5 steps to a successful real estate marketing strategy

Real estate marketing strategies are everywhere. But as a real estate professional, you do not have time to try a real estate marketing strategy to see what works. You need clear steps to generate leads, turn them into paying customers and help people sell and / or buy homes. When you have that, you spend more time on what you love: real estate.

This 5 step real estate marketing strategy will get you there. Take the first step today to get more customers and earn more money doing what you love.

Step 1: Get a SEO web design

Your website is the base of operations of your real estate business. It is the place where each real estate marketing strategy leads to potential clients. Here, people learn about how to help customers buy and sell. They explore their methods and real estate specialties.

They receive advice and learn to trust you, even if they do not know you yet. They hear from customers with comments that they cured from other sites. Let potential customers know you. Dispel those myths.

Real estate developer David Barrett shared (in this clever graphic) how client perceptions can be confused when we are not clear about who we are as professionals.

An excellent website design helps you tell the story of who you are and what you do in a way that people connect with you.

How well your website works will make or break the rest of your real estate marketing strategy. Ad serving or social networking without first focusing on an optimized website is wasting money.

Making sure you have a site that can do all this effectively is your first step in creating an effective marketing strategy for real estate. Within each of the steps in this article, we will explore the main components you should know about.

It is not just about knowing your real estate marketing strategies. It is about making a real estate marketing strategy generate more potential and higher quality customers for you. It's about selling houses faster for more money.

What is SEO?

SEO means "search engine optimization". SEO is a set of strategies that you apply to make yourself more visible in Google's search results. It includes two main components:

SEO on the page: what it does on your website to provide a great experience (quality content, easy to use, fast, etc.)

Off-Page SEO: what you do outside of the website to demonstrate that you are an authority in your industry (networks with other important websites, social networks, etc.)

Retrofitting SEO vs. SEO Web Design

The highest ranking SEO websites are built from the ground up, optimized to the end.

While you can apply SEO strategies to an existing site, it is much more difficult. It takes longer to get results. And some things may not be repairable.

Updating a website for SEO is very much like building a ranch-style brick house with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Then, after you've built it, you decide to turn it into a 3-story Tudor.

You would be better throwing it and starting from scratch, right?

These are some of the main elements to explore as you develop this step of your real estate marketing strategy.

Analysis of the competition

When creating an optimized website, look at what already exists. Who are your main competitors online and in your local area? Do they have a real estate marketing strategy?

From this analysis, we will see what is working. What do you need to do better to overcome these websites? That's where your real estate marketing strategy will be useful.

User experience (UX)

It all starts with ease of use. Build your website with the end user (visitor) in mind. Think about how they will use the site. What elements will you expect your site to have? What will be useful?

Friendly with the mobile

More than 80% of the time spent on social networks is done on mobile devices. Are you taking people from social networks to your website? You should be, so it must be highly functional in the mobile.

That means that everything is easy to see, click and use without erroneous clicks. Mobile real estate

In addition to being easy to use on the mobile, consider how you can integrate the mobile phone into the experience of buying and selling homes with:

·         Applications and mobile tools.

·         Mobile virtual tutorials

·         Mobile chat

·         Thermostats connected to mobile

·         Entry without mobile key (probably for other agents)

·         Mobile payments

·         Review of mobile documents

Remember, today's people use their smartphone as an extension of real life. The way you can improve the real estate experience in real life with your mobile website is worth the investment. These trends are not going to disappear.

Intuitive navigation

An optimized website is very intuitive. Potential and existing customers who cannot find what they are looking for are frustrated and leave. A big part of SEO is to optimize this browsing experience with simplified menus, search boxes and expandable text that guides people through the site.

Made for speed

47% of people now expect a website to load in less than 2 seconds. For every additional second a page takes to load, 11% of people will leave the site.

Here is one more reason why it is better to create an SEO site from scratch. It is much easier to build a rapid than to accelerate it after its creation.

Consider the impact of a slow site on conversions.

SEO in progress

While the highest performing websites are created from scratch for SEO, that does not mean that SEO is something all at once. As you apply this step in your real estate marketing strategy, recognize that you will need to maintain it to maintain the greater visibility your website achieves through SEO services.

Google often adjusts its algorithm for ranking sites. Each time you do it you will need to adapt. In addition, Google begins to ignore websites, even optimized ones that do not seem to update the site regularly.

This process of periodically updating the site and adapting to changes is called continuous SEO.

Creating Content

One way to constantly update your website is through the regular publication of blog articles. Blogs are a great way to let a potential customer know you without feeling like you're trying to sell something directly. The more informal, friendly and authoritarian environment maintains that natural guard that some people have to avoid.

The websites that have blogs have 400X pages indexed in searches. This means that as the ranking of your website increases, you will appear in more searches for many more keywords. These are the types of real estate marketing strategies that you can take to the bank.

The regular publication on your blog not only helps make your website more visible when people search for something like "Realtors in Atlanta." It gives you something to share on social networks that brings people to your website.

There are many other types of content to explore such as:

·         Videos

·         Web seminars

·         E-books

·         Calculators

·         Interactive content

Consider what kind of content your target customers will enjoy. Work to create more of that.

Now that you have your website in place, you are on the way to developing your authority so that you are in a higher position in the searches. But you are a busy real estate professional who likes to be busy. You do not have time to wait while your site continues to climb ranks. This takes time.

That takes you to step 2.

Step 2: Expand your presence in social networks

It is likely that you have a Facebook page. But as you've undoubtedly found it, it takes some work to build your followers with real potential customers. That's why the administration of social networks is so important to your real estate marketing strategy.

Choosing the best platforms

First, the platform you choose must be one that you understand well. Do you like Facebook and can not live without it? Then Facebook is probably a great option for you. Because you use the platform yourself, do you better understand how your potential customers use it? With what kind of content do you like to participate?

Also, consider who you are targeting. Almost everyone has a Facebook profile. But they can spend more time on the YouTube channels they subscribe to, Instagram or even Snap chat.

Once again, it is a good idea to take a look at your main competitors. Where are they? What are they doing? Your goal is not to imitate them. It is to gather ideas. Then do it better.

Choose 1-3 platforms. But do not extend yourself too much. It is difficult to position yourself among followers if you are trying to manage too many profiles.

Filling your profiles

Fill your profile completely. Make sure you have a business profile if there is a distinction. Before you start trying to get more followers, really expand this profile to represent you and your customer base.

Building your following

When building your next social networks, do not try to attract everyone at once. I would not reject a client who does not meet a certain profile. But at the same time, it is likely to have a type of real estate, person, area, price range, etc. where he is really passionate and experienced.

Elope a consistent publication schedule. Stay active in social networks. Interact with potential clients. Join groups to establish contacts with other professionals. Share content that entertains and educates your target customer.

Take advantage of social media ads to expand your reach among new potential customers. The fastest way to create quality tracking is with a targeted advertising campaign.

Involve your followers

Developing your followers on a social networking platform gives people who see what they publish on that platform organically. If that tracking is active, these people share their content with their friends. In this way, 1,000 followers can become 10,000 impressions for your publications quickly.

Real estate marketing strategy Graphic courtesy of Lighter Side of Real Estate

But if those followers are not committed, 1,000 followers are only 1,000 followers (and they are not very good).

Apply strategies here to involve people and keep them involved such as:

·         Tracking what is popular and publishing more

·         Publish regularly links to blog posts and videos that your target is looking for.

·         Share vibrant images that people like and share instantly because of the emotional impact

·         Comment again when people comment to start conversations.

·         Running contests

·         Publish questionnaires, surveys and other interactive content.

·         Share photos of recent satisfied customers who closed their homes (with their permission)

Share your latest ads

People have millions of accounts that they can follow. Why should they be interested in yours?

Give people a reason to keep following you and interacting with you. Real estate marketing strategies in social media include the use of many types of content that people will love and share.

Generating Leads

Social networks are excellent for reaching people and keeping your mind high. But to turn a fan into a real customer, it helps to use a more personal touch. That is why it is important to use social networks not only to participate. You need a clear path to turn them into a potential client.

Every real estate marketing strategy needs this. Otherwise, it is difficult to obtain an ROI on social networks. It is almost impossible to show how social networks offer tangible results.

·         The typical social network generation funnel looks like this.

·         It starts as a publication or advertisement.

·         Goes to a landing page on your website.

·         You offer the visitor something in exchange for an email and basic information.

·         You nurture leadership through email marketing.

·         You have a new client

·         Some smart ways to generate leads through social networks include:

·         Run a fun quiz / email in exchange for a chance to win

·         Access to a useful real estate estimator or tool

·         Offer an e-book that shares proven staging tips that every salesperson should know.

·         Run lead generation ads with videos

It seems so simple. But there are many ways in which you can do this to attract your perfect clients.

Step 3: Use advertising on social networks to target potential customers

You have a great pace on your website and your social media profile. You have a publication schedule. You create a certain number of pieces a week and share them. Now is the time to start taking this to the next level. Real estate marketing strategies.

This step involves setting up and running your advertising campaigns on social networks. But before doing so, you must understand the trap in which many of the new social ads tend to fall. That is pointing too broad. Here's why it's not a good idea.

What is the relevance score?

Facebook's Ad Manager, who also controls Instagram ads, uses a relevance system to determine how much you pay for your ads. If Facebook determines that your ads are not relevant to the people who see them, the costs increase. Other platforms have similar systems. But Facebook's is the most transparent. Relevance score

You may end up paying a lot more for the same ad simply because you are not showing the right ad to the right people. That can break your real estate marketing strategies and your budget quickly.

How does Facebook determine relevance?

Facebook looks at what percentage of people click on the ad. They compare it to the ads of their real estate partners. If you are outperforming your peers, the relevance increases. If not, it slides. If their relevance is low enough, they will stop showing your ad.

Ultimately, Facebook wants to offer an excellent user experience to people on Facebook. If your ad is not clicked, Facebook decides it is not providing a good experience. Facebook relevance score

·         How to keep your high relevance score?

·         To maintain your high relevance score:

·         Learn about the different ad formats. Create attractive ads in those formats.

Narrow objective. Know who you are targeting. Use Ada Manager to address these people and create your ad around them.

Geo-location. As a real estate professional, you can have clients from all over the country. But it is likely that 90% of its customers are residents of its service area. Or they are visiting the area. You can contact people who have been in your area recently or live there. It can point to a certain zip code or to an entire metropolitan area. But limit your search.

Test and adapt. Some ads will be instant winners. Others will be obvious losers. Some fall in the middle. Test of small scale ads. Then upload your budget in the ad that gets the best results.

Step 4. Use advertising on search engines to reach your goal at the precise moment

Search engine advertising is another way to get more real estate customers quickly. People who search for things in search engines have a lot of intention. They are often ready to do something now.

If someone searches for "Open houses this weekend," you have exactly what you are looking for.

When people are looking for "what my house is worth", "the best real estate agents in Atlanta", etc., they will want to appear in these searches. Because SEO takes some time, advertising on search engines is the quick and effective way to get to the top of these searches. Search engine advertising is commonly referred to as PPC (pay per click). This describes how you pay for the ads.

Similar to Facebook ads, when a person clicks on your ad, you pay a small fee to the ad platform. When someone puts "How to buy a house" in a search query, Google runs an auction instantly. Then they show announcements of the winners.

And like Facebook, the more relevant your ad is for the searches in which it appears, the less you have to pay to win the auctions. In fact, you could end up paying 400 times more if you have 1 score. You could pay 50% less if you have a 10.

·         Google Ads calls this the quality level.

·         How to maintain your high quality level

·         To maintain that high quality score, apply these best practices.

·         Do your keyword research. Choose carefully the keyword phrases in which you want an ad to appear.

Carefully align the copy of your ad with the keywords in which you want the ad to appear. If the ad seems out of place, it will not click.

Create a unique landing page for each type of ad. A landing page is a page on your website that continues smoothly the trip that the ad promised. Your home page, about the page or general information pages are not landing pages. If your ad goes to a search page, it should appear on a page that shows the types of homes that searchers were looking for.

Split test your ads. Start with a small budget. But once it expands quickly when you discover which ad works best.

Add negative keywords these are words that you do not want your ad to appear in response to if they are attached to your targeted keywords. For example, if you are targeting the "Atlanta real estate agent", you do not want to appear on a search for "Atlanta real estate agent certification". That would be a different audience. Watch your campaign closely to see what words are being used with your words to change the query. Exclude them quickly to maintain a high level of quality.

Step 5: Nurture potential customers through email

In step 5, we will take the casual fan of your website or your social networks. We will convert them into paying customers to earn that commission. That is the final result you are looking for. And it only took 5 steps to get here.

The first important element of this step to discuss is where these potential customers come from. You could buy lead lists from a company. This would more or less make people send a cold email to see if they need your services. That really is not the way to go.

The best way to create an email list is the educated way: ask permission. E-mail marketing based on permissions as part of your global real estate marketing strategy has a return on investment of 44: 1. That means that, on average, for every $ 1 you invest in email marketing, you'll get around $ 44.

We have already discussed how to build this permission-based list in Step 2, so let's see how to get this ROI through email.

Unleashed emails and automations

Activated emails are a form of email automation. They are pre-written emails that are sent when a customer does something specific. If you have access to more advanced automation tools, these activated emails can extract very specific information from the potential customer.

These are some of the most relevant emails you can send to a person. Therefore, they have very high opening rates. Definitely, use this type of email to engage and re-engage your potential customer’s one step closer to becoming paid customers.

Welcome emails: welcome them when they register for the first time. Guide them to a welcome video on your website. Offer them "insider" information or a discount on an ancillary service they can provide instantly to begin fostering this relationship.

Email request for information: a house that meets your criteria, just go to the market? Send them an email with photos. Send emails from several similar people. But with automation, you can insert each person's name automatically so they look personalized.

Video reminders - if they started watching a video. But it did not end, send an automated email asking if you have any questions or if you want me to send you other videos.

Commitment: someone asked for a house, but did not return their calls. You can configure the automation to see if they are still interested or want to explore other options.

There are many useful and personalized ways to automate your email and activated emails. And the truth is that people love these types of emails. In fact, 77% of people say they prefer email communications from professionals.

Electronic newsletters

Email newsletters are an excellent way to keep your potential customers informed about the market. Each month shares:

Local events (openings of shopping centers, new restaurants, festivals, marathons, concerts, etc.)