It’s widely accepted that the time has come for estate agents to spend more time on their digital marketing.
These days, most vendors are turning to Google and other online platforms when it comes to finding an agent to instruct.
This means agents need to work harder to have a strong online presence and, even better, make buyers and sellers aware of their existing BEFORE they are ready to engage their services.
These 6 things should be considered for any good digital marketing plan for real estate agents. For a mammoth list of other property marketing ideas for estate agents, download our free checklist here.
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Wanting to win even more instructions? Read our complete guide to property marketing guide to winning more instructions in 2020. |
1. Stop Just Selling & Think About The Marketing Funnel
The marketing funnel is a description of a customer journey. As you can see from the traditional diagram below, it shows how people go through a process before they feel ready to actually buy from someone.
These days there are variations of the funnel but the bottom line remains the same:
People will NOT typically jump straight to purchasing from you!
This is especially so for estate agents. Naturally, a person who might need to engage in your services needs to first become AWARE of you. Once that has happened, you need to build on your relationship with that person. The middle part of the funnel is essentially where you make it easier for that person to like, trust and want to engage in business with you.
This is the part of the funnel, many estate agents completely skip! In this ultra competitive market, estate agents need to think a lot more about this part of the funnel and consider how they can add value and continually connect with potential vendors and buyers. If this is executed properly, your estate agency will be the first and natural choice when that person comes to buying or selling a home.
Marketing is a LONG GAME. A good digital marketing strategy will cover:
- How you can make people aware of your existence (example: being easily found in Google)
- How you can make it easy for people to like, trust and desire to work with / buy from you
- How you can make it easy for them to take some action – to “buy” from you (ie: instruct you)
Don’t just focus on #3.
Once you’ve considered what part of the funnel you’re focusing on, the following 5 things are things you should think about integrating into your marketing plan for 2020.
2. Review & Optimise Your Website
The first thing to do with your website is an SEO audit. With more people than ever going to Google as their first point of call when looking for a business, your website needs to show up when people search.
Remember, if people aren’t aware of you, they are unlikely to engage you. Being easily found in the search engines is vital to making sure people can find you.
Among other things you should consider creating more content (such as blog posts) and using Google ads. You can download our FREE SEO Checklist to get you started.
Once people find your website, does it give a good impression?
That’s the second thing you should consider in your website review. A slow, unattractive, unhelpful website will do nothing to make it easy for people to like, trust and want to engage with you.
A good estate agent website will:
- Include professional property photography
- Easy to find and clear contact us details
- Clear benefits of working with you over your competitors
- Clear call to actions so it’s easy for people to take the next step
These are just a few of the things your website should do. First and foremost, an estate agent website has to be attractive. People look at images and watch video more than they read text so your website needs to make an instantly positive impression.
Amazing property photography and visual content is therefore critical. Vendors are more likely to instruct an estate whose own marketing reflects how they would want their property marketed! Low quality photography is off-putting.
Click here for more advice on how to improve your estate agent website.
3. Start Using Video Marketing For Estate Agents
There’s 3 good reasons why video marketing should be part of your marketing campaigns:
- It’s good for SEO
- Vendors are more likely to instruct estate agents who use it
- People generally prefer to watch a video over reading text
Video helps estate agents to generate more interest and more leads and yet, most estate agents are not incorporating video into their marketing efforts. This means that using it can really help you to stand out and separate you from your competitors.
Video can be very effective in helping you to stand out and attract people to your business but it’s also very effective at the middle parts of the funnel:
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Examples of Type Of Video To Use |
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| Attracting Clients (Awareness) | Smart viewings, 360 virtual tours |
| Building Your Relationships (Interest/Desire) | Q&A, agency introductions |
Click here for 7 ways to use video marketing for estate agents.
4. Start An Email Newsletter
91% of people check their email everyday.
Email marketing is a very effective way to get in front of your customers. As we mentioned in section 1 of this blog, people don’t typically jump straight to “buying” from you. In fact, it’s reported that it takes 8 touch points before someone will choose to do so.
An email newsletter gives estate agents the opportunity to increase their touch points with potential clients while building on their trust and likeability.
Estate agents shouldn’t just use email to sell. A good email newsletter will also add value. For example, as most of your potential clients will be local, you could share upcoming events in the area or local news.
When integrating email into your real estate marketing plan, you should consider using a CRM that automates sending email so that this is not a long and manual process.
Focal News is the weekly newsletter sent by FocalAgent
5. Create A Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is typically a piece of valuable content that you offer to people in exchange for their contact details. This might be an ebook, a video tutorial or some kind of checklist.
To create an effective lead magnet, you need to consider what information your target clients needs. A good way to work this out is through keyword research. If your keyword research indicated that a lot of people search for information on “how to stage a home to sell it quickly”, an ebook or video series on how to do just that would be a great lead magnet.
A lead magnet is great for lead generation because people are more likely to give you their contact details if they get something they want in exchange for them. Once you have those details, you can include those people in your email blasts and other communication (subject to GDPR rules of course).
6. Manage Your Online Reputation
People read reviews. In fact, they are more likely to take note of a real person’s review about you than the claims you make on your own website.
This means you need to manage and pay attention to the things being said about you online.
Your marketing plan should include a schedule for checking online reviews and responding quickly, especially negative ones.
Estate agents should also make a habit of asking clients to leave online reviews in places like Google & Trustpilot. These reviews are not only helpful for future clients but they can also help to boost your SEO.
You can improve the management of your online reputation and property PR with these 6 tips.
For more amazing marketing ideas for your 2020 plan, download our mega list of 50 property marketing ideas for estate agents here.
