Key Takeaways:
– Existing home sales have dropped over 15% year-over-year
– The shortage of homes available for purchase is a significant reason for the decline in sales
– To thrive in today’s real estate landscape, agents should focus on getting the lion’s share of listings
– Investing in your brand, particularly your website, is crucial for demonstrating credibility to potential clients
– Updating your SEO strategy is important, with a focus on creating useful and people-first content
– Digital advertising should be dialed in, with a focus on simple, localized campaigns to promote listings and brand
– Elevating your pitch is essential in a competitive market, using sleek web-based decks with analytics to seal the deal
– Adapting to the challenges of the real estate industry is key to dominating in the future
inman:
It’s an oft-repeated adage that real estate is cyclical. Well, figures recently released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) put the industry back in 2010. That’s because existing home sales have dropped over 15 percent year-over-year.
Certainly, steep housing prices and mortgage rates are dampening buyer demand. However, a more significant reason sales have plummeted is the shortage of homes available for purchase. As of September, there were only a little over 1M homes on the market, down over 8 percent from 2022 and -14.5 percent from 2020.
Finding a path forward
Jon Krabbe, CEO of digital marketing firm Agent Image, acknowledges that these macroeconomic factors make growing your business challenging — but not impossible. He emphasizes that given today’s tough real estate landscape, dominating your market means getting the lion’s share of listings. As such, Jon offers a digital marketing playbook that you can use to stay afloat and thrive.
1. INVEST IN YOUR BRAND
Prospects today will vet you more closely than ever. If you want to become the go-to agent for clients in your area, you need to demonstrate a clear separation between you and everyone else — and that begins with your website. Imagine if potential clients visit your site and discover it’s clunky, unintuitive, and outdated. They will inevitably ask: “Why should I trust an agent to market my home when they can’t even market their business effectively?”
Pro Tip
Agents who place high importance on staying ahead of competitors will redesign their website every three years, and many agents who have teams have elected to create a team website plus a site for themselves to highlight their accomplishments.
Brandon & Rayni Williams, Beverly Hill Estates – company site and personal site
2. UPDATE YOUR SEO STRATEGY
AI tools like Chat GPT topped the charts of marketing’s greatest hits this year. However, Google makes it clear that if you want your content to rank, it has to be useful and people-first. What does people-first mean? Krabbe states, “For years, the game in search engine optimization (SEO) was to write content for search engines, which meant packing keywords into copy, often making it sound a bit nonsensical. Today, Google will penalize you for keyword stuffing and using content entirely generated by AI. You have to review and edit AI-generated copy because it is not always accurate and obvious to Google when it is artificially created.”
Pro Tip
Don’t throw in the towel if you don’t have the time to create or manage an SEO strategy. Hire an expert.
3. DIAL IN DIGITAL ADVERTISING
This year, anyone executing paid real estate ad campaigns on Meta and Google has faced challenges. Both platforms continue to transition to accommodate generative AI along with policy changes and a housing market with shifting demand.
“At the end of this tunnel, we hope to see a more streamlined advertiser experience for our clients who run their own campaigns. If you are starting out, focus on simple, localized campaigns (like local search ads on Google) to promote your listings and brand,” says Krabbe. The key is to set a budget, understand what you can accomplish with that dollar amount, and stick to the plan for at least 90 days, “ shares Krabbe.
Pro Tip
If your budget is limited, put your energy into managing your most important asset: your brand. Set up a Google My Business account and use your profile to tout who you are by consistently posting content and client reviews.
4. ELEVATE YOUR PITCH
Competition for good listings is fierce, and your pitch has to be on point. If you haven’t done so, think about switching to a presentation platform that allows you to create a sleek web-based deck that gives you analytics that can help seal the deal. Krabbe shares, “Since the pandemic, we have been refining ACCESS, our proprietary presentation platform built exclusively for real estate agents. With a web-based presentation like this, you have analytics that can tell you how often your prospect views a presentation, what specific pages they read, and for how long. You can take that data and create an organic conversation around the information they spent the most time on.”
Pro Tip
Digital presentations are a powerful tool, but ensure you have an offline backup on your device if you encounter Wi-Fi issues during a pitch.
At a time when the market is challenging, it’s essential to focus on what you can control. As Krabbe says: “The real estate market will likely be tight for the foreseeable future. Agents who can adapt best to the myriad of challenges that beset the industry are the ones who will dominate in 2024.”
About Agent Image
Agent Image is an award-winning marketing agency that caters exclusively to real estate professionals. It specializes in building exquisite websites and running data-driven digital marketing campaigns, working with many of the industry’s leading agents and brokerages.
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Property Chomp's Take:
It’s no secret that the real estate market is cyclical, but recent data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows that the industry is currently facing challenges reminiscent of 2010. Existing home sales have dropped over 15 percent year-over-year, and the shortage of available homes for purchase is a significant contributor to this decline.
While high housing prices and mortgage rates are certainly dampening buyer demand, the lack of inventory is a more pressing issue. As of September, there were only a little over 1 million homes on the market, down over 8 percent from 2022 and 14.5 percent from 2020.
In such a tough real estate landscape, Jon Krabbe, CEO of digital marketing firm Agent Image, emphasizes the importance of dominating your market by getting the lion's share of listings. He offers a digital marketing playbook to help real estate agents stay afloat and thrive in this challenging environment.
1. Invest in your brand: Your website is the first impression potential clients will have of you, so it's crucial to make it stand out. A clunky, unintuitive, and outdated website will not inspire trust in potential clients. To separate yourself from the competition, invest in a professionally designed and regularly updated website that showcases your expertise and accomplishments.
2. Update your SEO strategy: Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for ranking your content and attracting organic traffic to your website. However, the game has changed. Instead of writing content solely for search engines, focus on creating useful, people-first content. Avoid keyword stuffing and using AI-generated copy without reviewing and editing it for accuracy.
If you don't have the time or expertise to manage your SEO strategy effectively, consider hiring an expert to help you.
3. Dial in digital advertising: Platforms like Meta and Google are continuously evolving to accommodate generative AI and policy changes. This can make executing paid real estate ad campaigns challenging. Start by focusing on simple, localized campaigns to promote your listings and brand. Set a budget, understand what you can accomplish with that budget, and stick to your plan for at least 90 days.
If you have a limited budget, prioritize managing your brand by setting up a Google My Business account and consistently posting content and client reviews.
4. Elevate your pitch: Competition for good listings is fierce, so your pitch needs to be on point. Consider using a presentation platform that allows you to create a sleek web-based deck with analytics to help you understand your prospects' interests. This data can be used to create an organic conversation around the information they spent the most time on.
Remember to have an offline backup of your presentation in case you encounter Wi-Fi issues during a pitch.
In a challenging real estate market, it's crucial to focus on what you can control. Adaptation is key, and agents who can navigate the challenges of the industry are the ones who will dominate in the coming years.
Agent Image is an award-winning marketing agency specializing in building websites and running data-driven digital marketing campaigns for real estate professionals. Their expertise and experience can help agents stay ahead in an ever-changing market.
