Posts Tagged ‘real estate marketing’

Real Estate Marketing with Social Media

Posted by Brent on June 28th, 2009

To remain competitive in today’s environment, real estate professionals and home builders must understand who their buyers are, where they are doing their research, and how to effectively communicate their brand message.   As we continue to see a dramatic shift away from traditional media, home builders and marketers are seeking advertising channels that are most cost effective, more targeted, and more measurable. 

homeInternet marketing is earning greater recognition as the industry becomes more educated about the valuable marriage between creativity and technology.  Social media is one of these strategies that is gaining fantastic momentum.  Social media as a marketing strategy has made so many advancements in the past 12 months that it is hard to keep track.  The online marketing space has redefined how companies brand themselves, communicate with customers, and allocate marketing dollars. 

Transparency is the only way builders can remain relevant and competitive.  The old days of companies hiding behind their “big brand” are over.  Companies that are engaging in social media are committing to real customer interaction and showing who they really are as a brand and as a team.  This article aims at providing insight into why we should care about social media, how it is redefining the way we market products and services,  and how to use it effectively to sell homes.

Why Should We Care About Social Media Marketing?

Home builders and real estate professionals need to understand that their buyers are in fact online and are using social networking sites on a regular basis:
• According to the National Association of REALTORS “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers 2008″ 87% of home buyers use the Internet to search for a home.
• According to a 2009 Facebook statistics report, the fastest growing group on Facebook is now the 35 to 54 year old demographic growing at growing at 276.4% in the first six months of 2009.  The 55+ demo is not far behind with a 194.3% growth rate.
• According to Nielsen, unique visitors to Twitter increased 1,382 percent year-over-year, from 475,000 unique visitors in February 2008 to 7 million in February 2009, making it the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category for the month.
• YouTube is now considered the largest vertical search engines in the world with well over 70,000,000 videos (as of March 2008)

Redefining the Marketing Landscape

The hybrid approach:  Social media marketing has created a fusion between real estate marketing, advertising, and customer relations.  The most successful real estate focused social media campaigns combine all online and offline marketing efforts and truly engage the audience.  The companies that use these strategies effectively are fully committed and spend considerable time on these initiatives.  Once a campaign gains momentum, the social platforms (i.e. Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube) become real communication tools.  Builders can now actively interact with potential buyers and industry professionals in a more personal manner.  Consumers want to see user-generated content and learn about your brand from people outside your organization. 

Branding:  We should be careful about how we define “branding” as it applies to marketing and advertising.  Sometimes branding can be thought of as that marketing strategy with an indefinable ROI.  Actually, it is of course much more important.  These days it doesn’t take just good advertising or PR to brand your company.  For home builders that already have a distinct brand image social media is about creating trust and transparency while still protecting the brand.  Once a real estate professional or home builder begins social media they should encourage everyone in the company to contribute.  A builder’s brand shouldn’t just be about the homes and communities.  It should be about the team of people driving the business.  If the Simon Cooper of Ritz Carlton is a regular blogger and uses Twitter, that should tell us something.

Cost Effectiveness:  Just like any other marketing strategy, Internet marketing and social media should be designed to support a builder’s sales goals.  With budgets being tighter, it is crucial to design a marketing plan that contains strategies that are measurable and can produce a desired ROI.   One of the key ways that Internet marketing and social media are more cost effective is because it is targeted.  With social media marketing, an effective campaign starts first with setting goals, doing research, and defining the audience.  There are many great social media tools available to help plan and manage campaigns.  The key element for measuring results should be in the analytics.  All social media pages should link to the company website and gradually build traffic and conversions.

10 Tips for Getting Started

1. The team:  Whether your hire a social media agency or consultant or use an in-house team, you have to be committed to investing in the process.  It’s all or nothing.  If you outsource, it is still recommended to have someone in-house directing the message and strategy.  The more your buyers and potential buyers communicate with you, the more you will have to remain involved.  If you plan to build an in-house team, enlist the help of some Internet savvy interns for some extra man power. 

2. Website:  Do not spend time and energy engaging in any online strategy until you have a website that is user-friendly and designed to foster conversions (i.e. building an email list, capturing registrations, and generating sales).  Your website will always be your most important foundation from which any online marketing strategy will be built.  Make sure to have Google analytics installed in your site so you can actively monitor traffic levels, traffic sources, bounce rates, and time on site. Be sure to have a great database management system for capturing and organizing incoming leads. 

3. Blog:  Keep in mind that social media is first about providing value to your online community and building trust.  The best place to start is with a blog.  Blogs are easy to set up and show your customers that you care about what’s going on in your industry.  Word Press blogs are a great recommendation and very “Google-friendly”.  Be sure to build your blog into your website as opposed to having it as an external site.  Write about current topics that people can relate to and never make your message self serving.  If you don’t think you have time for all this, think again.  Like physical fitness, if you care about it and are committed, you will make the time.

4. Facebook, Active Rain, Twitter, YouTube:  Set up a Fan Page on Facebook.com and profiles on Twitter and ActiveRain.com.  You will build a large network in two ways: (1) networking within the online community itself and inviting people to “join” your fan club or “follow” you on Twitter; (2) driving traffic from outside sources to your profile pages, which you can accomplish this by having links to your profile pages and encouraging people to follow or join. 

You will keep them engaged by having good content (i.e. your blog articles is a great place to start).  You can set up an RSS feed so that your blogs are automatically posted to your Twitter page and Facebook page.  Set up a YouTube channel and start adding content.  Most builders have some kind of video or TV content so start adding it to your YouTube channel and Facebook fan page.  To create new video content, purchase a simple flip camera and shoot three to five minute videos at your properties.  Interview sales representatives, property managers, and even owners. 

5. Communicate & Build a Following:  Your efforts will be fruitless unless you have a loyal following which takes some time to build.  The more effort you put into it, the better your results will be.  Ask your social media partner for effective ways to build a following on Twitter without spamming the community.  Be active on your profile pages on Facebook and ActiveRain.  The more value you have to offer the more people will talk.  Management should lead by example and get involved.  Encourage all employees and sales people to be a part of the network.  Once you have some momentum you can start incorporating your special incentives, promotions, events, grand openings, and other creative messages.  When communicating special offerings, remember to include links to landing pages that give more details and have very clear calls to action like simple registration forms. 

6. Online/Offline Integration:  Include links to all of your social media profile pages and YouTube channel on your website.  Also make reference to these sites in all other marketing and advertising efforts.  If your fully engaged in social media and offer a great resource to potential buyers, why not brag about it?

7. Track Results and Conversions:  The best way to really track results is to be sure your social media platforms are always pointing back to your website and landing pages.  From there you can use your analytics to watch how much traffic is coming from these sources and how its converting. 

8. Get your sales teams involved:  Every member of your sales team should be active in their own social media efforts and the company’s.  Just be sure that there is some level of control to the overall message being communicated through your social networks. 

9. Get your communities involved:  All of a homebuilder’s communities should have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts and be actively involved in the company’s network as well. 

10. Get Creative:  After you gain momentum, the sky is the limit.  Your social network sites then become a platform for creativity and true customer relationship management.  Develop new concepts like special promotions, events, and contests.  Make it fun for people to be inlcuded in your online community.


Successful Real Estate Companies Are Online!

Posted by Brent on May 21st, 2009

The real estate market has seen some dramatic shifts recently and two things have happened.  The market crashed and real estate professionals and companies are taking their businesses online!  The online process began before the bubble burst, but the stormy housing market further proved the need for more targeted and cost effective real estate marketing.

istock_000001767763xsmallcroppedTo succeed in today’s real estate industry, you have to be actively engaging the online community.  The days of thinking that your buyers or renters are not online or that your “demographic” doesn’t use the web to find a home are OVER.  Here are some important facts from the 2008 NAR Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers:

87% of homebuyers used the Internet as an information source

77% of Internet homebuyers drove by or viewed a home they saw online

32% of buyers first found their home on the Internet

25% of FSBOs used the Internet to help sell their home

So how do real estate companies large and small answer this direct need to be egaging potential buyers and renters online?  The answer is through comprehensive integrated Internet marketing strategies.  This may sounds more complicated than it really is.  It all starts with the website which is the foundation of any sound online marketing plan.  You must have an interesting and informative user experience by offering loads of unique content, rich media like video and virtual tours, blogs, forums, etc.  Real estate, like most other businesses, have the need to embrace the Web 2.0 world of customer interaction. 

Once the website is in order and you have a great interactive platform, you need to make sure people can find you.  Yes, your buyers and renters are online looking for you (as stated in the facts above)!  Of course, organic search engine optimization (SEO) is the best long term investment you can make in your real estate company.  Homebuilders and apartment development/management companies across the country are making this investment and saving tons of money in other marketing mediums.  Let’s face it…print isn’t going to get the job done anymore.  Sure, its important for branding and can be effctive for promoting grand openings but its not interactive, nor is it cost effective or measurable. 

People want the facts and they want them fast.  Buyers and renters are online because its convenient anf there is a wealth of transparent information out there.  Consumers can do weeks of research and make informed decisions before ever picking up the phone to call a property or speak to an agent (though the important role of an agent or leasing representative will never be obsolete!).  Having first page organic rankings for your relevant keywords will drive higher volumes of quality traffic to your real estaet site than most other outlets.  Real estate is very competitive online so it must be viewed as a long term investment.  Once you have the rankings, then investment will pay off tenfold.

In the short term, pay per click advertising (PPC) (when managed properly) is a great way to drive targeted traffic to your pages.  Google Adwords has developed over the past year and their algorithms are now more sophisticated.  You must approach paid search campaigns in similar ways you do with basic SEO – you must have a thoughtful keyword strategy with good title and descriptions, and use solid landing pages with unique conent.  Google now uses what they call “Quality Score” to ensure that campaigns are well managed and providing value to the user.  The Quality Score process ranks your campaigns from 0 to 10 (10 being the best) and makes judgements based on title, descriptions, and landing page quality.  Google will also now take into account the overall value your website has to offer.  This is were many real estate sites can hit a road block. So many sites out there now just aggregate MSL listings and property listings from all over the web without providing unique content and information.  Without offering the user unique content found nowhere else on the web, Google may not give a good Quality Score when running PPC campaigns.  So now its not just about outbidding competitors for terms, its about value. 

The fastest growing marketing phenomenon is social media.  All types of companies in all kinds of industries are embracing the ability to interact with their customers in an open transparent forum.  Social media is actually very simple (though it can take a lot of time and energy to run a successful campaign).  Its about finding your target audience in social networks, blogs, forums, etc. and listening to what they have to say.  Once you have a loyal following and are offering value to the community (Free information, advice, knowledge, etc.) you can start communicating your more “commercial” messages.  From a real estate perspective this is very important.  Buyers and renters are seeking value and real information now more than ever.  Additionally, once you have a robust online presence in the social media world, you can simply use it as a communication platform – announce grand openings, share videos, pictures, special incentives, etc.  Always remember though, you should lean more heavily to the “value” offering to maintain a trusting and loyal following.

One very simple and effective compliment to both SEO and social media, is regular blogging.  Blogging used to be quite foreign to real estate professionals and now it is very mainstream.  You just have to find the time to do it!  To use blogging effective for real estate, it should be approached in two ways.  (1) Have a blog on your own website and write on it regularly.  Send out links to your articles through your social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.  (2) Get out there and write blogs on other sites.  Once you become a regular on some sites you can start providing links back to your site.  This is a great way to get traffic and very powerful for your inbound link building campaign (the most crucial element to orgainc SEO).

Regardless of the economy, people still need homes and they are looking for them online.  Make sure you are where they are looking!

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Real Estate 2.0 – The Upside to a Down Market

Posted by Brent on April 29th, 2009

As in all industries, real estate sellers and marketers are seeking more creative and cost effective ways to reach their target audience and make the sale.  The number of people who use the Internet to find their new home grows each year.  According to the Nationa Association of Realtors 2008 Internet Study, 87% of all home buyers now use the Internet in their search process.  But agents and Realtos should not fear this growing statistic…of that 87% who used the Internet, 85% used an real estate agent as opposed to going straight to a builder or home seller.  I don’t forsee the need for real estate agents ever changing significantly, at least not in the near future.

What we do see changing however is the way agents, Realtors, builders, home sellers and new home marketers take these properties to market.  The days of most traditional media outlets are over for now.  Print, radio, and TV are simply not cost effective nor are they measurable.  Builders and sellers out there need to use sales and marketing tactics that are cost effective, targeted, and measurable.  So how are they doing this?  Welcome to the world of Real Estate 2.0.

When we refer to Web 2.0, it essentially means the transformation of the web’s movement from a “read only” platform to a a fully interactive experience where consumers can interact, share information, and buy/sell products and services.  Traditionally, many industries have been reluctant to embrace online media regardless of its proven track record for more measurable ROI…simply because its a new medium.  Over the past two years we have seem a dramtic shift in not only the real estate industry’s understanding of Internet marketing and all its capabilities, but an actual action taken to implement these strategies.

More and more builders and agents are use Internet marketing to replace traditional media.  Everyone is working from a smaller budget and it is essential to track every penny.   The only true way to do this is with well-planned integrated online marketing solutions that are properly managed and backed by extensives testing and analytics.  Here are some of the marketing channels currently being used to more cost effectively to sell new homes:

Search engine optimization:  This is essentially the practice of increasing the quality and volume of traffic to a website through natural search engine rankings.  More agents and builders are realizing the long term importance of investing in SEO strategies to continually improve the quality of lead flow.  SEO is a true investment as it takes time to see tangible results, especially in an industry as competitive as real estate is online.

Paid Search (Pay Per Click Advertising):  PPC is a great tool to drive targeted traffic when organic rankings are not there.  PPC can be a quick way to waste money if it is not planned and managed properly.  The most effective PPC campaigns have a very targeted key word strategy, use effective landing pages to ensure conversions and leads, and are constantly monitored and adjusted.  PPC can also be geo-targetd as well as weekly/daily/hourly targetd to ensure you are hitting the most targeted audience at the highest converting times.

Social Media Marketing:  Here is where it gets interesting.  The real estate industry has slowly moved into the social media space through blogging and other web 2.0 platforms.  Now agents and Realtors as well as builders are actively using social media including blogging, video marketing, Facebook and Twitter strategies, viral contests, etc.  The measurable ROI will still come from the same outcome…website traffic growth, eventual leads, conversions, and sales.

Email marketing:  Email marketing still does often fall under the Internet marketing umbrella and is always an effective way to capture new business and retarget potential customers.  Email marketing has taken over for direct mail as a more powerful, more cost effective, and more GREEN method of reaching out to potential buyers.  Email marketing of course like the other elements being discussed must be executed thoughtfully and compliment the overall marketing message.  Email newsletters must be compelling and have a clear call to action.  Similarly, the landing page that the user is directed to should have the same message and prompt them to act.  In real estate, this usually involves capturing the visitor’s information.

The overall idea of an integrated Internet marketing strategy is to follow these basic steps to ensure true synergy between all offline and online marketing components:

  1. Review and define business goals
  2. Set aside a realistic budget (for Internet marketing to work, you must commit to it)
  3. Choose the most appropriate marketing channels to support your goals (i.e. SEO, PPC, Email, Social, etc.)
  4. Develop a comprehensive plan focused on conversions and meeting business goals
  5. Ensure all offline elements are complimentary to the online elements
  6. Launch campaign
  7. Monitor results
  8. Make continual adjustments to ensure optimal ROI

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For Real Estate Developers

Posted by Myles on November 4th, 2008

Real Estate developers are just beginning to understand the importance of online marketing. Developers need to understand that this is a vital aspect to selling out your project – especially in todays market. Today’s market is global so getting an SEO friendly website optimized should be the first marketing ploy for any developer. Even if your project isn’t slated to be marketed for a year because you are in the preliminary stages, you should really already have a website and doing backend work – like link building and content writing. This is extremely important for any site. The reason for this is the following – once your website is ready to be seen by the public, your site will be optimized and you won’t have to play catch up. See the blog below about Spending early and saving in the long term. Most developers, before they even start marketing their project simply have a landing page. This is ok if and only if the site is being optimized. Because we live in a global market, developers need to have high organic placement. PPC won’t reach the entire web so organic placement is really key. It doesn’t matter if you’re developing a condo development or a master plan community – you need to believe in internet marketing and optimize, optimize, optimize!