Something, something... Content Marketing
Branding yourself as a real estate market expert is key to your success. However, many agents focus on branding themselves as a utility rather than an expert. For example, they often advertise that they can help clients with tasks like home search, home staging, or paperwork.While this is certainly helpful for clients, it doesn’t set you apart from other real estate agents who can do the exact same thing.
A better approach is to brand yourself as an expert — as a real estate agent who knows what’s happening in the market.Why? Because that’s exactly the kind of professional today’s buyers and sellers want to hire. In fact, NAR’s Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows that when deciding on which agent to work with, 93% of consumers say an agent’s “knowledge of the real estate market” is very important. Skills like being a great home stager or assisting with home search rank much lower.
You need to prove that you’re the expert who can help people with the largest asset they may ever own.
Branding yourself as a market expert accomplishes precisely that.
Great Content = Market Expert
As we cover in a previous article, One Change You Need to Make in Your Marketing Approach…Today, content marketing is the new way to showcase your expertise and establish your brand as the expert in your market.
Fortunately, using strong pieces of content to brand yourself as a market expert is easier than you might think.
In this article we’ll walk you through several examples, giving you specific topics you could cover and ways you can use content in many areas of your marketing efforts.
As you go through the examples, remember that the overall goal of content marketing is to answer your prospects’ and clients’ questions with useful information.
The questions they most need answered are:
- How’s the market?
- Is now the time to buy?
- Is now the time to sell?
- Is real estate still a good investment?
Your job is to find the best way to answer those questions.
Often, a simple answer is best, such as a single chart, graph, or infographic that clearly communicates what’s happening in the market (in terms of home prices, interest rates, or recent sales).
You can also share links to blog posts, and occasionally, you may even want to use a more detailed piece of content, such as an eGuide.
Scroll through the following examples to see how content marketing can play out in each medium. Or click on a specific platform to jump right to those examples.
1 – Social Media
Social media is one of the fastest growing marketing tools at your disposal, and knowing how to use it effectively to drive your business is pivotal.
One best practice is to share quick-hitting, visual content that sparks conversation and helps answer questions consumers have.
The key to success is consistently posting this content every day in order to build a solid social media presence.
Tips & Tricks for Using Content on Social Media:
- Post at least 5 days a week on all platforms
- Tweet multiple times per day
- Stick to real estate topics
- Use powerful visuals
- Provide useful information
- Ask questions to engage your audience in conversation
2 – Email Marketing
We all know we should stay in touch with our clients to keep those relationships strong.
But other than sending out our latest listings or wishing them a happy holiday, what else should we talk about in our email marketing?
Email is the perfect place to provide useful information or recent news that your clients will appreciate.
This is the marketing tool that’s best suited to let you act as a news source for your clients so they’ll know who to turn to when they’re ready to make a move.
Tips & Tricks for Using Content in Email Marketing:
- Make every email useful and valuable
- Be a news source
- Use a clear subject line
- Segment and target your audience
- Customize your content to be relevant for the audience you’re targeting
- Provide a strong call to action
3 – Direct Mail
Direct mail is back. And if you’re not using it in your marketing efforts right now, check out these examples of effectively using direct mail in your marketing and start today!
- Design a direct mail card featuring a key insight and visual and send it out
- Print copies of a recent article and mail them to past clients or prospects along with your business card and a personal note
If you’re already using it, bravo.
We believe wholeheartedly in the power of direct mail, and we’ve collected some of our favorite tactics that you can start implementing right away.
Tips & Tricks for Using Content in Direct Mail:
- Target a specific audience with your message
- Answer a question that the audience has
- Educate them – be informative
- Pick a powerful visual
- Use a strong call to action
- Keep it simple
4 – Pre-Listing Packages
Agents often make the mistake of filling their pre-listing packages with information about themselves or their company’s accomplishments that they think will convince sellers to list with them.
But what if instead, you put relevant, current information about the market that your prospective seller would find helpful?
Would sellers begin to see you as an agent who can help them before you’ve even walked in the door?
Tips & Tricks for Using Content in Pre-Listing Packages:
- Put yourself in the sellers’ shoes
- Address any topics they’ve previously brought up to you
- Address any known needs the seller has
- Aim to answer questions and possibly create a few questions
- Make it personal
- Use simple, powerful visuals
5 – Presentation Materials
It’s not only important to use content in your marketing and pre-listing materials, but also vital that you use it in every face-to-face presentation and conversation you have.
Studies show that we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text.
If you think sellers should lower the price on their house, you’ll have much more success if you show them why instead of telling them why.
Using strong visual content to establish yourself as a market expert will set you apart from other agents and all but guarantee you seal the deal.
Tips & Tricks for Using Content in Presentation Materials:
- Use powerful visuals to connect the dotsShow rather than tell as often as possible
- Focus on answering your clients’ or prospects’ questions more than telling them about yourself
- Bring both national and local market information
- Print materials or use a tablet or other screen depending on the client
6 – Open Houses
Every agent wants to build relationships with people who attend their open house.
But the reality is, it can be difficult to quickly establish rapport and build enough trust that they’re open to working with you in the future.
Sharing quality content consumers can easily understand will show them that you are the expert they need to help them through the buying or selling process.
After they leave, you can follow up with even more valuable information via email or another channel.
This way, when they’re ready to buy or sell later, they will remember you.
Tips & Tricks for Using Content in Open Houses:
- Place content around the house in various rooms
- Ask buyers about specific pieces of content that you shared
- Ask buyers what other questions about the market you can answer
- Provide helpful charts/graphs during conversations
- Keep your content updated and fresh
- Follow up with useful information via email