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4 Tools for Determining the Best Time to Post on Social Media for Your Property

by Elizabeth Hines | Oct 3, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Determine when and where your target buyers are online to find the optimal time to post on social media.

Social media has changed the landscape for doing business, particularly when it comes to real estate. With the click of a button, companies are able to instantly communicate with untapped markets and potential buyers and tenants. Face-to-face interactions are often overshadowed by live streaming videos, tweets, chats, and likes. For real estate sales and rentals, the possibilities for social media marketing are virtually endless.

But it’s not enough to curate content for your social media platforms. Today’s social media users expect fresh, innovative ideas around the clock. And when this content is being shared is just as valuable as what is being shared.

There’s a lot of research out there that highlights the optimal time to post on various social media platforms. For example, marketing analytics software provider TrackMaven has published its Best Times to Post on Social Media Cheat Sheet, which breaks down posting by industry, brand, and product. It also offers general dates and times that can boost success.

But the truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all social media posting solution.

You need to take it one step further. You need to know the best time for your unique property to post content. You want more than just a general idea of when to post. You want specific information about your target buyers and tenants — when they’re actively scrolling, reading, watching, and liking your content.

As you get a sense for when your target audience is most likely to interact with your content, be sure to keep in mind the ideal frequency for real estate companies to post to each social media platform.

Determining the best time to post on social media

There’s a broad range of tools available that will analyze the personal data of your social media followers and help you compute the best time to post on social media. Here are four that we think offer the most useful information and are easy to use.

1) Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that can do everything from scheduling social media posts to measuring your social media ROI. The AutoSchedule feature lets Hootsuite determine the best time to publish a post or tweet based on when similar content performed well in the past. It also considers the platform and can publish the same message at different times based on audience engagement on each particular network.

2) Tweriod

Tweriod, a free Twitter tool that helps you know the best time to tweet, is changing the way companies approach their marketing tweets. It will evaluate up to 1,000 of your followers and their tweeting patterns, including schedule, interests, and retweets. You then receive an analysis of when your tweets will receive the most exposure.

3) Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a robust analytical tool for determining how web users are interacting with your digital assets, including social media. Three custom reports (Best Days to Post on Social Media, Best Time to Post on Social Network by Hour, and the Social Media Traffic by Date and Hour) offer real-time, in-depth insight. Best of all, Google Analytics is free!

4) SproutSocial

SproutSocial offers a customized dashboard with a quick overview of how your social media channels are performing. You also can gain deeper insight into your customers — like gender and age demographics, crucial information for real estate marketing. And you can assess your customer reach and what will work in your favor.

Creating a strong social media presence is essential for any property. But having a presence is just a starting point in understanding how to fully optimize these ever-changing platforms to work for you.

Using online tools to analyze when and where your content should be posted will enhance the value of your social media efforts. In short, you have the best chance of generating leads and closing deals by pushing your content through the right avenues at the right time.

Related posts:

• 5 Tips for Building a Successful Real Estate Social Media Marketing Program

• Social Media Can Be a Strategic Weapon in Real Estate Marketing

• How Pay-Per-Click Helped This Property Get 54 Leads

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Infographic: Best Video Distribution Channels for Real Estate Marketing

by Katie Russell | May 21, 2019 | Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Knowing the right video distribution channels for your real estate marketing videos can go a long way toward driving traffic and getting your content to your target audience. 

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Highlights: 

• Choose video distribution channels that match your marketing goals. 
• Don’t underestimate the power of your own network — use this network as the starting point for distribution. 
• Paid ads can give video an extra boost. 

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You made the leap and embraced video marketing, the latest trend in digital marketing. The videos are informative and show what makes your brand unique, BUT they are not getting the views or shares you were expecting.  

After dedicating your time and hard work (not to mention, marketing dollars), you want to make sure your real estate marketing videos are getting in front of your target audience and helping move buyers down the sales funnel.  How can you do that? The answer is distribution.  

Choosing the right platform (or platforms) to distribute your videos will help boost reach and ROI. But how do you know what platforms are right for you? Platforms and marketing trends are constantly changing; it’s hard to know which distribution channels are best for your target audience. Let us help. 

Here are the four best video distribution channels for your real estate marketing videos. 

Made with Canva

1. Your network

Don’t underestimate the power of your own existing network. Send your videos, via email, to your primary contacts and everyone in your current database. In a recent study, emails with video had a 96% higher click-through rate than emails without video. With such increased engagement numbers, including video in your emails is surely a homerun.   

2. Social media

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and — of course — YouTube are great to reach your target audience. Within the social media category, you want to consider which platforms suit your content best. YouTube is a great place to start, but there are also many real estate specific online forums and social groups that can benefit you as well. 

And don’t worry if you have longer videos that won’t work for platforms like Instagram. You can easily create teaser videos for promotion on Instagram that link to your long-form videos embedded on your website or video channel. 

3. Blogs

Blogs are one of the easiest ways to drive organic traffic and increase lead generation. Promote your video on your own blog to reach your followers and boost your SEO. Blogs are also a great place to experiment with different types of marketing videos. Whether video tutorials, interviews, or even “Get to Know Us” videos, your blog is great place to capitalize on your videos by integrating them into your existing marketing efforts.  

4. Paid ads

While the first three video distribution channels that we discussed are organic, sometimes it is well worth it to use paid ads to give your videos a significant boost, such as Google Ads. Paid ads help get your videos in front of prospective buyers and renters faster than would happen organically. Pair quality video with a comprehensive digital advertising strategy, and you will be in a position to drive more traffic, create more brand visibility, and sell or lease more properties. 

Bottom line  

We live in a highly visual world. Real estate marketing with video is an immediate and effective way to reach your audience and show them what makes your brand and properties special. Using the right video distribution channels helps you get the most out of your video marketing efforts.  

Related posts: 

• 6 Simple Tools for Creating Animated Real Estate Marketing Videos 
• 4 Real Estate Blogging Tools You Should be Using 
• 3 Ways to Boost Your Real Estate Marketing with Video 

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Marketing Real Estate on Social Media: 8 Best Ways to Get More Leads

by Katie Russell | Aug 28, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

How do you gain maximum exposure for your luxury brand? Here are 8 tips to boost your real estate social media strategy. 

Did you know that 91% of marketers are looking for the best ways to engage their audience on social media? Real estate is a very competitive yet lucrative field, a fact that demands a real estate social media strategy. But only those who know how to utilize the best tools and strategies get results.  

When it comes to shifting properties, the game is on another level. Local developers are moving towards visually appealing homes complete with a wide range of wellness amenities — and they let it all shine as part of their real estate social media strategy. 

To move towards a positive step in luxury development, successful real estate marketers are using social media as the go-to strategy to get high quality leads. Want to know how to boost your real estate marketing game using social media?  

Here are our top tips on how you can make your real estate social media strategy a success. 

1. Have a unique social media profile

Do you think it is enough to open a social media account for your real estate company and fill the profile details in a hurry? Of course not. You need to optimize your profile and ensure it stands outs from the rest. You’d be surprised to find out that 79% of the people in the United States have a social media profile. So, while you will need to add relevant information related to your business, such as contact details and address, fill out the story section to make it clear which services you are offering. 

2. Share luxury development content for local people

A vast number of people who will view your properties will most likely come from the same area where your real estate company is located. Therefore, it makes sense to focus on posting local content that will drive the locals to your social media platforms. Apart from posting content, you can also target local people by sharing local news, information related to the prices of local properties, and local events your company will be sponsoring. Make sure to share photos that are geotagged. 

3. Add videos on your social media pages

YouTube is one of the top search engines for videos. In fact, 86% of home shoppers prefer to use video to get more information about properties. Besides, 52% of marketing professionals agree that video content tends to have the best return on investment (ROI). Uploading a video on social media could be the difference between a home buyer choosing your company or that of your competitor. 

4. Use reviews to promote faster sales

Social media provides a platform for consumers to tell their truth about a specific service or products which then motivates other potential customers to take decisive action. Also, 62% of potential home buyers would go for a real estate company that was found online and had excellent reviews. To connect with your customers, share their success story, testimonials, or review on social media. You can even go further and offer an incentive to motivate people to leave a review.  

5. Add hashtags to your content

Users on social media are looking to make a personal connection with the people behind the real estate marketing and not automated machines. Create social media content in advance to avoid last-minute rush and add hashtags that clearly shows how your luxury development is unique. 

6. Engage with your followers to increase brand awareness

One of the best ways to attract internet users to your real estate company is to educate them and offer free advice. Posting information related to property listing at all times will make you look promotional. You can quickly build your brand and connect with people by giving them beneficial advice, such as the latest real estate marketing trends 2019. That way, people will view you as an expert in the industry and contact you for any inquiries. 

7. Find local online communities

While Facebook is a great platform for finding and connecting with local communities, Instagram is one the fastest growing social media platforms with over 1 billion active users. You can use both platforms to build a community and start creating content for them. 

8. Make use of Pinterest

People are likely to be more attracted to property listings with high-quality images. In fact, 87% of home buyers find photos of properties very useful in making an informed decision. Apart from social media, you can use Pinterest to pin visually appealing images to popular boards related to real estate. 

What do you think will be the most important part of your real estate social media strategy?  

Would you like someone else to do the job? We are here to help.  

Related posts: 

• 10 Social Media Statistics for Real Estate Marketers 2018 
• Should I Be Using Facebook Carousel Ads? 
• How to Use Social Media Hashtags in Real Estate Marketing 

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How to Increase Leads with Chatbots

by Katie Russell | Jul 2, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Real estate brands are all too familiar with the challenges of generating leads. Here’s how chatbots can help by improving user experience and engagement. 

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Highlights:

• Within one day of adding a chatbot to our website, we had a meeting set up with a prospect. That was in the first 24 hours.
• Using a chatbot for your properties means that your real estate brand is working even when you aren’t.
• Conversational chatbots help build trust in your real estate brand while creating a positive customer experience.

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We have talked a lot about the popularity of chatbots and how to implement them into your digital marketing strategy. But beyond the initial set up, have you really squeezed the juice out of this automated tool to help increase leads? 

We decided to dive into the chatbot pool and our firm’s results speak for themselves. Within one day of adding a chatbot to our website, we had a meeting set up with a prospect. That was in the first 24 hours. This prospect turned out to be our next client and the initial connection was all made through the chatbot. 

Lead generation with conversation 

Buying or leasing a property is a huge decision, one which usually involves a range of emotions. One of the best ways to connect with potential buyers is through a thoughtful and informative customer experience.  

Chatbots can help bridge the gap between your brand and potential buyers. Conversational chatbots help build trust in your real estate brand while creating a positive customer experience. They typically handle conversations with clients that are at the top of the funnel — generally people you don’t know and who might be unsure of whether they are actually going to buy/sell the property.  

An article in The Startup on chatbots for real estate concludes they bring many benefits:  

“The bot can be programmed on tasks like collecting basic information in the form of asking relevant questions and generating relevant answers resulting in an e-mail capture. Additionally, the chatbot can even transfer the conversation to a human agent, if need be.” 

Other lead generating opportunities with chatbots 

Real time answers 24/7 

Questions about your new property or specific amenities? These are questions that chatbots can immediately answer. Don’t leave prospects waiting for you to return their email or form submission. Bots can answer questions about your property instantly. 

The other benefit of using chatbots? They don’t need sleep! Real estate questions don’t always arrive at convenient times. Using a chatbot for your properties means that your real estate brand is working even when you aren’t. Prospects can get their questions answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

Virtual tours 

Nurture prospects with catchy images of your property and amenities. With the click of a button, your chatbot can offer prospects a virtual tour of your property without ever leaving the page. The impact:  prospects leave the chat armed with informative and helpful information about your real estate brand. 

Tracking 

Most chatbots automatically log interactions with leads that engage with your bot. Once you’re ready to engage with prospects, you can easily access past interactions to know where the prospect is in the sales funnel, as well as key preferences they may have expressed in earlier conversations.  

Follow up 

Real estate brands are constantly juggling marketing tasks. Use chatbots to help alleviate your workload with follow–up automation. Users can identify how they want to be contacted or specific questions they need answered, taking the guess work out of the follow up process.  

Real estate brands need to experiment with chatbots for the ease and convenience of automation, along with the positive audience experience. But to get the most out of your chatbot make sure you’re tracking your success and tweaking interactions along the way.  

Need help setting up your chatbot? We’re here to help. 

Related posts: 

• Using Messaging Platforms for Real Estate to Deliver Content 
• Good Real Estate Marketing Gets Personal 
• Social Media Trends for 2018 Real Estate Marketers Need to Know 

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6 Simple Tools for Creating Animated Real Estate Marketing Videos

by Katie Russell | Feb 12, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

When it comes to real estate marketing, video is not just the future — it’s now. These 6 tools will give you a leg up on creating animated images, GIFs, and videos that will elevate your marketing presence.

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Highlights:

• Savvy real estate marketers are making video a central part of their strategy.
• Animated videos can be surprisingly easy and affordable to create, with the right tools.
• These are our 6 favorite tools for creating GIFs, animated images, and videos

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We’ve written a lot about video marketing as a trend that isn’t going anywhere and how it’s a natural fit for real estate marketers. It can be one of the best and most cost-effective ways to grow your social media audience and generate leads. And the numbers are backing us up — research from Social Media Examiner has shown that nearly two-thirds (63%) of marketers use video content in their social media marketing.

Savvy real estate marketers are jumping on the video bandwagon, but the process can still be intimidating. Creating an animated image, GIF, or video can sound impossibly difficult —particularly if you’re over the age of 15! But in reality, there are plenty of tools that make creating these items not only simple but cost effective as well.

Here are our 6 favorite tools for creating animated real estate marketing videos.

1)     WhatFix

This free tool is incredibly handy for creating animated flows, such as how-to videos (“How to search for your first apartment,” for example). WhatFix allows you to create easy flows showing the steps your audience should take. All you need is WhatFix’s extension for Firefox or Chrome to build widgets that you can imbed on your website or send “live” to your audience. The website will guide you through the simple process of creating a flow.

2)     Gyazo

When it comes to creating GIFs, this free tool will make it as simple as it gets. Technically, Gyazo is a screen-capture tool, which now lets you capture and save GIFs and videos. The platform is straight forward, and while it doesn’t necessarily have advanced tools, it’s ideal for taking a screen capture from a video and turning it into an eye-catching GIF.

3)     Make a GIF

Make a GIF is a more extensive tool than Gyazo, which allows you to choose from multiple options to create your GIF. It lets you use screenshots, YouTube videos, uploaded videos, or pre-made GIFs. It has the added benefit of being a free image hosting site, which means that once you’ve created your GIF, you can link directly to it from the website’s gallery. Make a GIF is free, and lets you create an account to store your creations, or request that they be deleted any time.

4)     PowToon

For $59 a month (or $19 a month if you buy for at least a year), PowToon lets you create animated video and presentations, and export them to YouTube. All you have to do is “pick a look you like” from one of five animation themes. Then you can put together characters, objects, layouts, backgrounds, and anything else you need to tell your story.

5)     VideoScribe

VideoScribe offers a free trial, and pricing ranging from $29 a month to a one-time purchase of $665. This tool specializes in whiteboard videos, giving you the potential to create clean, engaging video animations. It’s not a web tool, but a downloadable software, that you can even take offline if you purchase the Pro plan.

6)     Moovly

For $24.92 a month (though it does offer a free trial period), Moovly is a “drag, drop, and animate” tool that lets you create quick animated real estate marketing videos in your web browser. It can create explainer videos, whiteboard animations, advertisements, and more. Not only that, it gives you 750,000 free video clips to work from.

Creating videos is one of the best ways out there to boost your real estate marketing game. These 6 tools go a long way towards making the process affordable and easy. If you try one, let us know in the comments how it turned out!

Related posts:

• 3 Ways to Boost Your Real Estate Marketing with Video
• How Inbound Marketing for Real Estate Works to Improve Sales
• 4 Real Estate Marketing Trends 2018