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Marketing Automation for Real Estate Marketers is Key to Lead Generation

by Katie Russell | Mar 19, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Real estate marketing is an increasingly complex undertaking. Luckily, marketing automation for real estate is here to help you streamline your efforts. 

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Highlights: 

• Marketing automation tools automate the process of personalizing leads’ interactions with your properties 
• Create email workflows, schedule social media posts, and streamline CRM with automation software 

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Real estate marketing is a massive undertaking, which only grows in complexity as real estate buyers demand more and more personalized experiences throughout the buyer’s journey. Enter marketing automation, featuring a range of solutions for custom lead-nurturing content to all prospects in your database. 

The term “marketing automation” describes a variety of tools used to automate the process of personalizing the interactions that your leads have with your properties. Email workflows, social media scheduling tools, and customer relationship management (CRM) are all examples of automated marketing. 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. 

HubSpot recently reported that businesses using marketing automation to nurture leads received a whopping 451% increase in qualified leads. The same principles apply to marketing automation for real estate. Used correctly, marketing automation software can deliver real-time, personalized messages to prospective buyers and renters at every step of the lead-generation process. 

With so many tools and insights available, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Here’s our guide to what you need to know about marketing automation for real estate. 

Marketing automation for real estate: Email workflows 

Having a segmented email list — sorted by when a prospect joins the list, what emails they’ve opened, their demographics, etc. — is key to creating effective email workflows. With a quality list, you can ensure you’re sending the most relevant information to your prospects, keeping them invested (and keeping you out of their spam folder).  

The first step is setting up a template; once you do that, you can plug in your content, manage your contact list, and schedule your emails in advance. 

Our favorite tools for 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 

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. 

Our favorite tools for social media scheduling: AdRoll 

AdRoll 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) 

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. 

Our favorite tools for CRM 

1. 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. 

2. 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. 

Select one or more of these tools, study them carefully, and get to work. Eventually, marketing automation for real estate will become second nature, save you time, and, most importantly, generate solid leads.  

Related Posts: 

• Our 6 Favorite Marketing Automation Tools for Real Estate Marketers 
• 5 Marketing Automation Ideas for Real Estate 
• Social Media Can Be a Strategic Weapon in Real Estate Marketing 

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The Metrics You Should Be Measuring in Real Estate Marketing (Hint: Not Vanity Metrics)

by Elizabeth Hines | Oct 10, 2017 | Blog, Data & Analytics, Pay-Per-Click and Social Advertising, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

Don’t waste your time reporting on vanity metrics, which won’t tell you whether you’ve achieved your ROI.

We all want to see the fruits of our labors. Whether renting a new property or launching a social media campaign, we look for instantaneous numbers that will affirm we made the right choices. But here’s the problem: not all metrics are created equal.

So-called vanity metrics are measurements that have no bearing on your bottom line but can give you an inflated sense of success. Generally, they are easy to calculate but are influenced by too many factors — and are too vulnerable to random external events — to be reliable.

Website visits and number of subscribers are two classic examples. A spike in homepage hits may be the result of your marketing efforts, or it may be because of ghost spam. (Or both.) Regardless, more visits do not necessarily correlate to increased revenue — just more visits. In the same vein, having 100,000 email subscribers means nothing if only 1% are opening them. You actually could be losing money in terms of resources allocated if the emails aren’t helping drive sales.

Investment vs. vanity metrics

That’s why it’s crucial to focus on return on investment instead of vanity metrics. You could waste hours reviewing a hundred different analytics that tell you nothing about how revenue was affected by a particular effort. Or, worse, you could use vanity metrics to justify decisions that don’t achieve their ROI.

As a simplified example: say you spend $1,000 on a display ad for a new apartment complex targeting established professionals on a local news website, and your analytics report that 100 people clicked through. This sounds like success! But don’t celebrate just yet. When you dig past the vanity metric, you find an extremely high bounce rate. That means most of those click-throughs left your site immediately, neither engaging with your property nor moving any closer to becoming a tenant. In fact, you find that only one click-through converts. Was it worth paying $1,000 for this one potential tenant? Probably not.

But say you ran another $1,000 display ad, one that targets a younger audience than you think your property fits. Only 20 visitors clicked through, which sounds less successful than the other ad. But when you follow those 20 click-throughs, you find that 5 ended up renting units, meaning the ad pays for itself many times over. You’ve also learned that perhaps a younger audience is more suited than you thought to your property. The ROI proves that the vanity metric was quite misleading in this case.

Metrics that help you make decisions

Lean-startup pioneer Eric Reis, who coined the term vanity metrics, said, “The only metrics that entrepreneurs should invest energy in collecting are those that help them make decisions.” In other words, measure the things that will tell you if an effort was profitable so you know where to put your time and money.

While vanity metrics tell you nothing about your bottom line, ROI can help you determine whether it was worth spending your resources in a particular way. This is extremely useful on platforms like blogs and social media, where things are constantly changing. Using ROI as a litmus test, you can keep experimenting and making sure you’re using these tools effectively. Tracking a vanity metric like number of followers, which is likely to build over time regardless, gives you no indication of which experiments were successful and which weren’t.

Your resources are limited, so it’s crucial to evaluate your efforts with meaningful numbers that illustrate their effect on your bottom line. Calculating ROI might take some time — both in the few extra minutes to do the math and the amount of time that needs to pass before all the data is available — but that number will be infinitely more valuable to you than any vanity metric on your Google Analytics report.

Related posts:

• Social Media Can Be a Strategic Weapon in Real Estate Marketing
• How Pay-Per-Click Helped This Property Get 54 Leads
• Learn How Content Marketing Increased Real Estate Sales by 37% in 90 Days

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5 TED Talks for Real Estate Marketers

by Elizabeth Hines | May 29, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Need a little inspiration? Check out our top 5 TED talks for real estate marketers.

The popularity of TED Talks seems to have increased recently. A decade ago, the lecture series focused on technology, education, and design wasn’t a household name. Today, the number of views totals well over 1 billion.

TED Talks can be inspiring and full of useful information from thought leaders in all aspects of the field. Here are 5 that we think real estate marketers should watch right now.

5 TED Talks for real estate marketers

• Ben Miller: The real estate deal that could change the future of everything

Co-founder of Fundrise — an investment platform for creating a simple, low-cost way for anyone to access real estate — Ben Miller discusses the role technology will play in how people invest in real estate in the future. He offers his perspective, gleaned from 15 years in real estate and finance, in which he has acquired, developed, and financed more than $500 million in property.

• Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

You may have heard the phrase “The Golden Circle,” coined by Simon Sinek. It starts with the question “why?” and examines the emotional core of what makes employees and customers buy into a company. In his extremely popular TED Talk, Sinek discusses the connection between The Golden Circle, marketing, and consumer behavior — a must-watch for all content marketing professionals.

• Seth Godin: How to get your ideas to spread

Prolific author and marketing guru Seth Godin offers his insights about creating remarkable stories. He posits the idea that when it comes to getting attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones. Ultimately, he advocates for a tailored, specific message spread passionately to those who want to listen.

• Gunnar Branson: Moore’s law of real estate

Gunnar Branson is the CEO of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers. His TED Talk applies Moore’s Law (which predicts that technology will get exponentially smaller as it advances) to real estate. He predicts that the physical space we live, work, and play in will transform in front of our eyes, and discusses how those changes will impact the real estate market.

• Kio Stark: Why you should talk to strangers

This one is good for the soul! Author, scholar, and speaker Kio Stark says, “When you talk to strangers, you’re making beautiful interruptions into the expected narrative of your daily life — and theirs.” Her talk explores the benefits of pushing through discomfort with strangers, and embracing what can become profound moments of genuine connection. It’s an inspiring listen for real estate marketers, in a field that’s all about connecting and telling a story.

What TED Talks for real estate do you recommend?

Related posts:

• 10 Social Media Statistics for Real Estate Marketers 2018
• 4 Real Estate Marketing Trends 2018
• 10 Must-Follow Blogs for Real Estate Marketers

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Social Media Trends for 2018 Real Estate Marketers Need to Know

by Elizabeth Hines | Jan 23, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Augmented reality, streaming video, and local experiences are 3 social media trends to try in 2018.

If there’s one thing real estate marketers can be sure of in the coming year, it’s that social media will continue to dominate the marketing landscape. Social media presents tremendous opportunity, particularly if you’re aware of upcoming trends.

“While the job of marketing and selling a house once required a lot of legwork on behalf of the agent or seller, many of the tasks associated with listing and promoting are much easier thanks to social media,” says Realty Times blogger Megan Wild.

Here are 3 social media trends for 2018 that you need to know about.

3 social media trends for 2018

1) Augmented reality

Just a few years ago, this seemed like purely Sci-Fi territory. But what was once wild fantasy is quickly making its way into real life.

Last year, for example, Apple announced that the iPhone 8 and iPhone X would incorporate a new chip that enables users them to provide users with augmented reality experiences. Google Glass may have been a flop, but now Facebook, Google, and Snap are all also throwing their hats into the augmented reality ring.

So what does this mean for real estate marketing? This technology is still in its early stages, and the possibilities will continue to develop as capabilities grow. But already sellers are using augmented reality and virtual reality to display potential color themes, floor plans, and possible renovations.

2) Streaming video

As video capabilities on smartphones and other devices continue to skyrocket, services like Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, and Snapchat are changing the way people interact with the world. According to Livestream.com, “about 80% of consumers would rather watch a live video from a brand than read a blog, and 82% would prefer live video to written social media updates.”

If you haven’t already started to make use of these platforms, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon. What was once a cool idea for reaching your audience is now the expectation for brands.

You can optimize your videos in all kinds of ways, like location tags, titles, and targeted descriptions. “Buyers no longer have to spend their days traveling and visiting different open houses,” says Wild. And “instead of spending their time preparing hosting open houses to advertise their new properties, agents can use high-definition video to provide a detailed tour.”

3) Local and personal experiences

Every new technological boom comes with a price. Social media marketing is incredibly popular for a reason, but increased volume means an increased presence of brand-written content, which in turn leads to brand fatigue among buyers. As a result, local and personal experiences are moving into the forefront. Online consumers want local, interpersonal interactions.

While it may seem like more work, this is great news and presents a lot of opportunities for real estate marketers. Real estate is local by its very nature. The more content you share on social media that focuses on place (e.g. local restaurants, entertainment, community events), the more of a personal connection you forge with your audience. Ultimately, that connection is what social media is all about.

What social media trends are you trying in 2018?

Related posts:

• 4 Steps to Building a Successful DIY Content Marketing Strategy for Real Estate

• How Will Facebook Marketplace Housing Affect Real Estate Marketers?

• 6 Social Media Don’ts for Property Management Companies

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Top 5 Blogs for Real Estate Marketers

by Katie Russell | Mar 26, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

Blogs are an ideal source of knowledge and insights for real estate marketing professionals. Here are our favorite five blogs for real estate marketers to follow. 

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Highlights: 

• Up-to-date knowledge is crucial for real estate marketers. 
• Following the right blogs sets you up for success and keeps you aware of conversations in the industry. 
• These five blogs for real estate marketers are our favorite sources of knowledge and insights. 

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Promoting your properties, growing your business, converting leads — it’s all about having the knowledge-base that shapes your strategies and solutions. There’s always something new to learn in real estate marketing. We think this makes it an incredibly exciting field — but we also know that it can be equally overwhelming. 

If you know where to look, there’s a vibrant conversation going on among real estate marketers as an ever-growing field of ideas is being generated and discussed. We’ve compiled this list of our five favorite blogs for real estate marketers that we think you should be following, too. These are ideal places for information and ideas about overall best practices, social media use, writing effective content, and more.  

5 blogs for real estate marketers 

1. Propmodo Real Estate 

Propmodo Real Estate is the place for cutting-edge insights into how technology is changing the way commercial real estate is acquired, managed, and used. This multimedia site follows people, practices, and tools that are shaping the business of real estate. 

A few of our favorite posts include a discussion of the commercial real estate sector’s embrace of lease automation, and “Viral Marketing and Buzz Marketing: What is Better for Real Estate Business?”  

2. BombBomb 

Like Propmodo, BombBomb’s blog is real estate-specific and dedicated to building relationships through video to create more opportunities in email, text, and social media. It’s particularly strong on email marketing, which is still the most profitable form of marketing online. 

We love what BombBomb has to say about the nuts and bolts aspects of real estate marketing, but they also have some great think pieces. For example, a recent post and podcast episode on “Trust, Neuroscience, and the Customer Experience” explored the neuroscience behind trusting relationships with clients, the nature of trust itself, and how to cultivate it.  

3. HubSpot Marketing 

HubSpot Marketing is a phenomenal resource for all content marketers, including real estate marketers. It covers everything you need to know to become a marketing whiz. Topics include SEO, blogging, social media, lead generation, email marketing, lead management, analytics, and more. 

These experts in content marketing may not be writing specifically about real estate, but we have them on the list, since it’s worthwhile for real estate marketers to be aware of the larger ideas and solutions being discussed as it pertains to content marketing. 

4. Geek Estate 

A good choice for the tech-savvy marketer, Geek Estate focuses on what’s happening in real estate technology — for example, the changes happening with Zillow and Trulia. This is a great resource for being on the cutting-edge of upcoming trends. 

Geek Estate is a private community of real estate technologists, innovators, and founders. Much of their content requires a subscription, and membership could be well worth your while. The blog has recently tackled the subject of “Uberizing Real Estate with Zillow Offers.” 

5. Social Media Today 

Like Hubspot, Social Media Today isn’t specifically focused on real estate. However, it’s a great go-to resource for all things social media, a crucial topic for real estate marketers. The blog frequently features insights from leaders in the field. And SMT’s team of influencers covers topics including social media developments, trending, social marketing, digital strategy, and content marketing. 

SMT is a particularly good source of up-to-the-minute news from the social media and larger tech sector. The site keeps closely abreast of the latest developments, and keeps a roundup of social media updates separately archived for easy perusal.  

Read them all or pick your favorite — you’ll benefit from increasing your knowledge.  

Related Posts: 

• Infographic: Real Estate Social Media Marketing Strategies  
• A Visual Guide to Social Media Posting Frequency for Real Estate 
• Video: Top Real Estate Marketing Trends 2019