Most real estate businesses invest heavily in digital marketing to build their brand, reach out to potential sellers and also find the right buyers for the listings they have on their site. 99% of millennials and 90% of baby boomers begin their search for a new home online.
However, Real estate digital marketing is different from standard digital marketing campaigns in some ways, though the basic principles apply. These differences make it imperative to have an agency or a team with prior experience in real state digital marketing.
In this blog, we are going to look at some ways in which real estate digital marketing differs from standard digital marketing practices. We also look at some of the lessons we have learned by helping leading Orange County Real Estate firms enhance their digital marketing strategy. Let’s get started.
Real Estate vs Standard Digital Marketing: What are the Key Differences?
Digital marketing is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide range of channels and marketing strategies. There’s social media marketing, content marketing, paid social campaigns, PPC campaigns, email marketing, and a lot more. Most of these channels and strategies are applicable for real estate digital marketing too but in subtly different ways. Here’s how.
Localized Targeting
The key difference is of course the targeting that is associated with real estate marketing. Most real estate businesses are intensely local and will be serving a restricted market. The digital marketing efforts need to take this into account. Most ads, campaigns, and other communications should be targeted to this locality and tailored to the needs of the location.
The target audience for both the buyers and sellers would be majorly from within this locality. But the campaigns should also be constructed in such a way that the searches coming from other locations also find their way to your website.
Multiple Audiences
Another key difference is in the way the audiences are segmented. Most real estate agents or local businesses will have a specialization in terms of the type of property they deal with. But the larger firms will be dealing with multiple property types, including commercial, housing, retail, and industrial real estate. All these audiences need to be accounted for while targeting the digital marketing campaigns.
Most standard digital marketing efforts will be aimed at a mostly homogenous audience who can be defined easily. But in the case of real estate, the potential clients could be homeowners, home buyers, landlords with commercial or industrial space, or tenants looking for vacancies.
The communication and the targeting have to take this variety into account. You will have to run specific campaigns targeting each of the target audiences and make sure you can segment and segregate them into separate campaigns when you want to reach out to them.
More Content & Messaging Varieties
Having more audiences to deal with also means there are more varieties of content and messaging to take care of. Each audience requires a specific approach, and the way you attract them to your platform is different. Digital marketing tactics have to take this variety into account.
You will need blogs, video content, case studies, whitepapers, and other content formats targeted at homeowners, home buyers, commercial landlords, tenants, and other such segments depending on your target audience. It is also important to have depth in each of these content types.
Messaging that you put out on social media platforms needs a specific strategy depending on the audience, and you should also be able to target these messages effectively for the various audiences you are trying to reach.
PPC and Paid Social Strategies to Drive Your Real Estate Marketing Campaign
Now that we know how real estate digital marketing differs from the standard digital marketing practices, it is now time to take a look at some of the things we have learned while marketing for leading Orange County real estate firms.
PPC ads to Bring Relevant Traffic
Pay-per-click advertising is one of the most popular methods that Real Estate Digital marketing agencies such as FVG use to get relevant traffic to come into the website. Given how the market is dominated by large real estate aggregators like Zillow, organically listing your website may be quite difficult. PPC is an effective way around this.
PPC ads through Google ads are one of the most popular advertising options. The AdWords campaigns on average have a 2.03% clickthrough rate for real estate marketing and 4.4% conversion rates.
Search ads will show up above these organic listings if you can bid for them effectively, and can be a good source of relevant traffic to your website. Google ads or other similar PPC campaigns are easy to set up and run. You can also use a good mix of long-tail and high-intent keywords that will give you the best results.
PPC campaigns are also cost-effective as you are only paying for the clicks that your ads earn and hence you can run campaigns for longer depending on the bids and your budgets. PPC campaigns could be based on text ads or display ads depending on the strategy.
Social Media Campaigns
Social media is indeed an integral part of all marketing campaigns. Social media is not just useful for brand building. It’s also a great place to find new leads for your real estate company. Most realtors rely on social media to share a variety of content. Some of the content types you could consider sharing on social media are
- The properties you handle
- Client testimonials
- Advertise open houses or virtual tours in the locality
- Share helpful content such as blogs, videos, and a lot more.
Social media can also help commercial real estate. LinkedIn is a great source of new leads for potential office tenants.
While sharing high-quality content on social media is a great way to get organic reach and lead generation, paid advertising is also a good way to go. You can reach more potential clients and get more eyeballs on the content that you have created or the listings you have on your site.
Paid advertising is a popular approach that many digital marketing experts swear by. Paid campaigns are not just restricted to running ads. You can promote your content, create short videos, use Instagram stories, do video ads, and a lot more. The number of options available allows you to experiment and figure out what works best, and what kind of content resonates with the audience the most.
Don’t Forget SEO and Email Marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still an important aspect of real estate online marketing and you should be focusing on this too. Local SEO allows you to target your specific location and helps you rank your real estate website organically for this location. This helps in ensuring that you are not losing out on local searches that are meant for the localities you serve. Your SEO strategy should be backed by in-depth keyword research. Enhancing your online presence by being listed in local directories and other aggregators also helps in generating backlinks and increasing the credibility of your website.
Email marketing is also critical in engaging with the users that have already registered on your website previously and have shown interest in some of the listings you have shared. Email is still one of the most popular ways to generate leads. If you are a small business, having a solid email marketing strategy will reap huge rewards. Email campaigns should be targeted to the right segments and should have a compelling CTA to ensure maximum conversions.
Conclusion
Whether you are an established real estate agency or a new business, digital marketing is an important part of the real estate business. Most real estate professionals are relying on digital marketing to reach more clients and list more properties on their websites.
Some of the basic principles of digital marketing remain the same across all industries. Having a user-friendly website that is easily accessible on mobile devices is hygiene. You should also create a solid marketing plan that will allow you to set targets and goals, and you should be tracking these regularly.
Real estate digital marketing has additional layers of complexity. Having an experienced digital marketing agency on your side is a great way to navigate the complexities and get good results. FVG has been working with leading real estate agencies in Orange County and beyond. Talk to us today to get started.
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