The Best Real Estate Marketing Ideas To Help You Stay Ahead Of Your Competitors

According to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), 75% of Realtors fail within the first year of being in the industry and 87% after five years. One of the reasons that could be attributed to this failure is a lack of effective marketing.

Marketing your real estate business effectively is the best way to stay ahead of the competition and become a leader in the future of the industry.

As a real estate professional, you can leverage several marketing strategies to promote your brokerage, listings, services, open houses, and events.

In this article, we’ll guide you through the different marketing strategies you can use to stay ahead in the real estate industry. We’ll also provide some real-life examples of effective marketing to inspire you.

Start with a Real Estate Marketing Strategy

The first step before starting any type of marketing is to develop a real estate marketing plan. Without a strategy, your efforts will become directionless, and you will likely not see results.

A real estate marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to promote your services, properties, and listings to attract potential buyers or sellers. It involves using various marketing channels to generate leads, build a presence, and close more deals.

A good marketing strategy is tailored to your target audience, location, and the real estate services you provide. Your real estate marketing strategy should include:

✔️ Your target audience

Identify the demographic you’re trying to reach, such as buyers, sellers, renters, or investors. Understanding their preferences, needs, and behaviors helps craft tailored marketing.

Use your strategy to develop buyer personas, which are profiles you create for each type of person you want to target. Your buyer personas should include their age group, location, interests, behaviors, and where you can best reach them with your marketing messaging.

✔️ Branding

Establish a strong brand identity, including your logo, colors, and messaging, which will help you create trust and recognition among your audience.

✔️ Your tone of voice

Your marketing tone of voice should be consistent and cohesive. Use your strategy to define it so that everyone responsible for your marketing follows the same tone and style.

✔️ Your primary marketing channels

You need to define which marketing channels you will use to promote your business and services.

Your choice of channel will depend on your target audience. For example, if you want to reach younger first-time home buyers, consider Instagram or TikTok. If you’re targeting a slightly older demographic, Facebook and email marketing are a better choice.

✔️ Goals and key performance indicators (KPIs)

You need to be able to measure the performance of your marketing campaigns to know what’s working and what isn’t. Whether it’s increasing leads, improving brand awareness, or closing more deals, you need to clearly define what success looks like.

✔️ A competitor analysis

Understand what other real estate businesses are doing in your area and analyze their strengths and weaknesses in their marketing. This will help you find opportunities to differentiate yourself.

✔️ Your unique selling proposition (USP)

Highlight your unique advantages, such as specialized real estate market knowledge, personalized services, or advanced technologies. Make sure your messaging reflects your USP across all your marketing channels.

5 Types of Marketing You Need to Master to Stay Ahead in Real Estate

Once you’ve developed a solid strategy, it’s time to delve into which types of marketing you will use to promote your real estate business.

Below, we’ll discuss the different channels you can use and how to leverage them effectively to stay ahead in real estate:

💡 Social media marketing

Over 57% of Realtors use social media daily to promote their businesses, and for a good reason. The average U.S. adult spends more than two hours daily on social media, making it the perfect channel to reach your target audience.

Additionally, 96% of prospective home buyers start their search using online tools such as social media to find their ideal property. If you don’t have a presence on social media, you’re missing out on a massive opportunity.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing refers to using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and X (formerly known as Twitter) to promote your business and services.

In real estate, social media marketing allows brokers and agents to build brand awareness, engage with potential clients, and showcase their properties.

Social media marketing is a powerful tool for reaching prospective buyers and sellers, building relationships, and driving conversations.

How to get social media marketing right

Here’s how real estate brokers and agents can effectively use social media marketing:

📲 Choose the right platforms

As mentioned earlier, different social media platforms have varying audiences and content formats. Brokers and agents should focus on the platforms that best match their target audience. Let’s unpack these:

Facebook: Great for connecting with a wide audience, sharing real estate listings, running targeted ads, and engaging in local real estate groups. You can use our guide to create your Facebook business page to get started on this platform.

Instagram: Perfect for visually showcasing listings with high-quality images, videos, and stories. Instagram’s Explore feature can also help you discover new clients to connect with. Read our guide on creating real estate posts on Instagram for more information.

LinkedIn: Ideal for building professional relationships and networking with other real estate professionals or potential high-end clients. If you’re a real estate agent, check out our article on using LinkedIn effectively.

YouTube: Excellent for hosting video tours, neighborhood guides, and real estate tips. YouTube is the second largest search engine besides Google, meaning it can drive significant traffic to your other channels, such as your real estate website.

X (Twitter): This platform is useful for sharing real estate news, quick updates, and engaging with local communities.

📲 Build a consistent brand presence

Consistency is key to creating a recognizable brand online. Brokers and agents should:

Use the same logo, color scheme, and tone of voice across all social media platforms.
Ensure their profile information, such as their bio, contact details, and website link, is up-to-date so that potential clients can easily reach out to you.
Post regularly to keep followers engaged with content like listings, market updates, testimonials, and behind-the-scenes content.

📲 Showcase listings with high-quality content

Real estate is highly visual, and social media is ideal for showcasing properties. Here are some tips for displaying your listings on social media:

Use high-quality images: Use professional real estate photos to highlight the best features of the property.

Video tours: Create virtual tours or use drone footage to give potential buyers a real feel of the property and share these on platforms like YouTube and Instagram Stories.

Instagram Stories and Reels: Use these formats to provide short, engaging snippets of new listings, open houses, or neighborhood features.

Here is an example from Alex Rae, a real estate agent from Denver, of a listing posted to Instagram using a high-quality image:

In the example below, Client First Collective posts a video walkthrough of a listing:

📲 Engage with your followers

Social media is a two-way communication channel, meaning real estate professionals need to actively engage with their followers to build relationships. Here’s how you can do this:

Respond to comments and messages: Promptly engage with questions about listings or the local market to build trust and rapport.

Ask questions: This will generate conversations around topics like homeownership tips, neighborhood news, or current market trends.

Host live Q&A sessions: You can go live on Facebook or Instagram to discuss common real estate concerns, explain market trends, or share expertise.

📲 Leverage paid advertising

Organic reach has its limits, but paid social media ads can help real estate brokers and agents reach targeted audiences more effectively.

With Facebook ads, for example, you can target users based on location, age, income, and interests. This lets you get highly specific about who sees your content and messaging. To do this effectively, check out our guide on Facebook advertising.

In the Facebook ad example below, Silversaw promotes a property listing by showcasing a unique floorplan:

📲 Use local hashtags

Using the right hashtags can help expand your reach on social media platforms. Popular real estate-related hashtags like #DreamHome or #JustListed and local hashtags like #LosAngelesRealEstate or #ChicagoHomes are good choices.

📲 Create valuable content beyond listings

Social media shouldn’t just be about selling properties—you should also provide valuable, informative content that builds credibility and keeps your audience engaged. Here are some ideas:

Market updates: Share insights into local real estate trends, price fluctuations, or mortgage rate changes.

Home buying or selling tips: Provide advice on topics such as home staging, applying for a mortgage, or negotiating a sale.

Neighborhood highlights: Create posts about the best local attractions, amenities, schools, or upcoming events in the area.

Here’s a market update social media post from broker Sharon Jordan on Instagram:

In this example, Paige Steckling, a real estate agent in Utah, shares educational content on Instagram:

📲 Leverage testimonials

People trust real experiences, and showcasing stories from satisfied clients helps build credibility on social media. Share reviews from past clients on social media with their permission.

In the example below, Realtor Sarah Roy shares a client testimonial on Instagram:

📲 Run contests or giveaways

Running contests are a great way to get more engagement on social media. For example, you offer a home valuation as a prize for a competition where users must like and share your post and follow your page.

In the post below, Sarah Roy ran a contest on her Instagram for a $250 gift card to stay at a local hotel. The contest rules encourage engagement by asking users to follow Sarah, like her post, and tag three friends in the comments:

🚀 Pro Tip: Get Clued Up with More Social Media Guides

We’ve compiled a series of guides to help you nail your social media campaigns and marketing efforts. Check them out below:

✔How To Get Leads In Real Estate: 12 Social Media Tips
✔Boost Your Social Media Presence With These Top Real Estate Hashtags
✔Real Estate Social Media Posts
✔A Beginner’s Guide To Snapchat For Real Estate Agents And Brokers
✔TikTok Real Estate Videos And Creators To Inspire You

💡 Content marketing

Another real estate marketing idea is to use content marketing to your advantage. Over 90% of marketers include content marketing in their strategies, and this channel increases lead generation by up to 74%.

Additionally, content marketing campaigns cost 61% less to launch and maintain than other types of campaigns, making them a cost-effective channel for your real estate business.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is creating valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a specific audience.

Unlike direct advertising, content marketing focuses on providing helpful information that builds trust, authority, and credibility over time, ultimately leading to customer actions like inquiries.

For real estate brokers and agents, content marketing is an effective way to connect with potential buyers and sellers, showcase their expertise, and keep their brands top of mind.

The key components of content marketing

Below are three aspects of content marketing to understand before you get started with your own campaigns:

Educational content: Content marketing for real estate often involves educating your audience. This includes providing tips, guides, and insights to help buyers and sellers make informed decisions.

Engagement: Effective content marketing builds relationships with potential clients by offering consistent and relevant content. It’s not just about closing deals; it’s about fostering trust and staying connected with your audience.

Lead nurturing: By providing valuable content over time, you guide potential clients through their buying and selling journey. This keeps you top of mind when they are ready to take action.

Types of content

Here are four types of content that you could include in your strategy:

Blog posts: Blog articles are one of the most common forms of content marketing, and they’re a great tool for attracting website traffic and engaging potential clients. You could write about home-buying tips, local real estate market updates, neighborhood guides, and staging tips for sellers.

eBooks or guides: Offering downloadable resources provides in-depth value, and they are good tools for lead generation as visitors typically provide their email addresses in exchange for the download.

Infographics: Visual content like infographics is easily digestible and highly shareable on social media. They can cover topics like the steps to selling a home or the top neighborhoods for families in a certain city.

Podcasts or webinars: Hosting a podcast or webinar adds another layer of value to your marketing. These formats allow you to interact personally with your audience, providing real-time insights and answering common questions.

Take a look at the blog post below from Anita’s Corner on how homeowners should improve their backyards to improve the value of their property. The article shares loads of valuable tips and positions Anita, a Realtor in Houston, as an expert:

Tips for getting content marketing right

Here are some expert tips on how real estate professionals can get content marketing right:

Offer value: Successful content marketing is about delivering value, not just selling. Your content should answer common questions, address pain points, or offer educational information.

Consistency is vital: Publishing content consistently is crucial for long-term success. Develop a content calendar outlining when and what content types you will publish. Posting regularly keeps your audience engaged and signals that you’re an active, reliable real estate expert.

Localize your content: Hyperlocal content that speaks directly to your community is highly effective. Examples could be writing blog posts about specific neighborhoods, upcoming developments, or local market trends. This positions you as a local expert, an asset when buyers or sellers choose a brokerage to work with.

Repurpose your content: You can repurpose a single piece of content in multiple ways to maximize what you’ve created. For example, you could turn a blog post into a video, convert a webinar into an eBook, or break down an infographic into social media posts. This increases your content’s longevity without needing to create new material constantly.

Incorporate calls-to-action (CTAs): Every piece of content should include a clear, compelling CTA. Whether it encourages readers to sign up for a newsletter, download a guide, or schedule a viewing, CTAs help move potential clients along the sales funnel.

💡 Email marketing

Over four billion people use email daily, and 99% of email users check their inbox every day. This makes email marketing an ideal way to reach your target audience. Additionally, 50% of people make purchases because of marketing emails at least once per month.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy where businesses use email to send promotional messages, updates, and valuable information directly to a target list of recipients.

For real estate, email marketing is an effective way to:

Nurture leads.
Stay connected with clients.
Promote listings.
Provide helpful information about the real estate market.

Email marketing can help real estate brokers and agents build relationships with potential buyers and sellers, establish themselves as local experts, and drive more conversions.

How to get email marketing right

Below are some tips to help real estate professionals nail their email marketing:

📧 Build a quality email list

The success of email marketing depends on having a strong email list. To grow your list organically, use a combination of lead generation tactics, such as website sign-ups, open house visitors, and social media.

You must ensure that you gain permission to email individuals using opt-in forms and always include an easy option to unsubscribe.

📧 Offer a lead magnet

Provide valuable content, such as a free guide or checklist, in exchange for someone signing up for your email list—often referred to as a lead magnet. Examples could be a guide for first-time home buyers or a checklist for selling your home fast.

Lead magnets encourage potential clients to share their contact information with you, making it easier to nurture them through email marketing.

📧 Use local market data

People appreciate insights into their local market, so sending regular updates on home prices, inventory levels, and trends in specific neighborhoods shows that you’re knowledgeable and keeps your audience informed.

An example could be a monthly market report showing the average selling price and number of new listings for a specific neighborhood or city.

📧 Provide consistent value

Don’t make every email a hard sell. Instead, mix promotional emails with educational content, market insights, and community-focused updates to keep your audience engaged.

📧 Tailor your messaging

Buyers and sellers have different needs and pain points, so creating separate email campaigns for each group is essential. This tactic, called segmentation, drives 30% more opens and 50% more clickthroughs than unsegmented emails.

📧 Choose the right time

Sending emails at the right time of day increases the likelihood that they will be opened and acted upon. For real estate, sending emails in the middle of the week during business hours often performs well.

📧 Use a CTA

Every email should have a clear purpose and a strong CTA, such as scheduling a consultation, viewing new listings, or downloading a market report.

Two examples of a good CTA for real estate emails are:

Ready to Buy? Schedule a Free Consultation Today.
View New Listings in Your Area.

In the example below, Redfin uses email marketing to showcase a local listing and has included a clear CTA at the end of the message:

💡 Search engine optimization (SEO)

Over 90% of online searches worldwide happen on Google, and over 97% of home searches begin on the internet. For this reason, it’s crucial that your website is discoverable on Google when potential clients search for real estate services and listings.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website and its content to improve visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

By focusing on SEO strategies, real estate professionals can attract organic traffic—website traffic you don’t pay for—generate leads and grow their business.

The key components of SEO for real estate

Here is a breakdown of some of the main aspects of SEO and how real estate brokers and agents can get it right:

➡️ Keyword research

Keyword research involves identifying the search terms that your potential clients use to find real estate services or properties online and including them in your website content.

Real estate professionals should focus on both broad and localized keywords to attract relevant traffic.

Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find relevant keywords with high search volume and low competition.

Focus on local keywords, as most real estate searches are location-based. Keywords like “homes for sale in [city/neighborhood]” or “best real estate agent in [city]” are vital.

You should include long-tail keywords in your website content that capture specific search queries, such as “how to buy a house in [city] or “luxury condos for sale in [neighborhood].”

➡️ On-page SEO

On-page SEO refers to optimizing individual pages on your website to improve their rankings in search results. This includes optimizing your content, meta tags, headings, images, and URLs.

Title tags and meta descriptions: Ensure that each page has a unique, keyword-optimized title tag and meta description that accurately describes its content.

Headings: Use headings to structure your content, with your primary keyword included in the H1 heading. Subheadings (H2 and H3) should include related keywords to enhance readability and SEO.

Content optimization: Write high-quality, informative content based on the guidelines we’ve provided above and naturally include your target keywords. Avoid keyword stuffing, which is when you overuse your keyword in your content in a way that looks unnatural.

Internal linking: Include links to other relevant pages on your website to guide users and search engines to additional information to help them understand your site.

➡️ Local SEO

Local SEO is critical for real estate because most searches for properties and services are location-specific. Four in every five consumers conduct searches with local intent on Google.

Focusing on local SEO ensures that your business appears in search results when people look for properties or real estate services in your area.

Some ways to improve your local SEO include:

Creating a Google My Business profile: Over half of Google My Business profile interactions produce website visits. For this reason, you should set up and optimize your Google My Business profile to include your business name, address, phone number, and website URL. You can also add high-quality images and encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews.

Using local keywords: Optimize your website content for location-based keywords, such as “real estate agent in [city]” or “houses for sale in [neighborhood].”

Ensuring NAP consistency: Ensure your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across your website, Google My Business profile, and other online listings such as Yelp and local directories.

Developing location pages: Create dedicated pages for each area or neighborhood you serve. These pages should provide detailed information about the local real estate market, community amenities, schools, and attractions.

➡️ Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your site. They are a major ranking factor, as they signal to search engines that your website is credible and authoritative.

Here is an example of some backlinks to real estate websites in a blog post:

Here are our top tips for getting backlinks right:

Local backlinks: Focus on building backlinks from local businesses, real estate blogs, or community organizations. For example, you could guest post on a local blog or sponsor a local event and get a link back to your site.

Quality over quantity: Focus on earning backlinks from high-authority websites rather than going after many low-quality links. Links from local news outlets, real estate directories, or educational institutions carry more weight.

Content-based backlinks: Creating valuable content is a surefire way to earn backlinks as, if it’s good enough, other websites will naturally want to link to it in their own content.

💡 Traditional marketing

The types of marketing strategies we’ve outlined so far are digital approaches to promoting your real estate business.

However, it’s important not to forget that traditional marketing is still an effective way to market your services.

Many people believe that traditional marketing no longer works, but businesses are still using 28% of their marketing budget for traditional forms of marketing.

What is traditional marketing?

Traditional marketing refers to marketing tactics that use offline, physical methods to promote your services. For real estate professionals, traditional marketing includes techniques such as print advertising, direct mail, billboards, radio ads, and in-person networking.

Key elements of traditional marketing for real estate

Let’s look at some of the traditional marketing methods you can leverage to market your real estate business:

👉 Print advertising

This includes advertising in newspapers, real estate magazines, flyers, and brochures. Print ads in local publications targeting specific communities can be effective for real estate professionals.

Here’s how you can get print advertising right:

Invest in high-quality photography and design visually appealing ads.
Make sure your messaging is clear, with easy-to-read contact information.
Feature a compelling CTA, such as “call us for a free home valuation” or “visit our open house.”

👉 Direct mail

Direct mail involves sending postcards, flyers, newsletters, or brochures directly to people’s homes. Among all marketing methods, direct mail receives the highest return on investment (ROI) of 112%, followed by SMS at 102% and email at 93%.

This marketing strategy allows real estate professionals to target specific neighborhoods or demographics, making it a highly localized approach.

Some tips for getting direct mail right include:

Use direct mail for targeted campaigns, such as promoting new listings, announcing open houses, or offering a free home valuation.
Personalize your mailers with the recipient’s name and include a specific offer or incentive to encourage them to take action.
Keep the design clean and professional, with a strong headline, clear contact information, and a CTA.
Track your results using unique QR codes or phone numbers to help measure the success of each campaign.

Here is a flyer by East Leake Real Estate Company with some helpful information for homeowners that might generate interest in the business:

👉 Billboards

Billboards provide high visibility, especially in areas with heavy traffic. For real estate brokers and agents, a strategically placed billboard can build brand recognition and attract leads in a specific location.

Below are some tips for effective billboards:

Choose locations that target your ideal audience, such as near affluent neighborhoods or popular commuting routes.
Keep the design simple and impactful with minimal text, a strong image, and contact information.
Use memorable slogans or taglines that capture attention quickly, as billboards are often viewed in passing.

👉 Radio advertising

Radio ads are a great way to reach a broad audience, especially in local markets. They can be used to promote your open houses, new listings, or your services.

Here’s how to get radio ads right:

Choose radio stations that cater to your target audience. For example, a station focusing on business news might be ideal for commercial real estate, while a community-based station is perfect for residential properties.
Write a clear and concise script that emphasizes the benefits of your services and ends with a CTA.
Consider running ads during peak commute hours when people are likely to listen to the radio.

👉 Networking and events

Real estate is a relationship-driven business, and in-person networking remains one of the most effective traditional marketing methods. Attending community events, sponsoring local initiatives, or hosting open houses helps you connect with potential clients.

Below are some networking tips:

Attend local events such as home shows, community fairs, or charity events where potential clients are likely to be.
Organize your own events, such as property tours, open houses, or educational home buying or selling seminars.
Build relationships with local businesses, other agents, and service providers who can refer clients to you.

👉 Signage

Yard signs and “For Sale” signs are iconic in real estate marketing and are highly effective in generating local interest and increasing brand visibility.

Here are some tips for this type of marketing:

Use eye-catching designs and include clear contact information. The sign should prominently display your name, brokerage, phone number, and website.
Consider adding riders with details like “Open House” or “Sold” to create a sense of urgency or credibility.
Maintain high visibility by placing signs at strategic points like busy intersections or highly trafficked streets. This will depend on the area you’re selling in, as some states and towns don’t allow signage in neighborhoods.

Here is a great example of well-designed real estate signage by Kris Bowen Real Estate that includes clear contact information:

👉 Cold calling

Cold calling involves calling potential clients to introduce yourself and offer your real estate services. Though challenging, it remains a direct way to generate leads, especially for listings.

These are some top tips for cold calling:

Conduct thorough research on the people you call to ensure your messaging is relevant.
Prepare a clear, polite, professional script to follow that offers value, such as a free home valuation or market report.
To keep the conversation going after the call, follow up with additional materials, like a personalized email or direct mail.

Stay Ahead with Real Estate Marketing Strategies and Paperless Pipeline

There’s no doubt that staying ahead in the real estate game is challenging, especially with it being such a competitive industry.

However, with the right marketing strategies, you can elevate your business and stand out from the competition, helping you generate more leads and close more deals.

But how do you focus on your marketing efforts when managing transactions is so time-consuming? The answer is to use transaction management software like Paperless Pipeline.

Our system automates and streamlines the entire transaction management process, ensuring that you meet every critical due date and milestone with ease.

This means brokers and agents can take a hands-off approach to transaction management, giving you more time to focus on effective marketing.

Visit our website to try Paperless Pipeline out for free for 14 days to see how much time you can save with our powerful transaction management software.