Real Estate Marketing Strategies Examples: A Geonet Case Study for increasing market share in a highly competitive NSW region

The housing market in the Macarthur Region of NSW has been booming in recent years. A winning blend of value, rural living, and major infrastructure developments, Macarthur represents a large area of Sydney’s southwest. This region has been described as the place where Sydney meets the countryside.

As home buyers flock to this vibrant suburbia, the demand for homes and housing prices has been concurrently increasing. This is a very favorable combination for real estate agencies that have a high volume of listings available for potential buyers. 

In late 2020, McLaren Real Estate, a boutique real estate agency that has been operating in the MacArthur, New South Wales region for 7 years, only had 2% to 5% of the market share in the region. This locally-owned agency had brand recognition, but wanted to reach more homeowners and generate more leads and listings. 

With a full-service, omnipresent marketing strategy that can be scaled for farther-reaching areas and success, MRE generated 25 new listings in one month, and as this success continued throughout 2021, furthermore, 83% of their home listings sold for more than their asking price.

Digital Marketing Strategies to Generate Leads for Home Sellers in Australia

According to the National Association of REALTORS, nearly 95% of home shoppers will turn to their mobile devices or laptops to shop for homes. This is vastly different if we compare to many years ago when people would open their local newspaper or real estate brochure to find their dream home. In today’s digital world, real estate agencies must reach buyers with available listings. However, even more importantly, they must convey to home sellers they should list their property with their agency. 

Geonet’s campaigns emphasised the strong MRE brand throughout all digital platforms, and an MRE tagline that was focused on home sellers:  “What can MRE achieve for you?”.

1. Real Estate Marketing Tools: Effective, Responsive Website that Generates Leads

For real estate agencies, it’s imperative to have a website that is clean, responsive, and easy to navigate. For MRE, Geonet upgraded their existing website with the following improvements:

• Faster loading speed and response time
• Addition of a “List your Property” page
• User-friendly search tabs in the Main Menu

March 2021 saw the redesign and launch of a brand new MRE website with additional interactive elements:

• Home page interaction with suburbs and video content
• Lead generation forms on every page
• Inner-banner ads for promotions and campaigns

2. Real Estate Advertising with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) 

PPC or Pay Per Click is the process of buying keywords or phrases relevant to your business in a Paid Search platform such as Google AdWords or Bing Ads. Specific keywords and phrases can be used to target consumers using the search platforms.

Google PPC was the strongest tool to help MRE reach the top of the list for more clients. Why?

1. High search volume – For keyword searches for Narellan and Harrington Park, there were over 4500 searches in a month. This means potential customers are out there, searching for their services.
2. Heavy competition – there are more than 20 real estate agents operating in that same area.

With a tailored strategy for PPC, Geonet optimized keyword searches for real estate in their local areas, with immediate calls to action. The ads targeted 10 key suburbs, and keywords for home sellers, buyers and property management. MRE ads were now reaching thousands of more potential clients who were searching for agency services.

3. Digital Marketing for Australian Real Estate with Social Media Advertising and Retargeting

77% of realtors actively use social media for real estate in some way, shape, or form. Social media is a vital tool for real estate businesses. For MRE to stand out from their competitors, Geonet combined paid social media advertising, geo-targeting, and retargeting with high-quality graphic carousels and videos that can grab the attention of potential clients.

• “What’s Your Home Worth” Campaign. A property appraisal is an excellent way to learn about the current state of the local real estate industry, and it is an important step toward determining your true net worth. For MRE, Geonet launched a campaign of Free Property Appraisal, called “What’s Your Home Worth”. Through this campaign, potential clients can find out what buyers would pay for their home in today’s market and get in-depth analysis and market insights from one of the McLaren Real Estate Local Agents.
• “Zero Dollar Upfront Fee” Campaign. MRE targeted home sellers with a promotion that could potentially save them thousands of dollars in upfront costs, with no fees paid unless the property is sold, which is the mutually desired outcome for the seller and MRE.
• Property Carousels. Geonet created listings carousels for beautiful homes on the MRE website. While the ads were targeted for home buyers, they were also beneficial by reaching sellers for MRE brand recognition and property marketing tactics.

Real estate marketing strategy: Case Study Results for Australian Real Estate

The omnipresent campaign by Geonet coordinated all facets and touchpoints of digital media, to generate impressions,. brand recognition and home seller leads for listings in the region, to capitalise on the increasing demand and property values.=

• Facebook Leads. The “What’s Your Home Worth” and “Zero Dollar Upfront Fee” campaigns that Geonet launched for MRE in the first 4 months of 2021 generated 233 leads from Facebook and Instagram. 
• Website Traffic. The traffic to the MRE website increased significantly, with direct results coming from the Google PPC campaigns, Facebook clicks to website ads, and retargeting ads.
  • Q4 2020:   10,269 users;  14,606 sessions
  • Q4 2021: 17,228 users (68% increase), 24,131 sessions (65% increase) 
• Record-breaking achievements. While Geonet tracks digital traffic, clicks, impressions and conversion rates, the most valuable result for MRE was the celebration of 25 new listings in the month of January 2021, with an average of 30-40 listings on the site at any given time. In October 2021, the agency was reaching new records, with 18 Open Homes on one day, and 15 properties sold in one week. 

How Can I Grow My Market Share?

Growing your market share in the real estate industry is a challenging, but worthwhile endeavor. Agencies cannot reach buyers if they do not have properties to sell. Reaching potential home sellers with consistent messaging and branding across all digital platforms is the best, results-driven way to gain more listings in a competitive market. Contact Geonet today, to learn more about how we can help grow your business.