This is How Digital Marketing Helps Real Estate Agents Succeed

When you work in real estate, every day is different. Every day is also busy, so prioritizing tasks is a necessity for success. The next time you’re considering your tasks, ask yourself: Are you prioritizing digital marketing?

Digital marketing includes marketing efforts made through websites, blogs, social media, and digital advertising. It has been a rising star in the promotion of services like real estate for years. As a result, it’s not just yet another real estate technology or tool. It’s an essential part of your real estate marketing efforts, as well as your business overall. So when you invest time and energy into digital marketing, it’s time well spent!

The Big Picture and the Reasons Digital Marketing Works

Digital marketing works for a number of reasons. One “big picture” reason it works is that people are conducting most of their lives and business online. Nine-in-ten American adults use the Internet, and 97% of U.S. adults under 65 are on social media at least once a month. The vast majority are on it every day. By meeting these people where they are, you immediately boost your chances of connecting with someone looking to sell or buy a home.

There’s more to digital marketing than people being online, however. It also works for these reasons:

It can break through the “noise” to reach people.

Today’s consumers are, like you, constantly seeing marketing messages from multiple channels. We now see so many messages that we often tune the majority of them out. If things don’t immediately matter to us, we ignore them. 

Fortunately, digital marketing allows you to invest in personalized messages that cut through the clutter. Personalized marketing messages are designed to forge a real connection between you and sellers and buyers. As a result of these methods, 80% of consumers are more likely to remember you and your services, and to do business with you!

It can lead to more leads and opportunities.

Companies across industries have found that digital marketing can help them increase their leads and sales opportunities. The key is to use digital campaigns with a strategy, goals, and blueprint that support the campaign overall. For example, simply posting that you’re ready to take someone’s call isn’t a strategy for success. But writing and sharing information that answers questions you hear every day, and advertising to a specific demographic, are more likely to connect you with a person looking for real estate help.

It lets you help people across the customer journey.

Think about a billboard that you drive by every day. Chances are that you either nod in acknowledgment or you ignore that billboard outright. That’s because a billboard isn’t targeted to you. Instead, it’s placed for the entire world to see, in the hope that the right people see it.

Digital is different. Through a combination of campaigns and digital channels, digital media marketing can appear to specific consumers all the way through the customer journey. For example, display ads and social content can generate interest and click-throughs for people thinking about buying or selling due to major life events. Next, website content can aid in real estate research. Finally, contact forms or online stores can complete a conversion or lead generation – i.e., first voice contact.

These are all examples of different digital marketing and advertising tactics that do one thing: keep a prospective customer thinking about you, your services, and your product. And by creating content and advertising that targets specific demographics and provides useful information, your digital efforts are likely to succeed.

It’s easy to be visual in your digital marketing efforts.

People are very visual, which is great news for real estate agents! Did you know that people are 85% more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it? Or that social media posts with images lead to 180% more engagement? That’s not to say you should neglect written content online. But considering that colorful visuals increase people’s desire to read that content by 80%, a visual is a must. 

Best of all, since we’re in real estate, we have easy access to gorgeous visuals! Properties being sold, people moving into their homes, decorating accomplishments, and more are just waiting to be made into attractive digital marketing pieces that appeal to online users.

It supports your work and efforts offline, too.

Digital marketing is important, but it’s not the only marketing solution. In fact, the best digital efforts support offline campaigns, too. Digital channels can drive online users to take action that may tie in to a more traditional campaign, including direct mail offerings. In some cases, content can even be repurposed across channels, with a digital video being a viable option for TV-originating content. 

Put simply, digital marketing is like any other form of marketing. You don’t only use one form of marketing. You integrate the best marketing methods together, in a coherent campaign that ends successfully.

Tips for Success in Real Estate Digital Marketing

While knowing why digital marketing works is helpful, knowing is half the battle! A real estate digital marketing plan will still take time and effort to create, as well as improve and optimize over time.

As you work through this critical step, it will be helpful to do the following:

Define Your Goals

As with any marketing effort, never do something “just to do it!” Instead, do things that help you work toward a specific, achievable, and measurable goal. Your business goals should always be focal points when working through digital marketing plans. And remember that being specific is key! Vague goals don’t do you any favors. Don’t “drive business growth.” Instead, “Generate X prospective leads in my locale this month.”

Create Content with a Purpose

Digital marketing can be more useful than traditional advertising, as long as you treat it differently than traditional advertising. That means never creating content just to create content. You’ll only add to the high volume of clutter that we sort through online every day.

 Instead, aim to do the following with your content:

• Educate your clients and answer specific, common questions
• Chat with people in comments or messages
• Promote ongoing events and news in the community – not just about your business
• Use live videos to connect with your fans and community in real time

Start Your Digital Marketing Efforts Now!

Digital marketing is known to work across industries. With more and more people going online throughout their day, investing time in real estate digital marketing efforts is a must to succeed. 

While you’ll need to be prepared to learn by trial and error as you venture forth into this type of marketing, know that these efforts are not impossible. Above all else, remember to create specific goals that:

• Adhere to an established digital marketing strategy
• Revolve around establishing an online presence
• Gather a following
• Guide people down your sales funnel