If you’ve researched digital marketing, you most likely heard the phrase ‘content is king. In the world of digital, those that create the best content generate the most traffic, the most conversions, and the most leads. That is especially true in real estate. In an industry where demand exceeds know-how, the companies that provide the most value in their content marketing strategies will resonate with the most people.
But what is content marketing, and how can real estate agents create content that will resonate with their audience? This article will define what content marketing is and what types of content real estate agents should be creating.
Content marketing for real estate can be defined as any sort of digital asset you create to promote your real estate business and close more deals. That can include but is not limited to property listings, blog articles, website copy, YouTube videos, infographics, and podcast audio. Real estate businesses can use these assets to educate and connect with potential clients. This can lead to generating more leads and closing more deals. Some examples of content often used by real estate professionals include:
These are just a few of the common types of digital content that real estate businesses often create.
Content marketing is important for real estate for a few reasons:
First, it allows agents and brokers to sell their expertise before converting a client. Real estate sales cycles are often very long and often there is a knowledge gap between real estate agents and buyers/sellers. Real estate professionals can leverage content marketing to educate their potential clients and earn their trust. By nurturing these potential clients effectively, it can lead to more conversions in the future.
Also, developing smart content marketing strategies can help real estate businesses convert more direct leads when people are searching for their services. By having a solid understanding of how potential clients find real estate professionals, you can better position your content so that your brand is where they are searching.
Read more on why content marketing is important for real estate.
Your content marketing strategy will vary based on the type of client you are trying to convert. Follow these steps to create a marketing strategy that fits your business model.
The first step in creating a content marketing strategy is to identify your target audience. If you're a sales agent, you are likely targeting a demographic above the age of 30. If you are a rental agent, you may be looking to target a younger demographic. If you are a commercial real estate agent, you are targeting businesses (B2B) instead of consumers (B2C). Even sales agents can reap the benefits of a good B2B real estate marketing strategy. This is an important step in building your content strategy, as it will guide not only what your message is, but where to get that message out.
Once you’ve identified your target audience, the next step is to craft a message for that audience. This is often the hardest part of the process, as it requires a bit of creativity. Start by asking yourself this: What are my client’s pain points and what type of content can I produce to address those? If you are targeting buyers and sellers, you may want to produce content around the home-buying or home-selling process. For commercial real estate agents, you may want to create market reports and multifamily analyses within your target market.
Google is a great tool for this. Start by Googling your service and your location. So if you’re a sales agent in NYC, google ‘NYC real estate. About halfway down the search results page, you’ll see a section labeled ‘People also ask’. This is what most people are searching for after they search ‘NYC real estate,’ and almost all of these questions are great ideas for your content strategy.
Digital marketing tools such as Keywords Everywhere can also help you research monthly search volume for keywords that your potential clients are searching. By building your content strategy around these keywords, you’ll be more likely to be visible when potential clients perform these searches.
Now you’ve identified your audience and you’ve crafted your message, the last step in the process is to identify what platforms you can use to broadcast your content. This will vary based on 2 factors:
1. Your Strengths - If you dislike writing but you like shooting videos, you may want to start a video blog or YouTube channel to educate your clients rather than a website blog. If you’re great with numbers but not so great with video, you might want to focus your content strategy on creating in-depth market reports and trends analyses.
2. Your Target Audience - Where does your target audience spend their time on the internet? If your target audience is business owners over the age of 40, youre likely not using TikTok and Instagram to reach that demographic. LinkedIn is great for B2B marketing, but YouTube may not be the best channel to use for B2B. Ultimately, you’ll have to figure how where your target audience spends their most time online and figure out how to get your content there.
There isn’t a single digital marketing channel that does not require some sort of content strategy. Even if you're posting memes on Facebook, you still need to put some words on the picture that will make your audience giggle. Here’s how content marketing fits into some of the most common types of digital marketing.
Website Design/Development - Have you ever seen a website without any words? If you did, you probably didn’t stay on it very long. The content you write for your website must be well-researched, well-written, professional, and able to sell your value proposition. You need a good content strategy for this.
Social Media Marketing - Even if you're just posting Facebook or LinkedIn updates, you still need some sort of content to do it. For paid social media campaigns, the quality of your content often determines your reach and your ad engagement.
Pay-Per Click Campaigns - In both Google Ads and Facebook Ads, your ad copy is a critical factor for both conversion rates and potential reach. Just like your website copy, it needs to be keyword optimized and conversion-focused.
Video Marketing - Video can be a powerful tool for real estate professionals to broadcast their content and sell their services. Content can be everything from the script you use for the video, video subtitles, and even the videography.
Email Marketing - Email is a powerful type of digital marketing that real estate agents can leverage to nature their leads and convert them into closed deals. Whether you are emailing articles that are aimed to educate and inform or sending out listings that fit your buyers criteria, the content you create for them must have an aim and a purpose.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Search engine optimization is at the process of optimizing your digital assets (websites, social media channels) so they are more likely to be rank high in search engines for specific keywords. This is where keyword research comes into play, and is a critical component if you want to generate high quality traffic that will convert. Once you know what keywords your potential clients are searching the most, you build your content strategy around those keywords.
There are so many options for real estate professionals when it comes to digital content. They can range from funny to cautionary, promotional to informative. Here are the most common ways real estate professionals leverage content to generate more business.
1. Property Listing Assets - The quality of your listing descriptions and images/videos directly correlate to the quantity of clicks and conversions they generate. This should come as no surprise, but listings with rich descriptions, high quality photos and video perform better than those without.
2. Website/Blog Content - Writing articles that are informative is great way to establish credibility and trust with potential deals. Writing promotional website copy that highlights your unique differentiators is also necessary to convert them from a website visitor to a lead.
3. Reviews/Testimonials - Word of mouth advertising is and has always been a huge lead source for real estate agents. That still exists in digital marketing in the form of reviews and testimonials. Many potential clients will research your reviews in places like Google My Business, Facebook and Yelp before reaching out to you. Focus on driving positive reviews in these places, and you’ll be much more successful at converting them.
4. Video Marketing - Video marketing for real estate took on a whole new meaning during COVID. The number of properties that sold as ‘sight unseen’ reached a level nobody ever imagined. Now creating high quality property videos is something that many clients expect, and could potentially be a huge competitive advantage if you can do it well.
5. SEO - Content is at the top of the priority list when it comes to optimizing your digital properties for search traffic. You must first research keyword volume, identify your top keywords to target, then optimize your content for those keywords.
Your content marketing strategy is a critical component to building your digital real estate brand. It will be difficult if not impossible for you to generate any significant stream of new business online without it. As long as you do the research and play to your strengths, you will be able to execute a content marketing strategy that will resonate with your audience which can lead to more real estate deals.
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