When it comes to growing your business, social media has completely changed the playing field. Being able to target your ideal audience from the convenience of your smartphone is gold for any industry, real estate included, and the income potential is amazing.
Mobile marketing has taken the marketing world by storm and with good reason. By the time a buyer reaches you, they have most likely done their research online. From hours on Zillow to cruising the neighborhoods to find their dream home, they are coming to you prepared. And this is all taking place from their mobile phone.
Below are 10 mobile marketing strategies for real estate professionals
1. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
When you view your website from your smartphone, does it look exactly like it does on the computer? Or are words too small to read and the load time too long? If this is the case for you, you do not have a mobile friendly website and that is hurting your business greatly. Anyone who experiences this when visiting your site from their phone is going to quickly close it out and move on.
What you do want to achieve with your website is responsive design. This means the pages on your website automatically resize themselves based on the device being used. Typically, you would resize things like buttons, images and text. It can also mean you are removing text that cannot be viewed properly on a mobile device. The key is to have your site look as it should across any type of device.
2. Get into mobile advertising
Unless you have reached the level of Zillow, using ppc (pay per click) ads are key to driving traffic to your website. This can be in the form of Facebook ads, Google AdWords or display networks on other sites. Buyers should be getting ads that are localized as well as calls to action that are mobile specific. Your phone number should be clickable, for example. Some other ideas include using Facebook’s live video for doing home tours or doing a campaign where you are advertising within an app. These are all great lead generators.
3. Landing pages should be optimized for mobile
Landing pages have only one purpose and that is to enlist action on the part of the visitor. Some key things to optimize on your website are the following:
- The main CTA button should pop up with a quick downward swipe..immediacy is key.
- An additional CTA button should be at the end of all your landing pages as well. The last thing anyone wants to do is scroll back up for a phone number.
- Any buttons should be large and span the length of the device screen.
- Your phone number should be text based and clear to see and of course simple to ‘tap to call’.
4. Use mobile chat
Email was great for its time but messaging is where it’s at when it comes to communication with clients. Whether you use Facebook Messenger, text or a real estate app, mobile chat allows you to better manage your client relationships on all levels. It provides that needed human touch and allows you to come across as more responsive because even if you are stuck in a meeting, you can quickly shoot over a text.
5. Start a blog about your city and neighborhood.
Blogging about the areas you serve is a great way to provide essential information to potential buyers. Often times, articles can be found online but usually without depth of information. Schools, local restaurants, local service providers, the history of the neighborhood, are all great things to write about. Buyers will see you have extensive knowledge about the neighborhood and be more inclined to call you about buying a house.
6. Embrace mobile video.
The popularity of mobile videos is no mystery. Millions of people are watching them everyday. Using videos for marketing your properties is a great way to showcase them. This could be a tour of a home or even a slideshow of the house’s best features. If you can, hiring a professional videographer to produce it would be even better and will definitely help you stand out from the competition. Drones are another cool option to try out. You can do fly throughs and provide a bird’s eye view of the home and the neighborhood.