You’ve probably heard the buzzword “digital marketing” dropped a few times for your agency. Maybe someone told you about the power of sites like Zillow and Trulia. Maybe it’s something you’ve been looking into already but aren’t quite sure what it entails.
Before the internet days, companies relied on TV, radio, and print magazines to reach their customers and market their services.
Today, even though those channels still exist in marketing, brands and companies are relying heavily on the internet to reach their target audience.
That’s how we got the term internet marketing.
After the pandemic struck, it has become very necessary for real estate agents and agencies to find effective and safe ways to reach their clients, instead of confining their efforts to face-to-face interactions.
Many forms of marketing on the internet have emerged. However, not all of these strategies are suitable for the real estate industry. It is understandable because real estate is a different kind of ballgame altogether.
True, some digital marketing tactics can be employed in marketing real estate. In spite of that, it is important to note that marketing strategies for real estate should be handled separately from traditional digital marketing strategies.
Marketing in the real estate industry is different. These differences come in the form of the kind of customers being marketed to, and the marketing channels.
Therefore, it becomes a bit tricky to know which strategy would be suitable for marketing real estate property.
We’re here to save you from this confusion.
It is worth noting that real estate and digital marketing strategies can be combined as one to drive traffic to your real estate agency.
In this article, we’ll explore what digital and real estate marketing are, their similarities, and the key differences between them. This would help you how to wield those two marketing to drive profit to your business.
Since digital marketing is the chief of marketing, let’s discuss it first.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is a big umbrella that encompasses many different types of online marketing tactics.
This type of marketing focuses on using digital tools like websites, social media accounts, email newsletters, blogs, video ads, etc., to reach out to potential customers and help them buy products or services from you.
In short, digital marketing is any form of marketing done on the internet.
It is one of the most effective ways to drive eyeballs to your business because everyone is online these days.
Meeting your customers where they are— online, is a smart strategy to generate leads and boosts sales.
With digital marketing, you can have a very close association with your customers, get real-time feedback from them, and improve your products and services so that you can convert more people.
That is why many companies have adopted digital marketing strategies to market their products and services.
They use strategies like email marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC), social media, and sometimes video to reach their customers.
When done right, digital marketing would help you to increase brand awareness, build trust with your customers, generate leads, and ensure higher conversions and sales.
Real estate marketing can also be a form of digital marketing because you’ll be marketing to your home-searching customers online.
Real Estate Marketing
These days, real estate transactions are becoming more digitalized. Hence, those who decide to go with the tide would have a higher chance of standing out from the competition and generating more profits for their business.
Real estate marketing is an online marketing strategy in that you post your unique properties online, gain customers, and generate sales from closing real estate transactions.
It involves everything you do to get your property in front of those who need it. You create an attractive listing, share it with prospective buyers, and follow up with potential clients.
Even though displaying your properties online is also a form of digital marketing, it is still different from real estate marketing for a few reasons.
Real estate clients are looking for ways to have a better view of a property before making any purchasing decisions. The worse thing is that they don’t want to be on the site unless they’ve already made payments and are moving in.
Therefore, marketers and real estate agents must find digital strategies that’ll facilitate the decision-making process of the clients.
Strategies like video marketing, social media marketing, and proptech are the most effective marketing strategies in the real estate industry.
To find potential buyers or anyone interested in your real estate property, you need to be where they’re hanging out. In short, you need to market where your clients would find it.
This type of marketing includes networking at local events, advertising on websites like Zillow or Trulia, attending open houses to meet potential buyers in person, and other methods that help sellers connect with buyers.
What Makes Real Estate so Unique
As much as digital marketing would have some similarities with real estate marketing, the main differences lie in the fact that real estate has its own unique qualities.
Real estate is a niche-specific and capital-intensive product. A capital-intensive product is one that requires a huge sum of money to purchase. With real estate requiring a lot of money to purchase, not everyone would be able to afford it.
So, marketing in this industry requires that you know your customers very well; how they think and make decisions. Knowing them well would help you tailor your messaging such that it’ll appeal to your buyers the most.
You really won’t go very far in this industry if you don’t have experience. That is why you need an agency that is experienced in real estate marketing to handle your online marketing efforts, especially if you want a higher return on your investment.
Another interesting thing about real estate is that buying and renting are both advice-intensive. This means that a lot of thought and decision-making goes into it.
The thinking becomes vital when the client is considering the price, location, type of property, and other things.
With this in mind, your marketing should be tailored to helping to make it easy for them to make these decisions.
Considering all these unique attributes of real estate marketing, it’ll be unwise to transfer other marketing concepts and strategies from other industries into real estate marketing.
Yet, real estate marketing has some similarities with digital marketing strategies.
Similarities Between Real Estate Marketing and Digital Marketing
Let’s look at a few areas that real estate and digital marketing are similar;
You Need Marketing Tools for Both
Just as you need a hammer to drive nails into wood, the same way you need marketing tools for any form of marketing, whether real estate or digital marketing.
The kind of marketing tools you’ll use would depend on the marketing activity or the goal you want to achieve.
For instance, for your goal is to get a lot of signups, then you’ll need an email marketing tool. Similarly, if you’re aiming for traffic, then you can invest in PPC campaigns.
Whether you’re marketing real estate or doing digital marketing, you’ll need some marketing tools regardless.
Results for Both Marketing Types Need to be Tracked
No matter the type of marketing you’re doing, you need to find a way to track your results. Analytics helps you to see how far you’ve gone with your marketing goals. It also helps you to see how customers are interacting with your brand, which marketing channels are yielding results, and what methods need adjustments.
Finding the time to track and analyze your marketing results and adjusting your strategy accordingly is one of the best things you can do for any kind of online marketing, including real estate marketing.
Whether it is Real Estate or Digital Marketing, You Need a Marketing Strategy
Marketing without a strategy is like going to battle without a battle strategy; you’ll lose woefully.
In the same way, you need to create a strategy for whatever you’re marketing, whether it is real estate or groundbreaking software for web developers.
A marketing strategy is an overall plan that a company uses to reach its customers and generate sales.
You wouldn’t be able to create an effective strategy if you don’t already have business goals. It is the goals that’ll help you find which strategies would help you achieve them faster.
With a solid goal in place, crafting a fitting strategy would ensure that you maintain a consistent brand message across all channels. It’ll also help you to proactively adjust your marketing tactics in these constantly changing marketing trends.
Both Marketing Types Need Research into Who the Ideal Customers Are
We’re sure you’ve heard of buyer personas. It is the fictional avatar a company creates that represents the current or ideal customers. This kind of avatar is created based on detailed research into who their ideal customers are.
It lists their age, gender, demographics, income, interests, and any other information that the company would need to market to this fictional fellow in the real world.
Normally, the buyer persona of their ideal customer helps them to predict the needs of this customer and provide products and services that’ll attract this person.
Before you create a persona, you need to make in-depth research about your customers. This kind of research is not limited to digital marketing strategies alone.
Real estate marketing or any form of marketing also makes this form of research, especially if they want to attract the right customers.
Key Differences Between Real Estate Marketing and Digital Marketing
Real Estate Marketing is a Business Relationship that Relies on Credibility and Trustworthiness
Real estate marketing is more complex because it’s a long-term commitment. You have to invest time and money into creating relationships with potential customers that will pay off over time as you move through the home buying process together.
This means you need more than just an ad on Google or Facebook. You need a full suite of services that can help your clients find the right home, negotiate with sellers, close on their new home, and then follow up afterward to ensure their needs are met.
In contrast, standard digital marketing requires not so many fancy features. A simple ad can go a very long way. You can start to see conversions within a few days, if not a few hours after posting the ad.
Real Estate is a More Complicated Form of Marketing than Digital Marketing.
Marketing a real estate property is a more complicated process than digital marketing. When you’re selling your house or property, you have to consider all the factors that go into the sale of a home: price, location, condition of the property, and so on.
The same cannot be said for regular digital marketing as there are not that many variables involved in this type of advertising.
You don’t have to worry about how much something costs or where it’s located because these things aren’t relevant in digital advertisements (unless they’re targeted towards specific locations).
Real Estate in a Niche-specific Industry
As you know, real estate is a specific industry. Specific industry requires specific marketing tactics too, right?
Real estate marketing targets a different set of audiences with different needs.
These are either pensioners looking for a comfy and quiet spacious home to spend their retirement years or welcome their grandchildren. The customers can also be newlyweds who are looking for a conducive place to start their family.
Depending on who these customers are, the marketing should be tailored to fit each of their needs.
Digital marketing, on the other hand, is not confined to a specific niche. You can do digital marketing for skincare and makeup products, supplements, automobile repair, and anything else that needs to be marketed online.
Real Estate is Also More Personal than Standard Digital Advertising
Real estate marketing is a more personal kind of marketing because it involves people who actually want to buy your house! It is never a one-size-fits-all kind of marketing.
For digital marketing, someone can click on an ad simply because they were hooked by the copy and want to find out more, not necessarily because they’re interested in what the ad is selling.
In this case, the chances that they’ll buy from the ad would be very low.
But if an online surfer sees an ad while looking at houses online and clicks through, then there’s a high chance that this person is interested in that house. Probably it meets his or her criteria for the house.
In that case, the customer already knows what’ll work for them personally.
Conclusion
Real estate marketing can be tricky, especially if you’re doing it on the internet. There are a lot of things to consider, and it can seem overwhelming at times.
Give yourself plenty of time to execute your plan, and take it slow. If you don’t have experience with online marketing for real estate but are interested in learning, it’s best to start with a digital marketing agency or consultant.
They know how to get your website ranking, how much traffic you’re likely to get from search engines, and how you can optimize your leads.
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