New to Online Marketing in Real Estate? Here’s Your Guide

New to Online Marketing in Real Estate? Here’s Your Guide
BY STEVEN AT BOOMTOWN
Real Estate Technology with 855-419-6019
EMAIL SHORT URL
Share:March 30, 2017 09:20 AM

So, you’re new to real estate online marketing. Whether you’re a newer agent ready to expand past your circle of family and friends, or an experienced agent wanting to go digital for the first time, this start-up guide has everything you need to build and boost your online presence.

While offline methods like direct mail can still be effective, online marketing is a powerfully productive way to target your audience and grow your business. Let’s get started …

Build Your Brand

First off, before you begin any campaigns or marketing plans, you need to set the foundation. Define the vision and values that define your company, and build your foundation on them. Write them down, and incorporate them into the mission statement that drives your company.

It’s not enough for your supposed brand to state “I’m the best realtor because I say I am.” What makes you different? How are you communicating your brand values? Be consistent with your actions and interactions online and offline.

Install your brand into all your marketing efforts, starting with your website and content, as these are the most forward-facing components of your company.

Create a Website

According to the National Association of Realtors, out of all the agents who made $150,00+ last year, 82% had their own agent website. In today’s day and age, it’s a given that any business, real estate or otherwise, needs to have a website. I don’t need to tell you–I’ll only sound like broken record. You most likely already have a website. But does your website pass the test?

It’s not enough just to have any old website, warts and all. No one wants to suffer through a clunky website with terrible user experience. See how your website fares against this checklist:

Real Estate Website Checklist
IDX-enabled
Responsive
User friendly
Mobile friendly
Showcases your brand
Drives lead conversions
Shows fresh listing data
Check out BoomTown’s consumer websites: Designed to attract, built to convert.

Develop an SEO Strategy

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In short, SEO consists of improving your website so that search engines like Google have an easier time finding it, which will increase traffic to your site. SEO efforts only affect organic search results. This is not to be confused with the paid AdWords portion.

What Is SEO?

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SEO is complicated and requires a lot of finesse in order to fine tune an efficient SEO strategy. However, some basic tips can help you generate more organic traffic to gain more potential leads. First, think about keywords. What will your potential clients be typing into Google when searching for homes in your area?

Performing keyword research is only one element of SEO. Other elements include optimizing your page titles and meta descriptions to make sure your site is easy to navigate, improving your URL structure, and earning quality links that are trusted by search engines.

One of our guest bloggers and SEO extraordinaire compiled a Realistic Checklist for Real Estate SEO to assist agents to achieve great SEO practices.

Create Valuable Local Content

Content is important for SEO since search engines “crawl” through your pages to read and index them when determining how to rank your site. So it’s important to create unique and relevant content that contain keywords relating to real estate and your local area.

How Search Engines Work

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With your content, you want to post things that potential homebuyers will want to read. Your content should aim to answer questions before they’re asked in order to build trust and establish credibility.

Some ideas include compelling blog posts, weekly local newsletters, or city guides. One rule of them with content is that you must provide value to the reader. Don’t be spam. Provide a benefit to the people you consume your content.

Set up Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

PPC is a type of digital advertising that incurs a charge each time a person clicks on an ad. It’s a form of lead generation geared to maximize traffic to your site.

Search engines like Google have an integrated advertising platform that lets advertisers drive traffic to their website through paid advertising. Based on a person’s search, Google engines run through thousands of placed ads and complex algorithms to determine which ads to show to that searcher at any given time.

Managing PPC can be tricky, and search engines like Google are constantly changing their algorithms. BoomTown offers in-house lead generation services led by our team of digital marketing professionals, who are the only Google Adwords Premier Partners in the real estate industry.

Consistent Lead Follow Up

So, now that you’ve got your lead generation up and running, leads are starting to flow in. It doesn’t matter if you generate the most leads if you don’t have a follow-up process in place. Try to contact new leads within 5 minutes. You want to catch them while they’re actively looking on your site. The longer you wait, the harder it is to reach them.

Following Up With Paid & Organic Leads

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However, more than half your leads will not be ready to buy a home right away. They may be 3-6 months out, sometimes even a year from being ready to purchase. If you don’t have a process in place to follow up with long-term leads, they’re likely to fall through the cracks and you’ll miss out on the opportunity to close those deals.

A CRM system allows you to automate your first response, email drip campaigns, and follow-up processes. BoomTown also sends you alerts when leads are active so you can make the most of those fresh opportunities.