How to Get Started with Real Estate Content Marketing
Want to establish yourself as the expert in your market? Want to attract more real estate leads? Want your website to be more effective at driving sales? If you answered yes to any of these (I hope you answered yes to all of them), then you need to start or improve your real estate content marketing.
In 2021 it’s simply not enough to just have a good looking website that shows your listings and has a few nice pictures. You need people to find your website, and you need it to offer them value even before they hire you to buy or sell a home. Content is not only crucial for boosting your search engine optimization (SEO), it’s also critical for establishing yourself as the agent that people want to work with.
In this article we’ll cover what real estate content marketing is and why you need to do it, as well as the different types of content you should include on your website.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- What is real estate content marketing and why you need it
- Content type #1: Customer stories
- Content type #2: Tips for buyers
- Content type #3: Tips for sellers
- Content type #4: Market and industry updates
- Content type #5: What do you bring to the table?
What Is Real Estate Content Marketing?
Real estate content marketing is simply creating content that helps make your brand more well known and helps people find your website. There are various types of content you can create, including blog posts and social media posts. Ideally, the two should work together and you’ll create blog posts that can be shared on social media and sent out via email.
Real estate blog posts can be either written or in video form. The important thing is to always create content that is helpful, informative, interesting, or valuable. You want to publish blog posts regularly, around once a week if possible. Cover various topics and don’t be afraid to make some posts a little more personal—about your success or lessons you’ve learned or about recent clients you’ve worked with.
The big question: Why??
Posting regularly on your website serves three primary goals:
- It boosts your SEO and creates more ways for people to find your website
- It gives you a ready stream of content to share via social media and email
- It shows you understand what you are doing and establishes you as a real estate expert
Regularly creating content allows you to take more control of your online reputation. You have limited control over what other people say about you through ratings and reviews, but you have direct control over the quality and type of content you create for your website and social and email campaigns.
Take advantage of that control.
Real Estate Content Type #1: Customer Stories
When someone is deciding whether or not to work with you, they want to know that you have a track record of success. You can’t necessarily control reviews that other people write, but you can be sure to fill your corner of the internet with as much positivity as possible. Describe a tough deal you closed for a client. Discuss how well something worked out for a client. Conduct an interview with a happy client so your readers or viewers can either read or see firsthand how clients feel about you.
The sky’s the limit with customer stories—you just need to be creative!
Real Estate Content Type #2: Tips for Buyers
What do buyers want to know? That they are buying in a good area and that you can find them what they want. Tell them about places to shop, eat, drink, and spend time with the family in your area. Create posts that have a list of your current listings or even more in depth posts that cover a single specific listing (don’t include the seller’s name of course). Include key buzz words like the number of bedrooms, the neighborhood name, the school district, and the price.
You can also create content about topics that will help buyers prepare for the real estate process. Things like how to clean up their credit, how to choose a mortgage broker and get preapproved, what to expect at different stages of the process (putting in an offer, home inspections, etc.), and even tips for choosing the right agent.
Establish yourself as THE expert with your real estate content marketing.
Real Estate Content Type #3: Tips for Sellers
Similar to tips for buyers, seller tips need to be interesting and valuable to your website visitors. Include things like how to properly prepare their home for showings and stage different rooms, how to appraise their home, which home improvements to make before selling, and how to go about pricing their house. It’s also helpful to include content discussing what other homes in your area have sold for, what sellers should look for in a listing agent, and any specific success stories you have about working with other sellers.
Real Estate Content Type #4: Market and Industry Updates
You should always be on the lookout for interesting developments in the real estate industry and your local market in particular. Things like new home construction trends, statistics about where the market is and where it is going, how homes are selling in your area, if and how many people are moving to or leaving your area, and any other information that you think your website visitors would gain value from learning.
The most important thing is to take these big ideas and distill them down to a form that is useful and easy to understand for the everyday person not particularly well versed in the real estate industry.
Real Estate Content Type #5: What Do You Bring to the Table?
In addition to customer stories, tips, and industry updates, you should include posts about the specific services you offer, what types of properties are your specialty, and information and statistics about your past success. Don’t be afraid to talk yourself up in these types of posts. It’s fine to sell yourself in some posts, as long as the majority of your content is not overly salesy.
Remember that your real estate content marketing is the best opportunity to make your business shine on the internet. Show what you do, how you do it, and your track record of success. Tell specific stories!
These are just some of the ideas to get you started on your real estate content marketing journey. Be creative and have fun with it. The result will be higher Google rankings, a more effective lead generation and conversion strategy, and an increase in business!
