Digital marketing is a dream come true for estate agents, opening up new markets and opportunities like never before. Whole books have been written about how to optimise your presence on Rightmove and other online portals. This article explains how you can use easy, free digital channels to instantly connect with customers and boost the profile of your business.
2017 is the year that video marketing has come of age, after several years of ‘drum rolling’. A big innovation that is becoming popular with estate agents is live video feeds, which can be streamed through Facebook or Twitter. Viewers can now ‘tour’ properties live through social media, giving far more scope for interaction than photos on their own.
Chatbots are a great way of automating many of the routine queries and transactions that take up so much of an estate agent’s day. Instead of having to follow up each query with a phone call or email, the chatbot can handle the lead for you, freeing up time to focus on other tasks. Facebook have recently integrated a chatbot service with Facebook Messenger, allowing you to reach customers more quickly and more easily.
An old bugbear of estate agents is the problem of making photos look appealing, while still giving a realistic impression of the property. 360° videos and pictures, which a user can control by dragging their mouse around the image, completely solve this issue. 360° images can currently be used on Facebook and Instagram, and uploaded directly from a smartphone or tablet.
A big consideration is choosing the right social media platforms to work with. You should try and select the one that is most relevant to your target market and business ethos. For instance, if your end customers are mainly young professionals in the rental market, you may want to weight your social media efforts towards Twitter.
Twitter’s fast paced, public culture allows you to quickly disseminate images, prices and texts. It is a great way to reach both potential tenants and landlords. If, on the other hand, your main clients are large-scale domestic landlords, then you may have better success reaching them on LinkedIn. Estate agents specialising in suburban property sales tend to use Facebook and/or Instagram as their main social media channels.
As an estate agent you are ultimately not selling property; you are selling dreams. Success depends on engaging with the hopes, dreams and aspirations of your customers and property viewers – through the emotive use of images. Digital marketing is therefore uniquely suited to your line of business, especially the image driven social media tactics we have explored.
Working with an agency partner such as JDR can help unlock the potential of your business and ensure that your properties get increased exposure among interested buyers. Get in touch today to chat with one of our marketing specialists about a bespoke marketing strategy that helps you reach your company’s growth targets.