Digital Eye Design, Video and Animation Studio
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Real Estate Marketing Ideas & Promotion Reference Guide

This Guide lists promotional ideas for those in the real estate industry and covers pro’s and con’s for each. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Digital Eye at the number above.


Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Online Promotion:

There are a variety of different online promotional opportunities that businesses may take advantage of. Here are a few possibilities specific to the real estate industry:

  • Search Engine Optimization: Businesses may utilize search engine optimization techniques to optimize their Website’s content and coding to list well in search engine organic listings for targeted searches. Organic search results, the sites listed in the main result area, as opposed to being paid ads, are clicked on more than sponsored listings but are more difficult to attain high placement in. As such, this option will not produce top listings as quickly as paid listings, but will create stronger listings and will usually cost less over the long run.

    Listing high in the search engines is not only important to drive traffic, but has been proven to serve as a testimonial to the quality of a business in the eyes of online researchers. However, we strongly recommend seeking professional assistance with this, as one may badly damage any current or future listing in the search engines if done improperly.

  • Pay-Per-Click and other paid listings: Businesses may utilize advertising opportunities in major search engines to quickly gain placement in sponsored listing result areas for targeted searches and/or pay for listings on high traffic Websites, such as real estate search sites. One distinct benefit of this tactic is that businesses may experiment with different ad wording in order to find what ads are the most effective. On the other hand, although this option creates fast results, it will cost more to maintain and so we recommend using it in combination with other online promotions in order to phase out the paid listings whenever possible.

  • Ongoing Updates: Search engines are big fans of sites with plenty of related content and are frequently updated as they view them as more relevant and will list them higher. Furthermore, continuously updating and providing new content will bring return visitors to a Website, increasing the likelihood of establishing contact or making a sale. A BLOG (or Web Log) is a great way to inexpensively update a Website on a regular basis.

  • Link Building: This technique yields the same benefit of paid listings on Websites, except that it is far less expensive. Just like any link, it brings additional traffic to a business’ Website and also serves as a testimonial to the quality of your Website in the eyes of the search engines, further improving your organic search result placement. Participating in other sites’ BLOG and forum discussions, for instance, is a great way to add links to your site (often in a signature file, etc. with the post) as well add credibility to your knowledge and skills based on your posts for free. However, to gain the best benefit for search engine ranking, we recommend seeking a SEO professional in order to optimize the links and find Websites to place them on that will bring the most benefit.

  • Video: Video has become an extremely powerful marketing tool on the Internet. Have you created an amusing or particularly impressive commercial? Post it on YouTube and other popular video sites. Besides viewers who stumble upon your video on those sites seeing your information, funny or cool videos are powerful viral marketing materials, meaning people frequently want to share and pass them around to their friends and colleagues, further increasing the number of impressions your ad makes. Video is also a proven technique to draw interest to and involve visitors in one’s Website by posting it there, further increasing the memorability of your site and the chance of a sale. There are many additional offline uses of your video, covered below.

  • Press Releases: Press releases not only create the opportunity to have articles written about one’s business, they can serve as powerful links in the eyes of the search engines. Positive articles about one’s business are proven to work as powerful testimonials to those who read them. As links, press releases are viewed with greater importance by the search engines in that they’re placed more quickly at the top of search results because they are viewed as time sensitive. Since specific wording may make or break the effectiveness of an article and PR specialists have a greater chance of getting your press release published through their established connections, press releases may be written in the office and posted on several free PR sites on a smaller budget.

Print Materials:

Traditional brochures and flyers will always be a relatively inexpensive option to give potential business something that they can take with them and should never be overlooked. We recommend supplementing these materials with something that will stand out over your competition, however:

Video Productions & Animation:

Video and animation is more effective than traditional print materials in that it involves the viewer more fully. It is far easier to get someone to watch video and animation in that you’re stimulating more of their senses and using motion to grab and maintain attention longer than expecting someone to read large bodies of text. They will remember your presentation longer and be more likely to keep the materials because of an increased perceived value in them.

  • Video: Besides online promotional uses as discussed above, one may use video to attract more attention to a booth at a tradeshow or other event; for TV or digital signage advertising (digital signage is video playing on screens at malls, bars, etc.); on CDs, DVDs or CD business cards (CDs cut down to business card size but work in standard CD drives) as a more memorable take-home piece; etc. Videos may be very inexpensive, utilizing still images to simulate video, and/or may utilize actual shot video, such as making an agent more memorable, identifiable, and personable through video of the agent speaking to the viewer.

  • Animation: One may take this a step further by involving animation in a presentation. Not only is animation impressive, one may make entire interactive environments where viewers can walk and look around a space that may not even exist in reality yet, completely responsive to the movement of their mouse or buttons. This level of interactivity makes for an even more memorable experience and impression because of how involved the viewer is, particularly over standard still image or even video tours/presentations of a space. This is particularly useful when standardized floor plans are available or when trying to impress investors.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at: 913-631-6744 or through our Website at www.digitaleyeinc.com. Good luck!

Copyright © Digital Eye Studio.

About the Author:
Michael Millhollen is a Creative Director at Digital Eye, a full-service video production, animation and creative design & programming studio based out of the Kansas City area. Visit www.digitaleyeinc.com for more information about their marketing media development services.

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