How can your real estate company stand out from the crowded industry in today's market? How can you attract and engage new clientele that builds lasting relationships and referrals for years? Through an integrated approach of inbound marketing and integrated public relations.
Let's start with the basics by defining our topics: inbound marketing and public relations.
Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy that works great for real estate companies. The goal is to build meaningful, lasting relationships with consumers, prospects, and customers. The purpose behind inbound marketing is either to attract, delight, or engage customers and clients.
When we consider the term "public relations," press releases and media content may come to mind. However, public relations is similar to inbound in its effort to create relationships. According to HubSpot, the Public Relations Society of America accepted thousands of submissions before finally agreeing on this definition. "Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics."
Real Estate PR professionals aim to tell a story about their brand or company that portrays it positively. This encourages an audience to have a particular perception of that company and increases loyalty. An engaged real estate customer is likelier to purchase or recommend a property to other potential buyers.
Integrated public relations is where PR meets inbound marketing.
When real estate companies invest in increasing brand awareness, they don't have to choose between investing in public relations or marketing. PR and marketing have existed as two separate entities for ages. However, those lines have blurred, thanks to digital media.
With digital tools, real estate marketing professionals have more power to create and promote content. Blogging, social media management, SEO, and contributing content to other platforms help real estate businesses meet the needs of their clients.
With PR and inbound marketing strategies having the same or similar goals, it only makes sense to combine them. Reap the benefits of both tactics working in tandem.
Why integrate your PR and inbound marketing strategies?
Whether you call it PR or marketing, success is more likely if you have a cohesive, unified approach. Build an inbound program aligning your marketing and PR teams with common goals. Bringing together your brand's social media, public relations, inbound marketing, and creative efforts will strengthen your brand strategy. A consistent approach on different platforms to accomplish your goals can enhance your efforts, enabling you to engage a broader audience.
How do you implement integrated public relations?
Once you have decided to unite your inbound marketing and public relations strategy, you should start with the following:
Messaging
Ensure your integrated strategy has a strong foundation of clear, cohesive messaging tailored to your buyer personas. Root your message to achieve the same goals and objectives in your marketing and PR content. From there, create messaging that will attract your buyer personas. Speak to their pain points at every step of the buyer's journey.
With real estate marketing specifically, having messaging that shows your company's expertise, personality, and community is a great place to start. Sharing testimonials, local market facts, and community details will delight, engage, and attract clientele. Creating a story around your active property or agent builds trust and expertise in your client's minds.
Tactics
Once you align your goals and messaging, it's time to plan actionable measures to reach your goals. Public relations professionals use press releases, social media, events, blogs, and curated content as media opportunities. These tactics help establish the brand as an industry expert and paint it positively.
Repurposing content and listings into potential PR content is a great place to start in real estate marketing. Borrowing content from a featured article's testimonial can increase your brand's exposure and establish the company as a thought leader.
Social media is one of the best tools for your PR initiatives. Adding share and follow options is simple and effective. Sharing some of your content on Facebook with a link back to your site will drive traffic and further the relationship. Social media makes it easier to get consumers engaged with branded content.
Tactics like influencer marketing can help PR professionals develop and maintain relationships with brand advocates. Video has also become an essential tactic and media for real estate professionals. Virtual tours, before and afters, and integrating viral trends in your content creation are worth exploring.
Measurement
It is crucial to align your PR and marketing plan with specific metrics at the start of your campaign. These metrics are the foundation for defining and reporting your success. You can gain insights into areas that may require adjustments to target and engage your audience effectively.
It's not about measuring everything but measuring specific indicators. It would be best to determine how you define success. For your goals, choose which key performance indicators matter most. Evaluate your tactics throughout the process, from beginning to end.
We suggest starting with metrics. Traffic on your brand's website is a good measure, as well as activity on call-to-action forms. Social media management tools such as HubSpot make social tracking metrics easy to interpret and report on. Their tools provide reports on impressions, likes, shares, and replies.
Building credibility is even easier when you combine public relations with inbound marketing initiatives. Cohesive messaging, thoughtful content, and keeping track of results can help you reach a wider audience. This will give your real estate company a higher return on investment and achieve ultimate success.
If you have any questions about integrating your marketing strategy with your PR strategy, Illumine8 can help. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more tips and content offers, or reach out to learn more about our services.
