Content Marketing in Real Estate: How to Get Attention and Stay Relevant

In 1885 John Deere launched its magazine The Furrow. Rather than just push John Deere products, it provided advice and information to farmers looking to make their properties profitable. By 1912 it could boast four million readers. This was an early example of the power of a trade publication and the value of content marketing. Rather than “creating a need” this method of marketing was aimed at someone who was actively looking for, or would eventually be in need of, a particular product or service (or a qualified lead). In this article, you will learn the benefits of content marketing in real estate.

The dawn of the digital age has brought about the “democratization” of content. Now anyone with an internet connection can create and promote content, reaching and holding the attention of a large number of people for a nominal cost.

Here we will be providing information about content marketing in real estate and how to use it to grow your business like a pro.

Why Content is King in Real Estate

Image by Suomy Nona from Pixabay

Content marketing is designed for a targeted audience. Where traditional marketing is more general, content marketing puts out content specific to its consumer. It provides interesting and useful information. It pays to study your audience and create personas for your real estate business and develop your real estate niche.

Real Estate has a very specific audience reliant on solid content that builds trust, brand awareness, and reputation.

You can gain many qualified leads with compelling content that drives organic traffic through SEO in real estate and provides something to share on social media.

As an industry, real estate is highly visual and much of content marketing strategy is formed around strong visual content.

Different Types of Content Marketing

Forbes shared a great piece detailing the various types of content marketing; educational, branded, email, and entrepreneurial.

Educational content is especially important if you’re a realtor who specializes in finding investment opportunities for clients.

Branded content is important to everyone as it is how you stand out from the crowd. In order to avoid being viewed as aggressive or spammy it is important to put “the story” first when building your brand.

Email content relies on the strategic execution of scheduled marketing emails to targeted groups. It will require strategy and A/B testing in order to optimize sales.

Entrepreneurial content is stressed for industries like tech (a highly entrepreneurial industry)

Written, Video, and Visual content are all aspects of content marketing which help to tell a brand’s story and should all be part of an integrated strategy.

Creating a Strategy for Content Creation

When starting your strategy for content creation there are some really basic questions that form the skeleton. Content creation is for a targeted audience. You need to know who your targeted audience is, the problems you will be solving (or the information you will be providing) what distribution channels are best, the formats (blogging? video? newsletter?) you will be using, and how you will manage these formats.

Real estate is very visual and it’s safe to say any strategy in this field will include heavy use of visuals and video. Fact sheets and glossaries can provide informative content. And the importance of SEO and storytelling in reaching out to your audience and selling your brand should be stressed in any strategy. This forms a healthy body of content and successful strategy.

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Content Marketing for Real Estate: Best Practices

Best Practices for content marketing in real estate include:

A Plan. Once you have your strategy you will want to plot it out on calendar

Being active on social media. Audience engagement and consistency are key

A Great Website. This is your first impression. Make it count. It should be clean, organized, and easy to find links to social media

Develop a blogging for real estate plan and publish new content regularly

Have strong visual content

Build an email list

Video Content Marketing

Video Content Marketing adopts the principle of producing and sharing relevant and consistent video content to your targeted group to acquire qualified leads.

In 2016 there was a surge in popularity of video in content marketing. By 2017 seventy-four percent of all internet traffic was video. It is very successful when combined with social media. Sixty-eight percent of marketers have published video content on Facebook. Of those, eighty-seven percent found it to be an effective strategy. Eighty-seven percent have published video content on YouTube. Of those, ninety percent have found it to be an effective strategy. Forty-one percent of marketers have used Instagram video. Seventy-eight percent found it to be an effective strategy. Finally, thirty-nine percent of marketers have published video content on Twitter. Out of those, seventy percent found it to be an effective strategy

Clearly video presents a great opportunity to expand your audience. But beyond this; there is the chance to “personify your brand”, an important aspect of the storytelling and trust-building crucial to successful content marketing.

Content marketing spans numerous channels and video is one of the most powerful ways to distribute your message.

Email Campaigns

Social media is often stressed in content marketing and email may seem outdated. But email marketing delivers the highest ROI of any channel for the average marketer.

An email campaign will start with a welcome email. This will thank subscribers for opting-in and give them two critical pieces of information:

What kinds of emails to expect from you in the future

Why you’re the best agent to help them buy or sell their home.

If your email campaign consists of a newsletter it will need to have informative and interesting content.

A market update email contains industry stats, a website link, and a thank you for past business.

Social Media in Content Marketing

Regular posting on Social Media should be a part of any content marketing strategy. Consistency is key. You do not have to be on every platform. If there are issues with time or resources committing to a single platform (rather than posting sporadically on multiple platforms) might be the way to go.

Choose your platform based on your overall content marketing strategy.

Facebook and Instagram are very easy to use platforms especially when your focus is ad campaigns

Facebook and Twitter are best for a strategy prioritizing engagement

Likely overlooked but not to be underestimated is Pinterest. Pinterest offers more permanence than Twitter and Facebook, where a post is quickly buried by newer content. And it’s an image driven platform which you can make work for you.

If your area leans young consider Snapchat

The main point is to consider your overall strategy and which platform works best with it. And to consistently update, engage, and share on that platform.

Image by Kevin Phillips from Pixabay

Creating a Video to Rapidly Change Your Brand Awareness

As outlined, video is rapidly becoming an essential part of content marketing, and sharing video on social media will greatly improve the reach of your message.

You can use listing videos to give potential clients a chance to experience what properties have to offer. Warmth, stunning views, layout, lighting, space.

Additionally, you may want to make a personal appearance in your video and introduce the property. This personalized approach can also be explored using voiceover. You can guide prospects through the property. Enhancing familiarity, comfort, and trust.

–>Roomvu offers automated video content when you sign up for a free account. You have options for which branded content will appear on your profile (market forecast, home maintenance, or how COVID-19 is affecting real estate). You can share this video on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and email.

Read More: Real Estate Content Marketing Ultimate Guide 2020

Your Website is the Hub for all Content You Create

You want to have an affordable fully branded compatible site with updated listings, and testimonials.

As stated earlier a great website is an important strategy box to tick. “It should be clean, organized, and easy to find links to social media”. The agent web profile can provide all of this.

–>Roomvu offers an agent web profile for free. You can sign up, set up your profile, and begin personalizing the content. It is through this process that you also gain access to your automated video which you can immediately start sharing.

Real Estate Content Marketing Ideas

The importance of a stable content pipeline cannot be overstated. Using platforms to share your brand’s story and how it ties into your audience’s translates into trust, exchange, and revenue.

Written Content: Telling of your story. Sharing of customer testimonies. And any advice you may have for buyers and sellers

Video Content: Virtual tours, drone footage of neighbourhoods, and listing videos

Visual Content: A carefully maintained database of high-resolution pictures

Social Media: A consistent and engaging social media presence

Roomvu offers the agent web profile with video integration. This combination provides:

A way to stand out with customizable branding

Updated listings and testimonials

Improved engagement and lead generation

The benefit of the established reach of sharing video on social media

Content marketing may not be a new concept. But its growth and importance in recent years is undeniable. A successful strategy will help your business get attention and stay relevant for years to come.

How do you create content in real estate?
Educational content is especially important if you’re a realtor who specializes in finding investment opportunities for clients.
Branded content is important to everyone as it is how you stand out from the crowd. In order to avoid being viewed as aggressive or spammy it is important to put “the story” first when building your brand.
Email content relies on the strategic execution of scheduled marketing emails to targeted groups. It will require strategy and A/B testing in order to optimize sales.
Entrepreneurial content is stressed for industries like tech (a highly entrepreneurial industry)