Advice on what to include when creating your digital real estate strategy.
1a. Be mobile
89% of all real estate visitors use mobiles throughout their research, so it worth optimising your website for smartphone screens or getting an app. It’s important to note that those who search for rentals are more likely to use mobiles than those who search for properties for sale. Have you bought a property recently? How did you search for it?
Data from Relevance shows between 7 and 15% of real estate visitors are searching from a mobile device. Ask us about data on actual devise types.
1b. …and don’t forget tablets
25% of all smartphone users have a tablet and they seem to prefer this kind of device for real estate search: the growth of tablet usage for real estate search is almost double that of smartphones during the past year. When optimising your website for little smartphone screens, don’t forget to check how it looks on tablet. Alternatively opt for a responsive website design. As us about responsive web design for immobiliers we have done a few.
Relevance data shows 15-22% of real estate visitors are looking from a tablet – ask us which is the most popular device.
2. Add click-to-call links
Another important tip to remember when optimising content for mobiles is to add a click-to-call link to your mobile site and to you email signature. It will save your potential client time, and that is very important in a busy world.
3. Add your properties to international portals
For immediate visibility of your properties get them listed on one of the international portals.
There are specialised real estate portals in most countries and they allow you to target specific markets. Many are quite expensive but it allows you tine to work on your own digital strategy without losing valuable real estate leads.
4. Add amazing photos
Good professional visual content is crucial for your real estate business. Don’t hesitate to spend a little more to hire a professional photographer. Relevance uses Pascal Pronnier for all real estate photography. The fantastic shots of properties on your website will receive 61% more views and 98% of buyers consider photos to be the most useful part of a description.
5. …and video
There can never be too much good visual content for descriptions of properties. Don’t forget to add a short video about the house or apartment and its neighborhood – 54% of all buyers prefer to see the video on the website. Make sure your video is short, informative and good quality.
6. Optimise your keywords
94% of search requests that consider real estate start from the region or city name, so you’d better keep it in mind when choosing the keywords for your website pages. Another tip for considering keywords is to use long, 4-5 word keywords that are less competitive and more targeted. Alternatively hire a good SEO company with lots of experience in real estate to create a keyword research document for you.
7. Don’t forget PPC
A pay-per-click campaign is a good tool to help your website receive immediate traffic from highly competitive search requests; it’s pretty hard to get on the top of Google using highly competitive keywords like ‘rent an apartment in London’, so why not just pay for it certainly until your organic listings are more visible.
8. Let a client find your location
Geography matters and reputation matters even more. Don’t ignore the possibility of adding your business and your properties on Google Maps and on other local maps which are popular in the region. Firstly check if somebody has already done it on, for example, Google+ or Foursquare.
Be sure to acquire your own G+ page and remember G+ Maps pages can be different from social G+ pages – ask us for more info.
9. Be social – be creative
Create pages on social media to present your agency and your properties. Start discussions and provide your online ‘clients’ with the information they are looking for – especially price reductions and new properties for slae and rent. Make sure you use a good designer for your social pages and it will carry your brand and reputation to potentially 1000s of prospects. Connect using social media; it is really virtual networking.
10. Email your clients and prospects
Newsletters are underated and a great way to remind customers about your business. Emails are still one of the best ways to get leads and the cheapest with highest ROI.
If you are interested in some impartial advice about your digital real estate campaign please get in touch with Rumble Romagnoli who would be happy to have a real or virtual coffee chat with you in Nice, London, Paris or online.