In the second installment of our Listing Marketing 101 series, we’re discussing how to share your listings online so you can drive more traffic to your website and get more leads. 

Sharing a listing goes beyond simply putting it on your website through an IDX feed and making it accessible by searching. It’s about enhancing your listings, adding fresh messaging, tapping into your sphere, and meeting your audience where they’re at online.

There are multiple ways you can share your listings online, from classic strategies to showcase listings on your real estate website to newer ones like sharing listings on social media and using listing videos to improve SEO for address searches. What’s important to mention is that these tips below are meant to work in conjunction with your real estate website and advertising strategy. Before diving in, make sure you have a good understanding of who your audience is currently, who you want to target, and where they spend their time online.

Keep reading to learn some of the ways you can share your listings online and get them in front of more people.

How to Share Your Real Estate Listings Online

1. Leverage captivating images and videos 
2. Feature listings on the front page of your website
3. Blog about featured listings 
4. Highlight listings in emails
5. Share listings on social media 

Leverage captivating images and videos 

By now, you probably know the importance of including images and video with your listings. Visual media is an integral part of the real estate industry and captures the attention of people in the market and can make or break whether they reach out for more information or to schedule a showing. And, images and videos are great for everyone no matter where they are in the home buying or selling process. Buyers love visual media because it’s the best way to get a feeling of what the property is like, especially when they begin their search online. On the other hand, for sellers, showing that you have high-quality images and videos that highlight the best parts of their home shows them how you’ll be able to help their property stand out in the best way and get more offers.

Feature listings on the front page of your website

Sometimes the best place to put your listings is in front of existing traffic, such as the homepage of your real estate website. Often, your homepage is the first page many users see when they visit your website. You can create a specific section on the front page where you feature new or the most popular listings, like a featured listings carousel.  When adding listings to your featured carousel, be sure to pick a handful or two, so as to not overwhelm users scrolling through.

And, creating recommended searches on your home page is also a great way to leverage the traffic your homepage gets. For example, if you want to feature your luxury homes, create a recommended search that uses relevant keywords, like “Luxury Homes for Sale in [Town].” When users land on your homepage and start looking around, they’ll come across this recommended search and be served all the luxury homes you have to offer. Doing so can feature properties that don’t usually get a lot of traffic or people might not know are on the market.

Incorporate listings into blog posts 

Blogging is not only a great way to boost your website on search engine pages but also a great way to feature listings. You can tie listings you want to highlight in blog posts in an unlimited number of ways. If you write a post about the local schools, incorporate a listing or two in that post by using a call-to-action like “Browse homes for sale near [school] district.” Or, if you’re providing tips for sellers on how to stage their home for a showing, including a new listing that’s just been staged to use as an example. As listings continue to sell, make sure to update your blog posts and pick different properties to feature. Doing so also gives those listings a boost as they leverage the built-up SEO from previous versions of the blog post. 

And, you can even dedicate an entire blog post to a new or featured listing if you want to dive into it in a lot of detail. Write about what it’s like to live there that’s more than just what’s included in the listing description. Spotlights like this let users and blog subscribers know that you have a wide variety of listings available and more information than what’s found on the MLS. 

Highlight listings in emails

Emails have been a tried and true staple in digital marketing and in the real estate industry. Emails can be used for several reasons like sharing news, services offered, and new or featured listings available. You can incorporate new listings updates in the regular emails you send out by including images or an embedded video of properties with a call-to-action to view more on your website. Or, you can create regular emails to go out to subscribers when you get a new batch of listings with short blurbs about the properties. Keep in mind that finding the best frequency of sending emails is key, as people don’t like to be overwhelmed with tons of emails constantly.

Share listings on social media 

Another digital strategy that’s essential is social media for real estate. The most popular and commonly used channels — Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram — offer another way to share your listings and get in front of more people. Include visual media like an image or video in your post to boost visibility, along with a sentence or two about the property and any unique features or what type of lifestyle it offers. Be sure to create messages that are unique for the listing on each platform, so you can leverage the specific features each platform has. For example, Facebook loves when videos you take are posted by uploading compared to simply sharing a link from YouTube. Or, use hashtags on Instagram like “new listing” to help get your post found when users search that topic. Also, people are more likely to share your social posts with a like, retweet, or share, so your listings reach even farther! Don’t forget to respond to comments and mentions and thank users for sharing your content. 

There are tons of great ways to share your listings online and get them in front of more people and a wider audience. One key step, like in so many other digital strategies, is to take a look at your analytics from time to time. Doing so lets you know what’s working and to create more similar content or continue a certain strategy, or what needs to be adjusted to make the most out of your efforts.

Want to learn more about digital marketing strategies for real estate? Connect with us today for more information on how you can extend your reach and stand out online.