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How Digital Marketing for Real Estate Can Help Sell Properties

by Katie Russell | Jun 11, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

Digital marketing is the newest way to brand real estate. Here are the best ways to begin a digital marketing strategy for real estate that will help reach prospective buyers and tenants to ultimately close deals. 

Increasingly, marketers are realizing the benefits of digital marketing for real estate over traditional types of marketing. From cost savings to increased lead generation, digital marketing can do wonders for your real estate business.  

Real estate professionals are starting to catch on. According to Placester’s 2018 Real Estate Marketing Strategy Survey Report, 42.1% of real estate professionals surveyed plan to experiment with developing new types of content. And a whopping 94.1% plan to focus on creating new and unique content for their websites. 

What is digital marketing? 

Digital marketing is a new way to brand real estate through digital content and social media. A form of inbound marketing, digital marketing focuses on audiences finding you, allowing you to establish your brand as an industry leader, and let interested audiences come to you and your properties. This way, you draw in leads through interesting and engaging content. 

Blog posts, social media, infographics, white papers, and videos are all types of content that you can use to market your brand. Blog posts that talk up the neighborhood in which your property is located, infographics that explain the purchasing process, or a white paper on how to search for an apartment are just a few examples of effective real estate content marketing. 

How does digital marketing for real estate help you boost sales? 

Particularly when it comes to luxury real estate, content marketing can help you in all kinds of ways. Most notably, it can: 

• help you connect with qualified buyers; 
• broaden your brand awareness;  
• drive traffic to your property website; 
• communicate real-time updates to potential buyers; 
• generate leads; 
• nurture leads; and 
• sell your properties. 

Where do I start? 

If you’re looking to get started with digital and content marketing, FRE’s Director of Strategy Jennifer Yim recommends starting with social media and a blog.  

“These tools can help you reach prospective buyers and tenants, nurture leads, and close deals,” says Yim. 

Digital marketing is a new approach to an old strategy—one that’s putting real estate marketers in charge of the way potential buyers interact with their properties.

Need help getting started? Give us a call.

Related posts:

• Infographic: Content Marketing Statistics Every Real Estate Marketer Should Know
• 4 Types of Content Real Estate Marketers Need to Be Using
• How to Use Guest Posting as Part of Your Content Strategy

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For More Creative Content, Break These 4 Rules

by Katie Russell | Aug 27, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

The best way to come up with engaging and creative content is to think outside the box and, sometimes, take risks. Here are 4 rules to break to produce truly creative content for real estate marketers. 

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Highlights: 

• Produce creative content by throwing out the template approach and start thinking about what makes you stand out. 
• Don’t be afraid to showcase what you do best through different avenues, like customer or vendor testimonials. 
• When you’re committed to curiosity, you naturally become a learning organization and this learning leads to more creative content. 

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With over 4 million blog posts published every day, you have to be really creative to drive traffic to your website and attract prospective tenants or buyers to your properties. Marketers may think they need to follow these rules, but in fact, you need to break them to craft creative content.  

1. Mirror competitors

While it’s true there might be trending topics that you will want to cover, you should think more about the value proposition of your specific property and put the focus there. This will help you write creative content that stands out from your competitors and is not repeating what “everyone else is doing.” Remember, your property is unique, so your content should be too. 

2. Marketing mindset

While your marketing team knows everything about your property, some of the best stories and blog content come from your other teams. Existing residents or buyers, property managers, neighborhood vendors, and local businesses often have a really good prospective or story to tell. Tap into those unique stories for creative (and personalized!) content. 

3. Keep it obvious

While there will definitely be some obvious things that stand out about your property that you’re going to want to highlight, sometimes the most creative content comes from a different perspective. For example, you may want to talk about events that are taking place near your property over the summer, like rock concerts, performance art, open-mic nights, or anything else that appeals to your buyer personas. Don’t be afraid to get specific and dig a little deeper; the result will be creative content that stands out to prospective tenants or buyers.  

4. Repeat success

 While it’s true you should look at the analytics and build upon content that has been successful in the past, you should also be taking some risks when you’re developing your content calendar. Build in a healthy mix of what’s worked for you in the past — what resonates with your target audience — and something new, out of left field. Real estate marketers need to keep experimenting. Audiences are constantly evolving, so your content should be too.  

Have you published creative content by thinking outside the box? Have you been successful?  

Related posts: 

• 4 Types of Content You Need to Sell Real Estate (Besides Listings) 
• Infographic: Content Marketing Statistics Every Real Estate Marketer Should Know 
• 10 Quick Ways to Grow Brand Awareness 

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How to Nurture Real Estate Leads with Content Marketing

by Elizabeth Hines | Dec 4, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Done right, content marketing is the most effective way out there to generate real estate leads—and to nurture them to fruition. Here’s how to make the most of this strategic resource. 

If you generate a huge amount of leads, that means you’ll get an influx of new clients, right? Not so fast. Having an effective lead generation campaign is great, but it’s only half the battle. To produce actual business, you need a strategy in place to nurture real estate leads once you’ve attracted them.

An effective lead generation campaign means having a documented strategy, an effective website with strong SEO, good calls-to-action, and a robust social media presence. All of these things can be best accomplished with content marketing — and it’s your best friend when it comes to nurturing and converting those leads you’ve generated. 

Nurture real estate leads with content marketing: a crash course 

Before we get too far, let’s slow down and define what it means to nurture real estate leads with content marketing in the first place. In fact, real estate marketers are often so focused on generating leads, that this crucial part of the process gets overlooked.  

At its most basic level, when we talk about nurturing a lead, we’re talking about continuing a conversation. When you generated the lead, you attracted the attention of a prospect, and planted the seeds of an ongoing relationship. But in order to germinate, these seeds need to be cared for — and that’s what lead nurturing is all about. You continue to stay in a conversation with your prospect from the first contact until they are ready to become a client. 

Putting your content to work 

“Lead nurturing campaigns focus on creating mutually-beneficial working relationships so that when it comes time to buy, that lead turns to you, or your business, instead of a competitor,” writes real estate marketing expert Vinny La Barbera. When it comes to staying at the forefront of a prospect’s mind, and successfully nurturing a real estate lead to conversion, there’s no better tool at your disposal than content marketing.  

Social media is a perfect place to use content to nurture real estate leads. Connecting with your prospects, answering their questions, and sharing relevant, helpful content (particularly video!) is key to staying on your prospects’ radar. 

Another effective way to use content marketing to nurture leads is with a blog. While some of your posts should be geared to generating leads, others should be written with a focus on cultivating existing relationships, and helping prospects decide to take the next steps. For real estate marketers, this means you can write about topics like the location of your properties, available features and amenities, and information about neighborhoods and communities.  

Of course, email content is crucial to an effective lead nurturing strategy. The first step is to segment your email list, so that you’re creating targeted messaging for those at different stages of the buyer’s journey. Your emails should always include a call-to-action, to give prospects the opportunity to engage further with your brand and properties. 

The bottom line 

With any of your content marketing efforts, including nurturing real estate leads, the most important thing to keep in mind is that you are offering value to your prospects. By sharing your knowledge and expertise through your content, you’re answering the needs of your prospects and building their trust in your brand and properties.

Related posts:

• 5 Luxury Real Estate Brands that Use Content Marketing to Sell Property 
• Video: How Content Marketing for Real Estate Can Help Sell Properties 
• 4 Ways a Blog Can Help You Sell Real Estate 

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4 Ways a Blog Can Help You Sell Real Estate

by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 13, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

A blog can help you sell real estate by increasing search engine visibility, building relationships and trust, and nurturing leads.

You might think that it seems silly to keep up a blog for your property or real estate company. Blogging can be a significant time investment, and you may wonder who would even want to read your blog after all. But blogs do so much more for real estate than provide news and updates to a small community of interested parties.

A small investment of time and resources can mean big gains for your business. Every time you publish a blog post, you increase the chances that a user searching the internet for real estate will find your website. Here’s why.

4 ways a blog can help you sell real estate

1) Increasing search engine visibility

Search engine algorithms are getting more and more sophisticated. As they do, your site’s content becomes increasingly important.

Your content helps inform search engines about your site, improving your rank in relevant search queries (people who are searching for properties or companies like yours). As you choose content for your blog posts, be mindful of the search topics for which you want to rank highly. Every time you publish a post, you create a new chance to reach someone looking for a property like yours.

2) Building relationships

As your blog starts to gain visibility, you might find that other bloggers will start interacting with you. This can be an amazing asset.

Real estate is an industry built on collaboration. Cultivating good and lasting relationships with partners and prospects helps you build credibility in the industry.

Take a little time each day to read relevant industry blogs — and if you find them particularly relevant or interesting, share them.

3) Nurturing leads

Blog content is ideal to share (and link to) in email or social media marketing campaigns. It can help undecided leads learn more about your property and sway them in a positive direction.  

Create segmented lists of email addresses based on the needs and interests of the different groups you’re trying to reach, and send targeted content from your blog their way. Sharing your blog posts on your social media accounts helps give validity and authority to your company, as you disseminate content you created yourself.

4) Becoming a trusted resource

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Content marketing is all about being a resource for your audience. At the end of the day, your expertise and ideas are at least as valuable as your properties. 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:

• Drive More Traffic and Generate More Leads with Your Real Estate Blog with our Editorial Calendar Template
• Social Media Trends for 2018 Real Estate Marketers Need to Know
• How Will Facebook Marketplace Housing Affect Real Estate Marketers?

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5 Marketing Automation Ideas for Real Estate

by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 20, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Real estate marketers using marketing automation can save time and money while increasing leads, conversions, and overall marketing success.

One of the biggest marketing trends this year is automation. HubSpot recently reported that businesses using marketing automation to nurture leads received a whopping 451% increase in qualified leads. So how can real estate marketing professionals reap these benefits while saving time and money on their efforts?

If you’re using it right, marketing automation software can deliver real-time, personalized messages to prospective buyers and renters at every step of the lead-generation process. You can tailor custom email messages based on indicated interests, streamline social media efforts with scheduled posts, evaluate the success of your efforts, and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Check out these five ways that marketing automation can help you sell real estate, with suggested tools for each idea.

5 marketing automation ideas for real estate

1) Social media

Keeping your posts on multiple platforms up to date, consistent, and engaging can be a major time drain. Automating your social media marketing efforts lets you plan ahead and schedule updates on some or all of your social media channels, and lets you easily strategize about peak posting times.

Suggested tool: Sprout Social

2) Email

Having a segmented email list — sorted by when someone joined the list, what emails they’ve opened, their demographics, etc. — is key. This way, you can ensure you’re sending the most relevant information to your prospects, keeping them invested (and keeping you out of their spam folder). Once you set up a template, plugging in your content is easy. You’re able to manage your contact list and schedule emails in advance.

Suggested tool: MailChimp

3) Text messages

There’s a good chance you’re reading this on your cell phone, and, if not, it’s probably close by. Savvy marketers are taking advantage of the ubiquitous nature of mobile devices and using texting to reach audiences with a short message that they’re highly likely to read.

Suggested tool: TextMarks

4) Direct mail

While any number of virtual marketing platforms are beneficial, direct mail is still a powerful tool for real estate. It can be highly time-consuming to manage direct mail campaigns and mailing lists, but automation software that lets you generate geographically or demographically targeted mailing lists can help you reach your ideal audience.

Suggested tool: TriggerMarketing

5) Lead generation and nurturing

Converting website visitors to leads is always the goal, but it often comes with a back-breaking load of time-consuming labor. The right software lets you move your prospect through the sales funnel automatically, sending emails to educate them on the next steps, and scheduling them for viewings.

Suggested tool: SmartZip

What marketing automation tools are you using in your real estate marketing?

Related posts:

• What Metrics Should You Track in Real Estate Marketing?
• Social Media Can Be a Strategic Weapon in Real Estate Marketing
• When Traditional Real Estate Marketing Methods Stop Working, Try Digital Marketing