Marketing hyperlocally: Many agents aren’t doing it, and it could be helping your business

Local knowledge is “extremely important” to the majority of potential and actual clients, according to agents, teams, broker-owners and real estate execs.

The recently-released Hyperlocal Real Estate Survey, found that 28 percent of real estate professionals find local real estate knowledge “very important,” and only 5 percent find local knowledge “somewhat” important. However, 34 percent of respondents reported specializing in a large regional area, 28 percent said a metro area and 21 percent said a city or town. Only 11 percent specialize in neighborhoods, while 6 percent reported they do not specialize in a specific area.

Despite this, connecting with local residents isn’t a priority for many Realtors® and brokers. Only 39 percent reported using marketing tools to interact with local residents. Seventeen percent use Nextdoor, while 15 percent use neighborhood websites. Only 7 percent reported having a blog. Yet, 42 percent said they are “very knowledgeable” about local happenings, events and changes that impact the real estate market, while 38 percent said they are “extremely knowledgeable.”

Nearly three-quarters of respondents said Facebook is their top marketing tool to connect with local consumers in their area. About 10 percent use Instagram and 5 percent use Twitter to promote their business. Yet, nearly half of respondents said social media is “not important” or only “somewhat important” to their business. And 90 percent of agents feel having client reviews online is valuable. Ten percent said the reviews aren’t valuable, or they aren’t sure.

Despite lack of passion about marketing hyperlocally, more than two-third of respondents reported they would be interested in “an automated social media platform focused specifically on the local neighborhoods.”