How To Make Your Listings Stand Out Online
One of the hardest parts of marketing properties online is to make sure that the listings you posted will be found by qualified property buyers and renters; and hope to get leads as soon as possible.
Just imagine, with tens of thousands of properties available across the web, may it be in social media, real estate websites, listings and classified ads sites, how can you cope with the competition. In fact, in one of the popular classified ads websites in the Philippines alone, there are already 58,000+ real estate ads posted to date, while in our website, there are already 17,000+ unique listings available. So the question is, how do you get your listings noticed, retain attention and eventually stand out from the rest online.
We have listed 5 proven ways on how to make your property listings standout online.
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Make sure to complete your property details.
Whatever property you post online, always make sure that you include all the necessary details of the real estate. Also, do not forget to keep these details updated and accurate as often as possible. Outdated details can result to lost leads.
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Type of property
Is it residential or commercial? Are you selling a house or a condominium unit? Are you leasing out a commercial space, office or a vacant lot? Always be precise on the kind of property that you are trying to market.
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For Sale, Rent or Pre-sale
Is this for long-term or short term rental only? Is this a pre-selling project? Buyers and renters usually know what they are looking for.
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Location of the property
Where is this property located? What is the exact address? Is it a Condo for Sale in Bonifacio Global City or a house for sale in Makati?
- Specifications and Features
These include the number of bed and bathrooms, floor/lot area, furnishing, parking spaces, and different amenities and specifications that complete the property. These things provide helpful information to property finders.
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Price
Make sure that you indicate an accurate and enticing price. Also, learn how to set the right selling price of your property. Tip: You may also add a little percentage for discounts; renters and buyers love it.
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Contact Information
Where would you like to be reached – phone, email and social media accounts? It is very important that you indicate these things so people would know where to contact you. Keep them updated if you changed any of your contact details.
- Create awesome property descriptions.
Property descriptions provide helpful information about the listing aside from the basic details. These are brief and concise information that talk about different facts about your listing. Here, you can leverage on the unique and intriguing information about your property.
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Highlight distinctive features of the properties
Is your property furnished with decades-old antiques? Or does it have the top of the line, military-grade security features? Were the materials used to build this structure imported from other countries? Is it built in a corner lot facing the sunrise? Emphasize on these details to “Wow!” potential clients.
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Include side stories and short history of the property
Was your property designed by a well-known architect and engineer? Was it used for a shoot location for a popular TV series or movie? Is it a favorite setting for commercials and product endorsements? Every property has its own unique history and stories – maximize it and it will surely set your property apart from the rest.
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Talk about the lifestyle and living conditions around the area
People would love to know the neighborhood that they’ll be potentially moving in to. Talk about the what’s going on around the property and in the city. Let your clients know why this will be a good investment and purchasing or renting the property is a sound decision.
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Do not “copy and paste” the entire descriptions from one source to another, specially from official real estate developer websites
One way or another, people probably did a preliminary research of the projects that interest them, so showing them the same content won’t entice them to learn more about your property. Instead, put other specific details and information that might not have been stated in other websites.
Tip: If search engines like Google sees that your property has very identical or is a duplicate property description, then it won’t prioritize your listing to show on it’s search results page.
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Take photos of the property like a pro.
They say a photo is worth a thousand words. Yes, it is, specially in real estate marketing. A default photo with ample lighting and fine focus without cluttered objects in it will definitely catch the attention of property finders. Photo galleries serve as your virtual tour for potential buyers and renters.
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Clear the view – no photobombers please!
Before taking photos, clear and clean the area. Make sure that there are no unnecessary objects lying around. Keep the dirty clothes inside the hamper. Arrange the dishes properly inside the racks and shelves. Remove the baby’s toys in the living room. Dry the bathroom floor and sink top. And as much as possible, make sure nobody is blocking your lens.
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Open the windows and shoot with proper lighting – we’re all afraid of the dark!
Natural lighting is still the best source. It creates a very homey and cozy feel as it illuminates the room. However, if the room doesn’t allow natural light or if you are shooting during night time, make sure that you put the bright lights on. Also, instead of using your camera flash directly to light up the room, position the light towards the angle that you like to capture. This will save your photos from being overly saturated.
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Take photos at different angles and vantage points
Best angle to shoot photos will be the corners of the room. It will provide a wider shot that can show the walls, floor and ceiling. Make sure to take different photos of all the rooms and areas available – living room, bedroom, bathroom, dining and kitchen. Shoot both interior and exteriors of the property. You can also take photos of the view from the window.
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Highlight the unique features of the property
Take photos of the features that you emphasized in your property description. Take photos of the furnishings, the appliances, the stairs, floor tiles. garden plants, etc. Show them what they are getting and why it’s worth this much.
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Don’t copy and paste photos, take your own.
Again, just like in property descriptions, they’d probably had seen photos from the developer’s website. They’ve probably seen it several times. So better to take photos of your own and shoot from other angles.
- Enhance your photos with apps – it’s not that hard.
If you want to enhance and adjust the angle, brightness, contrast and color or crop and remove unwanted parts of the photos, you may use some image editing apps. You do not need to be a pro. It’s just like editing your selfies but this time, your subject is a real estate property.
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Market your property the right way.
You might have spent numerous hours of sending random text messages and emails, giving away flyers in malls and other high-foot traffic places and even calling people one by one, but haven’t had qualified leads yet. The problem with these tactics is you might not have done “profiling” or failed to tap specific people that may be interested with your property. Remember, if you market it to random people then you are just wasting your time. You might also try these digital marketing ideas. These may not replace what you do currently but augment and help your offline efforts.
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Ask bloggers to write about your property and give them some incentives in return (throw in some freebies!)
There are bloggers who are interested in writing featured articles about certain properties. You can invite them over and give them a tour around the real estate so when they write about your listing, they can convey it in a more personal way. In return, you can give them GCs, discount cards or even a free over night stay at the property itself.
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Create your ad in different forms of multi-media (blog articles, slideshows, video, photo collage, etc.)
Aside from photos, you can create different forms of multimedia files for your listing. You may create a video tour, a marketing pitch slide show, a photo collage that would look like a marketing poster then upload it online. Unleash the inner artist in you and play around with the design. It will only be limited by your imagination.
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Go social! (e-mail, facebook, linkedin, google plus, pinterest, youtube, slideshare, etc.)
Social Media is the new “Word of Mouth” today. If you want to be noticed and talked about, have it online and posted on different social media platforms. Once you created a very awesome marketing advertisement and gets traction from netizens, it may even get “viral”. Social Media is also good for creating brand awareness. If people see your content being shared often and consistently, then they recognize and recall you.
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Share on your own profile, business page and join other groups.
The main goal of social media is to connect users and share information with one another. One good feature of social media websites is you can join different groups of people that share the same interests. Here, you can share your marketing ads or articles.
Tip: Make sure that you share to “active groups” – saves you time and effort and relieves you from spamming.
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Consider running paid ads.
After doing the “free” way of promoting, you might want to shell out extra money to run paid ads. The best thing about running ads is you have control over your campaigns. You dictate the budget, time, place and location, type of ad, target audience and even choose the specific types of websites where you want to show your ads. Make sure to conduct tests on which campaign performs best and give you the most attention and generate leads faster and more efficiently. Tailor fit these campaigns to the best settings and schedules. You start with a small budget per day and increase your budget as your ads get traction.
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Facebook
This is by the most well-known social media platform in the planet. Almost everyone in the Metro has an FB profile. Running Boost posts, Carousel post, Banner Ads and Video Ads is easy and practical. You can even start at P30.00 per day. Here’s a guide on How to Create Ads on Facebook.
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Google
Google on the other hand is by far the largest search engine in the world. It has a large network of search-based sites and partner websites where you can run different Display and Multimedia adverts. You can leverage on running Google Adwords (search) and Display Network (multimedia). Remarketing Ads Campaigns are also available to retargeting and follow your clients with these ads until they decided to inquire about your property.
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Youtube Ads
Youtube is one of the most visited websites in the world. In fact, next to Google, it is second most used search engine. So where else would you want to promote those Banner Ads and Video Ads, right?
Make sure that you create a good property listing and make it property-finder friendly. Whenever you market your listings, consider putting yourself in their shoes. If you were the one looking for a property, what would you want to see and know about the listing. Nobody knows the property better than you do.
