Digital marketing is not just a “nice to have” strategy for real estate agents, it’s a “must have” these days! With over 60% of prospects using Google to find and research potential Agents (Properties Online, Inc.) it’s very important for real estate professionals to have an online presence in order to be found.
If the term digital marketing sounds a little technical to you, don’t worry. It simply means sharing your brand and generating new business online. You’re probably already doing it in some ways! But there are always new ways to increase your effect on the web. Read on for some digital marketing ideas for real estate agents.
Have a presence on social media
This is a good place to start. If I had to wager a guess, I would say that this is an area of digital marketing that you are likely already involved in. Many real estate agents have Facebook pages and that’s a great jumping off point for building your presence on the Internet. Social media is a nice place to share updates, keep in touch with past clients, and even spread the word about listings.
Use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to contribute to conversations and keep your finger on the pulse of what your prospects are talking about. Social media is a nice way to get your feet wet in digital marketing, but it isn’t powerful enough on its own to build your brand online. Be sure to combine it with other strategies to reach more prospects.
Stay in touch with an e-Newsletter
A monthly e-Newsletter is a powerful and relatively easy-to-use digital marketing tool if you’re using the right real estate CRM. IXACT Contact includes a professionally designed and written monthly real estate e-Newsletter that’s ready to send out. This way, you stay in touch with your database without having to pay an extra fee to a newsletter company or spend hours writing and designing an e-Newsletter yourself.
A great e-Newsletter contains excellent content that is relevant to real estate and that your clients and prospects are going to look forward to receiving each month. In addition to being a great way to stay in touch, an e-Newsletter positions you as a “home expert” and helps you build confidence and trustworthiness with your sphere.
Be consistent with email marketing
The power of email does more than help you keep in touch with your friends. It’s a game-changer when it comes to your real estate digital marketing strategy, empowering you to grow your business with less effort than ever before. A good real estate CRM will include powerful email marketing capabilities including a library of real estate templates, automated email campaigns, and Email Campaign Reporting to help you identify hot leads within your database.
Email consistently yields results for Agents. In fact, it’s 40x more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter (MacKinsey & Company, 2014). This is great news because email is also a relatively simple tool to add to your digital marketing toolkit! Choose a CRM that includes powerful email marketing features and you’ll master real estate digital marketing in no time.
Be a real estate thought leader
Part of your digital marketing strategy should include sharing your own thoughts and opinions about the real estate industry. There are many different outlets where you can establish yourself as a thought leader, including your own website, a blog on ActiveRain, or even commenting on other blogs you read and enjoy.
Actively sharing and commenting is a good way to stay sharp when it comes to the real estate industry. It also builds your credibility in the eyes of your prospects and clients. Choose the right platform and share your expertise. You may even enjoy it!
Easily capture your leads online
I’d be amiss if I didn’t tell you how to capture the leads you’ll be generating with your online digital marketing. The idea is to make it as simple as possible for prospects to contact you when they become engaged with your marketing efforts. Whether they liked your Facebook page, clicked your email, commented on your blog, or forwarded your e-Newsletter, digital marketing yields leads and you want to capture them!
Including your contact information as clearly as possible is an obvious first step, but there is an even better way to gather your real estate leads’ information. Choose a CRM with Automated Lead Capture built right in. This will streamline your process and keep you even more organized. With IXACT Contact, all your leads are transferred automatically into your database where you can further qualify and categorize them.
IXACT Contact’s Automated Lead Capture can also generate email alerts and assign a drip email campaign for automated lead nurturing. If you don’t currently have a lead capture form on your website, you can create a branded form in minutes using IXACT Contact’s Lead Capture Form Builder.
In Conclusion
Real estate digital marketing is a fancy term for some valuable strategies that you might already be carrying out on the web. Take advantage of the digital world and start sharing your thoughts, sending consistent branded emails, using social media and capturing and nurturing your real estate leads.