Content marketing for real estate agents isn’t complicated, but it is essential. According to recent research, people are 131% MORE likely to use a brand immediately after reading educational content from that brand. And even if they don’t jump in right away, people’s trust in the brands that provided the educational content increased by nearly 10% in the week after reading it!
There’s no question content is important. Providing content allows you to own your own brand presence so you can do more than just buy ads from social media sites. But it can be hard to know exactly what content to provide. In the steps below, I will show you how to do content marketing the RIGHT way for real estate agents.
1. Leverage Industry Leaders
It’s always a great practice to learn from the experts. Head over to real estate sites like Zillow, Trulia, or Homes.com and see what they’re writing about. They all have blogs that they pay writers hundreds of thousands of dollars to write.
Check out their blogs for inspiration. Take the most popular topics and give them your own take. Instead of writing a blog, try making a video or designing an infographic to give the same content a new twist.
93% of online users watch videos, and most prefer videos to other types of content. If you’re not too sure about the writing side of things, try out a video and see where you get with that. The most important thing about videos is to make sure they go into the important content–the content people want to see. To make sure you’re providing the content the audience is looking for, get started with some keyword research to find the most popular search terms relevant to real estate.
2. Educate Your Readers
There are a lot of steps to buying a house. When I bought my first house, I understood NOTHING. The realtor had to spell it all out for me so I could really understand what I needed to do. You could provide readers with that information before they even begin their buying journey!
Give your readers education in a way that’s unique to you. Provide them with a roadmap to follow rather than a simple article full of detailed content. People want to know the next steps you can lead them through based on your experience more than they want the business expertise you’ve picked up.
Use content to have a conversation with readers and guide them as if they were already working with you. In today’s world, people can find answers to basically everything online. The best way to get them to work with you is to answer their questions in the online sphere before meeting them in person. This will help them know they can trust you to answer their questions all the way through.
3. Share From Your Personal Experience
People like getting content from, well, people. They want to know what you’ve experienced and what that experience has taught you. Share your journey with them, and allow them to get to know you.
Allow people to come on the wild journey of real estate along with you. Be authentic and tell them what’s going on. Don’t harp too much on your mistakes, but don’t run away from them either. It’s important that your readers see you as a real person who can help them with their real problems.
People don’t trust who they don’t know. Allow them to see some of your personal life and some of your professional life. Show them that you will be a good friend to them throughout their real estate journey.
In Short:
Don’t wait for people to come to you. In the real estate content marketing business, it’s not who you know, but who knows you!
Create meaningful content and put it out there where people can find it. Answer their questions and let them get to know you. Because, in real estate, the best way to get a lead is not for you to know people who need a house, but for people who need a house to know YOU.
The right way to do content marketing is to attract the audience to you as a person. Choose the content that you most want to create and that will best reflect your brand. Put your personal spin on everything you make. Then publish the content and share it everywhere. It won’t be long before you’ve garnered a following. And all that’s left after that is to be available when people come to you for help.
If you want more help getting started with a content marketing plan, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’ve helped thousands of agents get their foot in the marketing door and succeed at their online marketing business. I can help you understand and implement the right way to do content marketing for real estate agents.