New trends in real estate digital marketing emerged due to Covid19 lockdown.
That actually boosted sales even during lockdown.
Governments across the world imposed strict lockdowns that stopped the offline world.
But not the online world.
Instead, the online world came as a savior for everyone.
Today, consumers are relying more on the online services than ever before.
And the real estate industry is no exception.
Though lockdown came as a big jolt to real estate.
Nevertheless, real estate relied on digital marketing for generating sales even in this slowdown.
In turn, real estate digital marketing delivered that too with outstanding numbers.
Furthermore, the real estate industry is now heavily investing in real estate digital marketing.
So, bigger investment and more consumer reliance on digital, have led to emergence of new trends in real estate marketing.
These real estate digital marketing trends are not short term, these trends are here for a very long time.
The next time you build a real estate digital marketing strategy you should accommodate these trends.
Let me show you the trends:
1. Personalized Online Assistance
In a lockdown and due to covid19 scare, people are straightway canceling in person meetings.
Nevertheless, new home buyers still want more personalized query resolutions.
For that you could accommodate personalized online assistance on your website.
Many realtors and developers have started to use personalized online assistance AI based tools.
However, assistance from real humans is still more preferred and effective than AI based chatbots.
This trend to deliver personalized online assistance will get better with time due to technology innovations and more consumer demand.
Right now ready to use tools and solutions are available that can easily be integrated with your real estate website.
2. Gaining Trust Through Online Marketing
The most difficult of all is to gain trust of your customers online.
For a first time buyer it is not easy to make a purchase decision based on few photos or textual content on your website.
They need more assurance, proof, evidence, security, and above all more content reassuring your credibility.
You will need to build trust with your brand recognition and content.
Building online authority and online reputation is not limited to just a few testimonials.
Instead you need unbiased reviews from your actual buyers on third party platforms such as Google My Business.
Marketers involved in real estate digital marketing will need to constantly innovate to gain trust and win loyalty.
As more people are going online to make their purchase decision than ever before, realtors who will win their customers’ trust online will come out leaders in the market.
3. Real and Original Content Not Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality around 2010-12 made a grand entry into real estate.
Soon, VR and AR made a grand exit as well.
That’s because VR and AR failed to make a major impact on customer’s purchase intent and decision.
For a strong purchase intent, realtors need to show the actual pictures, and live video tours.
Basically, show the real thing on which your prospective customer can bet on.
You can offer a live video tour or live feed to your real estate project.
Real estate developers have started to use it in their real estate digital marketing strategy.
Because the amount of impact of live video on conversion rates are very high.
You can easily convince your prospects to make the final purchasing decision.
This trend will go mainstream in the coming years.
4. Time To Up The Content Game
Time and again it is proven content is a king, and this trend is perennial.
However, when content meets new technology and innovation, it becomes more outstanding, engaging and powerful.
Moreover, new content such as short videos, reels, stories, live stream, interactive media, online games etc. are gaining ground.
People are now consuming more content, and searching, browsing and researching more than ever.
Therefore, there’s more demand for quality, entertaining, informative, and engaging content.
In addition, more content consumption has to be fulfilled with a variety of content – this trend will continue and become much bigger.
If you’re missing out on this, then your real estate digital marketing strategy is bound to perform poorly.
It is proven higher engagement is directly correlated to higher sales.
That’s an indisputable fact that – organic traffic from Google Search is easier to convert into leads or customers.
Therefore, marketers should work more on on-page SEO more than ever before.
As people are limiting themselves to only searches for quick answers.
You can attract them from the search results page itself by offering more structured content and rich snippets.
This way marketers can acquire more real estate on the Google platform to convince customers and attract them to the website.
Off-page SEO is limited to media placements and buying.
But the real game is on-page SEO, which will make a bigger impact to your rankings.
And to win at SEO you will have to delve into technical SEO and on-page SEO.
6. Overhaul Social Media Branding
Do you or your hired marketers still post on social media once in a blue moon?
Is your social media marketing limited to generating traffic to your website or lead generation?
Well, this is the problem, most realtors still underestimate the power and impact of social media.
Your branding on social media will help you keep your audience engaged, build loyalty and get the word of mouth.
That’s why major realtors and industry leaders are investing more than ever before on social media branding.
In 2021, I expect social media branding will play a major role in real estate digital marketing strategy.
Now, small to large developers will use social media to not just catch the eye balls but also build engagement and gain trust.
Moreover, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Google My Business platforms will be crucial apart from Facebook.
7. Online Advertising is now inevitable
Yes, online advertising is the only way forward on major platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
That’s because of a lot of saturation in the market, and very less organic reach.
But if you still think online advertising will be your shortcut to lead generation and sales, let me tell you’re wrong.
You will have to research thoroughly to find unique ways to target your audience.
Above all, dive deeper into your analytics to continuously improve performance of your ad units.
If you still skip these steps, then you are just paying for the impressions that too offer extremely poor ROI (return on investment).
The bottomline is – paid advertising is an inevitable part of your real estate digital marketing, and without proper planning and continuous improvements, it is bound to fail.
8. It’s Time To Explore Other Platforms
It is true, right now the Internet world is a bipolar world dominated by Google and Facebook platforms.
However, there are other platforms as well that offer easy reach to your target audience in real estate.
For example, if you want to reach the young working class in the age bracket of 24-35, LinkedIn is the best platform.
There are other emerging social media platforms that allow you to reach niche audience segments within your target groups.
Few top emerging social media platforms are – Quora, Telegram, SnapChat, Meetup, and others.
The trend to diversify real estate digital marketing to these new emerging platforms will get bigger and better in coming years.
9. Multiple Payment Options Online Fast and Secure
Lockdown forced people to wholeheartedly embrace online payment apps and services.
The shift towards online payment will continue that too in large numbers next few years.
In addition, Covid19 scare also is working as fuel, which is further pushing consumers to online payments.
During lockdown, major realtors offered online bookings such as Tata and Godrej, moreover, small developers and realtors started to offer online bookings.
This trend to allow buyers to book properties online will continue and get bigger in 2021.
However, the question over ease, security and refunds will still be a major concern for the buyers.
Therefore, realtors will need to work on this, and offer better solutions that can win trust of the prospective customers.
That’s it.
The year 2021 will be full of hope and expectations for humanity.
Businesses particularly real estate has suffered huge losses this year.
Nevertheless, a great push back both from customers and realtors is being witnessed following sales trends in November-December months.
Let’s hope things get better.
If you need any help feel free to comment, I would love to help you.
Cheers!
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