How many articles have you read that list the many ways 2016 will be a great year in real estate? Sellers are selling and buyers are buying! But how do real estate professionals capitalize on said growth? Utilizing the latest and greatest in online marketing technology will definitely help.

Top Online Marketing Trends to Claim Success in 2016

1. Provide shareable, interactive content
It’s time to take blogging seriously! No more poorly written, random, or irrelevant posts. REALTORmag offers the following tips to better leverage a real estate blog:

• Be an amazing storyteller and let your personality shine through your posts
• Use pictures, videos, and interactive content to engage readers and grab their attention
• Be a friend to local businesses by mentioning them in your posts – this benefits you both!
• Use technology to automatically share your blog posts to various social media sites
  

2. Incorporate video
Video will continue to play a big part in online marketing this year. They provide a great visual and help to make your marketing messages more personal. Target your videos to the audience you would like to reach with a carefully crafted script. According to the National Association of REALTORS® report on “Real Estate in the Digital Age,” 26% of buyers are using online videos sites such as YouTube during the home search. You don’t even need to have fancy equipment. Many of today’s mobile phones take high-quality videos. For iPhone users, you can change the quality of your recordings by going to Settings > Photos & Camera and then selecting Record Video to update your video resolution settings.

3. Maintain an authentic social media presence
Likes and views don’t always equate to leads. In order to make genuine connections via social media, it’s important to be authentic and share items that are actually of interest to your network and ideal clients. Share information about your local market, but remember it doesn’t always have to be data, or even real estate related. Is there a new community project you’re involved in, or a great new restaurant you tried? Tell your followers! You can even automate a weekly posting schedule for all your social networks with free services like HootSuite or Buffer.

4. Mobile-friendly everything
Mobile responsive websites are imperative today. In fact, Google research found that mobile overtook desktop for the first time in over 10 countries in 2015. If you haven’t already, it’s time to focus marketing dollars on making sure your website and other online platforms are completely mobile-friendly.  

5. Don’t abandon email marketing
Email marketing will continue to play a major role in your online marketing efforts. However, with consumers receiving a huge amount of marketing communications every day, it’s important to make sure yours stands out from the crowd. Here are a few tips to help you rev up your email marketing strategy in 2016:

• Multi-device optimized email templates
• Personalized subject lines
• Behavior-based email triggers
• Kinetic, interactive and animated emails
  

Year after year, we’re learning how more potential clients live online. Without an updated online marketing strategy, even the best real estate professional’s services can go unnoticed. Effectively marketing yourself and the work you do for your clients is the best thing you can do to generate more leads. Take a moment to rethink your marketing approach in 2016 to ensure that your real estate business is doing everything possible to capture and impress the market.

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