Growing a Digital Real Estate Presence 101: Tips, Tricks, and Things to Remember

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June 26, 2023 Marketing

As a member of the real estate field, regardless of if you are an agent, broker, property manager, or something else entirely, learning how to grow your business is important. However, in the modern day, marketing has gone digital, which differs drastically from traditional marketing strategies of the past.

Gone are the days when real estate professionals would post billboards and go door-to-door advertising their business, only to be replaced with Internet advertising. By learning how to maximize one’s online digital presence, they can enhance the number of people reaching out to potentially become customers.

Digital Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing: The Key Difference

For those who haven’t actually heard the term before, digital marketing can be a confusing concept to understand. The best way to go about understanding this form of marketing is to first outline what traditional marketing is. In short, traditional marketing is any form of marketing that occurs via an “offline” method. This means billboards, flyers, television, and other similar types of marketing methods qualify as being traditional.

Traditional marketing is excellent for targeting certain groups of people in the area where the marketing is occurring. On the other side of things, digital marketing occurs over the Internet instead of offline sources. Social media, email, websites, and more are common types of digital marketing, which focuses on casting a wider net that is, at the same time, more targeted than with traditional marketing.

How Digital Marketing Has Changed Real Estate

While it may not seem like digital marketing would have much place in real estate, especially considering the field is often all about face-to-face interactions, this form of marketing is being utilized by all industries. In fact, the digital advertising and marketing market was valued at around $477 billion at the end of 2022.

This investment into digital marketing has caused many real estate professionals to realize that growing their book can be done more efficiently by targeting those who would be most interested. As a result, more real estate firms and professionals in general have been expanding their budget to include this form of marketing.

5 Ways to Use Digital Marketing in Real Estate

When it comes to building your book, there are no shortage of new methods to try. However, digital marketing is certainly one that should be tried first. When establishing a strategy for your marketing needs, consider each of the following five tips:

Build out a user-friendly website to draw visitors

The first step to building out any digital presence is to create a website that is both modern and user-friendly. This can help a real estate professional establish a real estate PPC campaign that drives revenue every time a person clicks on a link on the site. Going further, however, having a website that anybody can use and learn from will help establish your real estate business as a subject-matter expert in the field.

Develop a pay-per-click strategy

Building off of the PPC campaign that can be utilized through creating an effective website, this strategy can be maximized. By working with different companies, a real estate firm or general professional can ensure that each and every ad on their platform is relevant to the person viewing it, thus increasing the odds they click through.

Advertise across different platforms

Taking advantage of digital marketing is about more than just making a new website. Instead, a person must also utilize every digital platform available to them. This means signing up for social media platforms under your business name, whether they be professional sites such as LinkedIn or more carefree platforms.

Offer virtual trainings or teachings to website visitors

Another unique way to establish your business as a subject matter expert in real estate is to create a blog or video posting section to your website. On these pages, a person can post content that is relevant to real estate and which has the purpose of educating those reading or watching. By building this connection with visitors to a site, a person can have a better shot at converting them to a customer.

Create unique advertising campaigns

Finally, all real estate professionals need to work on building out a unique advertising campaign for their business. This campaign should include finding a strategy that sets your business apart from others in the field in some way. This can be through stating a unique message, using a unique platform, or some other method.

Pros and Cons to Using Digital Marketing in Your Real Estate Business

While using digital marketing strategies within your own real estate business can be tempting, it’s important to go over some of the necessary pros and cons that are worth considering. Most notably, the pros and cons of using digital marketing include:

Pros to Using Digital Marketing

Real estate firms can connect with potential customers at a more personal level
Real estate professionals can target more specific groups who are more likely to be interested in their services
Converting marketing efforts to the digital space can allow a real estate professional to get ahead of the competition
Measuring results from a digital marketing campaign is extremely easy and the data gathered can be used to make actionable future decisions
A brand can gain notoriety through their digital presence over time

Cons to Using Digital Marketing

The cost associated with building out an effective digital marketing campaign may be more than your current budget
Creating a digital presence opens the door to security and privacy risks
Technology issues can damage the digital marketing campaign
Developing a digital marketing campaign means opening the door to global competition

The Bottom Line

While adapting to modern forms of digital marketing may seem challenging, especially given that real estate is a vastly different field than marketing, it’s imperative to learn. By understanding how digital marketing differs from traditional marketing, along with how to use digital marketing to build an online presence, any real estate professional can bolster their existing business.