Last week at our Agent First Summit, we welcomed Neel Dhingra as our presenter. Neel Dhingra is a real estate and mortgage content expert who has been in the mortgage business for nearly 20 years. He is passionate about helping real estate agents and other professionals build strong content marketing strategies that get real results.
Our Agent First Summits happen every Tuesday morning! It’s a perk for all our real estate team members and any of their guests who want to join us. To get an invitation, RSVP here: Save Your Seat!
In this session, Neel shared with us some practical and actionable tips and tricks to help us get more business by using content.
How To Build Your Audience
When getting started in real estate, most of us have only a small sphere of influence. In reality, this sphere just isn’t enough to get us the business we need. In fact, you may find that others in real estate who aren’t even that great as agents get more business just because their sphere is larger.
To truly win more clients, you don’t really have to be the best at what you do, but you do have to be known. Of course, it would be AMAZING if you were the best–and please do strive to be that–however, it’s being known and being out there is what will ultimately bring you business. And the best way to get out there is through content marketing.
There are many reasons for this. One of the biggest, though, is how much time and effort you can save by creating content. By building enough content, you can duplicate yourself on the internet–even while in meetings, you can be building relationships with people who are watching your videos and reading your content online.
When you create useful content consistently, you’ll find that people begin to respect you and genuinely value you. Instead of treating you as a vendor, you’ll find people treating you as an individual worth working with. And this is how you build an audience that gets you business.
How To Create Content
You’ve listened to, seen, and read tons of content about how to create content at this point. But let’s really unpack it here once and for all with this simple process.
- Use Social Media Platforms Wisely
You want to use social media platforms to host content, but you don’t want to use all of them the same way. You need to vary your content and your methods based on the platform you’re using. For example, don’t post long videos on Instagram; instead, use Reels to introduce yourself.
Instagram is one of the most powerful tools available to real estate agents today. You can easily use Reels to meet people who are brought in by Instagram’s algorithm. By posting on Reels daily, you can reach hundreds of thousands of people a month–much more than you’ll reach by posting images or long posts on the same platform.
On YouTube, on the other hand, you do want longer content. Using Instagram Reels as teasers for your longer videos on YouTube is a great way to attract people to your website and your brand.
No matter where you post content, always speak intentionally to the viewer. Don’t just clip parts of your videos for Instagram if it’s not going to attract your Instagram audience.
- Create Engaging Content
First, you have to find the content. Start out by answering simple questions your audience will have about pricing and things that will affect them. And when you first come up with an idea, ask yourself: “How do I take this boring content and reform it into something more engaging?”
For example, say you want to talk about closing costs. Most people will be bored by the technical information that the headline suggests. But if they see you create a video about saving money during closings, they’ll be much more interested in seeing what tips you have to offer.
Create content that excites or shocks people–or even scares them! It’s all about titles and thumbnails when it comes to video content. The titles and thumbnails have to attract the audience’s eye and interest them immediately in the outcome of the video.
But don’t make it too complicated. You want this video to be simple enough that a child could easily understand it. That will ensure your audience knows what you’re talking about and will relate to what you have to say.
At the end of each piece of content, be sure to send people directly to your social media pages. And always make sure your page is optimized and clearly says who you are and what you do. This will ensure that they can get to know you as a person before they decide to work with you, which is exactly what people will be looking for.
Trying Some Real Content Ideas
If you’re not sure what videos to start with, here are some ideas to help you get thinking.
Top Three Mistakes I See Sellers Making
- Pricing home too high
- Not taking care of repairs before listing
- Not hiring pros to market home (posting phone pics, etc.)
Here’s How You Can Live for Free
Buy a primary home, rent out units or rooms, and pay your house payment with the rent coming in.
Look Inside [Address]
People love browsing properties on Zillow and other places. A great way to get views is to create videos of properties so people can see inside. Tons of people will watch these videos, and while most won’t be serious about buying, you’ll likely find a few who are.
A Few Best Practices
Finally, let’s take a few last tips from Neel about creating engaging content that gets business:
- If you use music, make sure the music volume is lower than you think so people can hear you. You can use TikTok or Instagram to search for trending music and add certain lyrics to clips on your IGVideo.
- Make people smile! Share information, but be sure to share some of what’s going on behind the scenes too. You want people to see you as a real person.
- At least in the beginning, keep your content narrow. Make sure you show your expertise and give people a reason to contact you.
And that’s about it! Make sure you take some of these actionable and practical ideas and start creating content that gets business on all your social platforms.
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