The Ultimate Real Estate Marketing Materials Checklist

First impressions are everything, especially for those looking to stand out in highly competitive industries. Real estate marketing materials can inform and establish trust among potential customers while also improving brand awareness, hence putting effort into creating the perfect set of visuals is important.

Whether you’re looking to reach potential buyers and clients, bring in more quality leads, or boost commission intake, one thing is certain—you need to start investing in high-quality real estate marketing materials. 

But navigating around so many options and settings can be a time-consuming task, which is why we did the legwork for you.

From business cards and brochures to social media ads, we’ve got you covered—here’s an extensive list of the most popular real estate marketing materials and templates to help your business thrive:

A. Print Real Estate Marketing Materials

The perks of print advertising are difficult to dislodge. A study conducted by the U.S. Postal Service Office shows that print marketing materials have better review time, higher memory retrieval accuracy, and cause fewer trust issues among audiences. 

Research conducted by Martin Lindstrom states that media appealing to more than three senses can boost a brand’s impact and engagement by more than 70 percent. 

Here are the real estate print marketing materials that offer the best bang for the buck:

1. Real Estate Business Cards

Business cards are small, visually attractive cardboards that carry essential information about your business and brand, including the name, logo, contact information, social channels, and website. 

But are business cards important, or still relevant in 2020?

Take a look at your wallet. Do you see a random business card somewhere in there? Chances are that you do, mostly because people print no less than 27 million of them daily.

If my previous case does not convenience you, skim through Statistic Brain Research Institute’s 2018 study reporting that for each 2000 business cards, owners get a 2.5% increase in sales. Given the low cost of production of business cards, generating a 2.5 % increase in sales is unquestionably a high ROI (return on investment).

With so many business cards being printed and spread out, it’s imperative to find ways of getting yours noticed. Great real estate business cards require flawless design and texture, and not paying enough attention to these aspects may result in scarring potential customers away, a recent survey by Instantprint shows. According to the same survey, receiving low-quality business cards left 40% of respondents with a negative perception towards the advertised business or brand.

But what if you can’t afford to hire a professional to design your business card, especially one that charges around $68.50 per hour? 

Luckily, you still stand a chance to increase sales with the help of an accessible design tool. For example, Creatopy has plenty of real estate business card templates for you to customize and print:

2. Real Estate Brochures

We live in a digital-first world, and while investing in printed materials like brochures may seem counterproductive to some, researchers claim the opposite. Studies show that senses can deliver an improved brand experience that is based on memory and emotions.

Real estate brochures are a powerful marketing asset, mainly because they find potential customers on the verge of making a buying decision. This is why brochures are designed to be both educational and informative, despite them still being promotional paper documents handed out with the purpose of advertising listings and services. 

There are many brochure types for you to choose from, and you can fold them into pamphlets or leaflets. Below you can find a few real estate brochure templates that are up for grabs in Creatopy, for free:

3. Real Estate Postcards

According to NAR’s Home Buyer and Seller Generational 2019 Trends, sending out postcards has proved to be a selling method that outperforms TV and real estate magazine features. Therefore, attracting more listings and clients with real estate postcards is an achievable goal. 

While mailing physical cards can be perceived as “old-school”, there are many innovative real estate postcard ideas and strategies that you can employ to stand out from the crowd. You can turn postcards into vouchers, send thank you cards, or deliver personal invitations to open houses, and I’m just naming a few.

Designing real estate postcards that work is no longer a complicated process, especially with so many tools available. If you’d like to use Creatopy for this project, just browse through our template gallery, find a design that you like, and customize it with your brand assets and listings. It’s that simple.

Here are a few templates that you can start from:

4. Real Estate Flyers

Real estate flyers are a classic yet effective way to attract potential buyers, plus they are affordable and easy to distribute. Realtors can use flyers for many purposes and on many occasions, including advertising services, exclusive deals, listings, and open house viewings.

If done right, flyers can make a great first impression. Elements like photos, illustrations, text, and colors are essential to a flyer’s success, therefore using a real estate flyer template is an excellent idea that can save you a lot of time.

5. Real Estate Posters

Poster advertising is one of the oldest practices, dating back to the 1800s, and though it has changed over the years, it looks like this compelling promotional technique is here to stay.

A real estate poster can help you advertise your listings and promote your brand without spamming or annoying potential buyers. Statista looked at the share of consumers who felt annoyed by poster advertising, and the majority of respondents (31%) stated that posters don’t bother them at all, and it’s easy to understand why—if not interested, they can simply look away. 

Poster advertising is not only reliable but also cost-effective, as printing a poster is a relatively cheap process. Plus, graphic design has become more accessible to the general public thanks to the many available tools and the poster templates that they make available.

We recently published a DIY guide on how to make a poster to steer you in the right creative direction.
After you’ve finished reading the guide, you can start working on your visual right away, using our free online poster maker. 

B. Digital Real Estate Marketing Materials

Digital marketing relies heavily on display advertising, thanks to its high potential to drive customers. According to NAR, in 2018, no less than 44% of home buyers looked for properties online. Digital ads can be a cost-effective affair, allowing advertisers to use advanced targeting and measuring techniques and make the most of their money.  

Online marketing has become such a massive phenomenon that not investing in at least one digital advertising platform is likely to give you “Marketing FOMO.”

Here are a few digital marketing materials and ads that made the list:

1. Website 

When it comes to online presentation materials, a nice real estate website can get you a long way. A well-designed, informational site should be at the core of all your marketing efforts, as it enhances your capability to establish a powerful brand identity while also assisting you in developing meaningful connections with potential buyers.

According to NAR (National Association of Realtors), 90% of real estate firms are already present online and have websites, which has to be convenient since 93% of home buyers gather their information from online sites.

2. Email Marketing: Email Headers and Newsletter Templates

Did you know that 63% of real estate email marketing campaigns receive a positive reaction? Moreover, 38% of U.S. consumers reported having taken action after being exposed to email marketing. 

Campaign Monitor analyzed 30 billion emails sent globally between January and December 2019 and dropped some great news for real estate professionals: the industry that witnessed the highest click-to-open rates (17.7%) in 2019 was real estate.

Email marketing can be a time-consuming endeavor, especially if your marketing department is a team of one. Still, there are a few hacks that you can use to save time, including designing a multi-purpose, branded email header and newsletter template like this one from Portico.

3. Social Media Marketing Materials

Social media visuals and ads are on the lips of every real estate agent for all the right reasons. Call it virtual networking if you like, but you really have to show up where potential buyers spend most of their time—and that’s on social media.

Over 77% of realtors use social media for advertising their listings, and that’s not surprising since social platforms gave the largest quality leads in real estate (47%). Among the most-used social platforms in real estate are Facebook (97%), LinkedIn (59%), and Instagram (39%).

Here’s an extensive list of all the social marketing materials, plus a few big-league real estate pages to get you inspired:

Facebook for Business:

• Profile photo
• Page cover photo
• Image post
• Story
• Event cover photo
• Group cover photo
• Facebook Link ads
  • Page Like ads
  • Carousel ads
  • Click to Website ads

Get business insights, resources, and solutions from Facebook here.

There are plenty of great real estate Facebook pages out there, including the ones being managed by Zillow and Zumper:

Zillow Zumper

Twitter for Business:

• Header photo
• Profile photo
• Twitter post
• Cards image
• Summary card image
• Summary card with large image

Official Twitter business tips and best practices are available here.

See how Apartment List and Century 21 keep tweets flowing:

ApartmentList Century 21

Instagram Business:

• Profile photo
• Highlights cover 
• Square image post
• Portrait image post
• Landscape image post 
• Stories | IGTV

Additional resources can be found on the official Instagram Business website here.

Instagram accounts like Luxury Homes TV and Premium Houses showcase how good photos can take you a long way in real estate:

luxury.homes_tv premiumhouses_

LinkedIn Business Solutions:

• Profile photo
• Cover photo
• Post image
• Blog post link share
• Company logo
• Page cover photo

More about LinkedIn Business Solutions here.

Although their approaches to real estate are very different, both the National Apartment Association and Apartments.com incorporate LinkedIn into their marketing strategies.

National Apartment Association Apartments.com

YouTube Brand Account:

• Channel icon
• Channel art
• Desktop and mobile display ads
• Video thumbnail

Read more on managing YouTube Brand Accounts here.

The National Association of REALTORS and the Corcoran Group are two excellent real estate marketing role models on YouTube.

National Association of REALTORS The Corcoran Group

Pinterest Business

• Profile photo
• Board cover photo
• Standard pin

Get verified Pinterest resources and information here.

Pins get a lot of attention from consumers, and despite appearances, Pinterest isn’t just a platform rewarding great visual content, but also an effective selling tool. There are several approaches brands take on Pinterest, and while pages like Architectural Digest rely on conceptual visuals, others like Avon Berkshire Hathaway Home Services use boards to advertise listings.

Avon Berkshire Hathaway Home Services NEP

Architectural Digest

4. Create Online Banner Ads With Creatopy

When designing online banner ads, paying attention to sizes, aspect ratio, file formats, and word count can take too much time. With Creatopy, you don’t have to worry about managing the technical specs of your ads or Googling sizes simply because our design platform takes care of everything, ensuring that all ads are valid and ready for publishing. 

Plus, Creatopy takes the hassle out of banner design with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and plenty of professional real estate banner templates, so if you’re looking for a powerful yet accessible banner maker, we suggest giving our design production platform a try.

Below are the most popular real estate online banner types and formats:

• Static banners are the classic square banners or ads that you can spot around web content.

• Animated banners are ads that contain animated elements that move across the screen. Use our HTML5 editor to make banner ads move, fade, blur, and slide without any coding and technical skills.

• Pop-up ads are the small windows that show up when browsing through website content after the user engages in a specific action.
• Ad Tag ads feature code snippets that deliver an advanced HTML script or iframe designed to work on a specific Ad network to withstand high volumes of traffic, removing the file size restrictions imposed by an Ad network.
• Video Ads are small promotional videos that play automatically or require manual input from the user. You can create this type of ads using Creatopy’s online video ad creator.

Print vs. Digital 

Probably the marketing dilemma of the decade, the so-called “Print vs. Digital” debate could not have been left out of the discussion.

It’s hard to find the downside of using “too many” channels and marketing materials in the interest of promotion and sales, just because there’s no such thing. A solid strategy should center on strengthening the promotion outlets that are most suitable for your business model, niche, and most importantly, target audience. However, make sure that you retain brand consistency by building a strong, distinct visual identity.

Back to the question at hand: Should you invest in digital ads more or put all your money on print? 

Truth is that you cannot see a quick, major boost in revenue unless you focus on both.

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, we also published a list of actionable real estate marketing tips.