Have you ever heard of inbound marketing? This marketing approach aims to attract the attention of potential customers without being intrusive, and then to transform them into prospects. Particularly effective at a time when consumers are better informed and more volatile, it is very successful.
In the real estate field, where many individuals think they can do without professionals, this method is all the more essential as you need to attract qualified visitors to your real estate agency website (or network) to be transformed into prospects so that they are led to sign exclusive mandates.
But what exactly is real estate inbound marketing? And how can you use it to boost your real estate business?
Table of Contents
- What is real estate inbound marketing?
- What is marketing 3.0?
- What is the purpose of Inbound marketing?
What is real estate inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is about generating qualified traffic and then turning that traffic into leads and loyal customers through quality content. It’s no longer about convincing your prospects to buy your services, but about getting them to find you on their own when they are looking for a reference in your field.
The magic of Inbound Marketing then lies in the relationship of trust you are able to build with your prospects/customers. You learn more about them as they entrust you with data (via forms and email feedback), and can thus gradually personalize the content.
An Inbound Marketing strategy doesn’t pressure the customer to buy: on the contrary, it deploys a lot of convincing to push them to complete their project with you, and then to come back to your agency/network as long as they feel the need.
Some telling figures about Inbound :
Wondering if it really works, and if real estate inbound marketing can deliver results?
A few numbers are better than many words:
73% of companies are developing an Inbound strategy.
60% of companies that practice Inbound have a priority of creating content on a blog.
79% of companies that run a blog had a positive ROI in 2013.
70% of consumers prefer to discover a brand through original and creative content. 61% have already purchased after reading a blog post.
The conversion rate for Inbound is 14.6% (versus 1.7% for Outbound).
Real estate inbound marketing: a golden strategy to attract qualified traffic :
A real estate Inbound Marketing strategy will therefore consist of producing quality content, relevant and likely to interest your prospects. The idea is to attract to your real estate website a large traffic, but especially qualified. Your visitors will be easier to turn into prospects because they will already be interested in the real estate issues developed in your content.
Here are some tips and tricks to know to get started in the Inbound :
- Leverage your local SEO: real estate Inbound Marketing works best when it’s aimed at customers in your geographic area.
- Focus on the quality of the content of your ads: clear text, complete information, but also excellent quality photos, which attract the eye.
- Share high value-added content through a blog: real estate inbound marketing is partly about publishing articles and posts that demonstrate your expertise and help build your reputation.
- Share this content on social networks to get prospects where they are.
- Engage prospects in an “Inbound Marketing Funnel” to help turn them into leads and then into customers.
What is marketing 3.0?
The world of marketing is constantly changing – and your real estate agency has no choice but to change with it. This evolution is inevitable. Because consumers’ perception of brands and companies has completely changed. And with it, the very concept of buying has changed. Buying has become a major act, with social, political, cultural and environmental issues at stake. Buying has become a choice, not a necessity.
In response, what we call “marketing 3.0” was born. A form of innovative marketing that answers the crucial question: how to market to consumers who no longer like to consume – or at least not in the same way?
Here are 3 reasons to integrate this disruptive marketing into your real estate communication strategy.
Because the world is changing and your real estate communication must change with it :
All over the world, consumers are adopting new reflexes. They no longer buy randomly, but rather inform themselves, glean large quantities of information, compare, make choices and take informed decisions.
Everywhere, consumers have become the actors of their consumption.
The requirement of an innovative real estate marketing aims to respond to 3 major current trends that define the new race of the commercial world:
- Participation and collaboration. Advances in digital technologies are bringing users from all over the world into contact with each other, and encouraging them to participate and collaborate: social networks, forums, customer reviews, collaborative tools… Consumers are now hyper-connected – and more mobile than ever. Adopting innovative real estate marketing allows your agency to stay connected itself!
- Globalization. Whether economic, cultural, social or political, it permeates every area of our daily lives. It pushes human beings to become aware of their environment (ecology) and of the way the global economy works (dumping, subcontracting, difference between the place of manufacture and the place of distribution). It encourages the adoption of a new value system.
- The rejection of mass consumption. This is the logical result: a better awareness of global issues leads to a more targeted, more intelligent consumption. This orientation is favored by the emergence of a new class of consumers: the cultural creators, who rely on new technologies to be no longer in a buying process, but in an act of value creation at the time of purchase.
Because marketing 3.0 is the result of these changes :
Consumers are no longer passive: they have become active. They now take their consumption in hand to make it more relevant. This is true for food, clothing and electronics. But it’s just as true for real estate – hence the need for innovative real estate marketing.
These changes signal the advent of a new form of marketing, inspired by people and focused on values: it’s Marketing 3.0. The result of an inevitable evolution:
Marketing 1.0 was focused on the product (in order to sell);
Marketing 2.0 was focused on the customer (in order to satisfy and retain);
Marketing 3.0 aims to make the world a better place.
What is the purpose of Inbound marketing?
Today, 90% of real estate projects start on the web. 9 people out of 10 have, as a first reflex, to type a request on a search engine to start a quest for information about real estate.
38 % des directeurs commerciaux d’entreprise admettent qu’ils ont le plus grand mal à amener les prospects à s’engager (enquête Hubspot). Plus d’un tiers des vendeurs peinent à convertir les prospects en clients – parce que les consommateurs sont devenus plus exigeants, mais aussi plus volatiles.