Are you a real estate agent looking to attract more clients online? With 99% of home buyers using the internet to find homes in their home buying process, it’s crucial to have a solid digital marketing strategy in place.
In this article, we’ll explore the best practices for real estate digital marketing, including how to generate leads through various marketing channels and how to create your own website like Zillow and even better.
We’ll also share tips on developing the best real estate digital marketing strategy, including understanding your target audience, monitoring your competition, and directing traffic to the right pages.
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve your existing digital marketing efforts, this article is for you.
How To Generate Leads For Real Estate Through Digital Marketing?
To generate leads for your real estate business online, there are two critical steps you need to take.
First, you need to attract the right kind of traffic to your website through various marketing channels such as Google, social media, email, and real estate listings platforms.
Think of these channels as sources of water that you need to fill your bucket with.
But just like a bucket with holes won’t retain water, you need to make sure that your website is optimized to convert visitors into qualified leads.
So, how do you ensure that you’re attracting the right audience and that your website is converting them into leads?
The key is to find the right channels to reach your audience, develop a plan to attract them, and optimize your website to make it easy for them to enquire about your services.
Remember, your website is your bucket, and your marketing channels are the sources of water.
By finding the right sources and optimizing your bucket, you can generate a steady stream of leads for your real estate business.
Select The Best Marketing Channels For Your Real Estate Agency
When it comes to digital marketing for real estate, choosing the right marketing channels is crucial for attracting the right kind of traffic to your website.
From SEO to social media, real estate platforms, pay-per-click advertising, YouTube, and email, there are a variety of channels to choose from.
But how do you know which channels will work best for your real estate agency?
In this article, we’ll explore how to select the best marketing channels for your business and develop a solid digital marketing strategy that generates leads and drives growth.
SEO
If you’re a real estate agent looking to attract more leads online, then you need to pay attention to search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant search queries.
By doing so, you can increase your website’s visibility, drive more traffic to your site, and ultimately generate more leads for your business.
To effectively use SEO for your real estate business, consider the following tips:
- Do keyword research: Identify the search terms that your potential customers are using when looking for properties in your area. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find popular search terms.
- Optimize your website: Include your target keywords in your content, meta descriptions, and page titles. But avoid keyword stuffing as it can hurt your SEO efforts. Instead, focus on creating high-quality content that includes your keywords naturally.
- Build high-quality backlinks: Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your site. They are considered a vote of confidence in your site’s authority and relevance by search engines. Reach out to other websites in your industry and ask for a link back to your site. Create high-quality content that other websites will want to link to.
- Focus on local SEO: Use location-specific keywords to target potential customers in your area. For example, if you’re a real estate agent in Miami, target keywords like “Miami real estate,” “homes for sale in Miami,” or “Miami condos for sale.”
By following these tips, you can use SEO effectively to attract more leads, increase your website’s visibility, and ultimately drive more growth for your real estate business.
Real Estate Platforms
Zillow is a great platform for generating leads for your real estate agency.
To get more exposure for your listings, you can publish them on Zillow and other similar websites.
This will allow you to reach a larger audience, as nearly 245 million unique users visit Zillow per month.
To get started, create a profile on Zillow and list your properties. This will enable potential clients to find your listings easily.
Additionally, you can become a Zillow Premier Agent, which connects you with motivated leads looking to buy or sell homes.
The leads come from across Zillow’s network of sites, including Trulia and, in New York City ZIP codes, StreetEasy.
Together these sites garner the largest audience of home buyers on the web, creating immense opportunities for you to quickly expand your client base.
As a Zillow Premier Agent, you can choose the ZIP codes where you’d like to be connected with home buyers.
You then purchase a share of voice, which is your share of the total ad spend for a particular ZIP code.
This allows you to target potential clients in specific areas and increase your chances of generating leads.
By utilizing platforms like Zillow, you can effectively generate leads for your real estate agency and grow your business.
Social Media
Social media can be a powerful tool for real estate agents to attract leads and grow their business. Here are a few tips to help you make the most of social media:
- Choose the right platforms: Not all social media platforms are created equal. Consider your target audience and which platforms they are most likely to use. For example, if you’re targeting millennials, you may want to focus on Instagram and Snapchat. If you’re targeting professionals, LinkedIn may be a better option.
- Share valuable content: Don’t just use social media to promote your listings. Share valuable content that your audience will find interesting and helpful. This could include tips for buying or selling a home, market updates, or local events.
- Engage with your audience: Social media is a two-way conversation. Make sure to respond to comments and messages promptly, and engage with your audience by asking questions and soliciting their opinions.
- Use visuals: Real estate is a visual business, so make sure to use plenty of high-quality images and videos in your social media posts.
- Be consistent: Consistency is key when it comes to social media. Make a plan for how often you will post, and stick to it. This will help you build a following and stay top of mind with your audience.
By following these tips, you can use social media to attract leads and grow your real estate business.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can be an effective way for real estate agents to generate leads online.
With PPC, you can create targeted ads that appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords.
This means that when someone searches for “homes for sale in [your city],” your ad could be one of the first things they see.
To use PPC effectively, you’ll need to follow a few key steps. First, you’ll need to choose the right keywords to target.
This involves doing keyword research to identify the search terms that your potential customers are using when looking for properties in your area.
Once you’ve identified your target keywords, you can create ads that are designed to appeal to your target audience.
Next, you’ll need to create landing pages that are optimized to convert visitors into leads.
Your landing pages should be designed to match the messaging in your ads and make it easy for visitors to enquire about your services.
This means including clear calls-to-action, contact forms, and other elements that encourage visitors to take action.
Finally, you’ll need to track your results and make adjustments as needed.
This means monitoring your ad performance regularly, testing new ad copy and landing pages, and making changes to your campaigns based on the data you collect.
By following these steps, you can use PPC to effectively generate leads for your real estate agency and grow your business.
Youtube
Using YouTube to generate leads for your real estate agency can be a powerful tool. Here are a few tips to help you get started:
- Create high-quality video content: To attract potential clients, your videos need to be engaging, informative, and visually appealing. Consider creating videos that showcase your listings, provide virtual tours of homes, or offer tips and advice for buyers and sellers.
- Optimize your videos for search: Just like your website, your YouTube videos need to be optimized for search engines. This means using relevant keywords in your titles, descriptions, and tags, and including links back to your website.
- Promote your videos: Once you’ve created your videos, you need to promote them to your target audience. You can do this by sharing them on your social media channels, embedding them on your website, or running ads to promote them.
- Engage with your audience: YouTube is a social platform, so it’s important to engage with your audience by responding to comments and messages, and soliciting feedback and opinions.
By following these tips, you can use YouTube to effectively generate leads for your real estate agency and grow your business.
Email Marketing
Email marketing can be a powerful tool for real estate agents looking to generate leads and grow their business. Here are a few tips for using email effectively:
- Build a targeted email list: The key to successful email marketing is having a targeted list of subscribers who are interested in your services. You can build your list by offering a lead magnet on your website, such as a free guide to buying or selling a home.
- Use a professional email marketing service: To ensure that your emails look professional and are delivered to your subscribers’ inboxes, use a professional email marketing service like Mailchimp or Constant Contact.
- Segment your list: Not all of your subscribers will be interested in the same content. Segment your list into different groups based on interests or behaviors, and tailor your emails accordingly.
- Provide value: Don’t just use email to promote your listings. Provide value to your subscribers by sharing helpful tips and advice related to buying or selling a home.
- Include clear calls-to-action: Make it easy for subscribers to take action by including clear calls-to-action in your emails. This could be a link to schedule a consultation or a button to download a free guide.
- Test and optimize: Like any marketing channel, email requires ongoing testing and optimization. Test different subject lines, email formats, and calls-to-action to see what works best for your audience.
By following these tips, you can use email marketing to effectively generate leads for your real estate agency and grow your business.
Optimize Your Real Estate Website
Simply driving traffic to your website is not enough. To convert visitors into qualified leads, your website needs to be optimized for user experience, search engine visibility, and lead capture.
By following best practices such as having a great listings database, optimizing for SEO, ensuring great UX/UI, writing captivating calls-to-action, and creating useful content, you can maximize your website’s potential and turn website visitors into loyal clients.
Have A Great Listings Database
When it comes to real estate websites, having a top-notch property listings database is absolutely critical.
Visitors to your site are looking for properties, after all — it’s the main reason they’re there.
So, it’s essential to make sure that your listings are up to date, engaging, and easy to navigate.
A robust property listings database can help keep visitors on your site and encourage them to return.
By including high-quality photos, videos, and virtual tours, you can give potential clients a true sense of what each property has to offer.
Plus, allowing visitors to filter their search results based on their preferences means they’ll be able to find the properties that best suit their needs.
Of course, it’s also crucial to make sure your listings are easy to browse.
You’ll want to provide visitors with a variety of search options, like filtering by location, price, and property type.
And, you’ll want to make sure that your navigation tools, like maps and filters, are user-friendly.
By making it simple for visitors to find the properties they’re interested in, you can increase the odds that they’ll stick around and ultimately get in touch with you.
Optimize Website For SEO
On-site SEO (or on-page SEO) refers to the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines.
On-site SEO involves optimizing both the content and HTML source code of a page, as opposed to off-site SEO which refers to external factors such as backlinks.
Here are some best practices for on-site SEO:
- Title tags: Write unique, descriptive and keyword-rich title tags for each page. Make sure they accurately reflect the content of the page.
- Meta descriptions: Write compelling and informative meta descriptions that encourage users to click through to your site. Include relevant keywords.
- Header tags: Use header tags (H1, H2, H3) to structure your content and make it easier for users to navigate.
- Page load speed: your website has to be lightning-fast both on desktops and mobile devices. Website loading speed is an important SEO ranking factor for Google. Use Google Page Speed Insights to find the weak spots of your website performance and fix them.
- Content optimization: Create high-quality, original and valuable content that targets your keywords, answers user queries and solves their problems.
- Image optimization: Optimize your images by compressing them, adding descriptive alt tags, and including relevant keywords in the file name.
- Internal linking: Link to other relevant pages on your website to help users navigate your site and distribute link equity.
- User experience: Ensure that your website is well-designed, easy to navigate, and provides a good user experience.
By implementing these on-site SEO best practices, you can improve the visibility and ranking of your website in search engines, attract more relevant traffic, and ultimately generate more leads and sales for your business.
Write Captivating CTA’s
Calls-to-action (CTAs) are prompts for visitors to contact you. They help convert traffic into leads, so it’s important to find the best placements for CTA’s on your website.
The appropriate CTA will depend on the context of the page and the journey of the visitor.
Here are some tips to help you create the best CTAs for your website:
- Use action-oriented language: Your CTAs should be action-oriented and encourage users to take action. Use language that is clear, concise, and compelling, such as “Schedule a Consultation” or “Get Started Today.”
- Make them visually appealing: Your CTAs should be visually appealing and stand out on your website. Consider using contrasting colors, bold typography, or other design elements that make them pop.
- Place them strategically: Your CTAs should be strategically placed throughout your website, such as on your homepage, property listings pages, blog posts, and contact page. Make sure they are easy to find and stand out from other content on the page.
- Offer something of value: To encourage users to click on your CTAs, you need to offer them something of value. This could be a free consultation, a home valuation, or access to exclusive listings.
- Test and optimize: Like any marketing element, your CTAs require ongoing testing and optimization. Test different variations to see which ones perform best and make changes accordingly.
By following these tips, you can create effective CTAs that encourage users to take action and generate leads for your real estate business.
Create Useful Content
Creating useful content for a real estate website is crucial for generating leads because it provides value to potential clients.
By offering helpful information, such as tips on buying or selling a home, market updates, or local event information, you can establish yourself as a trusted authority in the industry.
This builds trust with potential clients and can encourage them to reach out to you for more information or to start working with you.
In addition, creating high-quality content can also improve your website’s search engine visibility, making it easier for potential clients to find you online.
Overall, creating useful content is an effective way to attract and convert leads for your real estate business.
Tips To Develop The Best Real Estate Digital Marketing Strategy
Now, we’ll share a few secret ingredients of successful real estate digital marketing.
1.) Know Your Target Audience
Understanding the target audience is crucial for a successful real estate digital marketing strategy.
By knowing your target audience, you can tailor your marketing efforts to their specific needs and preferences.
This involves identifying the channels they use to search for properties, the types of properties they are interested in, and the features they consider most important.
By understanding your target audience, you can create content and messaging that resonates with them, making it more likely that they will engage with your brand and ultimately become clients.
2.) Monitor Your Competition
Competitor analysis allows you to gain insights into what your competitors are doing and how they are attracting and retaining clients.
By monitoring your competition, you can identify gaps in the market and opportunities for differentiation, as well as gain a better understanding of what your target audience is looking for in a real estate agent.
This information can then be used to refine your own marketing efforts and develop a unique value proposition that sets you apart from the competition.
Ultimately, competitor analysis can help you stay ahead of the curve and drive more growth for your real estate business.
3.) Direct Traffic To The Right Page
Ensure consistency between your ads and landing pages. Too often, people make the mistake of focusing on attracting traffic and neglecting the need to convert it.
This means that a person clicks on an ad for an interesting property or information, only to be directed to the homepage.
To avoid this mistake, make sure that your landing pages are tailored to the specific ad that the user clicked on.
This could mean highlighting the property or information that was mentioned in the ad, and making it easy for the user to take the next step, such as filling out a form or contacting you for more information.
4.) Don’t Try To Tackle Many Channels At Once
If you’re in the real estate business, you know that digital marketing is essential for attracting leads and growing your business.
But with so many channels to choose from, it can be overwhelming to figure out where to focus your efforts.
That’s why it’s important to be strategic and allocate your resources wisely.
Choose one or two channels that align with your target audience and business goals, and go all in.
By dedicating your time and budget to a specific channel, you can focus on creating high-quality content and optimizing your strategy for maximum impact.
Once you’ve established a stable source of traffic and generated a surplus, you can expand to new channels and continue to grow your real estate business.
Remember, persistence is key, and committing to a strategic digital marketing strategy can help you attract more leads, increase your visibility, and ultimately drive growth for your business.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, digital marketing is a vital tool for real estate agents looking to generate leads and grow their business.
By understanding your target audience, monitoring your competition, and directing traffic to the right pages, you can create a solid digital marketing strategy that drives growth and delivers results.
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve your existing digital marketing efforts, the tips and strategies outlined in this article can help you achieve your goals.
Remember, successful digital marketing is all about finding the right channels, creating high-quality content, and optimizing your website for lead capture.
By following best practices and staying up-to-date with the latest trends and strategies, you can attract more leads, increase your visibility, and ultimately grow your real estate business.
So, get started today and take your real estate digital marketing efforts to the next level!
