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The Role of Real Estate Marketing Companies in Navigating Competitive Markets

August 18, 2023

In 2022, completed housing transactions went down from 6.12 million in 2021 to 5 million in 2022 due to increased house prices. This decline means real estate professionals in the country must do their best to keep their clients and get more listings if they want to increase business profit. 

A professional marketing agency can help new and experienced realtors achieve this feat. This guide underscores the crucial role of advertising companies in helping realtors navigate competitive real estate markets.

Key Takeaways

  • Real estate marketing companies specialize in advertising or promoting agents, businesses, and properties.
  • Realtors gain specialized expertise, consistent leads, and relevant content when working with a marketing agency.
  • To find the best real estate marketing company for your business, you must first understand your specific goals, consider reviews and experience, and look for innovative marketing partners.
Addressable's full-stack marketing platform will help you generate your next lead generation campaign from start to finish. Click here to get started!

What You Need To Know About Real Estate Marketing

Real estate marketing involves promoting a real estate agent, realtor, business, or their properties. The goal is to help real estate enterprises establish their brand, create meaningful connections, and boost exposure across various platforms.

Advertisers will handle all elements of a realtor’s marketing needs, ranging from video advertisements to social media promotions and everything in between.

Today, countless advertising agencies specialize in real estate marketing, providing full service to professionals in the industry. These companies understand the crucial components of branding, generating new leads, establishing value, and converting leads to paying clients. Moreover, they have in-depth knowledge of developing promotional strategies to help realtors achieve their marketing goals.

If you choose to work with a marketing agency, you eliminate the trial and error phase that delays your progress when you attempt to handle advertisements by yourself.

Instead of struggling to market your real estate services alone, you can hire professional advertisers to formulate a plan that meets your unique needs.

Real estate marketing agencies can serve as partners for realtors. Read below to see what services a typical real estate marketing company can offer.

  • Social media marketing

Social media advertising is one of the most essential marketing types for realtors. Its affordability makes it invaluable for small businesses seeking to expand their audience reach.

Instead of spending too much on referrals, marketing teams save money by promoting real estate services on social media platforms. While famous platforms like Facebook and Twitter play a crucial role in boosting awareness, newer sites like TikTok and Snapchat can also help garner attention for your company.

Marketing professionals can coordinate a cross-platform campaign to keep your branding strategy consistent while extending your reach.

  • Display advertising

This strategy is a form of digital marketing where you publish advertisements online for your target audience to see. It’s effective for real estate agents who want to boost awareness for a new property on the market or their brand.

Display advertising usually promotes the realtor's name, license number, brokerage name, and unique details. One crucial requirement is that it must capture people's attention online, demanding an appealing presentation.

  • Video advertising

This strategy involves publishing informative and well-produced videos to make a positive and lasting impression on potential buyers or sellers. Marketers can post these videos on YouTube or other social media sites to educate, engage, or advertise.

Professional advertisers see videos as a customizable medium that allows them to create a more personal and organic connection with the audience. 

Moreover, it can be an effective way for ad agencies to get more people to notice their clients. According to a recent survey from Statista, 53 percent of American adults aged 18 to 34 watch videos on their devices every day. This information highlights how video advertising has become crucial in today’s digital era.

  • Custom content marketing

Publishing unique content will always be a more effective strategy than generic alternatives. Advertisers can help realtors tell their stories, incorporating unique elements such as logos and colors, as well as taking the target audience into consideration.

Creating customized content and running a native advertising campaign can effectively market your services without seeming overly promotional.

  • Content sponsorship

Now that everything is digital, sponsored content is becoming an increasingly critical element of brand advertising. Content sponsorship involves paying to promote a product or service through content published by other brands.

An example of sponsored content includes paying an Instagram influencer to publish a post promoting you. Another example is sponsoring a content initiative from a magazine or a news outlet.

Professional marketers can handle sponsored content to help increase exposure. They can also use this strategy to reinforce your status as a real estate expert.

  • Print promotions

While digital advertising is becoming more effective, the use of traditional strategies like print advertising is declining. However, print advertising still holds value for realtors.

Ads in the real estate sections of magazines and newspapers can help you create better outcomes as a realtor. Another effective print ad tactic is delivering announcements to people in a targeted neighborhood or area through direct mail.

Print advertising remains one of the most trusted forms of marketing, helping you build trust with your audience, which is crucial when managing transactions involving significant financial investments.

  • Email marketing

Professional marketers can also manage your email advertisements. They can develop strategies that engage recipients without being intrusive, sparking organic conversation.

This strategy involves sending listings of new properties, newsletters, and general life checkups to high-quality leads.

  • Search engine optimization (SEO)

Real estate SEO is an effective marketing strategy that optimizes online content to attract leads through organic search results. Professional marketers can optimize various content for search engines, including those on your website, social media platforms, and mobile apps. 

In the early days of SEO, content optimization meant focusing on links and keywords as the primary way to rank. Today, however, SEO is also about offering an excellent user experience that helps address client needs, which is crucial for realtors.

For real estate agents, SEO online marketing must be a long-term strategy. They should not expect to get the results they want overnight. Instead, they should look at real estate SEO as a way to achieve their current and future advertising goals.

This means you must invest time and effort if you want your SEO efforts to succeed. Fortunately, you can hire an advertising agency that can optimize your content for your real estate business.

  • On-page optimization

A real estate marketing agency can ensure the content of your web pages matches the purpose of search users. Professional marketers can strategically place relevant keywords on specific pages in your website to boost engagement. 

Today, search engines use signals or metadata to help them learn and understand the context of your real estate website. You will need the help of expert marketers to optimize not only your content but also your meta descriptions, meta titles, alt tags, and schema. This way, Google can easily understand that your website can be a relevant result when someone looks up information about real estate.

  • Off-page optimization

Remember that your online presence must not be limited to your real estate website alone. Otherwise, you are missing crucial marketing opportunities from other online channels. 

A real estate marketing agency will create these external online channels where you can be visible to potential clients. You can tap a marketing company to optimize your social media profiles, Google My Business listing, and other online channels where your audience may be active.

These new channels can all link back to your website so that you can develop a seamless user experience, from a marketing channel to a website to a sale. This strategy creates a nice digital footprint for your real estate brand and can make you more relevant to the right audience online.

  • Web design or web development

Having a real estate website is not enough to establish awareness for your brand. While it can be a crucial first step, you must carefully consider how to use your website for your marketing campaign.

There are ad companies that offer web design marketing services to help realtors have fast, mobile-friendly, beautiful, and visible sites. If you choose to work with a digital marketing agency, you can have a user-friendly website that leaves a positive impression regardless of whether the users use a phone or a computer. 

Expert marketers can help you develop valuable web content that allows visitors to easily find what they want on your website. They can create real estate websites that users would like to explore, helping you to capture leads, nurture them, and encourage them to purchase.

Benefits of Working With Expert Real Estate Marketers

Some real estate agents can still be on the fence about spending money on paying professional advertisers to market their services. If you are still determining whether investing in a marketing agency is worth it, you can check out the advantages of working with a real estate marketing company below.

Specialized real estate expertise

A real estate marketing agency can provide specialized expertise and knowledge, giving you the edge to get ahead of your rival realtors. Professional advertisers understand the ins and outs of the industry and the unique challenges agents face in marketing properties. 

Moreover, a real estate marketing agency is constantly updated with the latest promotional strategies and best practices. With their expertise, they can ensure you get the key results you want.

Remember that real estate transactions represent a significant investment. Moreover, the industry operates under unique regulations that you must follow. With the help of an experienced real estate marketer, you can demonstrate your company’s value while following these legal guidelines.

Expanded audience reach online

Identifying your target audience can be tiring, especially if you’re busy handling client transactions. Moreover, this task can even be a distraction that could prevent you from doing your business well. 

Fortunately, you can hire a real estate marketing agency to handle all your advertising tasks, including expanding your online presence. These experts will have the skills and knowledge to identify your business’s target audience.

They can improve your website, making it easy to navigate and informative, which is crucial to boost online engagement. This advantage can be essential, especially for realtors struggling to keep visitors from leaving their websites.

Although it can be easy to set up a website, a marketing agency can create a unique one that can increase site traffic. This advantage helps your business reach the masses and widen your audience reach.

Remember to provide detailed information on the properties you sell when designing your website and online real estate profile. You should also include your contact information and customer testimonials.

Working with an agency will help you extend your reach and design a campaign tailored to spark engagement with your target market. This strategy ensures you will have a better quality reach which can bring in quality real estate leads.

Consistent leads

Using marketing solutions from real estate advertising agencies can bring you consistent leads. Remember that the property buying process can be different for everyone. Some people can close within a week, while others may have longer transactions. Because of this delay, realtors will need a consistent source of leads to ensure business growth.

To support this effort, you can hire expert marketing professionals. They can help you find opportunities for lead generation. These advertising professionals have the skills and expertise to develop marketing strategies that drive results.

Relevant marketing content

In the digital age, brands must produce high-quality content that their audiences will want to read, especially in the real estate industry. By hiring a marketing agency, realtors can have compelling content on their websites, showcasing their available properties in the best possible light. 

Professional marketers can generate high-quality content, such as professional property photographs, videos, descriptions, virtual tours, and calls-to-action (CTA). They know how to capture the attention of the audience through the content they produce. Moreover, high-quality content can also establish you as a reputable and trusted source of information in the industry.

Streamlined data analysis

If you are working with an ad agency, you will have an easier time monitoring the success of your marketing campaigns. This task is crucial for continuous improvement because it lets you identify which campaign efforts need to be reworked and which generate the most leads.

Additionally, marketing solutions from real estate marketing agencies can provide you with highly valuable analytics and insights to measure campaign performance. These tools track key metrics such as lead conversion rates, website traffic, and engagement levels, which empowers you to improve your strategies and make data-driven decisions. 

This approach ensures you can continually refine and adjust your advertising campaigns to achieve the best possible results.

Personalized advertising campaigns

One of the most significant benefits of working with a real estate marketing agency is its ability to develop targeted and personalized marketing tactics. They achieve this feat because their skills and expertise allow them to do the following:

  • Analyze your target audience
  • Perform market research
  • Identify the most effective strategies to reach potential buyers or renters

A real estate marketing agency can tailor the following tactics to align with your specific goals:

  • Search engine optimization (SEO)
  • Social media advertising
  • Email marketing
  • Content creation

These advantages ensure your message reaches the right people at the perfect moment, which can encourage your audience to become paying clients.

When To Hire a Real Estate Marketing Agency

Hiring the right real estate marketing company is crucial for realtors to achieve their business goals. If you end up with an agency that does not help grow your business or meet your standards, your competitors may leave you behind. However, if you find a company that helps drive results, you will have what you need to lead the competition.

Now that you know the benefits of working with a marketing agency, you should know how to find the right one. You may even ask yourself when is the right time to start looking for an advertising company to handle your marketing needs. This section outlines the scenarios that indicate when to start looking for a marketing partner.

Lacking marketing skills or time

One good reason to hire a real estate marketing company is if you do not have the time to personally oversee your company’s marketing efforts. If you have a lot on your plate and are falling behind on SEO and social media marketing, you should hire experts to do your marketing tasks.

You can also hire an advertising agency if you or anyone from your company do not have the skills to develop and implement an effective marketing strategy.

Remember that in today’s competitive real estate market, you must differentiate your business from other real estate agencies. Bringing in a real estate marketing company can address the time and skill gaps you must fill.

Seeking business growth

Leveling up your marketing game can bring in new clients, which leads to business growth. If your real estate company is stuck or having trouble reaching specific business goals, consider working with an advertising company.

With the support of a marketing agency, you do not have to worry about marketing tasks while boosting your marketing campaigns.

Uncertain of how to market your brand

Whether you are running the marketing operations or if you have in-house marketers, you may still struggle to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy. If you are experiencing this issue, it can be a sign that you need the help of a real estate marketing firm that can point you in the right direction.

How To Choose a Real Estate Marketing Company

Ending up with a marketing agency that does not meet your standards could have costly consequences. To avoid this expensive mistake, you must learn how to find a real estate marketing firm that can give your business the edge it needs to stay competitive.

Define your goals

Defining your goals is the first step when looking for a real estate marketing firm. Look at your current ad campaign and determine what you need to improve.

This step helps you determine what digital marketing services you want from an agency. It also lets you gauge how much you need to allocate to your advertising plans.

Remember that a massive enterprise seeking to generate hundreds of new contracts monthly will have a different budget than independent realtors handling a few transactions at a time. Some marketing companies will have an hourly rate, while others will have monthly contracts.

Before choosing a marketing company, do your research first. Keep your goals in mind as you create a list of potential ad agencies you may select.

You can always ask around and get referrals from other real estate agents. Ask about their experiences working with marketing agencies and successes and failures with industry-specific marketers.

You should make a list of 10 to 20 questions when interviewing marketers. Your goals should serve as a framework when preparing the questions so you will end up with an advertising agency that can address your unique marketing needs.

Consider experience and reviews

One crucial factor to consider when looking for a marketing agency is experience. Remember that every realtor and real estate company has unique challenges, needs, and goals. These differences suggest the necessity for a unique and individualized method. However, checking out an advertising company’s reviews and asking about their previous experiences is still crucial.

While many industries use similar marketing strategies for various reasons, the real estate sector has unique rules. The more you stand out from the crowd, the better.

To achieve this feat, you will need the help of an experienced marketing company. Remember that their experience should also be backed up with evidence, such as the following:

  • Worked with a client from the real estate industry
  • Has an updated portfolio that potential clients can view
  • Updated on significant real estate trends and strategies

Work with specialists

Specialty is a crucial aspect that even some realtors ignore today. When beginning your search for a real estate marketer, you cannot limit yourself to working with those only familiar with the practice in general.

This crucial mistake can lead to a lack of expertise and limited options when developing new marketing strategies for your business.

When looking for an ad agency, you must consider your needs and the specialties of the marketing firm that will work with your business. One advertising company may specialize in website design, while others may be geo-farming experts.

Remember that marketing has various levels and aspects, and it can be easy to generalize them when looking for a marketing agency. Always ensure you have clear marketing objectives when looking for marketing professionals to handle your real estate advertising campaigns.

Find an innovative partner

To get ahead of the competition, you must have innovative marketing strategies. You want to work with a marketing company that can develop new techniques that will address your needs and that other marketers may not think of immediately.

Look for an advertising firm that understands the following:

  • Your real estate competitors, their strategies, their strengths, and weaknesses
  • What marketing campaigns should demonstrate your real estate company’s branding
  • How to incorporate new trends into the marketing strategy and real estate branding
  • That thinking outside the box in the real estate marketing landscape is a necessity and not a choice

Check professional procedures

One crucial tip to remember is to look elsewhere if a marketing company lacks a straightforward, documented approach to its advertising methods. Ask about the firm’s processes; if they seem made up on the spot, you should look for another advertising company.

You should also avoid a marketing firm that claims they do not have a process because they handle every client differently. While it is true that every project is different in terms of goals and needs, the best real estate marketing companies still have standard procedures that they follow to guarantee success.

A set of professional real estate marketing procedures can include the following:

  • Onboarding process
  • Social media management strategies
  • Brand research
  • SEO checklists
  • User experience (UX)/user interface (UI) audit guidelines

Remember that having a standard procedure does not mean using the same strategy for all clients or limiting creative options. This framework provides a detailed plan of action with steps tailored to address the marketing requirements of various real estate businesses.

Pro Tip First impressions can be crucial for realtors aiming to improve their marketing tactics. If you are concerned about how buyers and sellers perceive your business, create a website that leaves a lasting impression, making your brand memorable.

Get Real Estate Listings and Retain Clients With Addressable

Working with a real estate advertising company can give your business the edge to remain competitive and relevant. With the help of professional marketers, you can meet your advertising goals and measure the success of your campaigns.

If you are looking for the right company to get you the results you want, check out Addressable today. Our marketing automation platform can make your real estate brand unforgettable to your target audience. With our help, you can use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve your lead tracking, campaign development, and listing efforts.

Real estate marketing companies can help realtors address their unique advertising challenges. Check out Addressable today and see how our AI-based marketing platform can help you get new listings.

FAQs on Real Estate Marketing Companies

What are the critical factors involved in introducing real estate marketing services?

The most crucial factors you must consider when introducing your real estate service include price, product, promotion, and place. Presenting these factors allow your audience to make an informed buying decision.

What information should be included in a real estate marketing plan?

Your real estate marketing plan must define your marketing strategy, target audience, budget, and time-bound forecasts. This document aims to establish a concrete plan of action for your real estate company’s marketing efforts.

How do you keep up with real estate marketing trends?

There are several ways to keep up with the ever-changing trends within the real estate industry. However, a straightforward way to stay updated is by following industry leaders who have earned a large following due to their invaluable insights and expertise.

Another strategy is to collaborate with other professionals or real estate brands. This way, you can expand your reach and get more connections, providing more business opportunities.

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FAQs

How do you differentiate from other handwriting companies?
Addressable provides an end-to-end solution. When we produce a handwritten mail campaign for you, our goal is to generate listing leads for you. We help you stand out—and differentiate yourself—in a competitive market. Our experts craft the message, target the right homeowners, and track your results.
How does Addressable work?
With our proprietary technology, an actual ballpoint pen is pressed to heavy card stock using a realistic human font. Our end-to-end process is carefully designed so that there are no marketing “tells or tip-offs.” Each homeowner who receives a card will believe you took the time to write it.
Can other agents mail to my area?
Nope! No other agent can market in your tiles.
Can I test a small number?
We’ve learned through testing that the minimum sweet spot for generating listing leads is 1,000 cards. Less than that won’t deliver the results you want . Our goal is to set you up for success and demonstrate clear value with every dollar you spend on handwritten cards.
Do people really think these are real?
Yes! In a 3rd party blind study, participants were presented several cards. Some messages were written by our robots, some by humans. Participants were unable to identify which handwriting was done by a robot.
Can you tell me all the agents you work with?
Nearly every individual agent or team we work with does $20+ million in production, and they're very private about their marketing programs. They consider Addressable part of their secret sauce. Check out our top clients that have found success with us.
Why are handwritten cards better than post cards?
Most of our agents have the option to use brokerage postcards for free or low cost. Agents choose to use handwritten cards because we get them listing leads. Brokers want their logo going out—it’s a branding play. In reality, they don’t really help your business. Postcards focus on the brokerage. Handwritten cards focus on building rapport with the homeowner and how you can be of service. Postcards often don’t make it in the door. They typically go directly into the homeowner’s recycle bin. Postcards are mailed in bulk. The USPS discards undeliverable postcards. They kind of go into the void. And you don’t get confirmation when they actually drop in the mail. Postcards are visually overwhelming. There’s no clear message why someone should pick up the phone and call you.