Real estate trends are constantly changing and this includes the way's in which brokers and companies are marketing themselves and their properties.
Today, the top firms don't just launch a single main website, they know that in order to maximize engagement with their buyers and grow their business, they need to create multiple digital touchpoints for buyers to interact with. That means creating multiple websites for different stages of the buyer journey.
Let’s look at six new trends digital-focused real estate firms use to maximize their lead generation and drive business growth.
1. Custom Property Listing Websites
What better way to sell your properties than with dedicated property listing websites? Custom property websites make it easier for your buyers to find you as well as give you an interactive, visual way to showcase what sets your property apart. A dedicated site gives brokers plenty of room to creatively market a property and paint a full picture of its potential and context.
Custom property websites typically include rich visuals and video, as well as embedded interactive maps, 3D animations, and relevant details about the neighborhood, city, or other amenities. This approach enables current and potential clients to better evaluate the properties that interest them, as well as inspire them to browse and discover others in your inventory. In addition, it also communicates your firm’s marketing sophistication to potential clients, partners, and employees—elevating your brand and amplifying engagement opportunities.
2. Brokerage Team Websites
These are especially crucial for large commercial real estate firms with multiple offices and regions. Your local broker teams are the face of your company. Dedicated broker and team websites give them a platform to connect directly with buyers and make their properties and offerings visible.
Some teams adopt a specialist strategy and target a particular industry vertical or niche, while other brokers may focus on a particular community or a specific property type such as office or industrial. Brokerage teams showcase their business on an individual team website, including such details as current inventory, past sales, and agent bios. These teams also typically adopt a more sophisticated content strategy than usually found in day-to-day real estate marketing. They optimize their site for discovery in search engines (SEO) and include in-depth content, such as blogs, white papers, and industry reports, in order to attract targeted prospects.
A brokerage team website provides your firm’s teams with a self-contained, dedicated online space for marketing their collective expertise. Because the website format is so flexible, each team site can easily be co-branded to highlight both the team and company brands. A team site can be as customized as needed and reflect the visuals, messaging, and content strategy that will best market the team to their clients and partners.
3. Individual Broker Websites
You work hard making a name for yourself in order to drive business. As property buyers and investors become increasingly web-centric, brokers respond by creating their own dedicated web presence that markets their business value and successes, as well as captures new leads. Brokers also use their personal websites to strengthen their brand by integrating blogs, Twitter and Instagram feeds, client reviews, LinkedIn profiles, and more.
Websites are ideal vehicles for you to market their services to new and potential customers. A dedicated website offers so much more than a simple profile page or online portfolio. It is a flexible, scalable, highly visual marketing tool that can effectively communicate the full breadth of a broker's own business story. It can also engage clients through new and interesting content, reflecting a broker's creativity, personality, and professionalism.
4. Social Responsibility Websites
Today, real estate companies of all sizes embrace social responsibility as part of their company values. Your firm may be dedicated to “giving back” in any number of ways, from supporting charities to participating in community volunteer events to operating a nonprofit foundation. Many real estate firms will create dedicated websites to effectively spotlight their philanthropic activities, as well as drive donations and participation in charity events.
5. Branch Office Websites
A dedicated website for your local real estate office is a no-brainer, right?
Not always so. For many large firms, branch offices are provided with a single templated page to promote their entire business. However, to ensure that a branch office has an edge in its local market, it requires much more than simply posting contact information and a list of agents. A modern website strategy allows branch offices, regardless of affiliation, the freedom to market their services based on their community needs and expectations. It also supports their efforts to recruit new agents by demonstrating the organization’s sophisticated marketing practices.
A website full of captivating images and video of the local area grounds your website visitor in the context and community that you serve. Depending on your marketing strategy and resources, your office site can generate leads and recruit new talent through social media integration, property listings, agent stories, and other creative content that resonates with your clients. For large companies, web technologies allow centralized brand control, so branch office websites do not stray from brand guidelines.
6. Industry Report Websites
Many large real estate firms distribute periodic reports, such as commissioned industry research and company quarterly or annual reports. Typically, these reports are delivered as static PDFs that are downloaded after a lead capture process. Some progressive firms are leveraging the power of the web to gather more information from their leads than just name and email address. They recognize that a report is a powerful engagement tool that can give them valuable insights into how this information impacts their visitors.
Turning reports into dedicated websites breathes life into these valuable assets. You can deliver dry industry data through beautiful, immersive experiences that showcase the sophistication of your brand. Gating access, i.e. requiring users to fill out a form to view your report, collects leads, and data analytics can track which parts of the report generated the most interest, and from whom. The flexibility of the website format allows you to embed interactive elements into the reports—video, polls, social media—that encourage deeper engagement with your firm.
Source: Brandcast
Are You Ready?
It's time to grow your commercial real estate company with a refreshed and modern website and digital strategy. In a recent survey, 70% of US adults said they use their mobile devices to engage businesses; and, 57% say that they won’t recommend a business or service with a poorly designed website.
Want to learn more about how you can reach more people, close more deals, and grow your business with websites?
Give us a shout using the form at the bottom of this page or shoot us a call/email at Hello@RahaMedia.com | 612-412-4544