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What You Should Know About Real Estate Chatbots: An Introduction

by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 31, 2018 | Content Marketing, Current Events, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

To reach your future customers, don’t ignore the significance of real estate chatbots in shaping the content marketing landscape. 

Chatbots are the latest trend in artificial intelligence for marketers, and the real estate sector should be taking note. 

Real estate chatbots can help automate and improve some of your marketing and customer service efforts. But to get the most out of these automated systems, you first need to understand what they are and how they work. 

What is a chatbot? 

A chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversation using auditory or textual methods. Basically, it’s a software that communicates with your customer inside a messaging app, like Facebook Messenger. Chatbots are similar to email marketing, but rather than ending up in your inbox, they communicate through a messaging app. 

Real estate chatbots are typically used to converse with potential clients at the very top of the funnel — people you don’t know, and who might or might not be ready to move on to the next stage of the process.  

Why are chatbots so popular? 

As our mobile devices continue to change the way buyers receive and interact with our brands and properties, messaging-app usage has skyrocketed. In fact, 2017 saw a 69% increase in messaging-app users from the previous year. Business Insider reports the number of people on messaging apps surpassed the number of users on social networks. From iMessage to Facebook Messenger, mobile users are leaning more toward this newer technology to communicate with friends and family. 

Why the big drop for email? Because people are buried in emails. For example, the average office employee receives 121 emails per day. Of those 121 emails, only around 20% are opened — and click-through rates are even lower. More and more companies have stuffed inboxes with repeated emails. Over-communication is the number one reason that readers unsubscribe to your email list. Chatbots have alleviated the inbox drama. 

How can a real estate chatbot help my business? 

Quality messaging without the spam 

Real estate chatbots take the spam out of email marketing. When companies market on a messaging app, they create an easier way for leads to receive educational messages about their brand and properties. Chatbots are an easy and fun way for potential buyers and renters to engage with your brand, getting answers to their questions and quality messaging about your products and services. 

Ease of tracking and segmenting 

Your brand will also appreciate the ease of tracking and segmenting your leads through chatbots. Take Facebook Messenger for example; using messenger bots, you can identify who your potential buyers and renters are in less than a minute. No other platform (email, social media) can get you that information as quickly or efficiently. 

Increased audience engagement 

Getting your audience to subscribe to your real estate chatbots is much easier than email subscriptions. Why? The ease of usage and lack of friction on messaging apps creates a more positive customer experience. Businesses can set up chatbots to message any user who comments on your social media pages. They can retarget people who have left your site, offering special discounts or promotions on your properties. And chatbots can also nurture the sales process by notifying you of potential customers that request a specific action during their interaction with your chatbot. 

How do I create a chatbot? 

There are plenty of chatbot-building platforms available online. Before you pick a platform, make sure you do your research. Here are three of our favorite chatbot-building platforms. 

1. Chatfuel 

This chatbot engine will do most of the hard work for you, ideal for those lacking programming experience. MTV, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed, British Airways, and Adidas are said to have used Chatfuel to create their chatbots, along with almost 20,000 other users across the globe. The user interface is easy and slick, meaning you could create a chatbot in less than 15 minutes! 

2. Chatscript 

Launched back in 2011, ChatScript is a “next generation chatbot engine,” which has won the Loebner Prize (awarded for the most human-like examples of artificial intelligence) four times. It provides an open source framework for developers to build and deploy chatbots. 

3. Facebook ‘Bots for Messenger’ 

At its F8 developer conference in April, Facebook launched Bots for Messenger, a tool which allows developers and businesses to build chatbots for its Messenger platform (which is used by almost a billion people). Developers build bots, submit them for review, and then Facebook decides which ones get onto Messenger. The three main capabilities are its send/receive API, generic message templates, and the ability to customize the welcome screen users first see when interacting with your bot. 

Messaging automation is the new email automation. Brands will be looking to join the chatbot craze for the ease, convenience, and the positive audience experience. Have you tried a chatbot program yet? We’d love to hear from you about your experience. 

Related posts:

• 10 Social Media Statistics for Real Estate Marketers 2018
• Social Media Trends for 2018 Real Estate Marketers Need to Know
• 10 Must-Follow Blogs for Real Estate Marketers

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Top 5 Real Estate Marketing Influencers

by Katie Russell | May 14, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Influencer marketing capitalizes on the relationship between popular influencers and their followers to help your property get in front of the right buyers. Here are five of the top real estate marketing influencers in 2019. 

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Highlights:

•  Influencer marketing is a form of marketing in which real estate marketers identify individuals who have influence over potential buyers and create marketing campaigns and activities around them.
• Real estate buyers trust influencers talking about your properties more than they trust you talking about yourself. 
• Here are five of the top real estate marketing influencers whose content marketing strategies are driving their success. 

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Influencer marketing is a form of marketing in which real estate marketers identify individuals who have influence over potential buyers and create marketing campaigns and activities around these influencers. Why is this so effective? Because real estate buyers trust influencers talking about your properties more than they trust you talking about yourself. 

Is influencer marketing effective? 

The State of Influencer Marketing 2019 report shows that real estate marketers are already taking full advantage of this trend with 91% of marketers finding influencer marketing to be effective. 

With the real estate industry constantly changing, it’s imperative for marketers to stay on top of new trends. There are tons of talented marketers posting daily content to attract new buyers. Here are five of the top real estate marketing influencers whose content marketing strategies are driving their success. 

Top 5 real estate marketing influencers 

1. Jay Baer

Jay Baer has 26 years of marketing and customer service expertise teaching businesses how to create a different customer experience that they notice and talk about. He is a New York Times best-selling author, founder of Convince and Convert, and co-author of Youtility for Real Estate. The book focuses on the core premise of Youtility — making your marketing so useful that people would pay for it — and shows how it works for real estate. With over 14,000 followers on Instagram alone, his blog, video, and social media posts are packed full of content marketing tips and are an excellent resource for real estate marketers.  

2. Tom Ferry

Founder of Tom Ferry International, Ferry is a real estate coach and best-selling author of Life! By Design and Mindset, Model and Marketing! Ranked the #1 Real Estate Educator by Swanepoel Power 200 and racking up almost 50,000 Twitter followers, Ferry’s ever-growing influence impacts professionals in a wide variety of ways, including rigorous accountability coaching. His popular show, #TomFerryShow, delivers free, fresh, and relevant weekly real estate tips.  

3. AmyChorew 

Amy Chorew is a learning and technology trend expert, author, speaker, social media maven, and realtor. She is an expert on leveraging online marketing tools to dramatically increase property sales and is currently developing the learning platform for Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. Chorew has over 20,000 Twitter followers and posts daily marketing tips aimed at real estate brands and developers.  

4. Katie Lance

Katie Lance is strategist who specializes in social media and content marketing. She has worked with many real estate brands, including RE/MAXX LLC, Docusign, Homekeepr, and hundreds more. Lance is a trained public speaker focusing on the latest tools and strategies in social media, mobile, and technology. Her book, #GetSocialSmart, was a best-seller on Amazon. With over 31,000 Twitter followers, Lance creates and curates posts and video — check out her Vimeo channel —  to educate real estate marketers on the latest trends and marketing idea.  

5. Seth Price

Seth Price, author and keynote speaker, is a branding expert dedicated to empowering personal brands to turn recognition into revenue. Author of the new book, The Road to Recognition, An A-to-Z Guide to Personal Branding, Price is an expert on turning real estate brands into household names. He is the vice president of sales and marketing for Placester and one of the authors of their blog. Price also hosts “The Craft of Marketing and the Marketing Genius” podcasts, in addition to being a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, Marketing Profs, Realtor Magazine, and Inman News. 

Related posts: 

• 5 Real Estate Marketing Strategies for 2019 
• How Inbound Marketing for Real Estate Works to Improve Sales 
• How to Explain Content Marketing ROI to Win (or Keep) Buy-In 

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July 6 is One of the Busiest Days of the Year for Real Estate Searches

by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 12, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Real estate searches peak after holidays, and July 6 is one of the biggest peaks of the year. Are you ready to make the most of it? 

If you’re a real estate marketing professional who puts your feet up after the holidays — it’s time to reconsider your strategy. Unlike the post-holiday retail lull, real estate searches actually pick up as potential buyers use their downtime to go online to consider real estate investment.  

Now is your chance to capture those leads. 

Here’s how to take advantage of the post-Fourth of July uptick in real estate searches. 

Publish blog posts on a normal schedule 

We all know that blogging can help you sell real estate in all kinds of ways — from increasing search visibility to nurturing leads. But did you realize blog posts are the gifts that keep on giving? The majority of traffic will visit your posts months after they’re published. We’ve found that 80% of our page views occur on blog posts published at least six months prior. Bear that in mind when you’re creating your editorial calendar: to capture future searches, the six-month mark can be a great time to write about trends or happenings in the coming year. 

Search engines reward consistency and predictability in your publishing schedule. So, keep your normal frequency throughout the year, and it will help your rankings during high-traffic times. 

Be strategic about social media to capitalize on real estate searches 

Social media management can be an extremely time-consuming task, so dialing back your posting on the days when you know that prospects won’t be spending time online can help you conserve resources for the high-traffic days. July 6 is definitely a day when you should maximize your social media output, both in terms of frequency and quality. This doesn’t mean posting constantly, but it does mean it’s a great time to unveil new content, post interesting statistics, and interact with your followers. Chances are, many of your competitors will be shut down for the holiday, and your posts will be front and center in your prospects’ newsfeeds. 

Be strategic about digital advertising 

The same goes for digital advertising. Knowing that July 6 is a big day for real estate searches, you should budget your pay-per-click and social advertising dollars to spend more on this day. It’s a good time to focus particularly on your Google AdWords spend, as that will capture prospects using search engines to find information about potential real estate investments — as opposed to sponsored social posts, which display your ads in the newsfeed of a prospect who may or may not be ready to buy. 

Post-holiday real estate searches present a big opportunity. Seize it.  

Related posts:

• 10 Social Media Statistics for Real Estate Marketers 2018
• How to Measure Brand Awareness: A Guide for Real Estate Marketers
• Top 10 Real Estate Marketing Posts 2017

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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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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