Real Estate Marketing Benchmarks
Boosting performance with Email, Social Media, SEO, SEM, and Content Strategy
Real estate is a competitive industry and digital marketing is essential for agents looking to grow a sustainable business. Research shows that business growth slows the longer agents are in business, highlighting the need for real estate professionals to improve the execution and messaging within marketing strategies.
Among the most effective marketing channels, email, social media, SEO, and SEM offers unique advantages in driving engagement, generating leads, and boosting return on investment when based on a well-planned content strategy.
This guide provides key marketing benchmarks for the real estate industry, helping agents understand where they stand amongst their peers and how they can improve.
Email Marketing Benchmarks
Email marketing remains a cornerstone of real estate marketing strategies. With a high return on investment, and direct access to potential clients, email campaigns are the most efficient way in both time and money to nurture your database over a long period of time to convert potential clients.
Key Email Marketing Metrics
Below are benchmarks provided by Constant Contact for the Real Estate industry. For comparison, the graphics to the right show industry benchmarks from Constant Contact and Mailchimp.
- Average Open Rate: 30.32%
- Average Click Rate: 1.63%
- Average Bounce Rate: 13.83%
As you can see, there are slight differences between Constant Contact and Mailchimp’s reported data, however the main takeaway is to aim for your email marketing communications to perform BETTER than these benchmarks.
When we compare the Real Estate industry’s open rate performance (30.32%) to the performance of the Education sector (34.56%), we can see the potential in delivering highly relevant information to your email list.
The ROI of Email Marketing
Real estate agents can expect an average return of $36 for every $1 spent on email marketing, which equates to a 3,600% rate of return on investment. Yes, three thousand and six hundred percent. It’s possible to achieve a return on investment as high as $42, as in the case for marketing agencies, when consistent testing and measuring to optimize email campaigns.
This incredible ROI stems from the ability to deliver personalized, timely and relevant content DIRECTLY TO LEADS via their inbox where you are more likely to get their attention.
Need help choosing the right email marketing tool? Download my Ultimate Guide to Real Estate Digital Marketing Tools for tips on creating your very own marketing ecosystem.
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Social Media Marketing Benchmarks
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn offer agents the chance to connect with a broader audience and build their brand awareness. These platforms are especially effective in generating engagement and fostering community interaction.
Real Estate Industry Social Media Metrics
According to Sprout Social, the average real estate professional:
- Posts 11 times per day
- Receives 20 Inbound Engagements per day: Inbound engagements are responding to comments, direct messages, or questions about services shared on social media
- Performs one Outbound Engagement each day: Outbound engagements are liking and commenting on content from users who aren’t your followers, participating in hashtag conversations, and sending DMs to potential clients.
Hootsuite’s platform-specific benchmarks gives us a slightly different perspective:
- Facebook:
- Average Impressions: 283,000
- Average Inbound Engagement Rate: 0.77%.
- Average Posts/Day: 0.27, not even close to 11 posts/day
- Instagram:
- Average # of Impressions: 159,000
- Average Inbound Engagement Rate: 1.44%
- Average Posts/Day: 0.46, again, a fraction of the average posts per day Sprout Social reports.
The ROI of Social Media Marketing
For every $1 spent on social media, real estate agents can expect an ROI of $2.50 to $5, depending on the platform and campaign. However, only 11% of real estate agents saw a return on their social media efforts according to the NAR, so I encourage you to really understand how your efforts are translating into sales.
While these returns are lower than email, social media is perfect for getting traffic to your website so you can capture potential lead contact information to then nurture through email.
For this to work, you must have a compelling reason for social media followers to go to your website, and consistent posting and engagement to maximize returns on social media.
Need help choosing the social media marketing tool? Download the Ultimate Guide to Real Estate Digital Marketing Tools!
SEO Benchmarks
Search Engine Optimization is essential for increasing search visibility and driving organic traffic to your real estate website. While it’s a long-term strategy, SEO consistently delivers high returns.
A strong SEO strategy drives high-quality leads to your website through search engines, reducing the need for paid ads. By ranking higher in organic search results, agents can generate more traffic, leading to increased conversions.
Average SEO Return on Investment
Real estate agents can expect an SEO ROI of $2.75 to $5.25 for every $1 spent, which is a 275%-500% rate of return. However, SEO returns compound over time, making it a highly effective strategy when implemented well.
Important Metrics to Track
I couldn’t find any industry benchmark data, so it’s best to determine your benchmarks after 90 days of consistent blogging. The metric to benchmark and track for SEO results are Organic Search Traffic in Google Analytic Reports, and Keyword Ranking in Google Search Console.
Search Engine Marketing Benchmarks
Search Engine Marketing through paid search ads is another key strategy for real estate professionals. SEM allows you to target specific keywords and demographics, helping drive traffic to your website.
Real Estate SEM Metrics and Benchmarks
According the 2023 Google Ads Industry Benchmarks Report, for the real estate industry:
- Average Click Rate from Ad to Website: 3.71%
- Cost Per Click: $2.37
- Lead Conversion Rate: 2.88%
These benchmarks give agents a baseline to compare their SEM efforts. While the CPC may vary based on location and competition, agents generally benefit from the visibility SEM provides on search engines.
The ROI of SEM in Real Estate
Real estate agents can expect a $2 to $3 return for every $1 spent, or a 200% – 300% return rate, on SEM campaigns depending on the quality of ads, landing pages, and targeting. Effective SEM campaigns can generate immediate inquiries, making it a valuable short-term lead-generation tool.
Lead Conversion Benchmarks
While driving traffic to your website through email, social media, SEO, and SEM is critical for growth, lead conversion is the ultimate measure of success. Lead conversion can have many definitions depending on the marketing channel and goal, for example, form completion, call received, call booked, call-to-client conversion, etc.
Here are a few key benchmarks for real estate lead conversions.
National Average Real Estate Lead Conversion Rate
According to the NAR, real estate lead conversion rates typically range from 0.4% to 1.2%. This includes both online and offline leads. To put that in perspective, for every 200 new names in your database, one or two of them will convert to clients.
National Averages Across Industries
In contrast, conversion rate averages commonly report across marketing platforms and studies are:
- Website Conversion Rate: 2% to 5% is a common range for businesses, including real estate, according to studies from marketing tools like HubSpot and WordStream.
- Landing Page Conversion Rate: 5% to 10% is typically higher than overall website conversion rates, as targeted landing pages designed for specific offers generally convert better, supported by data from platforms like Unbounce and Instapage.
- Email Lead Conversion Rate: 6% to 7% can be inferred from benchmarks provided by email marketing platforms like Mailchimp and Constant Contact, which report higher engagement rates for personalized campaigns.
Note: NAR does not report on this information, which it should if anyone from @NARresearch is reading.
Other Important Lead Generation Statistics
According to Growthlist.co:
- Email stands as key lead generation tool for 43% of B-to-B marketers
- 27% of marketers consider organic search as the top lead generator
- Paid search generated 11% of leads
- 97% of people disregard cold calls, showing that cold calling is truly an outdated, and probably despised, lead gen tactic.
How Content Strategy Enhances Marketing Effectiveness
Content strategy plays a crucial role in driving the success of email, social media, SEO, and SEM. High-quality and valuable content attracts potential buyers and sellers to your website, improves engagement metrics on social media, and significantly boosts ROI across all measures.
Improves Email Metrics
Sharing insightful blog posts, hyperlocal market updates, or home-buying and -selling tips via email increases open and click-through rates. Your database will more likely engage with emails that include valuable content rather than generic or promotional material alone. True story, one client saw her unsubscribe rate jump after she emailed her firm’s generic newsletter to her database.
As I point out elsewhere, my entire marketing strategy relied on high-quality, valuable, hyperlocal content.
Here are my Realtor business average rates:
Boosts Social Media Engagement
Posting high-quality, valuable, and engaging content on social media platforms lead to higher inbound interactions, growing your audience and increasing your brand reach.
Unfortunately, my social media metric data is lost to the web-o-sphere, but honestly social media wasn’t a huge part of my strategy because SEO and Email performed so well.
Drives Website Traffic and Conversions
Regularly publishing SEO-optimized content on your website, which you then promote through email and social media, not only brings more visitors but also encourages conversions, such as phone calls.
ROI of Content Strategy
A well-planned content strategy provides sustained value by increasing reach, engagement, and conversions over time. Agents who invest in quality content see a long-term ROI from increased web traffic, higher quality leads, and improved client retention and referrals.
Final Thoughts
For real estate agents, achieving optimal ROI and growing a sustainable real estate business requires an optimized mix of email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, SEM, based on a well-planned content strategy. Each plays a pivotal role in attracting, engaging, and converting leads.
By following these benchmarks and consistently delivering valuable content, you can significantly improve your marketing metrics and overall business performance.
Are your business metrics missing the mark? Book a complimentary strategy call for expert guidance on optimizing your marketing.
