Traditional & Digital Marketing for Real Estate Developers

Six Senses Southern Dunes Resort & image courtesy of Foster + Partners

Digital marketing has been on the rise in the real estate industry, with video content driving inquiries over 400% and over half of real estate professionals using social media to generate leads. Despite these impressive figures, traditional real estate marketing is still holding strong, with direct mail boasting a 90% open rate (compared to email’s typical 20-30% open rate).

Clearly, both approaches have their strengths. Real estate digital marketing tends to be the way to go for reaching the largest audience, whereas traditional methods tend to be seen as more trustworthy. The best real estate professionals know how to leverage both, and in which situations, to get more qualified leads and ultimately more business.

This article will explore how these digital age and traditional marketing methods differ, and how  to use each to maximize your real estate marketing efforts.

---

What is Traditional Marketing in Real Estate?

Traditional marketing in real estate is all about building relationships (and your brand) through physical, real-life interactions. These range from face-to-face conversations with potential buyers, to stunning signage on the crossroads of major thoroughfares.

By creating a tangible presence, your marketing efforts will gain recognition in your communities as well as build trust through familiarity. These personal touches can be the deciding factor when a client aligns with one real estate company over another.

Below are the key traditional marketing methods real estate professionals need to know.

Traditional Marketing Methods:

Print advertising: From local newspapers and magazines to detailed brochures and fliers, print advertising is a tried-and-true staple of traditional real estate marketing.

Be sure to include the property’s distinguishing features, relevant stats (like size or number of rooms), and a way for interested parties to get in contact.

Direct mail campaigns: With its impressive open rates, direct mail campaigns have the opportunity to make a powerful impression on potential buyers or sellers.

A good way to make your direct mail campaigns hit home is to make it about the community. Consider including local market reports, community events, neighborhood-specific listings, and more to keep your brand front of mind in your target areas.

Billboards and outdoor ads: Billboards have remained a popular mainstay in traditional real estate marketing for one key reason: they’re hard to ignore. A well-placed outdoor advertisement can provide visibility for your brand in high-traffic areas, which builds both familiarity and awareness in one fell swoop.

Keep in mind, placing an attractive ad in a busy area can be quite costly, but it’s a surefire way to get your brand noticed.

Cold calling and door-to-door marketing: While these traditional methods might feel outdated, they still work. Direct interaction lets you connect with people personally, answering questions as they come up and building rapport in a way that online ads cannot.

If possible, research your target market and create a narrow and specified list of promising potential leads so your cold marketing efforts have a better chance of sparking interest.

Networking and events: Sponsoring local events, hosting open houses, and simply attending noteworthy occasions in the community is an authentic way to build relationships through networking. These face-to-face exchanges are both memorable, build word of mouth credibility, and provide opportunities to position yourself as the go-to professional in your area.

Don’t forget to carry a card or other print marketing materials to keep the conversation going should you meet someone in the community who is interested in hearing more about your real estate services.

What is Digital Marketing in Real Estate?

Digital marketing is a data-driven, online method that allows real estate professionals to reach targeted audiences with flexibility and efficiency. By using a variety of digital marketing platforms from social media to property listing sites, professionals can easily adapt and scale their real estate marketing strategies based on real-time interactions and data powered by the latest technology.

Below, we will explore the main areas of digital marketing for real estate and how to use them to get the best results.

Digital Marketing Methods:

Social media marketing: Social media platforms like FaceBook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Tik-Tok have become essential real estate marketing tools for professionals to keep up with current trends.

By utilizing built-in ad services, you can hire these platforms to do some of the marketing for you. All you have to do is select parameters that help identify your target audience, then upload the high-quality photos, virtual tours, or community interviews you want to use to showcase your properties.

Don’t forget to engage with your followers and curious parties by liking comments, replying to messages, and making memorable impressions where possible.

Email campaigns: Email is still one of the most cost-effective ways to stay connected with large target audiences, potential clients, and previous customers. As long as you have insights or updates to share, you can send out regular (automated) emails cheaply and en masse to keep in touch with different key audiences for your real estate business.

For example, you could send personalized listings to members of your audience that have specified a target price range, neighborhood, or amenity they are looking for. This way, you can group your audience by what information each group might find the most relevant. Then, send strategically-crafted messages to engage with each group.

To get the most out of your email marketing campaigns, make sure every message is mobile-friendly, as an increasing number of individuals use their smart phones and tablets to check their inboxes. 

Search engine optimization (SEO): Simply put, SEO is all about improving your digital content’s visibility online.

With so much content out there, search algorithms like Google sort out what you might be looking for based on certain factors like relevant keywords, how fast the website loads, and if the content appears to be original. To climb the search ranks, you have to improve those SEO factors.

Luckily, there are handy tools out there that dig into the analytics of your website pages and social media accounts so you can fine-tune your content to improve your SEO scores. Consider taking online courses to learn tools like AHrefs or Moz, or hiring an SEO professional, to help skyrocket your online presence.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: PPC advertising means placing ads on other websites, or on search engines, to drive traffic to your website.

The key benefit is that you only pay when someone clicks. So, for example, if you wanted to place an advertisement for your luxury property in Tampa, Florida, you might set up a PPC campaign that displays an image of the property and a link to those who search terms like “luxury,” “real estate,” and “Tampa.”

Based on how popular your target search terms are, an algorithm like Google will provide you with an offer to advertise with them. It’s sort of like how billboards are priced: They become more expensive in popular, high-traffic areas, and become more affordable in targeted, low-traffic areas.

It’s a good tip to look for a niche keyword without much SEO competition, but still a moderate amount of search traffic. This way you can place your PPC in front of qualified searches without breaking the bank.

Property listing websites and digital portfolios: Popular websites like Zillow, Realtor.com, or Trulia are go-to resources for property buyers and sellers, whether professional or amateur.

By getting your property listings up on these key websites, you are positioning yourself where most curious shoppers tend to look first. Additionally, the long-standing reputation of these platforms has created a sense of familiarity and trust that helps connect you to new potential clients, even if you are physically far apart from them.

Maintaining your own digital portfolio, such as your own dedicated website of property listings, can help elevate your branding as you can decide exactly how to showcase your expertise and connect with interest parties directly.

Ncaved House, Greece & image courtesy of MOLD Architects

Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing: Key Differences

Now that we have a firm understanding of what traditional marketing for real estate and digital marketing look like for real estate professionals, let’s compare methods. Each approach has its advantages from better audience targeting, to cost efficiency, to measurability. Let’s break it down:

Audience Reach and Targeting

Traditional marketing typically reaches a broad, local audience with limited targeting options, whereas digital marketing platforms have powerful tools and algorithms that collect and analyze data, allowing you to show your content to the people most likely to find that content interesting and actionable.

Rather than a billboard that showcases your product to thousands of people regardless of their interest, social media and Google ads allow you to define your target market using characteristics like income level, jobs, interests, gender, age, spending habits, geographic location and much more, resulting in exposure to high-value potential clients.

One of the reasons digital marketing is so powerful is because consumers are already online, signed up and actively using these platforms for researching products and services – it’s a matter of making sure they find you rather than your competitor. Facebook has an astonishing 2.7 billion monthly active users, Instagram has 2.4 billion, and LinkedIn has 260 million.

Social media has become one of the most popular ways to discover brands and products, research products and ultimately purchase them. In terms of real estate specifically, buyers are increasingly using digital platforms to search and view property – according to Zillow, 79% of buyers shop for homes online, and one-third say virtual tours and online videos are important to their research

Cost Efficiency

When it comes to traditional marketing for real estate, it can often be more expensive to reach a wider audience. This is especially true when it comes to using billboards or TV advertisements that reach a lot of eyes, but aren’t great at tracking the generation of leads or other ROI indicators.

Digital marketing does cost money – but it is significantly more affordable to advertise on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram than traditional advertising products like TV slots, brochures and billboards. You can also control costs much more effectively by targeting your campaign to reach specific people and leveraging PPC campaigns.

Measurability and Flexibility

In traditional advertising, it’s difficult to measure the impact of a campaign and see which media is delivering great results and which is underperforming. Surveys are time-consuming and there’s no guarantee you’re reaching the right people. In digital marketing, analysis is very simple because every action a consumer takes to interact with your brand and product is recorded and monitored.

Tools like Google Analytics not only tell you where your consumers are coming from, it can also tell you how long they spent viewing your content, what actions they took as a result, and what content they are engaging with the most. You get cold, clear feedback about the effectiveness of your campaigns.

How to Combine Traditional and Digital Marketing for Maximum Impact

For the greatest results from your real estate marketing efforts, consider taking a combined strategy that highlights the best from both worlds.

For example, using billboards to boost local awareness, while running targeted social media ads to extend your reach to key demographics that are not concentrated in one geographic location.

Another great way to combine strengths is to include a QR code to your digital portfolio or property listing website within direct mail campaigns. This way, you get the high open rates of print mail combined with custom positioning and professionalism of a well-crafted digital listing.

You could also consider visiting community events in-person to network, then add any leads you meet to your targeted email campaigns. With this method, you get the trust-building benefits of face-to-face interactions along with the cost-efficiency benefits of using digital marketing to keep a growing list of potential clients up-to-date.

Clearly, both methods have their advantages, but the ideal strategies may incorporate elements from traditional marketing and digital marketing.

Case Studies: Traditional and Digital Marketing in Action

Below are a few case studies that show the effectiveness of blending traditional and digital real estate marketing approaches in action.

Case Study 1: Terra Homes

Terra Homes provides an excellent case study of a real estate development project that effectively used traditional marketing in the form of billboards and direct mail.

For this campaign, Terra Homes placed billboards along major highways with clear images, concise but compelling messaging such as “eco-friendly” and “elegant design,” and a QR code for interested parties to continue the customer journey online.

Similarly, their direct mail brochures included these elements to capitalize on the additional attention people give to print mail, while providing an easy QR code link for potential clients to scan via their smart phones to learn more.

Case Study 2: Johari Beach Residences

On the other hand, Johari Beach Residences took a primarily digital approach to their marketing campaign by leveraging paid search. This method helped them reach a global audience of over 2,000 leads from 27 different countries.

However, their digital-first approach wasn’t an overnight success, as it required their marketing team to lay some key groundwork to maximize the campaign.

Specifically, Johari worked on first collecting high quality images, videos, and interviews to use for content marketing. Next, they hosted the content on their well-designed, custom property portfolio website to increase their SEO. With these initial steps in place, their paid search campaign was primed for a massive success.

With a diverse buyer base spanning 11 countries, the entire development has been fully reserved within just 16 months of its launch, an impressive achievement, driven largely by strategic digital lead generation.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid in Real Estate Marketing

Even armed with all this knowledge, it’s easy to fall into the common traps of real estate marketing. But with a little understanding, you’ll be able to successfully avoid the typical pitfalls. Here are the most common errors real estate professionals encounter when marketing their properties and how to dodge them

Inconsistent Branding Across Channels

One of the biggest mistakes real estate marketers make is creating inconsistent messaging across platforms and also between traditional and digital media. This can lead to confusion for potential clients, which takes away from brand value.

To maintain a strong brand identity and build familiarity, make sure that all of your logos, colors, fonts, and mission statements are the same through and through.

Ignoring Data Analytics for Digital Campaigns

Another typical pitfall is not making use of all the great data available from digital marketing platforms and efforts. Unlike traditional methods, digital marketing often has built-in tracking features that provide real-time updates about the performance of your advertisements, webpages, or email campaigns. Failing to monitor these metrics means missing out on huge opportunities to update your strategies for better results.

To avoid this issue, simply keep yourself up-to-date with your latest marketing statistics. By taking a look at what’s working and what’s not, you can fine-tune those underperforming areas, while maximizing those that excel.

How to Measure Success: Traditional vs Digital Marketing

Tracking your success is crucial for either traditional or digital marketing efforts so you can achieve greater ROIs. However, each approach has its own set of metrics that you should use to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Here they are broken down, below.

Traditional Marketing Metrics

Direct responses: This metric is the number of calls, emails, or other inquiries that come as a direct result from someone using the contact information on your print media materials such as a business card or property flier.

You can track which leads came from which campaigns by using a variety of phone numbers or email addresses unique to each marketing approach.

Increased foot traffic or open house attendance: Check the amount of people who come to your open houses or community events with a simple sign-in sheet or digital register to see the volume of people you’re engaging with in-person.

Any large fluctuations in attendance will be able to inform which events tend to draw the most interest from the relevant community members, and therefore potential buyers.

Customer feedback and surveys: Every time you host an event or meet a new potential client, consider sending a follow-up survey to gauge your performance as a real estate professional and understand what influenced people to engage.

By collecting this valuable feedback, you can see what it is that attracts potential clients, and also what factors may be the most persuasive in closing deals.

Digital Marketing Metrics

Website traffic: Online tools like Google analytics do the heavy lifting of monitoring each visitor to your website. Then, they deliver reports on how visitors found the site along with some useful demographic information, such as what country they’re searching from, or if they are using a mobile device.

By keeping an eye on this data, you can see what search terms or habits your audience tends to have, and therefore, how to better position your webpage to catch more traffic.

Conversion rates from digital ads: This metric tracks how many visitors took a specific action on your website, such as signing up for a newsletter or downloading a digital brochure. As a percentage, it tells you how many people from your paid ads end up taking another step through the funnel.

Information from these rates will tell you if your combination of advertisements and offerings are making a real impression on site visitors or not.

Social media engagement and reach: It’s important to track social media impressions such as “likes,” “shares,” and “follows” to determine if your digital marketing efforts are growing your audience, stagnating, or even shrinking.

While a real estate company might have an established audience, it’s the acceleration of engagement on social media that really indicates a growth of awareness, and therefore leads.

Contemporary Hotel in Paros, Greece & image courtesy of Twelve Concept

Proven Marketing Strategies Using Traditional and Digital Techniques

In conclusion, both traditional and digital methods have their strengths, with the best outcomes coming from a strategic combination of the two.

Traditional marketing is most promising when it comes to establishing a local brand presence through familiarity, face-to-face interactions, and unignorable print materials.

On the other hand, digital marketing is well-suited to real estate marketing, giving you access to a huge and targeted audience, and allowing you to showcase your properties on multiple platforms in a unique, accessible and visually appealing way. 

Whichever method you choose to prioritize, be sure to evaluate your target audience, budget, and specific property goals so you can find a great starting point. Then, evaluate how the alternative marketing approach might be able to supplement for a greater effect, like in the case of the direct mail brochures with a QU code inside.

For more insight into digital real estate marketing and proven ways to make property development marketing strategy work for your business, Proven Partners is ready to assist.

Let’s arrange a call and talk about what’s possible for your brand.