There’s no rocket science in Real Estate marketing. But there are a lot of moving parts. And every week, there’s a new startup or conference promising to revolutionize the industry.
So what do you do?
Learn.
Arm yourself with knowledge. You won’t have time to do it all. Plus, you probably didn’t go into real estate because you like Facebook ads. You have a real job. Marketing is just one of the necessary tasks.
But when you educate yourself on all the best tools and strategies for real estate online marketing, you’ll be better equipped to decide where to spend your time and money for maximum ROI.
Ok cool. But how do I learn?
Glad you asked. That one’s easy. Here are a few examples….
Real Estate Marketing: Big Picture
This video was recorded via Facebook Live on Monday, Aug 28, 2017 in our FREE real estate marketing training group.
High-level strategy: how does it fit together?
Whatever you do, do it right. Do what already fits with your sphere & your life. For example, Snapchat! It’s tons of fun, but if you’re not already on it, is it really worth your time to learn? Time is money.
Do what already fits into your schedule and lifestyle. Most of us are already on Facebook. That’s a great place to start. If you like writing, max out your blog.
Do one thing and do it well. THEN move onto the next.
How to apply that to SEO?
You need to have your own website with your own .com domain and you need to be writing blog posts on it. Be patient. It takes time, but can be evergreen FOREVER.
If PPC is a steak dinner, Real Estate SEO is like raising a farm. Way more yield, but way more work. Plan out your SEO/publishing strategy & calendar.
Your mileage will vary! Don’t expect identical results as others. Your market is unique. YOU are the expert! Show that.
EXAMPLE: How can realtors market to snowbird buyers?
Any marketers would ask lots of questions to get an idea of who we’re trying to reach. Build a profile of your target user. In this case, their interest is seasonal. Use that, but be early.
Who are these snow birds? Where are they? What’s their income? Build a persona and find them online. Get your content in front of them. The research & production can take months. Start early. Probably up to a year early. Sustainable lead gen is a process. It won’t happen overnight.
Provide answers and helpful, valuable written & video content. Zillow doesn’t write about niche topics in specific markets. You should!
In Facebook ads, start with WHO. Then back into what they want. The “how to winter in Daytona” SEO post you wrote would be a great Facebook ad Landing Page. Your competitors probably aren’t doing this.
Work backwards. Target them while they’re VISITING Daytona Beach. That’s valuable insight about user behavior, and ONLY Facebook’s ad platform can do that.
Retargeting!
Give away free content, then show Listing or Open House ads to ONLY users who visited your free content. Use retargeting to get users into a drip email campaign. Reach these users in multiple areas. Combine the efforts of SEO, social, and paid!
EXAMPLE: How to reach snowbirds OFFLINE?
Get into the rental properties & hold workshops. Use ads & SEO to support the local/offline events.
Sponsorship! Hit the popular bars, restaurants, beaches, etc. Coasters at bars. Placemats at restaurants. Get in front of users.
Think long-term. Not every buyer is ready TODAY. Provide small value over time. Don’t badger. Provide value.
ASK THEM!
What’s their timeline and how can you help on THEIR terms? Be honest & transparent. Find out what they need & solve their problem: books, credit repair, workshops, text messages—small touches.
Which CRM should I use?
The one you’ll actually use! Follow up on your leads. Who cares how? If you can’t convert leads, get training. Stop wasting time and money.
Marketing starts at the beginning of the relationship. It’s all part of the conversion process. Those small touches are part of the relationship, and it’s all marketing. It’s all sales.
In real estate, what’s considered “marketing?”
Everything! Every touchpoint forms an impression. Avoid controversial topics. You’ll annoy 50% of your potential business.
The best marketing you have is BE GOOD AT YOUR JOB. Branding is not a logo. Branding is how people feel about you.
Haters gonna hate. Here’s how to protect your brand online.
Haters! What to do about people hating on your ads? Haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate. At least—that’s what Taylor Swift taught us.
As long as you’re not a sleazeball, you’re in good shape—haters and all. Delete the hater comments if necessary. But if possible, RESPOND to the comments and solve their problem. Otherwise, let them hate.
Here’s why.
When haters hate on your Facebook ads
You spend lots of time (and money?) on setting up your perfect audience and Facebook ad funnel. You let it run and it start to gain som traction, but then it happens.
Someone leaves an angry or negative comment on your ad.
What do you do?
Facebook has some basic options to deal with haters, but there’s no way to exclude them individually from an audience.
After enough ‘reports,’ Facebook’s algorithm will learn and stop showing them your ads.
There’s no specific number of reports necessary to make them stop seeing your ads (there might be, but we don’t know—Facebook doesn’t give out that number).
If you’re doing your job, the hating is more about the haters than about the hated. It’s an expression on their part of envy, anger, etc—nothing that you have control over.
But like bad reviews or other online “hate,” do your best to follow-up offline and make a genuine effort to fix the problem.
Bad reviews happen. It’s still better to be online than not. The rewards far outweigh the risks.
How do haters affect SEO?
They don’t, really. They can, but it’s rare. Website publishing is one-sided, so there’s not as much opportunity for bad reviews or haters—with 2 big exceptions: blog comments and “negative SEO.”
“Negative SEO” refers to the act of breaking Google’s rules on behalf of a competitor. DON’T DO THIS. It’s totally shady and 100% against Google’s guidelines. It’s also not very common. Not a big deal.
The good news is that Google knows about this problem. They’ve provided a method by which you can separate yourself from any shady SEO stuff that may be associated with your website— the Disavow tool.
How to grow your business with SEO-friendly content
Watch the 5 o’clock news. Their strategy works! The strategy works, but everybody does it.
Be better! Create year-round strategy to capitalize on holidays.
EXAMPLE: 4th of July content for SEO.
Go deeper than everybody else’s tiny list of fireworks displays that took them 10 minutes to publish.
- Who produced the fireworks?
- 7-day fireworks tour?
- Publish BETTER material than your competitors
Anticipate what users want and WHEN they want it. Don’t PROMOTE too hard at first. Promotion coincides w/ excitement.
Publishing precedes them both.
- Publish 2 months early.
- Recycle old content! Update yearly events and build momentum year over year
- Promote in local groups (yard sale, church, moms, etc)
Boost that post or create a small ad campaign. Low on leads, but WAY HIGH on clicks—great for ads and branding.
Google isn’t 100%!
- Use social (paid and organic) to drive more traffic.
- Use the admins of FB groups to promote your content for you
Google, social, et al. are PARTS of the strategy. They are not the strategy alone.
What about the OTHER holidays? Pet rock day & National pirate day?
The Lighter Side of Real Estate has funny examples:
- Deck Safety Month: partner with contractor to help people check and fix their decks. Great partnership w/ local vendors.
- Tax season! Plan these events in December/January.
- 2-minute holiday videos. Shoot 5 in a day.
Drip out videos over time. Have a plan!
Why Facebook Ads for Real Estate suck (just kidding… kinda)
Ready to get this fight started?
It’s an epic showdown between TJ, an SEO and Content Marketing whiz, and Courtney, a professional Facebook advertiser.
Ready? Let’s go.
The Setup: Why We Fight
At the end of the day here we have a lot of questions from people about should I be doing this or should I be doing that?
Make a choice. They’re both valuable.
It depends on your objectives and how you want to go about getting there and really how you like to spend your time or your money.
It’s either your time or somebody else’s you’re paying for.
So the purpose of this is to help you see the difference between the two.
Why ads suck (kinda)
Let’s get into it. We all know that paid and organic have their value, and that each has a group of dedicated loyal followers. So let’s hear what TJ, the organic, has to say about Courty, the paid.
Ads are so expensive.
In the history of real estate, PPC is actually one of the least expensive lead gen ideas you could ever have.
Think back 5 or 10 years ago: what Realtors used to was door-knocking. That works out to an hourly rate for an agent. What are they NOT doing while they’re door-knocking?
So you have an hourly rate. We’re talking about driving all over town knocking on the doors of expired listings.
We’re talking about cold-calling. We’re talking about sending out mailers, month after month, after month after month—never having any idea what their true ROI is.
We were talking in the group today about the football calendar magnets—how do you track value and effectiveness on that?
Might as well take a $5 bill and drop it in a mailbox and pray! That’s a really difficult thing to track. It’s a really difficult thing to make a decision of whether you’re actually seeing any return on that.
Follow the discussion ⟶ watch the LIVE replay on Facebook.