Table of Contents
Are you lagging behind your competitors? Are you struggling to convert new leads into customers? Marketing and advertising can seem like a mysterious practice. There is no “one size fits all” solution to success. This article will follow a case studies of a real estate companies trying to grow their business through marketing. It will cover some marketing basics as well as several strategies real estate businesses are using to grow their client base and increase the value of their company.
Why You Will Need a Marketing Plan
To begin, you need a high-impact listing marketing strategy as a small and medium real estate company.
By developing a deliberate and planned marketing strategy, you may more than double your odds of closing potential leads.
The critical point to remember is that each component of any real estate marketing landscape should be linked, and often in many ways. This is the process through which you drive your consumers through the sales funnel.
To do so, start with an examination: a high-level perspective of how each component of your strategy fits together. A basic marketing audit would do here, as long as it clearly depicts the connections between the components.
Begin by establishing a marketing strategy’s aim and quantifiable goals. Consider your objective as the plan’s overarching vision. For instance, a listing objective might be to sell a property for a profit. Measurable goals may include a minimum number of attendance at an open house or a minimum amount of emails and phone calls received as a result of a direct marketing campaign.
After you’ve established your objectives, it’s simple to choose which marketing techniques and methods to include in your strategy. Commence with your top-level objectives in your diagram. Then establish a connection to your goals and list each approach underneath them.
Once you’ve established that, you can start examining each aspect separately to ensure you’re getting the most out of them. That will be discussed more later.
To begin, let me emphasize that this is not about tossing out feelers to see how much sticks, only to repeat the experiment the following year because you’re unsure what worked.
You must adhere to these three essential stages in all your endeavors:
- Measure
- Analyze
- Refine
If you’re keen to make this work, you’ll need to establish procedures for tracking your progress. After obtaining the data, have a meeting with all key stakeholders to evaluate what is working. From there, you may fine-tune your strategy and make any adjustments for the subsequent step.
Successful Marketing Strategies
Build a Professional Website
The goal of realtors has always been to have their classified advertisements published on local newspapers and publications. However, as everything becomes more digital, it became apparent that having a website may provide additional opportunities for the development of a real estate company.
On the Internet, there are numerous outlets, platforms, and websites where your consumers converge and where your company may establish a presence. As a result, filtering through the Internet’s cacophony is more difficult than ever. Getting people’s attention is very tough. This is a compelling enough reason against creating and maintaining a website for some real estate agents. However, just because there are many destinations on the Web for your existing and potential customers does not mean you have to be active on all of them in an attempt to attract their attention. Your own real estate website, on the other hand, is a space (and is the only one) that you’re not competing for anyone’s attention. In comparison to social networking sites, your own website is far more likely to be devoid of such distractions as your rivals’ banner advertisements. Therefore, if you have a site that you can utilize entirely for your advantage, it’s a good idea to think of it as your own marketing engine.
Are you interested in learning how to create a website for your real estate company? Take a look below and we’ll take you through this exciting process.
The Advantages a Real Estate Company Website
To begin, let me to convince you that a strong website is your passport to success.
- Increased clientele. According to National Association of Realtors report, 50% of house purchasers made their purchase online.
- Increased business value. Along with listing properties, your platform may educate and provide value.
- Personal brand that is more strong. Your real estate website serves as your face: it serves to communicate your company philosophy, present you to potential clients, and demonstrate your competence.
- Availability 24 hours a day. On the Internet, there are no regions or geographical borders. Clients are free to leave messages at any time.
- Opportunities for digital marketing. From lead generation to social media, you may use one or all of these methods.
- Increased sales and positive sentiments. Buyers may virtually tour a house using cutting-edge technology without leaving their house. Beautiful photography generates an atmosphere and a desire to purchase.
A Real Estate Company Website’s Must-have Features
Additionally, there is indeed a list of fundamental real estate website elements that serve as its foundation. These main components necessary to construct a real estate website are summarized in the following list of real estate website features:
Access to several listing services.
A successful real estate company website must link visitors to multiple listing service (MLS) data. As local databases of available properties, multiple listing services (MLSs) enable vendors and land owners to make their properties public and accessible to numerous agents. MLS integration establishes a direct connection between an agent’s website and the local multiple listing service database. The disadvantage of this kind of connection is that accessibility is not exclusive, even though the entire process is controlled and setup easily. The Internet Data Exchange (IDX) enables you to collect listing data from multiple listing services (MLSs) and incorporate it into your website.
Search in real time.
Real estate and rental property searches must provide relevant results. To do this, you must offer consumers with a robust set of search criteria, including listing category (purchasing, leasing, or selling), price, type of housing, number of rooms, amenities, and facilities, as well as year of construction. A dedicated tool will enable users to choose precise search limits to include the area in which they want to locate a home.
A sufficient number of pictures for each piece of real estate.
While ease of navigation and user experience provide a positive user experience for your website’s users, the effectiveness of a site is determined by the number of transactions completed via its assistance. However, prospective purchasers or renters must first demonstrate interest. Professional-looking property pictures pique this curiosity. Relevant and high-quality pictures speak for themselves, therefore it’s a good idea to enforce stringent sizing, format, and resolution standards for photos on your site.
Excursions through video or virtual reality.
A walk inside a selected house reveals even more information about such a property portfolio than the most comprehensive and high-quality collection of pictures. While a video trip is an excellent option, augmented and virtual environment may offer consumers with broad yet detailed information about exterior and interior models.
Communication.
To locate the ideal home, a buyer must express his or her needs properly, whereas vendors and real estate brokers must react appropriately to these inquiries. Thus, an integrated communication tool should be user-friendly. It may be a live chat, which would be the quickest method to get feedback, or a direct text, phone, or video messaging system for connecting property owners or agents.
Blog
We believe that including a blog should be a priority when developing a business website for your real estate company.
Is a blog required on every property buying and selling website? The response is a categorical no.
Prior to rushing to create a blog page, consider if it would be beneficial.
If you’re certain that your primary audience will be waiting when you begin sharing material, then a blog section is necessary.
Or, maybe, you’re planning to use content marketing to attract new prospects.
Take into consideration that online readers like the opportunity to debate a topic, so provide a comments area underneath each article.
The Steps Involved in Developing a Real Estate Website
- Ensure that the required inventory is maintained. To create an outstanding real estate website, its structure must be well-planned and developed. Therefore, begin by listing the fundamental and advanced capabilities you want to include and thereby alleviate the issue. Then, consider your reason for creating a website, your primary objectives, and who your intended audience is.
- Establish a pricing range and put together a development team. When your company and personal goals are clearly established, specify the pricing range for website creation. Considering all of this, you are able to expect your money’s worth. Meanwhile, you may collaborate with a software development firm. When the proper team is assembled, your goals are almost certainly going to change somewhat. A solid collaboration, as well as a desire to participate in conversation and share ideas, are critical components in achieving superior end outcomes.
- Mockups, wireframes, and prototypes. At this point, the framework of your website is taking form. Wireframing, mockup creation based on these wireframes, and eventual web design testing are all beneficial when it comes to building a site that creates a strong first impression. A high-performance website requires preparation, since your logo, color scheme, pictures, and other user experience components must be organized consecutively and uniformly on each page. Because users perform activities in a certain sequence, ensure that components are organized in a manner that reflects that order and assists users in navigating your material.
- Coding. Decisions taken throughout the planning phase must be transparent to all parties involved and conveyed effectively. The effective completion of all preliminary stages lays the groundwork for the project’s execution. Once a specific design is provided, your contracted software developers will select an acceptable technology stack based on the characteristics required.
- Assurance of quality and review. All prior work must now be evaluated by experienced quality assurance engineers. As a consequence, the real estate site is designed to be user-friendly and to provide a seamless experience for property owners, buyers, renters, and agents that visit it.
Case Study Examples
It’s usually a good idea to do research before to embarking on a new endeavor.
We’ve collected some incredible evidence of successful real estate websites from across the globe.
1. Berdan Commercial Real Estate
Berdan Real Estate is a youthful team of real estate experts dedicated to assisting individuals in purchasing and selling property across the Chicagoland region.
Their website’s primary features include the following:
- Simple, elegant design with uncluttered typography.
- Sections with sliders featuring high-resolution property photos.
- Copy that is interesting and has innovative call-to-actions.
- Distinct property cards.
- video segments.
- Navigation with a sidebar submenu.
2. SW Property & Agents
This is yet another example of a successful real estate website creation that has been recognized with accolades for its feel and appearance. SW Property & Agents is a collection of commercial real estate specialists that provides consulting services to all parties involved in the property purchase process.
Their website’s primary features include the following:
- The top navigation bar’s search function.
- Personalized navigation through an animated menu.
- Parallax, carousels, and hover animation effects are all design components and effects.
- Property cards with Google Maps integration.
- The Auction page’s filter option.
- Individual user profiles.
3. Property Vision
Private customers and family trusts interested in owning property in the United Kingdom may contact Property Vision for advice or assistance in purchasing and investing in real estate developments in the United Kingdom.
Their website’s primary features include the following:
- Stylish contemporary design.
- Horizontal navigation is customized with seamless transitions.
- Multiple hover effects and animated light effects.
- A page dedicated to the creative team.
- Custom typefaces with a straightforward hierarchy.
- The Insights page, which features current blog articles and news.
4. Three Sixty
Three Sixty Property Group is a highly qualified group of realtors providing a complete spectrum of sales and marketing services.
Their website’s primary features include the following:
- video backdrops that are captivating.
- Functionality in many languages.
- Grid arrangement in the masonry style.
- Parallax, hover animation, and sliders are all design effects.
- Form for registering investment interests.
- Social sharing buttons that stick to the page and an inquiry form.
Lead Generation
The process of generating and turning potential customers into leads with an interest in your company’s product or service is called lead generation. In real estate, lead generation has unique difficulties, such as determining the appropriate tools and websites to utilize and implementing different customer experience methods.
Simply put, the same marketing principles that apply to other sectors apply to real estate, and lead generation is a critical component of any real estate marketing plan.
Outstanding Lead Generation Ideas for Real Estate
Local Collaborations
You are not the only company in the neighborhood. Therefore, why not team up with other company owners to assist one another? Find your local business group to network and establish relationships with other businessmen and women.
Solicit Referrals from Fellow Realtors
Attending conferences is a great chance to connect with some other real estate professionals from outside your region. Take the time to develop professional connections with local and national realtors who may be able to assist you in the future.
Live Chat
Website visitors are not necessarily interested in completing forms or contacting you. However, they may be content to participate inside a chat session to get their queries quickly addressed.
Text Messages Sent Automatically
Property investment text message marketing enables you to communicate with prospective purchasers about appropriate properties. Furthermore, you may take this a step further by using automated SMS messages.
Pitch to Local Investors
If you’re operating in a region with a high potential for investment, why not approach local investors directly? If you already have investors lined up, you may save time promoting and advertising properties.
Segmentation of Emails
The majority of individuals who get your emails, digests, as well as other media advertising are already leads on your CRM platform that you monitor and arrange.
Local SEO
Currently, 44% of property buyers begin their home search on the internet, and 95% use the web at a certain stage in the purchase process. As a result, it is essential that your website performs well in Google when consumers are looking for agents to assist them in buying or selling a home. This is accomplished via SEO.
Analyze the Competition
One of the quickest methods to increase your business’s lead generation is to discover how your top rivals create their internet leads and duplicate their approach.
Google advertisements
Google Ads is a great tool that you may utilize to generate real estate leads. You may promote your real estate company on Google’s search platform, advertising network, Google Shopping advertising, video campaigns, and app campaigns using Google ads. Google Lead form extensions, on the other hand, are one of the Google ad types for lead generation. It is a kind of native advertisement intended to assist you in generating leads straight from the phone search results page, when consumers look for products/services or enter search terms into Google.
Advertisements on Facebook
Facebook is the most effective medium for lead generation in the real estate industry. You can target the appropriate audience with Facebook advertising based on their geography, demographics, and interests. Facebook makes it simple to locate the ideal customers for whatever property you’re trying to sell, whether it’s physical or digital.
Case Study Examples
WE BUY UGLY HOUSES
We buy ugly houses redesigned their website from the ground up and performed fundamental SEO work that propelled the site to the top of the search results for the keywords “expensive” and “buy ugly house,” which are valued $40-$50 per click (Google Ad equivalent). Additionally, they included a click funnel within their campaign to enhance conversion rates.
Here are the results:
Implement PPC Advertising
When you create internet advertisements, for example, regarding house sales, there is no assurance that the individuals who view the advertisements are interested in purchasing houses. With conventional media, it’s even more difficult to identify your target audience. While you may market in real estate publications and segment your audience for television advertisements, you cannot be certain that your ads are reaching your intended demographic. This is where pay-per-click marketing comes in useful.
With PPC marketing, you’re able to reach the appropriate audience at the right time since they’re in desperate need of the answer you’re offering. You are aware that when someone clicks on an advertisement, it is because he was looking for it. As a result, it is also cost effective. Additionally, you are boosting brand recognition within the appropriate audience by appearing in the search engine results.
How Does PPC Marketing for Real Estate Work?
Let’s examine what you should prioritize in order to ensure that your PPC campaign is flawless.
- Establish Your Audience – Consider your audience. Are your advertisements complete? Are you utilizing the appropriate keywords? Keywords are a critical component of this. If you are unsure of who your keywords are aimed at, they may direct you to the incorrect audience. By selecting powerful keywords, you may avoid your ad being shown to the incorrect audience.
- Maintain Contact With Your Prospects – While being visible to the appropriate audience helps boost brand recognition, don’t forget to follow through with them.
- Establish a budget – As previously stated, you are spending per click. Therefore, you must have a firm grasp on how much you are prepared to spend on each click and why.
Strategies for Real Estate PPC
1. Recognize your Competitors
Is the real estate sector facing any new competitors? Maintain a competitive edge by bidding upon their brand keywords. If you can take control of the search results page, you’re well on your way to increasing web traffic. Ascertain that your homepage is related to the search term and meets the customer’s expectations.
2. Follow ups
After a visitor clicks on your advertisement and arrives at your website, the following stage is to earn their respect and commitment. The ultimate objective is to get them to provide contact information through a call to action. This effectively converts them from a ‘query’ to a ‘prospect’. Once you’ve gathered this data, it’s just a matter of maintaining contact with them about property investment in your market region. Failure to do so will direct them to other websites, where your rivals will get the convert. Additionally, leveraging surveys and drip messages for real estate follow-ups increases client engagement.
3. Utilize display advertising to raise brand recognition
While conversion rates are considerably lower than those for Google, they nevertheless contribute significantly to brand recognition. Remarketing is an extremely effective technique for increasing brand awareness and creating a feeling of confidence in a business. The more times a consumer sees an advertisement, the more trustworthy it gets. Cookies are used by websites to record your search history and to display advertisements according to your interests, location, and search history. Real Estate Agents may stay one step ahead of the client journey by producing high-quality visual material.
4. Keep an eye out for more platforms
As PPC grows in popularity, it’s unsurprising that new techniques and tactics are presented on a continuous basis.
Case Study Examples
MyEdmontonHomeFinder.com
- Real Estate Webmasters handles MyEdmontonHomeFinder.com’s PPC campaign and serves as the company’s only marketing supplier. Throughout the campaign’s duration (which is still continuing), the REW PPC staff developed and optimized ad groups around relevant keywords to bring relevant visitors to the site. When this traffic becomes a “conversion” or “lead” by registering on the site or filling out a form, users become a “conversion” or “lead.”
- Weekly, all current campaigns were examined by a PPC specialist who assessed every ad group as well as the advertisements inside it individually.
- Successful ads were meticulously examined, enabling the PPC staff to replicate the good results whenever feasible. Underperforming ads were also analyzed to identify the source of weakness, and then modified or permanently stopped.
- By selecting PPC advertisements and distributing just the best performers, their PPC staff was able to successfully boost clicks while decreasing their cost.
The Results
- The PPC campaign for MyEdmontonHomeFinder.com has produced amazing results. The campaign has seen significant development over its two-year run and has had a clear beneficial effect on the real estate business.
- Its current ROI1 is about 372%; in recent weeks, They invested around $1800 on web technology and received an overall return of $8500—resulting in an annual ROI of more than $100,000.
- The following graph illustrates the gradual rise of total conversions over time:
Use Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing is undoubtedly one of the greatest, highest efficient, and most successful real estate marketing strategies available since it helps you build brand recognition while nurturing prospective customers until you close the deal. Email marketing campaigns enable you to do this on a much bigger scale by allowing you to deliver communications to many prospects simultaneously depending on specified contact lists.
Why use email marketing for real estate
To begin, let’s examine why you should use email marketing in your real estate company. As a real estate company, email marketing will assist you in the following ways:
- build a database – acquire interested leads by using site membership forms or by offering unique benefits in exchange for users’ email addresses;
- demonstrate authority – provide digests to your subscribers with the latest trend in your new blog articles;
- Increase sales – as 93% of visitors prefer to interact through email, offers stored there may reach the customer more quickly;
- automate your routine – email marketing enables you to create email series triggered by particular user activities, such as registering on your website, browsing your real estate listings, requesting the price of a property, or prenotifying a house tour;
- develop trusting connections with consumers – categorize your audience and provide customized offers to demonstrate your concern for every subscriber, which will undoubtedly increase users’ loyalty to your company.
How to properly set up your real estate email marketing
Creating an email marketing plan for real estate is simple. Simply take these four steps!
- Capture real estate leads as a first step
During your next information session, networking event, or other social gathering, collect people’s email addresses manually or through an iPad app to add them to your real estate mailing list. - Establish a personal brand
As with traditional offline interactions, you would like to start the conversation and establish rapport before seeking favors or promoting your services. Establish your credibility first, and then begin doing business.
- Make a personal investment in a connection
Can I let you in on a strategy that would immediately increase the value of your emails? It’s a matter of customization.
Determine your email newsletter subscribers’ interests as quickly as possible so that you can customize your message and provide value. This process begins with your homepage. Create distinct landing pages for distinct target groups. - Use customized emails to stay top-of-mind
After segmenting your subscribers, it’s important to create an idea for the real estate newsletters you’ll send. Automate as many emails as needed and get the most value out of your email campaigns.
Case Study Example
Trulia
I am a strong believer in thinking leadership. In my view, some of the greatest real estate businesses are gaining client loyalty by being an authority on a certain subject. The real estate expert Trulia – a property search engine for buyers, vendors and tenants – is that real estate expert. How am I aware? Simply read their emails, which are similar to the one below.
“Why are millennials not relocating?” This email campaign’s subject line reads before providing intriguing statistics regarding relocation patterns in the United States. Trulia does not profit from individuals who do not move, but it does profit by keeping its finger on the pulse of the business – and demonstrating that it cares which direction the property investment winds are blowing.
The Results
It creates a loop by asking a question to which the receiver must respond in order to get a response.
Final Thoughts
Having a strong digital marketing plan is critical for real estate companies’ success in 2021. Not only will you be able to generate more leads and build a reputable reputation by following these suggestions, but you’ll also be able to remain ahead of the game in an industry that’s especially volatile during these trying times.