For some time now, studies have shown that 90% of home searches begin online. That means that if you're in the real estate business, it's imperative that you maintain an active online presence. If you aren't online, you are invisible to people who are looking for the services of a real estate professional.

But how can you maximize the impact of your online presence, and minimize the effort involved in completing yet another "must-do" task?

Agents can no longer rely on buying digital ads or sending bulk emails to reach customers. Eye tracking studies have shown that approximately 80% of Internet users ignore paid Google or Bing ads when looking for a product or service. Unsolicited emails are similarly ineffective at attracting consumers' attention because they tend to go unopened and unread. With their high costs and minimal impact, these forms of outbound marketing offer a disappointingly low ROI.

Creating high-quality, relevant, and interesting content that naturally attracts Internet users toward your services is the key to succeeding online. The same eye tracking studies that found online ads to be ineffective demonstrated that consumers are drawn to valuable organic content. Why fight human nature? If you want to attract people, give them what they want: engaging content.

This technique is known as inbound marketing. By sharing content that aligns with the interests and values of current and potential clients, you position yourself as an attractive, valuable, and relatable real estate professional. When consumers are looking to buy or sell a house, they will turn to you because they are familiar with your content. They already know and trust you. This dynamic approach generates leads and maintains your relationship with your existing client base.

Social media is the most effective way to practice inbound marketing. Nielsen studies have found that social networks occupy the bulk of consumers' online time. Internet users spend three times as much time on Facebook as on any other site. They also spend far more time on other social networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn than they do on the rest of the Internet. Social media is too important to be ignored.

Social media users are not just talking with their friends; they are making decisions about how to spend their money. Recent research from Social Media B2B has shown that 55% of consumers use social media as a source of information and 75% use social media as part of their purchasing process. For real estate agents, in addition to the 90% of housing searches that begin online, 20% of referrals now come from social media. This is a major marketing opportunity!

Plus, inbound marketing is also extremely cost effective. Data collected by Hubspot shows that it costs 61% less to generate leads with inbound marketing than with outbound marketing. Realtors cannot afford to overlook the superior ROI of inbound marketing.

I know the impact of inbound marketing from personal experience. When I was getting started in real estate, I had no clients of my own and had to get out there and find them the old fashioned way. By sharing inbound marketing content, as well as getting permission to show other agents' listings on my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, I sold 24 properties in my first year and earned $165,000 in gross commissions.

Fortunately, this system is replicable and the supply of third-party content is limitless. Every day, my colleagues at CityBlast help thousands of real estate agents across North America use social media to connect with clients. When done properly, inbound marketing on social media produces consistent results month after month.

Inbound marketing is a commitment. In order to succeed at it, you need to maintain a consistent online presence and carefully curate the content that you share with your networks. You can either set aside the time to research, write about, and share useful content on a daily basis or, if you are too busy, hire professionals like the expert team at CityBlast to perform these tasks for you. Taking the time to share useful content on a regular basis proves to consumers that you are a helpful real estate professional who can be relied upon for up-to-date information and good advice.

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For More Information

For more on this topic, view our recent webinar, How to Market Yourself of Facebook WITHOUT Annoying Your Friends and Family: