| Table of Contents 1. Top reason Digital Marketing for Real Estate is increasingly becoming important 1.1. Target Customers searches for Properties Online 1.2 Pandemic boosted digitalization across Industries 1.3 Greater options and Detailed Information 1.4 Seller Credibility checks can be performed with ease 1.5 Fastest way to transact 1.6 Multiple targeting options 1.7 Brand Identity can be established using Social Media, websites, etc. 1.8 Competition is doing it 2. Categories of Digital Marketing for Real Estate 2.1. Develop a user friendly and informative website 2.2. Strategize SEO for leveraging returns from the website 2.3 Run Pay Per Click Ads for quick lead generation 2.4 Get active on Social Media 2.5 Optimise Local Listings and GMB 2.6 Adopt an Email Marketing strategy 2.7 Harness the power of YouTube: Video is the way forward 3. Digital Communication for Real Estate: Creatives and Videos 3.1 YouTube promotions 3.2 Social Promotions 3.3 Website Promotions 4. Trends in Digital Marketing for Real Estate 4.1. Property Virtual Tours 4.2 Being Quick Pays instantly 4.3 Consistent follow-ups lead to greater conversions 4.4 Create really High-quality content 4.5 Websites are your Real -estate: Make them fast & useful 4.6 Online reputation management is critical 4.7 Increase the Domain Authority of your Website 5. Harness the power of Search Engine 5.1 Rank for Featured snippet for Real Estate Queries 5.2 Rank on Page 1 with your Website (higher, the better) 5.3. Rank for Google My Business 5.4 Answer real estate questions on Quora 5.5 Rank for PPC Ads for your Keywords 5.6 Answer real estate questions on Just dial or your local Industry directories 6. Provide customers the data they use to make decisions: 6.1 Provide trends in property sale/purchase 6.2 Help them with return on investment decisions 6.3 Options for getting financing and ease of credit 6.4 The trends in the rebounding of real estate post-economic cycle swings 7. Gaining the Industry advantage 7.1 Writing in Industry forums 7.2 Organising webinars with experts 7.3 Content sharing by industry influencers 7.4 Online summits and exhibitions 8. Reaching out to the international audience 9. Summary |
If you are a real estate firm, then you must be aware of the growing importance of digital marketing in your Industry. Clients are hooked on to the internet for every information they need. Whether they want to buy a house or get a Warehouse on rent, they look online. Therefore, designing a solid digital marketing strategy for your business will take a key place in the success of your real estate business.
1. Why Digital Marketing for Real Estate is increasingly becoming important
Let’s discuss the prominent reasons why digital marketing is dominating the overall marketing strategy for any brand. The simple reason is that it leads to brand establishment, recognition, and lead generation, which is the primary driver for business.
Here are a few reasons why digital marketing is necessary for your real estate business:
1.1 Target Customers searching for Properties Online
The target audience looks on the internet to get any information in real-time, where they can get myriad options to pick and choose from.
1.2 Pandemic boosted digitalisation across Industries
The covid-19 outbreak led to a growing culture of working from home. People started getting all their demands met using online channels. Whether buying clothes, booking plumbing services, buying a TV, or software, people head to online channels like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Pandemic has progressed the ever-increasing digitalization.
1.3 Greater options and Detailed Information
The number of search results in Google is equal to the number of options you have. Moreover, Google has an algorithm that ranks websites based on their authority, expertise, and trustworthiness. Therefore if some website ranks on top of Google, it is a reliable place to buy products or services.
Additionally, you also get detailed information about the product or service that you are looking for, which happens in the offline world only upon asking.
1.4 Seller Credibility checks can be performed with ease
The credibility of a seller can be gauged by checking their reviews and ratings on Google my business, Just Dial, testimonials from their clients on their website, surfing through review websites like Rotten Tomatoes, and many such Industry niche reviews websites.
1.5 Fastest way to transact
You can understand the time difference in going to a restaurant, ordering food, waiting, and then having your meal versus simply ordering the food online using a food delivery app from a nearby restaurant and getting it delivered in the best time slot possible at your home. The same applies to getting quotes for any product or service, including real estate options out of a pool of properties.
1.6 Multiple targeting options
Digital channels allow targeting based on age, gender, location demographics, industry interest, and many more. This is not possible in mass marketing platforms like TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, etc.
1.7 Brand Identity can be established using Social Media and an optimized Website
Digital platforms allow a brand to portray and establish its brand identity in the mind of the consumer. Creative videos triggering emotional touchpoints of buyers is a great way of conveying the message that retains and establishes a positive mindset about the brand in the target audience.
1.8 Competition is doing it
You don’t want to lose the inquiries you might get to your competitors by not adopting a digital strategy. However, brands that realize digitalization have already started adapting their marketing strategy to tap the growing online buyers.
2.0 Categories of Digital Marketing for Real Estate
Digital Marketing is a vast field. There could be a hundred different ways to reach your audience. Now, it is your choice how, where and in what frequency you should touch base with them. Let’s look at the various options available on a broader scale:
2.1. Develop a user friendly and informative website
The first step in developing a successful online presence is through your website. Websites should be made responsive, with great content and exceptionally good UX and UI interface. Everything put together will sum up to give a memorable website experience to the visitor. This will be the first step in gaining the attention of the prospective buyer and later helping in the conversion.
2.2. Strategize SEO for leveraging returns from the website
The second and probably the most critical step is to SEO optimize your real-estate website for your target keywords, images, blogs, meta tags, high-quality content, and others. A website is of no importance if your audience does not see it at the right time and on top of the search engine results page.
2.3 Run Pay Per Click Ads for quick lead generation:
If you are looking to generate leads quickly, then the best strategy for your real estate company is to invest in pay-per-click ads. They will result in a decent quantity of leads if done correctly, irrespective of your website condition and status.
There are numerous of our clients who generate leads in real-time, taking advantage of Google ads and reaching out to the target buyers in the designated income range, industry, and based on many other criteria.
2.4 Get active on Social Media
According to an estimate, nearly 51 percent of the world’s population is active on social media. You don’t want to miss that quantity of audience. Therefore it is extremely important to showcase your brand and properties on social media by posting regularly with good quality imagery and graphics. This helps in facilitating your buyer in the decision-making process. The best social media platforms to execute digital marketing for real estate based on our experience are Linkedin, Instagram, and Facebook.
2.5 Optimise Local Listings and GMB
Google is paying more and more emphasis on Google my business page, which is showcased even before the organic SERPs. Ranking for the Google Map pack is a great way to win quick rankings over and above your website rankings. This also helps generate leads through the GMB Chat feature, Request for Quote, Phone, Email, etc., all provided within the GMB profile. Another important way to rank your brand in search results is through Local listings like justdial, sulekha, bing places for business, IndiaMART, and many such websites.
2.6 Adopt an Email Marketing strategy
Real estate brands can initiate email marketing campaigns like newsletter roundups, industry news emails, expert discussions on trending topics in real estate, data-driven trends, manuals, how-to guides, etc. These email resources, if produced in a way that helps its readers, go a long way in creating a rich database of prospective buyers who will come back to you for all their future requirements in properties.
2.7 Harness the power of YouTube: Video is the way forward
YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google. Interestingly, the ” how-to” kind of searches are growing at a rate of 70% year on year on the platform. Real estate marketers should be utilizing the power of video and adjust their content according to the growing preference for video content. YouTube videos also need Optimisation, and so so they can show up whenever anyone posts a query in Google or YouTube.
3. Digital Communication for Real Estate:
Communication is key in any business. With the boost in digital communication, it has become easier than ever to detail the clients about the properties in an easy-to-digest format. Real estate businesses should utilize the power of videos, posts, and social media channels to enhance the entire communication process.
Creatives and Videos:
High-quality, visually enriching creatives, and informative videos are extremely helpful in explaining the technical details, monetary value, location, size, construction material of the property. During the launch of a new project, such strategies can be immensely helpful in detail about the real estate property features.
3.1 YouTube promotions
According to a finding, 44% of home buyers look for properties online first before buying. Videos allow you to showcase your property more effectively. Don’t miss out and create your real estate business YouTube channel today!
3.2 Social Promotions:
Businesses of all shapes and sizes in real estate immensely benefit from using social media. According to NAR (National Association of Realtors), 77% of reactors actively use social media for their promotional activities.
Another finding says, 99% of millennials begin their home search online as opposed to in-person or referrals.
3.3 Website Promotions
Your website is your online real estate, and it is a no-brainer; it needs constant improvement and Search Engine Optimisation to bring traffic and conversion-worthy leads. Website is your business’s most important source of revenue generation; therefore, it pays to invest time in improving its web visibility.
4. Trends in Digital Marketing for Real Estate
Here are the few trends in real estate digital marketing you should be looking out for:
4.1. Property Virtual Tours
Information technology is being introduced in the real estate business by Virtual Tour of the property. You can’t afford to run your business without introducing virtual tools for your clients. With pandemic and lockdown situations people avoid going out and wish to weigh the options sitting in the comfort of their homes. Moreover, communicating via virtual channel brings more clarity and helps the client in faster decision making. Realtors can reach a bigger set of audience, which is not restricted to their geographical location.
4.2 Being Quick Pays instantly:
Customers are busy running their business or working for a living; therefore, you can’t expect them to keep waiting for days to get a reply to their inquiry.
Being proactive pays by increasing the chances of conversion.
The industry average in real estate is to reply within 24 hours of enquiry generation.
4.3 Consistent follow-up with leads to greater conversions
Follow-ups hold not only for real estate but also across industries. After giving options to property buyers, you need to keep checking if they still have any questions, whether they need any more information on certain aspects, or are also checking other options, etc. Holding good with your communication with the client brings clarity and quick decision making.
4.4 Create High-quality content:
It is a known fact in digital marketing that content is king. If you create high-quality content that helps your prospects in buying decisions, they are more likely to come to you if they have a requirement. By doing so, you establish your place as an authority in the industry and your client’s trust you better. Blogs are an excellent way to do so, followed by videos.
4.5 Websites are your Online Real -estate: Make them fast & useful
There is no doubt that a website is the most important presence of any brand on the internet. If you are investing time and money in making it faster, more responsive, and helpful with the great User experience and interaction, you are, in a way, paving a way to more and more traffic, inquiries and conversions.
4.6 Online reputation management is critical
Online reputation management manages the brand identity on the internet concerning what the customers are talking about you on the internet. A solid online reputation also has a tremendous impact on your bottom line. By managing online reviews, creating accurate business listings, monitoring social media interactions, conducting customer service surveys and acting on feedback, you can ensure your organisations’ reputation is managed well.
4.7 Increase the DA (Domain Authority) of your Website:
The domain authority is a search engine rankings developed by MOZ that predicts how likely a website ranks on the search engine results page (SERP). Domain ranking plays an important role in determining the position at which your website will be shown against various queries that your prospects run in SERP. There are multiple ways to increase the DA of a website.
5. Harness the power of Search Engine
The majority of the portion of digital marketing for real estate starts with a search engine. Optimising your Website, blogs, and GMB profile for search engines like Google, Bing, Baidu, Yandex, yahoo helps. Let’s explore these areas on the search engine results page:
5.1 Rank for Featured snippet for Real Estate Queries
Featured snippets are short snippets of text that appear at the top of Google search results to answer a searcher’s query quickly. This information is pulled from one of the web pages, which rank on page 1.
This makes ranking on page 1 of Google even more important. You can show up simultaneously with your Website and in the featured snippet, i.e., position 0, which ranks above everything else.
5.2 Rank on Page 1 with your Website (higher, the better)
Realtors’ websites should rank on page 1 of Google for various random searches their prospects are running before buying a property. This implies informational content as well. You can tap your prospects and convert them into your buyers by providing them information through your blog posts.
5.3. Rank for Google My Business
Google my business listing is becoming increasingly important in the eyes of Google. Ranking on the GMB section draws in a lot of potential leads. Therefore if you can manage to fare well in optimizing your online properties, you have the chance of ranking simultaneously in three or more places on page 1. First your Website, second featured snippet that is position zero, third Google my business profile, and if you are lucky you do the homework 100%, you could rank for local listing as well.
5.4 Answer real estate questions on Quora:
Quora has 300 million active monthly users. Its user base is growing at a rapid pace. Real estate marketers care about their customers posting on Quora and trying to answer their queries at the first opportunity.
5.5 Rank for PPC Ads for your Keywords:
Pay per click Ads is popular in the Real Estate Industry. Running Google Ads is the best approach to get quick leads. Unlike SEO, PPC ads get you results in real-time. However, leads coming through organic search listings are considerably better than those from PPC ads. Real estate marketers have multiple targeting options in PPC ads based on localities, age, income group, industry, interest, designation and a lot of other criteria. This improves the Ad penetration to the exact audience which the Builder or the realtor wants to target.
5.6 Answer real estate questions on Just dial or your local Industry directories:
Since you are in the real estate business, you must be aware of the numerous listing websites present online. Many of these websites have their FAQ section, which posts questions from buyers. By answering such queries, you can show up on Google for such questions. These websites often dominate the search engine results leaving little room for individual websites and Quora to show up. Therefore, it is advisable to go with the flow and diversify content in websites that are already on top.
6. Provide customers the data they use to make decisions:
By enabling your clients in data-driven decision-making, you can benefit a lot. You can help your customers in deciding which properties to go for using the below ways:
6.1 Provide trends in property sale/purchase :
By providing residential and commercial property price trends, you can help them decide when and where to purchase. You can utilize the power of infographics, tables, graphs, and charts to depict this information in a crisp and clear format. These types of infographics and data charts can also be utilized at many other image submission websites, for which you can get rewarded with a backlink too.
“Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.”
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.
6.2 Help them with return on investment decisions:
The most crucial factor while deciding to buy real estate is the return on investment. Suppose you can convince your client that the property can give them steady returns, appreciation over time, and the least risk involved. In that case, they will be in a much better position to decide and go ahead with your proposed offering.
6.3 Options for getting financing and ease of credit:
Real estate marketers must guide clients in the overall buying process, which covers information about the property and facilitates the financing part of it. The process involves guiding them in choosing the right financial institution, taking care of the paperwork involved until the realization of the sum.
6.4 The trends in the rebounding of real estate post-economic cycle swings:
Real estate buyers look for economic cycles of ups and downs to make buying decisions. They also look at the historical trends. Especially during the post-pandemic times, buyers are cautious in deciding to buy a property. Therefore, you should produce solid data points to convince them that your offering will be a profitable venture for them during and after the pandemic times.
7. Gaining the Industry advantage
Real estate agents and builders should get their presence felt in the Industry’s online channels by constantly replying to queries and conduct expert meetings, conferences, webinars to stay in the limeLight of the target market. Below is the summary of what you can do for enhancing your Digital Marketing activities and creating a buzz in the real estate sector:
7.1 Writing in Industry forums:
A forum is an online platform for the exchange of information between people about a particular topic. The benefit of an online forum is that you can post a discussion topic and ask your community for help. The discussions are very beneficial for gaining multiple perspectives on a problem. People also share their first-hand experience and so you can benefit from their expertise.
7.2 Organising webinars with experts:
Using webinars for marketing real estate properties has powerful benefits. Webinars provide the opportunity to the realtor for sharing their unique perspective on the most critical topics in the market along with access to a massive audience. Moreover, the cost-benefit ratio is much larger, considering webinars, in general, won’t cost anything except your time. You can expect lead conversion at the fastest pace using this medium.
7.3 Influencer Marketing in Real Estate:
Influencer marketing involves paying social media “influencers” to promote your real estate properties. An influencer is anyone whose opinions exert influence on their peers or followers. Therefore influencer marketing can accelerate lead generation and conversion using social media channels like Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
8. Reaching out to International audience
With the advent of globalization, more and more companies are looking to set up factories, offices, and warehouses in India. Many NRI’s look to India for Investing in buying a house or farmland. Real Estate companies engaged in Digital Marketing should consider tapping this elite set of clients. They can do so, by optimizing their website for relevant search queries, registering their properties on the prominent property listing sites, getting themselves listed with the Industry Chamber of commerce, etc. These steps combined with some more will result in an increase in overseas inquiries which will give a boost to your bottom line.
9. Summary:
To sum up, Digital Marketing for Real Estate is the most prominent lead generation and conversion method during current and future times. Therefore as a smart marketer, you should be leveraging the myriad of Digital channels to touch base with your prospects as well as gain better conversions. It all depends on how well you frame your digital marketing strategy so you get found by your potential customers at the right platform when they are ready to buy.
If you have further questions on how to go about creating an explosive plan in Digital Marketing for real estate projects, connect with us to know more.
