Are you one of those Facebook users who previously got any invitation to like a certain page of a realtor or a brokerage company? Perhaps, you have also seen ads on Facebook about properties being sold near your area? If your answers to the two questions are “yes”, then you are one of those potential clients that brokers and real estate companies would want to connect with through the help of social media.
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INTRODUCTION
Even in this industry, property developers have seen the vast potential of social media and the internet per se in connecting to clients.
Read also: Effective Digital Marketing Strategies for Real Estate Industry
In case you haven’t noticed, more and more people are also doing searches on social media on properties that they are aiming to buy.
In developing countries such as the Philippines, the real estate industry is booming with more and more developments not only in the urban areas but now slowly sprawling to the countryside.
Here are some data you need to know about the industry and how current digital marketing trends can help boost sales and return of investments (ROI) for them.
This article will also tackle about the importance of digital marketing to strategies for the industry.
Why Digital Marketing is Relevant to the Real Estate Industry?
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In the Philippines, several developers are stationing some of their men and women inside malls to showcase their units.
Displays in glass casing of the building design of condominium units and residential homes are some of their tools in attracting mall goers to check out their booth.
They have agents who approach mall goers every now and then to give out fliers.
This is just on strategy that they are employing to reach out to potential clients.
Others have put up showrooms to allow clients to physically see the set-up and the actual design of every room inside the unit that they are going to buy.
There are also those who went out of their way to bring in the clients for site visit and see for themselves the model unit that has already been constructed to further convince them to buy.
However, some potential clients don’t have the luxury of time to check out properties.
Most of those who look for properties and homes to buy are overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) or working professionals who don’t have time to check out these units because of their 8am to 5pm day job.
As a real estate developer, agent or investor, how do you think can you possibly reach out to them while they are at home or on break?
The most likely answer to that, of course, are social media and the internet!
Pretty sure, these potential clients use these channels in order to search for their dream house.
In 2017, the United States (US) Census Bureau released the data showing the homeownership rates of under-35 age group at 36 percent. This is a 1.3 percent higher compared to 2016.
Although this age group is the lowest in terms of homeownership, Wall Street observed that “was by far the largest increase of any age group over the prior year”.
What does that mean for the real estate industry? It means one of the booming markets now for real estate is the millennial generation.
More and more of them are working now. However, since they don’t have the luxury of time to personally look for a property, their go-to tool to look for one is their smartphone through accessing the internet and social media apps and sites.
This helps them decide on whether to consider investing their money on that property or not.
For a real estate agent, this could be his or her channel to promote the properties that he or she is selling.
For a real estate developer, this could mean shifting the marketing strategies to a more digital one.
Finally, for a real estate investor, this is the right time to become more explorative on offering better options and better packages for their potential clients.
In this portion of the article, strategies will be tackled and introduced in order for you to have a better grasp on what to employ to have an effective digital marketing campaign for your real estate business.
12 Digital Marketing Strategies That Real Estate Agent, Developer, and Investor should consider in 2019
1. Go social
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Shama Hyder, the CEO of Zen Media, says you should take advantage of using social media sites and apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Post great photos on Instagram. Show the interiors of the housing unit you are selling. What other perks are in store for buyer of properties when they decide to purchase it? Is the property’s proximity to the city center an added value? Always see to it that you highlight the selling points of your property.
Facebook introduced market place where its users have the opportunity to sell things and even properties on their site. Why not use this for a start? It takes one to build an audience for a Facebook page but the more that you post something relevant to users, the more they’ll likely visit your page.
Be consistent because the more active that you are on social media, the more people that you’ll get attract to market what you’re selling.
2. Work on your website
image source: Inc. Magazine
Do you have an existing website? Have you visited it lately to check how it is? Is it mobile friendly? Or does it need an upgrade?
Websites, in order to attract traffic, need to be optimized to fit the needs and changing consumption of the people using the internet.
Place more photos. Attract them too by putting blogs especially tips about purchasing a new house or property.
Most people turn to the internet and the search engines to look for things that might help them.
Work on your rankings on Google search so you could be there right when they hit that “search” button.
Make sure to make your website mobile friendly too. Keep in mind that most of your potential costumers use their smartphones to go online nowadays. Use that to your own advantage.
3. Boost exposure
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Social media sites now offer businesses to put up their ads on their own sites and apps.
If you do have the budget to do that, why not set aside some money for that?
You can use Facebook’s advertising tool. You can also tap Youtube by advertising your product in between video streaming.
With the digital platform now, there are tons of channels you can tap for your marketing efforts.
4. Blogs
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Invite the bloggers to your launches and not just the mainstream media. The more people and channels you tap, the bigger chances that you’ll likely reach more and more customers.
These people will write about your company and the properties and housing units that you are selling.
Blogs help people too on their purchasing decisions.
So, make sure those blogs are informative. Provide bloggers and the media with all the information they need to know about what you are selling so they’ll have a good article to share to their followers.
If you’re planning of having your own blog to be incorporated with your existing website, you can do so.
As mentioned earlier in this article, you can provide tips about homeownership, buying a house and what to do and not do when buying a property.
These helpful articles would surely be bookmarked. So make it as informative too as possible.
5. Link your website to your social media accounts and vice versa
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Don’t forget to link them. You’ll get traffic to your website via clicks on your social media accounts and vice versa.
Also, social media helps you boost your web traffic since it is with this platform that people are always online. When you’re building a better website, make sure to put in place those social media buttons.
Don’t forget to provide links also to your website for any blogs that you’ll be posting.
6. Do not forget to make yourself reachable
One of the perks of having the digital technology now is the availability of communication channels to access a company, an agency or a person.
So, you have to make sure you are available to answer queries from potential customers.
The more responsive you are, the more people will talk about your products and services.
Word of mouth is still applicable to this day even at the digital age with the help of share button.
Social media users who were satisfied with your answers can become your agents too in selling your properties and housing units. They can share to friends links to your social media accounts or website.
It is through this way that you’ll also attract those people that are in that person’s list of friends.
The network will grow and grow.
7. Create compelling images
One of the most attractive ways to reach out to them is by producing compelling photos.
Go hire a professional photographer to do the job.
Capture every nook and cranny of your housing unit and property. Remember that a picture paints a thousand words, so be sure to employ a photographer whose work has been recognized for depicting the selling points of your property and your housing units.
You could also employ a team of actors and actresses to add subjects and life to your photos.
If your housing units target families, get a whole cast to act out as a family for the photo op.
If you’d like to depict a youthful image for your property, get a working professional to pose and feature the different areas of the condominium unit you are selling.
Let your images tell your brand story.
8. A Virtual Tour
image source: Kuula Blog
Again, it was earlier emphasized that not a lot of people get the chance to personally check your property or your housing unit.
You can do a virtual tour to help them picture out the area.
Create a video about the housing unit. Pair it with a good background music and let the video do its magic.
Think about getting the right angles too. You could use drones to take an aerial view of the property. Highlight the amenities and facilities that they can also avail.
Again, just like a blog, make it as informative and as visual as possible.
9. Tap your storytelling capability
image source: UX Planet
If you can tap the emotions through your videos and photos, do so.
Human beings have this tendency to respond to something that appeals to their emotions.
10. Go beyond than just selling
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You can host webinars or seminars for homebuyers.
Tap their interests and become helpful to their buying journey.
When you do aide them, they’ll remember you and may even consider your products and convert them into leads.
11. Partner with Local Businesses
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There are real estate companies who partners with social entrepreneurs and local businesses.
Some of them use the products of these entrepreneurs and local businesses and showcase them on their model houses.
This is a win-win solution for you as you do not only promote each other’s products but at the same time helping them to succeed too in their business.
12. Testimonials
image source: JoomShaper
Do you already have existing clients who were satisfied with their investments in buying a property or a housing unit from you?
Interview them and feature them in some of your digital marketing channels.
You can do a video about them and allow them to talk about their experience in using their property or housing unit.
Now that you have the strategies to employ for your real estate business, you’ve now come ot the part where you’ll ask “Where do I go from here?”
Will you hire a digital marketing agency to do it for you or will you go for an in-house team?
Right now, ask yourself this: Which is cost efficient and more applicable for me, at this point?
If you are already thinking of getting a digital marketing agency to outsource, here are reasons why it will work for you.
Outsourcing Digital Marketing for your real estate agency?
There are tons of reasons for that question. Here are some of them:
- Wider audience but you can also do targeting
If you want to target a specific area or a specific group of people in order to sell your brand, you can do so with the help of social media.
A digital marketing agency would provide you with all the available channels that offer such services. With their industry experience, they would present to you some of their previous case studies that will help you decide which is best.
An agency is also well versed with the technology with their team on board. So, you are assured that they’ll get to the target that you are eyeing.
- Offer you a basket of solutions
It can no longer be denied that digital marketing agencies have such capability.
They know what’s right for you and what’s not.
- Always updated and offers you the right skill set you need
They know industry trends and they have the right people with the right skills to work on your digital marketing needs.
They always stay up to date and they always educate themselves.
You are assured that they have the latest technology solutions that would work for you.
- Flexibility
They can work on your budget and work with changes.
They always have this ability to adapt easily. They have specialists to cater to each of your need.
They also have a network of outsourced talents that they can tap for your graphics, blogs, SEO contents, among others.
- They know the buyer’s experience and the sales funnel.
They know where to hit their targets. They have the strategies that they earned from years of working with other companies in your industry.
They study and analyze data to get to the heart of your customers to convert them into leads.
In short, they know what they’re doing because they have been there and done that.
Guide on hiring an outside real estate Digital Marketing Agency
Ask yourselves these questions when you’re hiring an outside real estate Digital Marketing Agency.
- Do they have a portfolio or case studies that they can present? If yes, ask them to provide you a copy.
- How long have they been working in this industry? A lot of digital marketing agencies will always promise to give you the leads that you need. However, you have to ask about the kind of work that they do. Are they that reliable in terms of managing social media accounts? How are they in handling your blogs?
- What specializations do they possess? Certifications and qualifications do matter. If you are going to invest your time and money on an agency, you’ll have to make sure you’ll get your value for your investment.
- Are they reliable and trustworthy? How are they in their reporting system especially for generating reports about how your digital marketing efforts are doing? Ask also other companies that have previously worked with them to get to know their work ethics.
Read also: Digital Marketing for Real Estate Industry
It always pays to ask the right questions especially if you are talking about your investments here.
Knowing also the right people to tap is crucial especially if your business is at stake.
Hope this article has helped you in your search for the right answers.
Here’s to a brand new 2019 and to more engagements and leads!
References:
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-02-02/millennials-are-out-of-the-basement-and-into-buying-homeswww.forbes.com/sites/shamahyder/2018/10/08/7-ways-real-estate-pros-get-leads-from-digital-marketing/#1dbdf1266198
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