More than 93% of home buyers used online websites while searching for a home to buy in 2018. That number has gone up manifold since then, and with the online real estate landscape becoming highly competitive, digital marketing is one of the best ways to reach your target audience to get more leads and make sales.
Having a good digital marketing plan ensures that realtors are able to generate leads, build a credible database that knows and trusts them, and eventually increase sales through concentrated efforts and follow up techniques.
If you’re trying to navigate the real estate digital marketing space but are struggling, this article should help. We will be taking you through some of the most tried-and-tested real estate digital marketing strategies that will help you get more clients online in 2024. Not just this but we have also added templates and tutorials to help you get started right away.
Here is what we’ll be covering:
1. Build Responsive Websites To Drive Conversions
2. Make Email An Essential Part Of Your Communication
3. Invest In Facebook Ads To Generate Quality Leads
4. Implement A Social Media Marketing Strategy
5. Invest In SEO
6. Focus On Video Marketing For Higher ROI
7. FAQs
Let’s get started!
Real Estate Digital Marketing Tip #1: Build Responsive Websites To Drive Conversions
A good real estate website helps build a solid database of genuine leads, drives higher conversion by ranking higher on search engines, and is optimized for viewing on multiple devices and platforms. As for the content on the website, it should answer your potential customer’s pain points. Answering questions like what kind of homes you help the customers find, the benefits you provide that other realtors don’t and making it easy to connect with you can make all the difference.
When you’re creating your website, there are a few elements you want to focus on more than others:
1. Integrate an IDX search tool or platforms like Zillow on your page
Search tools are one of the most critical components of any real estate website because these help people find exactly what they’re looking for quickly and easily. Adding an IDX tool on your site is a great way to achieve this.
IDX integrates real estate listings from a multiple listings service (MLS) and displays them on your website, allowing buyers to search and find properties easily on your site. What makes IDX so great is that the database is super comprehensive and the listings are updated every few hours.
You could also use integrations from platforms like Zillow or Trulia which incorporate IDX as well as independent sellers on their platform. If you live outside the US or Canada, you could also check out Zoopla (UK), and Magic Bricks (India).
2. Featured listings
Viewers are coming to your website to look at homes or properties, and you want to make that as easy for them as possible while also highlighting your unique point in the space. Adding featured listing of hot properties or the most relevant ones right on top can help you achieve this.
Here’s an example of featured listings from Columbus Historic Homes showcasing their USP i.e. luxurious and comfortable single-family homes.
Most website development software come with features to create listings right within the CMS, but you can always go ahead and use plugins to achieve similar results or work with a professional developer to design the website for you.
3. Client testimonials
The second thing you want to focus on is providing testimonials from past customers who’ve bought from you. This helps in building trust and helping you come across an authority in the field.
Again, Columbus Historic Homes does a great job highlighting their expertise and positioning them as the real estate authority in their locality with these minimalistic but effective client testimonials right on the homepage.
If you also want to display Google Reviews like Columbus Homes on your WordPress website, use plugins like Widget for Google Reviews. But if you’re not using a WordPress website, use Launch Success’ code and follow the steps they’ve mentioned to add the reviews to your website.
4. Website navigation & responsiveness
Not having a responsive and easily navigable website can make users bounce off your website, and cost you leads and sales. You want to have a mobile-first approach. Google also prioritizes responsive sites in their search indexing, which means you’ll be likely to rank higher than sites that aren’t designed for mobile devices.
A few other ways to improve your website user experience include improving page load time, ensuring your website’s design adapts well to smaller tablet and phone screen sizes, and ensuring any pop-ups you might be using on your site aren’t blocking anything important. You can add breadcrumbs on on the top of your page to help users navigate your site with one click. This is what a breadcrumb looks like:
“Home>Property Search>Listings in New York> Contact Page”
For instance, take a look at this website, NoBedrooms by Ellie, a realtor. The website is dedicated to helping renters and buyers find the perfect studio apartment, and to ensure functionality, it has all the important links on the top of the home page – both for mobile and desktop. And it makes navigation super easy across all platforms with the Find your new home feature right on top.
5. Ensure high-quality photos and videos
Houses with 20 photos or more get sold 2x faster as they give potential buyers a better understanding of what the place looks like. Conversion with videos is even higher. Photos and videos are also instrumental in attracting customers to your properties in the first place.
The Kim Spears website lists luxury properties, and they’ve made full use of aerial views of properties, and professional photographs shot from the right angles with the right lighting to bring out the sense of luxury and comfort that these houses stand for.
To create great photos and videos for your website, the best idea is to work with professional photographers and videographers to get the best output possible. You can get a shoot done for each separate property and use the images across your website and social media.
If you’re specifically focusing on doing real estate videos, check out this real estate marketing page to learn how InVideo can boost your video marketing efforts by letting you create videos in just a few minutes.
6. Add CTAs on the website
Stick to one or two calls-to-action on your site to direct users towards the next step. CTAs are important to remind customers to take action and to solidify their decision while also driving signups for you and help you build your database further that can be nurtured using email marketing, which we talk about in the next point.
Mind you, CTAs don’t always have to be salesy; you can use them to drive higher signups to your newsletter, get in touch with you, or even connect with you on social media. Ensure you make them easily visible and clickable wherever placed. Take a look at the CTA on Redfin’s website to get an idea of what a good one looks like:
Consider making these actions a bright (but on-brand) color so that they stand out from the rest of your page design and entice the user to buy.
We’ve covered all the features that go into making a responsive website but to make one, you’ll need to enlist the services of a professional of real estate web design companies like Agent Image and Luxury Presence to get a custom website built according to your needs.
And if you want a budget-friendly option you can use website builders like WordPress, Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace.
Real Estate Digital Marketing Tip #2: Make Email An Essential Part Of Your Communication
A good digital marketing strategy ensures that realtors get good leads and have a strong follow up process to nurture and convert these leads with ease. And according to InVideo’s research, email marketing is one of the best ways to do both, so realtors prefer it over other marketing methods
Building an email list is also a credible way of growing their database and overtime having a larger warm audience that is easier to convert. Moreover, unlike other forms of communication like social media or blogs, with emails, you have complete control over the communication channel, analytics, and you can segment your audience.
Before you sign up for an email-marketing service, you should know not all emails are created equal. You will need to create an email marketing strategy with several campaigns to ensure effective communication. A good email marketing strategy should help you grow your list, generate leads, and nurture them through a solid follow-up process.
To send emails, you can use services like MailChimp, Active Campaign, sendinblue, etc that allow you to take signups and send out emails. The best part of using email services like these is that they allow you to automate sending out emailers, making it easier to stay in touch with prospects without actively having to do the work.
To begin with, you will want to have an email sign up form like the one below on your website where people can provide their email addresses. Realtors often also market their email-sign ups during offline interactions to build their database. You can do that too during networking events, having your sign up link on your visiting card etc.
Once someone is on your list, you need to have a welcome email sequence that gets them acquainted with you and your brand, as well as your unique value proposition.
Here’s an example of a welcome email sequence from Annie.
The sequence starts with her introduction then progresses ask for the reader’s preferences so Annie can share the right information.
Annie then shares market updates, emails for new listings, shares insights about the real estate space in the area and creates a periodic newsletter to strengthen her relationship with them. Then, she follows up with her prospect to nudge them to contact her.
Lastly, she gives her prospects the option of opting out from her list if they don’t find her content useful.
And if you want to understand real estate email marketing better, check out this article that will take you through the required details and tools.
Real Estate Digital Marketing Tip #3: Invest In Facebook Ads To Generate Quality Leads
Facebook is one of the best social media platforms for real estate agents, thanks to its wide reach and specialized targeting options in the real estate space. Moreover, InVideo’s research found that most realtors use FB ads for marketing their real estate services as it gives them the best ROI and allows them to be hyperlocal with their advertising.
One issue, however, is that Facebook’s ad manager can get overly complicated at times, making it difficult to run the right kind of ads and find the right kind of audience. This is why it’s imperative to master Facebook ads and know the kind of ads you need to run on Facebook to get maximum returns:
1. Property Ads (FB Dynamic Ads For Real Estate)
These specialized ads for the real estate space are one of the most effective FB ad strategies to get conversions in a short time as they target only those customers who have previously shown an interest in your property.
For instance, if a prospect showed interest in a 3-bedroom flat, Facebook’s machine learning algorithm will pull out similar properties from your catalogue and display them to the viewer. You can use these types of ads if you’re selling multiple properties with similar features in the same area.
Take a look at this dynamic ad from Ponte Vedra realty that shows the user 3 bedroom properties in the area as the user previously showed an interest in a similar property.
Property ads work like any other FB ad, but it can be set up only if you’ve set the campaign objective to “Product Catalog Sales”, have a pixel installed, and already have a “Real Estate” audience in your account. To understand how to set up a property ad, go through Meta’s property ad guide, dynamic ad guide for real estate and the business help centre.
2. Create Testimonial Ads
Many real estate developers and agents dismiss the power of testimonial ads and don’t include them in their FB ad strategy. Here’s an example from the Wells Group in Texas. The testimonial positions Frances as a patient listener who knows the real estate industry well, thus boosting her authority and expertise.
To create a testimonial ad of your own, create an ad campaign and target people who are planning to sell their home in the near future. You can do this by going to your ad set and adding interests like “Buying and Selling Real Estate.”
Pro-Tip: You can also use InVideo’s real estate testimonial templates to create a video testimonial that boosts your credibility.
3. Use video ads
While video may not be the same as taking a house tour, it gives prospects a realistic idea of the house and warms them up for the tour and the sale.
Here’s an example of a walkthrough video ad from Woolson Real Estate highlighting the blend of classic and modern architecture, and the spacious interiors.
To create a stunning video ad like Woolson Real Estate within minutes, use this InVideo template or choose from InVideo’s real estate templates and add media, music, etc., from our royalty-free library.
Real Estate Digital Marketing Tip #4: Implement A Social Media Marketing Strategy
A recent survey from The Close, a real estate website, found that 44% of real estate agents found a new client during the pandemic due to their consistent social media efforts.
People aren't going to buy off of a single post, but social media helps improve your discoverability, brand reinforcement, and the ability to build connections (and ultimately sales) by directly interacting with and following up with your potential customers.
During InVideo’s interaction with real estate agents, we found that Instagram and Facebook were the most used and most preferred social media platforms by realtors – because they make direct communication easy while also helping communicate all important information about the brand.
While they’re both excellent platforms, the audiences on both are quite different, and the way you communicate on both also needs to be different. To effectively market your brand on both, you will need to create a marketing strategy that allows you to consistently share real estate content on the platforms, establish your expertise, create a USP, and also showcase your latest products and offerings.
How to market your real estate business on Instagram
Since Instagram is a highly visual medium, it is best used for showcasing your properties in all their glory. This helps get a constant flow of inquiries and leads.
For your Instagram strategy, you want to focus on a mix of photos and videos – especially Reels to get in front of a larger audience. You can easily create engaging reels for your brand using InVideo’s reels templates. Here’s one such template that you can customize for your brand:
Another key type of content you want to include is live tours of properties through the Instagram Live feature to help people see your properties in real-time.
Take a look at the Instagram page for Toll Brothers, who sell luxury homes. Their feed showcases brightly-lit photographs, and they use the stories section to highlight properties in different areas. They’ve also made use of Reels to promote their properties.
How to market your real estate business on Facebook
While your overall strategy will be similar to that of Instagram – as in sharing videos and photos, Facebook allows you to do a lot more. Through Facebook, you can list your properties, create open houses and also host lives that allow you to connect with people in real time.
To make the best of Facebook, ensure you create a page for your real estate business as well as a group where your potential customers can get in touch in case of questions and queries. You can also automate your messaging to address repeated queries like visiting hours, price ranges, etc. and even book appointments on autopilot without losing leads.
Here’s an example of a great real estate FB page. The Simy Darby page has automated messaging to answer repeated queries, posts valuable content, and promotes properties on their page.
You can also check out this definitive guide to set up a Facebook business account for real estate in the right manner.
Real Estate Digital Marketing Tip #5: Invest In SEO
Employing the right SEO strategies will improve your site’s visibility on search engines, turn you into a credible and trusted real estate website, and eventually increase inquiries and sales.
But while you focus on optimizing your website, you want to pay just as much attention to your local SEO – to get the right leads in your area – as you focus on the overall SEO ranking for your website on Google. You want to optimize your website for hyperlocal search terms like “condos in New York” or “studio apartments in Phoenix.”
Here are a few tips to improve local SEO for your real estate website:
1. Create landing pages for each location to gain more traction while running paid ads.
2. Optimize the written content for location-based keywords like “houses near me”, “condos in…”, “houses near..”, etc. Here’s an article that’ll help you understand local keyword strategy better.
3. Create a My Business listing on Google and list your websites on real estate directories like Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, etc. as many people visit these websites to search for properties.
4. With the introduction of devices like Google Home and Amazon's Alexa, voice searches are becoming increasingly more common. Optimizing your content for voice search means you can be found on voice search, both on mobile and desktop.
This can be done by including long-tail keywords and phrases customers use while searching. For example, instead of using “California two-bedroom fireplace,” users are more likely to use a complete sentence like, “find a two bedroom flat with a fireplace and hardwood floor in California.”
Real Estate Digital Marketing Tip #6:Focus On Video Marketing For Higher ROI
In the previous sections, we’ve already established the importance of video in real estate. But if you’re still not sure about creating a video marketing strategy for your real estate business, here are solid stats that’ll make you think otherwise.
- 85% of buyers and sellers want to work with an agent who uses video as their marketing efforts.
- Homes listed with video get 4X more inquiries than homes listed without video
To create a great video for your real estate business, you should focus on selling a story to create a connection and build trust as people are looking for homes for their families or an ideal office for their teams.
Uptown Station in Auckland does this beautifully by outlining how their property captures the city’s spirit and is great for prospects who want to break the status quo.
To create great videos like Uptown Station, you need to research your target audience and their interests to create a script that resonates with them. For example, Uptown Station has targeted millennials with the urge to do more and stand out. Once you’ve penned the script, use real estate specific templates from InVideo to create any video for your real estate video marketing campaigns.
Several types of videos can be a part of your video marketing strategy. You can use virtual tour videos to showcase properties in detail, explainer videos answering frequently asked questions, host live walk-throughs on social media, make aerial videos to showcase the area your property is situated in, as well as create listing videos to put on your website.
Here are some video marketing ideas that’ll help you get more traction:
Summing Up
Now that you understand the technicalities involved in making a successful real estate digital marketing campaign, you can implement it to make your online presence stronger. Check out our definitive guide on Evergreen Real Estate Marketing Ideas if you want to learn more about successfully executing your real estate marketing plan. If you want to start leveraging videos for your digital marketing campaign, sign up for a free account on InVideo where you have more than 5000+ templates to get you started.
And if you prefer learning via videos, you definitely should check out our YouTube channel where we share daily video creation tips and tricks, the latest video trends and ideas and help you make more money as a video creator.
FAQs
1. What is the role of digital marketing in real estate?
Targeted real estate digital marketing strategies can help improve turnover, transparency and sales volume.
2. What are the best marketing platforms for real estate?
There are several ways to market your real estate business. You can take the social media route and create content on social media platforms – Facebook and Instagram are the most popular in the real estate community.
You can also go hyperlocal with services such as Nextdoor that allow you to market your services in smaller neighbourhoods. You can list your properties on larger marketplaces like Zillow to gain traction and get better leads. Ideally you will want to have a mix of all.
This post was written by Mrignayni and edited by Adete from Team InVideo
