There’s no denying that real estate is such a booming industry. However, business operations have been slower than usual or may even have halted due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As soon as the global pandemic passes, however, you can expect the real estate market to bounce back and get back to its usual grinds.
This is because the need for shelter and having a comfortable place to live in will always be everyone’s primary concern. In fact, Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can attest to how a shelter is considered a basic physiological need—next to air, water, food, and sleep.
According to the United States Census Bureau, a total of 701,000 new houses were sold in the United States in 2019. The number may dwindle a bit this 2020, but expect some homebuyers to still take the plunge into buying new homes.
As everyone aspires to have their dream home fulfilled, the real estate market will continue to thrive and grow. Real estate developers, brokerage agencies, and agents should take robust steps in their marketing gameplan to get clients to purchase properties, whether residential or commercial.
Now, if you are wondering how you can boost your real estate marketing amid the global pandemic crisis, here are four effective marketing solutions that you should consider:
1. Real Estate Website
According to the National Association of Realtors, 93 percent of people would look through listings online when looking for homes. In fact, older millennials (29 to 38 years old) make up 98 percent of Internet-relying home buyers who seem to be leading the pack.
While 72 percent of them turn to website searches, about 86 percent of old-timers prefer to consult with a real estate agent. For this reason, a real estate website is the most lucrative offer available for people from various demographics.
To make your website work, however, there are a few steps that you must take, as follows:
- Incorporate the use of responsive web design to ensure good user experience and easy site navigation regardless of the device used.
- Design a well-structured website with streamlined elements and organized categories and options.
- Use professional and high-quality photos and videos for your listed properties.
- Optimize your site for conversion by having straightforward forms for leads, outstanding contact page, and even subscription opt-in forms.
- Include FAQ answers page for common inquiries of clients.
- Add clients’ reviews and testimonials on your webpage.
- Have official social accounts’ links and social sharing buttons,
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
After creating and designing a robust website for your real estate business, it’s imperative to ensure that it can be found by your prospective customers. The answer to this is to implement effective SEO strategies.
For the uninitiated, SEO entails optimizing the technical aspects of your site (technical SEO), writing relevant content integrated with relevant keywords (on-page SEO), and building quality links from credible sources for site authority (off-page SEO). The ultimate goal is to gain online presence and increase your website traffic by earning a good ranking on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
To make your SEO work for your real estate website, here are a few tips to consider:
- Perform a site audit to determine all technical glitches and issues and find a way to address them.
- Having the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) in mind when optimizing the website.
- Conduct keyword research to find appropriate, relevant keywords.
- Produce valuable content and publish them consistently.
- Get quality links from credible sources to establish your site authority.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media is a powerful communication tool in today’s modern society. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, people live and breathe on social media channels. To reach a wide range of audiences and target your specific market, it is vital that you conduct an effective social media marketing campaign.
In fact, according to the National Association of Realtors, 73 percent of realtors use Facebook for their work. This is because they consider it is one of the world’s largest networks, with about 2.5 billion users worldwide.
To boost your social media marketing efforts, below are a few tips for you:
- Carve a professional image and identity on your social media accounts for a good first impression, including all your business information.
- Use Facebook to promote your properties by posting and sharing, and build a community of engaged prospective buyers.
- Utilize Instagram to display properties, whether via photos, videos, or IG stories.
- Use Twitter to reach out to targeted clients through the use of hashtags.
- Target clients on LinkedIn based on their positions and income level.
- Create valuable pieces of content—whether articles, photos, or videos—and post them on your social media accounts.
4. 360° Virtual Tours
This solution is also known as a “Virtual Open House” because it provides clients with an immersive virtual reality experience to have a preview of the property, including its interiors and exteriors. When a home buyer looks at a certain property, they can have a glimpse of the house’s living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and even the exteriors, all without being physically present.
This virtual reality is an excellent solution for influencing the client’s purchase decision. It also eliminates the time, money, and effort to visit a particular property only to end up not interested. Because of this, the 360° Virtual Tour is an incredible technological and effective real estate marketing solution.
Conclusion
Real estate marketing can indeed be a bit tricky for your business. Yet, whether you are a real estate developer, broker, or realtor, you can always employ various forms of digital marketing solutions for the benefit of your real estate business.
As outlined above, you can take advantage of your own website for marketing, employ SEO for online presence and website traffic, harness social media’s power to reach a wide audience, and use 360° virtual tours to assist potential buyers. All these four marketing solutions will work wonders on your real estate marketing and bring your business many opportunities, from lead generation to sales conversion!
We are a full-service digital marketing agency in St. Louis that employs effective strategies for you to thrive – If you are looking to get better marketing ROI for your real estate business, get in touch with us today!