Real estate digital marketing has never been more prominent than during the Covid-19 pandemic. Marketing tactics have gradually evolved from traditional methods, such as door-knocking and cold-calling, to a laser focus on social media and online marketing efforts.
Visits to REALTOR.ca have increased by 45% since 2019.
In order to stand out from your competition, you must learn how to use real estate digital marketing effectively, as most people are starting their home searches online.
In these intense real estate markets, the real estate competition is tough. The agents with strong personal brands are attracting a lot of new clients. What about the rest? Here are some tips that will help you stand out from your competition.
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1. Focus on a niche
Our first real estate digital marketing tip is to narrow your focus. Many agents think that if they focus on one specific niche, they will miss out on serving everyone else.
That’s not true. Choosing a niche helps you position yourself strategically as an expert in this particular segment. You will be standing out from the pool of other agents and attracting clients who want to work with you.
Choose a niche that attracts clients you love working with. If you love serving your clients, you will be able to create videos and social posts that appeal specifically to them. You can establish yourself as an expert in your niche — even if you are new to real estate.
There are so many different types of niches you can pick! You can focus on:
- First-time homebuyers (a big niche)
- Luxury real estate
- Relocations
- Acreages
- Waterfront properties
- Mountain homes
- Farms
You can also choose a niche based on the buyer or seller. You could focus on seniors, divorcees, downsizers, young professionals or one of the many other demographics.
Related: House rules — adapting to the new sales reality
2. Build a strong social media presence
If you want to be a successful agent, you need to build a strong personal brand. So your real estate digital marketing strategy must include a cohesive and engaging social media presence. Building a strong brand is a recipe for your long-term success.
Over time, people will begin to recognize your brand colours, your face, and your logo.
They will also create associations with your brand in their minds.
That's why it's important to focus on providing value to your potential clients while not constantly selling your services on social media. Focus on:
- 80% of your posts delivering value by providing engaging content that your potential client would be interested to read
- 20% of your posts containing sales-related messages that promote your accomplishments and your services
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3. Become an expert on your local area
In order to attract potential clients, you need to become an expert on your local area. People love local lifestyle content.
You need to know the best communities, restaurants, parks, schools, entertainment, and anything else that would attract your potential client to your area.
If you are working with first-time home buyers, many of them have kids. Therefore, you need to understand what type of schools are available and which communities are the best for people with kids.
In general, you need to serve your clients with local content that works for your niche. Becoming an expert on your local area can even turn you into a local celebrity! People want to work with real estate agents who know their area very well.
Related: Real estate digital marketing pro Stephen Covic makes waves
4. Create a website that’s SEO optimized
One key part of a real estate dynasty is a website or a blog that’s designed to talk to search engines like Google.
Don’t fall into the trap of buying another typical real estate website with IDX search function. Did you ever notice that most real estate agent websites look the same?
Don’t follow everyone else. Get a website with GoDaddy’s Website Builder — it’s easy to add IDX/MLS. Plus you can produce scroll-stopping social images with the tools that come with it.
Best part? You’ll have a website that you control long after you’ve left your current agency.
One smart move is to start a local lifestyle and real estate blog about your city/town or local area on your website — it’s quick with Website Builder.
- Make sure that people are aware that this blog is written by a real estate agent.
- Name your blog strategically, and use your local city/town name so that when people Google “your city/town name + blog,” your blog shows up first.
People research the area they want to move to first and after that they search for a real estate agent. Meet them online before they start looking for an agent!
If you can provide local knowledge and position yourself as a real estate expert versus just a lifestyle blogger, you will be able to attract a constant flow of leads that come to you for free, organically from Google search.
This requires some effort on your part, but if you do that (or pay someone else to do it for you), you will have leads trickling in for years to come.
5. Build an email list
Once you establish your website and blog, make sure that you start building your email list. This is also easy to do with Website Builder — just add an email signup form to your home page.
Then send out a weekly newsletter with interesting local events, or with your recent blog posts. This way you can keep in touch with your potential clients over email.
If your social media accounts are ever shut down, you will always have your email list! Building an email list takes time, but email typically produces better results than social media.
6. Start an Instagram account and show up in Stories
If you want to succeed in real estate, you need to make sure you have an active Instagram account that’s filled with interesting local content (not continuous photos of houses you sold or photos of your cat).
Instagram will reward you for engagement, so if you want to grow your following, you need to provide useful content that your potential clients will like and share.
Post about the:
- Best local hot spots
- Best coffee shops
- Community overviews
- Best restaurants
- Real estate advice and tips
- Interior design trends
- Anything else you think could be of value to your niche
Of course, you can post about your life and yourself, but make sure that whatever you are writing is something you wouldn’t mind appearing in a local newspaper.
Show your face in Instagram stories and build a relationship with your viewers.
Tell them about your behind-the-scenes real estate life; show them what it’s like to show houses and list homes. People find this interesting. Show them the latest interior design trends, show your daily life, and be real!
The goal of this real estate digital marketing strategy is to build a connection with your audience. Instagram is all about building relationships, so it’s important to show your face on your Instagram. If you follow this path, you will be surprised how many followers and leads you will get via your Instagram DMs (direct message).
7. Start a YouTube channel
According to comScore, a marketing research company that specializes in measuring digital activity, 71% of Canadians (17.6 million people) visit YouTube every month. YouTube is the second biggest search engine after Google (and it’s owned by Google too!).
Once you write your local blog posts about your city or town, create a YouTube Channel and make a video talking about your blog post content and embed that video in your blog post. Your Google ranking will get even higher than before. Once you focus on local SEO and insert relevant local keywords in your blog post, you will see the results.
People are actively looking for local real estate clips on YouTube.
Having a YouTube Channel is a major advantage as your real estate and lifestyle videos about your local area will continue to market you as a local real estate expert 24/7 for years to come!
Make your channel interesting and engaging just like your website and blog. Make videos that are interesting for your target audience – your niche – and people will find you and want to work only with you!
The best part about having a YouTube Channel is that people trust you after watching your videos, and do not need you to sell your services to them. They are already sold! They are ready to work with you and only you.
The future looks bright for realtors
This spring has delivered historic levels of appreciation for people who currently own homes in many regions of Canada. This has also become a wake-up call for many first-time home buyers who wanted to purchase their first homes. Prices have gone up across Canada and many have realized that a home purchase has become an unattainable dream.
According to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), the average sale price of a property in Canada in March 2021 was 31.6% more than it was a year ago – a record by any metric – and nearly 6% higher than it was in February.
The pandemic has thrown typical in-country migration patterns into disarray.
This was felt particularly strongly in Atlantic Canada, where increasing real estate prices are the reason people are moving from Ontario in search of more affordable homes.
The most recent monthly housing reports show that home prices in Halifax are rising, and houses are selling within days and for higher prices. From 2020 to 2021, the average price of a home in Nova Scotia increased by about 30%.
Use real estate digital marketing to win
Even if you are a seasoned real estate agent, you need to understand that in 2022 you will not go very far without a strong real estate digital marketing strategy.
Lead generation has changed for good.
No longer do you need to door-knock, cold call or rely on past client referrals. You just need to be online and meet your audience where they are. Investing in a solid real estate digital marketing strategy takes time and dedication, but it will most definitely pay off.
