Real estate marketing tips are always welcome when it comes to hard-to-sell listings.
Most of the nation is seeing a strong seller’s market, with listings selling quickly. Yet occasionally, you’ll have a listing that’s hard to sell and taking longer.
Therefore, in this post, we will share with you 22 powerful real estate marketing tips for hard-to-sell listings.
So, let’s jump right in and share these powerful tips!
22 Real Estate Marketing Tips for Hard-to-Sell Listings
By leveraging the following powerful and proven marketing tactics, you’ll be able to find a buyer for that hard-to-sell listing quickly.
1. Develop a Marketing Plan
Real estate sales professionals often post a listing without a real marketing plan. This might be fine for most properties, but you’ll need a plan for a hard-to-sell listing.
A solid marketing plan includes the following considerations:
- Pricing strategy – what’s the sweet spot in terms of price?
- Marketing focus – who is your ideal audience for your sales efforts?
- Having a communications plan – what means and platforms will you use to reach your ideal audience?
Creating a plan ahead of time will likely shorten the time the listing stays on the market. And all of the following real estate marketing tips could be a part of your overall plan.
2. Identify Your Target Customer
Now, building upon our first tip, you need to identify your target audience.
Whom should you be targeting? The answer to that question is another question: who will most likely buy this listing?
For example, when you consider the property, what sort of buyers would it most appeal to:
- Buyers looking to downsize?
- First-time home buyers?
- Potential buyers within a given financial range?
- Individuals who might find certain neighborhood amenities attractive?
Knowing your audience (and keeping in mind Fair Housing laws), you should be able to concentrate your marketing efforts.
3. Identify the Unique Selling Proposition
Even hard-to-sell listings have positive features that can be highlighted to help sell the property faster.
Call out what’s unique and appealing about the property, such as the following:
- Property size – large listings on large lots have much appeal
- Special features – any unique appliances, rooms, or spaces
- Location – mention nearby popular destinations or attractions
Think about what differentiates your listing from your competition, including how to price your home, and run with it.
4. Create a Single Property Website
Single property websites are an extremely effective marketing tool and are high on our real estate marketing tips list.
A single property website has the following features and benefits:
- It showcases just one listing without any competition or distractions
- Photos, video walk-throughs, and virtual tours can be easily featured
- There’s a lot of space to talk about the listing in detail
- It’s easy to schedule a showing or reach out to the listing agent from the site
You can also include additional information, photos, or other bonus content you don’t share on the MLS to attract further interest.
And by the way, using single property websites is a great way to grow your brand, show positive reviews from clients you’ve helped, and continue bringing in more qualified leads.
5. Blog About the Listing
You can blog about the property and create content optimized for SEO. This ensures your posts show up in search results every time.
Blog posts can focus on the following information about the listing:
- Any special features, spaces, or amenities
- Proximity to parks, beaches, shopping, or urban centers
- How the yard could be transformed into an oasis of luxury
- Perhaps the history of the home and the neighborhood
Tools like Google Analytics can help you find the search terms and keywords your target clients are looking for and will inspire you with fresh topic ideas.
6. Optimize Your Websites for Mobile
If you’re creating various websites to market your listing, you should make sure they are optimized for viewing on mobile devices.
Think about these important considerations:
- Prospects shouldn’t have to deal with clunky “desktop condensed” views on a phone screen
- Mobile optimization means that potential buyers can easily view and navigate your listings on any device
- Also, Google prioritizes optimized websites since they load faster for potential users
Most website templates are already optimized for mobile viewing. Still, double-check that your sites are optimized.
7. Take Advantage of Email Marketing
Despite all the attention paid to social media, email is still an effective marketing tool and therefore is included in our real estate marketing tips list.
Here’s how to create an effective email marketing campaign:
- Lead with an attention-getting subject line
- Include photos, links, and other support materials in the email
- Embed a walk-through video or virtual tour
- Reference your blog or single property website to build additional interest
Plan to send at least 3 emails throughout the campaign, each with a different sales focus. And don’t send them too closely together; no one likes being spammed.
8. Have a Professional Photographer Take the Listing Photos
Captivating listing photos are crucial to a successful sale. Therefore, you’ll always want a professional real estate photographer to take your property photos.
The following two statistics should help make this clear:
- 83% of buyers said photos are essential in assisting them in choosing which homes they will visit
- 32% of homes with high-quality photographs sell faster than those without visuals
Hiring a professional real estate photographer to elevate your property and attract dream buyers will be worth the extra investment.
9. Make Sure Your Listing Photos are Professionally Edited
Every experienced real estate sales professional knows that the quality of the listing photos makes or breaks a sale. Therefore, every image used to sell a property should be professionally edited.
A skilled photo editor can take any photo and make it look outstanding by:
- Correcting exposure and lighting issues
- Straightening lines and fixing perspective
- Sharpening an image by removing grain and noise
- Greening a brown lawn and enhancing landscaping
- Replacing a dull sky or adding twilight effects
You want every photo to look its best, which means having them professionally edited.
Learn more about how to choose the best real estate photo editing service.
10. Use Virtual Staging
Virtual staging leverages advanced photo editing technology to add furnishings and decor, remove unwanted objects, and address flaws in a room or space.
Buyers have come to expect to see virtual staging to help them better grasp a home’s potential uses. Virtual staging does this by:
- Adding trendy, popular furnishings to empty rooms
- Updating flooring, window treatments, cabinets, and other fixtures
- Decorating rooms in multiple styles to capture the buyer’s imagination
- Decluttering, removing unwanted items, and depersonalizing any listing
Virtual staging is an affordable, fast way to show a property in its best light – including hard-to-sell listings.
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11. Make a Walk-Through Video
Walk-through videos are easy to make and help potential buyers get a better, more precise sense of any property.
Typically, video tours are around 3 to 5 minutes long, can be filmed using a smartphone, and highlight the following about a property:
- The exterior of the home, including the yard
- A room-by-room narrated tour pointing out positive features
- Closets and storage space
- A focus on any unusual but appealing aspects of the listing
Also, video walk-through tours allow you, the sales professional, to focus the buyer’s attention on the better selling points of the property.
12. Feature a Virtual Tour of the Property
A virtual house tour is a realistic, interactive, 3D rendering of the property. For buyers, it’s the next best thing to actually being in the home.
Virtual tours provide the following valuable information to potential buyers:
- An accurate spacial sense of each room and area
- The ability to see a room from any angle or perspective
- A fuller understanding of the flow of the property from room to room
- Using hot spots to call out the listing’s better features
You’ll be surprised to see how easy it is to create a virtual tour and how affordable it is.
13. Take Drone Photography
Drone photography allows for aerial photos of a property. This type of photography can produce dramatic and alluring images that attract buyers’ attention.
Here are some of the advantages of having drone photography of a listing:
- Aerial photos show a property’s location as well as everything around it
- Images taken by a drone can show the neighborhood and nearby attractions
- Photos taken above the listing convey a compelling perspective
- Backyard amenities are more easily seen – such as a pool, patios, and decks
Plus, homes with drone photos sell 68% faster and are a great way to give prospective buyers more insight into the property and surrounding areas.
14. Take Advantage of Social Media
Social media is ubiquitous, with dozens of platforms and sites. Therefore, using social media to help market your listing allows you to reach the broadest audience possible.
Marketing on social media provides many benefits, such as:
- It’s easy for buyers to share photos and links of the listing with friends and family
- Using social media demonstrates your technical savviness to potential clients
- You’ll not only call attention to the listing but also to your services as an agent or photographer
Maintaining an active, engaging social media presence is one of the better ways to frame yourself as a trusted real estate professional.
For example, join local Facebook groups and provide useful market information and answer relevant questions.
15. Run a Paid Instagram Campaign
Instagram is an incredibly popular social media platform with younger generations, meaning you’ll reach younger buyers.
Instagram has other unique aspects that you can take advantage of, too, such as:
- The platform is designed to feature photos – so share your listing images
- It’s also extremely easy to put videos on Instagram, too
- Instagram ads allow you to pick a target audience, budget, post type, and promotion length
So, consider using Instagram to have your most beautiful listing images reach more people through a paid promotion.
16. Create a Zillow Profile
Having a profile on the most popular real estate site is on our list of marketing tips. With over 188 million monthly viewers, Zillow gets your listing and sales business in front of thousands of potential new clients.
A Zillow profile features you, the sales agent, and allows you to share your listings with a large audience and connect with potential clients, increasing the likelihood of gaining a new buyer.
And one more thing to note, Zillow profiles are free. Check out this resource from Zillow to see how easy it is to set up your profile.
17. Consider Internet Ads
Paying for Internet ads can also be an effective way to market a hard-to-sell real estate listing.
There are lots of sites your potential buyers might visit where you can pay for display ads, including the following:
- Local news outlets
- Regional supermarket websites
- Some real estate sites allow for individual ads
- And weather service sites
You pay upfront for this kind of ad, and while it’s sometimes harder to measure its effectiveness, it’s still an excellent choice to consider.
If you want to explore this option further, Adwerx is one of many leading online advertising companies.
18. Feature Floor Plans
A floor plan gives potential buyers a clear understanding of the home’s layout and shows the dimensions of each room and space.
Available either in 2D or 3D, floor plans are extremely popular with buyers, as the following statistics show:
- 64% of home buyers would prefer to see floor plans on a listing
- Listings with 3D floor plans, on average, spend 50% less time on market
- 51% of buyers say that floor plans were helpful in their decision-making process
And floor plans can be featured items on single property websites, on the listing itself, or in conjunction with a virtual tour.
19. Standout With a House Portrait
A custom house portrait is an artistic rendering of a home using watercolor, oils, or sketching. Working from a high-resolution photo of the property, an artist creates a flattering, accurate, and captivating portrait.
House portraits are typically eye-catching and beautiful; therefore, they are a powerful real estate marketing tool that can be used in the following ways:
- For tabletop displays at showings and open houses
- As part of listing photography to add an extra marketing boost
- The featured image in an email marketing campaign
- On social media and other online ad platforms
House portraits stand out in real estate marketing, so give them a try!
20. Traditional Advertising Works Too
In today’s digital age, we often forget that traditional forms of advertising work too, when selling real estate. Therefore, our list of real estate marketing tips would be incomplete without the following tools:
- Postcard campaigns
- Door hangers with listing information
- Radio ads are affordable in some markets
- And the same with billboard advertising
Just because a marketing tool doesn’t involve a computer doesn’t mean it might not convince a buyer about your listing.
21. Always Respond to Showing Feedback
Here’s another real estate marketing tip: feedback and comments from actual showings are extremely valuable in real estate sales.
Most sales agents try to solicit feedback on the following:
- What the potential buyer thought about the price
- Did the home show well, and were there any negative comments
- How did your listing compare to other properties they’ve seen
Based on showing feedback, you’ll better know if it’s time to reduce the asking price, change the decor in any room, or perhaps make some improvements to increase the curb appeal.
22. Stay Up to Date on Marketing Trends
In order to devise a winning marketing strategy to sell any listing, you need to stay current on real estate marketing trends.
This will help you understand what buyers are looking for and how to strategically price your home if you’re selling.
You can’t position your listing accordingly if you don’t know what buyers are looking for. Therefore, knowing the features, design elements, and amenities that motivate real buyers is essential for successful sales.
So, now that you know the 22 most powerful real estate marketing tips, where can you turn to put them into practice selling listings? We’re glad you asked.
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We hope you benefited from this blog post on 22 powerful real estate marketing tips for hard-to-sell listings. And before you go, you may also want to check out the following resources:
