Another month in the books means another month’s worth of happenings in the world of online marketing — many of which have great relevance for real estate professionals’ digital strategies.
From the release of a new SEO study that details just how much search marketing has grown in the last year to the release of one of the real estate industry’s most widely read reports, there has been quite a bit going on you ought to know about.
Continue reading below to find out what’s been going on in the wide world of marketing as we approach the midpoint of 2017 — and watch this 1-minute video to get Facebook insights that can improve your marketing on the social network:
REAL Trends reveals its “The Thousand” for 2017.
Every year, REAL Trends releases its detailed report highlighting the best-of-the-best industry pros and firms nationwide, and this year’s iteration shows agents and brokerages across the U.S. are flourishing.
From individual agents with the highest sales volume and most sides to the firms with the highest average sales price, there is a plethora of data featured in the company’s research — research that can provide some inspiration for hoping-to-be-top-producers around the country.
Some of the (countless) esteemed real estate professionals honored in this year’s edition of The Thousand include:
- HomesUSA.com’s Ben Caballero
- Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate’s Adam Kessner
- Douglas Elliman Real Estate’s Ann Dashiell
- Duffy Realty’s Rhonda Duffy
So … in other words … if you want to get that motivational push to launch your real estate marketing and sales efforts into the stratosphere — and improve your odds of someday making this prestigious list — we recommend checking out the entire report and coming up with a plan to scale your agency in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
YouTube plans to transition to a new Studio platform.
Fleshing out your YouTube channel requires not just the ability to produce, edit, and optimize your real estate videos, but also knowledge of how to use the social channel’s Creator Studio and, in turn, ensure your published works are found by your audience online.
While this video hub on YouTube is already pretty intuitive, the platform announced it intends to release a revamped, built-from-the-ground-up revision called Studio at some point in 2017, thus making it even easier to go from uploading your clips to sharing them with the world.
The primary goal with this modified Studio is to help “creators” like you (that’s right: If you have a channel and develop videos, you’re a creator — congrats!) save precious time … something you and a million other agents could always use more of to complete other business tasks.
If you just read the previous few paragraphs and cringed, thinking, “Oy, I reeeeeeaaaally need to get my video efforts off the ground — like, today,” we’ve got one word for you: RELAX! It’s okay if you still haven’t constructed a video program for your agency. Take some time to learn the types of real estate videos you should create, then start up your YouTube channel once you’ve got a few films in the can, so to speak.
Facebook will offer a new video app by year’s end.
Speaking of “creators,” Facebook also has a rather large stake in the ever-growing online video space, given Facebook Live’s substantial success with both the general public and brands alike — and the social media conglomerate appears to have zero plans of slowing down.
YouTube will soon offer a revamped Creator Studio, while Facebook will launch another video app.
Though the particulars of the project are still somewhat under wraps, Facebook team members revealed during the latest iteration of VidCon the company proposes to have a brand new video app available to the world by the end of 2017 — one that will enhance live streaming efforts with new editing functionality for real-time videos.
Mashable reports the app will feature a “creative kit” for those who develop streams via Facebook Live that make the vids in question more interactive and stylish. In other words, Facebook and YouTube (and, in turn, Google, which owns the latter) continue to fight for video dominance in the modern digital landscape — a fight that’s unlikely to end anytime soon.
While the social media giants duke it out for the title of Video Champion, all you need to worry about is fine-tuning your live-streaming video efforts.
The aforementioned, pre-planned and perfectly produced videos featuring clients, local influencers, and your market are must-create assets, don’t neglect real-time videos either, as live streams have proven to be an amazing way for brands to connect with consumers (or, in your case, home buyers and/or sellers).
Advanced Web Ranking unveils a new SEO report.
Search engine optimization remains absolutely critical for online marketing success. The algorithms Google concocts in its secret lab (well, more like Silicon Valley palace) are always changing, but the need to creating search-friendly content and optimize one’s website for SEO best practices remains paramount to be found organically.
Plain and simple: If your real estate SEO strategy is lacking (or, worse yet, nonexistent), it’s time to turn to some data that proves its significance for your digital efforts — like, say, the latest report from online marketing services firm Advanced Web Ranking.
According to the company’s 2017 study of SEO tactics, preferences, and insights from search experts across the land, search optimization remains a focal point for their online efforts. Case in point:
- 67% of survey respondents indicated that link-building was by far their most difficult SEO activity to-date.
- 90% of companies relayed they deal with on-page SEO activities in-house instead of hiring external services.
- 64% of marketers noted they routinely track their website visitors’ activity to gauge their site’s effectiveness.
- More than half of marketing pros use 2-4 tools for keyword research for their on-page search optimization efforts.
Search marketing isn’t going away anytime soon, so it’s time to take it just as seriously as these “SEOs” (yes, the term refers to people in addition to the act of optimizing. We know: It’s confusing.).
But we digress.
If you want to learn how to fine-tune your search strategy — and generate many more leads organically (and for little cost) — check out our in-depth SEO webinar tailored for the modern agent (hint: you!).
Ascend2 study notes content helps 81% of brands.
Search optimization is just one cog in the overall, online marketing machine, of course. While it’s an important one, there are many other digital activities, techniques, outlets, and approaches that make up a 21st-century marketing plan.
As this Ascend2 report on content creation and distribution shows, the marketing goals for each brand — from 10-person operations to 500-employee organizations — vary widely as well.
Per the marketing research entity’s latest data findings, reaching greater sales totals has become the chief objective for most companies’ marketing efforts these days, with 50% citing the achievement as their main end-game for their digital strategies.
Perhaps a bit surprisingly, video was deemed the top marketing tactic to help these brands meet their sales goals, with 49% indicating the multimedia format played the biggest role in their growth. Website content, social media shares, and research reports rounded out the top-four activities to conduct.
You may not have the bandwidth to try every internet marketing option under the sun for your real estate business, but at the very least, it’s imperative to experiment with different content types and channels to discover what marketing mix works best for your agency.
Before you get started with this kind of testing, though, just be sure you effectively optimize your IDX website for 2017 (and beyond), then take it from there (e.g. build a presence on new social networks; set up automated email campaigns for leads; develop targeted Facebook ad campaigns).
GetResponse research finds email is still thriving.
We get it, we get it: These marketing statistics, reports, and studies are all fine and dandy … but none of them specifically relate to real estate pros like you. If you’re looking for some agent-oriented marketing data, we’ve got some compelling email figures to share with you from the latest GetResponse study.
As it pertains specifically to agents’ and brokers’ real estate email campaigns, 85% of industry professionals noted they measure top-, middle-, and bottom-of-funnel recipient engagement and constantly evaluate their new subscriber totals to ensure they have plenty of prospects to share content with.
Meanwhile, 80% of real estate pros said they see average, good, or excellent ROI from their email marketing strategies, meaning the lead-nurturing technique is a more-than-viable activity for agents to utilize to continually move leads from “just thinking about buying/selling” to “I need to hire [your name] today!”
Drip marketing isn’t a new concept … but if it’s new to you, don’t fret: There are plenty of resources out there at your disposal to enhance your email expertise — and help you convert more leads into brand new business.
Get even more email marketing advice from Keller Williams Mega Agent Rachel Adams in this exclusive Placester webinar.
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