Real estate marketing automation can be an intimidating concept to agents who already have too little time in their days. Doing it yourself might seem like it would require learning new technologies and marketing techniques.
Hiring someone else demands upfront investment with no immediate guarantee of ROI. (And what if you choose the wrong person or company? Oh boy.)
Fortunately, it doesn't have to be as complicated as you may think. In the following article, we'll be talking about some ways to kick-start your efforts. But first, a disclaimer.
Real Estate Marketing Automation and Social Media
Agents who have an elementary-level understanding of the web make the mistake of pouring all their eggs into the social media basket. Make no mistake. Social media can help agents in many ways.
But it must be used responsibly.
Social platforms should not have final say in who sees your posts. Don't believe us? A recent study showed only 12 percent of your friends and followers on Facebook actually see what you're putting out there.
12 percent!
A better strategy is to direct leads to your website. But how do you do that? Here are some suggestions.
1. Build Fresh Content Around Prospect Searches
Get friendly with search engines. Do this by creating content your prospects will actually want to read, listen to, or watch.
We could talk all day long about SEO-this and paid advertising-that, but if the content doesn't connect to the prospect's pain point, your rankings won't go very far. Period.
Invest some time in keyword research, or hire a professional to do it. (A professional. Not a family member in career crisis mode who thinks it would be neat to try.)
From search terms, you can establish a clear idea of how to organically attract prospects who are progressing through the home-buying cycle.
2. Accompany All Social Media Use with a Call to Action
Yes, use social media. Do it every day if you'd like, multiple times per day. But tailor your content in a way that makes consumers realize the optimum value will be on your website.
You could even automate this function by using a scheduling app like HootSuite to post during times of the day when your prospects are likely to be active across all platforms. By time-blocking this function, posts will land in front of your audience whether it's Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, even if you've overslept or run into other issues.
3. Divide and Conquer
Landing pages are your friend. Use them liberally to serve a highly-specific purpose.
For example, some clients are going to be interested in luxury real estate. Others will be first-time homebuyers unsure of their next steps. These landing pages should look very different because they speak to a completely different set of problems.
The one main objective of a landing page is to get the prospect to act (i.e., share their contact information, set up an appointment, etc.).
Each successful landing page will create a segmented list that tells you exactly what that group of people is after. From there, you can feed them tailored content that moves them along in the buying process.
Your Next Step
There are many tools across the web to help with different areas of real estate marketing automation. But they're not typically designed for the specific purpose.
Hooklead's design strategy is advanced and smart in our approach. Contact us today to learn how you can put each part of the process on auto-pilot while keeping that personal touch.