January 29, 2019
Every brand today boasts of a dynamic online presence and a robust digital marketing strategy to match. The real estate industry is no exception. Over the last decade digital marketing has completely revolutionised the concept of advertising and it has now emerged as an indispensable ingredient to boost brand reputation and drive conversions.
The real estate industry to has experienced first-hand the immense potential of using the online space to connect with their target audience. The internet has permeated into every facet of our life – whether it is shopping for clothes, cars or even buying a house. A recent survey shows that “92% of all home buyers today use the internet at some point to search for a home.” This clearly demonstrates the importance of digital marketing for the real estate industry as a whole. It has the power to be able to transform the entire approach of the real estate industry towards marketing in general.
Here are some Digital Marketing strategies that real estate businesses can follow in order to take advantage of the new digital wave that has swept across the marketing world and generate those precious leads so valuable to stay ahead and succeed in your business.
1.Generate Hot Leads Using Zillow
With the Internet having become the main tool used by homebuyers to house hunt, it makes complete sense to make the most of Zillow – the largest real estate website to promote your business online. If that is something you have already been doing, why not take it further by leveraging “Zillow Premier Agent”, Zillow’s advertising platform so you can post ads on local Zillow listings. You will offset the expenditure by what you earn in commissions and in fact even make a significant profit.
2. Try account-based marketing
This is a novel approach to lead generation where you use special software to only target leads that would make for the ideal client for your company. In other words, Account-based Marketing (ABM) sifts from among potential leads to pick only those that are the best fit for your company. This type of marketing gives you the perfect client match and has yielded better results than conventional marketing techniques for more than 85% of marketers, making it one of the most popular lead generation ideas of 2019. Before going ahead with ABM it would be a good idea to re-evaluate your target audience and redefine accurate buyer personas that match your ideal client.
3. Target LinkedIn and Facebook for B2B leads
Most businesses haven’t been able to make gainful use of social media as an effective B2B lead generation strategy. This is despite the fact that almost 50% of marketers from B2B industries have found potential clients on Facebook. What’s more – LinkedIn is the source of 80% of all social media leads. Is it not surprising then that only 26% of companies are using social media for lead generation?
LinkedIn has a membership of 590 million people and Facebook has over 1 billion daily active users. With this phenomenal pool of contacts to connect with, social media should be the most valued lead generation resource for your real estate business. Your strategy should consist of first researching your specific audience and identifying how they use these platforms – mainly Facebook and Linkedin. The next step would be to conceptualise and implement a smart social media campaign to attract relevant leads.
4. Become a thought leader in your industry
For any business looking to set itself apart from the competition it is imperative that it should be able to establish itself as the undisputed thought leader of the industry. This becomes all the more critical in the case of the B2B sector. This can be achieved by consistently demonstrating your superior knowledge, a better understanding of market trends and buyer needs. Building this reputation of excellence and trust with your audience is what is going to convince them to think of your company when they need the services. This is where content marketing comes into play – creating relevant and eye-catching content that provides answers to the very questions your audience is asking.
Content marketing becomes a tool to facilitate the buyer’s journey right from the awareness to the decision stage. It therefore is an extremely valuable strategy for lead generation, especially for B2B businesses. It is not a quick fix method but one that will reap rich rewards in the long run. So take the plunge into content marketing but promise yourself to make a long term commitment to it. Measure your results every few months and try and constantly improve upon them by conducting regular analysis and making changes to your content strategy.
5. Find Divorcees Who Are Selling
Sometimes you need to identify unique places and situations to find leads. People who have just divorced and are looking to sell or wish to relocate might be just the kind who may want your services. Reaching out to this section of the audience will most certainly provide you with valuable leads for your real estate business.
6. Learn to Rank Your Website on Google by Building Quality Backlinks
As online searches have become the main way for prospective clients to conduct research on properties, you need to stay on top of the game by ensuring that your website is found by your target audiences. Getting your website to rank on Google is the best way to attract the attention of your target audience to your business. The way to achieve that is to focus on SEO best practices. The most important of these includes building back links to your site from other relevant and reputed sites. This is regarded by Google as a testimony to your expertise and reliability and thus fetches your website a higher ranking in the search results.
Other SEO measures consist of ensuring that you have included the right keywords on your website and in your blog posts, added the appropriate titles and descriptions and created internal and links to quality pages and sites, along with the external ones.
7. Follow Up With Expired Listings
Although this is not a seemingly popular lead generation strategy for most, it does work if done in the right manner. Contacting expired and withdrawn listings as well as For Sale By Owner (FSBO) listings may actually turn into a valuable lead source for your real estate business. Striking the correct note with the potential clients is crucial – counter their disappointment by offering viable solutions that are likely to bring them results.
8. Use Retargeting to Convert Web
If a visitor leaves your website without completing the desired action or for some reason falls short of converting into a customer, you can use the retargeting strategy to try and encourage a purchase decision. Retargeting or remarketing consists of continuing to show your ads to the visitors even after they have left your site. This is achieved by adding a piece of code (pixel) in your website. This code follows them on platforms like Facebook where your ad will ensure that your business remains on the top of their minds.
9. Provide a virtual tour
Go the extra mile to offer your prospective buyers a virtual tour of the home – one that covers every room. A crisp and informative video succeeds in holding audience attention and keeping them longer on your website. It is an excellent way to flaunt your company, highlight your strengths and give yourself an edge over your competitors. Posting these videos on social media channels is also a great way to attract eyeballs and generate brand awareness.
10. Use live chat to nurture your relationships with your visitors
Add the live chat functionality to your website to be able to personally interact and assist your website visitors in real time. This minimises the chances of your audience losing interest and simply exiting your site without any interactions. With live chat you get the opportunity to pro-actively communicate with your visitors, answer their queries and build a rapport with them.
To learn more about how to set up live chat on your website or to get deeper insights into the benefits of digital marketing for your real estate business contact us at CommVersion today.
