Nowadays, 95 percent of home buyers search online before making a purchase. And more than half of all buyers choose a property they found listed on the Internet.
The web proves crucial to making a sale. If your real estate company isn’t taking full advantage of it through digital marketing, then you’re leaving money on the table. What’s more, you risk getting left behind.
But what if the thought of digital marketing overwhelms you? Or, you don’t know where to start? Fortunately, you don’t have to go it alone.
Read on to learn more about digital real estate marketing companies, and how they can help bring your real estate enterprise’s online marketing efforts into the 21st century.
Why Your Company’s Online Presence Matters
Your real estate company needs a strong online presence. That means an attractive, professional website that elicits customer confidence. This website should also prove straightforward and easy to use.
That means avoiding the trap of creating a shoddy site using a WordPress template. Your website should do more than lend another line to your business card. It should attract customers and keep them engaged.
Some ways to ensure your website gets the job done? Make sure that it includes text to educate customers while moving them closer to a sale.
That means choosing words that grab your reader’s attention and that appeal to their emotions. The text on your website should both sell and tell stories that your readers can connect with.
Set Your Business Apart
Highlight what differentiates your business from the competition. Emphasize why and how it benefits customers to work with you.
Because your website represents your primary marketing tool, make sure you choose an eye-catching logo. A recognizable logo will help keep you top of mind with customers.
Include lots of authentic testimonials too. These will inspire trust in your potential customers.
In terms of testimonials, make sure they delve into specifics. They should paint pictures for your prospects about what it’s like to work with you.
Don’t forget landing pages that offer prospects information in exchange for joining your mailing list. They also allow prospects to contact you via email or request a callback.
Finally, consider adding a property valuation tool like the one from Real Geeks. Users must submit their address to get started. Even if they abandon the process, you’ll still get a followup address-only lead.
Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly
A mobile-friendly website that ranks high in organic search outperforms paid advertising every time. Why? Because more people today own cell phones than toothbrushes.
In America, cell phone owners represent 95 percent of the population, with 77 percent falling into the smartphone category. And as for their digital content consumption, they conduct 56 percent of it on their phones.
In response to the increased use of smartphones to access the Internet, Google has placed more weight on mobile-friendly devices. This translates into higher rankings for mobile-friendly pages in search results.
But that’s not all. If your web pages prove difficult to navigate on phones or take too long to load, your customers will head over to your competition’s website.
And can you blame them? The last thing you want to do is bore, underwhelm, or frustrate potential customers.
Instead, work with professionals to create a snazzy website that plays nice with smartphones.
SEO for Realtors
The most gorgeous website on the planet means nothing if your customers can’t find it online. That’s why you need a solid search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
But here’s the thing, SEO proves complicated and even confusing. It requires expertise and current industry knowledge as well as constant monitoring.
You see, even if you get lucky and rank high, SEO represents a moving target that changes every time Google updates its algorithms. And this happens all the time.
You also have to contend with rival content that knocks you out of your ranking position. Just as you can never stand in the same stream twice, SEO fluctuates from day-to-day, hour-to-hour.
Why mess with it at all? Again, it remains a necessary, unavoidable evil.
Instead of feeling overwhelmed, invest in a solid real estate online marketing service. An engaging, professional digital marketing presence will set you apart from the competition while driving online customers to you.
Just make sure you go with a company that’s experienced and knowledgable when it comes to current best practices in SEO. They should demonstrate familiarity with the real estate industry and fluency with its terms and practices too.
Choose the Optimal Farm Area
When it comes to SEO, you also need to think local, optimizing for frequently searched terms in your area. To get started, carefully choose the farm area where you’d like to establish yourself as an expert.
Start with a little demographic research. Check out factors, such as the income level of residents, their average age, and the amenities of given areas.
You should also consider an area’s turnover rate, the competition, and the average sales price. Once you’ve narrowed down your target audience, work with a real estate digital marketing firm to dominate local SEO in this area.
Local SEO for Realtors
A marketing company should optimize your site for extremely local keywords. What does this mean?
Ranking for “houses for sale in [city]” might prove impossible against big websites such as Zillow. But you stand a much better chance of a prime spot in search when you optimize for localized terms (such as street names, subdivision names, and more)
Think geographic specifics. Like information about school districts, market snapshots, subdivision videos, and other pertinent details. Not only will this help you clinch your niche market, but it’ll provide more value to your customers.
When you have the most relevant, up-to-date, detailed information about the areas where people want to live, your website becomes a valuable resource.
But what if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all of the work that goes into this process?
A seasoned digital marketing company with experience working with real estate enterprises can help you optimize for localized terms like a boss. They can also optimize for local business directories such as Google Maps and Yelp, too.
When you work with a company to enhance your local SEO, you establish a mechanism to bring in continuous leads. You also level the playing field when it comes to Google search.
Market through Zillow and Trulia
We mentioned competing with Zillow for Google rankings above. But that doesn’t mean that you should think of Zillow (or any of the other real estate directories) as your enemy. In fact, they represent one of your best tools for gaining exposure.
Did you know that Zillow alone sees 160 million visitors each month? Since real estate marketing is all about promoting your brand, it makes sense to establish a consistent presence on a website like Zillow.
Its premier platform, Zillow Premier Agent, gives you the invaluable option of placing advertisements on local listings in Zillow and Trulia.
But does paying for leads through Zillow really work? According to some real estate agents who’ve successfully adopted this lead-generating practice, they see a nearly $3 return on every $1 spent.
Let’s Talk Google AdWords
Another powerful digital marketing tool is Google AdWords. It boasts a feature your real estate business needs right now, remarketing. This provides you with the capability of targeting people looking to buy or sell.
In other words, this remarketing tool grants you access to internet users who have recently searched terms such as “buy a house,” “sell a house,” or “realtor.”
The tool can also provide you with access to people who have visited other real estate websites or multiple listing service (MLS) pages.
How does it work? Go to the Google AdWords dashboard and draft a remarketing list delimited by keywords, URLs, and interests.
Once you’ve completed the process, people interested in buying or selling real estate will see your ad banners. That means a more targeted audience for your ads and higher quality leads piped back to your website and landing pages.
Social Media Marketing
Did you know that Facebook boasts a reported 2.32 billion monthly active users? What’s more, Twitter had 321 million monthly active users at the end of 2018, and Instagram will pass 111 million active users in the U.S. by 2019.
What does this mean for your real estate company? To get in front of the greatest number of eyes, you need to get social. That means setting up professional-looking accounts on each of these channels and then posting to them on a consistent basis.
Besides optimizing your social pages and then posting captivating content, you also need to check in with your customers. You should respond to their comments and interactions in a timely fashion.
After all, social media represents a two-way conversation. If you want your customers to listen to you, then you must show them the same courtesy.
To be honest, managing social media accounts can eat up lots of your precious time. But having a social presence no longer remains optional.
More Social Media Tactics to Consider
Besides the basics, consider additional tactics like live streaming some of your agency’s day to day work via Facebook. This could mean digitally showing a house, for example.
As for Instagram, take advantage of the power of Instagram stories. Like Facebook live streaming, these stories let you promote your listings or give customers a behind-the-scenes peek at what sets your agency apart.
Think of the impact you might get from an Instagram story showing you leaving a box of chocolates and a bottle of champagne to welcome your clients as new homeowners.
Infographics also represent an essential touch. They allow you to organize information in a highly visual and digestible format that people love to share.
Finally, don’t forget about paid advertising through social channels. This proves most important on platforms such as Facebook where average organic outreach hovers at a measly 3.73 percent.
How to Wield Your Blogging Power
You’ve probably heard the buzz around the idea of starting your own real estate blog. But keep these things in mind before diving in. Like social media, blogging only works when it’s consistent.
Commit to the process over the long haul. Make adding to your blog content a regular part of your routine. But what if you already feel writer’s block coming on?
Fortunately, as a realtor, you’ll never run out of ideas. Blog posts should fall into at least three categories although the possibilities are really limitless:
- Frequently asked questions
- Niche market information
- Property profiles
When you create quality content that answers your customers’ questions, their trust in you skyrockets. You become an industry authority.
When you use posts to introduce customers to your farm area or specific properties, you lead them further down the path to home ownership.
But here’s the thing, the topics don’t have to stop there. In fact, they shouldn’t.
Write blog posts about what differentiates your company from the rest. You can highlight customer testimonials or specific case studies.
You can even include home decorating ideas, information about area-specific amenities, and recipes. Basically, anything you would include on a fridge-worthy postcard proves fair game for a great blog post.
The Importance of a Captivating Newsletter
When you have a valuable, readable, share-worthy blog going, you can bring more readers to specific posts using social media. You should also highlight this content in newsletters. Newsletters help you stay top of mind with your email list.
They also draw more attention back to your website. So, don’t limit newsletters to highlighting new properties. Instead, get creative.
Newsletters should help you engage with your customers while driving them back to your website, blog, and landing pages until they feel ready to make a sale or purchase.
Real Estate Marketing Companies Can Help
The ideas above represent the tip of the digital marketing iceberg. But as you’ve probably already noticed, digital marketing requires lots of work, maintenance, and a level of expertise you may not have the time or desire to cultivate.
After all, you’re a busy real estate agent who hopes to get even busier as a result of the above tactics. That’s where real estate marketing companies can help. They’ll take the guesswork out of digital marketing for you.
That way, you can focus on what really matters most, providing customers with exceptional service. Are you ready to find out more about what an aggressive digital marketing strategy can do for you? Contact us today to get started.