Working in the real estate field, you are constantly looking for qualified homeowners. Digital strategy for real estate professionals can help you find the right new clients to make 2019 the best year yet!
From buying, selling, decorating, remodeling, or building from scratch, there are tons of projects for qualified homeowners to consider. How do THEY find YOU and your services?
Inbound digital marketing is the process of attracting qualified home owners through valuable content that keeps your firm top of mind when they are ready to start their project. This includes:
- Website & digital presence
- Social media strategy
- Email marketing strategy
For 2019, let’s take a look at the top 9 strategies for real estate professionals that will help find, attract, and convert qualified homeowners online.
PLUS – Learn the #1 mistake we see new real estate professionals making with their digital strategy!
Website & Digital Presence:
The first place to look is at your own digital real estate. Make sure your own website has the following areas optimized and refreshed for the New Year.
1. Updated photography
In the digital age, there is no excuse for poor qualify photos on your website. Use current and relevant photos of projects, designs, or recent listings to highlight the best you have to offer. Images should be crisp, clean, and used to enhance the website visitors experience.
Ask yourself these questions when assessing you’re the photography on each of your websites:
- When did I take this picture?
- Is the photo relevant to the content on the page?
- Do I have too many photos on the page?
Updating your photography does not mean loading tons of photos on your website. Using photography carousel features or photo galleries are a great way to highlight a bunch of photos of a single project without slowing down your website.
Be sure the photos help tell your story and lead website users closer to contacting you for your services.
2. Easy to Contact Forms
This has to be one of my more shocking discoveries when auditing a client’s website. How am I supposed to contact you?
By creating a simple contact form on your home page or clear call to action buttons so your website visitors know exactly what you want them to do. Don’t assume they will know to look for your “Contact Me” page or call the phone number at the bottom of the page.
Contact forms are the key to capturing, nurturing, and opening up communication with your ideal clients. You can have a contact form for all types of calls to action. For example, “Schedule a Consult”, “Request a Quote”, or “Download Now”.
This is the one tip that will easily double your qualified leads from your website!
3. Using Live Chat or Chat Bots
Yes, with live chat, you, a team member, or an outsourced team will respond in real time to website user chat questions. The chat feature can pop up in a number of ways on your website pages. Just be careful that your chat feature is not obnoxious or intrusive to a user’s
Chatbots, on the other hand, are automated responses to standard questions that you might receive from a website user. They can also be used to engage a user by asking leading questions that help the user make a decision on your website.
Social Media Strategy:
For our next section, let’s look at the social media strategies that will help you increase your qualified lead inquiries in the next year. The fact remains, your business needs to be on social media. But, where, when, and to what avail depends strictly on your goals.
4. Focusing on 1 social platform
Start by getting really good at one social platform. Yes, you can be on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube, etc. etc. But, the key to social media is being social. If you are trying to conquer all the platforms at one time, a couple things might happen:
You spend all your time on social media instead of working your business and closing deals; OR
You over-automate your social media to save time and efficiencies and lose your authenticity to your audience.
So, start by figuring out what platform will reach your ideal client. Focus on creating a solid plan for that platform. Facebook is the obvious starting point because of the size of its user base and ease of targeting your audience. But, don’t be limited by that. If you work with high dollar homes, LinkedIn’s audience of business people – from self-employed entrepreneurs to C-suite executives – could be who you should be talking to.
For real estate professionals, I would recommend starting with either Facebook or LinkedIn.
The point here is start with one. Make it profitable. Then expand to others.
5. Being human with regular posts for your audience
I touched on this in the last tip. Being social on social media is important. Be authentic. Be a real human. Show your audience who you are, why you are so great, and how you serve your clients. There are tons of ways to do this as a real estate professional. Jot down all your post ideas and start a calendar to help you with regular posting and being consistent.
Your posts to your following are the social currency that these social platforms look for when serving up content. It keeps you top of mind for your current followers and it helps future followers find you.
Remember the old business adage: “People do business with people they know, like, and trust.” Being human on social media helps your potential clients get to know you better, like you, and trust you.
(PS – remember strategy #1 – photos! Make your posts beautiful. Use high quality images. No matter how real you are, human beings are visual and visual content is what captures people’s attention.)
6. Value of targeted ads
Now that you are focusing on a single social media platform and getting consistent with your posting, let’s look at the value of the targeted ads on this platform. Almost every platform has a way you can serve ads to your targeted audience. Since we recommend real estate professionals start with Facebook or LinkedIn as the obvious platforms for qualified clients, dive into their targeting options. Understand how you can dial in your audience based on your offer.
Finding the right audience and showing them the right message at the right time is the surefire way to success on any digital strategy. So, decide on a compelling offer and target the right audience.
Email Marketing Strategy:
7. Design helpful resources & content
You are an expert in your field. You solve problems for your clients. Be a resource to your audience so they know your name when the time comes for them to make a purchase. By designing helpful resources or content related to your real estate services, you can find and attract the perfect client easily.
For example, if you are a realtor in Tucson, write a quick tips sheet that every buyer needs to know when shopping for home in Tucson. If you are a general contractor, share the top 10 mistakes homeowners make when starting a remodeling job. If you are an interior designer, highlight the trends of the current season.
The point is… find the content you can write to showcase your expertise. Write it. Design it. Or find someone who can do that for you.
Then…get it out there for the world to see by starting with your email list. You know, all of those people who fill out a contact form, but have not made a purchase from you? Share your new content with them. Your content and resources are a great way to attract new clients (via a download offer) and nurture existing contacts (helping them get closer to choosing you for their project).
8. Develop a
Email marketing can be fun…but it can also be
If you create that content or resource that was mentioned in the previous strategy, then sharing that information is a great piece to communicate. Perhaps you have a new listing or a fun client story. Or maybe you round up that month’s industry news so your clients know the latest real estate trends in your area. Email marketing can focus on anything you want. The goal is to keep your business top of mind and help guide them closer to choosing you.
Like social, with email be consistent. Be human. Provide value.
9. Automate your messaging
One strategy that can help you manage your time when it comes to email marketing is automating some of the messaging. If you communication plan includes a monthly newsletter on Tucson’s latest real estate trends, you may not want to automate your emails.
However, there are plenty of ways to automate your email messages that show you are both responsive and consistently thoughtful in how you share information. For example:
- Form autoresponders: remember those forms in the earlier strategy; write a thoughtful “Thank you for your request” autoresponder for anyone who fills out that form.
- Download autoresponders: remember that content you are creating for download, deliver the content directly to their inbox with a “Here’s your resource” autoresponder.
- Follow up funnel emails: after that resource download autoresponder, if the person hasn’t reached out for an appointment or made a purchase, you can develop a series of emails that takes the person through your buying decision funnel. These follow up funnel emails can be set up to send out every few days and in a logical order that feels genuine, authentic, and helpful.
Email automation strategies are endless. If you use funnels or apply funnel concepts to your business then you are ahead of the game for top digital strategies when it comes to automating your messages.
Always remember, in anything you do to increase efficiencies through automation, maintain authenticity and connection with your ideal clients. Doing digital right in a face-to-face industry, like real estate, requires you to think through the steps thoughtfully and provide value to your clients. If you can do that well online, you are on your way to 7+ figures in real life!
Digital strategies for this year are not revolutionary. To stay on top for 2019, remember to be authentic. Pay attention to the user’s experience. Provide value. Make it easy for them to do business with you.
Now for the #1 mistake real estate professional are making online…
Not having a website. So often we see agents or agencies linking to a public profile on one of the main real estate platforms or service aggregators! Yikes! What happens if those sites go away tomorrow? Where will your business be found?
By building your own piece of digital real estate you:
- Control your brand and digital presence
- Create a hub for all of your digital marketing efforts
- Truly own the search results page when people are seeking you or your services
Yes, you need the following business pages or profiles, but don’t let those be your only digital real estate.
If you are ONLY relying on Home Advisor, Zillow, Houzz or any other business profile for your digital presence, you are missing out on a VERY large part of your audience. Don’t get rid of those profiles, but understand how a simple 4-page website is both cost-effective and strategically a smarter investment.
Need help with your digital marketing strategy? Let’s chat. Schedule a free mini-audit with a Smart Girl and learn specific areas where you can see quick results in 2019.