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Keys to Effective Real Estate Marketing

Target Audience. You must clearly define who is the ideal person to live in your home. Based on home type, location, amenities, etc., is the home best suited to families, professionals, workforce, etc? Then take your description deeper. Detail what types of professionals (banking, medical, entertainment, etc.). Where will they come from (nearby building or neighborhood, other city or country)? What do they do in their spare time (cultural events, fitness, parks, etc.)? What “tribes” do they belong to (soccer moms, LGBT, golfers, investors, etc.)?

Real Estate Listing. Any marketing begins with an effective real estate listing. Your listing should be “optimized.” That means using great photos, in the right order. It means having compelling text, clearly written to attract the audience you are targeting. And it also means putting that listing in all the right places.

Photography & Renderings. Professional photography can make a huge difference in your results. Good photographer not only enhances the look of your asset, it can create a mood or personality. Also good photography helps convey the surrounding neighborhood or nearby activities or amenities. For projects that are not yet built, renderings play a key role in helping your prospective customer visualize what the finished product will look like. Good renderings allow people to make purchase decisions regardless of what the construction site looks like. Urban Edge/Online Marketing Group can help you find the right photographer or renderer for your project.

Listing Syndication. There are over 100 real estate “internet listings sites – or ILS”. These include more well known sites such as apartments.com, homes.com, etc. Plus less well known sites such as Oodle & RentHop. Some sites are much better with rentals, others more geared to sales. You can broadcast your listings to most of these websites through a syndication service, such as Urban Edge. But be careful not to just “set it and forget it. You should periodically review the accuracey of your listings on these websites, and make sure you are getting traffic, and leads, from them.

Brochure. For larger, new construction projects, a brochure can help make your building or apartment stand out from the competition. And brochures don’t necessarily need to be even printed – they can live on your website and be downloaded only. Printed brochures can range from a high-end multi-page table top book to a simple tri-fold or a pocket folder. The brochure can be given to prospects at your building or sent via mail to interested home seekers. It will traditionally contain photos, renderings, map, neighborhood information, and floorplans. Urban Edge's design team can create an outstanding brochure for your project.

Google / Search Engine Advertising. Advertising with Pay-Per-Click ads on Google (and Bing) is the most cost-effective way to generate qualified leads for your project, either rental or sales. However it is easy to waste money on Google. Your campaign must be strategic and well thought out. You must bid not for the most popular keywords – only those keywords that will bring you qualified traffic for a low cost “per click”. We can help you create and manage an effective search engine campaign.

Online Display Advertising & Remarketing. Using ad networks, we can help establish awareness of your project throughout the internet. Managed carefully, the ads will appear only on appropriate websites (i.e. news, sports, real estate) that reach your target audience. We also utilize “remarketing” where ads “follow” people who leave your website without filling out a contact form. Contact Urban Edge/Online Marketing Group to learn more.

International Marketing. For some projects, targeting country-specific real estate investors can make a huge difference. Using a blend of search engines and local overseas websites, we can help you target any country in the world. We recommend translated advertising in the language/country we are targeting.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO refers to doing everything you can to make your website appear in Google – for free - when people do relevant searches (i.e. Upper East Side rental). While may programmers claim to include SEO in their programming, it is rarely enough. SEO has become a specialty – professionals who understand code & content generation strategies to help boost your rankings. Urban Edge/Online Marketing Group has a crew of SEO specialists who can help make your website increasingly visible on Google.

Social Media Marketing. Each of your buildings and homes can be shared, or featured on social media. While marketing on social media sites is not a silver bullet, should be included as part of your marketing plan. Urban Edge can help you setup and maintain an engaging social presence.

Tracking & Reporting. All marketing activity should be tracked and analyzed. Each month you should evaluate what is working and what is not working. Then, adjustments can be made to optimize your marketing spend. Close attention to your “Google Analytics” is key to keeping your marketing smart and efficient.

Web development. Your website can make all the difference to convince a prospect to consider your property over a competitor. The site needs to be well designed & programmed and needs to work fast and well. Urban Edge/Online Marketing Group has an internal team of web developers to create a beautifully designed, highly functioning website for your company or project.

Most Common Online Real Estate Marketing Terms and Definitions

Common Ad Types

Static Ad – an ad with text, or text and image(s), that remains unchanged the entire time it is displayed.

“Flash” Ad / Animated Ad – an ad that includes motion (animation, changing images, etc.). “Flash” refers to the name of the platform that is used to create the animation. After a number of years of complaints by various companies, the internet is moving away from Flash as a standard, and are using animated .gifs and HTML5 instead.

Video Ad – similar to a Flash ad, except that it utilizes video, not animation. 

Banner Ad – a rectangular ad, much wider than it is tall.  Usually at the top of a webpage, but not exclusively. Can be static or have movement.

Skyscraper Ad – a rectangular ad, much taller than it is wide.  Usually found along the side of a webpage. Can be static or Flash.

Tile Ad – a square, or slightly rectangular ad, of varying sizes.  Can be found in various places on a webpage. Can be static, animated, or video.

Interstitial Ad – a full page ad that appears before the user reaches the webpage they were navigating to. Can be static or animated.

Expanding Ad – an ad that temporarily expands (generally pushing content further down the page).  Flash ad.

Floating Ad – an ad that moves across the screen, or appears to float above the content. Flash ad.

Pop-up Ad – an ad that opens a new window on top of the current one to display the ad. Generally a static ad, sometimes Animated.

Directories & Listings for Real Estate

Directories – websites such as CityRealty, NYBits, Urban Sherpa and the NY Times have directories of buildings and/or owners, managers, etc. They generally give a brief overview of the building or owner/manager, with contact information (website and/or phone).

Real Estate Listings – can be found on a variety of websites. Some websites charge the landlords for the listings (e.g. the NY Times), while most other websites take free listings (e.g. NY Bits). Sites like HotPads allow individuals to list for free, but require premium (paid) programs for apartment communities. There are AIVs (Apartment Information Vendors) who take the landlord's listings for free, but charge the tenant for access to those listings (e.g. RDNY (formerly Rent-Direct.com). Some websites, like Naked Apartments are free for tenants, but will charge the landlord or broker for each lead that they receive from the website. The amount of information, and format, for each of these websites varies. A few websites (most notably StreetEasy and NYBits) publish an archive of past listings, including the advertised prices.

Listings Syndication – dissemination of listings to a variety of websites. Some sites can be fed the information electronically, while others require manual entry. Listings are generally updated once a week, sometimes more frequently.

Listings Optimization – getting your listings to appear at the top of a user’s search results, and improving how the listing displays. “Tricks of the trade” include adding information not accepted in a standard electronic feed, using HTML code to customize the look of the listing (lists, bullet points, etc.), updating/reposting frequently and more.

Contextual Advertising

Contextual Advertising – a form of targeted advertising used on websites, mobile phones, etc. The ads are selected and served by automated systems. The advertiser is paying for ads that will target users based on geographic data (geo-targeting), demographics, and/or behavior. Some ad networks (see below) use contextual advertising.

Pay-per-Click ads (see below) are one form of contextual advertising, using keyword searches. Contextual advertising systems can also scan the text of a website, and return ads based on what the user is viewing on the page. Other systems use click stream data to determine which ads the user sees.  Click stream data is a record of the clicks you made prior to, and while, you are on a particular website. For example, if you were visiting a golf website prior to a website using contextual advertising, an ad for golf equipment may appear.

Ad Networks

Ad Network – basically, a collection of websites who want to run ads. The ad network is run by a single company. The websites in an ad network may or may not have related content (e.g all real estate websites). Smaller websites may use an ad network for all of their ads, rather than sell the ad space themselves.  Larger websites may use an ad network for their “remnant” ad inventory.

There are 3 forms of ad networks:

1. Targeted Networks – use technology to serve up ads based on page content or user behavior keyword searches, or click stream data.
2. Rep Networks – the network represents a portfolio of websites, and the advertiser knows on which sites their ads will run.
3. Blind Networks – very inexpensive, usually bulk buys.  Advertiser has no control over what websites the ads appear on.

Pay-per-Click Advertising

Paid Ads – ads that appear above, and to the side, of the organic search results when someone uses a search engine. You only pay if the user clicks on the ad.

Organic Search Results are the results that are returned to the user when they look for information using a search engine such as Google. Organic search results are related to SEO work.

Positioning – refers to how high in the list of paid ads your ad appears. Positioning is based on a bid system, where you compete against other advertisers for your ad to appear when users enter selected keywords to their searches.

Mobile

SMS – stands for Short Message Service. Essentially, it’s a common text message, limited to 160 characters.

MMS – stands for Multimedia Message Service. This extends the capability of an SMS by adding pictures, video, etc.

Mobile Website – a “stripped down” version of a website, optimized for viewing on smartphones such as the Blackberry. Minimal advertising is available. This is a separate version of the website, with a different URL that mobiles devices are redirected to.

Responsive Design – this is replacing most mobile websites, and is the preferred method of handling mobile devices by Google. With responsive design, you do not rely on a separate URL to send mobile devices to. Instead, the website detects what type of device/screen size is being used, and rearranges the website to look it's best on that screen size. This eliminates the need to update two separate URLs when maintaining your website, and ensures that both desktop and mobile views see essentially the same content, albeit in a different layout.

With the advent of the iPhone and other smartphones with full browser capabilities, touchscreens, and faster download times (and apps, see below), the need for a separate mobile website is diminishing, and best handled with responsive design. However, they are not completely obsolete.

Apps (applications) – basically software that can be downloaded onto your smartphone.

Unlike a mobile website which needs to compatible with all mobile phones, an app is written to maximize the experience on a specific phone. Consequently, they offer a much more interactive experience, and are often much faster than using a mobile website. The line between mobile websites and apps continues to blur.

Social Media: Twitter

Tweet – a post that is sent by someone to the people that follow that person or business. Followers see tweets on their Twitter page, and can receive them as an SMS text message.

The act of sending a tweet is called tweeting. Tweets are limited to 140 characters, and they can contain website URLs. Both individuals and businesses can use Twitter equally. Tweets from the people you are following can be found on your personal Twitter home page. You can also see them on that person’s Twitter page.  Tweets are also searchable by subject matter, by both members and non members.

Retweet – to take a tweet from someone you are following, and tweet it to all of your followers. This allows you to share tweets you like, and spreads the original tweet virally.

Social Media: Facebook

Facebook Fans – individuals who have chosen to follow a business, through reading that organization’s posts on their fan page. Users choose to follow you by clicking on a button on the fan page.

Facebook Friends – individuals who have mutually agreed to be Facebook friends, allowing you to view information on their profile, follow each other’s postings, post on each other’s wall, etc. Either party can request to be a friend, but the other party must accept the request.

You can find people that wish to request to be friends with by a variety of methods. These include searches for names and email addresses, workplace, high school, college, etc., as well as networks that people belong to (geographical, work-related, school-related, etc.). You can also view a list of everyone your friends are friends with, and view a list of everyone who is a fan of a particular business/organization. Friends will also be suggested to you on your homepage, based on mutual friends and/or demographic information.

“Wall” – this is a place on your fan page, or personal profile page, where fans and friends can post messages. You can also post status updates (messages) on your wall. Posts on your wall are fed to your fans’ and friends’ news feeds.

“News Feed” – this appears on every user’s homepage, and it contains posts from their friends’ walls, status updates, updates to your friends’ profiles, notices about pages your friends’ have become fans of, and more.

Facebook Fan Page – this is a public profile on Facebook for use by businesses, celebrities, etc. that allows your customers to follow you, and interact with you. 

You should post regularly on your “wall,” which is where your “fans” can view your posts. Your posts also will appear in their “news feed.” Fan pages can be found by doing searches on Facebook, and by looking at the pages your Facebook friends are fans of. When a Facebook friend becomes a fan of a page, a notice will appear in all of their friend’s news feed. A drawback of a fan page is that you are very limited in how you can solicit fans People can find you through searches for keywords on Facebook, through notices in their news feed that a friend has become a fan of your page, or by placing PPC ads on Facebook with a link to your fan page and/or a “Become a Fan” link in the ad. They may also find you if you show up as a “suggestion” on their wall. A suggestion is based on your profile information (demographics), and the pages your friends are fans of.

Facebook Personal Page – this is a profile only for individuals, which contains a variety of personal information, status updates, wall postings, and more. You can limit what information can be viewed by the public, as well as by friends, or by different groups of friends.

Pricing Structure & Results Measurement

CTR – Clickthrough Rate. The percentage of impressions that actually on the ad to go to your website.

Conversions/Goal Conversions – the number of people who complete a given action, e.g. filling out a contact form, calling a phone number, purchasing an item, signing up for a newsletter. Goals are user defined, but must be measurable.

CPM – Cost per Mille (thousand). This is the cost for 1000 impressions in a set time frame.

CPA – Cost per Action. This is the cost every time a user performs a specific action (filling out a form, signing up for an account, etc.).

CPL – Cost per Lead. Another terms for CPA.

PPC – Cost per Click. Cost for every click through to a specific website/webpage.