It may seem like a contradictory statement: real estate brands can learn from the ecommerce industry, and in particular, ecommerce websites. Real estate agents sell physical homes and rely on foot traffic with viewings, open houses, and most importantly, curb appeal. Ecommerce businesses sell products entirely online.
However, the online space is a key component for any real estate brand. Most people research homes online or browse online for listings before they make a call to go and view a property. In ecommerce, people view everything about the product online in order to make a decision. Therefore, both of these worlds revolve around presenting a product online in a way that directs qualified buyers through the sales process toward a purchase.
Targeted Digital Marketing Strategy
Audience targeting is an important component of any digital marketing strategy for any business, and even more so in the ecommerce and real estate worlds where qualified buyers are crucial to conversion.
It can be difficult to figure out targeting for real estate, since you want as many people as possible to see your listings. However, if you break down your audience into specific groups, you can send more targeted, specific ads that meet their individual needs and increase the quality of your leads from each segment. For example, a fixer-upper could be positioned as a great investment for house flippers or a good starter property for a young family with a limited budget. Those marketing messages would look entirely different in your ads.
SEO-driven Content
Naturally, a major goal in both ecommerce and real estate is to generate a lot of online traffic. To do this, you need strong, SEO-driven content that will help you rank in search engines. With real estate, your listings are frequently changing as you continue to add new homes or close deals on current ones, and it takes time to build up SEO rank. Therefore, you need to add long-form content that will live permanently on your website to continue to build your SEO rank and strength. Blogs, real estate reports, market reports, first-time home buyer guides, and how-to guides are just some of the options you should consider when planning out your real estate content strategy.
Engaging Visual Content
Engaging visuals are key when it comes to selling any type of product. For ecommerce products, high-quality visuals are important for showcasing the quality products you sell. In real estate, visuals are absolutely necessary for showcasing a home for sale. Home buyers are not likely to contact you to view a property they haven’t seen at least some photos of ahead of time, and the higher the quality of those photos, the more attractive the house will be to viewers.
It’s no secret that people love video content. In fact, some studies have shown that video marketing can lead to up to 66% more qualified leads each year. In real estate, high-quality video walkthroughs and virtual tours are an essential tool for showcasing a home and generating interest in a property. People love virtual tours and often use them to make a decision on whether they want to put in the effort to go and take an in-person tour.
Website Search Functionality
With an ecommerce website, attracting qualified buyers is key. The same thing goes for real estate. Buying a house is a substantial investment, and most of the time, home buyers will have a list of must-haves as well as a budget they don’t want to stray from.
Much like the ecommerce industry, showing buyers an item outside of their price point is an ineffective sales tactic, so you want to make sure people can search for options that fit in with their specifications. No one wants to browse through listings of million-dollar luxury homes they can’t afford when they’re searching for a modest bungalow within a $400,000 budget. It’s discouraging and distracts from the sales process.
