As a real estate agent, you’re busy. You have a long to-do list that doesn’t even account for all of your social media and content marketing to-dos, right?
So, the last thing you want to hear is another social media platform that you should master, but by devoting just 15 minutes a day to utilising Pinterest, you can drastically grow your online presence.
Implementing a Pinterest strategy can increase your website traffic, grow your client base, and potentially land you more money in your pocket.
Why is Pinterest such a perfect marketing tool for real estate agents? Your ideal client is the most active user on Pinterest. BSC.com released data that reveals 83% of women are Pinterest users, of which 45% are between the ages of 35 and 54. The average Pinterest user also has an annual six-figure household income.
Other than being the platform where your ideal target audience is, Pinterest is also a platform where your posts will have the longest lifespan. Essentially, once you pin something to Pinterest it is there forever. Due to the bulletin board structure of the platform, your old pins can also be found easily.
On Pinterest, when you pin something, a follower will pin your pin, and then their followers will as well. The pinning keeps rolling unlike on other social media sites where a post as appeal for a few days and is then forgotten.
Now that you’re convinced that Pinterest is an incredibly useful platform for real estate agents, here’s how to maximise it for your success:
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Don’t Forget About Your Content
Pinterest is a highly visual platform where striking images usually attract the attention of viewers, but it’s still important to focus on your content, because after that image does the attracting, viewers are clicking over to actually read your content. This means you need to ensure that you create real estate blog posts that add value.
Every time you create a blog post, you’ll want to create a share-worthy image, because the image is critical to getting people “in the door,” just like in real estate.
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Make it Easy for People to Pin
You’ll need to make it easy for your readers to pin your content to Pinterest with a Pin It button. If you use WordPress, you can install a Pin It plug in which allows readers to do exactly that. The plug in will allow any image on your page to display a Pin It button. This will encourage pinning and also allows you to determine which images are shown when your blog posts are pinned.
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Organise Your Pinterest Page Efficiently
On Pinterest, you create boards to pin your pins to. So, it’s important that every one of your boards has a purpose and that you make it easy for visitors to find what it is they’re looking for.
When you create your boards, you’ll want to make sure that they solve the problems of your ideal client. Here are a few board ideas:
- Neighbourhood Boards
- General Real Estate ( For Buyers and Sellers)
- Your Staff or Team
- Home Design and Improvement
- Home Décor
Bonus tip: Also, make sure you’ve customised your bio for Pinterest using these bio best practices.
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Utilise Group Boards
Group boards are often an unheard of and overlooked aspect of Pinterest marketing. Group boards work like regular boards except for multiple contributors pin to them. The great thing about this is that when a pin is added to a group board, it automatically goes out to all of the followers of all of the contributors to the group board. This can increase your visibility tenfold.
One thing to note is to be careful which real estate group boards you pin to or who you collaborate with as it can be a reflection on you. Research the most popular real estate group boards on Pinterest and ask to join if it looks like it’ll be a good fit. You can also start your own group board and invite other real estate agents to pin to it.
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Use Descriptions and SEO
When you post a pin, you’ll have to enter a description and this is a great place to boost your SEO and get found. Many are now going to Pinterest, as opposed to Google, to search, so SEO is important on the platform.
Add a keyword rich description that is catchy, includes a call to action, and uses a couple of hashtags. You’ll also want to add your website address to the description to make it even easier for viewers to click over to your website. Plus, this gives your site more visibility. If you successfully optimise your pins for SEO, not only will you be found on Pinterest, but you also have the opportunity to show up in search engines for keyword search terms.
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Double Check Your Links
The obvious goal of pinning to Pinterest is to drive traffic to your website, so make sure that you double check each pin to ensure that it leads viewers to the exact spot you want them to land. Don’t just check your links, however, check the links of any items that you pin. Just like on any other platform, Pinterest has spammers and often certain catchy and seemingly relevant images do not lead to the post intended.
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Differentiate Yourself
Share images that are sized perfectly for Pinterest and are consistently branded with the rest of your business. You can also differentiate yourself by seeing if you qualify for rich pins. These types of pins allow you to add extra content at the bottom of your images as a way to boost your pin’s attractiveness to readers. There are five categories for rich pins which include: article, place, product, movie, and recipe. You’ll likely have content in the article, place, and product categories.
In order to have access to rich pins, however, you’ll have to apply and it also involves some HTML coding. If you’re up for filling out an application and potentially enlisting the help of a web developer, then rich pins are worth it and can help you up your Pinterest game.
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Interact and Engage
Just like with any other social network, engagement and involvement plays a role on Pinterest, too. Comment on other people’s pins, reply to others, and pin pins as a way of engaging or saying “thank you” to those who interact with you. As with any other platform—and anything else for that matter—you’ll get back what you put into it.
So, what do you think? Are you going to start implementing Pinterest into your social media marketing strategy? Are you already using Pinterest? Let us know in the comments.
For more helpful real estate tips and information like this, check out our blog. You can also follow us on Facebook.
At iProperty, we provide leading online property management and real estate software, responsive websites, and more.