We know you’ve got your hands full with handling listings and showings, negotiating contracts, and looking for new business opportunities every single day. With prices rising and both homeowners and homebuyers growing progressively more worried about it, 2024 will be intense! It may seem like learning about marketing on top of everything else is too much—but it’s crucial if you want to drive leads. And we’re here to help!
Let’s take a look at the most effective marketing trends for real estate in 2024 that will pay off in new clients and deals.
#1 Create Short Videos
People these days don’t ever close the Youtube tab. And if they do, it’s only to watch some Instagram reels or a dozen silly TikToks. So if you have to choose just one real estate marketing strategy to invest your resources into, let it be video content.
The most obvious choice of video content is short property presentations, but don’t limit yourself to them. Here’s what you can create:
- Tips for homeowners
- Tips for homebuyers
- Neighborhood highlights
- Personal greetings (for introducing yourself to new people)
- Bits of your daily life to let your clients feel like they know you
Also, you can add value by creating videos with educational content on crafting asset protection plans for real estate or investment trusts that will help your viewers make informed decisions. Video content is even more important if you use Instagram as your primary platform. Reels are loved by people and algorithms alike, so they should be the focus of your real estate marketing efforts.
#2 Get Video Testimonials
Got happy clients? Ask them to create a video testimonial for you in return for a special discount or another incentive. Video testimonials are much more engaging and trustworthy than text ones as they paint a vivid picture of your collaborative work and success.
Don’t be intimidated by the video creation process: it’s enough to have a smartphone with a good camera and basic video editing skills. Even the most simple short video with clients thanking you for their new home or a good deal will earn you lots of trust points.
#3 Shine on Social Media
As mentioned above, Instagram can be a great platform for reaching out to your audience and getting organic and paid traffic.
According to recent research, the majority of active Instagram users consist of people aged between 25 and 34 years (31%), with users between 34 and 44 taking up another 15%. Younger people might not be ready to buy property yet, but they are looking for options to rent. And with Instagram offering paid ads, it’s a great real estate promotion tool and one of the most effective real estate marketing ideas.
Here’s some ideas of what to share on your social media:
- Visual content: Consider yourself lucky, because as a real estate professional, you will never run out of beautiful things to post. Properties, interior design ideas, local restaurants and spots for recreation, seasonal and local events. Just filling your account with photos can attract tons of followers, and if you add videos into the mix, growing your social media will be a piece of cake. Just remember to post consistently and keep your finger on the pulse by checking the analytics.
- Interactive activities: People love giveaways, contests, and quizzes. They may require more effort on your part, but those efforts will pay off with new followers and additional online presence. Algorithms love accounts that can engage users, so they will recommend your page more often.
- Conversation-worthy content: This is another thing that algorithms (at least, Instagram’s) love. Ask your users questions, discuss hot or even controversial topics, and have long discussions with them in the comments. By the way, interacting with your audience in the form of reactions and replies also helps give your account more credibility—so don’t forget to talk with people!
- User-generated content: Encourage happy clients to share their stories and experiences on social media. User-generated content can serve as powerful testimonials and increase trust among potential buyers.
#4 Collaborate With Influencers
Growing your social media presence alone is quite hard, so why not join the effort with other content creators and influencers? As a real estate professional, you can reach out to interior designers, manufacturers, and lifestyle bloggers among others. Exchange valuable content, co-host live streams and events, or just go for good old paid promotion.
#5 Grow Your Community With a Newsletter
A monthly or weekly real estate newsletter lets you stay in touch with your past clientele and promote yourself as an expert to your new subscribers. The content of the newsletter may range from the latest listings to neighborhood tours, recommendations of places to eat, event reviews, interviews with prominent community members, and tips for interior design.
Guides like this can establish you as not just a real estate agent, but a friend—and make your name spring to mind when thinking about a particular place to live.
Get extra points for making your newsletter stand out from the crowd with some interactivity. Here’s what it may look like:
Al Ghurair Properties Brochure
Don’t know where to start? Try FlippingBook—a publishing app that lets you turn any PDF into an interactive document with a page flip effect, videos, GIFs, and more. And if you don’t have a PDF yet, just grab our free real estate newsletter template for Canva. You can easily customize it with your texts and pictures and then turn it into a flipbook in FlippingBook.
Check out a short video to learn how FlippingBook can help you outshine your real estate competitors:
#6 Give Virtual Tours
The pandemic might not be keeping us locked up inside anymore, but it has undoubtedly changed how we do things, transferring many offline activities online. Showcasing properties is one of them. Virtual touring allows you and your clients to get an immersive experience with the property without leaving your homes or while meeting at a cafe, saving you tons of time and speeding up the decision-making process. If you’ve never prepared a virtual tour before, here’s what you need to do:
- Choose the right software: You’ll need a virtual guide platform or software, such as Matterport, Zillow 3D Home, or VirtualTourCafe. These tools allow you to create, edit, and share virtual tours.
- Prepare the property: Before creating a virtual tour, ensure the property is clean, well-lit, and staged appropriately. Remove clutter and personal items to make the space more appealing and easier for viewers to imagine themselves living there.
- Capture high-quality images or videos: At a bare minimum, you’ll need a smartphone with a high-resolution camera to take wide-angle photos and videos of the property. Some virtual tour software requires 360-degree images, which may need a specialized camera. Capture multiple angles to provide a comprehensive view.
- Create the virtual tour: Upload your images or videos to the virtual tour platform and follow the instructions to stitch them together into a seamless tour. Many platforms offer features like floor plans, hotspots (clickable areas that provide more information or move the viewer to a different part of the tour), and narration or text descriptions.
- Share and promote the tour: Once your virtual tour is ready, share it on your website, property listings, social media platforms, and email newsletters. Or send it directly to potential buyers! You can also offer live virtual tours via Zoom and guide your buyers through the tour answering their questions and highlighting the most prominent features as you go.
#7 Get Referrals
Word-of-mouth is still the most effective marketing tool for getting new clients. According to Referme IQ, 42% of sellers found their real estate agent through a referral by someone they trust. In other words, getting a referral is an evergreen real estate marketing trend you should continue with in 2024.
It’s always nice when people recommend you to their friends just because they can’t help but share how great you are. But it doesn’t hurt to help them keep you on top of their mind so that when the opportunity is there, they can easily remember your name.
Here’s what you can do:
- Keep in touch: We’ve already discussed newsletters and videos—keep doing that. On top of helping you grow the subscriber base, regular content also lets you build relationships with your past clients.
- Offer educational workshops/webinars: Nothing works better than an actual live connection, even online. Get people to know you, and teach them something new—the next time their loved ones need to buy or sell, they’ll think of you.
- Choose the right moment to ask for a referral: It’s only natural to ask for a recommendation after the deal is closed, but don’t limit yourself to it. Have you finally found the home your buyer was dreaming of? Did your seller get the best price for their property? People are bursting with excitement at times like this, they’ll want to share their luck and—if you gently nudge them—your contacts with the world.
#8 Partner Up with Local Businesses
Are there any designer furniture showrooms or interior design firms? See if you can partner up with them to ‘cross-pollinate’ your client bases. The easiest way is to exchange business cards and flyers, but if you really hit it off, why not run an online event together, exchange guest posts, or promote each other through an email campaign?
Another way to put your name out there is to sponsor some local events. See if there are any school, sport, or charity initiatives you can participate in—in exchange for a mention of your brand.
#9 Build Your Network
Joining a professional community on social media carries plenty of benefits. In addition to a chance to discuss common issues, get new perspectives, and stay on the edge of the latest changes in the industry, you get to make yourself known to people outside your local area. Plus, you’ll keep getting new marketing ideas for realtors delivered right into your social media feed.
Be active, and present yourself as the expert you are, and when your colleagues get a client moving into your neighborhood, they might refer them to you!
There are many professional real estate groups on Facebook and LinkedIn you can join. But if you want to stand out and have some serious insights to share, it’s a good idea to start your own community. Facebook is perfect for initiating discussions and answering people’s questions, while LinkedIn is a great place to post more extensive articles and spread knowledge.
#10 Invest in Your Website’s SEO
Having a professional real estate website is a must for building your brand and connecting with new clients. People will trust you more if they can research you properly—and a neat website with the latest listings, some About info, client testimonials, and blog articles will be of great help.
However, no matter how valuable your content is, it’s useless if it’s stuck on page 8 of Google search results. So what can you do to make it rank higher?
- Use a lot of relevant keywords across your website and blog.
- Check the website speed: the faster, the better obviously. If it’s too slow, opt for a more straightforward design—it doesn’t have to be fancy to make your website attractive.
- Optimize for mobile devices: Google puts them first, as well as your potential clients probably do.
- Build your website authority by placing a lot of backlinks: You can do it by posting links to your articles on social media and websites, such as Reddit and Quora, where people ask questions. This will also help drive organic traffic to your website.
- Update your website often: This will let Google know it stays relevant for your visitors.
- Check your metatags: they should be descriptive and include keywords.
- Use paid real estate promotions: Apart from attracting new real estate leads online, this will drive more traffic to your website. Provided people will stay on it for at least a few minutes, Google will consider this a positive metric.
#11 Step Up Your Email Marketing Game
Email marketing is still one of the most effective lead-generation channels, and it’s true for real estate as well. We’ve already discussed sending newsletters, but you can also share local news and events, or use your email as a means of promoting your upcoming activities. It’s also a great way to inform your clients about exclusive deals and send them personalized property suggestions. So, incorporating automated email marketing workflows can streamline communication and ensure timely and relevant messages reach your audience at every stage of their journey.
#12 Get Google Screened
Google Screened is a free verification tool for professionals in Law, Financial Planning, Child Care, and Real Estate. It checks your license and gives you a special badge that tells people your business has been checked. Which in turn helps you build trust among new clients.
#13 Start a Blog
Blogging offers a plethora of benefits:
- Establishing you as an expert in your field, and boosting your credibility.
- Helping your website rank high in search engines thanks to frequent updates and the opportunity to cover a lot of search queries with relevant keywords.
- Giving you valuable content you can later re-package into social media posts, newsletters, emails, and downloadable content.
- Educating your prospective clients on real estate—instead of explaining the same things repeatedly, you can just send them a relevant article.
- Generating new leads and email subscribers.
Blogging requires dedication and regularity, but it’s doable for any real estate professional. If anything, it became easier than ever. Not sure what to write about? Try using generative AI for ideas and tips. Need an infographic for your article? There are tons of customizable templates on services like Canva and Adobe Express.
#14 Generate Leads With Downloadable Content
Insightful, high-quality content is always in demand, and people are still more than willing to trade their email for something that will help them achieve their goals. Invest in comprehensive guides for homeowners and homebuyers, and market reports and property management tips for investors. Comprehensive content like that stays relevant for years, and you can reuse and repurpose it to get additional value.
Traditionally, downloadable content is shared as a PDF locked behind a lead capture form on the website. But you can also turn it into an interactive e-book with a built-in lead capture form. This way, you can share it on multiple channels like email and social media for wider outreach and not worry that some of the leads will slip through. Here’s what it can look like:
Hutton and Hutton Real Estate Flipbook
And here are a few more ideas for lead-generating real estate content:
- City Guide
- Home Decor Guide
- Home Buying Process Guide
- Home Inspection Checklist
- Tips for Attending Open Houses
- Preparing Your Home for Sale
- Marketing Your Home
- Understanding Home Appraisals
- Real Estate Market Trends
#15 Create a Zillow Profile
Zillow is the largest real estate marketplace platform in the USA, so if you are working with the American market, it makes sense to keep a profile there.
The benefits are numerous, including a wider audience reach, reputation growth thanks to client reviews, and all the credentials and experience info you can include in your profile; access to important data such as current market trends and buyer preferences, and networking opportunities.
Zillow is an excellent source of leads: people can reach out to you directly, or you can boost your lead generation by subscribing to Zillow’s Premier Agent program and gaining exclusive advertising rights to your listings.
And last but not least, Zillow makes working on the go easier with a dedicated mobile app. As a real estate agent, you can manage your profile, respond to inquiries, and update listings from anywhere, ensuring you don’t miss an opportunity to talk with a prospective client.
#16 Use Drone Photography
If you need a reason for using drone photography to market your property, here it is. According to the National Association of Realtors, homes with aerial photos sell 68% faster than ones that have standard images.
Drone photos can showcase the entire property and highlight its best features like a spacious backyard, a pool, or beautiful landscape design. They can also demonstrate how close the property is to the neighborhood’s amenities like parks, shopping centers, or schools, wowing the potential client and helping them to come to a decision much quicker.
Also, drone photos make outstanding marketing materials. Whether you use them on social media and in your ads, or add to your listings, they are bound to attract views and shares resulting in more leads coming your way.
#17 Advertise Offline
Despite the obvious shift toward everything digital, offline has its perks, offering personal touchpoints and tangible experiences that digital marketing sometimes lacks.
When done right, offline activities can be a great addition to your real estate marketing strategy, and give you a competitive edge. Here’s what you can do:
- Send out postcards and flyers: Target relevant neighborhoods or demographics, showcasing your listings and recent sales, or offering a free home valuation.
- Send out newsletters: Regularly distribute a newsletter with market updates, home maintenance tips, and community news to keep in touch with past clients and prospects.
- Networking groups: Join local business groups, chambers of commerce, and real estate associations to build your network and find potential clients.
- Host open houses: Make your open house events stand out by offering refreshments, guided tours, and detailed information packets about the property and neighborhood.
- Give ads in print newspapers and magazines: Advertise in local newspapers, real estate magazines, and community bulletins to reach potential buyers and sellers.
- Design memorable business cards: Share unique business cards during meetings, open houses, and networking events to ensure potential clients have your contact information.
- Host workshops: Offer free workshops on home buying, selling, or investing in real estate to educate potential clients.
- Work on your For Sale signs: Design eye-catching For Sale signs that grab attention, and don’t forget to add QR codes that lead to online listings or virtual tours.
We hope these 17 marketing ideas and tips will inspire you to ramp up your business in 2024 and get you a lot of new clients and closed deals. Good luck!
