We’ve reached a point where consumers are not solely in search of good products and services; they are interested in the entire experience of interacting with a business. When searching for a solution provider, consumers will conduct a google search, check out websites, view social media profiles, and read online reviews before deciding to do business.
It’s important to know where your customers are and to think about their experience on each platform. To create a well-rounded experience, real estate professionals must expand beyond desktop capabilities and venture into pure mobile efficiency.
In fact, are you reading this from a mobile device?
According to the growing mobile trend, there is great chance that you are! It’s not enough that 80% of internet users own a smartphone, or that on average people use their phone for 90 minutes each day, the fact that 50% of searches are happening from a mobile device should persuade you to rethink your mobile marketing strategy. To top it off, Americans collectively check their smartphones 8 billion times per day.
The stats are in your favor! There are plenty of mobile opportunities to promote your real estate business. According to the National Association of REALTORS® 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 72% of buyers used a mobile website or tablet in their home search and 58% of buyers who used mobile search found their home through a mobile application.
Here are 6 tips to help you create a robust mobile marketing strategy for incoming leads and current clients.
1. Use Text Messaging
Did you know that 90 percent of text messages are read within three minutes? According to Mobile Marketing Watch “By 2025, 50 percent of text messages consumers receive will be from preferred businesses.” If you’re not quite ready to create a complete text message marketing campaign, begin by using texts as a tool with your funneled leads and current clients. With those who have an iPhone, you can leverage realtor.com®’s new iMessage feature for their iOS 10 app. With the new feature, real estate professionals can:
- Easily stay in contact and collaborate while on the go
Use reaction stickers to bring their clients attention to their must have features
Boost the exposure of their listings with the easy sharing feature
2. Lean on Mobile Apps
- Third Party Apps – Using a third party app is a great way to generate leads and take advantage of the brand recognition and trust that vendors have already built with consumers. Additionally, larger brands have the budgets to invest in neat features that consumers love. For instance, realtor.com recently announced two android features Sign Snap™ and Street Peek™. These apps “use image recognition technologies and augmented reality to deliver property details and price data with just a few taps.”
- Create Your Own App – If you’d like total creative control, you can use software like buildfire, AppyPie, or Zoho to create your own app. This route offers more control on what’s made available to visitors.
3. Immerse Your Brand in Mobile Social Media Marketing
Periscope. Instagram. Snapchat. Here you have three mobile driven social media platforms allowing you to leverage their networks primarily from your fingertips. Furthermore, Smart Insights reported that active mobile social users grew 30%, in the 12 month period between January 2016 to January 2017, from 283 million to 581 million. The opportunity to speak directly to those who are listening is ever increasing! Below are some of the things you can do:
- Broadcast live from open houses
- Host live Q & A sessions
- Share property stories and/or history
- Emphasize community features
- Offer home previews
- Give buyers a sneak peak into neighborhood staples
- Highlight valuable property features
Check out this social media cheat sheet to gain a better understanding of what message you should convey and to whom on each social network.
4. Mobile Efficient Website
Your brand should display flawlessly on all devices. Did you know 94% of millennials are using online websites in their home search? If your website doesn’t display well on mobile (meaning it doesn’t rescales images and text based on the size and aspect ratio of the device), it will not get a second look.
5. Get Video
Videos have become an important marketing tool, so much so that YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine with 100 million monthly active users.Videos are used on nearly every social media platform and you can also leverage them for additional uses. For instance, a video that begins on Facebook live can be downloaded and embedded into a blog post and then loaded to YouTube, tweeted and posted to Instagram. Best of all, it is an opportunity to meet first-time buyers, which are largely millennials. According to Animoto, 48% of millennials view videos solely using their mobile devices and are three times more likely to do so, as compared to baby boomers.
6. Leverage Online Reviews
When looking for a local business, BIA/Kelsey reports that 97% of people read online reviews and BrightLocal reports that approximately 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. When it comes to mobile, your rankings are readily available to potential clients. Have you noticed when using the Google Maps app to find a local business it also shows what other visitors think of the establishment? And like many others, a one-star rating will force you to look elsewhere and a 5-star rating will compel you to continue your journey.
It’s absolutely critical to effectively manage your online reputation and make sure you know what’s being said about you on the Internet, as it can effect your mobile marketing strategy.
Interested in created a well-rounded online marketing strategy? With ListHub Reports, you’ll know how many people are viewing your listings online and how many leads are generated as a result – along with branded reports you can auto-email to your seller clients to let them know how their listing is performing online compared to similar properties. Click here to learn how you can access these valuable stats for your company’s listings.
