The most successful companies all around the world have one thing in common; they provide value to their customers. This is especially true in the real estate industry. People are naturally attracted to people or companies that offer them value, be in the form of goods, services or content (media).
Content marketing takes advantage of this human psychology by creating valuable and informational content that helps their prospects and customers make better decisions. By providing content that is useful; you automatically build trust for yourself while at the same time, you are establishing yourself as a professional real estate agent. When content marketing is done right, it will generate more leads and sales. Real estate is a media-rich industry that uses photographs, videos, virtual tours and articles. You can tailor all these types of content to educate and entertain your audience, while at the same time, building a relationship that will put you at the top of their mind whenever they (or a friend of theirs) need a real estate agent.
This article looks at seven content marketing ideas that will help boost your website traffic, increase engagement and establish your credibility as a real estate agent.
Create Buyer/Seller Guides
Create an in-depth downloadable e-book offering step by step advice for buying/selling homes and explaining the process from start to finish. Put these guides behind lead capture forms to exchange contact information before downloading. You can then nurture these leads with emails linking to articles, available listings, market research etc.
Create Market Update and Forecast Reports
Another surefire way to increase your credibility is to provide growth statistics and analysis of the real estate industry based on current trends. This can be in the form of a whitepaper and it must also be used along with a lead capture form. This type of content is mostly useful if you’re a commercial real estate agent because investors looking to invest in real estate are usually interested in such reports.
Create Content around your Local Listings
The best way to market your listings is to create valuable content around it that people will find useful. For example, if someone was interested in buying a house in the Chicago area, they won’t immediately look for houses for sale. The first thing they will do is to research how life in the area would be.
By creating valuable content and then adding a call-to-action to check houses for sale in that area increases the chances that you will get high quality leads. Examples of blog posts you can use to attract and engage prospects include:
- Reviews of local restaurants, businesses, parks, bars and night clubs
- Reviews of schools, hospitals and other institutions
- Interview local experts and influencers such as school principals, business owners and city officials on what makes the community special
Feature Local Businesses
You can feature local businesses that complement you as a real estate agent. Businesses into interior decoration are a perfect example of this kind of partnership. Some quick tips:
- Only feature companies who either have a strong online following or a large pool of referrals or both.
- Allow guest posts from the founders of these companies and also post on their website blog to generate back-links
- Don’t feature businesses that are desperate or shady; it will rub off on you negatively
Answer Popular Customer Questions
Research the comment section of your blog and several other real estate blogs and note down the most common questions people are asking. Based on your real estate expertise, create one blog post addressing each question. You can decide to publish the article every week or every month. Make sure each article is optimized for search engines.
Create How-To Content
Create step by step educational “How To” articles that shares your knowledge and experience in dealing with issues your prospects might be facing. By sharing this knowledge, you’ll provide instant value and show customers you’re someone who knows what they’re talking about.
Use Different Types of Content
In order to increase the amount of traction your content gets, create various types of content that will be distributed across different social media platforms. A simple tactic would be to create variations of your most in-depth articles.
Types of content include:
- Images
- Infographics
- Slides
- Videos
- Blog Posts
Do you think we missed any other great content marketing ideas? Let us know in the comment section.
