For a more updated trends report, please refer to our 2023 Real Estate Marketing Forecast.
We recently conducted a survey of Real Estate Agents to understand marketing trends in the real estate industry. We generated hundreds of responses to create a summary of the hottest trends in real estate marketing and we’re excited to share the results with you!
The goal of this post is to share those trends to help take your marketing to the next level.
Which Marketing Efforts Are Real Estate Professionals Using Now?
It should come as no surprise that the vast majority of real estate pros leverage social media in their marketing.
Social media allows you to share your listings, provide content to existing and potential clients, and amplify your brand. If you’re not using it, you are missing out on the biggest opportunity out there!
The one marketing tool that has seen the most growth is real estate photography. In 2015, roughly 35% of real estate agents were leveraging pro photography. In 2019, that number skyrocketed to 88%! With so much business and income on the line by how you represent your sellers’ homes, there’s no reason to be taking your own pictures anymore.
Another shocking stat is that less than 50% of real estate professionals are utilizing 3D tours and virtual staging. Whether it’s price, product knowledge, or value concerns, these highly talked about marketing tools have seen less than average adoption across the industry.
Which Marketing Efforts Are Real Estate Professionals Adding in 2020?
Video marketing has been a buzzword for the past two years and it looks like 2020 might be the year that it finally takes off. Nearly 80% of real estate marketers plan, or will, be using listing videos in 2020, and why not? Video marketing creates trust, provides value, is mobile-friendly, and helps improve your online exposure.
In fact, you’re 53 times more likely to show up first on Google if you have a video embedded on your website! 53 times!
Another hot trend that will emerge in 2020 is the high adoption of single-property websites. Single property websites allow you to make your listings look stunning while controlling where, and how, potential buyers interact with it.
Single property websites allow you to have one centralized location that you can direct all online traffic to. This will help you improve your SEO, increase lead generation, and gives you full control over how you market your listings.
A sneaky finding from this report is the usage of direct mail. While digital marketing tools dominate the conversation, nearly 70% of real estate pros will be using snail mail to stand out in 2020.
With email open rates declining, it makes sense to keep direct mail in your marketing stack. When was the last time you threw out all of your mail without looking at it? With direct mail, you can feel confident that the consumer will at least view your marketing piece before deciding to keep it or trash it.
More on the top marketing tools agents currently use and plan to use in 2020…
Now that we know which marketing tools agents use and want to use the most, let’s take a deeper look into some of the tools:
Listing Videos
Video marketing has significantly grown over the last few years. Videos are engaging and increase a viewer’s time on the post/page. Many social media platforms reward users who share video content. Listing videos are an effective way to showcase your listing to potential buyers. Some real estate agents will create a recorded or live walkthrough listing video of the home. Another style of listing video is a photo tour using real estate images of the listing.
Social Media
As we mentioned above, it’s no surprise that real estate agents want to adopt social media marketing in 2020. With 90% of homebuyers shopping online before attending an open house or showing, it’s important to have a strong online presence. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are helpful for sharing social proof posts, digital listing templates, helpful content pieces, and more.
Professional Photography
Listings that use professional real estate photography are proven to capture buyer attention faster and hold attention longer than less professional images. With professional real estate images of your listing, you’re likely to get 2x more showings. How happy would that make your sellers? Professional photography doesn’t just help you for a specific listing – it also helps build your brand as an experienced, consistent agent.
Top Closing Gifts
The top trend in closing gifts for your client is personalization. From custom welcome mats to local restaurant gift cards, the more personalized you can make your gifts, the better!
Trust Virtuance to upgrade and elevate your photos
