In 2018, the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials estimated that there are about 2 million active licensed real estate agents in the US.

Add to that the possibility of doing almost everything online, which gave house hunters the freedom to look or sell properties on their own.

With these emerging challenges, a real estate agent in this digital world like you can’t stick with just the traditional marketing strategies anymore. You need to kick your marketing strategies up a notch!

via GIPHY

It’s time to bring your A-game to your real estate business, and convince people that you’re the buyer/seller’s advocate they need.

If you’re planning your next marketing strategy and/or campaigns, check out these 50 real estate marketing tactics!

1. Get active on Zillow

If you want to take the online population of buyers and investors, get on Zillow. Millions of houses and rentals are available from different points in America are available here.

Zillow’s Premier Agent feature allows you to advertise your property on Zillow and Trulia listings. More, more exposure for you!

2. Host a mega open house tour!

As Tom Ferry suggests, you can add more excitement to your house tours by inviting neighbors and everyone in your database. With promises of foods, drinks, and a memorable time!

Some agents have brought in food trucks so people can enjoy good food after the tour. One even brought a snow machine from one of his open houses during the Christmas season!

3. Invite the neighbors to your open house

Go door-to-door. Introduce yourself that you bought the new property in the neighborhood and you want to invite them to your open house tour so they’ll get a glimpse of the house.

4. Provide opportunities for the neighbors to know their home value

Say some of the invited neighbors are looking to sell their property. You’ll want to add these leads to your database in case they decide to sell their home or other property.

You can set up some phones or iPads within the property where they can answer some sort of quiz/form to know their home’s value.

Before they learn the results, they need to provide their names, email address and contact number. After hat, you can email them the results, which can serve as confirmation that the email ad they provided is correct.

5. Sell the community around the property

Get to know your farm area. What establishments are within the vicinity of the property? Do you know the local business owners? How about the neighbors?

Once you know the area around the property, it would be easy for you to sell the benefits of purchasing the property.

6. Put in some decors to add more life to your property

Those that people will remember and will be the first thing they ask you when they inquire for the property. I’d like to check the house with the retro wallpapers. You’d know in an instant which property s/he’s referring to.

7. Always have good photographs of the property.

“Take pictures like you’re telling a story. Let prospects visualize their life in the property by walking them around visually.”

Take photos of the property, including the community around too, as well as the nearby landmarks and other prominent establishments. Entice prospects more about the life outside the property.

If you’re not that flexible working with a camera and angles, you can hire a local photographer.

8. Offer lead magnets

Lead magnets work in a value-for-value exchange manner. You offer valuable content and people offer their contact details (along with zip codes for real estate).

9. Give prospects a virtual tour of your property on your website

Your website is a powerful lead generation tool if equipped properly. VR tours give prospects a chance to find out more about the property, how it looks like, how’s the area around it, etc.

You’re already filtering your leads here because only those who are really interested will contact you and ask for a tour of the property!

10. Upload short explainer videos on social media

If you want to explain something, do it in a video. A 30-second explainer animated video, for example.

This is perfect for repurposing your other content materials, like blogs. You could also make videos to narrate a story about the community of the property you’re selling!

11. Claim your business on Google

If you want people to find you online easily, create an account on Google My Business and include your agency’s information there.

When you provide as much information as possible, you now have a higher probability to appear in search results when people search for “real estate agents near me” or other related terms.

12. Provide short-but-meaty bios on your About Me section

When people visit your website or social media accounts, they would like to know more about you. Are you the right agent for them? Can you help them make the right property investment?

13. Enable social sharing features on your property pages and blogs

Perhaps readers want to share it with their friends on Facebook. Or share your informative article on LinkedIn. Or Pin your article/property on Pinterest for future reference. You want your audience to easily do this  with a click of a button.

14. Mold your elevator pitch

If one day you get in an elevator with Bill Gates, and you want to sell him this property you’ve just acquired, what would you say to convince him to buy it?

That’s how you should mold your elevator pitch. One that would entice even the pickiest and skeptic buyer to purchase your property or hire you as their agent.

15. Always keep your social media engagement high

Interact with the people that find your posts valuable! Respond to comments, answer inquiries, and comment on other people’s post (as long as it’s relevant to your business). When you initiate the conversation, make sure you see it through the end.

16. Create a newsletter

Keep your leads and previous clients  updated with what’s new with your real estate – new property/ies sold, new properties in your listing, company events, and more.

“Here’s a tip for your newsletter copy: Write as if you’re talking to one person. It makes them feel exclusive, like you took the time to craft an email update just for them.”

17. Master drip email marketing

You want to send emails perfect for every type of subscribers you have, whatever stage in the buyer’s journey they are. This is where drip emails come in.

These are sets of emails that are sent when a trigger is activated. For example, a welcome email will be sent right after a new lead subscribes to your list.

Or when they register to a webinar or event you’re holding, emails building up the event would be sent to your specified schedule.

18. Partner with local brands

Furniture items and decors add life to your property, but they could be expensive. In this case, partnering with local brands, like a local furniture shop, is an ideal move. You can offer free promotion of their shop in exchange for lending items to you.

Or if there’s an up-and-coming artist within the area, you can partner with him/her to launch a gallery night and invite leads, clients and other agents!

19. Venture into experiential marketing

If done successfully, this strategy can create loyalty with your clients, and create an emotional attachment with your product/service.

You can invite potential leads, former clients, and even other agents so they’ll easily remember you once they’re ready to do business with you.

20. Attract the right local leads with Google Adwords

Target your ads to the active house-hunters with Google Adwords’ remarketing feature.

Here’s how: On your Google Adwords account, you’ll create a remarketing list that includes interest, website URLs and keywords related to your industry.

Any person who matches the details in your list would then see your ads when they browse websites or go through their social media accounts.

21. Leverage review for your brand image

There are several ways you can let people give their feedback about you (or ask them for it):

• Enable the review feature on your Facebook page
• Establish your Google My Business account so people can leave reviews for you there
• Conduct surveys after the transaction is done. Send them an online survey and include some sort of reward/ thank you gift.
• Email them personally. Thank them for doing business with you and subtly ask for feedback with your performance as their agent.

22. Create infographics packed with real estate information

Sharing infographics on your social media profiles is one of the best ways to increase your online presence in the real estate industry..

For example, you made an infographic about the process of researching and purchasing a property for new investors. You share it on Facebook, your followers who are new investors see your post, they see it as valuable, and next thing you know, it’s being shared like a forest wildfire in the summer.

Just make sure to include your logo/branding so people will credit you for it, and to avoid stealing of content too.

23. Try out Instagram Stories

95 million photos are being posted on IG every day, and with a well-known industry like real estate, it’s no surprise if there are a million #realestate posts there.

If you don’t want your IG posts to drown, try out IG Stories. They don’t take extra space in your feed. Instead, they stay at the top of your feed within 24 hours.

Photo credits: Hoole

IG stories are perfect for special announcements or just quick updates about your business.

You can use IG’s Highlight feature so you can save important stories and people can revisit them whenever they want.

24. Link to a specific landing page on your ads

For example, if your ad headline says “lowest priced homes in [your area],” lead them to a page that lists these homes with the lowest prices in [your area].

With this, leads can easily browse for any property that catches their preference. It’s an easier process than navigating from page to page, then filtering prices based on their budget.

25. Take advantage of Snapchat while it’s not yet saturated

Snapchat may not be a leading platform for real estate marketing, but with an industry that relies on photos/snaps, this platform works too.

Plus, the new age of investors are slowly being taken over by millennials, and they love to hang out on Snapchat.

One ideal feature of Snapchat is their geofilter feature. You can create a custom filter for any event, like your open house tour for example. People can only use the filter when they are in the area, so during your open house tour, guests can take selfies and photos with your custom filter.

Plus points for building your brand image!

26.Use chatbots for better client engagement

You can now respond to inquiries and messages from leads and clients even when you’re online with chatbots!

Chatbots are like your reception desks. They can answer initial and common inquiries on your behalf as fast as possible. You’ll only need to answer messages when the chatbot has no response available for the message.

27. Do Facebook Live Videos

Better yet, make it an “Ask Me Anything” session, where people can ask you any questions about real estate and property investment.

This is a great way to engage with people in an entertaining matter, while solving their problems and leading them closer to the end of your sales funnel.

Another idea is to do a FB live tour of your property/ies. To give your viewers additional exclusivity, do a live tour of the property before it goes into listing!

28. Work with influencers to showcase your for-sale space

Find an influencer whose followers matches your target clients, who can then create related content using your property (or whatever collab project you agreed to).

For example, you can work with a rising musician and let him/her use the property as a location for his/her music video.

People trust influencers more than brand, so if they put in a good word about you, you can expect their followers to have a positive image about you.

29. Create Pinterest boards for your listings

You can create a Pinterest board for your properties, include photos that highlight their best areas and features, and provide information about each area.

Be sure to include the right landing page for each Pin so that a lead can easily learn more about the property.

Pinterest is also a good social media platform to use since Pins have an average lifespan of 3 months, compared to Facebook posts that drown in the crowd of other posts, fast.

30. Use strategic PR to build your authority in the real estate industry

PR is not exclusive for the huge names in real estate. You can take strategic PR on your hands for free!

One of the best ways to do so is to become a source for journalists in Help A Reporter Out (HARO). You can register as a source in the website and answer real estate questions posted by journalists there.

In exchange for the answer, your name will be included as a source in the article, along with a link to your website. That’s plus points for SEO!

31. Consider going into niche real estate

If the competition for real estate marketing is tight in your area, you may want to niche down your services. You’ll have a better chance at standing out among the competition, and gain leads that really match your client persona.

You can endorse yourself as a real estate agent for newlyweds, young professionals, large families, and more.

32. Take the Skyscraper technique when crafting your articles

By using skyscraper technique, you’ll find articles in your preferred topic that gained plenty of social shares.

Then, from there, you’ll try to craft content that beats what the article offers. What possible points did it miss? What additional insights can you provide?

33. Research an area first before farming

When you’re confident with the data you’ve gathered from your research, go ahead and start establishing yourself as the local go-to real estate agent in the area.

34. Showcase your property with drone photography/videography

There’s something about photos or videos taken in aerial view that further highlights the property you’re selling. When incorporated with professional interior photography, plus social and digital marketing, you can sell those properties in a matter of time.

35. Use videos instead of photos to your Facebook Cover

You want your leads hooked the moment they check out your Facebook page, and a Facebook cover video can help you with that.

You can create a quick commercial-like video about your real estate business and/or your services with a clear call-to-action in the end.

Check out Live Urban Real Estate’s FB cover video for inspiration.

36. Share valuable content targeted to past clients for better name retention (and higher repeat business probability)

Did you know that 70% of clients forget the agent they hired a year after closing?

To keep your name intact in your past clients’ memories, keep in touch with them. Share content they might find useful, like renovation tips for their newly-bought property.

37. Video emails work better than an email full of text or photos

Videos offer extended personal engagement than texts or static visuals. It feels like you’re talking to your leads/clients face-to-face, even if you’re not physically in front of them. And they’re more entertaining than reading lines of texts or staring at images.

Video emails work best with welcome emails, event invitations, and guides/tutorials.

38. Offer rewards/gifts to referral sources

If your top referral source is word of mouth, encourage these people to send more people your way by rewarding them.

You can create a referral program, where they can earn $2 for every successful referral, and an additional $10 or more if the deal is closed! You can also send Amazon gift cards or mail discount coupons from nearby shops or restaurants.

39. Send a New Homeowner’s Care Package

Let your client know you appreciate their decision to hire you or buy from you by sending a care package during their first weeks at their new property.

40. Research the competition

Especially the top ranking ones.

Analyze their social media profiles. What are they posting? How are they engaging with their audience?

Study their websites. What topics are they covering in their blog posts? How do they present complicated real estate terms to beginners? What kind of lead magnets do they offer?

41. Partner with other agents or businesses related to real estate

Best way to generate more leads? Partner with other non-competing agents and businesses whose target markets are the same or related to yours.

An architect could ask his/her client, “Do you already have a real estate agent for this property? I could recommend you one.” If the client says yes, then the architect would introduce you to the client.

You could then do the same with your business partner.

42. Update your FB and IG everytime you close a deal

Ask your clients to tag you on photos of their new home on Facebook or Instagram.

Or share their photos on their day at home and tag other people who have contributed to the sales process – the builders, mortgage officer, home inspector, and more.

Include a call-to-action in your caption too. Something like “Thinking of buying your dream home within [your area]? Just answer this form:[link to form here] .”

43. Launch webinars for first-time homeowners

44. Create a Facebook group about real estate in your area

In the FB group, encourage your members to ask questions about buying and selling properties and other inquiries about your farm area.

You can also post exclusive real estate tips and tricks here or updates and news about real estate and your farm area.

If you have a free course or ebook about real estate, this is also the best place to promote them.

45. Put your brand in merchandise and distribute them in local events

Print out your logo, tagline and contact details in goodies like pens, calendars, tumblers – anything that matches the local events your participating to. Distribute them to the guests/participants of the events, and even offer some as rewards for contests.

46. Think local when writing copy for your website and ads

If you include local-targeted keywords, like the name of your area, it could help you rank higher when leads search for properties to buy in your area.

Include some local slangs (that are not hard to understand) to embrace visitors with some local vibes too.

47. Take advantage of what’s trending on the internet – memes, challenges, parodies, and more

Aside from bringing entertainment to your audience, these let people take a slightly deeper glance into what a real estate agent like you does every day.

As long as you can relate it to your real estate business, go ahead!

Take this one, for example:

Photo credits: Fit Small Business

48. Go extra with your business cards

Go over the norm of the boring all-white, all-text cards, and think of clever ways that would make leads smile and call you instantly.

Take these creative ideas for example:

Photo Credits: Fit Small Business

Photo Credits:Inman

Photo Credits:Tigresspr.com

49. Get on Reddit and Quora

Search real estate questions on Quora or subreddits on Reddit, provide answers and, if applicable, link readers to your blog or website too.

Make sure to complete your profile on Quora too, so that when you post an answer, your profession/title would appear beside your name. That adds more credibility to your answer.

50. Show your charitable side

Putting your money on events/causes you support may not be a top marketing strategy for real estate agents, but it goes a long way with collecting leads and building your farm area, specifically.

You can donate to a charity and ask for name recognition – whether to include your name on social media or their monthly newsletter.

Sponsor a local festival to help promote your farm area.

Put together a community BBQ or banquet, where you could give good food and your calling cards at the same time.

Bonus Tip! Always monitor your results

You’ll never know which of these marketing ideas work better than the others unless you analyze the results from them. Which helped you gain more leads? Which returned a huge ROAS?

Only one way to find out: track and analyze the performance of these strategies.

Pay attention to what strategies work so you could implement and innovate them for your future marketing campaigns!

Author Bio:

Sean Clancy is the SEO director for Edge Online, an online marketing company in Australia. Edge Online has been in the business for 17 years and have served clients in multiple industries, including the Real Estate industry.