Do you like to use marketing channels and strategies that might already be obsolete?
I am sure no one does, and this is where the term “cutting edge” comes in.
I know it cannot be enjoyable to always maintain yourself up to date so you don’t lose a potential edge in generating more leads and potential customers.
To stay on top, you want to check the current trends and “cutting edge” methods and strategies.
In today’s article, I will first discuss what cutting edge means and then provide you with nine ways and ideas of cutting-edge real estate marketing.
What is Cutting Edge and Cutting Edge Marketing Anyway?
The term “cutting edge” can sometimes be perceived as some hyped-up word. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, it means the most modern stage of development in a particular type of work or activity (source).
So cutting-edge marketing means doing marketing at the most modern stage of development.
Consequently, cutting-edge real estate marketing would mean doing this in real estate.
Now that we have the definition let’s get on to how you can do cutting-edge real estate marketing.
9 Ways & Ideas of Cutting Edge Real Estate Marketing
Are there fundamental principles in marketing that don’t change at all?
Even if there are scary maps like this one with many possible marketing and advertising ways to go?
Absolutely.
When you read my very first article about the 80/20 rule in real estate marketing, you might have realized it always comes down to traffic, conversion, and economics.
Traffic is the marketing channels you use to bring potential visitors to your real estate website and/or your physical office.
Conversion is how you convert visitors into customers; economics is the value you create with your product (the properties) and service offers in exchange for money.
But out of all three, the one that can change most of the time is the traffic part, which also informs the conversion and economics part.
Traffic or advertising channels you could still use efficiently yesterday can become oversaturated and almost obsolete tomorrow.
This is where the term “cutting edge” most applies, and it will be the main focus of this main section of my article.
So, the question is, which advertising or traffic channels can be considered “cutting edge” today?
1) Interactive Content in Multiple Dimensions
The first association you make when hearing “content” is usually a blog, meaning the written word.
But the written word is just the start, and these content and SEO strategies can be applied beyond just blogs.
For example, suppose you create longer content, such as guides and eBooks. This content can be reused in various blog posts, gated downloads, or webinars.
So, content marketing continues to be on the cutting edge. Still, the focus shifts to nuanced content, context, and targeting.
Why?
Because Google evolved and is using more machine learning to understand the content.
One keyword in this context is Google’s BERT update,
whose algorithm helps to better understand natural language in user search queries.
Even Google recommends that you focus on well-written content, useful links, and site speed.
This new algorithm prefers accurate, in-depth, current content that considers the user’s intent.
Do you need inspiration about real estate content marketing? You may want to read my article about this topic here.
Another cutting-edge trend is interactive content like social media polls and quizzes.
I‘ve already discussed quizzes in my article on how to make real estate lead magnets that really convert.
2) Micro-Influencer Marketing
The term “influencer marketing” might already be familiar, and the principle is pretty simple.
You pay someone with a larger social media following (e.g., on Instagram or YouTube) a certain amount of money.
The respective channel will mention your product, service, or content in exchange.
It’s a bit like an ad or advertorial in a newspaper or magazine, just that the channel is social media, for the most part.
In contrast to “large” influencers, micro-influencers have 10,000 or fewer followers on social media.
You can find many on Instagram and partner with them for sponsored posts.
So, what are the benefits of working with micro-influencers?
In contrast to larger influencers, they are often more affordable, have a more engaged following, and are niched down.
The benefits of using (micro-) influencer marketing as a traffic channel also tie in with some consumer behavior statistics in this context.
According to these statistics, 60% of consumers (70% of Millennials) are influenced in their purchasing behavior by social media content (source).
Would you like to experiment with this traffic channel a bit?
Then, you might want to look into some tools to help you find the right influencers without doing many manual searches.
Here they are:
3) Mobile Commerce
This one will be a little stretch for the real estate industry, but I see some chances that this might also hold food there.
The basic concept for mobile commerce is what it sounds like to be able to shop on your smartphone.
It’s a growing trend, and according to predictions, it may reach $284 billion, or 45% of the total U.S. e-commerce market, this year (source).
As part of this mobile commerce trend, several social media platforms are already taking advantage of it.
This also includes some third-party software solutions that enable easy integration of product links into social media channels.
One example is Instagram which now enables shoppable social media posts.
A third-party platform that makes this possible is the pro version of later.com.
These are posts that include links directly to a particular product page.
So how on earth could this be relevant to real estate?
Users won’t purchase a house by clicking on one of such posts.
But why not use those posts to link to a property listing page where you can schedule a showing?
4) Video Ads
I have already highlighted the importance and benefits of video in real estate marketing in this and this article.
Here is a small selection of the convincing video stats I mentioned in the articles:
- On mobile phones, video consumption rises by 100% annually (source).
- By 2022, more than 82% of consumer internet traffic will supposedly come from online videos (source).
- According to 51% of marketing professionals, the video format gets the best return on investment (source).
- It can increase the click-through rate by 96% (source).
So, instead of or complementary to building your following on video platforms like YouTube, you can use video ads to reach potential customers and increase your brand recognition.
You may also look at my article about Google Search Ads in this context.
So if you have a limited video ad production budget, your first choice could be YouTube bumper ads.
They are timed at six seconds and displayed before video content.
Another alternative to YouTube Ads is Facebook video ads.
You don’t pay for views unless your ad isn’t clicked or your video isn’t watched for more than 10 seconds.
5) Chatbots
I’ve already discussed chatbots in-depth in this article, and they are pretty helpful in personalization and artificial intelligence.
They can be used as 24-hour customer support to qualify real estate leads, help clients find what they’re looking for, and much more.
It’s basically some sort of virtual “concierge.”
The more data different chatbot tools gather, the more intelligent they can become, provided the relevant tool uses machine learning in their algorithms.
An interesting statistic from 2019 is that 80% of businesses claimed they wanted to start using chatbots that same year (source).
6) Messaging Apps
Kind of related to chatbots are messaging apps that are only used for staying in touch with family and friends.
The most popular ones are WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger (the bot is actually part of Facebook now).
Some interesting stats in this context are the following:
- About 1.3 billion monthly users are active on Facebook Messenger (source).
- More than 10 billion messages are sent monthly via Facebook Messenger(source).
- 1.6 billion active users use WhatsApp, and they send more than 55 billion messages every day (source1, source2).
- There is a 10 to 80 times higher engagement rate on Facebook Messenger than an organic post on the Facebook Newsfeed (source).
- There are higher chances of potential customers and consumers returning to a company website in 63% of the cases if there is a live chat option (source).
Considering these stats, it’s logical to use these communication platforms to stay in touch with potential customers.
This is also quite important in following up with leads, as I mentioned in this article.
7) No, Email is Not Dead
Email can stay on the cutting edge and continues to be important, but not if you use it for generic marketing.
It is not as effective as you might want it to be in the latter.
To stay on the cutting edge with Email marketing, you need to combine automation with personalization.
Some email marketing providers allow you to trigger a specific email after a user browses a particular product.
In the case of real estate, this could be a specific property listing page, provided this user is already an email subscriber.
It can be pretty effective if you send a highly personalized email with video content and make the potential customer take action.
Another way to use email is in remarketing campaigns with Facebook Ads or Google ads.
8) Voice Interaction
Many people now prefer to search, discover new things, and shop using their voices.
This was made possible by software and smart devices such as Google, Siri, and Alexa.
Considering this means you also need to create content in a more conversational writing style and use keywords that someone would speak.
Why?
Because if you do a voice search, the device might return only a few search results in contrast to a text-based search.
9) Omnichannel
That last one is omnichannel, meaning you don’t market in just one marketing or advertising channel but several.
This is also an important factor when doing follow-up sequences, as already mentioned in my article about following up with real estate leads.
Doing that can result in a better user experience and more touchpoints; overall, you will be able to reach potential customers better.
Two little statistics to mention here is that omnichannel marketing can drive more than three times of engagement than just a one-channel approach.
Generally, people like to come back for more (source).
This article has been reviewed by our editorial team. It has been approved for publication in accordance with our editorial policy.
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