If you’re looking to boost your real estate marketing, you’re probably trying to figure out the best way to go about it.

The saying “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” certainly rings true for marketing in the real estate industry, making it all the more difficult to decide what tactics are best suited to you.

As an agent, your ultimate marketing goals should be to showcase your skills and your listings in the hope of attracting new potential buyers and vendors. And to achieve these goals, you want your strategy to be inexpensive, timely and effective.

The ‘digital vs. traditional’ marketing debate will no doubt continue to be a hotly-contested topic of discussion between younger agents who arguably spend more time in the online world than the real world, and older agents who’ve been practicing real estate longer than the younger agents have been alive.

Everybody loves progress, but nobody likes change – especially when the change is forced upon us. But nobody can deny the growth of the Internet and social media, and as an agent you’d be a fool not to join the revolution.

Traditional marketing strategies were highly utilised before the rise of the Internet. Inexpensive choices such as business cards and ads in the newspaper were popular options, while those with larger budgets opted for ads on television and on the radio.

There’s no denying that at the time, these marketing techniques were very effective. Television and radio had been around for decades, newspapers even longer, and were the mediums people used to get their fix of news and entertainment (and in turn exposure to advertisements).

However it could be argued that the only reason traditional marketing practices were so effective back then compared to today is because those mediums were the only options people had, and when something better came along – i.e. the Internet – it was only a matter of time before the older techniques became redundant.

The problem with traditional methods – that most people just accepted – is that, depending on location and budget, they will comparatively only reach a small number of people, and there was no way to ensure that the people they were reaching were even your target audience.

What’s the benefit of a television ad about your agency reaching an audience if there’s no guarantee they’ve even interested in buying or selling?

Another downside is that it’s virtually impossible to track whether these advertisements are even generating results. Taking a shot in the dark is not something you want to be doing when your hard earned money is at stake.

These problems, as well as the plethora of advantages the Internet boasts over traditional practices, are why agents have been flocking to the digital world to promote their business and their listings.

You only need to know that almost 90 per cent of potential buyers are now using online tools to search for their next property to realise the Internet has endless opportunities to increase both sales and brand awareness.

Opting to market digitally rather than advertise using traditional media sources not only saves you money, but also has more potential to make you money. For a low price, you’re able reach large numbers of targeted groups of people with a targeted message.

These strategies allow you to hit your target market that has shown a proven interest in what you have to offer. Stick a print ad on page 35 of your local paper and you’re likely to generate a miniscule fraction of the business you would have had you chosen the digital route.

However quite possibly the biggest benefit of choosing digital marketing strategies is the data and analytics that comes with it. By investing in traditional methods, you’re essentially pouring money into plans that aren’t easily measured or worse, can’t be measured at all.

Insights such as how many people saw your ad, how many people interacted with it, how they interacted with it and how long they spent looking at it are all easily accessible through digital marketing using the right tools.

Developing social channels is also a fantastic way of building relationships with current and potential clients while at the same time developing brand awareness, authority and trust in the local market.

The ability and the ease of which you can target specific audiences, at specific times with specific messages is what sets digital marketing apart from traditional methods. Coupled with the insights and analytics you receive from these messages, you soon realise what is (and isn’t) working for you.

But knowing all the upsides and endless amounts of positive results digital marketing can achieve for you, why are some agents so insistent on relying on traditional methods?

It could quite possibly come down to the fear of the unknown. If you don’t know what you’re doing or have little experience in digital marketing, social media and the Internet in general can seem a very scary place.

Sticking to familiar methods that are easy to understand can be tempting, but at this point in time with the real estate industry currently undertaking massive change and the digital world growing as rapidly as it is, you either hop on and enjoy the ride or get left behind. A strong online presence simply cannot be understated.

The reality is that to succeed at digital marketing, you must first make a lot of mistakes – it’s just the way it works. But the mistakes will only help you learn and bring you closer to finding something that works for you.

Traditional marketing will continue to have a place in today’s real estate industry for as long as people continue to use it. But the results and return on investment it provides you compared to those from digital, you’d be wise to take the leap and enter the realms of the online world.