Is Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Important for My Real Estate Agency?
Starting with the basic concept of Search Engine Marketing or SEM or Google AdWords, it simply means paid advertising/marketing of your real estate agency via paid advertisements to be placed online on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing or social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Foursquare.
If you plan on using Google Adwords or other SEM channels for your real estate agency it is important to know three things:
- Real Estate is Super Competitive for SEM
- Real Estate SEM is Expensive (Have a Stomach…)
- You Need an Integrated Real Estate Digital Marketing Strategy
By using SEM (Paid Media) on various search engines and social media advertising you will cast more “lines” out to a wider internet audience that not only is interested in your real estate agency services and listings but also looking to buy real estate now or in the near future.
This mode of digital marketing will help increase your real estate website’s ranking by showing up on the paid results, usually near the top or side for keywords that your customers may type in the search engine.
Sometimes SEO gets confused with SEM but to learn more about what the difference is, here is a great SEO vs SEM Guide from Hubspot.
Real estate digital marketing is relatively a broad term, as it covers multiple areas and techniques of real estate digital marketing and many online tactics. It includes but is by no means limited to banner ads, article marketing, social bookmarking, press release syndication, link building, email marketing, pay per click (PPC) advertising paid internet advertising, paid listings, real estate augmented reality, weekly blog postings and many other ways to generate traffic.
Always remember that organic SEO is one of the best ways to generate free earned web traffic to your real estate website that also converts at a higher rate. It is also one of the most expensive, competitive, and overall gut wrenching niches in the digital marketing world.
You are at the mercy of the Google Gods but the reward definitely outweighs the risks.
For launching and successfully running a SEM / AdWords campaign for your real estate agency, you need to understand that it is a paid media cost that goes to Google / Search Engines with up to a 15% agency fee to SMDigital Partners for SEM management services rendered.
It is important to work with a reputable digital marketing agency which uses techniques that can generate the best results, in order to get the maximum ROI but also continues to look for new ways to generate more revenues for their clients through performance marketing or per lead basis.
That’s why here at SMDigital Partners, we don’t mind putting a little skin in the game through performance marketing by setting up complete digital marketing sales funnel. When we start generating sales for your real estate agency, we all share in the success.
For more info please call 561-404-9787. *Minimum engagement of $10k & above per month*
Digital Agency for Realtors and Real Estate Agencies
Importance of Digital Marketing
For learning the importance of real estate digital marketing, it is imperative to understand the difference between real estate SEO and real estate SEM, as most realtors believe, the later is less important than the former.
Basically, SEM is a tool of real estate digital marketing which aims at “promotion” of your agencies listings and web pages. It helps to aid in getting better ranking and more attention through paid advertising. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is an important area which lays the foundation for a complete and cohesive real estate digital marketing strategy.
SEM allows you to reap benefits at a faster pace and different methods can be chosen for keeping the campaign at an affordable level and create an overall customized strategy for your real estate agency. This technique also allows the website to quickly gain ranking on the search engines, though for a short period, but the results are guaranteed if the SEM campaign is carried out right.
Digital Advertising Channels For Your Real Estate Agency
Paid Media or Google AdWords
SEM comprising of sponsored or paid ad listings provides fast visibility on popular search engines. You can set up an ad in less than 20 minutes and be up and running. It’s one thing to set it up and one thing to set up a campaign that delivers the sales results your real estate agency needs to stay competitive in 2020!
This method is sometimes called Pay Per Click or PPC advertising. The paid listings are usually those links that appear at the top or bottom of the search engine results’ page. These links are the paid listings for which the search engines charges a small fee every time they are clicked by a visitor, also known as “Cost Per Click” (CPC). Normally there is a 15% SMDigital Partners fee for SEM management.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the best ways to create a marketing funnel online. Repetition and retention is very important when it comes to marketing real estate online. Email Marketing is the icing on the cake as it collects a PPC lead and sends an email newsletter at predetermined times featuring your real estate information.
It also attracts potential referrals by sending them valuable information regarding the services they might need for their real estate dealings in a concise and eye-catching manner. It allows the clients to get in touch with your real estate agency without having to research on the internet. Think of it as a monthly newsletter that arrives neatly into your email inbox.
Lead Tracking
Lead tracking allows your real estate agency to have a bigger and stronger sense of transparency for the leads that you are getting from your SEM campaign. It is important to note that this is usually a separate cost as SMDigital Partners has to build the infrastructure for Call Tracking and Lead Generation Tracking.
Our custom “AMS” system provides both long and short-term benefits to your real estate agency by giving you 24/7 access to your prospects information, whilst assisting you in optimizing and managing the sales process from start to end.
One of the best investments your real estate agency could invest in!
High-Quality Photography
If you are a real estate agent you know the frustrations of using “sub-par” photographs of your real estate listing. These days Google is factoring in the quality of your images as well as the number of pictures online as a ranking factor.
Photography is possibly what makes or breaks real estate sales even before a potential home buyer picks up the phone to call you.
High-resolution photographs will help you sell more real estate because it helps to show your real estate listing in the best “light” possible. Another cool way to educate your potential home buyers is through the use of drone photography. Using a drone will help capture your home in a different way through aerial photography or video.
Local SEO
These days everyone has a mobile device. The majority of mobile searchers are looking for local services and are ready to purchase if given the opportunity too.
So how do you get found on Yelp!, Google Maps, Organic SEO or business listings?
SMDigital Partners has a division that specializes in local marketing for businesses looking to get better visibility online at an affordable price called SEOLocal Results. If you don’t have the time or skills for performing SEO / SEM / Local SEO for your real estate agency, then it is better to hire the digital experts at SMDigital Partners, a leading real estate digital marketing agency.
Since one of our core business specialties is in the real estate market, SMDP has the expertise and comprehensive knowledge, that helps you to run your Search Engine Marketing campaign more efficiently that will generate better results for your real estate agency in 2020.
Real Estate Digital Agency
Since 2003, SMDigital has helped hundreds of different sizes businesses and corporations reach their sales revenue through the use of digital marketing. In 2010, SMDigital Partners launched a cutting edge real estate digital marketing division that works with real estate agencies, realtors, and developers in helping them reach their sales goals through digital marketing.
SMDP has quietly helped to sell over $200 million dollars in luxury real estate in the Florida market. If your real estate agency would like to take the next level and start seeing a return on your advertising dollars, please call Lenny @ 561.404.9787 for more information. We know real estate and we will help you sell more of it in 2020!
