Using Instagram as a Real Estate Marketing Tool – A Comprehensive Guide For 2020 and beyond

If you’re interested in building a personal brand on a tight budget, and want to win over prospective clients within a certain area, the social network you are encouraged to begin building an online presence on should be the Facebook-owned platform known as “Instagram.”

Using Instagram as a real estate marketing tool can be quite effective. What truly sets Instagram apart from the other social networks is that it makes your marketing endeavors fun.

That is because this platform makes sharing and editing visual content very easy. When promoting neighborhoods and homes, there isn’t any shortage of imagery that you can share with people. Instagram will allow you to engage with your community without breaking an arm and a leg.

Connecting with prospects organically (i.e., not spending money to reach them) is simpler to do on Instagram than it is on Facebook. With that said, if you can set a budget aside for it, you are encouraged to begin investing in ads on Instagram immediately!

Using this comprehensive article, I will explain how you can advertise and market your services on Instagram, not just for this year, but every year afterward.

A Real Estate Company Should Have an Instagram Account, and Here is Why

You shouldn’t neglect the powerful reach this platform brings – especially if you’re a developer, investor, broker, or agent in the real estate industry.

Aside from pet pictures, inspirational quotes, and personal moments, people like sharing homes, scenery, and landscapes on Instagram. Such content is one of the top ten forms of visual media shared on that platform. That is fortunate if you’re in the real estate business, because scenery, landscapes, and homes are the types of content you will be using to promote your services!

SEO requires patience and persistence. To outrank Realtor.com or Zillow.com for certain phrases (for example, “houses for sale”), you need to post fresh content regularly while sticking to guidelines for local SEO. Instagram can connect you with prospects organically, and you don’t even have to be tech-savvy to use it. Simply post something, use relevant keywords in the description, add a hashtag to the post, and you’ll be done!

Real estate focuses on local clients. Instagram serves as a perfect platform to market local businesses. Research indicates that Instagram receives the greatest engagement rate, in comparison to all other social networks, including Facebook. Also, a percentage of users on Instagram follow various businesses. As such, it is probable that you will obtain a significant amount of engagement on the platform based on the photos and video videos that you will be sharing – more so than you would get from other platforms.

Properties

Are you interested in selling high-end properties, either residential or commercial? You can promote them on Instagram, because users are more affluent comparatively, and also have much more spending power.

Even though you have a business account, you can still promote your company as a brand on the social network. This approach is most suitable for professionals in the real estate industry, as their success is heavily contingent on their community network. Instagram provides businesses with much more control over organic and marketing reach than Facebook does. Instagram allows you to see what type of people are engaging with the content you’re posting. It is a lot like having a TV channel of your own. On it, you may want to share market trends in real estate, neighborhood tours, community amenities, and open houses. Best of all, you will be giving your followers real-time content.

Establishing a Great Instagram Profile in Order to Promote Your Business

Although there aren’t any technical steps involved in marketing your company on Instagram, you’ll still have to follow proper practices if you want to be seen by prospects on the platform. Consider the following suggestions to optimize an Instagram real estate profile:

Suggestion One: Using Instagram For Business

Refrain from using personal profiles to promote a business on this platform.

Instagram For Business

A business profile on Instagram lets you utilize a number of features that personal profiles cannot access. You will be able to publish ads and access analytics about user engagement

The following article goes over how you can convert a personal Instagram profile to a business account.

When you have a professional Instagram account, you will have the ability to access Instagram insights and other business features. Such tools will provide you with more information about the types of people that are interacting with your account.

Instagram Insights

You will find more comprehensive information about the following:

• The amount of engagements (comments, likes, and shares) your posts are receiving.
• What types of people are interacting with your content (audience demographics).

Such insights can be used to optimize the effectiveness of your marketing endeavors for the sake of reaching a targeted audience.

You’ll be able to regulate a majority of business features, as well as access insights directly from Facebook (via the Business Manager page).

A professional Instagram profile helps you target those who interact with the content you post via ads on both Facebook and Instagram. As such, you will be able to display Facebook ads directly to those who like, share, and click your content on Instagram.

When listings are promoted on Facebook, ads can be run under the category marked “Special Ads,” which has limits on how much retargeting you can do. It also restricts ways of promoting your ads to “Lookalike Audiences.” But by being careful and playing it safe, you won’t have to worry about this when your content is being promoted on Instagram (at least not yet).

Suggestion Two: Creating the Right Profile

The following step involves building an Instagram profile that captures people’s attention and encourages them to give you a follow.

Here are a few powerful components to help you build a strong profile on Instagram:

There are three important elements of a strong profile on Instagram:

Bio

You are given a 150 character maximum to summarize the value offered by your brand to clients – whether they be buyers, investors, or sellers. As such, be sure that the lines articulate the unique personality and voice of your brand.

Make sure your hashtags are relevant.

Using Emoji’s

Rather than writing paragraphs, think about using utilizing line breaks for the sake of explaining important points about the brand.

Have a Clear CTA

What’s the initial thing somebody should do after visiting your page on Instagram?

Instagram Bio

Name

The name of your brand should be used in this field, but it won’t hurt to type in one or two keywords beside your name, perhaps something along the lines of: “Toronto houses for sale,” so that it can be easily found on the platform.

Photo

Many realtors use the company logo for a profile picture. That is discouraged when you are trying to promote a real estate brand on Instagram. It is imperative that you customize your profile to the fullest extent. Users are more interested in connecting with people, as opposed to brands. The photo you use should be stylish, friendly, and modern.

Suggestion Three: Instagram CTA

CTA (Call to Action) buttons have been introduced by Instagram. Companies can use them to collect leads. At the time of writing, there were a quartet of CTA buttons that could be accessed – Directions, Email, Text, and Call. Refrain from using Directions or Email action buttons. Rather, use Text or Call. Those buttons are more suitable for professionals in the real estate sector.

Suggestion Four: Be Consistent With Your Theme – Fonts, Image Filters, and Colors

If you take a look at Instagram accounts that have a slew of followers, you’ll see them using specific colors consistently by way of photos, camera filters, and fonts.

To put it another way, they do not modify their brand’s theme. Research indicates that interaction increases if you stick to a specific font and color scheme. In doing so, people begin associating those fonts and colors with your business’ brand. Also, it leaves a certain impression on people’s minds whenever they check out your Instagram profile or see your posts in a news feed. Consistency allows your brand to be more memorable.

Suggestion Five: Instagram Revolves Around Images

This will a key aspect to be mindful of when growing your account on Instagram.

The only images you should be using are ones of high quality. It is imperative that you are consistent with certain color themes and camera filters when your images are being posted.

The pictures you use should have a square size, though you can play around with various aspect ratios.

Suggestion Six: Hashtags and Location Tagging are Important

After something has been posted to Instagram – perhaps a video or picture of an amenity in your neighborhood – tag its location. This is an optimal approach to optimizing your posts in order to make them more searchable. This is also applicable to hashtags.

Suggestion Seven: Don’t Go Overboard, Remain Disciplined When Posting

Don’t post pictures of homes for sale multiple times per day. This could minimize the organic reach you have and overwhelm followers in the process.

To remain disciplined with a posting schedule, gather one week’s worth of posts, then use HootSuite or a similar program to give you a reminder when it’s time to post something.

When Should You Be Posting in Order to Get Leads?

What type of posts are most effective for professionals in the real estate industry?

Listings Posts

Suffice it to say, only aesthetically-pleasing pictures of homes should be posted by you and/or fellow agents within your real estate market. Endeavor to display the best exterior and interior features. Describe the property’s greatest features in detail, as well as other relevant information. This can include how buyers who are interested in the property can get in touch with you, the name of the listing agent, the schedule for open houses, and the MLS number.

A professionally-designed logo can also be published, as can other types of branding information. You are welcome to perform basic editing of your photos using your mobile device. Multiple pictures can be assembled into one image using various apps. You can add listing information in the post’s description field.

If you happen to have multiple pictures of a property for sale, then those images can be added to one scrollable post. Such photos should be sequential. In doing so, you won’t need to re-post images from a listing repeatedly.

Visual Guides Should Be Used to Highlight Your Neighborhood or Local Community’s Amenities

An optimal approach to promoting a house is to display some of the features around the neighborhood. You can use visual content to do this, including videos and pictures.

Promote some of the community’s must-visit places, including beaches, schools, entertainment centers, sports venues, pools, parks, shopping centers, bars, and restaurants.

Use Visual Content to Tell Stories

Conduct an interview with another professional in your industry, perhaps a developer, builder, mover, or store owner. The person you interview should have an ability to help others relocate either out of the community or into it.

Post videos and images, then add information about the content displayed inside the description field.

This will allow you to develop a network and generate leads through referrals. Such content will help prospective clients find out more information about your community.

Use Infographics to Convey Market Trends

An informative infographic should be used if you have some statistics available. Some of the things you can show people through an infographic include crime rate reductions, school ranking improvements, the amount of time homes in the neighborhood remain up for sale for, and home value appreciation.

Such content will help you be seen as an authority in your field or community.

Local Happenings and Events

Any sports event or community will serve as good content for an Instagram post. Such content will convey that you are aware of what’s going on in the community.

Testimonials

Did someone leave you a fantastic review on your Twitter feed, Facebook page, or Google my Business listing?

Instagram is a place where testimonials can be highlighted. If you want to take things further, you can post a video testimonial in order to show people how trustworthy and authentic the reviews are.

Posting videos and images of happy clients is a worthwhile idea.

Promoting Members of the Team

If you’re a broker that manages multiple realtors, consider posting pictures of team outings, dealers, open houses, parties, and meetings.

It happens to be a great approach to humanizing your brand.

Display Your Commitment and Energy

When you’re working hard to close a real estate deal, ask someone from the team to take a picture of you on the job. “Behind the Curtain” pictures should regularly be posted, perhaps of open houses, home staging before/after pictures, and property deals.

Customize Instagram

Address Challenges and Ways They Can Be Overcome

Let’s say have invested in real estate. One day, you discover that a toilet in one of the properties you own is clogged. Upon closer inspection, you realize somebody was flushing wipes into the toilet.

Some of your Instagram followers may be curious about how you resolved that issue.

Post images or short videos of challenges like this on a daily basis. Doing so will shine a light on your skills and abilities as a professional in the real estate industry.

Growing Your Followers on Instagram

Although the tips mentioned above can help get your profile going, there are a number of extra steps that need to be taken to build a following:

Originality – stock photos are a dealbreaker on Instagram. Always be original. Users want to engage with actual people when using this platform, and as such, you must be sure that your videos and photos are original. You can post a video with commentary on local properties, showcase the latest listings, navigate your neighborhood, walk through nearby schools, etc.

Organization – when describing a property listing or recording commentary about the market, a script should be prepared first. Knowing what to say in advance can give off the impression that you are knowledgeable about whatever you posted.

Legitimacy – to grow your reach organically on Instagram, refrain from buying followers. These people won’t engage with the posts you have. Real followers will stimulate your organic reach. It is more prudent to have 200 real followers that share and like your content than 200,000 followers who don’t comment, like, or share anything you post. A lack of interaction on your Instagram profile will kill your organic reach.

Synchronization – your Twitter and Facebook accounts can be connected to Instagram. Whatever you post on Instagram can show up automatically on Twitter and Facebook.

Consistency – professionals in the real estate industry sometimes begin enthusiastically and post multiple times a day. When they don’t notice any engagement or growth of followers, they may decide to give up. The key here is consistency. By sticking to a schedule for your posts, you won’t be dissuaded by unimpressive results during the early stages.

Tractability – determine what posts are performing better than others regularly. Doing so will tell you what types of content to publish more of.

Instagram Hyper-Lapse and Instagram Direct should be used to optimize the effectiveness of your strategy.

Advertising Your Services on Instagram

The following section will go over some helpful strategies to stick to in order to generate leads on Instagram.

Because Facebook is the owner of Instagram, you’ll have the ability to use the Facebook Business Manager when running your ads on both platforms. There are several ways that Instagram ads can be set up, including directly on the platform.

Because ad creators, targeting options, and other aspects are somewhat similar on both platforms, we encourage you to read our comprehensive guidelines for Facebook advertising:

• Real Estate Ads on Facebook – An Advanced Guide.
• Tips and Examples
• A bevy of ad copy concepts that can be used for professionals in the real estate industry.
• The Special Ads section on Facebook – a comprehensive guide for professionals in real estate.
• A funnel formula that professionals in the real estate industry can use to create the perfect ads on Facebook.
• Four of the greatest advertising practices to be used on Facebook for professionals in the real estate industry.
• The three greatest aspects of Facebook ads for realtors.
• Four different ways you can make an ad on Facebook more profitable if you are in the real estate industry.
• Twenty different ways to gather leads using Facebook advertising.
• Effective ad placement strategies on Facebook for realtors.
• How much money should be budgeted for Facebook advertising?
• Facebook ads: the best options for real estate targeting.
• How are realtors able to reduce their costs when it comes to Facebook ads?
• Real estate marketing using Facebook ads – a comprehensive guide.

The Right Time to Use Ads on Instagram

Statistics show that approximately 35% of American users on Instagram are between the ages of 18 and 35. This social network’s demographics are mostly comprised of young people.

If starter homes are being promoted to Generation Y or Millennials, then Instagram ads should definitely be leveraged.

The Best Practices for Real Estate Agents and Investors When It Comes to Instagram Ads

When utilizing the Facebook Ads Manager, choose conversions or lead generation as an objective. You will be provided with 11 different kinds of ad objectives. For those on a shoestring budget, stay away from objectives like Engagement, Traffic, Reach, or Brand Awareness.

If you would prefer to have ads only show up on Instagram, then click “Edit Placement” when your campaign is being set up. Look for the checkbox that says “Facebook” beneath the “Places” tab, then deselect it.

There are various ad format types on Instagram – 2 for Stories ads and 4 for Feed ads.

There are four different ad formats that can be used for Feed ads on Instagram – Slideshow, Single Video, Single Image, and Carousel.

Stories ads on Instagram can help promote real estate companies on the platform.

There are a couple of different kinds of Instagram Stories ads that you can use – Single Video and Single Image. Such ads show up between various Stories.

A business account will be necessary if you want to run Instagram ads on the platform. Be sure that you have administrative privileges on the Facebook Business Page that is connected to your business account on Instagram.

In order to begin promoting a post, select it, then choose your objective. From there, establish your CTA, the audience you are targeting, what your budget is, and the duration to run an ad for.

Earlier, I went over how you can quantify the success of the ads on Facebook you run. That same approach can be used to gauge how effective your ads on Instagram are.

In Closing

Be mindful of these suggestions when posting on Instagram. Sticking to a strategy is of paramount importance if you want to achieve success on social media, especially Instagram!

If you require assistance with real estate marketing on Instagram, get in touch with me. You can also leave me a comment here if you’d like to offer any feedback or ask questions.

To schedule a no obligation no pressure call click on the calendly link below or email mark@westgatecreatives.com

https://calendly.com/westgatecreatives

Cheers..

-Mark