Ready for more real estate PR tips? It’s time for the “second story” of how to improve your real estate public relations campaigns.
Dig for something unexpected
Is your company defying industry trends? Is there an untold historical significance to the property you are renovating? Does the property you are selling have ties to famous tenants or owners? You get the idea. Reporters receive hundreds if not thousands of emails each day and you need to stand out from the crowd from the first word of your subject line through the last line of your pitch.
Scale yourself against the competition
Is your company the go-to source for local, regional, national and trade media when it comes to your industry? Or, are you constantly being overlooked in favor of your competition? Scaling your PR program against the competition (based on bandwidth and resources, of course) can help to ensure an optimal share of voice is either earned or maintained. What do we mean by scaling? Allocating your resources to a consistent program that is as “on par” with the competition as it can be. This may entail dedicating a focus on particular media outlets, focusing on the story angles that are best suited to differentiating your company from its competitors and so on. Regardless of the specific approach you take, monitoring your competition in the media is a critical part of your long-term PR success.
Plan for renovations
While research-informed PR strategies help drive meaningful results, planning for renovations is key. While the first blueprint you lay out may make perfect sense when the year begins, changes to the industry, economic climate, and key regulations and so on may have a dramatic impact on the success of your overall PR program. Be mindful of giving your PR strategies enough time to work before making refinements, make slight tweaks before abandoning a strategy entirely and, of course, make sure your adjustments are based on key metrics rather than hunches.
Keep an eye on market value
What is the ROI of a PR program? It’s a question we’re asked often and it varies widely by company. While a New York City construction company may want ink for its building projects to help generate new leads, a design-build firm in a rural community may use PR to showcase its community involvement and philanthropic initiatives. How you measure your PR success should be directly tied to your marketing goals and closely aligned with your overall business goals. Sales and marketing are becoming increasingly integrated and public relations plays a leading role in telling the stories that engage audiences and showcase key proof points.
Effective real estate PR campaigns blend strategy and creativity to tell a company’s brand story from the ground up. While every story may not be feature-length material, maintaining a consistent presence in the media is key to relationship building, lead generation and expert positioning. Ongoing public relations programs also help companies to generate a steady stream of fresh content to help populate their social media marketing channels and enhance their email marketing. And, while PR is most effective when part of an integrated marketing communications program, it is truly the foundational aspect of ensuring a brand’s voice is reaching its stakeholders, from local, regional, national and trade media, to clients, prospects and strategic partners (such as referral sources).
