Real estate professionals build new relationships daily. With the increasing use of technology in generating leads for potential clients, it’s vital to keep up with real estate digital marketing trends.
This can aid you in developing a digital marketing strategy right for your real estate business. At the same time, it’s also important to recognize movements in the real estate industry that shape the rise of new marketing practices, especially those enabled by emerging digital technologies.
While the current state of the real estate market varies widely across key markets, there are prevailing themes to watch out for in the industry for 2021.
Here are some of them:
- As economies gradually open up from the pandemic, the real estate sector is expected to roar back to life. However, real estate companies must adapt quickly to market changes as the world learns to live with Covid-19.
- Remote and hybrid working arrangements will endure. This will continue to affect residential and commercial real estate in years to come.
- The sustained rise of eCommerce, which the pandemic also accelerated, will continue to pressure retail spaces.
- Online real estate services are growing. Property technology (prop-tech) entrepreneurs will continue to see opportunities in increasing efficiencies and cutting costs in real estate transactions.
- High-risk opportunities are becoming more accessible. Financing platforms, fractional ownership, and cryptocurrency payments — these tech-enabled options are still largely considered unconventional in the real estate sector, although their acceptance is slowly gaining popularity.
Digital Marketing Trends in Real Estate for 2021
Part of the strategy in navigating these conditions is capitalizing on digital marketing trends to help your real estate business grow. The marketing practices below, which further grew in prominence this year, can aid you in managing the uncertainties of real estate in the months to come.
1 – Single property websites
A single property website is fully dedicated to just one property to convey a feeling of exclusivity and uniqueness. This enables realtors to contrast this one special property against those in generic website listings.
This recent trend is typically reserved for luxury properties that
2 – Realtor as influencer
Companies pay public figures to promote their brand, social media accounts, or specific products in conventional influencer marketing. This trend has enabled the rise of “micro-influencers” who may not have as big a follower base as celebrities but still have a significant following in specific localities or niches.
Real estate firms have employed this marketing strategy for years now, but what has taken off more recently is the rise of individual realtors as the influencers themselves.
Realtors can build a sizable audience in their various social media channels by establishing credibility, displaying a particular lifestyle, or showcasing visually stunning properties, a deliberate marketing strategy to generate leads and build their brand.
3 – Virtual Staging
Sophisticated real estate businesses have begun to showcase their properties online, not just through professional photography but increasingly through more photorealistic mediums.
One convenient and affordable way to do this is through virtual staging. A property is brought to life by digitally enhancing the photos of empty home spaces with virtually staged furniture and decor.
4 – Virtual Tours
Another way of eliciting interest and excitement from online viewers is a 3D virtual tour as an alternative to virtual staging.
A 3D virtual tour is a digital copy of a property created by knitting together a sequence of images or videos. Music, narration, and other multimedia effects are often integrated to enhance the virtual tour experience.
5 – Drone Videos
Still, a novelty in real estate marketing, drone videos of a property convey a special appeal. Typically reserved for high-end residential properties, aerial footage can properly display exterior environments.
Drone videos showing the neighborhood and nearby landmarks are likely to add value to the listing. Further, real estate companies can leverage their video content of drone footages to generate engagement and add followers to their social media accounts.
In a survey, U.S. realtors believe that drones will be the most impactful emerging technology to their businesses in the next two years.
6 – Virtual Agents
Virtual real estate agents, brokers, or realtors are disruptive trends that the pandemic helped accelerate. When interested buyers have already looked at all the online materials, they can talk with on-demand virtual agents.
For advanced discussions, the virtual agents may even offer to be at the property for a live walk-through while the buyers remain at home if they’re unable to be on-site.
7 – Online Closing
Realtors can now rely on digital tools to facilitate certain closing requirements when a broker is about to close a sale but cannot physically meet with either the buyer or seller.
The most emerging tools now deal with documentation management, electronic signature forms, and remote online notarization, all tailored to real estate transactions.
While not necessarily a digital marketing tool, these types of closing apps signal to prospective clients that they can rely on their brokers to close a deal no matter the circumstance.
8 – Further automation of real estate marketing
Marketing automation has been and will continue to be a critical component of real estate lead generation strategies. The good news is that automation tools such as CRM platforms continue to keep up with new ideas that help real estate companies grow their businesses.
A 3D virtual tour is a digital copy of a property created by knitting together a sequence of images or videos. Music, narration, and other multimedia effects are often integrated to enhance the virtual tour experience.
Real estate marketing automation tools typically assist in the following areas:
- Lead identification, categorization, and engagement
- Email marketing campaigns
- Social media campaigns
- Ad creation and management
- Website activity and user behavior
- Marketing and sales analysis
- Marketing budget management
- Sales and cash flow prediction
Keep an eye out for Prop Tech
While PropTech is still a niche vertical in the digital space, it won’t be surprising to see new tools and services continuously innovate to enhance the experience of buying real estate.
Keep an eye out on which of the digital marketing trends above can elevate your real estate business as you navigate the market’s uncertainties for this year and the next.
