If you’ve been a nominee or a winner in REB’s digital marketing awards, you’ll be aware that it’s vital to have a formidable online presence. Of course, this is easier said than done. You need to consider many elements. These include a great social media profile, a website that’s accessible, mobile-friendly and responsive ‒ and a recognisable, trusted brand.
In addition, be aware that you’ll need an ad budget for both social media and Google ads. The days of ‘organic’ reach (that is, not through paid advertising) are long gone.
Ecommerce businesses like eBay and Amazon have been around for close to two decades. In comparison, the real estate industry’s foray into digital media has been somewhat stilted. Having judged the REB digital awards for several years, it’s great to see that finally Google and Facebook (as well as Instagram and LinkedIn to a lesser extent) are firmly on the real estate industry’s radar.
However, many real estate businesses are reluctant to venture too far from the comforts of traditional marketing methods. Instead, they’re continuing to let the real estate portals dominate the online space. As geo-targeted data and local area marketing come of age, the real estate industry is realising the value of digital, and we are seeing off-market property listings grow.
Real estate agencies are increasingly gravitating toward digital marketing and social media advertising. However, this move is not without its challenges. The key is to understand which resources you need and the budget you need to allocate so your digital results are successful and deliver worthwhile, targeted leads.
Main challenges and obstacles to overcome
Committing to a budget: You need to be prepared to make a significant upfront investment to get everything set up correctly. You’ll also need to commit money to ongoing social media and online advertising.
How? Look at your total revenue or the revenue level you’d like to reach and calculate your marketing as a percentage. Allocate around 8% for one year’s worth of brand marketing. For example, if you are a $500,000 GCI agent, then you expect to invest around $40,000. If you are a million-dollar GCI agent, then you’d be looking at $80,000.
Convincing the board (or yourself) that the investment will yield results.
The challenge for many agents and principals is often the willingness to invest in themselves. Understand that, when executed effectively, digital marketing will deliver a steady flow of leads. As well, a strong online presence makes it easy for people researching you (as part of the digital interview) to have confidence that you’re a highly skilled professional who knows what you are doing.
Understanding that digital advertising should not exist in isolation. Digital can do most of the heavy lifting, but real estate is a people business. You still need to make sure that your digital marketing works in conjunction with your traditional methods.
Capturing and converting leads: Your digital marketing can do only so much. Once you have the leads, you need to make sure you have systems in place to take advantage of them.
How? For example, my team and I run lead generation campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Google and LinkedIn for our clients. However, we realised that after passing these warm leads to the agency, they were not always following up their prospects in a timely fashion. A high-quality lead will cost between $20 and $40, so it’s imperative to follow up. We now offer a telemarketing service to speak with people who have enquired via our clients’ ads, so that they speak to a real human being before we pass the contact on.
Educating staff: It’s easier when you can demonstrate to your real estate agents the full value and importance of our collective digital footprint. In particular, we need to convince agents of the strength in numbers. What I mean by this is combining ad budgets and working together versus individual agents going alone with digital marketing.
Keeping abreast of the changes to social media and advertising platforms. Google, in particular, continually refines its algorithm. The goalposts are moving all the time.
Allocating resources. There are many ways to manage your digital marketing. Your costs will depend on the model you choose, which could be any one of the following:
- Self-manage (agent, property manager or in-house admin staff). The problem is that they lack the required qualifications and skills, resulting in wasted marketing budgets on the wrong activities.
- Employ an entire creative team. This is something that even large real estate networks and franchises are most likely to implement because you need to employ many staff, such as qualified marketers and, in many cases, writers, graphic designers, and social media managers.
- Employ a freelance social media marketer. Under this model, you pay a freelancer to help with content creation. Often, these people are self-taught or, at best, ex-PR professionals. Unfortunately, they are not skilled in paid advertising. They focus solely on organic posts. This results in many of your social media posts going unseen or being seen by only a handful of people.
- Subscribe to a property advertising platform. This gives you the benefit of a systemised approach to digital property campaigns, but not brand campaigns. There are more than a dozen players in this AdTech space, and many have exclusive contracts to a single real estate franchise. The downside of these platforms is their ability to keep up with algorithmic changes, as they are third-party systems that feed property campaigns into the advertising platforms.
- Engage a digital coach. A digital advertising expert teaches you to manage your own social media advertising. You’ll learn how to add your contact database to advertising audiences, create both property and brand campaigns, and retarget people who have visited your social media page or website. There are also benefits to running campaigns on social media platforms, as they want advertisers to use their tools, not 3rd-party systems.
- Engage a digital marketing agency. Your marketing agency will provide multiple skilled creative resources and source the right professional for the job on your behalf. They will outline a digital marketing strategy, oversee an annual content and advertising program, and manage your advertising budget. A specialist real estate digital marketing agency, such as Hoole, will also target ad audiences more effectively.
- A combination of the above. In this model, you’d use a property advertising platform in conjunction with a digital agency. You would use the ad tech platform for systemised property campaigns, plus a specialist real estate digital marketing agency, such as Hoole, to handle brand campaigns that attract leads. This gives you the best of both worlds.
Digital is a moving target
As a digital professional who started her career in the late 1990’s and has spent two decades in the real estate industry, I understand it can feel near-impossible to stay abreast of the continual changes and updates to social media and advertising platforms.
In my business, I see the number one challenge for real estate professionals is finding the time to learn the platforms, create content, schedule posts, and run ads. Without professional help (in my experience), most end up with inconsistent branding and failed campaigns. Most importantly, running your own digital media takes time away from what you do best – property transactions!
Want to find out how my team and I at Hoole can help you master digital and social media marketing for your real estate business? Book a complimentary one-hour call with me, Melanie Hoole, and I will give you practical advice on your next best step.
