Real Estate Marketing Tips and Trends for the New Year and Beyond

2020. A year of challenges, a year of questions, and yet, a year of creative solutions and a focus on what matters most. Along with so many others, real estate agents have adapted to the likes of community shut-downs and business not-as-usual in the wake of the coronavirus. Now, with a very strange year in the rear view mirror, it is time to look forward and take advantage of some of those creative marketing solutions.

If you are looking to expand your business, a quick Google search for “real estate marketing tips” will quickly reveal more than two hundred and twenty million pages presumably related to the subject. While you will probably not click beyond the first ten or twenty links, still the sheer amount of information is staggering – and can be overwhelming. How do you plough through all of that data? How do you make sense of it all? And perhaps most importantly, how do you put some of those suggestions into practice?

Your goal to improve your real estate marketing approach sure would be a lot easier to achieve if you could find a host of resources all in one location. A one-stop-shop for marketing magic. A place where you could take advantage of many of the strategies that make for a successful marketing campaign.

Well, you can. But first, let’s look at some of the options available. A few might be new to you – ideas you have not yet considered. Maybe those that are old-hat could be viewed in fresh new ways, the way a holiday recipe bakes a new twist into an old favorite dish. Or maybe what you really need is a simple reminder of what you already know, sort of like the fitness plan that ends up on your calendar when each new year comes around. Not in any particular order, here are 15 tips and trends to ponder for 2021 and beyond.

Be a part of your community

This might sound strange as a marketing tip, but relationships are as important as ever in this changing world. If you want to be seen as the person to trust for their real estate needs, your prospective clients should see that you are accessible. Get involved. Volunteer. Support your local schools. Participate in community events or help organize them. And by all means, make sure you are easy to contact.

Offer webinars or instructional classes

A great way to draw attention to your business – and to you as a trusted professional in your community – is to host informative meetings, webinars and seminars that cover such topics as “How to prepare for your first open house”, or “How to handle first-time buyer jitters”. Videos can later be edited and shared on your website or through social media.

Develop a consistent social media presence

Take advantage of social media platforms to grow your network of prospects and keep connected to the customers you already have. Virtual engagement is not really a substitute for one-on-one interactions, but it is a great complement, especially when in-person gatherings are at a minimum. Post images on Instagram. Use Twitter hashtags. Develop and maintain a Facebook page. You might even look into collaborating with an influencer to broaden your reach.

Build up business partnerships

Relationships are not limited to prospective clients. You can also partner up with local businesses. You can ask to place ads on restaurant placemats or business cards in a display at the register. Use your connections to bring together the community coffee shop, home store, winery, or other establishment. Ask them to join you for a webinar or to participate in an open house event. You might even reach out to local radio and television stations to offer your opinions on air.

Become an expert in your niche

You may be an agent who likes to dabble in every area of real estate. Residential, commercial, multi-family – you cover them all. You like to do your own photography. You do all your own staging. Heck, you even invested in a drone. But there is an alternative that can be used to great effect: become an expert in a niche of the market. People will come to see you as an authority as you share useful content related to your niche. Be the expert for families with kids. Be the person people trust when a loved one passes away and an estate needs to be liquidated. Be known for your skill finding or selling apartments, townhomes, or condos. It may take time, but being the expert in a market niche can also help you stand out.

Keep an eye on the competition

When you are the authority in your area of expertise, you do not need to worry about what the competition is doing. On the other hand, creative partnerships with other agents can help build community relationships. And there is nothing wrong with checking out what they are doing – you just might find some creative ideas that you can put your own twist on.

Experiment with engagement marketing

There was a day when the most effective form of marketing was to broadcast a message about the value of a product – a can of soda, a sensual perfume, a piece of property. The idea was to broadcast to as wide an audience as possible. But in the digital age, with its myriad channels of communication – and a glut of advertising that has turned consumers off to traditional forms of engagement – brands are beginning to discover potential behind what is known as engagement, or “experiential” marketing. Meeting customers where they are at. Entering into conversations. Trusting in the power of story and experience to inspire them to share. Whether you delve into offering virtual reality or more tangible sensations, like a tour of a local open air market, the point is to invite your audience to interact with your business in a real-world situation.

Offer 3D Matterport virtual tours

At a time when face-to-face interactions have been substituted with remote ones, the experiences that you offer your clients may end up more virtual than hands-on. But even without space age VR technology, you can still lend a sense of “being there” with a 3D virtual showcase of a home. Buyers, sellers, and agents alike prefer listings with virtual tours anyways, so why not lean on the technology?

Craft a monthly newsletter

Of course, not all strategies need to be high tech. A simple newsletter sent out periodically by email (or snail mail) can go a long way toward keeping in touch with your audience and keeping them engaged. As the local expert, you can also offer helpful advice and trendy tips each month. You might even consider starting a blog or contributing to a website, magazine, or local newspaper.

Develop an email campaign

Beyond a monthly newsletter, you can build a more comprehensive email marketing strategy with a progressive trail based on past interactions with your clients. If they showed up for an open house, send them an email highlighting nearby homes for sale. If they attended your first-time buyers workshop, send them a newsletter detailing “Things every new homebuyer should understand”. Deliver content that will help your clients take the next right step, wherever they are on their real estate journey.

Build your brand 

When you consider your business brand, you might look beyond your logo. Your brand identity touches every aspect of your message to the community. It begins with how you interact with clients, the level of your customer service, the degree of knowledge you are able to pass on, your level of professionalism. All of those are conveyed each time someone sees the markers of your brand identity: the colors, the graphics, your logo. All of the business cards,  postcards, branded coffee cups, and ballpoint pens in the world mean nothing unless you can back them up with excellent service. But when you have a great product, you need to put it out there with a consistent brand message.

Pair up with a pro photographer 

With the camera technology available today, you are certainly able to produce high-quality real estate photographs for your listings, social media posts, and print materials. But you will not do so without a significant amount of work. Professional results require a professional touch. If not your own, then that of someone else. If you want exceptional results – and you prefer not to become the photo expert yourself (after all, you already wear a lot of hats) – then you really should consider bringing a professional real estate photographer along. And contract for more than merely listing photos. Get pictures of local attractions and community events to draw in your customers to the experience surrounding a property. Pro services can extend into drone photography, 3D image capture, twilight photography, and beyond.

Dream up viral videos 

People love to be drawn into a story, and video is a fantastic medium to do just that. Come up with creative ideas for real estate videos of local attractions, video walkthroughs, client testimonials, and any other subject you can dream up. Send them out via email, link them on your social pages, or embed them in a 3D tour.

Try virtual staging

To prepare for a photo or video shoot, you know you need to prepare a property. Inside and out. That can mean anything from tidying up a yard to staging a kitchen. For some properties, you might consider virtual staging. With a short turnaround time, you can furnish a room (or several rooms) or decorate a pool deck with help from the digital realm. Staged homes tend to sell for more than unstaged ones, but it takes a lot of time (and money) to bring in all the accoutrements to properly and professionally physically stage a home. Virtual staging can be a valid option for some of your listings.

Don’t forget print mailers and other tried-and-true print products

Good ole fashioned print advertisements are as relevant as ever, even in this digital age. Brochures, flyers, postcards and other print products should feature quality photography consistent branding. Even younger buyers appreciate the tactile experience of printed ads, and consumers across the board find them to be a trustworthy source of information.

Your one-stop-shopping experience

With so many options to expand your marketing reach (and so many more not included in this article), how do you even get started. After all, what you are already doing probably takes up a significant amount of your time.

Perhaps your best bet is to find a real estate marketing business to partner with who offers many of the strategies listed here. Someone who can take care of all of your photography needs, print ads, 3D tours, design services, branding, and so much more. That way, you can take care of the tasks that you excel at and continue striving to establish yourself as the area expert for your clients.New Paragraph