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Top 5 Real Estate Blog Posts of 2019 … So Far

by Katie Russell | Jul 9, 2019 | Blog, Current Events, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

Here are our most-viewed real estate blog posts from this year, covering topics from social media to the latest trends in digital marketing. 

Throughout the year, we regularly write blog posts to help our readers stay on top of the latest news and happenings in the real estate industry, particularly in regard to digital marketing. We hope these posts provide insight, tips, and insider information on how the consistent publication of quality content can help you edge ahead of the competition. 

We’ve covered some great stuff this year, from new trends (like automation) to questions that clients ask year after year (like how real estate brands use social media). Here’s a look at our most popular posts so far this year. 

Top real estate blog posts from 2018 (so far) 

1. 5 Tips to Step Up Your Real Estate Social Media Marketing

Increasingly, traditional marketing tactics are giving way to newer methods, and inbound marketing is taking the place of outbound. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: real estate and social media are a match made in heaven. Here are five tips to boost your real estate social media marketing efforts. Read more 

2. Google Analytics for Real Estate Marketers – 4 Steps to Get Started

When it comes to gaining insights into real estate leads, Google Analytics is one of the most powerful tools out there right now. The data that Google Analytics for real estate provides gives you invaluable insights into how your audience is interacting with your content, as well as how your content is performing over time. Read more 

3. 6 Simple Tools for Creating Animated Real Estate Marketing Videos

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. Read more 

4. The Role of Social Media in Luxury Real Estate Marketing

In the ultra-competitive field of luxury real estate marketing, social media can be your secret weapon. Real estate is inherently personal, even at the corporate and luxury levels, and marketers can effectively use social media to cultivate productive relationships with leads. Here are four ways social media can boost your luxury real estate marketing efforts. Read more 

5. Top Real Estate Marketing Trends 2019

Real estate is a competitive and ever-changing industry. Just when your business settles into a successful routine, new marketing tactics and trends can throw you a curve ball. But being aware of the forces shaping the industry is the best way to hit your marketing efforts out of the park this new year. Here are the four top real estate marketing trends that we see coming in 2019. Read more 

For more useful tips, return to this space. We post twice a week, every week of the year.   

Related posts: 

• Using Content Marketing to Market and Sell Luxury Real Estate 
• 10 Quick Ways to Grow Brand Awareness 
• 5 Real Estate Instagram Accounts You Should be Following 

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

by Elizabeth Hines | Aug 1, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Social media marketing in real estate isn’t just about earning followers; it’s about building relationships.

Social media is an excellent tool for real estate marketers, developers, and property managers for many reasons. You can communicate with residents/tenants, build brand awareness, gain market intelligence, and even identify prospective tenants or buyers.

Particularly if the latter is your focus, it’s easy to celebrate every follower you earn as a marketing success. But it’s important to remember that a social media follower doesn’t necessarily equal a buyer/tenant. After all, participating in social media is not only about earning a large following; it’s about building relationships with those people.

An article published in Entrepreneur says it best: “Content equals marketing; conversation equals a relationship.” Using social media to converse with people and form relationships is what will ultimately drive sales and increase retention.

This is particularly important as younger generations gain buying power. That’s because research shows millennials, in particular, increasingly prefer communicating with brands via social media rather than via phone or email. As you are probably well aware, they aren’t afraid to take to social networks to report a problem or complaint. Your property needs to be using social networking as a conversation platform in order to form meaningful business relationships with these prospects.

So you can’t just distribute content via your social media accounts and expect the followers to start rolling in — and then for those followers to turn into buyers or tenants. Here are some tips for building relationships through real estate social media marketing.

5 ways to build relationships through real estate social media marketing

1) Be the person representing a brand.

Represent your company, but be a real person to whom your prospects or residents/tenants can relate. Do not appear as a brand who is a person; show up as a person who has a brand.

2) Be a real person.

Be personable and real. Open yourself up to conversations that show a bit of the real you. Nothing builds a relationship better than making a genuine connection. In other words, be a real person, not a personality.

3) Show who you are.

In addition to sharing information related to your property, don’t be afraid to sprinkle in a bit of what matters to you in your posts. Photos of bring-your-child-to-work day, pets who regularly visit the office, or even your extra-large coffee during a particularly busy week tell a story that your followers can relate to. These kinds of things are excellent starting points for conversation!

4) Show that you care.

To build a relationship of trust, people need to feel that you care about what is important to them. Go beyond just liking, retweeting, or leaving an encouraging message on your followers’ posts. Actually put yourself out there and respond, invite dialog, and demonstrate that they are someone you value.

5) Be a regular.

Show up on a regular basis to interact with your audience and answer questions. And make sure to respond quickly when someone reaches out to you. Don’t underestimate the power of being there when a customer needs you or has a problem to report.

Related posts:

• Learn How Content Marketing Increased Real Estate Sales by 37% in 90 Days
• Real Estate Firm Grows Sales by 300% through Content Marketing
• Using Content Marketing to Market and Sell Luxury Real Estate

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Our 6 Favorite Marketing Automation Tools for Real Estate Marketers

by Elizabeth Hines | Jun 13, 2018 | Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Check out these marketing automation tools for email workflows, social media scheduling, and customer relationship management.

Lately it seems like everyone is talking about marketing automation. As real estate buyers increasingly demand personalized experiences through the buyer’s journey, marketers’ jobs are getting tougher. They need to provide custom lead-nurturing content to all prospects in their databases.

And that’s where automating marketing tasks can help.

The term “marketing automation” refers to a variety of tools used to automate the process of personalizing leads’ interactions with your property. The sheer variety of these tools can sometimes be overwhelming — so we’ve pulled a few of our favorites in the categories of email workflows, social media scheduling tools, and customer relationship management.

6 marketing automation tools for real estate marketers

Email workflows

1. Customer.io

This tool lets you send targeted messages to your prospects, crafting them based on how they interact with your property, and making personalized messages simple. You can also keep track of conversions and create customer profiles. Our favorite part? It integrates with your mobile app or website, letting you see data in real time and trigger actions by adding in predefined rules.

2. Constant Contact

This powerful tool has some features that are unique — and can take your marketing capabilities beyond the basics. Beyond setting up and managing an automated database, Constant Contact offers Facebook fan promotion, coupons and deals, and event management.

Social media scheduling tools

3. AdRoll

This is an extremely effective tool for retargeting prospects through re-engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere on the web. It offers cross-device and cross-platform retargeting capabilities, as well as flexible segmentation, letting you provide customized experiences that dramatically improve your marketing efficiency. It also offers customized budgeting and full control over ad spend.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

4. Pardot

Pardot is an all-inclusive marketing automation suite, but it’s particularly strong for amping up your engagement with CRM integration. It’s a great tool for helping your sales team shorten the sales cycle. And, in addition to CRM integration, it offers email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and ROI reporting.

5. Marketo

This cloud-based marketing software lets you drive revenue with lead management and mobile marketing. It not only helps build prospect relationships, but it helps you sustain them as well. Best of all, you can try it out for free until you’re sure it’s right for your company.

Bonus all-in-one tool: HubSpot

HubSpot is an inbound-marketing tool that lets you generate leads, close deals, and manage your sales pipeline from start to finish. It integrates beautifully with a content marketing strategy, with the goal of turning outbound leads into inbound ones. It includes revenue reporting, custom-event reporting, custom-event automation triggers, predictive-lead scoring, contacts and company reporting, and event-based segmentation.

What marketing automation tools do you use?

Related posts:

• Infographic: Real Estate Marketing Trends 2018
• 10 Social Media Statistics for Real Estate Marketers 2018
• How to Measure Brand Awareness: A Guide for Real Estate Marketers

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6 Marketing Tasks Real Estate Marketers Can Outsource

by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 26, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

Outsourcing doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Consider parsing off these marketing tasks based on internal resources and expertise.

Everyone needs a little help sometimes. That’s particularly true when it comes to real estate marketing. Real estate companies often find themselves stagnating in their marketing efforts as a result of having insufficient time, resources, and creative input to devote to marketing programs.

Outsourcing marketing allows you to focus on insourcing your core competencies, while delegating specialized tasks to external experts. And it’s important to note that you don’t have to outsource ALL of your marketing. Choosing several areas beyond your staff’s expertise or that are particularly time-consuming can help you improve your marketing efforts and take stress off an overworked internal marketing team.

So, here are 6 areas where you might consider outsourcing.

6 real estate marketing tasks to outsource

1) Website development and design

Sure, you could build a perfectly functional website from a template, or have your colleague’s techy niece put something together while interning with your company over summer break from college. But this is one area we feel strongly is best left to the pros.

A sleek, modern website that’s easy to navigate makes a big statement about your property. Potential buyers and tenants will visit property websites while researching and making purchasing decisions. The experiences they have while browsing contribute to their overall perception of the places. Imagine how poor site organization, outdated functionality, or technical problems reflects on your brand.

In addition to creating a well-functioning site, the right developer/designer brings niche specializations to the table as well, such as usability engineering, search engine optimization, and more. Capitalizing on a professional’s knowledge in these areas can make a big difference in web traffic, visitor engagement, and, ultimately, lead generation and increased revenue.

2) Social media management

Social media management sounds like it would be easy and fun. But if this task has ever fallen on your plate, you know the exact opposite is true. It can be one of the most time-consuming, frustrating tasks your business faces — and that’s before you realize you have to keep up with all the latest trends and platforms to be effective.

Outsourcing social media management to a knowledgeable partner can free up hours of your day and improve your social engagement and reach. These firms know what works and what doesn’t because they’re active every day on multiple platforms managing accounts for multiple clients.

And it’s not just posting every now and then. A good social media partner will craft and publish original content, but they’ll also curate great content from relevant sources. Outsourcing these tasks to the pros helps build a strong following and brand awareness for your company and properties.

3) Content creation

Blog posts, emails, case studies, white papers, ebooks, webinars, marketing collateral, newsletters — how much content is your staff responsible for creating on a weekly, even daily, basis? Is it the kind of informed, quality material you’re proud of?

Content creation is one of the easiest marketing tasks to outsource. It will immediately give your staff back hours into their days. And the right outsource partner will produce high-quality, SEO-optimized content that will drive traffic, generate buzz, and persuade buyers.

4) Videography, photography, and imagery

Video is the hottest content format right now. And it’s a huge opportunity for real estate marketers to show off properties to potential buyers across the globe. But shooting a professional-looking video or taking top-quality photographs of spaces is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.

There are many firms and individuals that specialize in videography, and you’d be surprised how affordable and quick they can be. Or, some content creation partners also do video or can find a third-party videographer and manage the process for you.

A good content creation partner might also expand offerings to include photography, drone photography, and any other visual creative assets that might showcase your properties to prospective buyers or tenants.

5) Graphic design

This is one area where you really can’t fake it. Professional designers are worth their weight in gold, particularly when you need a professional document or graphic in a crunch. They can turn your documents into beautiful, easy-to-read brochures, or make dry, technical data into eye-catching infographics. You may be savvy with Word templates, but they’ve got nothing on the pro designers.

6) Strategy and execution

Did you know you can leave marketing strategy to the experts? The right partner will work closely with you to develop a strategy that closely aligns with your business and marketing goals. They can even execute the strategy for you, as well, and then provide you with regular updates on how it’s working. This kind of results-driven approach will ensure you’re stretching your marketing dollars to the fullest extent and getting the kind of results that will grow your bottom line.

Related posts:

• Good Real Estate Marketing Gets Personal

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

• 6 Signs It’s Time to Consider Outsourcing Your Real Estate Marketing

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How to Explain Content Marketing ROI to Win (or Keep) Buy-In

by Katie Russell | Apr 2, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

Proving content marketing ROI can seem like a daunting task for real estate marketers, but finding and analyzing the right metrics effectively is crucial to measuring ROI, and ensuring buy-in.

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Highlights:

• Talking about marketing as if it’s an art rather than a science does a disservice to your department and to your brand as a whole.
• Make sure your executives understand the nature and goals of your marketing strategy.
• The right metrics will help you track ROI, and justify executive buy-in.

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Accountability and showing a solid return on investment (ROI) is everything when it comes to ensuring that your business is allocating adequate resources to marketing your brand and properties. And let’s face it, too many executives think that marketing is, at best, about supporting sales or, at worst, a department that exists to paste logos onto coffee mugs.

Writing for Marketo, Content Marketing Specialist Bryson Runser points out that as an “informed marketer, it’s your duty to infuse credibility into your organization by way of meaningful metrics that tie directly to your top and bottom line.” While the C-suite famously cares nothing about internal marketing metrics like Facebook likes or click-through rate, metrics are crucial to the success of marketing real estate. Not only that, effective use of metrics is the best way to establish the function and importance of the marketing department within your organization.

Get your audience on the same page

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of proving content marketing ROI for the C-suite, it’s important to acknowledge that content marketing hasn’t been around all that long. It’s only in the past decade that the real estate industry has been reshaped by digital and content marketing. This means that you can’t necessarily count on the fact that your organization’s higher-ups understand exactly what content marketing is.

Take the time to make sure your executives understand not only the definition of content marketing, but also how it will help your real estate brand grow and your business achieve various specific goals. Content marketing expert Julia McCoy suggests using approachable metaphors, such as “content marketing is a vehicle, and content marketing strategy is the engine. The vehicle takes you to your destination only if the engine is in good shape.”

Numbers don’t lie

One of the main aspects of the “crisis of accountability” is a problematic view of what marketing is: “if marketing leaders insist that marketing is an art and not a science,” Runser writes,”then the department will remain isolated from other groups.” Establishing that content marketing is not only dependent upon data, but can also be measured, is key to changing that perception.

“Marketing must be able to justify their expenditures as investments in revenue and growth,” writes Runser. Of course, it’s partly a chicken-and-egg issue, since getting to the point of being able to talk about expenditures in this way does require investment from the top of your business.

We know that measuring the impact of content marketing can be tricky. But it’s not impossible. The first step is determining the right metrics to track. For more detailed ideas and analysis, check out this post, which details how to determine and use metrics for real estate marketers to measure the impact of content marketing on brand awareness.

Why are you reporting?

Collecting and reporting on content marketing ROI can feel like you’re spinning your wheels and collecting meaningless data. But it’s crucial to keep metrics focused on the main goal: to enable you and your business to make decisions that improve your marketing efforts. “This is the difference between backward-looking measurement and decision-focused management,” says Runser.

Data for the sake of data doesn’t do any good. Data should be used to shape insights, which in turn informs priorities and actions for your business. We’ve written before about the dangers of vanity metrics, which have no bearing on your bottom line but can give you an inflated sense of success.

It’s very easy to fall into the trap of meaningless data collection, especially when marketers are often struggling to prove their worthiness to the C-suite. But using metrics to improve marketing’s performance will go a long way towards winning over executives. “[B]y aligning data measurements with your company’s strategic objectives,” Runser writes, “it will be easier to allocate resources by revenue impact.”

Related posts:

• What Metrics Should You Track in Real Estate Marketing?
• The Metrics You Should Be Measuring in Real Estate Marketing (Hint: Not Vanity Metrics)
• Social Media Can Be a Strategic Weapon in Real Estate Marketing