A new survey from Virtuance shows that more than 95% of real estate agents are using professional photography, the highest adoption rate since the company began its surveys in 2019.

Virtuance is a nationwide real estate photography company that uses a proprietary automated image processing system called HDReal with a mission to offer the world’s premier real estate visual marketing solution.

Virtuance asked real estate professionals to complete a survey to gather data, drawing 400 responses. The survey’s focus was to determine what marketing efforts and business challenges professionals faced in 2022 and what marketing efforts, topics, and business goals they had for 2023.

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The most interesting findings were:

• Agents’ top goals haven’t changed since the beginning of Virtuance’s surveys in 2019. Agents agree they want to generate more leads, increase referrals, and sell listings faster and for more money.
• Since 2020, most agents haven’t changed their marketing strategy. However, if agents have, they’re focused on building a better online presence and adopting digital marketing.
• Going into 2023, agents believe real estate professionals should focus on five marketing efforts: staying in touch with previous clients; building a social media presence; investing in professional listing marketing content (such as 3D tours, professional photography, and floor plans); creating more videos; and educating their clients.
• There was a 20% drop in email marketing and a 22% drop in social media marketing usage since 2019. This is likely due to a constantly changing social media and digital landscape, making it difficult for professionals to learn and adapt.
• SEO and social media marketing are two topics agents are interested in learning more about. Fifty-five percent of surveyed agents want to learn more about SEO in 2023, and 48% want to learn more about social media marketing.
• More than 96% of agents are active on Facebook, but LinkedIn usage has dropped by 20% since 2019.

Past research has shown the importance of Virtuance’s professional photography in capturing buyers’ attention longer than other photography solutions, which is further solidified by real estate professionals’ adoption of professional photography.

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