New Trends in the Real Estate Industry
We’ve written our past few articles about the changing nature of sales and the real estate industry, and how those changes relate to the actual agents and real estate inside sales agents on the ground. Contact rates for phone calls are lower and lower and lead and prospect skepticism levels are higher than they ever have been. However, both of these development are coupled with the fact that agents and ISAs also have more marketing tools at their disposal than ever before in the real estate industry.
The combination of these factors mean that the real estate sales world is in the midst of a transition. There’s a lot of room for error but also for massive opportunity as we navigate this new and exciting world. In keeping with this trend of looking towards the future, in today’s article we will discuss some of the new trends in the real estate industry.
Facebook Ads – According to Placester’s 2018 Real Estate Marketing Strategy Survey Report, Facebook is the dominant social network for real estate agents’ online marketing. In fact, 84.6% of agents surveyed said that they prefer using Facebook for their real estate marketing rather than Twitter, Instagram, or other channels. Facebook has the largest user database of any social platform and its targeting and audience capabilities make an unmatched source for collecting qualified real estate leads. Not to mention the fact that Facebook allows you to track and precisely measure all of your marketing efforts, which is the key to successfully spending your ad dollars.
Marketing Automation – Although email marketing has been around since the beginning of email (which, in its modern form, has only been since 1995), CRMs along with automated lead generation software, automated email campaigns, and automated follow ups have really come into their own in the past few years. According to Hubspot, real estate businesses that use marketing automation to nurture leads experienced a whopping 451% increase in qualified leads. A big part of that number is the fact that automation saves time. While agents are out there selling houses, marketing automation tools are doing the work of building lists, sending personalized messages, and moving leads through your sales funnel.
Predictive Analytics – Consumer information has been along for a long time, but never before in history have we had so much data at our fingertips—from consumer demographics to housing trends to property pricing history. Predictive analytics is how real estate agents and businesses use that data to give themselves an edge in this competitive industry. The way most agents use predictive analytics is to target the right clients for their marketing efforts to find the right types of buyers for specific listings. This lets you focus on your strengths: negotiation and fostering relationships.
For example, real estate businesses can pull data from the U.S. Census to track the life cycle of sellers based on public records, such as divorces, deaths, and marriages. From there, algorithms can predict a certain percentage of homeowners who are most likely to sell their homes, so agents can call them to gauge their timing and seriousness.
Virtual Reality – In today’s fast paced real estate world, clients often like to visit multiple properties before making a decision to buy. This is nothing new. However, this can require a lot of time and things can get complicated if a property is far from where a client lives. In this case, visiting a property is not only time consuming but can also be expensive.Â
According to Realtor Magazine, more homebuyers show interest in working with real estate agents who provide virtual reality marketing, enabling them to have an immersive experience in a digital home tour without the need to visit a ton of faraway properties.
Conclusion
Like in many sales related industries, the real estate world is changing rapidly. There are many more developments than are listed above, but these four are fundamentally changing the nature of real estate lead generation, lead nurturing, and converting leads into sales. The key to the future is being able to adapt. And the key to being able to adapt is keeping yourself informed so you can stay ahead of the curve, and the competition.
The real estate industry is changing. Take advantage of the opportunities and your business will flourish.Â
