The Basics Of Content Marketing For Real Estate Agents

They say “Content is king”. And there’s a good reason why.

Businesses that use content marketing are generating more traffic, more engagement and more leads.

But why?

Because people are more likely to engage with businesses that they know, like and trust. Content marketing for real estate agent enables them to “build a relationship” with potential vendors and buyers that increases the chances of them “buying” (or listing) from you.

THE ADDED BONUS: Content marketing is generally cheaper than paid advertising!

To read our COMPLETE Guide to Property Marketing that wins more instructions, click here and make sure your marketing campaigns are optimised for great results.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the creation of various types of content that add value to your target customers. Content is not about selling!

It all comes back down to the sales funnel and the idea that more customers will convert if you have taken them through a process where you engaged, educated, entertained or otherwise added value to them.

To learn more about the sales funnel and how it works to help convert people into actual customers, click here.

Great content marketing for estate agents includes:

• Video
• Website/Blog
• Social Media
• Emails
• Newsletters

How Content Marketing Helps Estate Agents Create More Leads?

A good content marketing strategy:

1. Helps You Improve Your SEO & Get Found More In Google Search

Creating content like blogs and video helps you get found more in search. Hubspot found, for example, that businesses that published 16 blogs per month generated 3.5x more traffic to their websites than businesses who posted less.

Have a look at these 10 Ways To Boost SEO For Estate Agents to start getting more leads from search to see other things you could be doing to get found by customers more easily.

2. Boosts Your Credibility & Can Make You An Authority

Great content that answers your target customers’ questions and provides them with information they need, helps them to see you as an expert. Who are they more likely to go to when they need a particular service? The business they think is the expert!

3. Increases Your “Touchpoints” With Potential Customers

Touchpoints are the number of times a customer comes across you. Research suggests it takes an average of 8 touchpoints for someone to want to buy from you. Useful content provides a good reason for a customer to encounter you those 8 times.

8 touchpoints could include emails sharing value,social media posts with educational video or attractive photography and blog posts providing answers to questions they have.

4. Is Shareable

The holy grail of marketing and sales – when people do it for you! A useful blog post, attractive home inspiration or an educational video are exactly the sort of things people share with their friends, family and colleagues. When this happens you’re basically getting free advertising!

How To Create Great Content

The key to great content is to add value. It’s not about creating blogs or video for the sake of it. Great content provides answers to questions your customers are looking for; it inspires, educates or entertains them.

3 Steps To Content Marketing

1. Determine what your target customers want to hear
2. Provide content around what they’re looking for
3. Get the content in front of them

Step 1: Determine What Your Potential Customers Want To Hear

Remember, your potential clients – buyers and vendors probably want to hear different things. It’s therefore important to know who you’re focusing on before you start producing content.

A great place to start when answering this question is to have a look at what things they are searching for in Google. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner to see what people search for and Buzzsumo for inspiration around popular content.

The example shows how many searches are made each month around the subject of mortgage deposits. As this is a heavily searched topic, this could be a great subject for content if buyers are the target.

Some other great places to look:

• As you start to type something in the Google search box, a dropdown box shows other popular, similar searches.
• The Google search results show a short list of related subjects in a box called “People Also Ask”

Another smart way of discovering what your customers want is to look at your competitors who are having content success. 

Step 2: Provide Content Around What They’re Looking For

Great content for estate agents will address the things you discover in Step 1.

If you discover your target customer is searching for staging tips – create content around that. If they’re looking for tips around selling a property quickly, create that.

The point is not to create content that serves your needs or what you find interesting. Find out what people want and focus on that.

Step 3: Get In Front Of Them

Once you’ve started creating content, you need the target customer to see it! Have a look at these 10 best property marketing tips for some inspiration.

Some examples of where you might get in front of your target customer:

• Your estate agent website
• Blog
• Email
• Social Media
• Paid Ads (example: Facebook Ads)
• Partnerships
• Traditional Marketing

Content Marketing Ideas For Estate Agents

Your content can be written or visual.

Once you find out what the subject of your content should be, you could try:

• How-to posts or video tutorials
• Inspiring photo posts on social media
• Property & Point Of Interest trailers
• List posts (example: 10 best… /15 quick…)
• Local news & events
• Relocation Guides
• Tips and tricks
• Tackling common problems
• Ebooks

With an increasingly competitive property market, it’s vital that successful estate agents are engaging in best practices for creating winning listings alongside a range of well executed property marketing strategies.