The real estate industry is a saturated market in most towns. In order to stand out and obtain clients, you need to get creative with your advertising. Posting your face on bus benches throughout the city won't be enough to compel potential buyers and sellers to hire you as their real estate agent.
Instead, we recommend looking at both unique and tried-and-true strategies. You need to give people looking to buy or sell their homes a reason to call you. Not sure where to begin with your real estate marketing?
Don't worry, we're here to help with your property advertising. Keep reading for our top real estate marketing ideas to significantly increase rentals and sales.
1. Create A Referral Rewards Program For Past Clients
Studies show that 88% of consumers research products and services online before committing to a brand. People want to make sure they're investing in a credible company. One of the most effective forms of research is customer reviews and testimonials.
If a past client has a glowing review of your services, it may be all the convincing someone needs to hire you. However, you can take this one step further.
Offer past clients a cash reward for any buyers or sellers they send your way. Make it enticing (at least a couple hundred dollars) to properly motivate people to go out of there way to recommend you. Obviously, they won't receive their reward until the deal has gone through and you've received your commission.
2. Host An Event With A Local Charity
Next, being a successful local realtor means building brand recognition in your community. One of the best real estate marketing ideas for increasing your visibility in your local community is hosting a charity event. Reach out to a charity you feel passionate about and see if they're interested in co-running an event with you.
To finance the event, get other local businesses involved. Allow them to set up booths and print their logos on event merchandise for a sponsorship fee. Create different levels of sponsorships with increased advertising perks for each tier.
Next, have everyone involved start advertising the event well in advance to build hype and gain as much community participation as possible. There are limitless event ideas, from 5K runs to art galas and live concerts. If you get enough funding, you could even combine multiple events.
3. Create A Blog On Your Website
Creating a blog on your website isn't necessarily a creative real estate marketing idea, but it is effective. Writing articles full of helpful, valuable, and relevant information will not go amiss. You can use your articles to increase your SEO ratings and drive more organic web traffic to your website.
Additionally, blogs are part of a bigger picture called content marketing. By posting content about the real estate industry, you'll be viewed as an authority in your field. You will build credibility with sellers and buyers going to your website for information and advice.
4. Engage With The Community On Social Media
Most realtors use social media in their real estate marketing techniques. However, only a few of them do it right. When running a social media profile, you can't just expect users to flock to your page and follow you for no reason.
You must post engaging content that provides value to the viewer. Think about what people buying or selling their homes want to see. Post content and encourage your followers to engage by liking, sharing, and commenting on your posts.
Just as importantly, you need to engage back with the community. Respond to every comment and message. Show that you care about your followers.
5. Build An Email List
Using your various platforms (website, social media profiles, etc.) build a list of email subscribers. You'll need to create incentives to convince people to subscribe. You can offer discounts on your services, cashback rewards for subscribers who refer people to you, etc).
You should have an automated email campaign that messages subscribers a few times a month. These emails will remind them of your services, offer exclusive deals, and encourage them to refer people to you. Your emails must provide value, as well, or you'll lose subscribers.
6. Use PPC And SEM Advertising
Another successful real estate marketing technique can be found through paid advertising. Pay per click (PPC) advertising allows you to publish your ad on a host website. In return, you pay the host for each click your ad receives.
Similarly, search engine marketing (SEM) allows you to pay search engine sites to bring your website up at the top of the results pages. Based on certain keyword searches, your site will come up at the top in the paid ads section. Once again, you only pay the host site for any clicks your website receives.
Paid marketing programs like these are ideal for measurable real estate lead generation.
7. Affiliate With Local Businesses
One of the best real estate ideas is to affiliate with other local businesses. You need to look for small businesses with similar interests. However, you obviously don't want to affiliate with competitors.
As a realtor, you have a broad range of prospective affiliations, such as:
• Contractors
• Lenders
• Home stagers
• Landscapers
• Professional home cleaners
• Insurance companies
• And more
Seek people out who are in the same industry and see if they'd be interested in working together to generate leads for one another.
8. Post Virtual Tours On Your Website And Social Media Pages
Without quality content, even the best real estate marketing ideas are useless. As suggested earlier, most people will research products online, including homes. They'll want to see pictures before visiting the house in person.
Make sure you're publishing high-quality photos and videos to provide online shoppers with virtual tours. Most people won't look twice at a home with only a few pictures, they'll assume the seller is trying to hide something. The same can be said about blurry and out-of-focus images.
9. Try Virtual Staging
Finally, it may be worthwhile to invest in a virtual staging program or website. Studies show that staged homes typically sell faster and for more money. However, traditional staging services can be quite expensive.
Neither you nor the client may be willing to pay for it. However, you can get the best of both worlds (staging and saving on costs) by virtually staging homes online. You can give potential buyers a good idea of what the home would look like furnished, increasing the home's appeal.
Looking For More Real Estate Marketing Ideas Or Other Business Advice?
There are a lot of good real estate marketing ideas out there. We recommend experiencing with your various options to determine what works best for you and your target audience. However, don't be afraid to do more research on real estate advertising strategy.
Our blog is dedicated to providing valuable information and advice for homeowners, business owners, and everyone in between. Be sure to check out some of our other real estate marketing and property management articles before you go!
