The Importance of Digital Marketing for Real Estate Industry

Digital marketing is far from being just a buzzword.

It’s an umbrella term for a variety of practical online marketing strategies that you can use to boost your real estate business. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the most important digital marketing approaches you can use in the real estate world.

Why is digital marketing important for the real estate industry?

Digital marketing hits all marketing sectors and the real estate market isn’t an exception.

As opposed to traditional marketing techniques, digital approaches allow for higher personalization and accurate targeting.

As a result, real estate professionals see higher returns on their marketing budget investments. It shouldn’t come as a surprise because our time spent online grows each year.

What are the best digital marketing approaches?

In the following section, we’ll go over the main digital marketing approaches and tools that real estate industry representatives use in their daily marketing efforts. Some of these, like blogging, provide a more low-cost solution. Virtual reality and chatbots might need more investment, though.

1.     Automation

Why go digital if you don’t reap the benefits of automation?

Many real estate marketing campaigns on digital platforms can easily be automated. For example, if you have e-mail lists, you are able to automatically send promotional materials to entirely different market segments. These tools are becoming more easily available and cheaper to use.

2.     Blogging

Blogs are essential for gaining attention, creating trust, and enhancing your digital marketing strategy.

While blogs have been around for quite a while, this channel hasn’t lost its appeal.

Many real estate professionals use blogs for providing useful content to the readers. When the published posts are well-researched and useful, the people start to trust the company more. The long-term goal is to use the blog for gaining potential clients.

Not all of the blog readers might convert into actual customers. Still, they will be useful for the company. The readers could recommend the real estate agency or other entity to their friends or family.

Also, these blog posts can be shared on social media, extending the outreach to a much wider scale. When the posts are optimized for search engines, there’s a good chance of getting steady traffic from Google, Bing, and others.

3.     Chatbots

Chatbots help you automate parts of the customer service.

You are able to build chat scripts and answer the most frequently asked questions about the properties.

Chatbots may be integrated into virtual tours: the bots will answer any questions that come up during the virtual walkthroughs in real time. Putting the bots into the heart of your digital marketing strategy is a wise investment.

4.     Influencers

Using influencers is very popular in the beauty product and travel industries.

More and more real estate professionals turn to influencer marketing as well. Finding local social media celebrities enables you to showcase the best collection of properties and bring it in front of many curious eyes.

You could have the influencer live in one of the properties for a while and blogging or vlogging about their experience. If it’s a high-value property, this will surely raise some serious buying interest. Furthermore, it could even raise the perceived value of the property because now it’s connected to a celebrity.

5.     Social media campaigns

Launching marketing campaigns on social media platforms allows you to precisely target specific people.

Facebook has one of the most elaborate systems for choosing the exact characteristics of your target group. It’s great for real estate marketing because you are able to pick the exact location, age, and variables related to your preferred segment’s background.

Social media campaigns allow for seamless integration between a variety of digital approaches.

For example, you are able to use walkthrough videos and blog posts for sharing on social media platforms. Some campaigns can even be without any additional costs to experts’ work hours. Creating posts that provide actual value to the readers could be posted in social media groups for free.

6.     Video

Video walkthroughs are becoming the industry standard for real estate digital marketing.

The walkthroughs can be embedded on websites, shared through numerous social media platforms, and even show in pop-up marketing initiatives in physical locations.

They aren’t the same thing as virtual reality tools, though. A video walkthrough is mostly passive in terms of viewer involvement. The best practice is to create interactive videos that people are able to interact with. For example, they could click to zoom in, ask additional questions, or even leave some comments behind.

When creating videos it’s always smart to rely on professionals. The videos should raise the interest of people and highlight the property’s amenities in the most effective ways. The best videos don’t rely only on the walkthrough part. Instead, they focus on the surrounding community as well. Showing the social context in which the property is situated creates a stronger connection between the video and the viewers.

7.     Virtual reality (VR)

Virtual reality is the next step from plain video walkthroughs. VR solutions allow potential tenants or buyers to really immerse themselves in the experience of looking around the property without the need for actual travel.

Virtual reality is definitely one of the most advanced digital marketing solutions out there. Since it’s a highly developing field, the integration with other tools needs extra effort. Most real estate marketers use virtual reality in their showcase stands, offices, etc.

The bottom line: why is digital marketing so important?

In an increasingly digital economy, using online tools is essential to reach more people while converting leads to tenants and buyers. Visual appeal is a vital part of every real estate buying or renting decision.

Digital marketing tools are great for highlighting the most attractive features of the properties.

Some of the marketing tools and strategies are easier and cheaper than others. For example, running a basic social media campaign is more affordable compared to a complex virtual reality solution. In any case, picking at least one or two approaches is essential for marketing success in a digitally connected era.