This article was updated on December 2, 2021
With the real estate market expected to maintain its competitiveness in 2022, you'll have to do more than post new listings and send direct mail to capture the attention of your target clients. So how do you stand out? To convert prospective clients, you'll have to be more strategic with your site's content marketing. Tap into some of this year’s marketing trends such as virtual tours, customer testimonials, social media advertisements, and other unique digital marketing opportunities.
If you (and maybe your marketing team) are ready to ramp up your marketing efforts to build brand awareness, secure leads, and start closing sales in the new year, read on.
Adding these tactics to your marketing plan will make you a lead competitor in the real estate industry in 2022 and beyond:
- Maintain real estate website best practices
- Create multiple landing pages
- Incorporate aerial video into your marketing
- Embrace pandemic-safe tour technologies
- Leverage the power of social media
- Run an active blog:
#1 Maintain real estate website best practices
The first step to attracting new potential customers and building your contacts database is to set up an online presence for your real estate business. According to a report by the National Association of Realtors, MLS, websites, and apps are among the most valuable real estate marketing tools that generate the highest quality of leads to real estate businesses.
How do you ensure that your website stands out to a prospective client? Follow these website best practices to turn your real estate website into a solid lead generator:
- Use an eye-catching layout and design
- Make your website mobile-friendly and easy to navigate
- Include an IDX-optimized search bar on-site
- Include high-quality, professional photos, videos, and infographics
- Provide interesting and outstanding property description
- Include comprehensive neighborhood information and free real estate resources
- Include effective call-to-action (CTA) buttons
- Implement a search engine optimization (SEO) marketing strategy to ensure that your website ranks high in Google rankings
- Ensure contact information, including your phone number and email, is easy for potential buyers to find
- Include newsletter signup boxes and links to your social media profiles
#2 Create multiple landing pages
Instead of one single landing page for all your lead generation efforts, utilize multiple landing pages to drive more online traffic to your real estate business. This includes:
- A home value landing page: You can create this page to allow visitors to look up the value of their home. When they land on this page, visitors will be asked to provide their contact information to receive their estimate.
- A free content landing page: You can create this page to provide visitors with free content. It can be an eBook, PDF, or any other type of content that might lure visitors into inputting their contact details.
- A home search landing page: You can create this page to allow visitors to search for new homes in their desired area.
Remember to keep your content concise and straight to the point to keep the attention of new potential home buyers and sellers.
#3 Incorporate aerial video into your marketing lifestyle marketing
This strategy is crucial to any real estate marketing campaign. Thanks to the boom of video drones, capturing aerial footage has become cheaper and easier than ever. Aerial photos and video shots allow prospective buyers to visualize the dimensions of the property, as well as its relation to neighboring properties and local amenities. Consider shooting around sunset, when soft, warm colors beautify the landscape and enhance a home's natural appeal.
For larger, more stately properties, the use of aerial footage can aid in marketing the dream lifestyle a home offers. Indoors, conveying a home's dream lifestyle can be achieved through staging, but outdoors this is more readily done with sweeping aerial shots of a home's amenities in action. Homes featuring large swimming pools, elaborate gardens, and backyards, unique lots, rooftop decks, or stunning views typically make great candidates for drone-assisted lifestyle marketing campaigns.
Get creative with your drone footage. Consider showing prospective buyers how close the home is to the nearest shopping centers, schools, and other amenities with an aerial view. This will allow the homebuyer to imagine walking their kids to school or meeting their friends for lunch at the nearest cafe.
#4 Embrace pandemic-safe tour technologies alongside open houses
The pandemic brought a surge of pandemic-safe tour technologies from 3D and virtual home tours to pre-recorded showings. And despite in-person open houses restarting across the country, these technologies aren't gone for good. Instead, real estate agents are doubling up on open houses by offering both virtual and in-person options.
Why continue to use virtual technologies?
Not only are 3D and virtual tours more compelling than still photos alone, but they also allow potential buyers to explore the layout of the home. Unlike still photos or video montages, 3D tours let a potential client "walk" through a home, from room to room, as they would in person. Plus, using virtual tour technologies requires minimal disruption to the client, who may still be occupying their home.
Even though most restrictions on COVID-19 are lifted, some people are still hesitant to return to normal. You can capitalize on this by meeting them where they are — online.
#5 Leverage the power of social media
Everyone - first-time home buyers, prospective buyers, and past clients - searches for homes online, making social media and online marketing a valuable combo for real estate agents. Social media for business marketing has proven very useful in attracting a variety of audiences. Different platforms, like Nextdoor, can help you reach potential clients.
Here are some ideas to elevate your social media marketing efforts:
- Make social sharing easy by including responsive layouts (for desktop and mobile devices) and simple share buttons.
- Enable reviews and ratings on each social media platform.
- Use live streaming to give a behind-the-scenes look at the properties you're selling.
- Post 360-degree videos and photos of the properties you're selling.
- Build a chatbot or a similar service that programs bots to answer frequently asked questions through messaging.
- Run paid promotions to engage potential clients within a designated radius.
- Post a poll as a way to spark dialogue with homeowners in a local neighborhood on Nextdoor.
- Use hashtags in your social media for listings and all other real estate posts.
- Get your open houses in front of registered neighbors with Nextdoor's Neighborhood Sponsorship.
- Engage on discussion boards to network in your community
Your goal when using each social media account is to spark interest and engage potential clientele. Encourage people to click on the links and images take them directly to your real estate website.
One way to catch the attention of buyers is to regularly post content. No social media marketing campaign would work if you rarely post. One of the best practices for social media marketing campaigns is regularly posting content. That way, your posts easily get picked up by the platform's algorithm and seen by users.
#6 Run an active blog
If you don't already have one, consider starting a blog for your real estate business. As one of the most effective real estate marketing ideas, a blog can act as an educational resource for both current and potential clients, increasing your business's overall visibility.
Additionally, it provides a space to start an open dialogue with the people in your neighborhood about anything related to real estate. This marketing idea is great because it will position you as a trusted real estate professional in your area, which will bring even more clients to your door. Yet, another great outlet for lead generation for your small business.
To better tie in your email marketing efforts to your online blog, consider crafting a pop-up window on your website's landing page that prompts online viewers to enter their email address to receive notifications on new daily, weekly, or monthly publications.
Real estate marketing doesn't necessarily require you to be a web guru.
But leveraging the power of different real estate tools will set your real estate business apart from both local and national competition. Incorporating the above real estate marketing ideas into your real estate marketing strategy will undoubtedly raise your profile and set your company up for success in the real estate market in the new year.
Claim your free Business Page to get started on Nextdoor. For resources on how to use Nextdoor to stay connected with your local customers, pertinent news affecting businesses, and more, follow us at @nextdoorbusiness on Facebook.
