23 Clever Real Estate Marketing Ideas

Looking for more real estate marketing ideas to grow your business in 2024? We hear you! I updated our list of proven strategies to improve your real estate marketing and included my favorite tips with some from our team of real estate experts here at The Close. You’ll also get links to our deep-dive strategy guides, buyer’s guides, and scripts so you can start transforming your real estate marketing today. 

So grab a coffee, turn off your notifications, and dig into our 23 best real estate marketing ideas.

Branding & Engagement Marketing Ideas

One of the most important steps in establishing authority In your market area is creating your brand story. Your brand should reflect who you are authentically to give your target audience away and make an emotional connection to you.

1. Create Your Brand Story

Start your real estate journey by creating a compelling personal brand story that resonates with your target audience. A solid personal brand does something that a website or glossy headshot never will—it helps you build a unique selling proposition that separates you from your competitors. That is more important than ever because every agent in your farm area can access the same marketing tools—including gorgeous templates, artificial intelligence (AI), and intuitive nurturing systems.

The way to create a brand that elevates you is to first focus on your clients’ needs. Spend time uncovering what you bring to the table for them that no one else does. Start by creating a mission, vision, and values statement to guide your marketing strategy. 

2. Focus on Values

Your marketing needs to reflect your values, aligning with your lead’s values. So think about why you got into real estate (besides making gobs of money). Maybe you want to help people create wealth or feel a connection with a specific group of people. As a military spouse turned real estate agent, I felt compelled to work with military families to help them through their permanent change of station (PCS) transitions because I know what that feels like. It’s essential to identify your tribe and figure out how to best connect with them.

Now that you’ve figured out your unique value proposition, merge it with your unique personality. One key thing to remember is don’t try to be something you’re not. Be honest and authentic. You are not a perfect fit for everyone, so don’t try to be. Your vibe attracts your tribe. The people who resonate with you will be drawn to you, like bees to spring flowers.

3. Create a Compelling Slogan

You should clearly know what you have to offer once you’ve created your mission, vision, and values and established your unique real estate brand. The next key element of your marketing identity is a slogan—a short, memorable phrase that summarizes your value proposition. Think of it as a one-sentence elevator pitch.

Summing up your value prop in one short sentence isn’t easy, but the benefits for your brand and marketing materials can be enormous. A compelling slogan in your marketing quickly makes a personal connection with your audience.

The best slogans are short, meaningful, and inspiring. I like to use the word “sticky.” If you don’t already have one or think yours needs work, check out our list of the 107 best real estate slogans for inspo. If you’re still not inspired, try using the free real estate slogan generator embedded in the strategy guide.

4. Generate Referrals From Local Businesses 

Experienced agents know that local business owners can be a sweet referral source. Who else is as plugged into your community as the local salon owner, restaurateur, or florist? They know when people are getting married, divorced, or making other life changes that might lead to a transaction. And people trust them. So, if you want to generate motivated referrals, you can’t go wrong building these relationships. 

You’re probably already working with several businesses right now (photographers, movers, staging companies, home inspectors, insurance companies, etc.) that know you well. You might consider hosting an event together. Try some of these ideas:

• Host a workshop with a qualified home inspector to educate potential military homebuyers about the VA inspection process.
• Invite a lender to a first-time homebuyers event to help boost the prospecting potential. They can help answer questions about how to get started. I worked with my favorite lender on multiple workshops, including real estate investing strategies, first-time homebuyers, and military VA loans. 

By the way, these work equally well as in-person events or online webinars. Hosting an informational event around a specific real estate topic is easy. You just have to market it well to get a good turnout. Use Facebook Events as well as print marketing to get the word out.

Looking for a free referral network to boost your lead gen efforts? Sold.com delivers high-quality buyer and seller leads that convert easily. And you don’t pay for any leads until they close!

Visit Sold.com

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Real Estate Marketing Ideas for Social Media

There’s no denying that you must have an online presence for people to build trust. Use some of these creative real estate marketing strategies to help save time, stress, and frustration.

5. Use Templates to Scale Facebook & Instagram

If you want to scale your social media accounts to generate leads, you need to increase the number of times you post per week or even daily. Coffee & Contracts suggests posting daily, but only if you share high-quality content. While that might sound like a lot, it’s what the Instagram (IG) algorithm rewards. So, to build your social media accounts to market your brand, you must start posting more.

One of the best ways to tackle this real estate marketing idea is to use templates from marketing companies like Coffee & Contracts, LabCoat Agents Marketing Center, and Agent Crate. Unlike Canva templates, these templates are real estate-specific and created by real estate professionals. 

These companies create beautifully designed and prewritten posts providing first-time buyer education, market updates, home maintenance tips, and staging advice. They even include templates for Stories and Reels.

Here is a quick rundown of my take on the best social media template providers. You can go deeper with our deep-dive reviews to get more info.

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Template Platform	Best For	The Close Score	Deep-dive Review
Coffee & Contracts	Agents focused on increasing engagement on Instagram	4.7	Read full review
LabCoat Agents Marketing Center	Teams and brokerages	4.6	Read full review
Agent Crate	Agents on a budget who want automated social media posting	4.6	Read full review

Related Article

The 9 Best Real Estate Marketing Companies

6. Adopt Social Media Strategies From Top Influencers

If you want your social media accounts to help you generate leads and market your brand, learn from the best and copy what they’re doing, like Taya DiCarlo does on her Instagram. Tony Robbins stated it best: “If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do, and you’ll achieve the same results.” Just make sure to put your personality and spin on their strategies. Copying their content verbatim is unethical and might turn off your followers if they follow the same influencers as you.

Start following a few real estate influencers you resonate with and see which topics get the most views and engagement for their Reels, Stories, and posts. Create your versions of the same type of content and add them to your marketing calendar. The key, though, is consistency. Once you start your social media marketing, you must stay with it for the algorithm to reward your efforts.

Here are five excellent real estate influencers to follow:

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Real Estate Influencer	Best For	Instagram Handle
Taya Dicarlo	Fun and educational Reels	@tayadicarlo
Leigh Brown	Humor and actionable advice for buyers	@leighthomasbrown
Glennda Baker	No-nonsense advice for buyers and sellers	@glenndabaker
Chelsea Peitz	Real estate social media advice and lifestyle	@chelsea.peitz
The Broke Agent	Real estate humor and viral memes The Broke Agent, aka Eric Simon, regularly contributes to The Close	@thebrokeagent

For more social media tips from top influencers, check out our guide to the best social media strategy tips.

7. Create Engaging Vertical Videos

Vertical videos are videos viewed in vertical mode on a phone or PC. The skyrocketing success of vertical video platforms like TikTok over the last few years is a crucial trend you must pay attention to. Instagram, Facebook, and even YouTube have all taken note and are now pushing quick-hit vertical videos in a major way. So, if you want a chance of getting your content in front of your followers on any platform in 2024, you need to learn how to make compelling vertical videos.

While there are opportunities for Realtors on TikTok, focusing your vertical video efforts on Instagram Stories and Reels will be much easier and more effective than starting a whole new account on a different social media platform. The cool thing is you don’t have to look polished in your vertical videos. Your audience wants to get to know you in real life, so you’re free just to be you.

Don’t worry—they’re easier to make than you think. Here are some tips to help you get started:

• Use your smartphone to shoot a close-up video of your face, taking up most of the screen. 
• Introduce your listing, share tips, or discuss the market—any topic you choose. You can also add your listing footage from your professional photographer. Easy-peasy! 

Once you start making vertical videos, you will quickly learn that engagement, not views, prompts Instagram to show your content to more people. While there are many ways to get engagement on Instagram, contests, polls, and Q&A stickers layered on your videos are what most influencers use to make their posts go viral. They’re especially effective in Stories.

Need help editing your real estate videos? Check out our list of the 5 Best Real Estate Video Editing Software.

8. Outsource Your Social Media Marketing

If you’re a busy agent, spending hours each day creating content for social media is probably not the best use of your time. Hiring a virtual assistant or social media marketing company can save time and money. Or outsource to a service like Coffee & Contracts.

In 2024, savvy agents use services like Coffee & Contracts to simplify social media. Unlike some social media marketing platforms, Coffee & Contracts doesn’t just offer templates for Instagram and Facebook posts. They also provide monthly content strategies and done-for-you real estate marketing tools so you can get the benefits of social media marketing without the hassle.

💡 Pro tip: When it comes to tools like social media automation or marketing-focused customer relationship managers, you must do your homework before diving in. Check out our article, The Best Real Estate CRM: In-depth Reviews & Pricing, to find one that fits your needs and budget.

9. Use Facebook Messenger Ads to Boost Open Rates

If you’re not getting the results you want from Facebook advertising or email marketing, Facebook Messenger ads can be an excellent addition to your marketing tool kit. Your potential customers probably get dozens of emails and see hundreds of Facebook posts per day. But they only get a handful of private Facebook messages.

According to the latest research from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the median age of homesellers in 2022 was 60 years old, and more than 35% of Facebook Messenger users are over 45. If you’re trying to connect with your potential clients, your chances are pretty decent that you can reach them through Facebook Messenger.

Set up an Ads Manager account in Meta to get started. Once you’ve created your account, click Create to build your ad.

Here are six steps to get you started:

1. Choose the engagement objective.
2. Name your campaign and set your budget.
3. Set the engagement option to Messaging apps and select Messenger or Instagram.
4. Set your ad duration, designate your audience, and choose your ad format. 
5. Customize the greeting people see after clicking on your ad.
6. Edit your ad and hit Publish.

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Marketing Ideas for More Referrals

Well-established real estate agents know that the secret to success is in getting referral business. Use some of these real estate agent marketing ideas to help generate more referrals to grow your business exponentially.

10. Build Social Proof With Video Testimonials

A few years ago, the only social proof Realtors needed was a few 5-star reviews on Zillow. And while Zillow reviews are still a crucial part of your online presence, they are not enough. With so many fake reviews on sites like Amazon, people are starting to feel skeptical of written client testimonials. They are just too easy to fake.

Video testimonials, on the other hand, naturally feel more authentic and are nearly impossible to fake. As a bonus, they can be used in your realtor marketing across Instagram, Facebook, landing pages, websites, and even YouTube. Here are a few quick best practices to help your video testimonials shine this year: 

• Keep them short: Shorter videos are more likely to be watched to the end, an important engagement signal for most social media platforms. 
• Consider shooting vertical videos: This will make them easier to share on Instagram Stories, Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.
• Send questions in advance: This will make it easier for your clients to think of responses, and they will be less nervous the day of the shoot.
• Done is better than perfect: You don’t need to make a big production out of your testimonial videos. Sometimes, candid videos shot on your phone work better.

Check out 27 Funny Real Estate Videos You Need Right Now for inspiration

11. Automate Your Review Collecting Process 

You leave money on the table if you don’t ask for client reviews and testimonials. However, agents get busy and may forget or feel awkward asking for a review. And once some time has passed, it’s more challenging to reconnect with past clients for the ask.

Instead of manually chasing down past clients to leave reviews on multiple websites, savvy agents automate their review-gathering process with reputation management platforms like Birdeye. These platforms have tools that reach out to your clients to ask for testimonials. This strategy reduces the friction (and awkwardness) of asking for reviews on multiple platforms, so you get more reviews on more websites with less work.

Visit Birdeye

12. Engage Past Clients With Experiential Marketing

As any seasoned agent will tell you, five minutes of in-person engagement is worth hours of engagement online. That’s why many top-producing agents offer their former clients exclusive offline experiences like dinners, wine tastings, educational seminars, and charity drives. This strategy is called experiential marketing, one of the hottest trends in marketing right now.

At my brokerage, we host an annual holiday party where we invite our past and current clients, family, friends, and our favorite vendors. We give away tons of prizes, including a vacation package, throughout the event. Everyone loves attending and talks about it for months afterward, and we generally shake out around one to two new transactions per agent after each event. That’s a pretty impressive number for simply hosting a party.

Even more, one study showed that a whopping 74% of consumers said they were more likely to purchase after attending a brand’s event or experience. Learn how to pull it off in our experiential marketing deep-dive guide.

13. Give Memorable Closing Gifts

While closing gifts are an excellent way to boost referrals, most Realtors focus too much on promoting themselves instead of learning what clients actually want. Savvy agents get to know their clients during the process and choose gifts that match what their clients really want or need. If you give them a gift they will actually use instead of that cutting board with your brokerage logo,  you’ll have a much greater chance of staying top of mind.

I love to give my clients things they can use. I’ve been known to gift baskets of goodies, including any combination of the following:

• Pasta and sauce with a pasta spoon 
• A bottle of champagne with flutes 
• Kitchen towels
• An Amazon Echo Dot 
• Assorted cooking tools 
• Cutting boards 
• Popcorn or candy
• DVDs
• A small set of tools
• Pancake mix
• Laundry basket with towels
• Decor and towels for a half-bathroom

I think about how difficult it is to move into a house while everything is still in boxes. I want my clients’ first night or two in their new home to be fun and easy. If I can think of things that help facilitate that, I’ll throw it in a gift basket and give it to them after they close. 

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Real Estate Marketing Ideas for Listings

If you can’t list, you can’t last. At least, that’s what I was taught. Use some of these realty marketing ideas to score more listings in your real estate business.

14. Improve Curb Appeal on a Shoestring Budget

Many listing agents I know ignore curb appeal. But you owe it to your sellers to learn how to improve it—even if you only have a tiny budget to work with. Curb appeal is essential for attracting prospective buyers. It’s the first and last thing they see when driving to the home. Great curb appeal also attracts those who drive by. You never know when Aunt Jane lives a block away and is looking for neighborhood homes for her nephew and his fam.

Here are some simple low- or no-cost curb appeal fixes to try with your next listing.

• Create an inviting seating area on the porch
• Perk up drab brown grass with lawn paint
• Replace the mailbox and house numbers
• Decorate the entrance with potted plants and flowers
• Upgrade porch lighting
• Tidy up hedges and replace dead or scraggly ones
• Add fresh mulch to the flowerbeds
• Powerwash the exterior of the home, including the drive and sidewalks

For more ideas, check out our curb appeal strategy guide.

15. Leverage AI to Write Better Listing Descriptions

The real estate industry may be shifting, but 2024 could be the easiest year to market your listings ever. Artificial intelligence (AI) apps like ChatGPT are finally starting to deliver on their promises and could become a goldmine for savvy Realtors. You just need to find the right picks and shovels.

My only caveat is that these tools are much better at improving existing copy or helping you brainstorm and write outlines rather than writing from scratch. I like to get ideas from ChatGPT first and then brainstorm how to improve my copy after I write. I also use Grammarly while I write to avoid simple syntax errors or misspelled words. Think of AI apps as the editors you never had. Here are four AI tools you can use to write better real estate marketing copy this year:

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AI Copywriting App	Price	Best For
ChatGPT	Single user: Free-$20 billed monthly Team: $25 per month/user billed annually; $30 per month/user billed monthly Enterprise: Contact sales	Everything from short marketing copy to e-books, lead magnets, and listing descriptions. With the paid version, you can access DALL-E images.
Jasper.ai	Creator: $49 per month/seat billed monthly; $39 per month/seat billed annually Pro: $69 per month/seat billed monthly; $59 per month/seat billed annually Business: Contact sales	Copywriting templates so you don’t have to start from scratch. Great for social media, creating a brand voice, and marketing collateral.
Copy.ai	Single user: Free Pro: $49 per month/user billed monthly; $36 per month/user billed annually Team (up to 10 seats): $249 per month billed monthly; $186 per month billed annually	Great for teams. Create workflows where agents can automate large-scale content creation and tasks.
Grammarly	Single user: Free Premium: $12 per month/user billed annually ($144); $20 per month/user billed quarterly ($60); $30 per month/user billed monthly Business: 3-9 seats: $180 per seat billed annually ($15 per seat/month); 10-49 seats: $174 per seat billed annually ($14.50 per seat/month); 50-149 seats: $150 per seat billed annually ($12.50 per seat/month) Enterprise: Contact sales	Clean up all writing, including emails, listing descriptions, and more, with a desktop app and extension in Chrome that provides suggestions while you write. With Business plans, you can create a style guide, manage brand tone, and access analytics.

Of course, you need to know the basics of compelling listing descriptions to get the most from these tools. Check out our guide full of examples of creative listing descriptions to learn more.

16. Create a Detailed Listing Marketing Plan

“Those who list, last” is a well-worn real estate cliche, but for good reason, because most long-term agents regularly list properties rather than exclusively represent buyers. Whether you’re a seasoned listing agent or still working on getting your first seller client, a detailed marketing plan is your key to success.

Your marketing plan is one of the most powerful tools you have to land listings. Marketing skills are probably the main reason most homeowners hire an agent. So before you pitch your next homeowner, ensure you have a comprehensive marketing plan to show them during your listing presentation. 

Here are some essential features of an effective marketing plan:

• Create a listing presentation and prepare, prepare, prepare
• As part of your presentation, have a strategy for overcoming common objections
• Identify unique selling features of your new listing
• Research the area to create a thorough and accurate comparative market analysis (CMA)
• Make sure the home is prepared for showings and photography
• Hire a professional for visual assets, including high-resolution pictures, video walk-throughs, aerial footage, and a 3D tour
• Use highly descriptive words in your listing description
• Reach out to your sphere of influence to announce your listing
• Post on social media and place ads on Facebook and Google to get the word out  

17. Virtually Stage Listings With Different Themes 

If you have an empty listing to sell, spending a few bucks to have it virtually staged with a few different options is a great way to increase interest and show buyers what it might look like in different contexts.

For example, a spare bedroom might look great virtually staged as a kid’s room with bunk beds or as a home office. Whether you’re showing a listing to a young family or someone who works from home, you’ll have a picture ready to help either buyer imagine how the home could meet their needs. Check out our virtual staging software buyer’s guide to find the best fit for you.

18. Leverage Virtual Reality Home Tours

The latest virtual reality technology allows potential buyers to immerse themselves in a property. So many tools are available today to create interactive virtual tours where potential buyers feel they’re walking through your listings. This is essential since 74% of buyer’s agents see having video tours and 42% see virtual home tours as some of the most important features for selling a home to their buyer-clients.

A unique way to capture prospective buyers is to start with a 3D video and virtual reality headset. Some agents gift headsets to buyer clients who don’t live locally after signing the buyer’s agreement. The buyers can use the headsets to have an immersive virtual experience, whether it’s of a listing on Zillow or listings you send directly from your MLS. The headsets also work with 3D walk-through video, like Matterport.

Imagine you have homebuyer clients overseas looking in your area, and you’re the agent who gives away virtual reality headsets. If you share this strategy in your marketing, you can potentially corner the buyer’s market outside your local area. It makes you stand out as unique and willing to give your prospective clients an excellent experience. Oh, and did I mention you can buy virtual reality headsets on Amazon for around $25 a pair? As an agent who specializes in military moves, I use this with my clients and find this tool essential.

19. Get Real Results From Freelance Designers

Unless you want your graphics to look like every other Realtor’s, taking the time to learn how to hire freelance designers—and, more importantly, get the best results—is becoming an essential marketing skill for agents.

Here are four of my best tips for getting the most out of your consultation with design professionals:

1. Prepare and share your mission, vision, and values statement first so they know what you’re about
2. Decide on fonts, brand colors, and style before you hire a designer
3. Shop around for a designer who will meet your needs and budget
4. Don’t share feedback on revisions right away—take some time to absorb the work so you can identify the parts that need to be reworked and, more importantly, why 

If you have the patience and a dash of artistic talent, you can download do-it-yourself (DIY) design apps like Canva or Adobe Express and use templates from Envato Marketplace or Etsy to create fresh designs. But you will want to work with a design professional at some point in your career. Even if you’re just using companies like Tailor Brands that create your logo for you, you need to know what you want and how to get it.

Check out our strategy guide to learn more about the best DIY graphic design apps and working with freelance designers.

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Creative Realtor Marketing Ideas

The more accessible you are online, the easier it is for your audience to connect with you and develop trust. Try implementing some of these additional realtor marketing techniques to increase your exposure.

20. Create a Buyer Presentation

While many agents work hard on listing presentations, most just wing it with buyers. But in the wake of multiple lawsuits, it’s essential for you to make the extra effort with your buyer clients to go through a proper buyer presentation. Today’s buyers are better informed and savvier and take more time to research agents than ever before. That’s why creating and practicing an informative buyer presentation is the key to getting more buyers this year and beyond.

Here are tips for delivering the perfect buyer presentation:

• Break the ice with small talk
• Tell them exactly how long the presentation will take
• Ask specific and open-ended questions to build a buyer profile
• Don’t mislead your clients—make sure they understand the commission structure and their responsibilities along with yours
• Let your buyer do most of the talking
• Role-play your presentation with another agent before doing it live

You can download our 15-minute buyer presentation template for free and learn how to create your own here.

21. Write Scripts & Pre-record Videos for Text Messaging

Some research over the past few years shows that over 80% of consumers open text messages within five minutes of receiving them. That’s 10x the number who respond to emails in that same time frame. And that stat is trending up. So, if you use this rapid-fire communications tool in your real estate agent marketing campaign, you must be ready to answer prospects’ questions faster.

Most customer relationship managers (CRMs) will let you save frequently used texts as templates, and others—such as Wise Agent or BombBomb—will let you save and send video messages. Your text messaging scripts don’t have to be Shakespeare, either. Just ensure they are clear and friendly and get straight to the point. 

For example:

I saved several videos in my BombBomb account that I could easily shoot off to my leads and clients whenever situations arose. But I also had videos that go through each step of the homebuying process that I sent out in a drip for all my buyers. Some videos dealt with living in Florida (hello, strange bugs and high humidity!), and others covered the next steps. The best part is that I also built rapport through the videos while informing my clients about their new hometown.

Learn more in our related strategy guide: 11 Best Real Estate Text Message Scripts for Agents Who Don’t Like Calling Leads.

22. Launch a Real Estate Podcast

Starting a podcast is a simple way to showcase your communication skills, personality, and local area knowledge. Use your podcast to spotlight local businesses, interview other adjacent business owners (think vendors, like local lenders or photographers), or spew some of your market wizardry and real estate expertise. You won’t take long to build up your authority and establish credibility in your area.

Invite expert guests on your podcast to boost your credibility and build your audience quickly. If you’re lucky enough to have a local influencer with a decent following in your area, seek them out and offer to work with them. They can help promote you and your listings to their followers to boost visibility in your local market. Consider being a guest on their podcast, where you answer questions about your area’s current real estate market.

You can also be a guest on other relevant podcasts to cultivate listeners. If you want a little podcast inspo, check out this article on the best real estate podcasts.

23. Create Neighborhood Spotlight Videos

Make videos highlighting specific neighborhoods or communities in your market area. Showcase any unique features, amenities, schools, and local businesses that stand out to give your potential buyers a wide-lens view of what it’s like to live in the neighborhood.

Example of a neighborhood spotlight video (Source: YouTube)

These videos are easy to make, and you can do them in either long or short form. I created tons of these videos in long form and posted them to my YouTube channel. Then, I took small sections of each video and repurposed them for my social media outlets. I used hashtags and geotags so my audience could find my videos. It worked exceedingly well and kept a constant flow of leads funneling my way. 

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Your Take

With the endless variety of marketing tools out there claiming to do everything except wash your dishes, staying up to date takes a lot of work. Worse, many agents chase the latest fads and waste time learning the ins and outs of the latest shiny object. If you want to make real gains in marketing this year, you need to think strategically about the marketing tools you spend time learning.

Have any killer realtor marketing ideas that you think our readers need to know about? Let us know in the comments.