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Paid Digital Advertising: A Beginner’s Guide for Real Estate Marketers

by Elizabeth Hines | Nov 28, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing | 0 comments

Paid digital advertising can help accelerate your content marketing efforts so that your content gets in front of prospective buyers and renters faster than would happen organically.

We are strong believers in content marketing. Build it, and they will come — or, in content-marketing speak, publish quality content, and buyers will come to you. But, content marketing takes time to bear fruit. There’s not much you can do about that.

Except paid digital advertising.

By investing in paid digital advertising, you can boost the reach of your posts, display ads, and videos. Pair quality content 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.

Your peers understand this. Within the first quarter of 2017, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest saw a 61.5% increase in paid media spend. And that’s only going to increase through 2018.

So where do you start? Here are three places to get started in using paid digital advertising to help market your property.

3 paid digital advertising platforms

1) Display ads

Display ads are the paid advertisements that appear in front of users on website pages in the form of graphics. Unlike text-based ads, display advertising relies on elements such as images, audio, and video to communicate an advertising message. Display ads are commonly referred to as banner ads, but they don’t always take banner form. They can come in all shapes and sizes, and can appear anywhere on a webpage.

Benefits: Because digital ads are visual, they can be customized with your logo, message, images of properties, or an offer to help increase brand awareness. You have the ability to use graphics, video, and audio to really stand out and highlight your properties. Display ads also allow users the ability to target a specific audience. You control which sites they appear on, which geographic area they appear in, and which demographic or niche market they appear to — all valuable tools for the real estate marketer.

2) Sponsored social media posts

There are sponsored posts plus other ad opportunities like Facebook like campaigns, website click ads, and lead ads.

Social media is a natural place to begin if you’re looking to get into paid digital advertising, particularly for the real estate industry. A good starting point is Facebook. The social media giant’s social ad revenue was more than $9.16 billion in Q2 2017 alone. And it doesn’t stop there. Twitter brought in $548 million in social media advertising revenue in the same period, and Snapchat is expected to reach over $895.5 million in ad revenue in 2017.

More specifically, three of the most useful types of sponsored social media posts for real estate marketing are:

• Facebook Like Campaigns: These campaigns are aimed directly at increasing the number of likes for a Facebook page, targeting people who might be interested in your brand and the posts you share on Facebook.
• Facebook Website Click Ads: These are ads that point people on Facebook to your website, or even the listings for specific properties.
• Facebook Lead Ads: These ads allow users to request information, estimates, or newsletters without leaving Facebook. Requiring fewer steps of prospective leads increases conversion rates.

Benefits: Running paid social ads allows you to reach a large audience at a low cost. You pay based on the type of ad you’re running. For example, if you’re looking to drive brand awareness, you’ll incur a CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions). And not only are the ads relatively inexpensive to run, they’re not expensive to create. You get all of this plus the ability to target your specific audience, reaching people that are interested in learning about the properties you have to offer.

3) Google AdWords

Google AdWords places your website as one of the top results on a search engine results page (SERP) when a user searches for certain keywords of your choice. When a user clicks the AdWords link or calls your business using that link, you incur a charge (pay-per-click). Otherwise, impressions are free.

Google’s most recent update involves changes to the so-called “3-pack,” or the listing of three related local businesses on a search results page. Many users rely on the 3-pack to discover businesses in their area that offer the products and services they are seeking. This is particularly helpful for users searching for local real estate. And real estate copanies get the benefit of many additional leads and investors when they appear in the 3-pack.

Benefits: The biggest benefit of Google AdWords is its speed. You appear in a top spot in a user’s search results, meaning you are one of the first things a user sees when searching for a specific location or property keyword. That’s another good point: Google AdWords allows you to focus on people who are searching for what you have to offer, so you don’t pay for a bunch of wasted impressions — particularly valuable in real estate marketing, where geography is key. AdWords also gives you real-time reports to track your ad’s success. A dashboard shows information related to each campaign, such as the ads clicked, keywords entered by website visitors, cost of clicks and much more.

Related posts:

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

• Learn How Content Marketing Increased Real Estate Sales by 37% in 90 Days

• Using Content Marketing to Market and Sell Luxury Real Estate

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Learn How Content Marketing Increased Real Estate Sales by 37% in 90 Days

by Jennifer Hart Yim | Jun 16, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Residential | 0 comments

This case study shows how home sales grew by more than one-third in 3 months with content marketing.

93 percent of all online experiences begin with a search engine, and 75 percent of searchers don’t move past the first page of search results. With home buyers increasingly more likely to start their purchasing research online, content marketing is a strategic way for real estate marketers to get their properties in front of more potential buyers.

What’s more, home buyers are influenced by peers and their interactions with websites, mobile apps, and social networks. The opportunities created by these online interactions can be competitive advantages for real estate marketers who are prepared to take advantage of this new landscape.

Consider this case study of a leading real estate marketing firm who chose to use digital and content marketing to shake up their traditional marketing approach.

After just three months of beginning a digital and content marketing program, the firm recognized significant gains in web traffic, social media engagement, and brand exposure. The firm recognized that unlike print, online mediums created opportunities for their firm to present target audiences with dynamic content. Optimizing their content and strategizing about its distribution boosted sales 37% for this real estate marketing firm in just 90 days.

Download the case study to find out how they achieved their remarkable results.

Related posts: 

• Real Estate Firm Grows Sales by 300% through Content Marketing

• Using Content Marketing to Market and Sell Luxury Real Estate

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Social Media Can Be a Strategic Weapon in Real Estate Marketing

by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 5, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Real estate marketers should embrace social media as a strategic tool for brand positioning, reputation management, and market intelligence.

Is your business cheating itself out of a major marketing advantage? It’s all too common for companies in the real estate industry to be stuck in traditional marketing methods that don’t reflect how modern buyers and tenants are searching for properties: online.

The real estate industry is built on relationships, partnerships, cooperation, networks, and communication. Being social is a key part of forging a successful real estate marketing strategy. It’s time for the industry to embrace the tools that social media platforms offer.

In addition to starting their searches online, buyers and tenants often write reviews about properties and agents online on social media sites and user-review sites like Yelp. Increasingly, your prospects will evaluate you based on what they read on sites like this.

So what can you do to leverage these resources? Real estate marketers can meet buyers and tenants where they are by using social media as a tool for brand awareness, lead generation, reputation management, and market intelligence.

4 ways to use social media as a strategic weapon in real estate marketing

Here are four ways you can make social media a strategic weapon for your business or property.

1) Distribute content and communicate

Social media is a natural way to communicate news and updates with your followers. Distribute your content as well as third-party curated content to share information with them. You’ll establish your brand as a valuable resource and enhance your property’s position within the marketplace by doing so.

2) Gain market intelligence

Potential buyers and tenants are online, sharing news and information with friends, colleagues, and — it turns out — you! So are your competitors, brokers, potential business partners, and important people in the community that have influence over various aspects affecting your property. There’s lots of valuable information that you can mine from social media. Use it to your advantage.

3) Control the conversation

Something people are talking about online? You and your property. Be an active participant in that conversation as a means to facilitate reputation management and to promote good customer service.

4) Listen and respond

Relatedly, taking the extra step of reading and responding to comments, posts, and reviews is what really makes social media such a valuable tool for the real estate industry. This way, you engender lasting and meaningful relationships with your buyers or tenants — and there’s no better way to build your brand and grow business than that.

Related posts:

• This Is How Often Real Estate Companies Should Post on Social Media
• When Traditional Real Estate Marketing Methods Stop Working, Try Digital Marketing
• 5 Tips for Building a Successful Real Estate Social Media Marketing Program

 

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3 Ways to Boost Your Real Estate Marketing with Video

by Elizabeth Hines | Nov 20, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

Video marketing is no longer the wave of the future—it’s now. And it’s one of the best and most cost-effective ways to grow your social media audience and generate leads. 

If you’re a real estate marketer, you’re probably aware that one of the biggest industry trends in 2018 is the growing prevalence of video. Recent research from Social Media Examiner indicates that not only do nearly two-thirds (63%) of marketers use video content in their social media marketing, but 77% plan to increase video content within the next year.  

These days, most real estate searches start online—in fact, according to RESAAS, 67% of the real estate buyer’s journey is now done online. Since video is the most popular and most widely shared form of online content right now, it’s key to creating a positive first impression, and converting leads.  

Here are three ways that you can use video to give your real estate marketing efforts a boost. 

Show you know the area using real estate marketing with video 

Whether your properties are rural, urban, or suburban, displaying deep knowledge of your location and community is crucial to cultivating credibility. You can use real estate marketing with video to demonstrate your local credentials. Jason Hsiao, Chief Video Officer and Co-Founder of Animoto, suggests that “there’s no need to hire a team of videographers or invest in expensive equipment—a simple neighborhood overview or market update can demonstrate your expertise.” 

For example, Brothers Commercial Brokerage of New Jersey used Animoto to create a Facebook video detailing the history of a local building, tapping into a sense of nostalgia and pride of place. It received 14,000 views, as well as 129 shares, and helped engage a new segment of potential buyers and renters. 

Up your social media game 

Professionalism on Facebook and Instagram is all about presentation and finding the right balance of appealing to the personal, while maintaining a streamlined image for your brand. Effective use of video can go a long way to improving your social media presence. Creating videos, like the one Brothers Commercial Brokerage used, is cost-effective and prime fodder for sharing online. 

Instagram Stories lets you post videos in small, 15-second increments, and can be an ideal platform for quick video tours of units or properties. Because of  Facebook’s recent newsfeed changes, your best bet is to upload videos directly to Facebook’s platform, rather than sharing YouTube or other links.  

Establish your credibility and build your brand 

We live in a highly visual world, particularly when it comes to social media. 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. “On social media, where competition is loud, video helps your brand cut through the noise and stay ahead of the curve,” says Hsiao.  

Video is an ideal way to connect with your market, establish your credentials, improve your social media engagement, drive traffic to your website, and generate leads. And best of all, videos don’t require a large financial investment, just some planning and creativity. Fuel your real estate marketing with video, starting today. 

Related posts: 

• 10 Social Media Statistics for Real Estate Marketers 2018 
• 4 Real Estate Marketing Trends 2018 
• How Inbound Marketing for Real Estate Works to Improve Sales

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7 Ways Content Marketing Helps Sell Luxury Real Estate

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

Do you sell luxury real estate? Are you using content marketing? Here are 7 reasons you should.

It’s no secret that, when it comes to driving luxury real estate sales, content marketing works. 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 they haven’t tried. And a whopping 94.1% plan to focus on creating new and unique content for their websites.

So how exactly does content marketing help you sell luxury real estate? Here are 7 ways, just to name a few.

7 ways content marketing helps sell luxury real estate

1) Connect with qualified buyers.

Luxury buyers are highly likely to do purchasing research online. A robust digital and social media presence creates a virtual touch point to connect with affluent buyers.

2) Broaden brand awareness.

According to Sprout Social’s Consumer Engagement Index, which ranks industries by engagement from customers on social media, the real estate industry is second overall in terms of inbound engagement relative to audience size. As hyper-connected buyers engage with your relevant, quality content online, they share with their networks, and your content starts working for you exponentially.

3) Drive traffic to your property website.

Since 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine, and 75% of searchers don’t click beyond the first page of search results, SEO is crucial for driving traffic to your property’s page. As search engine algorithms evolve, quality content is more and more important in making sure buyers find your property among top results.

4) Communicate real-time updates to potential buyers.

Through social media, particularly through the use of video content or live stories, you can get real-time updates to luxury buyers about project timelines, availability, construction progress, neighborhood news, and promotions.

5) Generate leads.

Content marketing helps drive qualified buyers to your site. According to a spokesperson for New York City-based Corcoran Real Estate Group, since adopting a robust content marketing strategy, “the quality of the referral traffic back into our main website has significantly improved. And not only are we seeing more traffic coming in, but visitors coming in from social media sites are staying longer and looking at more things.”

6) Nurture leads.

Content marketing — particularly a well-planned, automated email strategy — is a highly efficient and effective way to develop relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales process. HubSpot recently reported that businesses using marketing automation to nurture leads received a 451% increase in qualified leads. That’s right: 451%.

7) Sell your neighborhood.

Blog content focused on neighborhood amenities, seasonal recreational activities, area restaurants, etc. can help highlight factors that make your properties attractive to affluent buyers.

As Fronetics’ Director of Strategy Jennifer Hart Yim writes, “Content 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.”

Do you use content marketing to sell luxury real estate?

Related posts:

• 4 Ways a Blog Can Help You Sell Real Estate
• Social Media Trends for 2018 Real Estate Marketers Need to Know
• What Metrics Should You Track in Real Estate Marketing?