Comprehensive Guide to Real Estate Content Marketing + 6 Killer Ideas

Even just thinking about creating a content marketing plan from zero can be intimidating. 

The world of digital marketing is constantly evolving. It seems that each week, another digital marketing influencer has cracked the code and came up with the next best strategy to drive more traffic to your website and content.

While it may seem unattainable, you can create a strong real estate content marketing plan that works. 

Whether you are a novice at creating content or you are looking to freshen up your digital marketing strategy, with this blog you will learn how to take your content strategy to the next level.

Let’s get into it and get you creating content!

What Is Real Estate Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the process of creating original pieces of content and then distributing the content with the purpose of landing in the hands of your target audience. 

In other words, content marketing is where you, the real estate agent, will plan a strategy to create various digital mediums, branded for your specific real estate niche with the hopes of generating more leads.

And what who doesn’t want more leads? Lead = potential closing = happy customers. So if you aren’t creating content yet, it’s about time that you start. 

Today, we are going to be focusing on all of the different types of real estate content you can create that will help you gain name recognition and hopefully become an industry leader with tons of clout.

Why Do Real Estate Agents Need Content Marketing? 

Anyone that has a website and works within the digital realm can benefit from content marketing. 

It may seem tempting to continue along with classic techniques such as simply relying on referrals and contacts from open houses. But trust me, without content marketing, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to become an industry leader and meet new prospects you might not have met if you didn’t adapt to a content marketing strategy. 

Not to say we don’t love open houses. They are an essential part of your overall real estate strategy. But, with the help of content marketing, think about taking your open houses and making them bigger, better, and more successful than ever.

Does Content Marketing Actually Work? 

The short answer is YES. The long answer is it really falls back to having a strong strategy in play when creating content.

Still not sure if content marketing is right for you? Then let’s take a look at some statistics: 

• 90% of home buyers look online to find their next home and of those people, 70% want to get to know you via the content you create 
• 67% of the home buying journey is now done digitally 
• Inbound (or content marketing) yields 3 times more leads than traditional methods
• Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website

Need I go on?

There are tons of statistics that prove content marketing actually works. It is so effective and that’s why companies have whole teams dedicated to creating content. 

And the real estate industry isn’t exempt from this. Stay with me as we discover the best content marketing strategies that any real estate agent can use.

Best Types of Content for Real Estate Agents 

1. Create & Maintain a Blog

The blog will essentially be the nucleus of your content strategy. Blogging has been around for forever, but more now than ever, a blog is a key first step in creating a digital presence. 

As you generate blog posts, the more likely you are that your posts will get indexed on SERPs. Eventually, your blog will get into the hands of the types of leads you are looking for. Plus, maintaining a blog can give you lots of name recognition in the industry.

Did you know that websites with blogs tend to have 434% more indexed pages? You are missing out on a huge opportunity to drive more traffic to your beautiful IDX website. 

Not sure what to post about? Here are some real estate-focused blog ideas:

• Create informational blogs about the process of buying a home.
• Case studies about previous clients and how you successfully helped them close.
• Create reviews and highlight your favorite local businesses and restaurants.
• Answer frequently asked questions.
• Highlight your newest listings and promote your open houses.

Not sure some of the best practices for creating a blog in 2020? Remember the following:

1. Create a consistent posting schedule. We suggest twice a week when getting started.
2. Practice strong backlinking and internal linking. Meaning place links in your blog to other blogs that are spammy.
3. Produce longer content when possible. More than 1,500 words are better for SEO. 
4. Make sure you focus on SEO when writing, such as creating strong headlines and subheadings.
5. Find your niche, make it fun, and encourage engagement within your community. 

2. Make a Downloadable How-to Guides 

Creating downloadable how-to guides are increasingly popular in the real estate industry. Due to the fact that a lot of first-time buyers are completely new to buying a house and might need some tips. 

How-to guides are great at promoting engagement and are great pieces of content that can get passed around and backlinked back to your website. Plus, they make for an easy piece of content to use for both paid and organic social media posts, especially for Facebook ads.

Dig into your vast knowledge of all things real estate and home improvement to make these sought after guides. Here are a few examples that you could create:

• First time home buying guide.
• Home improvement guides, such as staging, decorating a front porch or increasing the value of a home.
• Guide about financing and budgeting when planning on buying a home.
• A step-by-step process of getting preapproved.

3. Start a Podcast   

I’m obsessed with Podcasts, how about you? I start every morning off with a podcast, and I know I’m not alone. 

How do I know? Well, monthly podcast listening now at 37%. (Edison Research, 2020).

Not only that, as of April 2020, there are also over 30 million podcast episodes in existence. (Podcast Insights via iTunes, 2020) 

There is a whole lot of potential for real estate agents and podcasting. It’s a wildly successful inbound marketing tactic that you should invest time into. 

The secret to creating a podcast is finding your niche. What type of clients do you usually cater to and what would they like to gain when they listen? Find that niche and capitalize on it.

If you are nervous to start a podcast, don’t be! You don’t have to create long 2 hour episodes, each episode could simply be 10 minutes, once or twice per week. During that time, you can offer insight into the world of real estate. 

Here are some basic best practices to remember:

• Create rememberable cover art and a catchy name
• Invest in high-quality equipment 
• Promote older and upcoming episodes
• Be warm with your opening intro and exit phrase
• Be authentic and personable

Once your podcast gains some traction, it will be a great piece of content to include in blog posts and on social media. You can even build blog posts around each podcast episode for each weekly content planning.

4. Invest In Video Content  

Video is singlehandedly taking over the content marketing world. Moreover, video has become the most commonly used format in content marketing, overtaking blogs, and infographics. (HubSpot, 2020) 

Creating a YouTube channel and making high-quality video content will only help boost your content strategy. You can use these videos across channels: throughout your blog posts, on your website, and across social media. 

If you are new to creating videos, you want to make sure that (like the podcasts) each video is of high quality. 

Need some ideas for videos to make? Pull some inspiration from the following: 

• Property listing and tour videos
• Videos discovering the neighborhood and community
• Question and answer videos 
• Virtual open house 
• Information and 

Plus many more ideas. Video is a great strategy not only to show a new listing and highlight properties but also to get your name out there and show your personality a bit.

5. Host Real Estate Webinars

Do you pride yourself on being the type of real estate agent that enriches your clients’ lives and helps to educate them on everything real estate? Then you should be hosting webinars!

Webinars take eLearning to the next level. You will be the host of the conference but attendance is not constrained to a certain area code. 

Anyone can attend the webinar, don’t you love the internet? Hosting webinars will introduce you to a whole pool of both potential leads and cross-industry connections.

Remember to approach a webinar with the goal of sparking conversation and educating your audience. Use lots of ‘you’ statements, pick a strategic location, and make sure all of the technical factors are taken care of beforehand. 

6. Leverage Your Social Media Strategy 

Social media needs to be part of your strategic content marketing plan. Social media can offer you a chance to grow your audience and engage with a ton of potential leads. 

Plus, social media offers plenty of opportunities to share visual content, which is a perfect opportunity to post photos and videos of your current listings to get you audience excited about your current listings.

You should be strategizing and generating a presence on all social media channels. Each social media channel can offer you different benefits, all with the end goal of increasing your reach and gaining more warm leads. 

Create content for the following channels:

• LinkedIn: Great for networking with both potential clients, industry leads, and other influencers cross-industry. 
• Instagram: A totally visual platform great for sharing new listings, success stories, and open house sneak peeks. Plus, also great for sharing hilarious memes. 
• Facebook: An awesome platform for creating groups and engaging with your community, running paid ads that drive more leads, and sharing your organic content on your Facebook business page.

Best Content Creation & Planning Tools for Real Estate Agents

Now that you have your pieces of content planned out for your evergreen digital marketing strategy, let’s talk about some tools that can speed up the process, keep you organized, and help make your content stand out. 

Canva

Have you ever used Canva ? If not, this website offers amazing graphics and templates to make your visuals stand out.

They offer tons of FREE templates, including templates to help promote your open houses and new listings. Canva will help each post stand out every time, and you can make sure every design is well branded and original. 

If you don’t have time to make social media graphics, you can always outsource to a design team that’s got the time to keep your content beautiful and branded. 

CoSchedule

CoSchedule is a personal favorite in the Imagen Media family. As you start to produce more and more real estate content, you will need a platform that helps you post consistently. We know you are too busy to post multiple times per day, along with showing houses and reaching out to warm leads. It’s too much for anyone who is already working 40+ hours a day.

Invest into a platform that does all of the hard work for you. There are plenty of options out there, but we love CoSchedule. Not only can you post to all of your favorite social media channels, but you can also write your blogs directly on the platform.

This might not be the best option for you, so we suggest keeping your eyes open for the social media scheduling platform that will help keep your content coming and on time. 

Invest in an Intuitive Real Estate CRM

Having a solid real estate CRM will only benefit you. Some real estate CRMs also offer marketing integration that can help you streamline all of your new pieces of digital content. Plus, as the leads start flooding in, you will need a place to store their information!

Find a Lead Generation Tool with Marketing Capabilities 

Finding the best real estate lead generation website that fits your needs can offer you a plethora of benefits. Not only will you generally receive lead generation and lead capturing tools, a high functioning IDX website, but many of these websites also offer integrated marketing tools. 

Say hello to the easy distribution of your amazing new real estate content. 

You can also take advantage of a great real estate lead generation company. Lead generation companies and websites offer two different results but ultimately, you can find a tool that helps you streamline your marketing efforts and capture all of your new lead.