Even when you’re offering real estate shares as low as $5,000, it’s hard to get people to invest in your properties. When you’re working on real estate marketing, you need the right approach to rival some of the world’s richest real estate tycoons. The days of wheeling and dealing out on the street are over and everything has moved online, for the most part.
Here are four ways that the top real estate tycoons are getting rich in the smartphone era.
1. Start a Blog
When people use a search engine, they’re looking for one of two things. They’re either looking for a specific service or the answer to a question. When you start a real estate blog, you address both types of users by giving the answer to common real estate questions where your services are the solution.
You don’t have to just use your blog as an FAQ, however. While that’s a great way to start populating your website, you also need to offer a lot of value. When you give visitors something to talk about and to share, you increase your marketing impact with very little investment.
Capture content at live events by hiring a photographer and videographer. When you get all of those photos and videos, you can start filling your blog with it and give everyone something to share. Take some time to learn more about how this content aims to grow your business.
Getting people to show up for events is hard but it gives you so much to write about and to post about. If you’re working in a specific neighborhood or historic district, tap into the local story to get the engagement you need. Hold a wine tasting alongside an investing seminar to get people interested.
2. Get 3D Maps of Every Listing
So much of modern commerce starts online. When people get an idea of investing in something or they start thinking about buying property, they go online. Give your potential clients and customer what they want by offering the kind of information they’re looking for. When people start researching, they want to know everything they possibly can before they open their checkbook, so to speak.
While creating 3D maps is a pain in the neck and is going to cost you money, it’s a worthwhile investment. With the right technology, you can create a tour that helps potential buyers imagine living in, owning, investing in or reselling what you have. The purpose of a virtual tour is to answer any questions and to help steer your clients into asking the right questions when they take a look.
If you can’t afford to buy a drone or hire an animator to create virtual tours, then you don’t have to be left in the dust. There are lots of ways to get what you’re looking for without spending an arm and a leg.
You could start by contacting your local nearby college or university’s film and video departments. Offer part-time work to some of their video students for creating virtual tours. They’ll have the equipment to take HD videos of your properties and to create nicely edited work.
All you need are a few short videos to get your potential buyers and investors interested. Done well, they reassure the quality of the property and your services.
3. Own Your Site
While it might seem harsh to say, but having your site owned by someone else looks unprofessional. There’s no way around it. When you have your website hosted by a lead generation platform, you might enjoy the features, but it also means they’re in the driver’s seat.
For one thing, the company that owns your site could go under without you knowing it and do serious damage to your web presence. If you don’t have a backup plan, you’ll be left without a site until you can hustle one together. You shouldn’t leave your web presence in anyone else’s hands.
Since you don’t own your site, you don’t have control on how to market your site better. You need to optimize your site for search engines at all times and unless they’re part owner of your company, it’s not their number one priority.
When you own your own website, you get to take advantage of local SEO. This is the number one way to ensure that you’re always targeting the audience that’s closest to your market. When you take advantage of local SEO, you tell your audience where you’re located and why they should trust you.
While you could be getting investors from around the world, getting in touch with the people in your backyard should be your ideal.
4. Use Instagram Like Your Life Depends On It
One of the ways that social media has changed our lives is to give us the ability to provide previously unknown value to people. No one likes to be sold in the old traditional way anymore. People prefer to find out about products and services in an organic way, start thinking about them, and then decide that they need them.
The same goes for real estate and real estate investment. One of the thing about Instagram is that it isn’t as saturated with real estate as other social media sites.
And since it’s number one tool is the use of photos, you can’t go wrong.
Paid promotion on Instagram leads to real engagement. You can connect with people quickly and implement a strategy to fill in the holes where your SEO is falling through.
Real Estate Marketing Can Be A Breeze
Depending on the kind of real estate marketing approach that you want to try, you may need to move all of your efforts online. When you do that, you’re able to save a lot of money on overhead and start engaging with your audience in a sincere and personal way. This builds commitment and makes it easier to get them to spread the word about you.
If you’re in the commercial sector, check out our guide to the best business locations to guide your customers better.
6 Steps for Preparing Your Listings for the Holidays