Digital Marketing 101: The Real Estate Agent's Guide to Getting Started
There are too many digital marketing avenues for real estate to name. Various combinations of methods and software are bountiful – but what are the most essential components of a digital marketing strategy?
First things first: let’s talk about funnels. What is a funnel? This is basically the steps a new lead takes as they discover you, sign up for your newsletter, receive communication, have their first consultation, and finally become a client. Funnels get their name from the shape of a physical funnel. Many people enter the first step, which would be the upper, wider part of the funnel, while only a few people stick through to the bottom, narrower part of the funnel.
The idea of a funnel is important when discussing digital marketing because it’s important to understand that only a small portion of people who are part of the very first step (eg, see your Facebook page) will become clients. In order to do lots of business, you’ll need MANY people to see your Facebook page. The first steps of your funnel needs to be far-reaching and highly appealing to get the number of people you’ll need into the funnel.
With this in mind, let’s discuss the process of setting up a digital marketing strategy. The key here is to start with a “minimum viable” funnel and build out from there. This means you’ll be putting a few pieces together that will get you some leads and help nurture those leads, but you don’t need to worry about setting up every single piece you know you’ll want to include eventually.
Your minimum viable digital funnel will have three core components:
a public marketing platform with plenty of content
a way for people to opt in for more information
a lead nurturing strategy
The method of achieving each of these steps is totally up to you – and should be tailored to your target niche and their preferences. Below are some possibilities for each piece.
Content Marketing
Your public marketing platform should make content about you and your local market publicly available and super easy to find. You’ll be publishing content that will interest your target niche and you want to do so in a way that they’ll be able to find and access easily.
Facebook page or Instagram account
This is probably the most common and the most obvious method of sharing your content. A Facebook page or Instagram account is super easy to set up and maintain (with a little commitment and dedication) and is simple for users to find and read.
Website with blog
A blog is great way to deliver long-form content and is particularly useful for information about a specific area. If your niche is people who are relocating to your area, this is a great option for you. You’ll need to set up a website and start producing regular content that addresses common questions your niche might have.
The goal is to show up in Google searches for things like “buying a home in Reno, Nevada” or “schools in Reno, Nevada.” You’ll want to make sure that your website is highly SEO-optimized for this. Once someone clicks to read one of your articles, the goal will be to have them opt in to receive your weekly e-newsletter and to offer them lots of great information they’ll need to know.
Paid leads
Any leads coming in from paid sources (like Zillow) will be entering the top of the funnel. You can cut out much of the work associated with content marketing by buying leads but be advised that it will take more time and effort to warm them up and convert them into clients.
The opt-in
“Opting in” basically means providing contact information in exchange for some thing of value. This is an important step in your minimum viable funnel and is often overlooked by agents building their digital funnels. Collecting contact information is important because a potential lead may never visit your website or Facebook page again so you want to be able to stay top of mind once they’ve left your page. The key is to provide sufficient incentive for folks to give you this information.
Lead magnets
A lead magnet is usually some kind of digital download that gives a bit more detailed information than you’d like to be handing out for free. You’ll need a few things to make this happen: a landing page, an automated email system, and a digital download like a checklist or reference guide.
To set up this step, you’ll need to create a landing page with a form to enter the contact information you’re asking for. This can be created on whatever website platform you’re already using or you can utilize LeadPages as a standalone service for this. Once a lead fills out the form, an email will be automatically sent to them with the download they signed up for. You’ll need a CRM to do this, such as Propertybase, Hubspot, Chime, etc. Make sure a form entry triggers an email to be sent with your attachment.
Contests
Contests are a great way to get people to “opt in”. A great way of doing this is to ask people to join a Facebook group as part of their entry. For example, you can ask folks to submit their entry as a comment on a post in the group, meaning they’ll have to join to take that step. People will leave the group after the contest ends, but that’s okay! Folks who stick around are the ones who are more likely to become clients down the road, anyways.
Page likes and follows
A page like or follow will make it easier to get in front of people again, though this is less ideal than having people opt in to get on your email list. This is a good strategy for a minimum viable digital funnel but you’ll probably want to add one of the other opt-in methods down the road. A page like or follow is still considered a type of opt-in because people are saying “yes, show me more content like this!”
Lead nurturing
Nurturing new leads is just important, if not more so, than generating them in the first place. Without nurturing, leads who have opted in will forget about you! This is especially sad because they’ve already expressed interest in receiving more information from you. Long story short: don’t neglect your leads!
Regular e-newsletters
If you’re collecting email addresses as part of your opt-in, you’ll want to make sure you’re sending out regular e-newsletters to keep people up to date with what you’re doing and to continue providing valuable content. An e-newsletter should do two things: give readers clear, digestible information and remind them that you exist.
You’ll need a CRM for this, such as Propertybase, Hubspot, Chime, etc. Make sure to include clear calls to action in your e-newsletters that invite readers to reach out to you for more information about buying a home or to find out what their home is worth.
An e-newsletter could also be an automated market update or home value update. This takes some of the manual labor out of creating e-newsletters, but is less personal. This is also a great option for a lead magnet – leads are likely to sign up for regular updates about the market or their home value.
Facebook group
This is a little more complex but offers a few benefits. Starting a Facebook group can be a bit difficult and slow-going at first, but Facebook’s algorithm favors group posts significantly more than page posts so more people will see your stuff once they’re a member of the group.
The goal of a Facebook group is to keep people engaged, so you’ll want to make sure to foster that active engagement by posing questions to the group and encouraging members to do the same. Continue to offer great content in the group but be sure to keep the focus on engagement, not constant promotion. Facebook groups also provide the perfect opportunity to present information in a live format.
Once you’ve decided on the components of your minimum viable digital funnel, set up each step in order. Start with your content marketing platform, then create your opt-in and start collecting contact information, and finally implement your lead nurturing technique.
Create the minimum viable version first and build on it from there! A robust digital marketing strategy includes several forms of each step, but don’t let that overwhelm you in the beginning.
REFERENCE GUIDE:
Social Media Content for Real Estate Agents
This quick one-sheet reference guide covers the five types of content real estate agents should be sharing to social media. Plus, there are a couple of tech recommendations to make life easier!
