There are almost 25,000 estate agencies in the UK in 2023. That means agencies must be digital marketing savvy to be noticed by potential sellers, and home buyers. Sure, you can be a great traditional estate agent without a digital presence, but in 2023, you could get left behind if you don’t have a good strategy in place.
Optimise your site!
You need a website, one that is optimised for mobile. It is all well and good displaying properties on Rightmove or Zoopla, but what happens when your clients and potential clients want to know more about YOU? If you have a website and it isn’t converting people, look at giving it a refresh making it mobile-friendly with useful content.
Update your Google My Business listing.
If you’re not already on Google My Business, why not? It’s a great way to gain visibility online through searches like ‘estate agent near me’, as it uses map location, and showcases your website, contact details, photos, and client reviews. 92% of home buyers begin their search online, so GoogleMyBusiness is a good place to begin.
It’s 2023, you should be using social media.
Paid or organic social can be fantastic for your business, it builds brand awareness by making people aware you’re there. Millions of people look at social media accounts using their phones every day. You can use social to display open houses, new-to-market, sold listings, videos of inside properties, and generic tips and tricks to prepare homeowners to sell their homes.
Post valuable content.
You won’t succeed online if your content isn’t original and engaging. Not only does web and social content need to be well written with good grammar, but it also needs to give your audience value. Answer questions your clients might have or give them home-moving tips. The more of this type of content you have online, the better.
Email Market (and remarket)
Email marketing is a great way for estate agents to market and re-market. If you have a CRM with all of your client’s data and email addresses then you can send them weekly emails of new properties to market, local news, and trends within the market, as well as special deals for people signed up etc.
Direct marketing is back.
If you want to increase your stock levels, you need to be noticed. Personalising content has always been an effective form of estate agent marketing, even before the rise of the internet. You can use direct mail to reach your audience, grab their attention and connect with them on a personal level. DM can be combined with your digital marketing efforts to build trust with your audience.
Video is your friend.
Since the pandemic, video has become a necessity in any digital campaign. For estate agents, you have SO much use for video when compared with other industries. You can showcase property tours, local and property news, social media animations and even video testimonials if your clients are up to it.
Stick to a marketing strategy.
Marketing an estate agency isn’t easy. Picture this; your marketing is working and there are loads and loads of valuation leads, so you focus on converting those instead of your marketing, and now you’ve run out of leads. Your marketing strategy needs to be consistent, whether you have one lead a week coming in, or 100 leads a day. Consistent marketing will lead to consistent quality leads.
Be the local property market expert.
Your business directly impacts everyone in your who owns their own home, which means although they may not display it, they are interested in the housing market. That’s why you should be sharing local and national insights into the market, it’ll make you more trustworthy and credible, and increase quality leads. People will come to you, the expert, when they’re serious about moving home.
Provide the best possible customer experience.
People are more likely to share their experiences with others when the experience is positive. If you do business in a small town or village, a lot of your business will likely be from referrals, your customer experience needs to be top-tier for people to recommend you to friends or family.
