Social media for real estate isn’t a short-term fad or trend that’s going to disappear any time soon. It’s a major player in establishing your brand, differentiating yourself from your competition, and the future of marketing for real estate agents and brokers. In 2023, it continues to be an exceptionally powerful tool to help industry pros’ lead generation, nurturing, and conversion abilities. It offers the opportunity to establish your brand as a leading source in your industry and to cultivate long-lasting relationships with clients.
Clients rarely pick an agent just based on the number of homes they sold, but rather because they connect with that agent on a personal level. This means you have an added advantage as a real estate agent or broker. The more authentic and personable you are, the more clients will want to work with you. It’s all about building authentic, lasting relationships, and you can do that with a huge audience! Show your human side, embrace your values, and prove the knowledge you’ve gained from working in your market.
Considering that there are over 3 billion using social networks across the globe, it’s safe to say social media is an exceptional tool for reaching a wider audience. Simply put, social media platforms are the perfect place to reach new and highly targeted potential customers. So, if If you’re not taking advantage of social media accounts, you’re losing out on a quick, inexpensive, and effective way to reach a massive audience!
Research has shown that 60 percent of Instagram users reported that they discovered a new product or brand while on the platform. In the modern world of social media and the world wide web, a strong online presence is the foundation of a thriving business. With that being said, the best results come from strategically utilizing the various social media platforms and tools, tailoring your content, and purposeful planning. Check out the following 5 social media campaign strategies to ensure your real estate business stands out from your competition.
Strategy 1: Exclusive, Strategic, and Targeted Facebook Ads for Your Real Estate Business
There are a number of powerful ad formats and targeting, or retargeting, parameters that can ensure you reach the optimal target audience on Facebook. One of the best ways to nurture leads and build loyalty with your Facebook following is connecting with your existing contacts.
Start by posting Facebook Videos showcasing the neighborhood with exclusive content about the area that will benefit home buyers or home sellers, depending on your niche. Once you’ve run a few videos, narrow in clients with most potential by using the Facebook pixel to tag anyone who has watched your videos over 50% of the way through.
Next, launch a Facebook ad campaign targeting this specific audience to get tons of inquiries and engagement. Getting in front of your existing clients by providing relevant content, reinforces your brand and gives you the opportunity to increase lifetime client value and loyalty. When you offer customized services and relevant content to a very specific audience, it’s like starting a conversation that will cement their trust and loyalty in you and your brand.
Keep in mind that your Facebook ad campaign isn’t a sales tool (at the beginning). It’s a communication tool to introduce yourself to your prospect and build trust. When writing your ad copy, avoid cliche, direct sales approach. Rather than advertising specific listings, offer tips for first-time buyers, information about the local area, or home improvement tips to increase their property value. You can include a link at the end of your copy and a call to action that invites users to view active listings on your website, without being pushy.
Strategy 2: Engage with your local community to build your sphere of influence
You want your following to inherently understand that partnering with you means working with someone who is a valued member of that community. Don’t underestimate the importance of having expertise in the community your representing, familiarity with the area, as well as housing market trends. Lead generation has been the pillar on which many real estate agents built their success. However, we are beginning to see a massive shift in how homeowners respond to these lead generating campaigns. They can be targeted by any agent or
In the wake of these shifts, one of the best ways to showcase this is through contests, hosting events, and being an active participant in community events. Facebook contests and events are exceptional tools for engaging with your community. They create excitement, word-of-mouth buzz, and can lead to a larger attendance. Facebook contests can increase your email subscriber list, boost awareness of your event, build loyalty, remind attendees about your event, and encourage people to invite their friends and family.
Consider collaborating with local influencers to co-host an event. This is a great way to tap into a wider audience. Plus, people are more willing to trust someone when they’re recommended by someone they already follow and trust.
The most important aspect of this strategy is post-event or post-contest. After your Facebook contest ends, or the event has taken place, review your results and take action with this valuable research. After you’ve announced the winner or the event has ended, keep the conversation going! Send thanks to all participants for entering or attending, to communicate how much you value them.
If you generated tons of new leads through your contest, us a custom audience on Facebook to reach these individuals again in the future. Now that they’ve shown interest in your brand, a Facebook ad targeted at them has a better chance of grabbing their attention.
Consider running a Facebook ad campaign to all past participants, right before your next contest or event. Tailor ad copy directly to these individuals, by reminding them of the last contest or event. Another great way to nurture those leads and keep the conversation going is to send past participants similar or relevant content.
Strategy 3: SEO-targeted YouTube videos to grow your real estate business online
Complete an SEO audit of all keywords searched in your local area, targeting local residents’ search history, or people who are searching for more information about your target market. For the best results, consider ranking for long tail hyper-local keywords and more niche searches. If you go too broad, the topics might be overdone, and you are likely competing with top news websites already covering this topic. This means it’s really difficult for you to rank and create engaging videos on your local market.
Once you’ve narrowed down a list of keywords, create a series of separate videos for each of these topics on YouTube. One of the most effective ways to capture the attention of your target customer in the real estate industry is to create engaging and relevant videos. Using these highly searched topics from your SEO audit, you can create a distinct collection of targeted and highly searched promotional and educational materials. Creating regular video content on your YouTube channel will build trust through familiarity with your local audience, and is the perfect place to showcase your personality with humour, insights, and personal preferences.
It’s essential that you optimize your real estate YouTube channel, which means incorporating keywords into titles, meta descriptions, “about” sections, and tags.
Don’t forget to include a proper CTA so that you can capture these leads!
Strategy 4: Promote and feature your existing clients (home buyers and sellers) on a video
Feature local business owners and local influencers in your blogs, vlogs and in your social media posts.
Once you’ve created your video or videos, tailor them according to the social media channel you’re posting them to. For instance, videos on Facebook and Instagram are typically much shorter than YouTube videos, so post clips from the full interviews on those platforms. It’s also beneficial to turn video interviews into blog posts or sort snippets for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Linked-In. This way you can optimize SEO, highlight specific aspects of the interview, and reach a wider audience.
Use testimonials from your existing real estate clients to generate social proof among prospects in your local farm area
The proof is in the pudding! Create high-quality video testimonials that showcase just how great of a real estate agent you are. Just as it’s important to have a lot of written testimonials to post on your site, it’s even better and more effective to sit down your most recent customers for video testimonials. In real estate, video testimonials play a crucial role in showcasing you as a knowledgeable and reputable go-to agent.
Reach out to your existing clients and offer them an incentive to sit down with you to discuss the benefits of working with you and how you helped them achieve their buying or selling dreams on camera. We recommend hiring a professional videographer to shoot your testimonials as the high ROI for your business will certainly pay off.
3 Tips and Strategies To Promote Your Client Testimonial Videos
- Upload your prospect list on Google Ads. Create a retargeting list using this data. Launch a campaign on YouTube showcasing the video testimonials to these prospects.
- Promote the video to the perfect homeowner demographic on Facebook. For example in Toronto you can select married with kids (8 – 13 years). Create a custom list of all users that watches 50% or more. Launch a dedicated marketing campaign to target them (maybe a free home valuation campaign). This is called a 2-step real estate funnel and it works in every market.
- If you are talking back and forth with prospects via email, use this testimonial video as an attachment or in your signature. This helps build trust with your prospects and increases the chance of converting them into clients.
In short, there are endless opportunities and ways for you to maximize and nurture your clients via social media with the strategies outlined in the article above. Whether you implement all the strategies, or pick and choose a few that suit your specific needs, you’ll be ahead of the game when it comes to standing out among your competition.
Make the most of your online presence — enhance your brand awareness, generate more site traffic and really cultivate a strong presence online that not only gets you leads, but fosters long-lasting and loyal clients.
Want help fast-tracking your online marketing strategies?
Book a FREE strategy session with Parkbench to learn how we can help you use social media marketing to build the ‘know, like, and trust’ factor in your community and become THE go-to agent in your market!