Episode Summary
2022 has been a bumpy year for real estate. While the COVID-19 pandemic has eased its grip, the real estate market has shifted (and slowed down) considerably. Real estate professionals across the nation are reassessing their marketing strategies to gain leads and continually close deals as we enter 2023.
And while we’ve been conducting surveys since 2019, one thing has remained the same, regardless of the market, agents’ top goals are to generate more leads, increase referrals, and sell listings faster and for more money. For our 2023 Real Estate Marketing Trends Report, Virtuance surveyed over 400 real estate professionals to learn more about their existing marketing efforts and business challenges in 2022 and their planned marketing strategy and goals in 2023.
Listen in as host Rachel Gombosch breaks down the 4 trends you need to follow in the new year to build out your marketing strategy and crush your goals in 2023.
Download to full 2023 Real Estate Marketing Trends report at virtuance.com
Episode Summary
2022 has been a bumpy year for real estate. While the COVID-19 pandemic has eased its grip, the real estate market has shifted (and slowed down) considerably. Real estate professionals across the nation are reassessing their marketing strategies to gain leads and continually close deals as we enter 2023.
And while we’ve been conducting surveys since 2019, one thing has remained the same, regardless of the market, agents’ top goals are to generate more leads, increase referrals, and sell listings faster and for more money. For our 2023 Real Estate Marketing Trends Report, Virtuance surveyed over 400 real estate professionals to learn more about their existing marketing efforts and business challenges in 2022 and their planned marketing strategy and goals in 2023.
Listen in as host Rachel Gombosch breaks down the 4 trends you need to follow in the new year to build out your marketing strategy and crush your goals in 2023.
Download to full 2023 Real Estate Marketing Trends report at virtuance.com
[00:00:00] Rachel: Hello everyone and welcome to four trends that you must be following in 2023. My name is Rachel Gombosch and I'm the Community and Content Marketing Manager here at Virtuance. I'm really excited to be presenting all of this information to you guys today. We conducted our own internal study, and came out with a lot of great insight into what you should be focusing on, as we enter into the new year.
[00:00:23] Rachel: So I think it's pretty safe to say, that 2022 has not been easy, by any means. So we came out of this Covid- 19 pandemic. The real estate market has been all over the place and has drastically slowed down, as we entered into the latter half of 2022. And so now real estate professionals across the entire nation are really taking the time and energy to reassess and re-strategize.
[00:00:49] Rachel: What their marketing strategies and tactics look like in order to further their business in 2023, to additionally be able to close more deals, to get more [00:01:00] referrals, as we enter into the new year. So just some background information on where this study came from. Where did we get all of this data?
[00:01:09] Rachel: So we've been conducting studies since 2019, and one thing we've noticed, has always remained true is that, , regardless of what the market trends are doing in the moment, agents' top goals are ultimately to be able to generate more leads, increase their referral traffic, and sell their listings faster and for more money.
[00:01:26] Rachel: So we took to all of you, to pull all of this data. And so for our 2023 Real Estate Marketing Trends Report, we have surveyed over 400 real estate professionals, to be able to learn about just what they did this past year, what their goals were, what were some of the challenges that they were facing in 2022. And additionally how they plan to move into the new year, with a strong marketing strategy and strong goals.
[00:01:52] Rachel: So with that, I think it's really important that we note that we can't really forecast what's gonna happen in 2023 without reviewing what happened in 2022. So I wanna take a moment to really just briefly analyze kind of what the trends and themes were from this past year, from 2022. So agents in 2022 were really far more focused on improving their real estate marketing strategies, than this past year than really in earlier studies that we've conducted. And we asked them what, what were some of the biggest challenges that you guys have faced, as we've entered into this or as we've had this past year and from the study, three top challenges really came to light, in 2022. And, and that was to improve overall marketing, to generate more leads and additionally to be able to identify the best marketing tactics, to support their business.
[00:02:46] Rachel: Something else that's just interesting that, that we found throughout this study was the craziness of the market in 2022 made it really hard, for real estate professionals to effectively educate their [00:03:00] clients on what was happening. Educate them on the market conditions, educate them on the interest rates.
[00:03:05] Rachel: So agents ultimately really wanted to try to get the phrase across, "date the rate, but marry the house" to their clients. But they've really struggled with home buyer education. And additionally, as we've noticed, the market has slowed, agents, you all have had to work a lot harder, not only to maintain clients, but to attract clients as well.
[00:03:27] Rachel: So I know out there we've found that many of you have been struggling with time management, organization, and also work-life balance. So these were just some of the struggles that we found. And in 2022, based on what our survey was reporting, So with that, we wanted to follow it up and ask what were the focuses of 2022, what were you focusing on?
[00:03:46] Rachel: What were your marketing strategies? And two key categories really came to light from this. The first one was really to create what's known as a standout listing. One that really captures the buyer's attention and additionally, the second was social media and digital marketing. So when we talk about creating this standout listing, everyone, as we mentioned before, really wanted to improve their marketing, but those who are creating a standout listing are actively using, really effective marketing methods such as professional photography, virtual tours, 3D tours, and floor plans.
[00:04:21] Rachel: So as one of the statistics that came out of our study was 95%, of real estate professionals have adopted the use of professional photography, which is huge. Which ultimately means as well, if you're not adopting professional photography in your career at this point, then you are likely lagging behind.
[00:04:40] Rachel: And these types of marketing efforts are really crucial, for real estate professionals who are really looking to generate more leads. Because we looked to NAR for one of their studies and one of their 2022 home buyer and seller studies, showed us that 41% of all buyers begin their home search by looking online for properties.
[00:04:59] Rachel: And [00:05:00] additionally, 51% of all buyers found the home they ultimately wanted to purchase on the internet. So making sure that your listing marketing is top quality and top notch so that you have that standout listing is huge, and that was a major focus of this past year. Additionally, the other focus we found, or the other themed focus we found, was really taking to digital and social media marketing.
[00:05:22] Rachel: So, When we conducted our survey, we were shocked to find out that there was a 20% drop in social media and email marketing. And to us what this basically implied was that, some real estate professionals out there are really hesitant to start participating in digital marketing. Even though this is a strategy and a tactic that's ultimately less time consuming and is an opportunity to really easily engage with a wider audience than you would if you were just face-to-face. Additionally, something that we kind of gathered is that we understand that real estate, or not real estate, but social media has
[00:06:00] never ending changes. There's updates to it day in, day out. There's trends that are happening back and forth, and knowing that all of those changes happen on such a consistent and constant basis, we figured was probably something that's very daunting for a lot of people. Which is probably why some of the usage dropped this past year in social media marketing, and in email marketing among real estate professionals. And even though we did see that drop, this past year, there were still three platforms that, remained supreme.
[00:06:31] Rachel: So we found that over 96% of our survey respondents use Facebook. Since 2019, Instagram usage has increased by 11%. That's the number two channel that professionals are using, and then additionally, even though we found that our, that LinkedIn usage has dropped, by about 20% since our 2019 survey. It's still actually the third most used platform, after Facebook and Instagram.
[00:07:00] Rachel: So those are your big three, we'll put it that way. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. But something to keep your eye out for that, that occurred this past year. TikTok usage has increased by 5% since 2021, so I'm sure you're familiar, or at least know of the platform that is TikTok that is still gaining popularity since last year.
[00:07:21] Rachel: So now that we kind of reviewed what happened, what was going on in 2022, we can actually begin to look for and look at and forecast what the trends are in 2020. So here we asked very similar questions. So now that we understand that they, the new year is upon us, we're all about setting resolutions and setting new goals.
[00:07:42] Rachel: You know, you as professionals are really excited to also just be tackling and diving into your business and all of the successes that, that you can have in 2023. So we asked all of the professionals that we surveyed, you know, what do you believe you need to do in the new year? What's gonna get you there?
[00:07:59] Rachel: [00:08:00] What are the goals you have? And what are some key trends that you should really be ultimately laser focused on this year? So when we ask them about their goals, Like I had previously mentioned, the goals agents would like to achieve in 2023 have ultimately they remain unchanged. We've seen this as a consistent, reporting over the last couple years, so the majority of the survey respondents ultimately want to generate more leads.
[00:08:24] Rachel: They wanna increase referrals, and they wanna sell listings faster and for more money. And these actually have a really good correlation to those challenges that we had brought up, from this past year and seeing that improvement, on those challenges that, that we brought up this past year. So on top of that topic, we also asked professionals, believe the focus of 2023 should be, and ultimately five different types of efforts emerge.
[00:08:50] Rachel: That also kind of reflect the challenges that were faced in 2022. So one was staying in touch with, uh, previous clients. So making sure [00:09:00] you have that open line of communication. The second one was building a social media presence. So even though we saw a 20% drop in social media usage, professionals still believe this is something that, or a marketing effort that should be a major focus in 2023.
[00:09:15] Rachel: Additionally creating more videos. So it's time to pull out your microphone, turn your camera on and start recording some videos. Investing in professional listing marketing. So as I mentioned previous, , 95% of real estate professionals are already adopting, professional photography alone.
[00:09:31] Rachel: And so if you're not hopping on board with all of these different marketing enhancements and opportunities to really make your listing stand out, you may be falling behind in the new year. And additionally, they wanna become or think that a focus should be to become an expert in educating consumers. So what does that home buyer education experience look like?
[00:09:51] Rachel: How are you gonna target that?
[00:09:55] Rachel: So ultimately what all of this boils down to is four key [00:10:00] trends that we found that really stand out, in 2023. So the first one is making sure as far as what you should be doing with these trends is. You need to be prioritizing your digital marketing. You need to be building an online presence. Blogging and paid social ads were two marketing strategies that agents are ultimately looking to begin in 2023.
[00:10:22] Rachel: So we had over 20% of our respondents want to adopt these strategies in the coming years. So with that, one of the most, surprising results actually from our survey was again, that we saw that drop in social media and email marketing. So compared to results from the previous surveys that, like I said, that was a 20% drop, which was just something really interesting that we had found.
[00:10:42] Rachel: Even though social media and email marketing are really some of the easiest ways, and less time consuming ways to connect with your network, to connect with your audience. To connect with potential clients. And additionally, it's also a relatively low cost.
[00:10:58] Rachel: Also, our survey [00:11:00] reported that, agents did show that they would like to learn more about social media marketing in 2023. So as I had mentioned previously, there was that decline of usage, which could also be attributed to the need for more education and understanding. So taking the time to really educate yourself on these different platforms on email marketing, social media, technical knowledge like seo, search engine optimization, your ability to pop up on Google ultimately.
[00:11:23] Rachel: And then additionally, efforts like content and blogging and providing those resources.
[00:11:27] Rachel: The next theme we saw, the next trend we saw that's forecasting into 2023 is to really engage with your community and engage with your clients. And so what does that ultimately look like? And that's taking the time to really focus on your client's experience. Their experience in home buying, their experience with you in particular as a real estate professional. And so while agents are and professionals are looking to, focus to marketing strategies that ultimately make their listings stand out.
[00:11:57] Rachel: As I had mentioned, a vast majority are already using [00:12:00] professional photography and additionally plan on using things like 3D tours, floor plans, virtual staging, that all add to this client experience. So what else does that mean? When I say this experience, so ultimately you need to study, you need to study who your target audience is.
[00:12:16] Rachel: Once you understand who that target audience is, you can then begin to educate and entertain them, and ultimately start building that connection. So for instance, we know that a large majority of home buyers out there are millennials. So you need to have marketing efforts that are set in place that really provide a more online and interactive experience for that clientele, correct.
[00:12:35] Rachel: Something to kind of think about is the millennial home buyer experience, has been reported to really be this not to bother type of experience, meaning they don't necessarily want a salesperson right in front of them. They don't want to attend the open house right at the beginning.
[00:12:53] Rachel: They wanna be convinced online to even go see the house in person. So [00:13:00] something to keep in mind when you think about engaging with your community and your clients and really building that, that customer experience.
[00:13:06] Rachel: Next, invest in your listings marketing. So, so, so important. I know I've said this stat I feel like 500 times, but we found 95% of real estate professionals are using professional photography and now we know that the biggest market out there, the biggest home buyer market out there is the millennial generation who wants this online and interactive experience.
[00:13:29] Rachel: So you need to be, how do you provide that immersive experience for them? You need to make sure that you are incorporating additional marketing materials such as, 3D tours such as virtual tours, such as floor plans. Maybe if the home isn't stage, you'd incorporate virtual staging make. How are you going to be able to tailor to that hands-off approach and that hands-off experience that the millennial generation wants to have, or maybe even not just the millennial generation, but others as well.
[00:13:56] Rachel: So make sure you take the opportunity to really invest in your [00:14:00] listings marketing, and I'm sure you're going to see a return on it . And then finally, this one's huge. Make sure that you commit to education. So some marketing strategies and efforts that we found that agents want to start exploring in 2023 really require, taking the time to sit down and learn. And taking the time to sit down and understand.
[00:14:20] Rachel: And so some of those topics that were brought up were learning about search engine optimization, learning that technical knowledge, learning more about social media marketing, learning about paid search advertising. So take a moment to make sure that you are actually investing in education, marketing, education, business education, so that you know what strategies to put into your business plan moving forward.
[00:14:45] Rachel: And additionally, I can promise you that not only you will, but your team are gonna greatly benefit, from that type of investment in the new year. So professionals who are continuing to acquire the latest marketing strategies and tactics will likely be able to [00:15:00] adapt, those tactics into their marketing plan more effectively than those who don't fully understand the different strategies.
[00:15:06] Rachel: Especially as we know the industry shifts and changes on a in and out basis. Which ultimately bottom line is gonna make you more competitive in the industry, especially as time goes on. So make sure you're taking the time to commit to and invest in education, not only for but for your team as well.
[00:15:26] Rachel: So these are the four trends you should really be looking out for as you enter into the new year, making sure that you are prioritizing your digital marketing, making sure that you are engaging your community and your clients, providing that user experience, investing in your listing's marketing, making sure that you are not only just having that professional photography, but now professional photography is almost the bare minimum. You need to start providing 3D tours, virtual tours, floor plans, all of those other, marketing enhancements that are going to provide that experience, that your home buyers are wanting. And then additionally, committing to [00:16:00] education and making sure that you are taking the time to continuously learn and grow in your business.
[00:16:07] Rachel: We all know that 2023 really isn't a time, for agents or real estate professionals to slow down any type of marketing efforts. But if you really want to take a moment to level up what you're doing and enhance what you're doing, this is how you're going to make sure that you gain a really good foothold, in this competitive space.
[00:16:25] Rachel: So, real quick, before we sign off, I do wanna just talk about how we can help you do that, how Virtuance can help you level up as well as we enter into the new year. So if you're looking to take your listings to that next level to be that standout listing, consider partnering with us, for all of your professional real estate photography and marketing needs.
[00:16:45] Rachel: We are the nation's leading professional real estate photography partner, utilizing our proprietary HDReal technology to capture two times more attention to sell your listings faster and for more money. So we have incredible [00:17:00] enhancements that make our images stand out from the crowd. And additionally, again, if you're not using professional photography at this point, you should be.
[00:17:07] Rachel: So let us help you do that. And additionally, to help with those digital marketing needs as well and assist you with those digital marketing needs, we offer what's known as the Virtuance Marketing Suite, and other marketing enhancements that really help you to ensure that you have everything you need to reach all of your goals in 2023.
[00:17:24] Rachel: So our Virtuance Marketing Suite, is an incredible platform that's delivered to you free with every real estate image package. And with that you can create brochures you are gonna have built-in search engine optimization capabilities. Additionally, you can create your own beautiful single listing websites.
[00:17:41] Rachel: With those themes, it's got lead generation interactive websites, and additionally the opportunity to share on your socials as well. So let us help you so that you can reach all of your business goals. And with that, I want to thank you guys so much for joining me today. If you want, we've [00:18:00] got social media templates that break down all the different statistics from this report.
[00:18:04] Rachel: I know we covered a lot of information, but I know you all are going to crush it as we enter into the new year. Feel free to also download the report online as well. We've got the full research study, if you wanna read the full thing online on our website at virtuance.com. So thank you again so much for joining and I look forward to hearing how you guys are crushing it in the new year.