to aid in times of need. Experiential marketing, although still a buzzword, could emerge as a strong trend in the future. Early adopters could reap the benefits by partnering with local influencers, hosting educational webinars, showcasing local businesses, offering incentives to their social media followers and newsletter subscribers, and the list goes on. A little bit of effort and thought will transform your real estate business into a powerful marketing machine competitors reckon as an industry leader.
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