Marketing properties in Houston isn’t much different than marketing anywhere else. The main difference is that you’ll want to target Houston-specific keywords for SEO through PPC ads and content marketing. Other than that, basic marketing principles apply.
If you’ve decided not to hire a professional marketing agency and run your own campaign instead, make sure to utilize the following components.
Lead generation is the foundational component in a good real estate property marketing strategy. You can’t sell homes without high-quality leads. High-quality leads are:
Most real estate investors won’t rent to anyone with a credit score below 650. However, you may want to raise the bar if you’re renting a high-value property. You don’t have to, but if you want to be picky about who you rent to, then raise the lowest acceptable credit score to your preference.
If you’re going to sell homes in Houston, you need a strong lead generation strategy that targets home buyers that meet your preferred criteria. For instance, you need a lead generation strategy that targets people with the right income, loan pre-approval status, and credit score. This can be easily done through the web form on your website, which brings us to the next component.
Leads are relatively easy to generate, but untargeted leads aren’t worth much. In fact, when you have a bunch of untargeted leads, you’re going to waste a significant amount of time chasing after people who aren’t ready to buy a home.
Part of a strong marketing strategy includes communicating with leads who aren’t ready to buy a home. However, the way you communicate with interested leads is different than someone who is ready to buy. To know where your leads stand, you need to qualify and segment each lead.
It’s worthwhile to collect leads who are interested in buying a home even when they aren’t ready to buy. However, those leads are only valuable when they’re segmented properly. For instance, rather than sending out mass emails to all leads, you can send emails that target people who are ready to buy. Those same emails would be a waste of time sent to people who are just casually interested.
To qualify incoming leads through your web form, ask the right questions. For example, requesting the following information is standard:
Asking for this information gives you the opportunity to both qualify and disqualify leads at the same time. For instance, when asking for annual income, you can provide several selections with a range of income and ignore leads that don’t meet your minimum income requirements.
You can also segment your leads according to how ready they are to buy. For example, if a lead is ready to buy within the next month, you can segment them as a hot lead. If a lead is looking to buy a home in the next 6 months to a year, you can segment them into a different category of leads and then use your email marketing messages to nurture them into the sale over time.
No matter how many people say it’s possible to write your own sales copy, take that advice with a grain of salt. Writing effective sales copy isn’t just a matter of writing copy that sounds good and describes your property well. Effective sales copy needs to capture attention in a way that influences the reader to take some sort of action. That action could be signing up for your email list or requesting a property tour.
Without experience in marketing, it’s not easy to write influential sales copy. If you want a strong advertising campaign, you need to hire a professional copywriter to create your content.
A strong content marketing strategy will generate targeted leads. Whether you’ve started a content marketing strategy or you’re just starting fresh, publishing quality content will help you increase the quantity and quality of leads you receive.
Check out this content writing guide for the real estate industry to learn more about best practices and what kind of written and video content will appeal to visitors.
Once you capture a bunch of leads, they need to be nurtured toward some end goal. If you want to bring your leads to a place where they’ll set up an appointment with you to tour a home, you’re going to need a strong nurturing plan.
Nurturing leads is best supported by setting up an automated sequence of emails that go out on a drip feed to your list. Your email sequence should naturally and gently aim to bring people from a place of interest to a place of commitment to view a property. If you’re not sure how to accomplish this, hire a professional marketing company because just sending out emails to keep in touch with your leads won’t be effective.
If you haven’t already gotten listings on sites like Trulia and Zillow, it’s a good idea to publish your listings on these and similar sites. While you’ll probably need to pay a fee to get listed, and these sites aren’t always the most accurate, they are the sites that home buyers frequent. If you want to sell or rent your properties, you need to go where your leads are.
The best way to get your properties listed on these and sites like Realtor.com is by getting your listing in the MLS. A professional real estate marketing agency can help you get your listing in the MLS database.
Trying to rent your property, but don’t know where to start? If you’re looking for a quick solution that doesn’t require much work on your end, contact us to see how we can help. At Green Residential, we have decades of experience renting homes, apartments, and other dwelling units to high-quality tenants.
Our professional property management services are well-respected in the greater Houston area, and we take pride in our ability to serve our clients. Contact us today for a free analysis to find out how we can help you rent and maintain your property.
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