Will AI Change How We Market In Real Estate?
Does anyone else feel like AI's moment has finally arrived? Will artificial intelligence finally become a valuable tool in marketing and in our lives?
With all of the hype around ChatCPT, it certainly seems that way.
As I sit down to write this post, I am reminded of Morpheus in the Matrix when he said ...
"We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to AI"
It was an epic moment that captivated a generation. If you've seen the movie though, you know how that ended up for them.
Is AI about to end the world of marketing as we know it?
Definitely not. But this seems to be the fear of so many marketers out there. AI is somehow going to replace humans and our place in the marketing ecosystem.
"AI will not replace your role in real estate marketing, a human USING AI will".
Without a doubt, this is a far more likely scenario. The appeal of AI is undeniable and its use cases are so vast that it has already created such gravity, it is now unstoppable. So for real estate marketers (and marketers in general), the race is on to understand this powerful new technology and leverage its capabilities in order to beat the competition in a whole new game.
AI is an almost level playing field
Because AI is so new (especially leveraging applications like ChatGPT) the clock has been somewhat reset in terms of competition. Everyone has a new chance to be first to market in terms of leveraging artificial intelligence.
The David Vs Goliath Challenge / Opportunity in AI
Intuitively most readers would assume that larger more well-capitalized vendors/companies would have a significant advantage when it comes to the adoption of artificial intelligence since (in general) they have more sophisticated technology & marketing teams and much larger budgets than individual agents or small teams/brokerage. Keller Williams or EXP is certainly Goliath in this sense.
However, their size is also their weakness.
Historically large companies are bogged down in bureaucracy and incredibly slow to implement anything (let alone a brand-new, poorly understood type o marketing).
An imperfect plan that is actually executed is better than a perfect plan that never happens.
This is where agents, teams, and smaller brokers have their opportunity to win. The decision tree is typically a department of one!
And so all you need to do is decide to do it, then do it! Easy enough right?
Where do you get started with AI in real estate?
That is the million-dollar question, isn't it?
First, you do need to learn a little more about AI and how it works.
More importantly, you need to understand its risks and limitations so that you are prepared to properly implement the use of AI without making major blunders that could impact you negatively down the line.
Risks of using AI for your marketing.
The following is a list of risks you must be aware of when using AI in marketing
- AI's information is often time limited. This means it is not necessarily as current or accurate as you might hope. ChatGPT for instance is mostly trained on data gathered before 2021 and so certain statistics or data points it might render may no longer be valid or accurate. So be sure to check any stats or numbers suggested.
- May generate incorrect information: This is especially true when you ask it to generate articles or writeups with limited information. It is CRITICAL (especially if you're using AI for generating listing writeups and the like, that you review and correct all inaccuracies. They will happen and this can lead to some serious compliance issues or even lawsuits.
- May violate search engine TOS: Search engines such as Google have publicly stated that relying solely on AI-generated content for your website, blog or any other online publication IS a violation of their spam guidelines. They consider it machine generate content (spam) just like any other machine-generated content. So if you are planning on using AI as a quick fix for you SEO, just know that a heft penalty could be on your way. And this could be quite difficult to recover from.
- AI-generated content IS detectable: While an individual piece of content looks well written and is quite impressive... you only need to run AI a few times before you start to see the duplication, the repetition, and the obvious patterns emerge in the content. It's really not as slick as you think. As such, it stands to reason that if YOU can easily spot the repetition, a search engine can easily do the same with their billions of dollars worth of data parsing technology. Also, AI programs themselves have stated they often plan to embed a digital signature in order to detect use (and abuse) of their platform.
5 great ways to use AI in real estate marketing
Now that you know some of the ways you should "not" us AI / artificial intelligence in real estate marketing it's time to start thinking about some ways you "can" use it.
Here are some great ways to get started:
#1: Create an email campaign: If I had to guess, this has been on your list for a long time. Am I right? And you probably haven't done it because you don't feel you're a great writer, a perfectionist, or you don't have time... or (insert excuse here). With ChatGPT you can have it done for you! Just tell it what you want it to do. For example: "Write me a series of follow-up emails. These emails should be friendly in tone and no more than 200 words per email. These emails talk about how I (Morgan Carey) am a real estate agent. I specialize in helping people get their homes sold for the most money in the least amount of time." - That's it! Let it do its thing. Your mind will be blown!
#2: Do research (Save time): In real estate, one of the most important content categories is area pages. And half of the time it takes to write/produce high-quality pages is researching each area in detail and coming up with interesting points to talk about. Have ChatGPT do this for you. "provide me a list of 10 interesting things related to the city of Nanaimo for an article I'm writing on Nanaimo Real Estate."
You can then take this content and rewrite it in your own words (careful not to copy and paste). Ensure you add your own flavor and local expertise or commentary to the content so that it comes across as authoritative and has your own unique voice.
#3: Suggest FAQs: You're sleeping on FAQs, aren't you? I bet you are! FAQ or "Frequently Asked Questions" are a content type that google LOVES! It's also a really easy way to flesh out your content and make it more helpful. These can be a huge boost in search engines. So what do you do? ChatGPT, please suggest 10 FAQs about the town of Youbou in British Columbia. BAM you get a list.
Now again, this is all about getting research and ideas. (Do NOT copy-paste!). What you should do is pick the best FAQs you think are relevant, and then rewrite them in your own words. The same with the answers. Take the time to write it out in your voice, in your words, and add any additional information you feel would be helpful and relevant.
#4: Write better listing descriptions: Some agents are REALLY bad at writing descriptions for their listings. You can use ChatGPT and other AI tools (openAI or other) to write, or rewrite your property descriptions. We need to be honest here. AI is "generally" a better writer than most of us. So go ahead and use it for listings. But be sure to check for accuracy (this is bold for a reason!), and of course, ensure you provide it with all the most important details of the property so that it can include it in the listing description. "ChatGPT please write me a description of this property. It is a single-family home in the neighborhood of South Jingle Pot, it is listed at $5,000,000 and has 6 beds and 9 baths. It is just over 10,000 square feet and has a gym, a music room, and 2 epic kitchens."
#5: Edit/fix your articles: Don't have a masters in English? To be honest, we ALL should use Grammarly.com (and pay for the full edition, it's such an amazing tool. (I get nothing from them, but they deserve a shout-out because it is one of the best products in the world for marketing. But if you don't want to spring for Grammarly just yet, you can use ChatGPT or other services to give you feedback and help you edit your content for spelling, and punctuation, make grammar recommendations, etc. Example: "ChatGPT, please check this article for spelling errors, correct punctuation, and suggest edits that can make it flow better"
And there you have it! You've started to explore the exciting world of AI!
Because it's new, PLEASE use it with caution. Don't take an inch of awesome and spread it into a mile of spam. You don't want a million blogs or a billion area pages. You want 10 really good content pillars, well supported and "AI-enabled" not AI produced.
And remember this quote:
"AI will not replace your role in real estate marketing, a Realtor® USING AI will".
If you'd like to discuss this article, join our forums. I've started a thread on AI for real estate marketing here.
Posted by Morgan Carey on
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