Entegral Blog

We are proud to announce the Flex Dynamic Ads is now out of beta and available for order to all our real estate clients. The integration with your Flex responsive real estate website is a game-changer. The platform records detailed buyer search metrics and feeds that straight back into Facebook to deliver high-precision listing ads.  These ads link to your website, and not some external portal. The result is ads that perform better over the long run. We've simplified everything by eliminating the need to manage this in a new tool, Base CRM handles everything . What's more, 100% of your ad spend budget goes into building your brand. Check out the slideshow below:

Base allows you to automate your real estate business with connections to thousands of popular apps via our  Zapier integration .   Now we've added  much-requested property triggers . It will trigger when a new listing is loaded, or an existing one is updated, allowing for a lot of flexibility in building custom workflows. Essentially, allowing you to send your listing data to popular (external) apps. We, however, went the extra mile and created filters for the triggers as shown below. It allows you to filter specific listings, e.g. only for sale or rental, specific agents, price range, property type, etc. If the conditions are met, the trigger will fire and kick off your workflow.  This can even be used to auto-publish your listings to a Facebook or other platform. We've created  this template to get you started . We included a 30min timer to allow sufficient time for the listing to reach your website. New to Zapier? Check out this help article to get started...

We are kicking off the year on a high note with the announcement of Flex Ads , a platform that allows agents to dynamically create automated real estate ads on two of the most prominent social networks, Facebook and Instagram. An an industry first, real estate ads can be created in record time from newly added listings captured in Base , pushed to social platforms, and clicks will direct straight to your Flex responsive website  (and not some 3rd party platform). The platform will automatically create all the ads, and ensure that it is delivered to the right buyers and sellers with fine tuned campaigns. We will onboard a limited number of clients in the beta phase, so if you are interested, please sign up here for more info:  https://launch.entegral.net/

While businesses of all shapes and sizes can benefit from social media - the real estate industry is uniquely suited to the community-driven platforms that make up this digital space. To ensure you kick off 2020 on the right footing online we take a look at three platforms that will help you gain more eyes on your business and more importantly your listings. Facebook Last year the National Association of Realtors released a study that revealed that a whopping 99% of millennials - and 90% of baby boomers - begin their home search online (as opposed to in-person referrals.) This statistic can be seen in action in the various community groups on Facebook where users regularly ask for referrals for estate agents active in their area or asking for rental properties that might suit their needs. Simply put, if you are not active on Facebook you are missing out on a large slice of the pie. Get a Facebook Business Page Instagram What makes this platform so great for real ...

We are proud to announce a fresh new approach to promote your property mandates on social media for Entegral clients. Estate agents now have the opportunity to promote individual property mandates through our very active MyProperty Facebook, Twitter and Instagram social media channels. Depending on the package, you can also promote your property mandate through the highly effective Google Adwords network. Our initial launch packages offer a hyper-local approach to target people around the area of the listing for maximum impact.  Simply log into your Base / OMS account and click on the 'promote' link on your mandate: For those agents supplying listings through our Sync interface , you can simply navigate to your property listing on MyProperty and click on the ' Promote this listing ' link: Choose your package and click the order button to pay via our credit card payment gateway. Once ordered you will receive a confirmation email, our ...

What are the advantages of integrating Facebook Messenger into your real estate website? There are many advantages for estate agents to integrate a  Facebook messenger  live chat tool on their  real estate websites . We even use it, if you want to check out a live version : Facebook and the Messenger tool is familiar and convenient, people are more likely to engage with you. You can provide a personalized experience through a friction-less platform. Once potential clients message you, you get a link to view their Facebook profiles to for instance confirm their identity. People prefer communication that is convenient, instantaneous, and smartphone-friendly. It allows you to instantly engage with hot leads and transfer those hot leads to your agents.  You can provide value and resources directly from Messenger and for instance direct them to a specific page on your website. No back and forth emails, so it saves time. With the Messenger platform, you do...

The word “marketing” conjure up images of complicated strategies and pricey campaigns - however, there is a way you can market your real estate business without spending a dime! We take a look at our top choices in our latest blog post. Video marketing You would be losing out on a large audience if you ignore the proliferation of video over the past few years. Jump on the bandwagon and start engaging in some video marketing. Begin by setting up a YouTube channel. You don’t have to create Hollywood-esque movies – just a simple video blog will do. If you’ve got something useful to say, then say it on video. It also makes for highly shareable, marketable content – put it on your website, push it out on social, and include it in your emails (more about email marketing later) Post to Facebook It goes without saying that social media is one of the most valuable marketing tools out there. And it’s free. This doesn’t mean you should sign up for every platform but rather focus on ...

As reported earlier Facebook is shaking up their Facebook Feeds with an aim to create “more meaningful social interactions.” To further support this change, local news will now enjoy priority so that you can see topics that have a direct impact on you and your community and discover what’s happening in your local area. What does this mean for you? For real estate agents using Facebook as a marketing tool, taking advantage of this new algorithm is vital if you want to get ahead of the curve. Taking charge of your news section on your Flex website is the first step. You need to take a look at the frequency you post, as well as the topics you cover. Having features of the areas you work in, as well as local events, will not only help cement your reputation as an area specialist, it will also help with your search engine optimisation (SEO). Remember that only posting about real estate won’t increase your chances of being seen as a source of local news - you will have to ...

Voice search is here to stay - because it is easier to speak to a digital assistant than typing - so we take a look at three ways you can gear your real estate website towards voice search. To prove that voice search is the way of the future, take a look at these statistics: Voice labs found that there were a total of 33 million voice-first devices in circulation. In a survey of SEO trends for 2017 and beyond , voice search stood at the third spot. In his keynote, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that one-fifth of the queries on Google are voice searches. REA Group's move into AI with Amazon's Alexa With the increase in the use of digital assistants, optimising for voice search is critical to your SEO success. We take a look at three SEO strategies to help you optimise your website - it is easier than you think! 1. Claim your Google My Business Listing Probably the easiest thing to do is to simply claim your Google My Business listing! The reason why this is im...

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has announced that the company will overhaul the algorithm for the social media platform’s news feed. This is an effort to gear the platform towards more “meaningful social interaction” and away from what it deems “relevant content.” So what does this mean for you? As a real estate agent and born salesperson, Facebook has become one of the greatest marketing tools. However, this won’t be what Facebook would deem as a “meaningful social interaction.” As marketers, real estate agents have to adjust and step up their game if they want continued success with Facebook as a business tool. Build relationships You are already a great networker - that is what makes you a great real estate agent - and you should be using that natural instinct to build relationships with your followers on Facebook. An agent’s social media strategy should be an overall experience for the consumer — and a transparent, honest and clear picture of what you are about. ...

Social media is a powerful marketing tool and with these tips and tricks, you will be able to improve your social media engagement this year. Marketing yourself or your agency on social media in 2018 should no longer just be about reaching a large audience, rather about having people reacting to your posts with not just likes but with much more valuable comments and shares. We take a look at how you can improve your social media engagement here. Share valuable content This goes hand-in-hand with our usual advice of writing fresh content for your website, at least once a week. Not only is it good for your search engine optimisation (SEO) it is also good for your social media engagement. These are the five marks your content should hit to make it valuable (and perfect for social media): Is it helpful to your audience? Are you actually solving their real estate problems or answering their property related questions? Is it saving time? Are you ensuring that your readers can ...

Finding worthy topics to write about can be a difficult task, especially if you are already managing a very busy day. But it doesn’t have to be - all it takes is a bit of planning! Before get to the actual blog writing part, we have to mention that for most people browsing social media from their phones, a responsive site is a must. If you are writing compelling articles, why wouldn’t you want to make it accessible to anyone no matter on what mobile device they are? You can find out more about our responsive packages by visiting www.entegral.net/flex and more about the importance of responsive design here: Mobile-First Indexing Plan ahead To ensure you have some copy ready for the year, plan ahead. Think seasonally and around holidays. Provide gardening tips, or winter home maintenance guide. Home safety around the holidays is another seasonal topic that is always welcomed. Write these articles now, that way you have them ready to publish when the time comes around. Weekl...

When marketing your real estate listings and agency, often times real estate agents focus on generating as many leads as possible - but is that the best approach? Once you have generated all your leads, you have to spend more money and time to convert the leads you already paid for. You are just going round and round the cycle and spending money to hopefully create more business for yourself. Can we not break this cycle in 2018? Even the leads you are marketing are tired of being marketed at. So what is the solution? The answer is relationship building. Real estate is a relationship business, and maintaining that relationship is not only going to be way more cost-effective it is also going to ensure that your social proof will increase. Why? Because you are investing in people, adding value to their lives and adding value to your business relationships. You already have interested leads from your property alerts , social media pages and even previous clients. In 2018, buildin...

The digital landscape is fast moving and ever changing, and a stale digital marketing strategy won’t cut it anymore. We take a look at a few things you can do now to spruce up your strategy to ensure you don’t fall behind and miss out on valuable website traffic in 2018. Stop stuffing content with keywords This might have worked in the past, but search engines have changed dramatically and this won’t help you at all. You might even end up hurting your business as search engines might flag your page as spam. Keywords are still important but search engines (and humans) prefer long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are those three and four keyword phrases which are very, very specific to what you are selling. This means content with the phrase ‘Lonehill property for sale’ will fare better than simply ‘property for sale’ when you want to ensure you are getting better ranking in personalised search results. Step-up your social game Everyone is on some form of social media...

No doubt you’re providing the best service, but how do you ensure a quality experience translates into a positive review online? Getting a customer to take the time to share his or her thoughts can seem challenging, but there are a number of strategies you can utilize to increase the odds that reviews will be posted. Why do I need online reviews? Consumers are increasingly relying on the Internet to obtain information about businesses. Reviews not only serve as a guide to customers but also provide free advertising. Your customers can be valuable references for people they don’t even know, just by posting their experiences on your public profiles. Get followers on social media Having a following on social media speaks wonders for your brand. A strong digital following shows that customers are satisfied with your business and more importantly, they want to continue that relationship. After you’ve worked with someone, you should think about reaching out on social media to thank...

In a recent study it was revealed that the real estate industry only responded to 11% of the messages they receive from social media, and even worse it was ranked the 4th most annoying industry on social media - we take a look at how to fix this. Sprout Social revealed in its Q1 2017 Sprout Social Index that the estate industry only responded to 11% of its incoming messages. What’s worse is the industry ranked No. 4 in the Top 10 Most Annoying Industries on Social Media in the Q3 2016 Sprout Social Index . These figures all paints a picture of an industry that spends a large chunk of time selling/promoting online but not enough time engaging in a meaningful way with their audience. We take a look at ways to change this perception When there is a question answer it! That it is the most basic step to take - if you get queries on your Facebook Page, Flex responsive real estate website or other property portals answer them in a prompt manner. Find out more about lead con...

Early in August, Facebook introduced a version of its Dynamic Ads product that enables real estate agents to retarget people who browse home and apartment listings on their sites with ads on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook’s Dynamic Ads for Real Estate can promote a home’s price, availability, and bedroom count to people who browsed your real estate website. Facebook’s Dynamic Ads for Real Estate are as straightforward as the name suggests. Much like its Dynamic Ads for Retail and for Travel, this variation takes an advertiser’s product catalog — in this case, a real estate agent’s listings — and converts those listings into ads that will appear in the Facebook and Instagram feeds of people who had checked out similar listings on the agent's website. According to Facebook’s documentation , each home listing that a real estate agents uploads include an image of the property, as well as its address, price, and availability. It can also include information like the number of ...

Mobile IS the future, there is no denying it. Countless studies can back this up - and now the most popular social network, Facebook, will penalise sites that aren’t optimised for mobile. Facebook announced a few new tweaks to its News Feed algorithm -- most notably, perhaps, was the announcement that links to sites that aren't optimized for mobile viewing. Facebook will now start taking link loading speed into account when deciding how to rank posts in the News Feed, to improve user experience for more than half of users who access the site via mobile devices. While you might think that Facebook is not that important, consider that there are 1.15 billion mobile daily active users for December 2016, an increase of 23 percent year-over-year.  (Source:  Facebook as of 2/01/17) This is hugely significant and shows the dramatic growth of mobile traffic on Facebook.  Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 87 percent of advertising revenue for Q2....

With more than half of the year already in the rearview mirror, we take a look at some of the marketing trends that have dominated in the real estate industry this year and how you can take advantage of it before the end of 2017. Lights, camera, action! Live streaming and video marketing continue to make headway into every industry and real estate is no different. By adding real estate video marketing to your digital marketing strategy, you are making your site a valuable commodity for those looking to buy or sell property which will keep them coming back for more and even refer leads to you. If you are into live-streaming then have a look at Facebook and Instagram’s live-streaming offerings. Read more about video marketing at the links below. Video marketing for real estate - here is what you need to know   |  5 Little-known Instagram features you should be using for your real estate brand  Content is King (but you knew that) Content marketing has a...

In a social media landscape that’s constantly changing, building a solid foundation of evergreen content that can be shared and shared again should be a key part of your social media strategy. While fresh content is always best, we don’t always have time to write new posts. Evergreen content is always a great solution for time-strapped real estate agents - and resharing your evergreen content is not a spammy tactic when it is done responsibly. We’ll get to how to do that in a minute. Resharing does two things for you - firstly it gets your content in front of the readers that need the info you are supplying, and secondly, it helps free-up your time to either follow-up on leads or answers those social interactions that you don’t always have time for. However, the most important part of resharing your content (when done right!) is that it is good for your SEO. Truth is that the more interactions you have on content from social media, the better your real estate website looks to...