Real estate is an incredibly competitive business. It’s affected by changing market values and fluctuations in the economy. It also operates largely on trust, just like any industry that rises and falls by how well it sells.
That’s where public relations comes in. Whether you’re a budding real estate agency or you’ve already made a name for yourself, attaining and maintaining your audience’s trust is key to not only having a share in the market but thriving in an industry where competition is always stiff.
In this article, we’ll share with you how your real estate business can effectively leverage PR strategies to establish credibility and drive business success.
The Importance of PR in Real Estate
Every real estate firm needs PR. Here’s why:
Builds a Strong Online Presence
In this day and age where everybody finds everything they need online, there’s no better time to be visible than now.
Your market no longer searches for real estate listings on newspaper ads or brochures. They look them up online. And unless you have a strong online presence that communicates trustworthiness and credibility, you will most likely be passed over for those that do.
Also, competition is made fiercer by the fast pace with which properties are listed. Communication with potential buyers happens at a click of a button. Commanding attention, therefore, in the space where your market lives is crucial for breaking through new markets and setting yourself apart from the competition – and PR can help you do that.
Part 2 of the PR for Real Estate Series: Maximizing Visibility and Building Trust for Real Estate Firms
Part 3 of the PR for Real Estate Series: Real Estate Crisis Management
Establishes Thought Leadership and Expertise
Effective PR involves sharing opinion pieces, useful resources, and helpful articles that your audience needs. You can do this by leveraging your relationships with the media, sharing press releases, publishing blog posts, and sharing articles on relevant websites.
Doing this not only benefits your market but also demonstrates your expertise in the often murky real estate world, essentially conveying that you’re experts in the field. And that’s who your market wants to work with! People want the assurance that comes with working with someone who knows what they’re doing.
Related: Marketing, Public Relations: Better Together
Builds Trust
As you demonstrate expertise and thought leadership, you’re also able to gain people’s trust. PR strategies like events, content marketing, and media relations all work together to build a positive brand image for you that helps people perceive you in the way that you want them to.
Ultimately Sells
Good PR ultimately sells. People support and advocate for brands that they know are reliable and trustworthy. All your PR efforts, therefore, won’t be just for building a reputable name. It will enable you to achieve your business goals and drive your bottom line.
How to Develop a Winning PR Strategy
So how do you integrate PR practices for your real estate firm? Here are five key things you need to do:
Listen to Your Market
Before jumping on crafting a PR strategy, the first thing to do is listen to your market. If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll have plenty of feedback from customers, competitors, and even people who seem to have no particular leaning about your business.
Taking your market’s pulse, so to speak, is immensely useful for building a PR plan that speaks directly to who you want to reach, does exactly what you want to do, and informs you on how best to launch a campaign.
Some of the avenues with which you can do this are:
- Customer reviews
- Blogs or mentions by other businesses
- Industry-related news and articles
- Your own data from inquiries & trippings (provided that you’re transparent with how you use this data!)
You’ll want to ask yourself:
- Does my market even know my business exists?
- What do people think of my business?
- Where do I stand against my competition?
Have a Story to Tell
Your story is a powerful tool that you can use to convince your audience that you’re the firm to trust. It can be anything from your business’s success story, unique aspects about your firm, or a feature about your brand that commands strong market appeal.
Moreover, a great story is one that:
- Commands the attention of the right media platforms. Does it have enough industry impact for media outlets to take notice?
- Is true about your business. Don’t embellish or exaggerate just to tell a story. Facts are powerful because they are verifiable.
- Sets you apart from other firms. What is it about your business that makes you different? What are your proudest achievements?
Identify Key PR Tactics
When you have a story to tell, the next thing to do is figure out the best ways to tell it. These key PR tactics can range from social media marketing to tapping brand advocates to promote your brand.
Remember that for a story to be effective, it needs to be told to the right audience, through the right avenues, and using the most suitable techniques. For instance, if you’re trying to build credibility for a fledgling company, you may not benefit from hiring an influencer whose market is outside your target audience.
An excellent illustration of how key PR tactics can turn a company around is Vivaldi Residences. They wanted to create brand awareness and generate leads from social media. Prior to applying PR strategies, no promotional efforts were done to expand either organic or paid reach, and their social media pages lacked traction.
By identifying their core audiences, developing a targeted content strategy, and creating a paid marketing plan, they gained an explosive increase in engagement and the number of leads from their social media pages and website.
This only shows that identifying how your strategies are executed based on your current challenges and goals is vital to a campaign that delivers the right results.
Some of the PR tactics you can use are:
- Social media marketing and engagement
- Content marketing
- Media coverages and press events
- Community events
Think Beyond Your PR Launch
The most effective real estate PR techniques don’t just happen over the course of one campaign. They are strategic, tactical, and sustained–because building a name doesn’t happen overnight.
Also, maintaining a positive brand image is often something that you need to work through as long as you want your business to stay alive.
Team Up with a Reputable PR Agency
Because effective PR needs long-term, sustained efforts to truly make an impact, the best way to create a PR strategy is to partner with a PR agency with a track record of success in bringing businesses in front of consumers, telling compelling stories where they matter, and shaping a positive brand image.
A good PR agency is also advantageous because:
- They already have a wide network of relationships across industries and media outlets. Working alone, it’s harder to build new relationships with key industry figures.
- They can adapt to changing market demands. PR pros are flexible and capable of making adjustments to a campaign where needed or as changes in the industry affect the effectiveness of what’s originally planned.
- They use a holistic approach. Good PR requires an integrated approach that involves employing a combination of tactics instead of focusing on only one. Without a dedicated PR team, it’s challenging–even detrimental–to try to get your hand on different PR techniques at once.
Want all these benefits of PR for your business? Get in touch with us today!
Jossaine Nunez is a freelance article writer, blogger, and SEO-driven maven. While her true passion lies in writing fiction, her love for storytelling extends to helping brands convey their message in ways that are both engaging and helpful for attaining their business goals.
Jossaine’s interests in writing particularly about people, for people – which translates to brand audience engagement – stems from her experience as the Editor-In-Chief of Siliman University’s The Weekly Silimanian, which published slices of life and educational pieces surrounding university life. Her piece, A Review of Leoncio Deriada’s People on Guerrero Street, published in the Silliman Journal on discussions and investigations in the humanities and sciences, earmarks her foray into the world of writing about, and writing for, humans that make the world go round.
