4 Hot Marketing Ideas for 2021
They’ve been around for years but in 2021, these four marketing ideas—three based solidly on evolving technology and one on good old-fashion human contact—will be at the top of every smart entrepreneur’s list:
- YouTube videos
- Predictive analytics
- Marketing automation
- Relationship marketing
YouTube: Video marketing has become essential
If you hadn’t already discovered the power of video to attract potential clients, you may have experienced its saving grace during the pandemic-induced moratorium placed on open houses. Agents who were able to pivot found success using drones and 3D video to showcase properties.
It’s a good thing too because video continues to dominate all Internet traffic.
Just look at YouTube . . .
In 2021, the number of YouTube viewers worldwide will be a staggering 1.86 billion.
Of the world’s Internet users, 79% say they have a YouTube account.
And in the third quarter of 2020, YouTube’s worldwide advertising revenue was $5.04 billion—a whopping 34% increase year-over-year, primarily due to increased views while people stayed safe at home. Even so, revenue has climbed steadily each year.
No wonder marketers are gaga over the fastest growing social media platform. Especially in real estate, where visual impressions rule the day, video marketing must be made a critical component of your overall marketing plan.
Advantages of YouTube
Remember that like Google, YouTube is a search engine that is owned by Google, which means they are experts in knowing what people are looking for.
Using YouTube, you can target your audience and affinity groups, and segment your audience based on interests—like people searching for homes, properties, and agents.
With YouTube, you can get very specific in your targeting and hyper-focused on geography, which is highly valuable when you combine video ads with your farming efforts.
And your videos don’t need to be long. In fact, 30-second reels seem to be ideal given current trends. That’s plenty of time to educate your audience on one, highly focused item of interest.
Predictive analytics: Scary for some, way cool for others
You may have some idea of what predictive analytics is, but for the record:
Predictive analytics is the use of data, statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data. The goal is to go beyond knowing what has happened to providing a best assessment of what will happen in the future.
In the world of marketing, predictive analytics can tell a marketer what you are likely to do even before you know it yourself!
At ReminderMedia, we work with a company that analyzes consumer, property, and behavioral data that tells us who is likely to move in the next 6-12 months. Last year, the data accurately predicted 80% of all listings in the US.
If you are a client of ReminderMedia and have one of our magazines, you have a free tool available to you called Targeted Follow Up. It can tell you who among your list of recipients is likely to move in the upcoming year. The tool is intended to help maximize your follow-up efforts by suggesting who you need to contact sooner rather than later.
A second tool we have is available to all.
Targeted Mailing Lists is an affordable way to beef up your mailing list with high-quality leads for only pennies per record. You can select a zip code and get a list of properties whose owners are most likely to move in the next 6-12 months. The list is divided into five categories:
- Very Likely to Move
- Likely to Move
- Neutral
- Unlikely to Move
- Recently Listed/Sold
You can choose how many properties from each category you would like to purchase.
Click here to check out Targeted Mailing Lists.
Automation: Efficiency with better results
Time is money, and you can save a lot of both with the use of marketing automation software from companies like Ylopo, Marketo, Customer.io, and Salesforce.
How each company executes its automation will differ, but essentially the software will track a return visitor’s activity on your website. Produce a report, and you can see who visited what pages, how long they stayed on a page, what they clicked, and more. These reports can indicate where a website visitor may be in the sales funnel and, based on the information, you can respond accordingly or have the software send an appropriate, automated email.
During this week’s Stay Paid episode, Luke explains how his brother uses Ylopo to send emails and to train his agents to follow up. For example, if someone is tracked as jumping from viewing $200,000 homes to $800,000 homes to $450,000 homes, then he knows that website visitor is only looking around. That person won’t be high on his list of calls to make.
However, if a visitor to his website has looked at three homes in the $250,000 to $300,000 range, he can be fairly certain they have a serious intent to buy a home. That person will quickly get a follow-up call.
Your database: Handshakes outperform algorithms
If you follow Luke and Josh on Instagram or any other social media platform, then you know they hang their hats on relationship marketing, and for good reason—it works!
NAR consistently reports that between 50-60% of your sales should be coming from referrals. Top performers routinely get 90% of their business from relationships they’ve nurtured.
There are at least two compelling reasons to maximize the potential referrals that are waiting for you in your database:
- First, having business come to you is every entrepreneur’s dream because it means you can get off the hamster wheel of continuously chasing down your next lead.
- The second reason is becoming increasingly tangible—YouTube, Facebook, Zillow, Realtor.com, MLS, and any other platform you use can change its algorithms or business model any time they feel like it.
Relationships, on the other hand, belong to you. You are in control.
Your email list and the contact you have with the people on your list are the lifeblood of your business. Gary Keller, the founder of Keller Williams Realty and author of The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, says you should have at least 33 touchpoints a year with every client.
A touchpoint could be a phone call, a pop-by, an email, a post to social media, a newsletter, a postcard, a blog, or one of ReminderMedia’s magazines. Whatever you use to stay in touch, the point is to be as visible as possible, as often as possible, and in as many places as possible.
Because that’s how you stay top-of-mind.
Key Points
- Video content, like what you see on YouTube, dominates all Internet traffic and is predicted to be the most profitable ad platform in 2021.
- Buyer intent data, which predicts who is likely to move, can help you to focus your marketing efforts. The data used by ReminderMedia accurately predicted 80% of the listings in 2020.
- Marketing automation software allows you to track return visitors to your website. It can tell you what pages they visit, how long they stay on a page, and more. Use this data to determine where site visitors are in the sales funnel and target your outreach appropriately.
- Your database should account for 50-60% of your business. How true that is for you is directly related to the health of the relationships you have with your sphere. Don’t make the mistake of not staying in touch to nurture and strengthen your relationships.
Action Item
If you haven’t already, start to implement these four ways to generate leads. If you’re missing one in your current marketing plan, add it. Create content to be seen; build an email list for retargeting; send lead magnets; nurture your relationships. These are the ways you build a sustainable business.
Connect | Resources
Automation software
- Marketo: https://www.marketo.com/
- Customer.io: https://customer.io/
- Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/
- Ylopo: https://www.ylopo.com/
ReminderMedia resources
Stay Paid episodes
Ep. 180 Best Practices and Top Tips for Email Marketing (Don’t email R.O.T.)
Ep. 218 How to Implement Relationship Marketing (Marketing that’s F.I.T.)
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