Great Real Estate Marketing Ideas for 2021

The real estate industry is incredibly dynamic, and new agents are coming and going every day. It’s important that you have plenty of real estate marketing ideas in your back pocket because that’s a tremendous part of your success. Understanding the best real estate marketing ideas is what separates the good from the great real estate agents. 

Your competition is always looking for a way to get ahead of you, so you must implement both online and offline marketing skills if you want to be successful. Here are some of my best and most innovative real estate marketing ideas!  

1. Get Social  

If you’re not on social media, you’re leaving a ton of money on the table. There are a ton of Facebook marketing ideas for real estate, and it doesn’t end at Facebook. You’ve got Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and more. All of these platforms contain opportunities for you to find prospective buyers and sellers. 

You should be posting on all your social platforms each day with new properties, sharing results you got for your clients and also showing people that you’re a real person with a life. Post pictures of family, different things you’re doing, and start conversations. People will remember this and turn to you when they’re ready to buy or sell. 

2. Check On Your Competition 

If you ever feel unsure about what to do, look at what your competition is doing. Some of the best real estate digital marketing ideas simply come from looking at what everyone else is doing with their website or social media. All you need to do is piggyback off of them and put your own flair on it. 

If a competing real estate agent had a lot of success with a specific type of social media post, you could make that same post with your own unique take and see how it works. It’s not stealing, and keep in mind that a lot of marketing is simply re-hashed information. 

3. Create No Barriers 

I cringe when I see things like broken links, wrong phone numbers, and confusing websites that make it difficult to contact a real estate agent. You’re shooting yourself in the foot if you make it hard for people to contact you. If I can’t find your phone number, email, and social media accounts within 30 seconds of landing on your site, you’re doing something wrong. 

Your website should have a clear-cut contact page with a form, ONE phone number, and email front and center. 

4. Be The Local Expert 

Sometimes the best real estate agent marketing ideas aren’t marketing at all. Do you specialize in a particular area? Even if you don’t, try to make yourself the local expert. A great way to do this is by sharing local information on your social media platforms and get involved in those efforts. 

Show your neighborhood that you care about them by being an ambassador for the area. Never complain about your local cities and towns and always be the uplifting, positive one that stays on the edge of everything that’s going on around you. 

5. Utilize Content Marketing 

There are so many content marketing ideas for real estate, and in fact, you’re reading one right now. You should have a blog or some way to get your ideas out of your head and in front of the general public. Start implementing a content strategy so you can provide value to people without charging them anything in return. 

People will remember that they read a blog post from you about “tips for selling a home,” and they’ll turn to you when they’re ready to sell because you gave them so much value for free. 

6. Have Professional Photos  

How many times have you looked at a home on Zillow or Realtor and wondered who the heck took those photos and why did they even bother to post them? Sometimes, options are limited, and the homeowner hasn’t cleaned since 1998, but you need to do your best to get the most aesthetically pleasing pictures.

Keep in mind that 99% of millennials search online for a home before contacting a real estate agent. Even if they don’t happen to find their dream home right away, they might contact you simply because you made the house look so good in the pictures. 

7. Use Virtual Tours 

One of the best real estate marketing ideas is to use virtual tours to show off your homes. Your client’s time is valuable, and they want to get the most out of every minute. By seeing a house on a virtual tour, it may motivate them to call you to see it in person. Once you meet with them in person, you have a much greater chance of them doing business with you, even if they don’t decide to make an offer on that specific house. 

8. Get Involved in the Community  

Another unique real estate marketing idea involves you getting involved. Consider sponsoring a local event, sports team, or school outing to get some exposure to your name. You can do this as a real estate agent working under a broker as long as you have their permission and you don’t claim to have your own agency. 

This strategy is brilliant and will always shine a bright and beautiful light on you as a community member. Remember that people work with people they know and trust! 

9. Look Into Animated Video Services  

One innovative real estate marketing idea is to turn yourself into a cartoon! There are many different services out there that will create an animated video for you at an affordable cost. Keep it short, make it cute, and add a touch of personality to it. I believe that showing people that you’re a regular person who is down-to-earth and able to laugh at him/herself is a great way to relate to your local population. 

10. Make Sure You’re Mobile-Friendly 

There’s nothing worse than having a website that doesn’t work right. Most of your prospects are on their phone, and keep in mind that this will only increase over time. You’re selling to millennials now who are very tech-savvy and may even weigh in on that when it comes to choosing you as their real estate agent. They’ll want to see that you’re tech-savvy as well. 

One way to ensure your website is mobile-friendly is to use a mobile-responsive site platform like WordPress. Placester is also very popular with real estate agencies. 

11. Send Out Email Newsletters  

If you’re not constantly searching for new real estate email marketing ideas, you’re making a big mistake. Email marketing is one of the greatest strategies out there for building relationships, staying up to date, and keeping yourself fresh in people’s minds. 

You should have a clear-cut way for people to sign up for your newsletter on your website and make sure you’re updating them on at least a monthly basis of new properties you have for sale and incentives to do business with you. Be sure to use plenty of social proof and show them how happy people are that they hired you as their agent. 

12. Build a Google My Business Page  

Google My Business is not optional; it’s essential. When someone types in real estate agents in Scranton, real estate agents near me, real estate agents in Dunmore, realtors near me, or something else like that. You want to make sure they find you in the “business tab.” You need to be right towards the top in your local area.

Also, reputation management is so important. If you have a lot of negative reviews, no one will ever hire you. If you did something to upset someone, address the problem by answering them on Google, and provide a solution. 

Get them off of Google and on the phone. Once you’ve remedied the situation, ask them kindly to please remove their negative review because you’re an independent business owner, and it really hurts you to have that bad review on there. Most people will comply! 

13. Get Specific With Expertise 

Do you have something you do really well? The best real estate marketing ideas are ones that play on your strengths. If you specialize in commercial real estate, make it known. If you do a lot of work with single-family homes, tell people that. If you have a knack for selling people old victorian homes, talk about it in a piece of content. 

Whatever it is, it likely appeals to someone, and if you specialize in that, you should let everyone know. People are more willing to work with someone who understands what they want rather than someone who is a “jack of all trades.” 

14. Pull Back The Curtain  

I’ve talked about this a little, but it’s really important. When you’re posting on social media, you can’t just sell, sell, sell all the time. I recommend checking out a book by the entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. It’s called Jab, Jab, Right Hook. 

In the book, he talks about how you need to jab twice before you can knock someone out. In business, it means we need to provide value before we try to sell something. If all you’re doing on your social media is promoting homes for sale, you might get a lot of likes, but you’re not creating conversations, and you’re not being personable. Engagement is the key to success.

15. Host Webinars 

This tip is flat out one of the top marketing ideas for real estate companies. A webinar is basically a live video of you teaching people about something. What better way to attract buyers and sellers than literally having them watch you talk about the topic on camera. 

You could host a webinar about the top five things to do before selling your home. Share it on social media for two weeks prior to the webinar. You could even send out flyers. 

When people sign up for the webinar, they’ll have to enter their email so you can also get their approval for re-targeting if they don’t do business with you after the webinar. 

If you even get as many as ten people in there, it’s a win, and they’ll ask questions, and likely remember you when the time comes. 

16. Don’t Forget Old School Methods 

Never forget the methods that have worked for ages. Sending flyers in the mail isn’t the most efficient way, and neither is getting your face on the back of a grocery cart, but these methods are still relevant. 

Remember that the best real estate marketing ideas are sometimes the ones where we get ourselves in front of people as much as possible. We want to make sure we’re always relevant in the minds of our prospects. 

17. Use The Holidays To Your Advantage 

There are some unique holiday real estate marketing ideas as well. Something as simple as dropping a little holiday door hanger on the door of all FSBOs instead of cold calling them. You could even leave a small holiday basket on their doorstep. Think about the advantage you’re creating by doing this versus calling them and asking for their business. People will remember that, and they may even share it on social media. 

18. Always Ask For Testimonials 

Social proof is the key to success online. You should be celebrating every little win you have by posting it on all your platforms, posting the home, talking about how many homes you sold, how many happy buyers you created, so on and so forth.

When you create a happy homebuyer, make sure to ask for testimonials so you can get them on your website and share them on social media as well. 

19. Have A Website Separate From Your Agency 

Many agents think that they need to stick entirely to their agency website, but in Pennsylvania, real estate agents are allowed to have their own site as long as they don’t claim to be a broker, and they make it clear what broker they work for. Your logo must be smaller than your agency logo, and they must both be present on your website. 

As long as you do that, you’re free to have your own site, which means you can upload content and drive your own traffic to that site using SEO and social sharing. You can implement your own content marketing ideas for real estate this way. 

20. Stay On-Brand 

Last but not least, have your own brand that is separate from the agency. Make sure to stay within all the legal parameters you must follow, but everything you do should represent your brand. Use the same colors in all your social media posts, use those colors on your site, and in any print advertising you do as well. That way, when people see these colors or designs, they’ll immediately think of you.