92% of buyers hunt for homes on line
This recent study from The National Association of Realtors (N. America) proves that to succeed as an estate agent in todays digital world, you have to be online.
Your own website must be fit for purpose in terms of communicating to your target audiences and serving your property listings. It should be clean, clear and quick to navigate and interact with. You need to have a presence in all of the relevant channels that your buyers and influencers are likely to be - social media should play a significant part in your activities.
All of your content and your copy should be focused on selling. You must be able to stand out from the crowd. Great content always delivers a mix of functional detail and emotional hooks to inform and engage your audience. Buying a property is highly emotional - understanding this is important so that you can deliver the type of content that will appeal to those emotional levers in your buyers.
In todays digital world, video plays a central role. By 2019 80% of all internet traffic will be video. The challenge is to ensure that you create video content regularly but that you create really good video content. Plan it well and utilise the opportunity to edit pieces into small easy to consume chunks for use on social media etc. Video is a powerful, very engaging medium and is an excellent way of showcasing properties and their surrounding neighbourhoods. It should be part of all professional agents armoury.
Landing pages are a proven tool in helping to convert website visitors into leads. The key is to be clear with your information and action required. Use succinct text, images and calls to action buttons. Work the content in your landing pages in line with your segment characteristics and needs - give them what they are looking for.
When the volume of leads starts to come into play, agents should consider working with a marketing automation tool or platform. Data indicates that when agents reach carrying 15 properties in any month, they will struggle to stay on top of their leads. Using automated applications enable you to stay in regular contact with a high volume of leads and ensure that you stay up to date with their property interests.
For every property sold there is only 1 buyer. All of the other interested parties will continue their searching. You have to keep these contacts on your database. You must stay in regular contact to help them through their journey to ensure your are their agent of choice
If you want to get quick wins promoting a property or development, then Google Adwords is the fastest way of achieving this. It can be expensive but will deliver page rankings and click through rates. Pay special attention to the background work required around your keywords to ensure better targeting and results.
This is specific online advertising or promoting to targets based on their previous internet behaviours. It is very successful as it ensures you are communicating with people who have shown a specific interest in the type of property you might be offering.
Social media advertising is a very effective way of promoting properties. Facebook offers a very rich segmentation breakdown and hence you can be very specific with your targeting working within geographic, age, gender, lifestyle interested etc. Instagram is an excellent visual platform and is much used by the millennial generation. Use of these ever changing social media will continue and will have to be embraced if agents are going to engage their audience at multiple levels.
Creating content is a good thing, but it has to be content your audience are looking for. Hence if you are looking to get page rankings from Google, you have to be sure you are optimised around the right key words. Working with a specialist in the field of SEO is something your should consider.
Offering VT's really works well with property marketing. You will engage more visitors if you can provide a virtual tour of the property. It allows visitors to get involved in your property early and build a connection over the future build etc.
Ironically, given that digital marketing is so pervasive, there are opportunities from some traditional tactics including door to door flyers. Try to use door hanging pieces as they literally have to be taken off the doors and hence viewing data is higher.
If you do not employ a fully fledged marketing automation tool, you should consider working through a program of automated email. This type of email can be an important part of keeping your leads in a property loop.
In 2016 35% of property buyers were millennial. You have to be able to market successfully to this audience if you are to succeed.
Use opportunities to pitch yourself as an expert. Look for opportunities to comment on industry trends.
Positive customer experiences are a very valuable addition to your marketing efforts. They offer an insight into working with your agency and are credible as they come from real customers.
Good infographics are a great way of capturing trends in your industry or to communicate details about a local area for example - the number of schools, parks, shopping centres, restaurants etc.
Another excellent way of promoting properties or your agency. In allows you to become part of the local community and demonstrates your presence and expertise.
The power of blogging is incredible in relation to returns on traffic generated to your site and also helping to promote your areas of expertise. It is a long term strategy and commitment - but it compounds as far a searchable content is concerned. The key is to maintain a really high content quality and ensure you are keyword optimised.
This is a great way to stay in regular contact with your targets. Once your app is downloaded you can send push notifications for listing updates, pricing updates, results of recent sales etc
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