With 2017 firmly drawn to a close and 2018 rolling by already, it’s a time to look forwards to the remaining and new digital trends on the up in the new year. The last 12 months has been revolutionary in terms of how brands connect with their audience, so it’s time for real estate agents to grab a slice of that pie too.
With this in mind, it may be worth thinking about adding some of these top 4 tips into your digital marketing strategy for the coming year – especially if you want to best prepare yourself for what’s shaping up to be a grand year.
1) Embrace Instagram Stories
The last 12 months has seen a dramatic increase in Instagram’s user base, as well as a whole new growth of people using its “Stories” feature. In fact, last year saw Stories overtake Snapchat, with over 200 million users. This feature’s set for an even bigger increase in user base over the course of 2018.
It goes without saying that you’ve got the potential for a huge audience at your fingertips as a real estate agent. Stories is unique as it allows you to post pictures and video clips that last for a total of 24 hours, before disappearing. It creates a sense of urgency that the user needs to watch the content before it disappears.
Stay ahead of the game by setting up a digital plan which takes advantage of Instagram stories. You can do this by displaying listed properties, or showcasing locations within the local area.
2) Create Video Content
Video content is a huge hit. It’s estimated that between 2017 and 2019, over 80% of all internet traffic consumers will come straight out of engagement with videos. This is a marketing strategy you can’t afford to miss out on.
In the mobile phone culture of today, video is fast becoming the perfect method of consuming big chunks of information in a short space of time. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram will continue to be the frontline for important video content.
Live video is also on the up, particularly tipped to be hot in 2018 – as audiences look for authenticity from their potential real estate agents. You’ll want to make sure that the overall goal here, is to align your business goals with video strategy – meaning you produce content that resonates with the audience of your choice.
8 Real Estate Video Marketing Ideas to Action Right Now
3) Understanding The Importance Of Social Advertising
Success in modern social media for real estate agents, means putting a budget on your efforts. The cost of advertising on social media is usually defined by the number of businesses competing for the audience that you’re targeting.
Facebook alone has around 5 million advertisers, which is testament to the importance of online social advertising. The latest data from MAGNA shows that digital advertising has overtaken that of TV advertising sales in the US – forecasting that it will eclipse offline ads completely by 2019.
4) Using Chatbots
Customer service in the day and age of social media can be a big undertaking – with thousands of potential enquiries and FAQs streaming in via online channels. One way you might consider streamlining this process, is by using chatbots.
Chatbots are online entities that will simplify the relationship between business and client, yet will save you the time of having to respond to a million emails about the same problem or enquiry.
The danger here though, is that chatbots can come across as impersonal and lack the genuine tone that can only be produced by a real human.