By Rawle Murdy
Have you ever heard the old saying, “If you want to catch fish, fish where the fish are”? Targeted digital marketing helps you do just that. Here are three cost efficient marketing tactics from 2018 that you should continue in 2019. They will efficiently increase visibility to drive targeted top-of-funnel awareness and leads.
Search Engine Marketing
You’re probably already doing SEM for your community. Keep doing it, and keep optimizing! The average person conducts 11 searches before taking an action[1], and 100% of home buyers go online to research a specific home[2]. Buyers are searching, and marketers need to grab their attention when they’re in the market for real estate in a private community.
Search Engine Marketing does that by utilizing Google and Bing’s highly targeted suite of search, display and YouTube video offerings. The numbers back it up. SEM effectively connects with your target demographic and geography to drive leads and sales. For example, one client of ours found that 55% of new sales engaged with paid search engine marketing efforts.
Third-Party Engagement
Private community buyers will compare multiple options during their research process. Unlike the general home buyer, our “fish” value their lifestyle interests first and foremost. They look at a community’s lifestyle and then the house.
Third-party partners that showcase communities drive qualified lead interest by providing a credible affirmation of what makes each community unique. Some partners provide prospects the ability to check out multiple options from a trusted source and then directly ask for more information from each community they like. Other methods, like public relations, drive online and offline awards, media coverage, and editorial articles that also give community buyers the third-party stamp of approval they’re looking for.
Facebook Advertising
Social media presents a cost-effective option to acquiring new leads for private communities.
Average users still spend nearly 30 minutes a day on Facebook. And if you think social media is just a channel to reach younger demos, think again. According to Statista, more than 80 million Facebook users are 45 or older[3]
With this mass amount of users expressing interest and showing behavior on the site, Facebook offers targeting capabilities that rival any other digital marketing channel. Layering demographic, behavior and interest data, private communities are able to execute highly-targeted campaigns, including brand awareness, retargeting and lead capture at a very affordable cost per lead. For one private community client, we were able to acquire nearly 350 new leads at an average cost of less than $7 per lead.
The past year brought continued success and increased sales for many of our private community clients. In 2019, these three core digital tactics will continue to efficiently and effectively engage the private community buyer when and where they’re looking.
[1] https://realestateagentu.com/14-new-search-behavior-statistics-home-buyers/
[2] https://www.paveya.com/28-eye-popping-real-estate-marketing-statistics/
[3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/398136/us-facebook-user-age-groups/
About Rawle Murdy
Rawle Murdy is a real-estate focused marketing/branding firm based in Charleston, SC. Over the past 40+ years we’ve helped our clients sell more than 25,000 homes, from small private communities to master-planned developments.
We understand the entire real estate marketing ecosystem from product, pricing, amenitizing through complete branding, marketing and sales. Informed by data and constantly optimizing, our focus is on delivering more qualified leads, more tours and higher sales conversions. We work closely with sales teams to assure strategic and creative messaging are fully integrated throughout the entire sales process. www.rawlemurdy.com