2018 is going to be a game changer in the real estate marketing space. The goal of this article is to future-proof yourself with all the changes that are likely to take place in 2018.
The real estate marketing landscape has changed significantly in the last 12 months. The way you target potential buyers and sellers is quite different than what is used to be 2 or 3 years back.
Let’s find out some of the key things that you should consider when creating a marketing plan for 2018.
#1 People will still choose a real estate professional based on trust
The most important factor in choosing a real estate professional is trust. That is not changing in 2018 for sure. As a matter of fact, the trust factor is something that you should primarily work towards in your farm area since it’s going to be the key differentiator in generating clients.
Every farm area gets targeted by multiple real estate professionals. This means you are not the only person offering something to these homeowners. In 2018, people are going to get bombarded with flyers, mailers and online ads in just about any area. The only way to cut the crowd and get your business is to do something different.
This means you need to provide some value to your target area homeowners before going and asking for business.
How do you build trust in your local area:
- Go meet and feature local business owners on your website. Promote their business for free and do not ask anything in return.
- Partner with a few local business owners to give out exclusive
- Aggregate local news and events. Send it as a weekly newsletter to all your subscribers.
- Do case studies of previous clients that you have worked with. Share the case study in your local area using Facebook Boost posts.
#2 Set aside a significant budget for retargeting your website visitors
Very few people choose a real estate professional right away. In order to nurture and close more prospects during the buyer journey process, you need to make sure that you stay on top of your prospects minds.
The most cost-effective way to keep showcasing your brand in front of your clients & prospects is through retargeting.
Retargeting allows you to showcase your brand in front of everyone who visits your website. This means they will see your ad and call to action when the browse around on the web.
If you have an active YouTube channel use video retargeting on both YouTube and Facebook Video. Video restarting is going to be something more real estate agents do in 2018 to improve client retention rate and close ratio.
#3 Share all forms of content especially video
Videos are quickly becoming the number one source of content on the internet. In 2018 you should allocate a bunch of time creating videos for your real estate business.
BONUS: Video marketing guide for real estate professionals
You need to share all forms of content to engage with your target audience. As you know, mobile browsing has surpassed desktop browsing in 2017.
People are consuming content in form of rich illustrations and videos. In order to get the attention of your target audience, you need to create different forms of content apart from text.
Start with video because it’s easy to create and share across multiple social media channels. Share your videos on multiple channels like Facebook & YouTube.
#4 Personalize your drip email campaigns
Drip email marketing is still one of the best techniques to reduce your customer acquisition cost. You should definitely set up a series of emails and trigger them when a new lead or prospect comes into the system.
Ideally, you want to set up the triggers based on buyers, sellers and existing clients. You need to connect your CRM to your email marketing service and you should be good to go. Give your prospects value before pitching your service. This means, your drip series should be value focussed rather than a cold sales pitch of your real estate service.
