Nearly two decades of the 21st century have passed and it is high time that realtors everywhere acknowledge that, without proper online marketing strategies, life and business will be very hard. Loopnet and Google have conducted a study together which has shown that around 80% of people looking for a listing, whether to lease or invest into, are going to do so online. With this much people shopping for a new property online, it is only natural that every real estate agent should look to capitalize on this.
Now, if you want to do it properly, there are some things that you must not miss out on, in order to have a well-managed online marketing campaign.
Mobile Responsiveness for your Website
According to a report from comScore and other relevant studies, it has been shown that the number of users accessing content from a mobile device has surpassed desktop users sometime back in 2014. It’s been two years now and the gap between the two has only grown larger. This is why it is extremely important that your website is accessible from any device, be it a desktop, laptop or a smartphone.
If you are starting a website from scratch, then your web developer will probably make your website responsive, as that is the standard now. However, if your website is older, then it might need some sprucing up in order to make it more responsive across all devices. If this is the case, then contact your web developer and have him update your website as soon as possible.
Relevant Blog Content
Blogs serve multiple purposes. First of all, they allow you to update your readers about your dealings and to promote the listings that you wish to sell by further promoting them and giving them a prominent place. Also, it helps a lot with the SEO part of marketing (more about that later). Finally, it allows you to add a personal touch to your posts, which will make you more human in the eyes of your potential customers – and customers are always willing to trust someone who shows that they have a human side, too.
Multi-media Coverage
Having a blog is all nice and well, but written content is not the only type of content that exists out there. All the other media play an important role in your marketing campaigns. This includes pictures of your listings (and I’m sure that you’ve got that one already covered), posting videos and even creating your own memes.
Memes are the ‘here and now’ of online marketing. While their first purpose is to make fun, you can turn them to your advantage by making memes about the houses you want to sell, or about real-estate in general. When it comes to videos, you can always make a testimonial video after one of your clients has purchased one of your listings. People are usually ecstatic when they buy a new house or a flat, and capturing that moment on video is a great way to advertise yourself.
Proper Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been ever-present in the online marketing game for quite some time now. It is the essence, the cornerstone of any proper online marketing strategy. Simply, without it, anything else that you do online will have little to no effect on your website visits and, more importantly, on your sales. What SEO does is it keeps your website (and your listings) high in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), which means that for targeted keywords that are searched, you will rank higher than your competition.
Now, the way this is usually done in the real estate world is by hiring people who conduct black-hat SEO techniques (which are frowned upon by Google and usually regarded as spam). This means that the way is open for someone who knows what he’s doing. This is why I recommend finding a good, trustworthy SEO company, even if it’s not from the same area as you are. You can find reviews of the best SEO companies, and find those who you want to hire. Or, you can go by personal recommendation from one of your colleagues, but make sure that the company is not on the dark side of SEO.
All of these are must haves for a proper online marketing campaign. The online marketing space is wide open for people who follow these pieces of advice, and will surely result in more potential customers and more visits to your listings.
