If you're a real estate agent, you already know that the best way to sell a property is to create as much interest in that property as possible. The more potential buyers that are aware of a specific property the better chance one of them will purchase it, it's that simple.
Except it's not.
Competition today in most markets is fierce, with dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of agents listing and trying to sell properties in every city and town across America. In order to stand out from the crowd, you need to significantly spice-up your property marketing game!
To help you do just that, we've put together the Top 10 Strategies to Improve Your Real Estate Property Marketing. It will give you tips, advice, and insight into what marketing methods work best and how to implement them into your overall marketing scheme. When you're finished, you'll have a few more excellent selling tools in your real estate sales toolkit. Enjoy!
Strategy #1- Hire a Professional Copywriter to Write your Listings
OK, raise your hand if you're a real estate agent and a copywriter. If you just did, great, you're all set! You should be able to easily write engaging, exciting, and attractive content to use for your MLS property listings!
If you didn't raise your hand, however, consider this; the right words, written in the right way, can make a dull, older, or not-so-attractive property sound amazing. That's why you should consider hiring a pro copywriter to write your MLS listings, because writing amazing content is what they do every day.
When you consider that one of the first things a potential buyer will do is read the MLS listings it makes perfect sense to write something that will spur them to take the next step. Make a call, schedule a viewing, etc. So, if you can't write exciting, engaging listings that compel a potential buyer to take action, consider hiring a pro to do it for you. The increase in leads could make 2020 your best year ever!
The right words, written in the right way, can make a dull, older, or not-so-attractive property sound amazing.
Strategy #2- Use a Professional Photographer to Take your Property Photos
Like Strategy #1, this Real Estate agent marketing strategy requires that you hire someone better than you at completing a specific task, in this case taking photographs of your properties for your listings.
Like the words in an MLS listing, the photographs are one of the first things that a potential buyer sees and, frankly, they are probably even more important. Beautiful, well-taken photographs that really showcase a property can increase inquiries and calls significantly and, if you're not capable of taking them yourself (hey, no judgment), hiring a pro only makes sense.
Professionally shot photos and, for that matter, videos too, can be the key to increasing sales because they will increase interest. Professional photogs have the right equipment and, more importantly, the experience and skill to make your listing photos really stand out, so consider hiring a pro to take them. In fact, you might want to have a pro photog on-call to take pictures for all of your listings, which would be one less task you need to perform yourself.
Beautiful, well-taken photographs that really showcase a property can increase inquiries and calls significantly
Strategy #3- Home Staging (Especially for Empty Homes)
A very interesting thing happens when someone looks at a potential new home up close and inside; they start to imagine what it would look like if they lived there. It's a fascinating thing and one you should take advantage of with every potential buyer who walks through the front door.
This visualization is an important step that most potential buyers make, even though it's in their heads. To help them take it, staging the home is a fantastic idea, especially if it's empty.
According to the Real Estate Staging Association homes that are staged prior to going on the market spend 86% less time on the market.
Staging can transform an empty house into a home' that has much more visual and emotional oomph'. If done well it can conjure up images in a potential buyer's mind that will help create more interest, sometimes much more. In other words, if the house is empty, and even if it's not, staging it to look lovely, inviting and homey' is a very good strategy to increase the possibility of a sale.
Strategy #4- Constant, Persuasive Email Marketing
With the advent of new technologies like smartphones and SMS text messaging, email is sometimes forgotten or simply ignored because it is older' technology. The fact is, however, that millions of people still read their email every day and, if you want to grab their attention about a property, it's still a great tool to do so.
Of course, like any other marketing strategy, it helps to be an email expert in order to get the biggest leads and sales boost from your email efforts. To that end, eCampaignPro offers excellent, affordable and easy-to-use email tools that can make your email marketing sing. From creating and socializing your emails to tracking results and putting together your all-important, targeted email opt-in list, eCampaignPro can make your email marketing easier, faster and much more effective.
Strategy #5- Use Banner Ads Targeted to Local Buyers
Banner advertising is a potent method of attracting potential buyers to your listings and thus should also be a part of your overall Real Estate property marketing strategy.
Banner ads are typically rectangular ads with text and pictures that are placed on the sides of a typical web page, next to that page's main content. So what you would want is to run your banner ads on pages that locals would be surfing, like restaurants, retail shops, the local newspaper and so forth.
The great thing about a banner ad is that, when a potential buyer clicks on it, they will be directed to your website and see the property in the ad immediately. They're also quite affordable, even if you have to use an ad agency to place them. In fact, if you're not a banner ad expert, you probably should hire an agency to help you, as there are certain factors like color, content, and calls-to-action (CTA) that need to be crafted well to get the best results.
The parent company behind eCampaignPro, XL Technologies, can manage all of your display advertising campaigns for your property marketing needs saving you time.
The great thing about a banner ad is that, when a potential buyer clicks on it, they will be directed to your website and see the property in the ad immediately.
Strategy #6- Use Facebook Advertising Targeting potential Home Buyers
Like most advertising, Facebook paid ads are written in your voice', with images and text that help explain who you are and what you're selling. The most important part of a Facebook ad, however, is that it lets you specifically target consumers.
In your case, this would be consumers in the market to purchase a new home or property', although you can choose the demographics, interest, and locations to encompass even more than that.
The best parts about Facebook ads are that you can fine-tune' your targeting and reach to a much larger audience on mobile devices, as well as providing extensive analytics. These analytics tell you if your ads are working or not so that, if not, you can change them up to get better results.
Strategy #7- Postcards!
OK, so this is another, older strategy that many Real Estate agents either don't use, ignore or feel is too expensive. Yes, it is older, but that doesn't mean that postcards, if well-crafted and sent to a specific region, don't work. In fact, if done correctly, a postcard marketing campaign can be an excellent way to increase interest locally, attract buyers and sell more properties.
One of the oldest rituals in American society is the daily walk to the mailbox to check the mail and, for many people, that involves looking through everything to decide what to keep and what to toss out.
If you send a colorful, attractive, and compelling postcard to enough of the right people the increase in leads and sales could be substantial. It should be inviting,' rather than salesy, have a simple, direct message and be well-designed.
You can also use a strategy that's rather trendy right now and include some type of puzzle, quiz or other engaging content to make the postcard interactive. Anything to compel the prospective buyer to keep your postcard around (and remind them about your listing) rather than trashing it.
Strategy #8- Emailing Local Real Estate Agents When a Listing Hits the Market
Another excellent strategy you can use to increase leads is to let other local Real Estate agents know when you've listed a new property. That way they know it's for sale and can start telling their prospective buyers about it. This can increase the chance that you find a buyer significantly.
An email service provider like eCampaignPro is the best choice for a task like this, as we can help you create the email, help you put together a list of recipients and, when you're done, track the results you've gotten. 35,000 real estate agents already use eCampaignPro to help sell their properties using email, so we definitely are doing something right!
Email marketing is a very viable and effective form of marketing and advertising your listings. It should definitely be a big part of your overall marketing strategy.
Strategy #9- Throw an Open House Party
This is one of the oldest strategies for selling a home or property, but it's still one of the best. Rather than just opening the doors and waiting, however, you should put a bit of effort, time, and care into throwing an open house if you want excellent results.
Consider a large lawn inflatable (if allowed by the HOA), with balloons and other attractive things to get buyers to notice. Send out an email to your email list to let them know about the open house (eCampaignPro is an excellent tool for this). You may want to place an ad on Facebook too, or in the local newspaper a few days before the open house is scheduled.
Lastly, make it something special by serving food and drinks and, if the property is exclusive, maybe even some live music. The more you make it a party' the more people will talk and the better chance you'll find a buyer and make that sale.
Strategy #10- Post Your Listing on Social Media Sites
When most Real Estate agents think about social media, they think that, if they simply post information and let it go at that, they will get results. This couldn't be further from the truth.
It's called social media' because it's social, and social means that their needs to be an interaction between you and potential buyers. You need to converse with them, educate them and, if necessary, chat with them too, in real-time on the social media platform.
You should also promote your town, not just the listing, and talk about why it's such a fantastic place to live. Be as responsive as possible, even to bad comments, although never engage in rude or offensive talk. Posting videos to social media is fantastic as well because people love videos, so make sure you post them occasionally along with excellent photos.
One last thing to remember about social media is simply this; be yourself. Consumers today aren't looking to be sold, they want information and advice that they can use to make their own decision. You need to give them that info and advice in the best way possible so as to persuade them that you are the expert and the best real estate agent to use when they start making decisions.
By the way, the best converting social media websites are Facebook and Instagram, even though Instagram has a much younger audience. Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn shouldn't be ignored, however, and even Snapchat or TikTok could give your listings a boost.
You need to converse with them, educate them and, if necessary, chat with them too, in real-time on the social media platform.
Bonus Strategy- Blog and Content Marketing
A well-written, interesting, and engaging blog can be a fantastic sales tool. Some people love to read and, if you give them good content, read they will! This can increase your visibility online, brand you as the 'expert' Real Estate agent in your area, and showcase your skills and experience. You'll need a website and need to put some time into writing content on a regular basis but, if you do, the resulting increase in leads and sales could be significant.
Summing Things Up
There are many different strategies that you can use to market and advertise your property listings as a Real Estate Pro, and all of them have their advantages. If you're like most Real Estate agents these days, you're probably a bit overworked and stressed. If you want a hassle-free way to implement some of the strategies above, you should get help from the professionals at eCampaignPro and others who are experts in email, social media, content writing and other aspects of digital marketing.
We hope you enjoyed Top 10 Strategies to Improve Your Real Estate Property Marketing. If you have any questions, need help, or want to leave a comment, please do so in the space provided and best of luck selling in 2020!