Viral Marketing and Buzz Marketing. What’s the Difference for Real Estate Marketing?

The real estate industry has a number of unique challenges when it comes to marketing. For example, it’s super-localized, so launching a large campaign might not be such a great idea if you don’t have representation in most states. Also, the industry is time locked and extremely competitive, so you’ll be competing with a lot of people trying to take advantage of different forms of marketing.

That’s why diversifying your strategy and exploring different marketing forms is a must for real estate professionals. Traditional forms of marketing and bus stop signs may not be sufficient to generate interest around your business, so finding new ways to get away from them and take advantage of advanced techniques is critical to stand out from the pack.

In this article, we’re going to explore two great forms of marketing, viral and buzz. Both of them can make a difference for your real estate business if used properly, so let’s see how they can apply them to expand the reach of your business.

What’s the Difference between Viral Marketing and Buzz Marketing?

Do you remember Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign that aired in 2010?

The one featuring an actor Isaiah Mustafa transitioning from a bathroom to a sailboat to riding a horse on the beach saying that “anything is possible” with Old Spice?

The ad was so different from traditional marketing forms that prevailed at the time and generated lots of likes, comments, and shares on social media. Google trends illustrate this beautifully. In 2010, the number of searches for “old spice” raised dramatically after being comparably low for years.

On the first day alone, the video with the ad was watched by almost 6 million people on YouTube, and by the end of the year, Old Spice’s sales increased by 125 percent.

This is a perfect example of a viral marketing campaign, or a kind of marketing that encourages viewers to spread the message by sharing the ad on social media, email, and other means.

“On the other hand, buzz marketing is a word-of-mouth campaign where the initial trigger typically comes from an event,” explains Jason Calaway, a digital marketer from Flatfy.“Unlike viral marketing whose purpose is to spread the message, the goal of buzz marketing is to get more people to talk about products or brands.”

Examples of buzz marketing include ads shown during Super Bowl. Since this game is the most watched sports event in the country, lots of brands try to create a fast and effective buzz on social media using its popularity.

So, viral marketing and buzz marketing use similar techniques to achieve their goal, but the main difference between them is that buzz marketing is much more event-based.

The Real Estate Industry: Go Viral or Generate Buzz?

Let me begin by saying that both strategies can work very well for real estate professionals, so in this section, I’m going to give you the information you need to make a decision which technique is the best for your business at this point.

It goes without saying that there are millions of homes for sale in the U.S. right now, so creating an ad that has the potential to stand out from the pack and go viral requires some effort. In fact, if it was easy we would be seeing successful viral videos that drew attention to a specific home every week.

However, this doesn’t mean that it’s impossible and shouldn’t be attempted. After all, according to this report by the National Association of Realtors, 99 percent of Millennials and 89 percent of Baby Boomers go online to find their future home, so chances are they stumble upon a lot of ads.

Source: Real Estate in a Digital Age 2017 Report, by the National Association of Realtors

Tips to Go Viral

1. Broadcast Live from the Property

It goes without saying that you need to have a social media account on networks like Instagram or Twitter where you can broadcast your videos. The reason why this technique is included is that live video is incredibly popular these days, and 80 percent of customers prefer watching a live video than read a blog from a brand.

For example, you can use live video to create detailed property tours, which is the next best thing after visiting, conduct Q&A sessions with home shoppers or your followers, and broadcast from real estate industry events. Since social media tends to place live videos at the top of newsfeeds, you can get some serious engagement.

2. Make Each Listing Unique

If you’re in need for some inspiration take a look at this super great idea from a listing that was covered by well-known online sources like Chron. It was created by a real estate agent in Houston and features a person – the agent herself – in a panda costume on almost every picture taken on the property.

For example, here’s the panda relaxing in the bathtub.

Source: Chron

By doing so, the agent was able to get her listing advertised on popular online sources and many people shared the story, too.

3. Add Some Personality

This could easily be done by adding a personal twist to property descriptions. For example, here’s a great example of a listing that was covered by popular sites; Curbed named it “fun” and claimed that “more real estate listings should have as much fun as this one.”

Read the description on the photo and you’ll see what they meant.

Source: Curbed

Tips to Generate Buzz

1. Ask Satisfied Clients to Leave Reviews

It’s a known fact that 84 percent of online shoppers trust online reviews as personal recommendations, so a lot of positive reviews can help you to get a higher position in Google’s results and generate some buzz.

2. Create Video Testimonials

Video testimonials featuring happy clients could be a powerful way to raise awareness of your business and get more people talking about your real estate business. The secret to making a good video is to turn a particular client’s case into a compelling story and show how you helped them to reach their goals.

3. Use Guerrilla Marketing

This kind of marketing aims to create buzz by using unconventional and unique ads such as:

• Holding social media contests. For example, run a selfies contest and require participants to take a selfie during a house visit and publish them to win a prize.
• Making a music video or a comedy skit. In today’s super competitive marketing, thinking outside the box is simply a must to get people talking about you.

The Bottom Line

Clearly, both viral marketing and buzz marketing can work well for real estate professionals, so trying them may be a great idea for your business.

Ryan is a writer and passionate blogger. He likes sharing his thoughts and tricks with the readers. Currently he works as the real estate agent at https://flatfy.ro. Feel free to contact him on Twitter!