This text is saying that it is difficult to come up with real estate marketing ideas that are unique, original, and remarkable. The author suggests that if you spend time on the road meeting with clients and leads, it can be especially difficult to come up with these kinds of ideas.
When you are feeling overwhelmed by marketing, it can be helpful to try new things and think outside of the box. This means looking at your primary marketing channels and seeing how you can make your agency or brokerage stand out from the competition. This can be done by changing up your website, SEO, email marketing, paid advertising, and social media content.
We have divided this extensive guide to marketing ideas into smaller, more manageable sections. Click on the links to jump to the section that interests you most.
Build a Rock Solid Marketing Foundation
The success of your real estate business largely depends on your ability to market to potential home buyers online. The vast majority of home buyers (44%) and all Millennials begin their search for properties online. If you’re a real estate professional, it’s essential to have a professional website if you want to increase earnings.
Home buyers want to find a home that meets their quality standards and also want to find a REALTOR® that is a good match for their needs. Tools that help you stand out include:
- Branded messaging and images
- Responsive design
- IDX integration
- Blog content
- Lead capture landing pages
- Area pages
Your brand is what immediately tells visitors to your site who you are, what you’re an expert in, and how you can help them. A responsive real estate website ensures that your pages will look perfect no matter what device your potential customers use to access your content, whether it’s a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or cell phone.
As a member of a multiple listing service (MLS), you gain the ability to use IDX to pull your listings into your website. High-quality images are key to standing out and providing prospects a clear picture of what life looks like once they purchase a home from you.
1. Publish a local market quiz on your real estate website.
You’re most likely familiar with BuzzFeed and the various quizzes people take on the site. Why not create a quiz for your audience to test their knowledge on something related to your market? It could be something like which famous people grew up in the area or historical tidbits about your town. You could even make the questions about broader subjects that are unrelated to your market, like music, movies, or another facet of pop culture.
If you want to establish yourself as a reliable and authoritative resource for your leads, consider creating a quiz on the ins and outs of buying or selling a home. This quiz, from Kevin Ho and Jonathan McNarry of Vanguard Properties in San Francisco, is a great example of the type of content that could help you gain your leads’ confidence.
You can use these quick exams as part of your email marketing campaign, or even create a contest around them. Require those who take the quiz to fill out a lead capture form, and give the winner a prize like a gift card to a local restaurant.
2. Offer Home Valuations to Capture Seller Leads
Make sure your website has a home valuation tool so potential sellers can see how much their home is worth. This way, you can capture seller leads.
Here is an example of what this might look like on your site:
After a visitor puts in their address, they will be asked for their email and other information so they can see their home valuation report. By getting this information from the visitor, you now have a new lead to contact who is interested in selling their home.
If someone does not sign up to receive emails from you, you can still follow up with them through regular mail. This is because your home valuation software has already captured their physical address.
3. Film an explainer video that goes into detail about your agency.
Make your real estate business stand out from the competition by creating explainer videos. Wear a black turtleneck and act like Steve Jobs while explaining your services. Pretend to be a political candidate and convince people why you are the right person for the job. Or, take a page out of the “Arrested Development” playbook and mock awful 1-800 lawyer commercials.
The purpose of these videos is to show potential clients why your agency is successful and worth hiring. However, it is also important to show personality in the videos, as this is something that potential clients will take into consideration when making a decision.
4. Provide a complimentary moving truck
This is a great way to get your brand out there in your local market. Invest in a moving truck and have your brand on the side. Offer it to your clients after they purchase or sell their home. Your business will benefit from additional branding and advertising every time your clients use the truck.
If your clients don’t need your moving truck, get creative with it. You can take it to home shows or park it in high-traffic areas to get more exposure.
5. Answer buyer/seller questions on your blog
An effective way to get ideas for blog content is to identify questions your target market is asking. Two tools help you find these lists of questions:
- Answer The Public
- People Also Ask
Answer The Public is a free tool that generates a list of questions based on your keyword search. For example, if you type in “los angeles homes”, the questions received from this search may include:
- Should I buy a los angeles home?
- How much is it to buy a los angeles home?
6. Add some flavor to your real estate video marketing.
Although sending out holiday greetings via email to your contacts won’t be as effective as other methods in promoting your brand, it can help to humanize your company.
Modern Life Realty and ERA Justin Realty teams have both achieved success with their unique approach to video marketing. Modern Life Realty team uses an original technique, speaking to the camera with whatever the featured gentleman is wearing. ERA Justin Realty team has capitalized on the popularity of the song “Call Me Maybe” by creating their own version of the music video.
Both people took a risk, which is something you have to do occasionally with your real estate marketing plan, as these methods can often lead to large profits.
Really, anything that will help humanize you on social media is fair game here. In addition to these eye-catching videos, try conducting interviews with people on the street. The topics of these videos don’t have to be related to your business or even real estate. You could ask them philosophical questions, like what the meaning of life is, or get their opinion on a local college or professional sports team. Anything that will help you appear more human on social media is fair game.
7. Develop a blog post or video series highlighting great area restaurants and entertainment.
Although people used to think mainly about things like the price, size, and style of a property, and what features it had, nowadays more and more people are also considering factors like whether there are plenty of places to get food and entertainment nearby.
The issue with Yelp, TripAdvisor, and other similar websites is that it can take forever to find a well-written review or the right information. As a real estate agent, you have the knowledge to help people sort through these websites quickly.
create content that informs home buyers about the best places to eat and drink in your area.
To find good places to write about, simply think of your own favorite places to see a play or grab a bite with friends. Write down why you love those places and share your opinions with the world.
8. Use Words That Sell in Your Marketing Copy (Swipe File)
Emile L’Eplattenier, Managing Editor, The Close
” When marketing your listings, the words you use are important. Simple and direct language usually works best, but adding descriptive words can help create a picture for your potential clients—making it easier for them to imagine actually living in the home.
” The author is suggesting that by using more specific and interesting language, you can make a listing more appealing. For example, instead of simply calling a kitchen “sunny,” you could describe it as “sun-soaked.” This makes the space sound more inviting and pleasant, and as a result, makes the listing more appealing overall.
“I have a free list of 723 words that are known to sell homes. Click here to get them now.”
9. Market Your Listings by Creating Videos That Sell a Lifestyle
Logan Link is a Marin County realtor with The Logan & Bernard Group.
” To today’s buyers, what is important is not the size of the house or the quality of the fixtures. They know that they can update a kitchen if they need to. Instead, what matters to them is how the house and neighborhood will make them feel. They want to know what daily life could be like in this new place.
Videos are a great way to catching people’s attention and connect with them emotionally. We recently tried this approach and received great feedback, so we are focusing even more on this concept.
10. Create a Detailed Listing Marketing Plan to Pitch Homeowners
to Business Infrastructure Sean Moudry is a Colorado-based real estate broker, coach, author, and close contributor to business infrastructure. He has over 15 years of experience in the industry and has been involved in many aspects of real estate, including sales, marketing, and investments.
A good marketing plan is essential if you want to win new listings. Remember, most homeowners choose an agent based on their marketing ability. So before making your pitch, be sure to have a strong marketing plan to back you up. My 47-point listing marketing plan can help you get started.
11. Fine-tune Your Marketing Messages With Predictive Analytics
Chris Linsell, Real Estate Coach & Senior Staff Writer
” -SmartZip uses predictive analytics to determine who is most likely to sell their homes in the next 12 months so you can focus your marketing efforts accordingly. -SmartZip analyzes 250 data points to make these predictions, so you can be sure that the homeowners you’re marketing to are actually considering selling.
12. Market to Your Sphere Across Multiple Platforms
Jennifer Okhovat, Beverly Hills Realtor, Compass
The best marketing strategy for real estate agents in 2022 is to reach out to their sphere of influence through multiple channels, including direct mail, social media, and email marketing. By using all three channels, agents will be more top-of-mind when their contacts are ready to make a real estate decision.
13. Find Your ‘Why’ & Integrate It Into Your Marketing
Sean Moudry is a Colorado-based real estate broker, coach, author, and close contributor. He has over 15 years of experience in the industry and has been involved in countless real estate transactions. He is also a member of the National Association of Realtors and the Colorado Association of Realtors.
” It is important to emotional resonate with your leads through your marketing so that they will be more likely to work with you. This is because people usually make purchasing decisions based on emotion rather than facts.
It is important to integrate your motivations for becoming a real estate agent into your brand and marketing strategy. You may have chosen this career path because you want to help people build generational wealth or because you want to help improve your community. Whatever your reasons, they will likely help you attract loyal customers better than a desire to make a lot of money.
14. Virtually Stage Local Listings in Different Themes
Emile L’Eplattenier, Managing Editor, The Close
” If you want to increase interest in an empty listing, virtual staging is a great way to show buyers what it might look like staged differently.
A spare bedroom that is virtually staged as a kid’s room with bunk beds might look great, but staging it as a home office might appeal more to buyers who work from home. If you’re showing the listing and your buyer wants a home office, you’ll have a picture ready to go to help them imagine what it might look like.
15. Anticipate Emotional Seller Objections & Address Them in Your Marketing Materials
To SmartAsset Sean Moudry, a Colorado-based real estate broker, coach, author, and close contributor to SmartAsset, offers his clients extensive experience and expertise in the field. Sean’s commitment to his clients’ success is evident in everything he does. Sean Moudry is a real estate broker, coach, and author based in Colorado. He has extensive experience in the field and is a close contributor to SmartAsset. Sean is committed to helping his clients succeed. This is evident in everything he does.
Benjamin Franklin famously said that failing to prepare is the same as preparing to fail. The same is true for users’ objections to your product. By addressing these objections in your marketing materials beforehand, you can avoid having them come up in the first place. This could include creating videos or informational campaigns about pricing, commissions, or other areas of concern. Alternatively, you can address objections in your sales presentation, so that users are less likely to bring them up on their own.
