The COVID-19 pandemic is at an all-time high, and due to this unprecedented calamity, the Real Estate market has taken the worst hit. With the shelter in place policies and the general slowdown in the property exchange activities, realtors have started questioning their marketing tactics and have been forced to improvise in the current scenario.
But with the top realtors continuing their business as if nothing has happened, the COVID-19 situation has proved the efficacy of online marketing.
From generating new leads to finalizing deals, the best-in-class realtors have now turned towards digital marketing techniques to get by in these tough times.
With that in mind, here are a few real estate marketing tips through which you can improve your game at the time of COVID-19.
Host Virtual Tours
When it comes to marketing real estate online, the first thing which top realtors do is promote a property for sale with the help of a virtual tour. While these virtual tours had started popping up before the pandemic but with people hesitating to get out of their homes, this trend has accelerated its pace.
There are plenty of software applications out there that can help realtors in creating professional virtual home tours. After having perfected your virtual reality tour, you can host it on your website, among other regular property listings.
The next thing to do here is to make sure interested parties watch your tours. This consists of advertising on the right platforms, running email campaigns, hosting webinars, among other digital marketing strategies to market real estate.
As a realtor, you can also have virtual open houses, which are an excellent alternative to its traditional counterpart.
Create Real Estate Videos
This is yet another element that you should include in your marketing plan as a realtor. We’re all well aware of the power of video marketing, but with the pandemic, it has become more of a necessity than a choice for most real estate agencies.
Creating real estate videos comes with endless opportunities. For instance, you can convert all your property listings into videos, which will enable your prospects to get a good idea of the properties from the safety of their own homes. This will be further appreciated by your investors and tech-savvy buyers.
You can try your hand at shooting a variety of educational videos that demonstrate your knowledge about the real estate market and its current conditions. Posting them on YouTube is a great idea. You can link these videos on your website and hence gain leads from both the platforms.
Host Webinars
Everyone is doing this, and they do this because it works. With all your prospects confined within their 4 walls of safety, the only practical way you can talk about your plans and your offerings is through webinars.
Many new companies have surfaced in the past few months that offer great platforms to anyone who wants to host a webinar or online workshops. You can easily interact with all your invited viewers, and they can reply through either chat boxes or by unmuting themselves.
Getting your name out there is a necessity for a realtor because most of the leads you’ll ever get will be from your successful digital marketing campaigns.
Work on A Social Media Marketing Strategy
Posting content related to your real estate every once in a while on a platform like Facebook isn’t a marketing strategy.
To keep getting new leads, you need to keep your existing audience in the loop about any new property listings that you might have, success stories, stories about your brand, your employees, blog posts that are relevant to your business.
It’s imperative to post regularly – daily if not 5 times a day. But just posting prolifically is synonymous with spamming your audience’s feed. You should try out different social media platforms to increase your reach and viewership.
If getting there organically isn’t working for you, it’s suggested that you run an extensive Facebook video ads campaign — yes, they’re thriving.
Work On Improving Your SEO
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the #1 head turner marketing strategy in the present era. When implemented correctly, your website on Google and your videos on YouTube will rank higher, getting you more views, and hence more leads.
It’s all the more important to be on your toes to keep up with the ever-changing ranking algorithms of Google and other search engines. Yes, keywords constitute a big chunk of what we know SEO to be, but it goes far beyond that.
Other elements that will ensure your content getting the top slot on the search results include online directories, social media pages, meta titles, and meta descriptions, and, but not limited to, backlinks.
It’s also a good idea to keep your content size on the higher side (around, say, 1140-1285 words) to get a higher rank.
Enhance Your Email Marketing Strategy
Email campaigns top the list of things that top realtors have resorted to getting by their business in the COVID-19 times. These emails keep your subscribers from your website who have joined your mailing list stay updated of your new listings.
You can also run emails for your previous clients, checking on them. These messages from time to time will be engraved in your real estate clients’ minds, and you’ll become their go-to person whenever they’re looking to buy, rent, or sell a property.
Conclusion
It may be apparent that real-estate activities have taken a hit in 2020, but the top realtors have improvised and made sure that they stay afloat. The best way to do that is to keep in touch with your previous clients and digitize your business by going online. If you invest your resources into digital marketing strategies, your business will be thriving much before everything normalizes, which may just be soon.
It is interesting how this post pointed out that the Covid-19 pandemic has inspired many businesses to get creative in attracting customers. I do agree that hosting a virtual tour of a property is an excellent way to connect with prospective home buyers. Assuming that I own a real estate agency and would like to market my selling list, a virtual tour is definitely the way to go.