This is it. This is the blog where I attempt to achieve maximum clairvoyance and predict what you should do in 2021 with your digital marketing. We’ve all exhausted ourselves with 2020 shenanigans, but we’ve also seized the opportunity to lay the groundwork to bring your business into the digital age. As a famous man once said “if you’re not digital, you don’t exist” and the person who said that is a genius! (Yes, it was me who said it.)
Here’s what you should have already implemented and been executing at a frequent cadence:
- A completely updated Google My Business (GMB) with consistent business information and your website address listed (spoiler alert: this is directly connected to Google so it directly impacts your SEO)
- A mobile-friendly and content-rich website WITH A BLOG and links to your business social profiles
- A platform to aggregate reviews (e.g. Rate My Agent)
- Keeping your social media profiles updated with current information, photos, informative posts with links to your blogs and website
Now we’ve got the opening act out of the way, here’s what the magic 8 ball is saying about digital in 2021.
Invest in your brand locally
Investing in digital marketing isn’t always about leads (as nice as that would be). Your competitors are either:
- A) investing in amplifying their brand in your market
- B) already have brand equity and a substantive share of voice in your market
- C) all of the above
For your business to get noticed, discovered, remembered, grow share of voice, enjoy brand lift you need to invest in local digital marketing.
Imagine your brand as a giant golden sphere being held up by 4 main pillars. Each of these pillars provides support to your brand to make sure it can be held up strong:
Pillar ONE: Local SEO - Google My Business, blog, vlog, your frequently updated website. This all matters for your local SEO and your business become discoverable online
Pillar two: Paid social media ads - target your prospects, amplify social content, have your brand shown to your local market
Pillar three: Paid search ads (aka PPC ads) - this increases your brand being shown on top of the page of Google when someone searches for your business or looking to join a brokerage
Pillar four: Your information profile in zONE needs to be current, completed in full. This information gets placed on your profile on the Realty ONE Group website. Make sure to include a brief bio and the links to your website and social platforms are updated!
Secure your credentials
What does this have to do with marketing? A lot, if your credentials get compromised and put your business and its reputation in a bad situation. A great tool I use to store my library of credentials and help keep track of my passwords is LastPass. There are others similar to it, choose the ONE you’re comfortable with as long as you choose ONE. Make sure to activate two-factor authentication wherever you can!
This is a no-brainer and spending some time to set this up is a fraction of the time you’d spend trying to regain access to any compromised platform.
2021 will solidify the virtual experience
Virtual events, meetings, open houses, and happy hours. We’ve all become pros at this and teenagers can no longer spoof us. Productivity and ease of access have increased with the forced adoption of virtual experiences where the touchpoint used to be in-person.
Here’s where the responsibility is on YOU. How will you improve every virtual experience you participate in? If you are holding a virtual open house or need to show a home virtually, are you using the modern technology needed to show you are on top of your real estate game? Hot tip: Realty ONE Group has options in the ONE Marketplace every real estate professional should be utilizing.
Conducting meetings or holding events virtually? Make sure you have a clear agenda, manage the flow of the event and conversations, keep it on time and interactive. A great way for your prospects to remember you is to have efficient, effective, and memorable experiences. If you don’t, you’ll be forgotten.
www.realtyonegroup.com
If you’re reading this then you’re inside the envy of the industry. Our incredibly intuitive, expanded, modern, and brilliantly designed website! Since launching in the fall of 2020, the new realtyonegroup.com has turned heads and impressed some of the most brilliant minds in digital. And, in true Realty ONE Group fashion, there’s more to come. In 2021 the website will add more resource pages and continuously make adjustments to the user experience based on machine learning and incoming user behavior.
With the ability to locate a real estate professional, the nearest Realty ONE Group office, or search for a home, our new website is a complete package!
That’s all?
That is all for now. Make sure you visit us regularly as we have plenty of great blogs coming up. If you’re a Realty ONE Group professional make sure to check out the ONE Marketplace and implement the tools available to you to take your business to the next level.
May the new year bring you and your family all the best in health, love, and prosperity. Remember, Santa is watching, so be good to each other!
