The summer season has the highest inventory of houses from May to August and the shortest amount of time that these houses are on the market. Although this naturally creates a highly competitive time of year for business, it’s also the perfect time for agents to establish themselves in the eyes of consumers. This is the time of year where everyone sees longer days, and families commit less time to school. With this comes a lot of free time for potential buyers so agents can take advantage. Here are four tips for a successful summer real estate marketing campaign.
Even as summer is not as holiday heavy as most other times throughout the year, it still holds numerous opportunities for marketing and lead generation. The sunshine and outdoors are top-of-mind during this season, so it would be wise for agents to take advantage of these topics. Agents who can plan accordingly for the summer season can make the most of the opportunities available.
1. Bring Marketing Outdoors
Summer is a great time of year to take advantage of the weather. People will want to spend most of the season outside participating in activities like pool parties, going to the beach, and picnics. A good way for real estate agents to market themselves is to create outdoor events for their clients or community. Agents could host a neighborhood BBQ or utilize open house backyard space to focus on elements like pools, grills, and gardens.
If available, agents shouldn’t forget to take advantage of their storefronts. Place appealing stand-up signs, write with chalk on the sidewalk, or even have a tent outside that displays products and services. Because people are spending more time outside, details like these will be more noticeable and will create increased engagement.
Agents would be wise to capitalize on collaboration with other partners or people in the industry to further increase exposure and overall brand awareness as well. This is a great way to meet new clients and can be implemented through ways like creating content, hosting an event, or doing giveaways together. Community get-togethers or a storefront banner with two or more agents sponsoring it can increase interaction with current customers and those that haven’t yet been reached.
2. Beat the Heat
Just as agents can highlight the idea of being out in the sunshine, they can also promote ways to escape the sometimes intense summer heat. Actively running and promoting more open houses in the summer based on the idea of beating the heat and cooling off somewhere where clients can unwind and relax will do great as a campaign. Aside from providing a cool, comfortable environment, agents should also supply summer-themed drinks and snacks at these open houses to further the seasonal feeling of this time of year.
Real estate agents should strive to display the results of these open houses in real-time or after the event has occurred. Showing people enjoying being indoors at an open house can create great appeal for people that don’t want to spend all of their time outside because of the increased summer temperatures.
3. Highlight Pools
There has been a surplus of pool trends within the last few years. Social media has done a great job of creating a desire for people to have unique or customized home pools. Dark interior, infinity, and smart pools are just some examples of popular trends consumers have seen so far in 2019. Agents would be wise in advertising the appeal of this home feature, especially when summer is the most popular time for people to enjoy pool activities.
Throwing an open house in a backyard with an appealing pool area or sharing articles and pictures of current pool trends will attract a large market of people who enjoy spending summer outside by the water. Agents could also highlight some of their favorite pools they’ve seen at past properties by posting pictures on social channels such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It will bring focus to something that’s typically not a key selling point during seasons like Fall and Winter.
4. Summer Holidays
Labor Day, International Peace Day, Constitution Day, and Grandparents Day are summer holidays that could create especially exciting and engaging real estate marketing content. The ultimate goal is for agents to relate their products or services to these occasions in the best way they can. For instance, Labor Day can be represented by using red, white, and blue colors or relating some content to patriotism or celebration.
No matter what services or products a real estate agent offers, there is a way to tie them to each of these topics somehow. Agents can creatively and strategically incorporate a holiday like National Watermelon Day in social media posts and campaigns through sharing pictures of their team or co-workers eating fruit or even posting an infographic or poster sharing all the benefits of eating watermelon. Another popular way of getting involved in the excitement around these holidays is to post on social media platforms with hashtags. That way, people on social media can find agents even if they don’t follow them.
Agent influence can effectively be increased within a local market during the summer season through the application of these ideas. Real estate agents may even go a step further with targeting their summer market by utilizing Property Simple Collections, an online tool that provides agents with hundreds of listings that can be broken down by location, price point, features, and more.
These suggestions can boost a current marketing campaign and can even be applied on their own and should be used by agents to get the furthest reach and best possible business they can throughout the season. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and tools like Facebook Livestream and Instagram Live should also always be used to promote business all while featuring outdoor and indoor activities, pool trends, and summer holidays. Even if agents don’t follow these exact suggestions, they should take some form of inspiration from them to implement in their own future business strategies for the summer.