Empowering Your Marketing Efforts: Exploring Real Estate Marketing Tools
Marketing your real estate business has never been easier! The real estate industry is competitive by nature, and the only way agents and real estate agencies can stay ahead of the game is with marketing. Luckily the digital toolkit for real estate agents has come a long way in recent years.
In particular, during the global pandemic, realtors have been forced to adapt and innovate marketing initiatives to bypass social distancing and regional lockdowns. The result? A fresh approach to your marketing plan in 2023!
We've hand-selected the creme de la creme of marketing goods for real estate agents that are simple, actionable, and direct.
What to Expect in the Upcoming Year
The industry is seeing a greater technological uptake when it comes to real estate marketing tools and service provision. Finally, the industry is catching up with other sectors such as transport, travel, and retail, which have completely integrated technology into their daily operations. This synthesis encourages progression in how businesses service clients and organizations and foster positive connections between the two.
Entrepreneurs who want to grow their business, get their message out to the world and provide an optimized service need to understand how to market their services effectively.
To prepare your business for powerful connection and growth in 2023, it's best to use a mixture of these tools. By diversifying your approach, you can better target your audience, highlight your business within your community, improve service provision, and create unique experiences.
If you’re looking to stay ahead of the race and keep up to date with the leading real estate innovations, don’t forget to catch up with the front-line of real estate thought leaders at the Real Estate Masters Summit. That way you’ll stay in front of the competition with the latest innovations in technology, business practises, and marketing tricks for 2023!
So get ready to spruce up your marketing toolkit to make the best of a busy and prosperous year ahead!
Harness the Power of SEO Tools
The last decade or so has seen some serious shifts in where consumers search for real estate. One of the most powerful changes is in the transition to searching online for agents and brokers when people want to buy or sell a house.
The majority of people jump onto Google to find a local real estate website to buy or sell a property. In that light, it's clear to see why so many businesses are taking advantage of this opportunity and using SEO to rank their websites on the front page of Google.
SEO takes real estate marketing beyond organic reach with state-of-the-art conversion strategies that keep real estate agents ahead in a highly competitive industry.
Capturing audiences who are ready to buy or sell as soon as they open Google is one of the best marketing tools for realtors because it gives your business an immediate advantage over local competitors.
Ranking your business on search engines is a long-term strategy that allows agents to automate and optimize marketing, which ultimately gives agents more time to focus on selling properties.
How does it work?
Google's algorithms are designed to match consumers' Google searches with corresponding local websites containing the content most relevant to that search. By understanding exactly what clients search for online and featuring specific keywords, links, and high-value content on your website, SEO creates a direct “road map” in Google between clients who search for your services, and your business.
Quality content is an incredibly powerful way for businesses to reach consumers by providing the information they require and nurturing each lead by offering value.
SEO is something an agent can do for their own website if they have the time to invest in learning how it works and implementing it. Though understanding the ins and outs of SEO (and creating optimized content) can be time-consuming for business owners. So if you want to generate long-term automated and effective marketing for your website with little investment, hire a competent team of SEO experts to do it for you.
Virtual Tour Software
During the global pandemic, the concept of house viewing changed completely, and these shifts will likely continue to grow as we trek towards a new normal. Virtual tours popped up as a way to keep the real estate market alive and thriving as societies faced social distancing limitations and local lockdowns.
Rather than viewing homes on-site, potential buyers can now experience remote property viewing, virtual walkthroughs, and 360-degree property tours with virtual reality technology and mobile apps from the comfort of their own homes.
The property buying process has become a more convenient and accessible experience for consumers today. Case in point, buyers can now explore ten homes when they visit an agency instead of traveling to ten different locations.
As remote work opportunities become more integrated into society, workers seek real estate in suburban residential areas or across the nation. Virtual property tours allow buyers to explore locations without the hassle of having to travel, helping them narrow down their search and save money!
It can take some time and a bit of savvy to create virtual tours. You may need to brush up on your video editing skills or invest in a third-party company to polish-up your videos for you.
Email Marketing Tools
Last year, email marketing was a preferred communication tactic for businesses looking to expand their network of prospective buyers. In 2023, this trend will likely continue.
Emails are a convenient, quick, and inexpensive strategy for agents to showcase listings, nurture relationships with leads, and provide valuable information.
Emails have driven results for businesses since the dinosaur age of digital marketing because they help keep your business at the forefront of a lead's mind. But with so many companies jumping on board the email express, digital marketers need to keep their strategy fresh to capture the attention of their prospects.
So how do we make our emails stand out from all the rest?
Make Emails Interactive
Everyone's attention is becoming more stretched, and expecting your leads to read through email after email doesn't cut it anymore.
Include a combination of interesting information and incentives in your emails to increase the time people spend looking at them. You can do this by using carousels, videos, or other interactive elements that encourage action rather than simply reading through content for enjoyment's sake. It will increase the likelihood that prospects will click through to your website as well.
Personalized Messaging
The concept surrounding personalized messaging is simple, but that does not mean it's easy. To keep leads engaged with what you're offering, they need their interest to be sparked by something relevant to them. The best way to make your content relevant is to gain a deeper understanding of your consumer's aspirations and challenges.
Nobody has time to waste on emails that are not relevant to them. Prospects who cannot clearly and quickly see the value you present will not engage with your email marketing efforts.
Harness your data to drive more engaging and relevant content, and don't be afraid to be authentic. People want to buy from other people, so make sure you include a personal touch in your messaging.
Write Less Copy
As attention spans deteriorate and time becomes an increasingly valuable resource, we need to be aware of how much copy is included in any one email.
Many recipients have a habit of skimming emails, so it pays to make them easy to scan with a little more detail for those who the content appeals to.
Try storytelling or connecting with your audience through humor. This has been shown to foster more meaningful relationships with readers than a hard sell or impersonal message. Just make sure your tone matches your brand.
Social Media Marketing Tools
In 2021, an increasing number of people were working remotely. Subsequently, social media usage has skyrocketed. Moving into 2023, digital marketing tools and mediums will become a key driver for growth.
Real estate is catching on with this trend, and entrepreneurs can market their business by boosting their potential customer base, as well as performing insightful market research with little effort. In addition, establishing a strong social media presence is a fantastic way to build a brand and generate awareness of your business.
Property listings are becoming increasingly popular on the social media stage. Agents can now target audiences based on demographics, and with little expense. A popular trend is to feature videos and high-quality images, which (thanks to Facebook and Instagram's algorithms) increases a listing's visibility to wider audiences.
But rather than spreading your efforts across every social media site available, consider using just one or two where larger segments of your target audience hang out. Here are a few examples of real estate marketing platforms to think about.
Facebook is a wonderful tool for real estate agents because there are so many ways you can use it! For example, adopting a carousel format to advertise multiple listings or multiple aspects of one property gives your audience a more in-depth insight into what you're offering.
Virtual tours and other forms of video footage work well with Facebook's algorithms to achieve a wider organic reach for any post.
You can also make groups and communities on the platform to nurture a better-personalized relationship with your audience and address their pain points.
With Instagram, you can showcase properties or regions with high-quality images, sell a lifestyle, and use hashtags to reach audiences who don't already connect to your page.
Facebook and Instagram also offer different types of content as options, like Q&A, polls, and stories to encourage engagement. You can use the business suite to monitor the success and engagement of your content, gain valuable insights into your audience behaviors and preferences, and improve your marketing performance accordingly. With rapidly changing social media trends, these will help you keep your finger on the pulse.
Hootsuite
Creating and organizing your social media posts takes considerable time. And modern real estate entrepreneurs understand the importance of time! That's where Hootsuite comes in.
This is a social media management platform that allows you to create, schedule, and compare content and engagement across multiple social media platforms.
It saves you time because you can schedule everything in advance and track and compare your successes without having to invest time consistently. With just a few hours each month, all of your social media marketing is taken care of!
Customer Relationship Management Tools
An excellent customer relationship management tool is just like having an additional PA on your team. Customer relationships are at the pinnacle of business success in modern times, so being able to keep track of clients, prospects, and networks you encounter when you're out and about is a powerful way to connect the right people with the right messages.
Connecting is critical in modern times. With a reliable CRM system, you can gather and organize your data to micro segment your audience and connect with them personally on a deeper level.
Having a system that stores more data than follow-up message prompts and congratulatory mail on special dates is important.
Features such as personalized website templates, email workflows or campaigns, and those that link to social media are ideal for real estate because they allow you to support and nurture leads in multiple courses of action. This way you can send the right messages to the right people at the right time.
The more powerfully you can connect with leads, the more likely they will listen to you. To save time, look for a system that's simple to use and can be navigated with ease.
Community Service and Charity
So many businesses have taken a hard financial hit during the global pandemic. Communities have suffered significant losses on an individual and collective level.
People have lost jobs, family members, and businesses have been forced to shut down. If you are a real estate agent or agency in a financially stable position, you can make charitable donations to assist those less fortunate.
Potential clients are looking for real estate agents who demonstrate competency, compassion, and initiative. If you can get your name out there as someone who gives back to the community, you will attract more leads to your business.
Not only that, it will boost your brand awareness and your personal and professional reputation. Charitable acts spread a positive message where communities need it most, and build credibility and trust between you and your audience.
Evolved Marketing
Charity is considered one of the more evolved real estate marketing tools in 2023.
The more engaged you become in the community, the more the community pulls together and strengthens, and the more it will benefit your business.
Charitable acts do not necessarily mean giving away hard-earned money. You could offer services at a discounted rate, sponsor a charitable event, or form partnerships with other businesses to offer package deals to those in need.
Everyone can use a helping hand during economic hardship. So if your business is doing well, well done to you! Spread a positive message in your community and help others get back on their feet in 2023.
Virtual Events
As our lives (and businesses) become increasingly location independent, why not capitalize on this by running virtual events?
Setting up a webinar on Zoom or Google Meet is a great way to market your business in the digital space in 2023. Virtual events give you the chance to interact directly with your audience and gather valuable information about them.
These workshops have a stronger focus on developing long-term relationships with your network, rather than obtaining short-term sales. That said, customers gain valuable insights about your brand during virtual events and are more likely to refer back to your business when making purchase decisions in the future. Virtual workshops are timely to set up, so they're ideal if you have some time available to invest in preparing them.
For a start, hone in on your niche and provide valuable information to your current customer database. Virtual events will attract new leads who are interested in your presentation.
Hosting online events helps you to establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field, building credibility and awareness of your brand. Power up your events by forming partnerships with other realtors, to provide a wider breadth and scope of value for your clients.
The benefit is that you can connect with people from across the country, not only those in your location. Consider sending out transcripts and recordings to those who couldn't attend to nurture relationships with leads. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Buyer Workshops
As a real estate agent, you understand how challenging it can be to navigate the first-home buyer process. So why not use that empathy and offer advice and insights to those currently confronting these issues? You could cover anything from effective negotiations to teaching customers what to look out for when purchasing a property or even understanding building reports. Invite a guest speaker from a financial lending firm to talk about financing and mortgages. The opportunities are endless!
Learn what challenges your buyers face and help them find the solutions they need to move forward.
Seller Workshops
When is the right time to sell? What are current market conditions like? How do you stage your home so that it's attractive and appealing to prospective buyers? There are plenty of questions that float around in the minds of people who are selling property.
Use your real estate knowledge and skills to help people answer these questions so they can trust your expertise and move one step closer to a sale.
Investor Workshops
We couldn't neglect property investors when we're talking about online events. Focussing on investors allows you to expand your client network to out-of-state buyers as well as those in your locality.
Workshopping 1031 exchanges is one of many powerful ways to offer value to investors. You can target property flippers, investors, and developers for investment events. By targeting hard money lenders, you can also tap into new investor networks that may be interested in your workshop.
Final Thoughts
As marketing initiatives continue to shift and change in the real estate industry, entrepreneurs need to follow those developments to stay ahead of the game. The Real Estate Masters Summit in 2023 will ensure you have the most updated tools and information to help you stay ahead of the competition.
Over the last two years, many new real estate marketing tools have emerged, offering realtors and real estate agents new tools to grow their database of prospective leads, and provide value to their communities at the same time.
Email marketing and social media certainly aren't new, but the approach we take to them has become more evolved to adapt to a general decline in attention retention.
If you have resources available, charitable donations are an excellent way to get your name out there in the community.
With a little technological aptitude, virtual tours and online events will help you establish your brand as a credible authority in the real estate industry. Keep in mind you will need to continue to inject time into these if you plan to keep the ball rolling throughout the whole year.
1. Automated lead generation tools: Lead generation tools help you generate quality leads and automate the entire process.
2. CRM software: A good CRM helps you keep track of your clients, develop relationships, and capture leads.
3. Social media management: Social media platforms are a great way to connect with potential clients and increase brand visibility.
4. Content marketing: Content plays an important role in every marketing strategy and should be used to showcase your expertise in real estate.
5. Property websites: Having a website is crucial for real estate agents who want to establish themselves as experts in their field.