There is no better way to promote your real estate company than with digital marketing. The digital space is vast and there’s enough room for everyone. But it’s safe to say that digital marketing trends come and go as the year’s pass. What worked last year might not necessarily as effective this year.

That’s why trends exist. Following trends can help you stay on top of your game, and help you beat the competition. So if you’re looking for the 4 digital marketing real estate trends this year, then this is the article for you. With all that said, let’s start.

Give Homebuyers Virtual Tours

There are a few types of media that work to a great extent when advertising houses online. The traditional online media that will always work is images. Taking good pictures of the house you want to sell and posting them online will help you sell a house much faster.

But considering that trends constantly shift, a new type of digital media is dominating the real estate marketing space. The type of media to utilize this year is video. Through video marketing, you are giving homebuyers access to much more information. A video of the whole house and yard gives homebuyers the option to take a closer look at the property both inside and outside. This will make it much easier for potential buyers to explore the house digitally. You can make real estate videos with your smartphone, or go the extra mile and use drones.

Drones are awesome as they record in 4K and are super trendy. Taking great videos is just as important as taking great pictures. But there is yet another trend that many triple-A real estate agencies are quickly hopping on. While videos of the property are great for virtual tours, utilizing VR technology is even better.

While virtual reality technology is much more expensive, it is an option nonetheless. Recreating a property in a virtual setting where homebuyers can take a tour of the house is somewhat expensive. But if you manage to pull it off and attach the tour on your website, then you’ll impress quite a lot of homebuyers. Simply said, giving virtual tours is one of the best ways to promote your online real estate business.

Automate Your Website With AI

VR and AI are the latest acronyms thrown at the real estate industry. While VR stands for Virtual Reality and can be quite expensive, AI isn’t. AI means Artificial Intelligence, and it is a technology that many are quick to jump onto. There are plenty of ways how AI can help you in the process of selling and buying property.

For real estate agencies, AI can be utilized in the form of chatbots. Chatbots are very simple to use. They can be integrated into your website and serve a very unique purpose. You might be familiar with this feature as it appears like a chatbox on the bottom right or left corner of websites. In many cases, chatbots are fully automated and provide website visitors with plenty of information. All that a potential homebuyer has to do is engage in conversation with the chatbot.

Real estate agencies that implement chatbots on their websites have seen huge success in lead generation and lead loss prevention. If an agent happens to be preoccupied with another customer, the chatbot will take over and try to answer questions that potential other clients might have.

While they aren’t the finished article, they do tell website visitors that you are available 24/7. Much like a virtual tour, chatbots are the digital marketing trend to follow.

Create Trust Through Social Media

Social media platforms are best when it comes to engaging with customers. Real estate agencies that have a strong social media presence benefit the most. That’s because people use social media to find businesses that can solve their problems. In this case, people use social media to find real estate agencies.

If a potential client looks at your agencies’ Facebook profile and isn’t impressed, then they’ll most likely redirect their attention to another agency. But if your social profiles are professionally made and look the part, then that creates trust.

You can also use social media to promote authenticity. People will only do businesses with businesses they can trust, so you’ll have to imprint your authenticity on your company’s social profiles. If you plan on posting videos or images on your social profiles, go the extra mile and put yourself in the videos and images to create a higher degree of trust.

Optimize Your Website

You’ll quickly learn that digital marketing is all about giving users the best possible experience. People will be much more eager to engage in business if your website looks the part. But not only that, you’ll have to make sure the website can be accessed through multiple devices.

This is called website optimization and it’s very important in the digital space. Google and other search engines value if your website is fully optimized for smartphones and similar-size screens. Other forms of website optimization include making your website load fast. People on average will wait up to three seconds for a website to load. If your website takes longer than three seconds to load, then there is a high chance visitors will leave.

The best way to optimize your website is to hire a website developer. This person will assess your website and recommend upgrades. It might cost you money, but it is money well spent. In the digital space, every business looks to be better than the next, and that’s no different in the real estate industry.

Finishing Thoughts

If you’re looking to grow your real estate agency, a strong online presence is a must. Thus, you must focus on the trends that work in the real estate industry. Lastly, we hope that our 4 digital marketing trends will help you get the most out of your real estate agency.