6 Real Estate Digital Marketing Tactics That Drive Results

It can be challenging to establish your real estate or home developer brand in such a highly competitive market while also ensuring that the right people see your brand. The problem is that every company is fighting for attention, making it easy to get lost in all the noise. The key to standing out from other brands in a saturated market is to increase your brand awareness and build strong relationships with your buyers and Realtors® so you can rely on their loyalty and, in best-case scenarios, referrals to friends and family.

Enter strategic real estate digital marketing. It comes in a variety of forms and has a track record of being successful. In Google alone, there are over one billion searches a month worldwide, and social media was the tool cited as the best source for generating high-quality leads among realtors, according to the National Association of Realtors. 

Why Does Real Estate Digital Marketing Matter?

Digital marketing in the real estate industry matters because it's the digital age, and it's where everyone is. Not to mention it's cost-effective, has a global reach, can be personalized to the buyer, and your results are easily measured, allowing you to track your successes and failures and make more informed decisions. 

It's also important to note that homebuyers prefer to research online, making it crucial to develop a digital presence that makes it easy for them to find you. In fact, NAR says 90% of home buyers searched online during their home buying process, and real estate-related searches on Google have grown 253% over the past 4 years. 

Moreover, Search Engine Watch reports 90% of searchers haven't made their mind up about a brand before starting their search, so it's your chance to make it a positive experience with your brand. 

The truth is, digital marketing gets your brand out there and prioritizes the customer throughout their journey, making it easy to develop relationships with them during the process. When done right, that relationship then leads to sales and referrals. 

6 Crucial Real Estate Digital Marketing Tactics

Out of the many tactics you can utilize in digital marketing, these are the six that are absolutely crucial to your real estate efforts.

1. SEO

When done correctly, SEO is an inexpensive, long-lasting form of marketing that puts your real estate brand in front of several buyers who fit your ideal customer profile. It's the process of enhancing the quality and quantity of traffic from search engines to your website, particularly through organic keyword ranking and relevant content production.

The key is to prioritize keyword-phrases over simple keywords nowadays. In fact, as of January 2020, about 95.88% of all searches in Google are four words or more, allowing home builders to get specific with their keyword and content strategy.

2. PPC

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an online advertising model that also drives traffic to your website, but you pay the host of the platform every time a user clicks on your ad. It has quicker returns to make up for the typically slower SEO process. 

PPC combined with organic search creates a cohesive Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign. It's the sweet spot of traffic and visibility through both organic and paid search.

3. Display 

Digital display advertising is another form of paid search that allows us to display our creative through visual advertising on social media, apps, and websites — using a combination of formats like video, audio, images, text, and more. It has 10x the impressions with a lower cost-per-click (CPC).

It is also a budget-friendly way of increasing brand awareness and broadening your reach. In fact, Google's Display Ad Network alone reaches 90% of global internet users. 

4. Social Media

First and foremost, Realty411 reports a total of 2.789 billion social media users, and 81% of all Americans currently have a social media profile. With that being said, you not only have the opportunity to reach a good portion of these users, but you have the opportunity to build a more intimate relationship with your buyers on social media. This allows you to understand their struggles and remain top of mind as the solution.

Much like paid search and organic search, the obvious difference between paid social and organic social is cost. However, it's not the only difference. Paid social allows you to break through the noise of organic social (since it is steadily becoming oversaturated) and attract potential buyers. In contrast, organic social is now better for growing brand awareness and managing your brand's reputation and buyer relationships.

5. Email

In real estate, email marketing is still holding its own, earning an average 25.31% open rate and 2.93% click rate in 2020. It is a great opportunity to educate the buyer during their journey and actually provide them with valuable and engaging information.

This is best done through CRM utilization which enables email automation — welcome emails, follow-ups, and after-purchase check-ins — and provides the ability to track engagement metrics with each email. Although, you should keep in mind the importance of personalization and mobile optimization in your emails to ensure you're resonating with the right buyers in the right way.

6. Photography & Graphic Design

You won't want to make the mistake of underestimating the potential of photography and graphic design. It's absolutely crucial for real estate in particular because you can create emotional images and relationships through photography and graphic design.

It also relates back to your website design, display, social media, and email because all require excellent creative to attract and appeal to buyers. In fact, visual marketing is so important because it has been proven to be more successful in brand recall and recognition than many other tactics.

According to HubSpot, "When people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later." 

Learn More About Digital Marketing

By now, you likely realize the importance of either beginning your journey with digital marketing or improving your digital marketing efforts. There's a reason digital advertising spend is expected to increase by almost 83% from 2019 to 2024 and surpass $526 billion by the same time. It is the most effective way to broaden your reach and connect with buyers without breaking your bank.

Contact our team of experts at Milesbrand to learn more about how to get your real estate digital marketing strategies up and running.