Real estate and marketing go hand in hand. If you intend to buy, sell, or build real estate, a clear understanding of marketing is key.
For instance, the best real estate agents know how to market a property to the right buyers, at the right time. These agents also recognize how to promote property within a buyer's or seller's real estate market. They have often mastered the art of soft-selling, too.
Meanwhile, homeowners need to understand how real estate is promoted. If a homeowner decides to sell their residence, he or she can work independently or with a real estate agent to market their house. That way, the homeowner can speed up the selling process. Plus, he or she can boost the likelihood of getting multiple offers at or above their home's initial asking price.
Let's not forget about the value of real estate marketing for contractors, either. Contractors want to erect properties that look great from the get-go. Thus, they want to ensure their properties are easy to market to buyers.
Clearly, effective marketing can have far-flung effects on real estate agents, homeowners, and contractors. To get the most value out of marketing for real estate, it pays to know the ins and outs of it.
Why Effective Real Estate Marketing is Key
Effective marketing can deliver short- and long-term benefits for real estate agents, homeowners, and contractors. These benefits include:
1. You Can Educate Buyers About Your Property.
You want to find buyers who feel great about your property. To achieve your goal, you need to market your property effectively. Because, if buyers know what your property offers, they can determine whether to set up an in-person or virtual showing. Otherwise, buyers who learn about your property and find it does not meet their requirements can move forward with their property search. On the other hand, buyers who believe your property is an ideal choice are better equipped than ever before to make an informed decision about whether to submit an offer on it.
2. You Can Drive Demand for Your Property.
The real estate market has ebbs and flows. Thankfully, effective marketing enables you to create demand for your property, regardless of the present state of the real estate sector. You can use a variety of marketing techniques to showcase your property to buyers. Moreover, as buyers see your property, you can show them why it's the right choice. As you promote your property to buyers, you can create competition for it. The result: you may be able to generate a substantial profit from your property sale.
3. You Can Streamline the Selling Process.
Selling a property can be a hassle for real estate agents, homeowners, and contractors alike. With effective marketing, you can make it simple for buyers to fall in love with your property. You can leverage photos, videos, and other resources to highlight your property to buyers. Each resource you use can guide the buyer's journey. As a buyer navigates this journey, they can become confident that your property offers the best choice.
Marketing Tips for Real Estate Agents
The current real estate sector presents myriad opportunities for sellers who know how to market their properties — consider the following statistics from the National Association of Realtors:
- 86 million homes were sold in the United States in June 2021.
- Existing home sales in the United States rose 1.4% between May and June 2021.
- The median home sales price for all types of houses was $363,000 in June 2021; this represents a 23.4% increase from June 2020 and the second-highest recorded total since January 1999.
Research indicates there are approximately 1.3 million Realtors nationwide. Competition is fierce among these real estate agents. For Realtors who want to stand out from their rivals, it helps to become a marketing expert.
Now, let's look at three tips that can help real estate agents effectively market their properties.
1. Consider Your Target Audience
Think about who you want to buy a property. From here, you can craft a content marketing plan that ensures you can engage with the right audience.
Initially, create a property listing. This allows you to share information about a property's price, history, and other relevant details. Consider the buyer's perspective and what information he or she wants to find. Next, you can produce a listing that makes it easy for a buyer to see what your property has to offer.
Of course, it helps to promote your property listing on social media and other online platforms. The more platforms you use to share your listing, the more likely it becomes that a buyer will reach out to learn more about your property.
2. Prioritize Your Photos
If possible, hire a professional real estate photographer to capture images of your property. This photographer can assess all areas of your property and take outstanding photos of it. Also, the photographer can help you stage rooms, so you can use images that highlight the amount of space they offer.
For those who cannot afford a professional photographer, you can use a cell phone to collect real estate images. As you weigh the pros and cons of different cell phones for real estate photography, here are factors to consider:
- Aperture: A cell phone camera that has a wide lens aperture can make it easy to capture high-quality images.
- Screen Size: You can use a large cell phone screen as a viewfinder, which can help you take clear, high-resolution images.
- Stabilization: By using a cell phone camera equipped with image stabilization, you can minimize the impact of hand movements when you snap photos.
Leverage natural light sources when you get real estate photos as well. Natural light can help you showcase a property's full potential in your photos.
3. Monitor Your Results
Track your real estate marketing return on investment (ROI). To do so, find out how much you're spending on real estate marketing campaigns. You can also look at the number of people engaging with your campaigns and other data to uncover ways to enhance your marketing strategy.
Several key performance indicators (KPIs) can dictate the success of your real estate marketing strategy. These include:
- Web Visits: The number of people who view your real estate website and/or property listing.
- Traffic Sources: How people are finding and reaching your real estate website and/or property listing.
- Lead Conversions: The number of people who contact you after they view your real estate website and/or property listing.
Monitor your KPIs regularly and establish benchmarks. Next, you can track your real estate marketing strategy's performance over time. You can then use your KPIs to ensure your strategy delivers the optimal results now and in the future.
Real Estate Marketing Tips for Homeowners
You don't need to be a real estate agent to market your house to buyers. In fact, there are many things that a homeowner can do to stir up interest in their residence, such as:
1. Launch a Website
Set up a website exclusively for your home. Here, you can provide an all-inclusive resource for information about your residence. You can also share photos and videos of your house.
Any homeowner can build a real estate website in minutes. However, you need to keep your website up to date. Otherwise, inaccurate information about your home or old photos can hamper your ability to promote your residence.
Leverage analytics for your real estate website as well. Google Analytics can be integrated into your site and lets you monitor various KPIs. You can monitor analytics daily, weekly, and monthly and use them to find ways to optimize your site.
2. Leverage Social Media
Take advantage of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to promote your home. Social media can be a difference-maker, as it lets you instantly engage with homebuyers from around the world.
In terms of social media for real estate marketing, it helps to plan ahead. If you develop a content plan, you can provide consistent content to homebuyers across a wide range of social media channels.
As you create social media content, include top-notch photos of your home. You can even develop a custom hashtag to include for your residence as well.
And, incorporate a call-to-action in your social media posts, too. This ensures readers can seamlessly get in touch with you or your real estate agent if they want to learn more about your residence.
3. Remain Consistent
Stay persistent as you try to promote your home to buyers. Remember, a sellers' real estate market can quickly shift to buyers' favor. If you notice interest in your home waning, evaluate your marketing efforts and adjust them as needed.
Ultimately, homeowners who publish regular content about their residences on a website or social media can generate plenty of interest in their houses. By doing your part to promote your residence consistently, you can improve your chances of selling your home.
Finally, if you need extra help as you market your residence, connect with a real estate agent. With a real estate professional at your side, you can get marketing tips and recommendations and speed up the home selling process.
Real Estate Marketing Tips for Contractors
Contractors frequently invest significant time, energy, and resources to build properties. Yet, there is no guarantee that buyers will be interested in these properties. Fortunately, contractors who consider marketing during the planning process can ensure their properties will hit the mark with buyers.
Here are three tips to help contractors capitalize on real estate marketing.
1. Connect with Real Estate Agents
Use LinkedIn to engage with real estate agents. This lets you build your professional network. In addition, it ensures you can connect with real estate agents who can help you market your property.
Along with LinkedIn, utilize in-person or virtual networking events to foster your professional network. As you build a property, you can share details about it with your network. This may help you promote your property and identify prospective buyers.
Keep the lines of communication open with local real estate agents, too. It can be beneficial to set up a time to meet with real estate agents in your city or town and provide them with information about your property. This lets you lay the groundwork for a mutually beneficial real estate partnership.
2. Capture and Share Videos
Use videos to track the progress as you build a property. These videos can give buyers a glimpse into the property's potential. They also enable you to provide brief and informative snippets that engage buyers throughout the building cycle.
Ensure videos are short and feature clear images. Ideally, you should keep each video to less than 2 minutes. You can break up a long video into several short snippets, too.
Share your videos on social media, your website, and other online platforms. Include a video description and other relevant information when you publish your videos online. Verify that your videos are easy to view on both mobile and desktop devices as well.
3. Offer Virtual Tours
Provide a 3D tour of a property. A virtual tour lets anyone walk around a property, regardless of their physical location. The tour can also help contractors showcase a property as it is completed and provide buyers with interactive viewing experiences.
Virtual tours go one step beyond videos for real estate marketing. Contactors can use them to let buyers check out a property at any stage of development. At the same time, buyers can use virtual tours to explore a property at their own pace 24/7.
If you put together a 3D tour of a property, ensure you can provide an unprecedented 360° virtual experience. Verify buyers can walk through a property virtually, without any delays or disruptions. Furthermore, request feedback after virtual tours are complete. If you identify any issues with these tours, address the problems right away.
The Bottom Line on Real Estate Marketing
Effective marketing can be a difference-maker for real estate agents, homeowners, and contractors. Those who invest in marketing can distinguish their property from others available in their area. They can also teach buyers about their property and help them decide if it is the right one based on their individual needs.
To market a property effectively, you need to prepare a strategy. Get started on your real estate marketing strategy today. Next, you can promote your property to buyers, receive multiple competitive offers, and maximize your sale price.