Category: Lead Generation Ideas

Use these 5 email marketing strategies to become a local market pro.  Becoming a “local market pro” means more than just understanding the general state of your neighborhood real estate market. Of course, having demographic and geographic knowledge is important.

But… how are you sharing this information with your audience?  Growing your engagement is the most effective way to connect with your audience, share valuable information, and establish yourself as a reputable brand.

Digital marketing provides us with the tools necessary to effectively (and consistently) share messages with a strong value proposition to a large audience in your local market.

In this week’s blog post, we are going to identify 5 key strategies. These will not only help you grow your audience through email marketing, but also improve the strength of your messaging strategies – leading to greater engagement and effectiveness of your email campaigns.

 

5 Email Marketing Strategies

1. Email Lists

The first step to an effective email marketing campaign is to gather email addresses for your contact list. Because you are focusing on becoming the expert in the local market, it is important to source addresses in your neighborhood. You can begin constructing your database through your HOA or neighborhood contact lists of owners. This will provide you with email addresses and other information to help you reach your audience.

Another great way to build your database is to engage with previous clients in your area. Reaching out in a non-invasive manner to collect contact information on local homeowners through existing connections is an effective strategy for maintaining client relationships and growing your audience.

Other alternatives to gathering contacts for your email marketing list include using resources like Fiverr or TruthFinder, which provide a service that will help you construct a database. Although these resources may not be 100% accurate, they are a great way to get your foot in the door in creating a reliable local email list. Zentap offers exclusive lead generation that automatically delivers new leads straight to your phone, gathering contact information and growing your potential audience.

 

2. Email Format

Now that you have your email list, the next concern is formatting your emails to grab the attention of your audience. You need them to engage with the information you are providing! The best way to present information of value is to personalize the subject line of the email based on your location. The subject line should specifically identify the neighborhood and current sales activity – the information most valuable to your audience.

The email should include your logo and a photo of yourself. You want to make sure you add a personable element to your marketing efforts. As the “local market expert,” your photo should take place in a recognizable area of your neighborhood.

The next step in your email marketing strategy is to include a video, which will be linked to this photo. Zentap can provide you with unlimited branded content, including videos, that you can include in your emails. Consistent branding and clickable content is a great way to influence your audience to engage with your message, taking us to our next strategy…

3. Using Video In Your Email Marketing

Using video in your email marketing campaigns will help you to establish your brand, stand out to your audience, and convert buyer and seller leads. Video being utilized in your emails will be a screen recording of updated local market information accompanied by your detailed description of the information.  Tools like Zoom or BombBomb are great for this. include both voiceover and video. Again, showing your face is a great way to engage with your audience.

In your informative video, go through all the active, pending, and sold properties in your neighborhood. You can go through each category of properties using your cursor to highlight information, then provide a detailed explanation of how to interpret the information. Lastly, you want to inform your audience of how you can keep them up to date about local market activity. This is your value proposition.

You can create branded videos and automate your local market report videos with tools like what Zentap offers.  Click here to see examples.

4. Email Text

The text portion of your email should include the same information you are discussing in your video. Not everybody watches video, so this portion must be specifically tailored to those who prefer to read text.

The text must be easy-to-scan, including bold headings and organized information. After your main heading under your video, a good way to organize your subheadings is by active, pending, and sold properties, accompanied by an overall analysis of the local market.

The Active section will include data on active listings in the specific neighborhood. The Pending section will include statistics on contracts scheduled to close. The Sold section will conclude with data on the most recent sold listening in the local market.

5. Call To Action

Every message in your email campaigns and digital marketing should have a  CTA (call-to-action), which holds some directive value. Your goal is to convert these contacts into leads, pushing them down the funnel.  Accomplish this with a simple message at the end of your email clarifying and reiterating the value you are proposing to your audience. You’re not directly asking if they want to sell their homes. If they’re considering selling, your message should make them more inclined to reach out to you.

 

What You Can Expect From These Email Marketing Strategies

By following these strategies and leveraging your emails, you can increase your email open rates, expand your engagement, increase your audience, and build on your reputation. In addition, you can utilize Zentap’s email automation tool to consistently produce effective marketing campaigns and save time building new emails from scratch.

As you develop your reputation as the “local market expert,” you are responsible for remaining consistent with your email marketing strategy and providing valuable information to your audience. Once you have established your email campaigns, you now have a low-cost and reliable tool to engage with your audience and develop your brand.

If you would like to get even more information about brand awareness and how Zentap can help you establish this along with exclusive lead generation check out zentap.com or click here to schedule a call with a Zentap team member.

If You Are Not Using Video, You Risk Losing Out BIG.

The home buyer and seller have evolved and listing and marketing videos are your most prized commodity to capture their attention.  Plus, videos have been proven to be highly effective in increasing inquiries for listings by 403% more than a listing without.

The problem is that most real estate agents do not know where or how to get started with creating listing and marketing videos.  Mostly because there is a misconception of a need for content creation skills, fancy software, and a big investment.  None of this is true and you can easily create unlimited videos with a platform like what Zentap offers.  In today’s day and age, Real Estate Agents must be utilizing video as a major component in their overall marketing strategy.

It is now not a secret that people love engaging video content and real estate experts like Tom Ferry also claim that video is absolutely essential for businesses. In one of his podcast episodes, Tom Ferry speaks about why you should consider making video content for your business and also shares tips and ideas on what kind of content to create.

In this blog we are going to focus on why you should commit to utilizing videos to market your real estate business.  We will explain how this will help you get more clients and amplify your brand’s digital presence.

1. Video Helps Establish Brand Presence & Trust

Establishing your unique brand in real estate is a major priority.  You need to establish what makes you the best choice as people’s “go-to” agent.  Leveraging video to convey this message is a great way to help define your brand.  Video allows you to express your brand better than in pictures and text and really tell your story.

For example, leveraging client testimonial videos is a great way to establish trust.  Add your branding to these videos with a proper call to action at the end and this will help prospects connect the trust with your brand even more. Plus, you get to use a review someone left on your Google page on your website, social media platforms or in email campaigns and really gain traction from it.

2. Use Video Content On Your Website To Help You Stand Out

Almost every agent has a website these days.  But just having a website without any engaging content is not unique.  To be unique, you should include local market video content, listing videos, and infomercials. In fact, according to Forbes, the average user spends 88% more time on a website with video.

Providing content beyond just your contact information and current listings is beneficial.  This is because you are providing information about the areas that your listings are in.  Which is just as important as the property itself.  Giving as much information as you can to your potential customers will help provide them with a more secure feeling when making a decision and keep them on your site while they do their research.

3. Home Owners Look For Video Content A Lot More Now

Current studies show that 90% of homeowners start their search for a real estate agent online.  When they are searching, video is the number one type of content that engages both buyers & sellers.

Pictures are great, but adding listing videos will generate more views and inquiries.  You should also leverage those videos with local market content videos.  This will showcase your knowledge in your area and people will view you as an expert in your field. Think about it – while they may not be looking to buy or sell today, engaging them with content that is relevant to them – like local market stats – will keep you top of mind for when they are looking to make a move!

Here is an example of a Comparative Listing Video, which combines Local Market Information for the area with a Listing Video. https://youtu.be/QihxmdKcbzo

4. Video Greatly Increases Home Buyer & Seller Lead Conversion

Get this: 85% of buyers and sellers want to work with an agent who uses video!  Plus, homes listed with video get four times more the number of inquiries of homes listed without.  (Source: Google/ NAR Study).

 

With that being said, it’s a no-brainer that you should be using video in your marketing.  Especially with virtual tours and Open Houses given the current pandemic, video is here to stay, and not having a good video strategy can be a deal-breaker for those looking to sell their home.

The good news is that it’s really never too late to start using video in your real estate marketing.  You can start small and work your way up and look for solutions that make it simple and easy.  Zentap offers a multitude of video marketing solutions that allow you to create branded videos in minutes, plus access to our dashboard where you can create…..insert list here.

Want to learn more about the video solutions Zentap offers? You can go here or email [email protected] and a team member will be happy to help.

Help Your Agent Website Get Found More

How many individual realtors in your area have agent websites? How many firms have websites? And what about the MLS website? It’s 2020. Everyone does. Despite all that, you have to make sure to drive them to YOUR website, not theirs. But how can you do this? Here are 3 ways to drive traffic to your website!

Content and SEO

Yes, we know: There is an ocean of content out there and let’s be fair… a good portion of it is not seen by many people. But there’s also a reason people are creating and sharing content: There’s a demand for it. You just have to make sure you create content that is REALLY valuable for viewers and attractive for search engines.

With content marketing, it’s not about selling yourself, it’s about providing people with the information they are looking for or didn’t know they needed. And it doesn’t mean it always has to be serious. As long as you provide valuable information, presenting it in a humoristic way is a great way to personalize the whole thing. They always say it either has to be informational or entertaining… How about you combine the two!

What do we mean by valuable? What is “good content”? Whether it’s a blog, video, static image, or anything else on your agent website, it has to be relevant, unique, timely/current, and about your local market! To help you figure out what content fits those adjectives, you can use keyword researching tools such as Google Adwords that will allow you to put keywords together to get those long-tail phrases that are now more commonly used by searchers! You can also use Google Trends to find out what the most trending topics in real estate are.

Social Media: Pick your platforms

Of course, in a perfect world you have multiple pieces of content posted daily on every single platform available… but let’s be realistic. Look, you’re a real estate professional, not a marketer. You already have enough on your plate. It’s about picking the platforms that fit your needs and committing to them. Whichever platform you choose, you can drive traffic to your agent website by having a link to it in your bio.

Here’s what you should pick from:

Facebook: An absolute no-brainer, but it is saturated. You will have to provide a lot of content that focuses on potential customers, not just on your business. Make sure you have your Facebook Business page set up with professional branding.
Join Facebook groups that are localized for your geography.  Focus on events in your community.  Provide your listings about 20% of the time so you’re not too pushy.
Also, drive followers to your agent website blog posts with intriguing “teasers” about the content they will find.
Instagram: It is a perfect place for realtors because of how visual the platform is. It’s a great way to run ads in your area or share your listings and open houses in photo or video form!
LinkedIn: Place to join groups and post reports, pieces of content, and other articles that make you look like an expert.
Twitter: If your goal is to gain a following, you will have to tweet massively. This platform is a good place to give little tips about home staging for example! You can also use Twitter to connect with local business owners and become more well-known in your community.
YouTube:This one is less talked about for real estate professionals, but it is catching up. Totally visual platform you can show videos of your listings, open houses, congratulatory videos, client review videos and more!
The most important: Google owns YouTube. That means that creating YouTube videos boost your SEO and give you extra exposure and chance of being discovered on Google search.

Maximize your results! You should be posting 3-5 times per week on each platform you choose. If you feel like this is something you definitely don’t have enough time to manage, we can help you. We offer branded, data-driven video content.  It not only educates your audience, but also presents you as an expert in the field.

Always Update Your Agent Website

Before we talk about the continuous process that is the updating of your website, let’s start with the obvious. As mentioned in the intro, it’s 2020: Everybody has a website. And a lot of them look nice. Every realtor with a website has either designed his/her own through with a popular software of hired a freelancer to do it.

The problem is, all these websites look the same. What you need is a professional real estate agent website. Something that is tailored specifically real estate and that allows you to capture leads directly.  This is something we can do for you.

If you are familiar with SEO (search engine optimization), you know how important updating your website is.  As well as making sure you properly use keywords, the design is user-friendly, optimized, and ADA compliant. That means always adding new content to it. Not only is it what your website viewers want and expect, but it is also something that impacts your performance on Google searches tremendously by increasing your authoritative status.