Every real estate agent company wants more leads. Leads equal opportunities to build relationships that turn into valuable transactions – bought and sold homes that keep your business thriving.
Today, real estate companies can’t rely solely on word-of-mouth to get the number of leads they need. In 2021, over half of buyers found the home they purchased on the internet. Meanwhile, only 28% used a real estate agent to find their new home. While this might seem like bad news for real estate agents, that isn’t necessarily the case. Real estate agents simply need to find their leads where they’re searching for homes – on the internet. That’s why digital marketing has now become the most effective way to gain real estate leads.
With digital marketing at the center, here are five key real estate marketing techniques to generate leads that you can foster into future sales.
Invest in SEO
As mentioned earlier – and we’ll keep drilling it home – the search for a new home (and an agent) begins with a Google search. So the best way to get leads starts by being found on search engine results pages (SERPS). In order to rank on SERPS, you’ll need to invest some time and resources into improving your SEO.
One of the best things about developing an SEO strategy is that it’s free. Sure, there are things you can pay for that might help increase your rankings but, at its core, strong SEO is all about having relevant content on your website. So long as you have a knowledgeable copywriter and web developer on your side, SEO doesn’t have to cost a dime. Another perk: once your website is drawing organic traffic on its own, you won’t have to continue pumping big dollars into digital advertising. It’s a long-term strategy with long-term savings for your business.
Not sure how to do this? Check out these 3 simple things you can do to improve your website’s SEO.
Provide Free, Valuable Content
Before you can start generating leads, you need to draw traffic to your website by putting out free, valuable content. Blogs offer a steady (and free) stream of traffic to your website – when you do them right. Effective blogs will boost your SEO and build trust with your audience by providing free, helpful content. Once a user has deemed your site credible and helpful, they might be willing to contact you directly or offer up their information to receive gated content (more on that below).
Not sure what to write about? Think about what people moving to your area might want to know. Same with those looking to sell in your area. Some ideas might include:
- How Much is the Average Home Price in (Your Location)?
- The Hottest Neighborhoods in (Your Location)
- What Does the Market Look Like for Sellers in (Your Location) Right Now?
- Why Are People Moving to (Your Location)?
Do some research on your audience, and find topics that will speak directly to them.
Create an Email Newsletter
In digital marketing, collecting someone’s email address is pure gold. For real estate companies, it’s the start of a lead. But in order to earn someone’s email address, as well as other information, you need to provide something of value. You can start by putting together a monthly newsletter with information that’s relevant and valuable to your audience. Maybe its housing cost trends, a list of homes with recent price reductions, or tips for homebuyers in your area as they navigate the market. Whatever it is, make it worth giving up information for.
Email is an easy way to start generating leads and continue tracking their engagement for the opportune time to reach out in a more personalized way. Learn more about developing a real estate email marketing strategy here.
Create Gated Content
Gated content is simply any content that requires a transaction between you and your audience. Usually it requires a user to enter their email address at very least. Generally, the more valuable the content, the more information you can ask for. An email newsletter is a great example of gated content. But there are lots of other opportunities, too. Consider the unique knowledge you have as a real estate expert and how you can turn it into something people will offer information for.
Here are some examples of gated content to get you started:
- Neighborhood Guides
- Monthly Market Reports
- New Listing Notifications
- Virtual Tours
Utilize Automation
When you’re tackling content development, email marketing and optimizing SEO, it’s a big undertaking. Automation is one of those tools that can allow you to do more without working harder, helping you scale your real estate marketing efforts.
Marketing automation is the use of software to automate your marketing activities. In most cases, an action taken by a prospective buyer or seller will set off a chain of one or more actions that move them closer to your goal, without you doing any of it manually.
The other key thing about automation is that it allows you to follow-up with leads automatically as they come in, so you won’t lose one just because you’re too busy to respond within the hour.
There are lots of automation tools on the market and ways to use them to your advantage. Common products include Adobe Marketo, Constant Contact and Customer.io, among others. For our clients, we use powerful automation tools like HubSpot to elevate their marketing processes and, ultimately, make more sales.
Learn more about how automation can help you generate real estate leads here.
Looking for an experienced real estate marketing partner to draw in leads for you? At PRIME, we’ve been doing just that for real estate clients for more than 10 years. Need proof? Take a look at our latest case study: How a brand new real estate firm rose to the top of search engines and became a lead-generating machine.
If you enjoyed this edition of PRIME Pulse, take a look at some of our other related articles:
- The Future of Real Estate Marketing
- Real Estate Website Designs We Love
- Inbound Marketing for Real Estate
