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Three Digital Marketing Tactics That Work for Real Estate

There is no doubt that digital marketing is what everyone in business is talking about these days. It’s no different in the real estate industry. According to Borrell Associates Inc.’s 2015 Outlook for Real Esate Advertising, real estate agents and brokers are now spending over $13 billion on all forms of advertising, a whopping 75% of that amount is going towards online and digital advertising.

However, the percentage of ad spend devoted to digital marketing is predicted to slow down and possibly even drop in 2015. It’s possible that, according to Borrell’s report, that an optimal ratio has been reached. It also suggests that real estate advertisers may be moving their resources elsewhere.

Certainly, digital marketing is a great way to generate interest and leads. However, much like in other industries, real estate advertisers are throwing lots of budget at obtaining leads, whether it’s through social media, pay per click ads, display advertising, AdWords, YouTube, Facebook ads, and on and on. The focus seems to be on generating massive amounts of leads with little thought given to whether they are qualified and even less thought given to the most important point of all – how many of those leads will ultimately convert to clients.

With this in mind, here are three proven digital marketing tactics that work for real estate agents and brokers, much like they do for businesses of all kinds.

1. Effectively Manage Your Relationships

Digital marketing has grown in popularity because of its ability to help you reach a massive audience in a fast, cost-effective way. Websites, blogs, social media, and videos are designed to help reach more people, and people will find you. But what is an astounding issue in real estate is what happens next. Consider these contrasting, and extremely worrisome, statistics:

• The REAL Trends 2013 Online Performance Study found that 45% of consumers expect a response from a website within 15 minutes and 56% expect a response from their real estate agent within 30 minutes of contact.

• Contrast that with the statistic that 45% of inquiries on real estate websites never receive a response.

What is happening here? Immediate response to your customers is critical. Utilizing a powerful communication and productivity tool such as Office 365 with Outlook will put you ahead of the competition according to these statistics. Real estate is still a people business and people expect to be contacted as soon as possible. Office 365’s mobile experience is unparalleled, and gives agents the tools they need while on the road. See how one top producer manages his emails from the road utilizing Office 365. >>>

2. Use a CRM System to Manage Your Leads

Staying in touch with the right people at the right time is more than just replying to their inquiries. Generating leads is definitely something that you need to do. Maintaining a healthy, active pipeline of leads is the lifeblood of any business. However, it’s critical that you use a contact/customer relationship management (CRM) platform, such as Microsoft Dynamics, to help you store, track, and qualify your lead database for effective communication and management of your prospects. This will help you sift through your leads to find the qualified prospects and work towards converting them to clients. Email marketing campaigns to your qualified leads is still the most effective digital marketing you can do. It’s even more powerful when the emails are targeted with relevant content. For example, you may have clients who are only interested in investment properties or multi-family units. Having this information stored in your CRM system will help you build target email marketing campaigns that deliver above average response. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online integrates seamlessly with Office 365 and Outlook to give you a powerful digital marketing platform that will help you convert leads to prospects and prospects to clients. Take a tour of Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions and find one that’s right for your business. >>>

3. Stay in touch frequently and utilize dynamic content

Now that you are ready to start your email marketing campaigns and manage them through a CRM platform, the next crucial step is to make sure you’re sending relevant and engaging content to your prospect database. Don’t send the same tired emails asking people if they’re ready to buy or sell. Get them excited about your listings. Motivate them to seek out the home of their dreams. Emails need more than text, they need powerful visuals. One powerful tool that lets you create impactful, media rich content is Microsoft Sway. With Sway, you can create and share attention-grabbing digital stories with text, images, and video to showcase your services and properties to prospective clients looking to buy or sell. These digital presentations can be made quickly and deployed on demand to target specific customers or to your entire database. Forget about paper flyers, and stop sending the same boring emails – stand apart from all your competitors by sending fresh, exciting content via your Sways! See a sample listing Sway below >>>

Digital marketing doesn’t have to be an expensive crapshoot. By sticking to the tried and true tactics and being smart about the tools that you use, you’ll be on your way to converting more of your leads into valuable customers. To learn more about the Microsoft solutions presented in this article, contact Managed Solution to see how easy, quick and cost-effective it is to get started.

Contact Us & See How Today’s Technology is Shaping the Real Estate Industry of Tomorrow 800-293-6593

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