Marketing real estate properties can feel overwhelming — especially if you don’t have a dedicated marketing team to help get the property leased or sold. Add in an ever-changing online marketplace, new listing sites and people who want the perfect property for a bargain basement price, reaching the right audience with the right message to close a listing often seems like it’s impossible.
Luckily, you can rearrange a few core digital marketing strategies to work best with a property. Soon, you’ll be able to quickly develop a marketing layout that you can apply to every listing, putting your firm on the fast-track to strong sales.
You don’t need 100s of real estate online marketing ideas — you only need best ones! Use the strategies we list below and you’ll start close more listings today.
Be discovered by online searchers
When creating a winning layout for your property, one of the first things you’ll need is an audience. Showing up in search engines, such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing, gives your real estate firm access to a highly-qualified audience who are most likely going to take action in the near future.
By creating local listing on online directories your company will be discovered by real estate searchers. All you need to do is make sure your information is complete and accurate on all of these directories and you’ll encourage potential clients to contact you. In addition, you’ll also boost your real estate company’s organic search ranking.
If you’re not sure where to start, take an inventory of how you’re currently listed on these sites. You can run a free SEO report here and it will show you where and how you’re listed, so you can start making changes.
Write copy that sells
When marketing real estate, the copy you write about your property should serve two purposes: bring in new prospects and showcase the property. Before a potential buyer even sees a photo of their next home, they read the description of the property. Your description needs to be accurate, intriguing and compelling enough to reel in both qualified buyers and dreamers (who you can pitch other properties to).
Understand what your audience is looking for in a property and you’ll be able to showcase the features they are looking for up front. For example, if the property you marketing is part of a top-tier public school system, talk about all the family-friendly amenities of the house.
We all know the words many people are searching for: “granite countertops,” “hardwood floors,” and “stainless steel appliances.” However, not every home actually has all these features, so you’ll need to create copy that gets people to act no matter what the property.
One study discovered the words that sell and don’t (some of which may surprise you).
Effective words that help sales:
Beautiful
Landscaping
Granite
Gourmet
Curb appeal
Maple
Fixer upper
Words that don’t sell:
Must sell
Value (as in “good value”)
Motivated
Move-in condition
Clean
New paint or new carpet
Ranch
Quiet
Vacant
Create a virtual showroom with videos
Video captures audiences in a way that previously only well-crafted images could.
Investing in the ability to create professional videos of the property you are showing (or just those that aren’t selling or will bring in a higher commission) is an investment you’ll use for years to come. By 2018, studies predict that 84% of Internet traffic will surround video and real estate online marketing an ideal place to use video.
Online videos not only bring more eyes to your properties — they are also incredibly easy to share and direct online traffic to. You can include links to your Facebook Page or YouTube channel on the listing, as well as including videos throughout your website.
If you’re a little hesitant to create a video, try using Instagram’s free app called Hyperlapse (no Instagram account necessary to try it out). Hyperlapse allows you to take time-lapse videos that are perfect for real estate online marketing strategies. Hyperlapse also includes stabilization software, too.
Try making a video of neighborhoods (by just driving around) or of a walk through of a home.
Use online ads to reach more people
Search is the go-to platform for home buyers. However, organic search makes it difficult to showoff individual properties because of the constant changes associated with the listing: prices drop, photos are added, the current owner decides to paint the house to incentivize buyers.
While you should optimize your company’s website to spread awareness about your firm, optimizing home pages (that will only be available for a limited time) is difficult because of the inner-workings of search engine algorithms. 90% of home buyers search online during their home-buying process, so clearly you can’t just ignore the power of search. However, organic search isn’t the only way to show up in the search engine results pages.
The solution: online PPC (pay-per-click) ads.
Add PPC ads into your real estate online marketing for individual properties and they’ll show up in search results immediately.
Go one step further, and use PPC ads on social networks, like Facebook, too. Your property will get guaranteed exposure — for minimal investment — with Facebook ads and boosted posts.
The nice thing about PPC ads on search engines and social networks is that you can choose different parameters to target different audiences. For example, if you’re selling a home in Utah, you don’t want to reach people in Washington searching for local properties. However, you do want to reach that person in Washington if they are looking to relocate to Utah.
PPC ads is also affordable — you only pay for the ad when someone clicks on the post, so you can be sure you aren’t overspending to reach an audience.
Get consumers to use their phones
Along the same lines of showing up in search results, you want people to be searching for your homes.
Make sure your PPC ads pay off by directing people to search for your home listings online. An easy way to do this is by combining your digital and physical marketing strategies. On every real estate sign include “Google this Address.”
People may or may not remember to search a home once they are home, but if you prompt them to search when they are walking or driving by, they most likely will. When they conduct that search, they will not only see your PPC ads but also your website (and if you made a video, your YouTube and/or your Facebook page where the video is hosted).
You have the power to drive consumers directly to your homes with three simple words– “Google this Address.”
Manage your online reputation
When you ask people to search for a home listing, you are essentially showing them your real estate business. However, are you sure of what they’re finding?
Online reviews for real estate firms are out there and ignoring them doesn’t solve your problem. While online reviews often feel like personal attacks, you need to handle them in a professional and sensitive manner.
You should quickly respond to all reviews (positive or negative) to show prospective clients that when they choose to work with your real estate firm, they aren’t simply a dollar sign. Be kind and sincere in your responses to online reviews and you’ll give prospective clients what it’s like to work with you.
If you’re worried you won’t be able to track all these reviews (or will miss one), you can use a tool like LocalVox Social. LocalVox Social works on both your desktop computer and mobile phone, so you can stay connected to clients wherever you are. You can even choose to get a text message notification when a new review comes in.
Once you receive a notification that you have a new review, follow our review response formula to have the best response ready.
Create a blog
You already have a lot of ideas about how to promote home and apartment listings; what could a blog add that your other content doesn’t already deliver? More than you may think!
Not only does a blog give you an additional area to showcase houses within a neighborhood or price range, but it also draws in potential clients who are attracted to your expertise.
Some examples of blog articles are:
Top features of local neighborhoods
A look into local school districts
The perks of a fixer-upper
What to look for as a first-time home buyer
Apartment checklist for renters
FAQ’s for buying a home
Easily be inspired by the questions you frequently get from clients and answer them in blog articles. Take that a step further and you’ve got social content that you can quickly and easily share with your followers.
Using these real estate online marketing ideas will help you score the home run you’re looking for with each of your home listings. You may be going above and beyond for each home listing, but if you incorporate these strategies you’ll be guaranteed to reach every qualified-buyer out there who might be interested in your listing.
Create the freshly-baked cookie effect by using the right words and displaying the house correctly online, boosting your overall real estate success rate.
Start managing your digital presence with the help of LocalVox, the all in one digital marketing platform that can help you manage your social reputation and profiles to your search engine rankings and directory listings.Find out how you can get started.
Looking for even more real estate online marketing ideas? Download our guide to develop an online strategy to be able to sell even more real estate.
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