If you want to future proof your real estate investing business, using digital marketing campaigns to generate inbound leads is one of the simplest ways to do it.
This is especially true when you’re using it in combination with other proven, more traditional outbound lead generation strategies, like cold calling, driving for dollars, and direct mail marketing.
If you’ve been on the fence when it comes to using digital marketing in your business, or you’re looking to make your outbound marketing even more effective, this guide will help.
In it, we’re going to break down some of the best digital marketing ideas for real estate investors that will bring in more leads every month — and give you more opportunities to convert those leads into deals.
Before we get into the ideas, though…
Why Is Digital Marketing Important For Real Estate Investors
Consistent lead flow is the backbone of every successful REI business.
When it comes to digital marketing, though, it isn’t just about bringing in new leads.
Digital marketing is one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways to grow your brand’s awareness, stay top of mind with prospects, and increase your footprint in your local market.
With the right goals for your campaign, you can help potential leads and existing prospects develop their know, like, and trust with you and your business, which helps increase the chance they close the deal.
And since it’s so cost-effective, it also lets smaller REI businesses compete with the big players and levels the playing field.
Plus, it’s measurable and trackable so you’re able to continually optimize your campaigns — stretching your budgets even further and getting a better ROI with each new campaign.
Finally, it’s significantly easier to adapt and change your digital marketing approach than it is with more traditional strategies.
If you want to increase your lead flow and improve the quality of leads you’re generating, while engaging your leads through every stage of the sales cycle, investing in digital marketing is essential.
BEFORE you get started, though…
You want to make sure you understand WHO your audience is.
For instance, if your niche is working with pre-foreclosure or pre-probate properties, focusing your digital marketing efforts on anyone and everyone in your local market is a good way to waste time and money.
However, if you cater your messaging to people in the pre-foreclosure or pre-probate process, you can reduce your marketing budgets while increasing your conversion rates.
It’s critical to keep this in mind as you’re starting to lay the foundations for your digital marketing.
9 Digital Marketing Ideas For Real Estate Investors
To help you get started and get your creative wheels spinning, we’ve put together 9 of the best digital marketing ideas for real estate investors.
Each of the ideas below have been proven to be effective, no matter what market you’re working in or who your target audience may be.
1: SEO & Your Website
Every road in digital marketing leads back to one key place: your website.
And if you’re going to put time and energy into building a website that grabs attention and converts that attention into new leads, you also want to consider investing into SEO.
SEO is one of THE most effective ways to drive fresh traffic into your website and one of the highest converting traffic sources you’ll have for your business.
This is because someone jumping onto a search engine, like Google, and typing in the keyword “sell my house fast” means they’re more than likely looking for an investor to help them out of a situation they’re in.
Compare this to other ideas we’ll talk about, where you’re interrupting them and introducing a potential problem to them, and you can see why SEO is so important in your business.
Now, if you’re looking for ideas for what your website should say and do, take a look at mine.
You can see the message is focused directly at my niche: helping people who want to escape the day-to-day real estate grind, consistently generate more deals, and scale their business while they do it.
For your own website, make sure your messaging is tailored to your niche and the audience that you’re trying to serve.
Then, make sure it’s easy to use, optimized for SEO, and helps your audience find what they’re looking for and how to get in touch with you if they need more assistance.
And if you’re not a web developer or designer, you can save a ton of time and energy by using a tool like Carrot’s website builder.
It’s built from the ground up to be optimized for increased search engine rankings, with professionally designed templates you can tweak to match your brand, and a full content vault that you can plug into your website to help generate more inbound leads.
2: Showcase Social Proof
Now, as traffic is coming into your website, one of the biggest things they’re going to be looking for is whether or not you’re legitimate and credible.
Using social proof in the right ways can help drive this message home and show your new visitors how you’ve helped people just like them in the past.
Here’s how we do it on my own website:
The goal should be to get both testimonials and press features.
When you’re featured in the press, it helps increase your authority in your local market and increases your brand’s reach. Testimonials help your audience see exactly how you’ve helped others like them.
It’s also important to showcase the WINS you’ve had in your local area — whether those are in your business or in the lives you’ve changed with investments you’ve made.
Whenever possible, get a combination of written, video, and screenshot testimonials that you can feature on your website.
3: Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Outside of SEO for your website, the next best source of traffic is your Google Business Profile.
Since most of the searches that prospects perform will be looking for a local agent or investor, having your Google Business Profile optimized to rank in your local area is critical.
Just like visitors coming in from standard searches, people searching for agents or investors on the local Google listings tend to convert at a higher rate than other digital marketing methods.
To get started claiming your Google Business Profile, visit https://www.google.com/business/. Then, to optimize your listing, make sure you’re asking your prospects for reviews after you’ve finalized the deal.
4: Build An Email List
In terms of digital marketing, your email list is going to become one of your most powerful assets.
Like other marketing strategies, the fortune is in the followup, and having an email list full of buyers and sellers (while consistently following up with them) is how you take full advantage of digital marketing.
Here’s how we’re building my own email list:
On my website, I use an eBook that teaches people 28 of the biggest mistakes I made as an 8-figure investor and how people can avoid them.
For your own website, let’s assume you’re marketing to people in the pre-foreclosure process, you could create an eBook or guide that helps them see the potential pitfalls, ways to avoid them, and how to get out from under the foreclosure process without having their credit negatively impacted.
(IE: By letting you purchase their property.)
Now, if you aren’t comfortable writing your own copy or you just want to save time and energy, consider using a service like OmniDrip.
They’ll give you pre-built, proven-to-convert templates for both email and SMS so you’re able to plug them directly into your campaigns and start taking advantage of the email list you’re building.
5: Create Great Content
When it comes to finding success with digital marketing, content is the engine that’s going to propel the growth you experience.
Nearly every digital marketing idea you use is going to revolve around the content you create.
That means whatever content you create needs to be great — it should grab attention, establish credibility and authority, solve a problem, and let people know what to do next.
To see what that looks like in motion, check out my blog:
Likewise, you can take a look at the Ballpoint Marketing blog to get even more ideas:
In terms of content marketing, there’s two factors that are more important than anything else: consistency and reach.
You want to consistently create new content while making sure that you’re tapping into as many sources as possible to help extend the reach of the content you’ve created.
For my own business, that meant getting featured on websites like Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Business Insider, as well as others.
In your own business, that may mean being featured in local publications, on news websites, in neighborhood groups, or other places where your target niche market may be.
6: Invest in Social Media
A big part of increasing your reach is going to involve you getting active on and investing in social media.
This doesn’t just involve posting on Facebook and hoping for the best, either.
In terms of social media, you want to establish a presence on every platform where your audience may be visiting. For me, that’s Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
You can see what each of my profiles look like and how I’m marketing on each page.
When you’re consistent in your approach, create content that raises awareness and solves problems, and utilize every platform possible to extend your reach, investing in social media marketing is incredibly effective and worth the time & energy you put into it.
7: Invest in Online Advertising
When you’ve established a solid content marketing approach and have started seeing results, you want to take the next step and invest in online advertising to get that content in front of even more people.
Take a look at how STL Home Offers is using Facebook advertising below:
Online advertising is one of THE fastest ways to grow your reach, generate significantly more leads, and scale your business.
8: Explore Video Marketing
One of THE most effective, immersive types of content to use in your digital marketing is video content.
It gives you a more personalized touch and helps your audience or market experience the message you’re putting in front of them in a different, more engaging way.
It’s also become one of our preferred digital marketing strategies due to the results it delivers.
You don’t need a ton of professional equipment to get started, either.
By picking up your phone and hitting record, you can create your first videos as soon as you’re done reading this guide.
And to help get your creative wheels spinning, here’s some examples of content I’ve published:
Real Estate Marketing: 3 Direct Mail Tips
How To Use REsimpli CRM As A Complete & Total Newbie!
First Time Home Buyers: Hacking The American Dream
Real Estate Investing: BRRRR Strategy For Beginners
9: DO NOT Forget About Direct Mail!
Now, with ALL of the effort you’re putting into implementing a digital marketing strategy in the right way, the last thing you want to do is let opportunities fall through the cracks.
Even though we’ve focused entirely on a digital approach, up to this point, you absolutely cannot forget about the more traditional, time-tested and proven strategies like direct mail.
With all of the leads you’ll be generating using digital marketing, you will still need to follow up with them to ensure you’re staying top of mind and convert more of those leads into warm prospects.
Using personalized, handwritten mailers, postcards, and door hangers from Ballpoint Marketing is one of the easiest ways to stay in touch with the leads that come in through your website & content marketing.
If you haven’t already established your digital footprint, start implementing each of the ideas in this guide and then make sure you’re actively following up with them using direct mail.
This combination of digital marketing + physical followup is how you ramp up your lead generation.
It’s also how savvy investors are growing and scaling their business WHILE being able to dial back their marketing budgets, saving time, money, and energy in the process.
