How many people pop into your neighbourhood real estate agency in a day? Compare that to the 90% of buyers who seek realtors online, out of which 70% find them through organic search. If you haven’t yet brushed up your online real estate marketing skills, there’s no better time than NOW.
People are actively seeking real estate agents online before they visit a nearby real estate firm. Imagine if your business appears on their screens, they’ll be at your door or vice versa in a matter of hours. The next big deal could be yours!
Therefore, a consistent online presence and strategic content marketing for real estate agents is a MUST in this digital age. Here are 10 sure-shot content marketing tips that can take your real estate business to unimaginable heights.
1. Share Epic Photos and Virtual Tours
A picture is worth a thousand words, but in real estate, photos and videos are everything. Take clear and vibrant property photos that accentuate its positive aspects. If you don’t have the expertise, hire a professional photographer. Yes, it’s that important!
Let’s take it up a notch higher. Why not give your audience a virtual tour of your property via your smartphone. Go live from the property or use a product like Matterport to conduct virtual open houses through augmented and virtual reality videos.
Post them on Redfin so that the buyers can drag and drop furniture to design the empty spaces according to their taste and requirements. They can look at a room from different angles through VR tours and enjoy a complete open house experience without getting a foot into the property.
2. Become an Educational Resource
Position yourself as an expert in the industry by becoming an educational resource for your ideal audience, i.e., the people looking for your services.
Besides writing about the properties on your roster, you can write helpful guides for new home-owners, first-time buyers, etc. You can write on hundreds of topics such as the jobs in your area, tips for moving with pets, or the renovations that can increase the resale value of a property. Keller Williams has a plethora of guides for both sellers and buyers.
Your blog is the best way to build a large and loyal audience. Give practical help, and people will remember your brand whenever they need information for themselves or others. They will share your valuable content and connect you to people outside your network who might need your services in the future.
3. Leverage Event-Based Marketing
Before you think about neglecting the offline events, remember that the line blurs between offline and online if you know how to leverage event-based marketing in this digital age.
Combine your content marketing efforts with offline events to build greater brand awareness. Arrange open houses and participate in brokers’ parties, industry conferences, seminars, and expert Q&A sessions. You can distribute business cards and printed listings. Leverage these opportunities to build collaborations and partnerships with builders, renovators, attorneys, etc.
Don’t forget to take many high-quality photos of these events and share them on Facebook, Instagram, or wherever your audience interacts with you. Use branded hashtags or start hashtag campaigns. Why not take it one step further? Go live from the events you attend and let your audience get a real-time glimpse into your real estate empire.
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4. Use Email Marketing
You may think that emails are outdated in this era of texting and chatbots, but according to DMA, you can expect to earn $42 for every dollar spent on email marketing.
There’s no restriction on what you can send through emails. Include the new guide you just posted or the handy checklist you just created. You can also send invitations to online events or open houses. All you need is an email list of your old, new, regular, and potential customers who have consented to receive emails from you.
Collecting emails is also straightforward. Offer free valuable resources to people who land on your website in exchange for their email address. Use email marketing to nurture a relationship and stay on top of their mind when they need your services. Use an automated tool like Mailchimp or ConvertKit to personalize your emails, create templates for your newsletters, and automate the entire process.
5. Integrate Real Estate Apps
Have you noticed that when you search for real estate agents, the SERP is dominated by apps like Zillow, Realtor, Redfin, Angieslist, etc.? They host thousands of properties and offer advanced targeting and filtering. Home sellers, buyers, and renters can easily find properties in their required price range and location with these apps.
It’s no surprise that these apps are integral to real estate marketing success. Since these apps are in smartphones, integrating them into your content marketing strategy will put your listing in your customers’ palms.
See how Brian, an NYC realtor, has kept all his listings on the Core NYC website. Remember to add proper hyperlinks, correct pricing, HD images, and active CTAs. Make it easier for buyers and sellers to contact you by keeping the contact info accurate and easy to find.
6. Pay Attention To Local SEO
Local traffic is your best friend because when people want to sell a home, they look for a local real estate agent online. Similarly, if they’re going to buy a home in an area, they’d look for agents in that particular area. These are also the people who will gladly walk into your office if you can woo them online.
Make sure your website, blogs, guides, and listings include area-specific keywords. Even if you serve a larger area, you should create a separate landing page for each location you serve.
A well-optimized Google My Business profile is a quick way to present your business to local customers and improve your local search engine optimization (SEO). Your GMB profile integrates with Google Maps and can show up in Google’s featured snippets for the area-specific searches.
Update your profile regularly and make sure your contact info is correct. Add high-quality images, collect user ratings, and encourage your star customers to leave positive reviews. Next time when you show up in a local search, your GMB profile will serve as a strong social proof of your excellence.
7. Post Success Stories and Video Testimonials
Success stories and client testimonials are powerful content marketing tools for real estate agents. You cannot get better advocates for your business than happy customers, but it’s up to you to get the most publicity out of them.
Don’t assume that happy clients will go online and leave stellar comments for you on their own. Send them a congratulatory email for closing the deal successfully and ask them for a 5-star review on your GMB and social profiles. Don’t forget to add the links to make it easier for them to comply!
You can also quote customers and record video testimonials if a client consents to it. Closed a somewhat difficult deal? Why not write or film a case study if the clients are willing.
Testimony from friends, family, and acquaintances weighs heavily when people are looking for real estate agents. Around 92% of people trust peer reviews, out of which 70% trust recommendations from people they don’t even know.
The social proof is a strong influence that can bring you tangible ROI if you post reviews and client stories on your website as a part of your content marketing strategy.
8. Tell a Story Around Real Estate Emotion
Buying or selling a home or property is a big decision that involves a lot of emotions and hard facts. So, while you talk about facts and figures, profits and commissions, don’t forget to focus on feelings associated with property sale and purchase.
Owning a home or selling one entails a broad spectrum of emotions. It’s about hope and desire, a new beginning or closing one chapter of life and starting another. Your marketing should be able to embody all these feelings and tell a cohesive story.
Write blog posts about the enormity of these decisions, the importance of right school areas, thriving community centres, and simple joys of life when a house feels like a home.
You can create small videos to capture happy clients’ feelings. Throw them a memorable housewarming party and broadcast it live through your platform. Do client interviews on the frustrations and difficulties of selling or buying a home and how you made the journey easier for them.
9. Reach Out To Your Existing Network
It’s incredible how many marketers neglect the power of their existing network. It doesn’t take a lot of time to ask the people you know to share your new blog post or discount offers. Your friends, family, colleagues, and business partners can all help promote your content and increase your ROI.
While you’re at it, don’t forget to get a favour from happy clients and a loyal audience. Actively ask them to spread the word every time you create new content. Request them through email or private messages on social media platforms to share your latest blog post with their connections and followers.
However, remember that they are your friends and acquaintances, so you shouldn’t send one generic email to everyone. You can automate parts of the process and create a template request but don’t forget to personalize it to honour the relationship and nurture it further.
10. Optimize Your Website for Search and User Experience
You can achieve the best content marketing benefits if your website is optimized for search and user experience. Today, most home buyers are millennials who are well-versed with eCommerce and digital sale and purchase. Therefore, online visibility and easy electronic transactions are fundamental to the success of any digital marketing endeavour.
As a real estate agent, your website and listings need to rank for all the related terms. Add easy guides and FAQs to quickly and effectively answer all consumer questions. Make sure your site loads within seconds and the layout is logical and straightforward. Make it plain and easy for people who land on your website to find their way across.
Add calculators so that the potential customers can estimate prices, taxes, mortgage rates, etc. independently. Consider the inclusion of chatbots to answer basic questions and host downloadable forms to speed up the entire process.
Integrate your listings with maps. How cool it would be if your customers can locate a property on Google Maps and look at it via Street View. Most importantly, don’t forget to make your appointment or booking process as straightforward as possible. Don’t include lengthy forms; an email address or a tap on the phone should be enough to let prospects contact you, get their answers, and seal the deal.
No matter which of the above content marketing tips apply in your real estate business, it’s essential to have clear goals to track the progress of your efforts. Goals allow you to test different tips and tricks and know what works best for you. Most of the above tips are easy to follow and free to implement. Let us know which of these tips worked best for you and share your joy of success with us.