These days, it seems like everyone’s selling their home.
“For Sale” signs are going up and coming down like they’re on a trampoline. Zillow is constantly turning over listings.
Realtors are as busy as ever, making phone calls, hosting walk-throughs, closing deals without stopping. It’s no wonder that everyone is taking advantage of the convenience of online listings.
As we know that inflow of leads without having to make cold calls is every real estate agent’s dream. Today, almost 51% of home buyers use the internet to help them purchase a new home.
Contrast this with the fact that only 28% contact a real estate agent as a first step, you can see why it’s important to leverage the internet as a channel for leads.
So, here we bring you some real estate SEO tips to improve your traffic and get leads online.
What Is Lead Generation For Real Estate?
Before we dive deeper into these strategies let’s understand what exactly is lead generation in the realm of real estate.
Lead generation means attracting and converting prospective buyers into leads with a vested interest in your company’s service. In real estate, generating leads comes with its own set of challenges, including finding the best software and sites to use and employing various customer experience strategies.
To put it simply, the same rules of marketing that apply to a variety of industries are relevant to the field of real estate, and lead generation is a crucial element of a real estate marketing strategy.
Real Estate SEO Strategies To Generate Leads
Leveraging Positive Customer Feedback
Letting your results speak for themselves is a great way of establishing your reputation and customer reviews and testimonials accomplish just that.
Explore both internal and external options by establishing a review page on your website, sharing testimonials on major real estate platforms, and creating videos with customer feedback. Some of the best external sites to do so would be:
Additionally, a referral program can be set up for existing clients to become representatives in your network of prospects. By spreading the word about their experiences you can utilize the positive experiences of your customers to essentially serve a major PR role!
Using Social Media To Increase Traffic And Awareness
We are experiencing that modern marketing has increasingly gone digital, social media image is now an indispensable component of any marketer’s strategy.
Some of the most worthwhile platforms worth investing in include:
LinkedIn is the obvious choice because it’s geared more towards professional networking but you can attract a lot of traffic and awareness with Instagram and Twitter. Certain Instagram strategies paired with beautiful visuals and short, simple posts will keep you relevant and accessible in the everyday life of any potential client!
Facebook Ads is another cost-effective lead generation method, allowing you to target existing leads in your database with the Custom Audiences feature. With regards to Facebook, creating a local group around your company can allow clients to share their experiences and give new leads an idea of what may be in store for them as homebuyers.
Segmenting Your Leads To Gain Insight Into Your Database
While most of the people who receive your newsletters and other promotional emails are already existing leads in your system, organizing them by various criteria will provide insight into your database as well as help with lead generation. This is where lead segmentation comes in. A few criteria by which you can segment your leads can include:
- How “hot” or “cold” they are (how much they interact with your content, site, social media, etc)
- Demographics (or better yet) by buyer personas
- Specific behaviors ranging from signing up for your mailing list to downloading a particular e-guide
Armed with this knowledge, you can tailor all elements of your outreach for your segments: emails, educational materials, and the nature and frequency of contact with your clients.
While hot leads may need a more personalized nudge to get them on their way, cold leads may be better left on an email drip. By investing your marketing resources wisely on those most likely to purchase through segmenting, you’ll reap greater benefits while saving energy or time.
Developing An Effective Video Marketing Strategy
According to Marketing Sherpa, videos attract two to three times as many visitors to an agent’s site and doubles the amount of time they spend there. Only 4% of agents put their listings on YouTube.
A good thing about this is there are plenty of ways to incorporate video into a marketing strategy:
- Client interviews
- Q&A live streams
- How-to and general information videos
- Agent profiles
- Yearly reviews
- Videos of local community events (which we will be discussing at length soon)
However, the most important kinds of videos for real estate are listing videos, which show off the best sides of your listings inside and out.
Remember that you don’t always need professional equipment! A cell phone camera and basic editing software, combined with still photography and quality voice-over narration, will be more than sufficient to create an immersive and informative experience that will capture prospects’ interest beautifully.
Community Service To Establish Local Presence
As mentioned, staying on top of community events is a great way of attracting attention to a realtor’s site and social media pages. But sometimes that isn’t enough, so further involvement in your community is a great way to establish yourself as a local presence while creating a positive reputation around your name.
Ultimately an agent can benefit considerably from getting to know the neighborhoods in which they work and sell and establishing their local presence.
Try maximizing the ROI of these events by implementing a lead nurturing strategy!
- Sponsoring local events such as park fairs or school concerts
- Volunteering or helping organize charity events
- Giving presentations on topics of expertise at a community college
- Hosting a podcast
- (If budget allows), aiming for local media coverage by pitching ideas to local reporters and buying ad segments on radio or TV
Create Content To Constantly Engage Your Subscribed Leads
What type of content is most effective when it comes to engaging your subscribed leads? We came up with the 3 best ways, each focused on covering different types of information you can get out to your leads!
Newsletter
A newsletter is likely the first thing that comes to mind when you think of real estate reading material. The newsletter can be an excellent way of getting information out regularly to subscribed leads, offering insight on interest and mortgage rates alongside your best listings.
Blogging
This is a solid digital resource that can be integrated as a page of your website easily. No matter the medium, the goal is to provide information that provides prospects with valuable insight on buying or selling a home in your market with a personal touch.
Personalizing Excellent Customer Service
One of the most powerful marketing tools for a real estate agent is a focus on providing the best customer service possible. This begins at the very first step of the buyer’s journey. Offering a free consultation or quote is a great way to build your potential client list, and it’s your job to make the process of reaching out as easy as possible for prospects.
Whether digitally, over the phone, or in person, showing them your level of investment in providing them with a personalized experience is a great way to generate further interest and encourage them to take the next step towards making a decision. In the long term, this will help you build up your reputation as satisfied clients will contribute positive reviews and references.
Creating High Quality Content
Content that attracts traffic and therefore increases search result visibility begins with understanding the intent behind search queries. The best way to start is by researching the most-asked question or hot topics. You can do this both through the web and by asking existing clients first-hand about their experiences, questions, and concerns.
Updating Website To Increase Visibility
Old blogs tend to get pushed down on the SERP (search engine result page) by Google for a variety of reasons. Try to keep up-to-date with any content that covers time-based trends or events. Updating your website or blog with valuable content not only elevates your position as an authority in your field but will ultimately enhance your visibility in search results
Making Your Website Visually Stunning
For realtors, there’s no better way to show off listings from the MLS than with an IDX (Internet Data Exchange) enabled website. IDX technology syndicates fresh MLS listings directly to the site, allowing leads to see all of the available property listings in your area from it.
Additionally, tools like Slideshare allow you to visually present the latest stats and information in real estate and offer features like lead capture forms. This means that while browsing your slides, a potential lead will be presented with the chance to enter their email in exchange for valuable content. Pop-up ads can be another valuable design element, though they need to be intuitive and non-intrusive so as not to annoy prospects.
Conclusion
There you have it – 10 actionable real estate SEO strategies to generate leads!
Combined, these strategies are the most effective way to piece together your own SEO campaign for your real estate business.
If you put in the effort and execute correctly, you will see results.
