The Biggest Shop Window in the World!
The importance of inbound marketing for real estate companies cannot be underestimated. The widespread availability of the Internet has resulted in house buyers searching online for properties before they do anything else, and consequently vendors are looking out for real estate companies who have the best website design and who actively market the properties that appear on their websites.
If you have a small or medium sized business, you may be apprehensive about the cost of a well-designed and eye-catching real estate website compared to an off-the-shelf MLS software package, or the level of resources that you may have to commit to market your website once it has been developed. These are justifiable concerns which can be alleviated with a brief explanation of inbound marketing for the real estate industry.
There has been a lot said about inbound marketing, and how it is the new rising marketing strategy for businesses in general because of its target method; but real estate companies sometimes feel that, because of the nature of what they are selling, it is not for them. Indeed, take a look at the websites of other real estate companies and see how few are using social media marketing to communicate with visitors to their real estate website.
However, inbound marketing for real estate companies can be a valuable tool, not just for communicating with potential buyers and vendors, but for getting your real estate website to the top of the search engine results pages and attracting more visitors to your website. It can also be used to provide added-value to potential buyers and give vendors a good reason to list their properties with your company.
What Makes a Good Real Estate Website?
Before considering strategies in inbound marketing for real estate, you should really consider the website design and feel of your current website. Your website is the destination that all your inbound marketing efforts will lead to, and it has to be a destination worth the journey for the visitors who arrive there, to dissuade them from clicking away from your website to see what a competitor has to offer.
Your website design should be crisp and clean, bright and colorful, easy to read and simple to navigate. It should be packed with content that people want to read (in fact, so much content that people will be unable to read it in one sitting and have to come back for more) and the content your website contains should be so compelling that visitors will share it among their social circles, particularly those within their social circles who are looking to buy or sell a property – the new “Word of Mouth” marketing.
The properties were exceptionally well presented as well.
Furthermore, at the top of every page there are links to Broadview Homes´ Facebook pages (they have one for each property they are selling!), their Twitter account, YouTube Channel (where the “how to” videos are hosted) Pinterest page and an invitation to share what you have found on their web pages via Google+. It is fair to say that Broadview Homes, without spending a huge sum of money, have developed a good great real estate website which visitors will return to again and again, and share with others in their social circles.
What About My Multi Listing Service?
Obviously real estate companies will not want to forgo the benefits that they receive from their MLS software (or lose the money they paid for it), but MLS software can be easily integrated into a new website design – for an example of how it can be done effectively, visit the website of the Spanish real estate company YourViva.
YourViva gives visitors to their website a truly comprehensive information service and added-value with FREE investment advice, FREE legal advice, FREE lifestyle guides and a personal login to an account where visitors to the real estate website can save selected properties to return and review later. YourViva is also very active in social media marketing, and it is not difficult to see why they are a successful company despite the very subdued property market in Spain.
As professional realtors, you should be aware of the importance of taking advantage of any opportunities presented to you – so here is one that we expect will get the phones ringing.
JZ Marketing offers as part of its services an “all-inclusive” inbound marketing package which we call “All Under One Roof”. This package contains all the elements listed above that appear on the Broadview Homes and YourViva websites PLUS the development of a inexpensive responsive website so that your real estate website can be accessed from mobile devices – essential for when prospective buyers are out house-hunting and come across one of your listed properties. These are just some beginning points about inbound marketing for real estate companies.
However, before we start to discuss a new website design for your real estate business, we would invite you to take advantage of our free social media marketing offer to create and manage social media accounts on behalf of your company. If you are already using social media marketing tools such as Facebook and Twitter, you have nothing to lose by talking with our team and allowing JZMarketing to take control of them for thirty days.
Don´t let this opportunity pass you by and get a head start on your competitors who are ignoring the benefits of inbound marketing for real estate companies. Call JZMarketing today (or leave your contact details in the box below and one of our team will call you back). If you are ready to start embracing social media and inbound marketing for the real estate industry, start by sharing this article via the social media buttons below!