Digital Marketing for Real Estate Agents
Our series of “Digital Marketing in X industry” will today discuss how can Real Estate agents can use digital channels and implement their own Digital Marketing Strategy.
–Â Local SEO
It is important to rank high in Google whenever someone executes a local search query. Google’s answer to Local SEO is: Google My Bussiness. Whenever you apply Google My Business, you are getting automatically the following local SEO advantages:
Knowledge Graph
The knowledge graph is a knowlege base used by Google to enhance its search engine’s search results with semantic-search information. This can be website, driving navigation, street view, pictures, phone number, opening hours, reviews, etc. Â In addition, the biggest advantage is that is presented above the fold in the Google Search Engine Results which grabs the attention of your brand.
Local Pack
The local pack is a summary of all comapnies within a certain location which is based on the query you have searched. You can get a Google Maps view showing all companies that matches your query with links to websites, phone numbers, driving directions. In additon, Google My Business enables you to list your agency in Google Maps with added information about your company (location, website, opening hours, etc)
– Website Optimization for Local SEO
Having the Google My Business, you’ve already have a good shot at ranking high everytime someone searches for a local search query in Google. However, local SEO is not only the Google My Business account.
Websites needs to be optimized also for local SEO. So for instance, if your agency is active in Limassol. That means you will want to rank high whenever someone searches for “House for rent in Limassol” or “Real Estate Agent in Limassol”. Google knows that these are local search queries and you should get this chance to position your agent as the perfect answer to someone’s question.
Few tips to pay attention when optimizing for local SEO
Page Title:Â You need to keep the search term you want to rank on in mind. Is the title of the page you want to rank on, matching with the search term you have got in mind?
Page URL: Similar to Page Title, the more you can match the URL with the search term you’ve got in mind, the higher you will rank on that term.
Internal Linking: One of the most important factors of ranking for a specific page is linking. The more links the higher the page will rank. Homepages for agents is the most important when thinking about which page you want to rank for.
External Linking: Backlinks. If you get links from a local authority or directories with of all business in your city, then you can score some links back to your site with the help of these ways and push your ranking higher in search engines.
– Social Media
Facebook Groups
Social Media is another good place and opporunity to grab for real estate agents. Think of Facebook groups where people helping each other to find houses / apartments. This where you should pay attention and engage with your offers to these people. However, never spam groups with your listing as this will harm your reputation instead of building up your firm. If you have something to say to a home seeker engage with him. Use the groups to interact with them by asking questions such as what type of house are they looking, Price category, specific area they have in mind.. In this way you provide value to the home seeker rather than just advertising your listings.
Facebook Pages
Facebook Pages is another way to drive traffic to your website. Positioning your Facebook Page as the local authority when it come to real estate it gives you the change to inform followers about properties by attracting qualified audience who actively searching for apartments or houses.
Engage when relevant. Real estates can easily monitor conversations on Twitter and engage with users who are looking houses. Similarly, you can use the same questions you will use when you want to interact with Facebook Groups.
Snapchat
Snapchat’s geofilters are the best way to build local awareness. You can use such filters during local events. Try to use a catchy message associated to your company and make it easier to be recognized!
– Online Advertising
Google Adwords
Advertising in Google Search Engine is can be done through Adwords. This means that when someone searches for “appartments to rent” you can easily show him an ad of yours. You can see about Paprika’s PPC Services here and also you can find more if you business needs to use PPC Advertising or not here.
That being said, with Adwords you can decide with which keywords you want to show your ad and how much you want to pay-per-click, such as biding more or less on mobile users, desktop users or based on locations.
Facebook Advertising
By advertising on Facebook, you have plenty of targeting options to choose fro. For real estate, the target group can be based on location, interest and age.
Types of ads you can choose on Facebook:
Carousel ads: Create picture of each room within the property you advertise
Video ads: Create a quick walk-through property and make sure it’s enagagin enough to create an interest and allow click-through.
Form ads: There’s this option where you can build an email list of potential home seekeers and you can implement an Email Marketing strategy by sending to them your newsletters with the latests listings of your real estate agent.
The possibilities are endless for real estate agents to grow their digital marketing strategy. The only thing to do is to test what works for you and grab the opporunity to turn it into results. Start one at a time and have a tactic strategy which will have a full impact on your Real Estate Agent.
Good luck! 🙂