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Resources

by Kate Lee | Apr 14, 2014 | 0 comments

Fronetics has developed a number of resources with real estate companies in mind. Download these free tools to read case studies, learn about DIY content marketing, and more. Filter by resource type and/or topic, or browse all of our available resources to find...

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Why You Should Always Respond to User Reviews

by Elizabeth Hines | Mar 28, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

A new study shows companies that respond to user reviews get better ratings overall.

It’s not really news to point out that buyers and renters are likely to consider online reviews when making decisions about properties. In fact, more than 80% of Americans seek a recommendation when making a purchase of any kind.

All this is great for real estate — when the reviews are good. But stay in business long enough, and a few bad reviews are inevitable.

So what do you do when reviews go bad?

A brand new study from Harvard Business Review (HBR) shows that businesses that respond to reviews get better ratings overall. This means that bad reviews don’t necessarily spell disaster — but they do mean that you should incorporate a response plan into your overall marketing strategy.

Replying to reviews is a important part of online reputation management, which is especially crucial in the real estate world, where companies live and die by their reputation.

How does responding to reviews improve your online reputation?

To examine this question, Assistant Professor of Marketing at University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Davide Proserpio and Assistant Professor of Marketing at Boston University Questrom School of Business Giorgos Zervas looked at tens of thousands of hotel reviews and responses from TripAdvisor.

What they found was that “when hotels start responding, they receive 12% more reviews and their ratings increase, on average, by 0.12 stars.” While 0.12 may not seem like a lot, in the scale of TripAdvisor’s 5 star system, where ratings are rounded to the nearest half star, it has a significant impact on customers’ perceptions.

Proserpio and Zervas found that “approximately one-third of the hotels we studied increased their rounded ratings by half a star or more within six months of their first management response.”

Why is it that the hotels started to get more and better reviews when management started responding?

The researchers examined every facet of the data to rule out other factors that would undermine causality, and found that, in fact, “improved ratings can be directly linked to management responses,” rather than improvements made to facilities or services.

To explain it, the researchers make the analogy of eating at your favorite restaurant, and your meal arrives late. You complain to your dinner companions, but when the manager checks in seconds later and asks how everything is, “for a moment, you consider complaining, but instead choose to avoid confrontation and focus on enjoying the rest of your meal.” Essentially, by humanizing your presence on review sites, you discourage potentially awkward online interactions.

The researchers conclude, “While negative reviews are unavoidable, our work shows that managers can actively participate in shaping their firms’ online reputations. By monitoring and responding to reviews, a manager can make sure that when negative reviews come in — as they inevitably will — they can respond constructively and maybe even raise their firm’s rating along the way.”

Related posts:

• Social Media Can Be a Strategic Weapon in Real Estate Marketing
• Using Online Virtual Tours to Sell and Lease Property
• Why You Should Benchmark Real Estate Marketing Against Competitive Properties

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Location

by Kate Lee | Jul 25, 2013

Location Where to find usFronetics Real Estate is a boutique digital and content marketing firm with a focus on real estate marketing. Come visit our offices, just north of Boston, Massachusetts, or contact us to schedule a free competitive analysis.Fronetics Real...

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Using Online Virtual Tours to Sell and Lease Property

by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 7, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

These 4 tips will help you create virtual tours that drive prospective buyers and tenants to buy or lease your properties.

As a real estate marketer, one of the most powerful tools at your disposal is the imagination of your potential buyers and renters. You’re most likely to sell them on your property when they can envision themselves in the space.

Today, nearly all prospective buyers and tenants research properties online before visiting them in person. This is great if you have a strong digital presence. It’s unfortunate for the many properties that are underrepresented by dated websites and listings. And, for those with adequate web presences — even if your content is decent, prospects may be crossing your property off their list if they can’t imagine themselves in your space.

Enter the virtual tour.

A virtual tour gives potential buyers and renters the chance to fully immerse and imagine themselves in your property. Virtual tours help prospects fall in love with places before they’ve even visited. They are becoming almost as important as any showing or open house in today’s market.

As more and more real estate marketers hop on the virtual tour bandwagon, it’s important to keep pace, and make sure your offerings are hitting the right marks. The National Association of Realtors published a list of ways to dress up your virtual tours. We’re summarizing the key takeaways below.

4 tips for creating property-moving virtual tours

1. Create an interactive floor plan.

Vendors like TourVista, Flyinside.com, VHT, MapsAlive, and floorplansonline allow you to create interactive floor plans, so your buyers and renters can get a sense of how the space is laid out. You can display an illustrated map, allowing users to click on areas of the floor plan to see an image or, better yet, a video clip from that perspective.

2. Guide them to the improvements.

Rather than relying on your buyers to imagine how new carpets or cabinets would look, show them. Tools like Obeo’s StyleDesigner allow you to virtually decorate your space, send the images to prospects, or allow them to do the decorating themselves.

3. Use plenty of high-quality images.

The more photos you include, the more effective your virtual tour will be. Using high-definition photos allows your clients to experience your property even more realistically. This goes for photos within the property and photos of the neighborhood, views, and surrounding city or town.

4. Use 3-D.

Microsoft rolled out its Photosynth stitching technology several years ago, taking two dimensional images and re-rendering them in a navigable 3-D image. You can create these renderings with pictures from any digital camera or mobile device and free software from Microsoft. Your buyers and renters can navigate through the property from the comfort of their living room sofas.

Related posts:

• Social Media Trends for 2018 Real Estate Marketers Need to Know
• Social Media Can Be a Strategic Weapon in Real Estate Marketing
• 4 Steps to Building a Successful DIY Content Marketing Strategy for Real Estate

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5 Real Estate Marketing Strategies for 2019

by Katie Russell | Apr 16, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

Keeping up with the constant changes can be incredibly tough on real estate marketers — these 5 strategies for real estate marketing are what you need to be doing right now. 

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Highlights: 

• Make sure your website is optimized; it’s the center of your digital assets. 
• Today’s market is increasingly visual: invest in virtual tours and professional photography to make your properties stand out.
• Content marketing, such as blogging, is the most effective tool at your disposal. 

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Real estate marketers, we know your job isn’t easy. With today’s fiercely competitive market, not to mention the seemingly constant changes brought about by technology, it’s easy to be left breathless. But to set your business apart from the pack, it’s crucial to stay on top of the changes taking place and hone a robust marketing strategy. 

We’ve put together these five failsafe strategies that real estate marketers should be adopting right now. 

Five real estate marketing strategies that are bound to work in 2019 

1. Build an excellent website 

Some things are timeless. While content marketing trends will continue to shift and evolve, the need for a quality, strategically designed website is here to stay. Your website is the nexus of your digital assets and is on the frontlines when it comes to capturing leads. Having a website that’s visually appealing, easily navigable, and content– and information-rich means better SEO, higher quality leads, and overall success. 

Writing for Forbes, software engineer R.L. Adams suggests not to “bombard visitors with too many ads all over the place and ensure that it’s a site that people want to continue to check back on with fresh content and properties added regularly.” 

2. Create virtual tours 

Creating virtual tours for your properties is an investment, but it’s never been more worthwhile than it is now. In our increasingly visual culture (recent research indicates that the millennial demographic overwhelmingly favors visual content online), giving potential buyers and renters a detailed, interactive look at your properties is a no-brainer. 

Looking for tips on creating virtual tours? Check out this post. 

3. Invest in professional real estate photography 

These days, everyone with a smartphone is a would-be photographer. With the ease and convenience of snapping high-quality photos with your phone, hiring a professional photographer can seem like a questionable investment. It isn’t. Again, in this highly visual culture, photos of your properties have never been more important. A professional photographer who specializes in real estate and who is also well-versed in editing will go a long way. 

4. Blog 

We’ve said it before, and we’ll certainly say it again: A blog helps you sell real estate. Among the many benefits of adding a blog to your site are increased search engine visibility, enhanced customer and industry relationships, better lead nurturing, and a boosted reputation. With a blog, you’re offering value to your customers separate and outside of your properties — in turn, you’ll see your sales boosted. 

5. Start digital marketing 

Inbound marketing, like digital marketing, is about prioritizing the needs of your audience over a sales pitch. When it comes to real estate, digital marketing has proven time and again to be far more effective than overt sales pitches. A robust digital marketing strategy includes a blog, social media presence, informational guides and case studies, email marketing, and more. 

Even as technology and trends shift, your expertise and ideas are at least as valuable as your properties. At the end of the day, people want to hire trustworthy and knowledgeable real estate experts. If you can answer the needs and questions of your potential buyers and renters, you cultivate lasting and fruitful relationships with them. 

Related posts: 

• Using Online Virtual Tours to Sell and Lease Property 
• Infographic: Statistics that Prove Why Your Real Estate Marketing Needs to Include a Blog 
• Drive More Traffic and Generate More Leads with Your Real Estate Blog with our Editorial Calendar Template