Whether just beginning to dabble in digital marketing or engaging full-force, here are a few stats and tips to help your digital marketing efforts gain traction.
The world of digital marketing can be overwhelming. Chasing after “Likes” and pursuing new followers can be time-intensive tasks, and the pragmatic are left wondering what is the ROI—return on investment?
Some forego digital marketing altogether, or set up a Facebook page but later abandon it, believing it isn’t helping their bottom line.
For those agents struggling to see the results of their digital marketing efforts, you are not alone. Digital Strategy Consulting relays the results from a global study by the Fournaise Marketing Group, saying “Nine out of ten (90%) global marketers are not trained to calculate return on investment (ROI), and 80% struggle with being able to properly demonstrate to their management the business effectiveness of their spending, campaigns, and activities.”
While we can’t calculate the ROI for your own digital marketing efforts, Rutgers Business School posted in an article that digital marketing efforts were more effective than TV, print, radio, and outdoor marketing, according to an econometrics study by Microsoft.
Real estate agents can engage in Facebook and create quick, appealing videos to increase their visibility and market their firm.
Facebook Is King
With more than 1.3 billion members, Facebook is still the largest social networking site, so if you’re looking to reach a broad audience, start here. About 77 percent of Realtors use Facebook for their business, the highest of any social networking site, according to a report from NAR.
About 70 percent of Realtors who engage in social media do so with a goal of networking and building relationships, according to NAR. About 64 percent of those using social media use it for marketing and to boost their visibility.
What to Post:
Real estate agents can promote individual properties on their Facebook pages, but they can also position themselves as local market experts and active community members by posting links to real estate-related articles and community information and events. Those who have blogs should post their blog entries on their Facebook pages as well to drive traffic to their websites.
How to Post Your Professional Content:
There are two ways to set up a professional Facebook account—either as an individual or as a business. If you post as an individual, you can choose to filter who sees your content. You can create a group for your friends and family, where you are free to post your personal updates. What you post in this group will only be seen by members of the group. Then you will be able to post professional and industry-related posts on your public profile.
General Facebook Tips:
- Post often. For best times to post, take a look at this infographic from HubSpot.
- Most posts should have an image to get noticed.
- Keep it professional and tasteful—avoid politics and emotional rants.
Video in Digital Marketing
While more than three-fourths of real estate agents are using Facebook to promote their business, only about one-third are using one the newest, most impactful digital marketing tools: video, according to the 2014-2015 CRT Realtor Technology Survey by NAR.
About 15 percent of agents used video to sell single-family homes in 2012, up 114 percent from 7 percent just a year earlier, according to NAR.
The video trend is rising, and for good reason. Inman News reported in 2014 that 85 percent of home buyers and sellers prefer to work with a real estate agent who uses video. Additionally, homes with video listings receive four times more inquiries than homes with no video, according to Inman.
Home buyers are using video both to tour homes virtually and to learn more about particular communities, according to Inman.
Hiring a professional videographer is one way to obtain professional video content, but it may not be in every agent’s budget. Fortunately, there are several apps that can help you create video, often right from your smartphone, either for free or for a small fee.
You can also seek out a service such as MarketVideos.com, which helps you create video newsletters for $29 per month. Your newsletters will be embedded with the latest MLS data for your area and a few videos with real estate tips.