What Is Real Estate Marketing? A Comprehensive Guide

Unlike the flashy and often silly advertisements in movies, real estate marketing is much more complex. The goal is to turn an average property into a gem everyone wants to purchase. 

It's a topic that deserves a long blog, which is precisely what we’re here to do. We’ll answer the question, “What is real estate marketing?” We’ll also explain how to establish a successful strategy and give you a few pro tips. Let’s begin.

Understanding Real Estate Marketing 

Real estate marketing involves a complex set of measures to find tenants or buyers for a property. It’s a strategy used by real estate agents to promote a property or their brand, attract more customers, and increase revenue. 

Marketing, especially digital marketing, is essential for any realtor, no matter their needs or brand size. According to the National Association of Realtors, up to 64% of brokers and 73% of sales agents have a website, while 77% use Facebook and 55% use LinkedIn. 

On top of that, when you consider that as much as 97% of homebuyers look for their new homes online, it becomes clear that online real estate marketing is essential for your business. 

However, real estate marketing is not something you merely do. You need to worry about its effectiveness. You must use the right strategies to set you apart from your competitors. You should find a unique angle to make your campaigns successful. 

You must also expand your marketing efforts to different online and offline channels. Consider the following:

• A personal website
• Social media
• Paid online advertising
• Print advertising

Establishing a Successful Real Estate Marketing Strategy, Step-by-Step

Even if you feel that creating a successful real estate marketing strategy is too hard, there’s still a formula you can follow that’s bound to up your game and help you develop a plan that’ll eventually lead to more sales. 

Step 1: Define Your Target Audience 

The first step toward a successful marketing strategy is defining your target audience. 

Consider what you’re offering and who your potential client will be. Although the goal is to cast the right net, not a massive one, you need to start broadly and then narrow down your search. 

Determine your clients' age, income, occupation, education, and family status. Analyze their lifestyle, interests, and values, and look into the geographics, i.e., their location. Doing all this will help you create your ideal buyer persona.

You can also factor in your past businesses and who your previous clients were, while trying to find the recurring themes that connect them. 

You can use various marketing tools like Google Trends, Realtor.com, and Zillow. 

Step 2: Establish Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) 

The key to creating a successful marketing strategy is establishing a unique value proposition (UVP). You must find a way to differentiate yourself from the competition and appear unique. 

If you don’t know your brand’s unique qualities, your audience won’t either. Worse, they’ll likely think you lack them, and they’ll look elsewhere. 

To create a powerful UVP, you’ll need to:

• List the benefits your brand provides.
• Identify the main problems your potential clients have. 
• Establish how you’ll solve these problems. 

Once you’re done, the main thing is to form a clear and concise message, after which you can communicate your UVP to your target audience through your site, social media, and various marketing materials you’re using. 

Step 3: Develop a Consistent Brand Identity 

A consistent brand identity is key in a competitive market like the real estate industry. In addition to defining your brand’s essence, you need to create a proper logo. It should be simple, relevant to your brand, timeless, and versatile so it can be used in different sizes and formats, such as a website, signage, or business cards. 

You should also consider your brand's primary colors. Think about how they resonate with your target audience and the emotions and associations a color evokes. Ensure the color palette is the same in all branding materials. 

You’ll also need to create a catchy tagline that’s short, to the point, and reflective of your UVP. 

Step 4: Build an Engaging Online Presence 

As we’ve already explained, a significant portion of real estate marketing is done online, so it’s crucial to build a robust online presence.

The backbone of this presence should be your website. You need a professional and user-friendly site that leaves a great first impression. It should have:

• High-quality images
• Properly handled SEO to ensure high rankings
• A good deal of testimonials
• A strong About Us page
• An active blog with valuable content for your audience

Besides a website, you need to be present on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Also, don’t underestimate the value of email marketing, one of the biggest tools you might not be using. 

Step 5: Create a Content Plan 

All marketing involves creating content, and it’s always best to do that with a plan. You must define your content goals first and develop content pillars as a starting point. You can create smaller pieces of content from these pillars that will cover specific topics. 

As for the topics, there are plenty to choose from, especially if you focus on educational ones like: 

• Market trends and tips
• Home-buying advice
• Mortgage advice
• Home improvement and staging

Besides blogs, you can also experiment with video content, infographics, and social media posts. 

Step 6: Build Relationships in Your Community

As a realtor or real estate broker, building relationships in the communities where you operate is crucial. 

You can network with local businesses by collaborating with complementary companies like home inspectors, mortgage lenders, and contractors. You can also support local enterprises by becoming their regular patron, showing your commitment to the local community. 

It is also a good idea to attend community events, such as festivals and charity fundraisers, or volunteer with local organizations. 

Another important thing to do is position yourself as the local expert through various pieces of content we’ve discussed. 

Step 7: Set Goals and Monitor Progress 

It’s crucial to create clear goals for your strategy. That way, you’ll be able to find key metrics to track your progress and the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. This will help you identify ineffective strategies and alter them on time. 

Here’s a quick overview of the performance metrics you’ll want to consider following:

• Website traffic, or the number of visitors your website gets
• Bounce rate, i.e. the percentage of visitors that leave your website after seeing one page
• Average time visitors spend on your website and the number of pages they’ve seen
• Lead generation metrics like cost per lead and conversion rates 
• Overall marketing metrics like ROI and customer lifetime value (CLTV)

5 Essential Real Estate Marketing Strategy Tips 

Over the many years we've helped various realtors and real estate brokerages improve their marketing efforts and eliminate their biggest marketing headaches, we’ve found several strategies that generate leads, close deals, and grow businesses. 

These are high-impact and actionable strategies that the top-performing agents use as well. To enter their league, consider the following tips:

1. Optimize listings with strategic keywords — These are not just for good old web content. They should be used in listings, which will help you optimize them. For example, you can say things like newly renovated and family-friendly to improve the visibility of your listings and attract new buyers. 
2. Host virtual and live events — Networking is essential in marketing many industries, especially in real estate. Instead of just visiting conferences and networking, you can also host virtual open houses or webinars, which should help you build trust and connect with potential clients. 
3. Leverage retargeting ads — Many potential buyers visiting your site will browse your listing without taking action. To re-engage them, retarget ads on Google and Facebook that feature listings they’ve already viewed, giving them a chance to reconsider. The ads can also highlight new properties matching their criteria. 
4. Collaborate with local influencers — As many as 63% of consumers are likely to buy a product or service if it’s recommended by an influencer they trust. You can partner with local influencers to showcase properties or expand reach in a targeted area. Remember that micro-influencers are better than big, expensive names for these purposes. 
5. Use data to hyper-personalize marketing — Highly personalized marketing efforts are always more effective than catch-all practices. You can use CRM tools to create and send personalized listings and property alerts based on the data you gather on client preferences and behavior. 

Lastly, we have one bonus tip for you — create value-adding content. You can create downloadable guides with home seller tips or first-time buyer checklists. This can help you generate more leads and position yourself as an expert in the industry. 

Conclusion

You’ve learned the answer to the question of “What is real estate marketing?” and understood the basics of creating a successful strategy. Moreover, we’ve provided you with tips on optimizing it.

Implementing what you’ve learned here will help you attract a bigger audience, improve your brand reputation, gain more leads and clients, and increase your profits. 

If you need expert help developing a successful real estate marketing strategy, feel free to book a demo with MAXA. We focus on helping realtors skyrocket their marketing and design process, and we’re confident we can do that for you, too.