What is effective digital marketing for real estate?
It’s the idea of using the internet to connect with your ideal audience in some way. Whether it’s getting them to take action by filling out a contact form, calling your phone, or just generating interest in your product, service, brand, or event.
Whatever you want your customer to do, the internet and digital marketing can take you there.
To get started I always recommend taking a look at three main key areas of effort. By focusing on the most effective tasks you will get the best results. There are a lot more digital marketing strategies out there than this book can cover. But by putting effort into the foundational components of digital marketing, you will see results.
Why is Digital Marketing important?
If you’re interested in going a step further and getting more in-depth on digital marketing strategies, check out my blog post titled the best digital marketing blogs for real estate agents.
Why is digital marketing important? More people than ever are using the internet to find what they are looking for. How they are using the internet is changing. By knowing how to effectively connect with potential customers and clients will be the key to a good digital marketing strategy.
- You must have a digital marketing strategy to compete in today’s market.
- Understand where to focus your efforts when it comes to digital marketing
- Focus on quality of leads rather than quantity
How I got started using Digital Marketing
Looking back at when I first started in digital marketing, it’s easy to see how much things have changed. While starting my first real estate company in 2004 I discovered that the lifeblood of the business was new leads.
Using the internet to generate those leads was going to be the key to my success. I studied everything I could about digital marketing. I took courses and found mentors and put the time in to really understand how to make it work well for my business.
Now, almost 18 years later only a small percentage of what worked then, still works today. The landscape of digital marketing is constantly changing and you need to keep up with the changes.
Who is Property Management Pete? My name is Peter Garian a.k.a Property Management Pete. I have been a licensed broker in multiple states. I have owned my own real estate brokerages, I invest in real estate both in the U.S and internationally. I currently live in the Tampa Bay area.
Where to focus your efforts?
When it comes to digital marketing there can be a lot of aspects to cover.
Often times it can be overwhelming. In fact, to be able to focus on all aspects of digital marketing and still be able to do your job as a real estate agent or property manager would be impossible. There are just too many moving parts to be able to cover everything on a daily basis. Most large businesses today have full-time, in-house employees who are paid good salaries just to keep the digital marketing efforts on track.
According to Glassdoor the average salary of a digital marketing employee is
Over $60,000 a year. Most real estate agents, teams, and property management firms don’t have the budget to be able to hire that kind of personnel.
Focus on a high-converting website to get great results.
A website that converts visitors into leads
Most real estate and property management websites don’t contain many of the necessary aspects that are needed for a good lead generation website. Before you go around marketing your website you’ll want to make sure that it’s focused on helping you capture leads from those who you are trying to reach. What’s needed is a website to capture the attention of your ideal customer.
Elements of a good real estate website
- Easy Navigation and uncluttered Homepage
- Clear call to action
- Specific outcome driven landing pages and funnels
Clear Navigation and Homepage
Allow for easy navigation. Too many sites have too many directions for people to go. There’s a desire to get everything we can onto the pages of our website. We want our customers to have lots of good information. But this will often confuse and overwhelm visitors. Stick with a few main navigation links that will take people to the most important information.
Once people have found the information you want them to have, make sure you have a clear call to action for whatever next steps you want them to take.
Clear Call to Action
How do you create a good call to action or CTA? Having a clear message and the end of your content asking the reader to do something is the key. Even if it’s just a blog post that is there to provide information. Having a large button that asks someone to click on the next step or provide an email address, or sign up for a webinar is always good practice.
Another way of presenting a call to action on your site is with pop-ups that ask for specific information. A header bar at the top of each page with a specific CTA is becoming popular on modern sites. Another technique is to have a chat or messaging system in place that can interact with your visitor. These are all great ways to increase conversions. However, they still are forms of interruption marketing. The idea that you are inserting your message in someone’s path is not always the most effective.
Landing Pages & Sales Funnels
The best way to convert website visitors is through landing pages and sales funnels. What is a landing page? It is a page on your website with only one main objective; to deliver a single message to your visitor. Your home page offers many choices. A landing page offers just one. Let’s look at what a good landing page consists of.
A good landing page has a quality headline that describes what the page is all about.
- Easy to ready information explaining the headline.
- It presents a possible solution to a problem
- There is a clear call to action
The goal of your landing page should be to get your website visitor to take action. Whether you are a property manager and want an owner to request more information on your services. Or you are a real estate agent who wants to generate buyer or seller leads. Have a clear purpose in mind when creating your landing page.
It used to be important to get as much traffic to your website as possible. Now the most important thing is getting conversions. Get people to take action and get people to engage. These will be your highest-quality leads. As we know in real estate and property management, quality leads are essential to success.
How to get a website that is great for conversions?
I always recommend to agents and property managers that they get a website on the WordPress platform.
WordPress is a robust blogging and CMS (Content Management System) that has practically an unlimited amount of options available when it comes to design and functionality.
Some of the initial setups can be a little technical but if you can connect with the right designers and know what questions to ask, you will be able to build a custom website for far less cost than some of the big “website providers.”
You will have greater flexibility and will be able to generate an unlimited amount of content without large monthly fees.
Keep your message and brand consistant
I always tell people the story of how I was walking through a shopping plaza one day on my way to a Starbucks. I was walking with my head down more focused on my phone than I should have been for someone walking through a public place. When I walked inside to get my coffee, I knew before even looking up that I had accidentally entered the wrong store. I could tell instantly that I was not in Starbucks, even though I was quite unaware of my surroundings due to the focus on my phone. How did I know? Because every single Starbucks in the world has the same exact design to all their stores. The lighting, the colors the designs, all have a consistent image.
Having an image that is recognizable to people is very important. It lets people know they are in the right place, even if they aren’t on your website. When developing your online profiles make sure you are using the same logos with the same colors. If they allow you to upload images, make sure you are using the same images over and over again so people will recognize you when they see you.
A Consistent Mesage
A consistent message is also an important aspect of building a recognizable brand. If you are a real estate firm and you have one profile saying we are experts in listing homes for sellers and then in another profile talking about helping buyers, people can get mixed messages. Having one message across all areas of the web will serve you well in the long run when it comes to brand recognition.
When putting your image and your message out to the public through the various digital channels that are available to you and your business be sure to keep a consistent look and message throughout. That way people will be able to instantly recognize your company in the marketplace.
