Real Estate Marketing 101
Being a real estate agent allows you more freedom than the regular nine-to-five, but just like any other business owner, you have to get people interested in what you have to offer - your business listings.
Now that many people are looking for homes online, you'll need to hone your digital marketing skills to get more houses sold and increase your revenue.
Real Estate Marketing
Real estate marketing is similar to promoting any other type of business. Essentially, you must communicate your skills and promote the homes that are available for buyers. A real estate marketing strategist must speak to your audience so you can attract more clients. Here's how you can start marketing for real estate.
Identify Your Target Audience
Before you can start marketing your business, you need to identify your audience. You should know who you're selling to and where you can find those individuals. There are two primary audiences for real estate agents: home sellers and homebuyers.
The best way to start identifying your audience is to build target personas. These are based on generalizations about your ideal client, including their genders, ages, incomes, and locations. These personas will allow you to create marketing campaigns that will resonate with those you want to partner with. To learn about your audience, consider speaking with your existing client base to determine:
- How they found you
- Why they chose you
- How they interacted with you
- Their pain points in the buying or selling process
- Feedback
By simply talking to your existing clients, you can see patterns that will help you determine how you can market to them better.
Build a Strong Brand
Strong real estate brands have narratives and brand consistency that allows them to increase brand awareness and get more clients. Your brand is all about how you do business and help your clients buy or sell homes. You should have a logo, name, and tagline so people can identify you, but you should also have a website that clearly communicates what you do.
To develop your brand message, make sure you highlight the unique selling points of doing business with you. For example, if you store your clients' stuff and stage their homes for free, you should let sellers know.
Once you've developed your brand, it's important to stay consistent. Since you'll be marketing and advertising in many different places, you need to keep your branding consistent so your potential clients can recognize you. Whether you're listing a rental property or a permanent residence, you need to make sure your logo and tagline are all present.
Did you know? It typically takes at least two to three interactions with a brand before someone decides to do business with that brand. By keeping your branding consistent throughout all of your marketing and advertising efforts, you can help people learn more about you while you stay in the back of their minds.
Reach Your Audience
Once you have your branding down, it's time to start reaching potential clients. As a realtor, you'll want to advertise and market your business locally so you and your clients don't have to drive too far to meet. Consider the area that you serve and the people who live in that area so that you can spend your marketing budget wisely.
Make sure you claim your free Google My Business listing so people in your area can find you with a quick search. You can also set up listings on local directories so you can be found online.
Get More Calls
Your main goal as a realtor should be to get potential clients to call you to learn more about what you offer. Unfortunately, it takes more work to let qualified leads come to you than it does to cold-call people in your area. While many people may be able to find your website online, it will take a little bit more than being found to make them want to call you.
There are many ways to drive more calls to your business, but one of the most effective can be branded phone numbers that will allow people to remember your phone number without having to look you up. You can also highlight all of the benefits of working with you on your website.
Make sure you also take advantage of testimonials. Try to get reviews from all of your clients so people can read reviews about working with you, allowing them to trust you, and want to call you.
Consider Your Strategies
There are many marketing strategies to choose from for real estate agencies, but you must choose wisely so you can get the most bang for your buck. Here are some strategies to test:
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) allows your prospects to find you online. People who find you through organic search are more likely to convert to clients than those you reach out to yourself because these individuals are already looking for your services. As a realtor, you'll need to focus on local SEO so you can be found by people in the areas you service.
You can attempt to do SEO yourself, but it's typically best to work with an agency because search engines have a ton of rules you'll need to follow if you want your website to rank on the first page of search results.
Social Media Advertising
Real Estate businesses do well on social media because they are very image-oriented businesses. Many people love looking at homes for sale, even when they're not interested in buying. You never know who's in the market for a house, so by being active on social media and engaging with your followers, you can help people start the homebuying process.
There are two social media strategies you should engage in: organic and paid. Organic social media requires no money. All you have to do is set up a business profile and start posting photos and videos. Unfortunately, getting followers organically is harder than ever, but as you start engaging your followers, you do get and post quality content, you can slowly grow your follower count.
Social media advertising allows you to reach thousands of people in your area for a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. Make sure you use great content to lure in potential clients at every stage of the buyer's journey. The best news is that social media platforms like Facebook allow you to test your ads to find out which one deserves more of your budget.
Traditional Marketing
Digital marketing can help you reach more people at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing, but don't count traditional marketing out just yet. Billboards and other forms of marketing can help you reach people on their way to work. You can also use it to get more individuals to an open house. Try using digital marketing and traditional marketing together to see how well they work together.
Marketing your real estate business will be just as difficult as it is to market any other type of business. Ultimately, the success of your business depends on how well you advertise and your effectiveness at selling houses. You'll need to create marketing strategies for homebuyers and sellers to ensure you always have clients.
Matt Casadona
Matt Casadona has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. Matt is passionate about marketing and business strategy and enjoys San Diego life, traveling, and music.
