April 2018 - iDashboard Blog

Quick Guide: How to Write Original Content

15 years ago, simply having a website for your real estate agency was enough to garner traffic. However, now, that couldn’t be further from the case.

No longer is it simply about website hits – it’s about discovery, engagement and re-engagement, and this is achieved with your content.

If you can set down a quality content marketing strategy, you’ll get visitors to take notice of your site, engage with the content on your pages, and learn to trust you as an industry authority. Eventually, you’ll build that trust to the point where they’re ready to get in touch with you and pay you for your services.

That’s the end goal. The starting goal is developing original content to boost your search engine rankings and set yourself apart from the hordes of other real estate agencies also fighting for leads. As a result, learning how to create this type of high-quality content is absolutely key to finding success with online real estate marketing. Read on to find out more.

What is Original Content?

On a basic level, original content is content that you’ve created yourself. However, that doesn’t mean you’ve got to reinvent sliced bread, or put forward revolutionary ideas for your market. Original content can simply represent your stance on something else that’s been published, such as an old topic from a fresh perspective, a comparison of two different information sources, etc.

Your original content should tie in closely with your brand strategy. It’s going to be written in a particular voice and style which you can keep the same across your different channels and websites. This will help your audience to work out what’s original and what isn’t.

What Isn’t Original Content?

While it’s absolutely okay to use other information online to create your own real estate content, it’s by no means acceptable to simply copy and paste their work and put your name on it. Even if you make alterations here and there, the bulk of the work has been produced by someone else. You can by all means use the ideas, facts and statistics of others, but you need to give them credit for it.

Why Should You Use Original Content?

Google Is Wise to Copycat Tactics

Good search engine rankings are the key to your online success, and if you’re publishing plagiarised or unoriginal content, Google will figure it out. If you don’t get hit with the ban hammer, you could still run the risk of having your page de-ranked. This will have a crippling effect on your organic lead generation.

You’ll Rank Higher

Conversely, if you do post original content on your website, Google will reward you. On top of this, original content is often higher quality, and therefore more likely to be shared by your followers and website visitors. This, in turn, will help you to build your brand authority.

How to Write Original Content

Think About Your Audience

Who are they? Each time you write a piece of content, you need to think about the end reader. Consider what’s important to them, whether you’re using the right language, and whether they’ll find the information useful. If you want to maximise the effectiveness of your content, understanding your audience is essential.

Rely on Client Data

When working out your audience, much of the information you’ll need will be found in the data of your past and current clients. If you’ve been collecting data on your client base, put it to good use. If not, look for data in future such as:

Gender
Age
Buying habits
Goals
Location

Give it Your Own Spin

As mentioned before, you don’t have to produce revolutionary ideas about real estate in your content – but that doesn’t mean you can’t still put your own spin on it! Share your perspective with your audience and give them your thoughts on current events or any relevant topics.

Use Creative Storytelling

There’s nothing more engaging than a good story, and if you can spin one into your content, you’ll be able to reel your audience in and keep them coming back for more. So, find a way to put yourself in your audience’s shoes and position your content in a way that’ll grab their attention.

7 Tips to Boosting Your Social Ad Performance

You might only see numbers from your Facebook insights, but you’re not selling to statistics. At the other end of the screen, there’s a very real person making some very real decisions about whether to click on your ad or follow your call to action.

Competition is heating up in the online real estate advertising space, with brokers and agents competing to increase their ROIs. If you’re one of them, you’re in luck – there are 7 quick and easy steps you can follow to boost your online ad performance. Read on to find out more.

1) Work Out Your Audience

As mentioned above, you’re not selling to numbers – you’re selling to people. And having a strong idea of who these people are will give you a big advantage over your competition.

If you run a real estate website and have ever managed paid advertising campaigns before, you’ll likely have a good idea of who your audience are. Based on demographics such as age, marital status and reach, you’ll be able to adapt your marketing process to personalise it to your audience, providing a more targeted experience.

2) Set Clear Campaign Objectives

Your key objective of a campaign should be conversions, but you shouldn’t ignore improvements across your sales funnel. As a real estate agent, you should have 4 main goals:

Engagement

You want your community to recognise you and engage with your content, viewing you as a subject authority. For agents, this also includes building out a personal brand.

Traffic

You want to drive traffic to your listings, as well as your website and landing pages.

Leads

By promoting content such as market reports and buyer/seller guides, you won’t just boost your traffic – you’ll also win valuable leads.

Sales

These 3 goals above all culminate to people contacting you and expressing interest in one of your listings or requesting a sales consultation.

3) Work Out Which Social Platform is for You

This shouldn’t be a difficult choice. Although you can find success on other networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn, Facebook is most likely the strongest choice for you. 45% of property viewings come off the back of social networks like Facebook, and 95% of people use social to learn more about an agents’ services.

4) Set up One Main Campaign

Advertising on social media can be overwhelming, as there are a huge number of campaigns that you can run. However, if you’re unsure of where to start, run a Facebook ad that targets anyone who’s visited your website over the last month. You’ll be fresh in their minds, so it’s likely you’ll be able to engage with them.

5) Optimise Your Ads to Boost Your Return

You can blast through $100 of budget like nothing when advertising real estate. However, one of the key benefits of advertising with Facebook is that you can control how much you spend.

Look at the channels that are performing least well and turn them off, focusing the budget on those that are bringing in the most results. By doing this, you’ll save money and boost the return you see on your advertising investment.

New Development Site for Quirindi Acres

River Realty in Maitland, NSW is marketing the new Quirindi Acres in Quirindi near Gunnedah & Tamworth. To best market this new estate to locals and those more further afield, they knew that a great looking website was required to advertise the benefits of the estate including location, site plans, pricing, lot images and more.

This is where the team at iDevelopments stepped in, to create them a beautiful, modern & easy to navigate development site quirindiacres.com.au

To keep navigation simple, our team produced a single landing page style site, to advertise the development to a range of prospective clients, that included the following features:

Mobile & Tablet Friendly
Image Galleries
Video
Site Plans
Lot Pricing & Contour Maps
Location Map & Information
Developer Information
Interactive Contact Form

As with many development projects, there is a strict marketing budget to conform to, after discussing their requirements with us, team at iDevelopments were able to produce and stick to the set budget, all within a quick time frame. So there was no delays in getting the site live, as well as no cost overruns.

iProperty are enhancing their products and services for developers, as well as real estate offices. Take a look at our website, iDevelopments, for more information on how iProperty can deliver the same results for property developers as for the real estate agents. We’ve now produced hundreds of websites for agents and offices Australia-wide!

5 Types of SEO Content to Make Your Real Estate Blog Awesome

If you’re trying to build a real estate website that builds trust with your audience, blogging is exactly what you should be doing. However, if you don’t know where to start, getting your blog off the ground in the right way can be a difficult undertaking.

Don’t worry. To get those ideas rolling, we’ve broken down 5 of the top SEO content types your blog should include to provide consistent, long-term value to your audience. Read on to find out more.

1) List Posts

Google searches for real estate agents have grown over 240% across the last 4 years. So, if you’re getting traffic to your site, you need to grab their attention quickly.

List posts are a great way to do this, and they’re one of the most popular content types available. The best thing about them? It’s difficult ot go wrong with them. They give you the opportunity to break up large amounts of information into bitesize chunks that are easy for your readers to digest. You can sort the information into a logical, transitional format that’ll fascinate your readers with examples for each item.

2) Local Events

If anything interesting is happening in your area, it’s worth blogging about it. If a new gym has opened, a restaurant has opened, or a big company is moving to your neighbourhood with the potential for new job opportunities, it’s worth jumping on. Opportunities like this are great for local SEO, as they’ll help to show that you’ve got your finger on the pulse of the area you’re living in.

On top of this, people are searching for this type of information all the time. This is a great way to capitalise on organic traffic. If you want to convert this traffic, however, you need to write with purpose. You need to convince your followers of one simple point – your neighbourhood is a great place to live.

3) Answer Buyer Questions

The primary purpose of your real estate content should be to answer any questions your buyers have. You might think this has already been done, but real estate has changed a lot over the past 5 years and there are new questions arising every day.

Your potential clients want unbiased, accurate information about your local area and the sales process, so give it to them. Address the questions they typically have and you’ll be giving them valuable, insightful information that builds your brand authority and makes them that much more likely to choose your services if they’re in the market for them.

4) Answer Seller Questions

The principles of this are exactly the same as for answering buyer questions. To ensure you’re creating great, high-value seller questions posts, follow the points below:

Collect questions from your previous sellers and note the types of people that asked each question
Create blog posts to answer these questions in an informative, professional way
Create a whitepaper with common seller questions and offer it as a lead magnet or free resource
Add any fresh questions to your list
Include links to your new posts in any follow-up messages

5) Offer Market Updates

Your audience will largely be interested in this information because they’ll want to see how property prices are changing in your area. It’s important content to host on your blog because it lets people know when they should be buying, selling and renting property.

These types of posts can be highly engaging because the information is so crucial to the buying process. As a result, if you post regular updates and drive people to subscribe to your email lists, chances are they’ll stay with you.

Bear in mind how you should structure these types of posts. Typically, you should keep them short and sweet, with explanations of any financial terms you bring up.

3 Common Hidden Fears Your First-Time Sellers Won’t Talk About

In real estate, seller leads are absolute gold dust – it’s what we work for. Unfortunately, it’s easy to just see these as names, emails, phone numbers and at the worst, numbers on a commission check. If you take the time to understand the seller’s experience, your pitch will get that much stronger. From there, you’ll be able to land more future deals.

In today’s market, real estate agents do a great job of showing customers how they can buy their first property. The majority of real estate websites have detailed information about what buyers need to do to get their foot on the ladder.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for advice about how to sell a property and, as a result, seller clients are often anxious and full of questions they might be nervous to ask.

Help Your Clients Overcome Their Fears

They’re afraid, and that’s understandable. Why? Because they hardly know you and they’re about to put the biggest financial commitment of their lives solely into your hands. That’s nerve-wracking even for the strongest of people.

Despite this, so many agents go through their processes and rattle off listing presentations that don’t actually help to tackle any of the seller’s concerns. Although this method might be bringing you in leads, you could definitely be winning a lot more business if you focus on your potential client’s situation.

Ask Yourself What You Can Do to Help Them

Each of your potential seller clients will be different, meaning you’ll likely have to field a variety of questions on the spot. However, there are three big objections you can prepare for in advance to help put their minds at ease.

1) How Does the Process Work?

If you’ve ever had surgery, you’ll know that before anything happens, you’ll be sat in a room with a doctor who’ll talk you through the process and answer any questions you might have. Sadly, the same can’t be said for real estate.

You should make a point to talk your clients through the process. Not only will you alleviate any fears and concerns, you’ll also help improve the outcome of the sale and decrease the chance of any complications arising. It might seem like unnecessary effort but tackling this at the start will help you in the long run.

2) Nervousness

Employ a bit of empathy and try to imagine the anxiety your seller clients must be feeling.

What if my property doesn’t sell? What if I don’t get the sales value I need? What if I can’t close a sale in time for my new home?

If they’ve listened to the wrong people online, they’ll be concerned that you’re simply going to suggest a price that’s below market value to get a quick sale and quick commission. You can tackle this one head-on by talking them through the CMA process, as well as how it compares to the appraiser’s evaluation.

If they’re buying and selling, talk them through the roadblocks they can expect to encounter, as well as how you’ll help them to handle them in the event that they occur. If they don’t know how much equity they have, help them find out.

3) What if Potential Buyers Steal from Me?

This fear is completely natural, especially with first-time sellers, because they only have one point of reference for potential buyers – themselves. And, although it was likely completely innocent, they’ll remember opening cupboards and peeking into drawers out of curiosity.

However, not everyone’s curiosity is as innocent as theirs. That’s why it’s your job to explain that you understand this fear and know how to handle the situation. You should advise them that, although you’ll do your best to maintain a high level of security, they should lock up any valuables, weapons and prescription medications.

7 Mistakes to Learn from Real Estate’s Worst Blogs

The real estate blogosphere in Australia is huge. There’s a wealth of information, and with that information, unfortunately, comes a whole lot of misinformation.

In this article, we’re going to take you through 7 of the biggest mistakes you can learn from other real estate blogs, so you can make better content choices in the future. Read on to find out more:

1) Ignoring Best Practices for Structure

Although it’s by all means okay to put your own stamp on your content and express your brand’s individuality, that doesn’t mean you should ignore industry best practices If your blog posts include paragraphs that are longer than 5 sentences, you need to break them up to boost readability.

You can do this by including headers, sub-headers, bullet points and block quotes to make the information easier to digest.

2) Not Understanding the Value of Blogging

Blogging has been known to produce continuous, consistent paybacks to real estate agents. For example, if done correctly, it can help you to boost your brand authority and get more pages indexed on Google, which will help increase your organic traffic.

Research has shown that internet users in the US spend 3 times longer on blogs and social networks than email, a statistic likely to be shared in Australia. Additionally, 40% of Fortune 500 companies have a blog on their website.

If you want your clients to start discovering you, as opposed to you driving for business constantly, a blog can help you achieve it.

3) Not Listening to Content Best Practices

Sadly, it’s not enough anymore to simply sit down at your keyboard and start throwing your words of wisdom onto a page. If you don’t format your blog properly and follow best practices, you run the risk of losing your audience’s attention.

Above all else, your blog posts need to clearly demonstrate value to the reader.

In each post, you need to identify the problem your target audience wants to solve, then define how you’re going to solve it for them. Additionally, you need to choose your topics carefully. Producing blog posts about the listing you just put up is only going to be of interest to a small portion of your audience, and you run the risk of putting the others off.

4) Focusing on the Sale Over Providing Information

Your primary goal with blogging shouldn’t be to sell. Sure, that’s your end goal, but your blog posts, first and foremost, should be produced to provide your audience with valuable, engaging and insightful information.

Hardly anyone is going to go to your blog to be sold to. Offer them answers to their questions in your content, and you can always push a sale at the end with a call to action. This should be short, sweet and to-the-point.

It doesn’t even have to drive readers to contact you – your call to action can be something completely different. For example, if you’ve produced an article about spring cleaning, it could be “Have you got your spring cleaning routine down? Share it with us in the comments below.”

5) Not Promoting Additional Content

If your audience are reading your blog post, they’re interested in what you have to say. So, if you’re not capitalising on that opportunity to guide them towards other blog posts they might find interesting, you’re making a mistake.

By adding in hyperlinks throughout your content to other articles that build on the topic in question, you’ll be able to both increase the time readers are spending on your site, as well as send signals to search engines that the content you’re producing is valuable.

6) Skipping the Proofreading and Editing Process

This is a huge one. When you’re writing, you won’t believe some of the stuff you’ll come out with that you think makes sense at the time but is actually complete gibberish. There have even been instances online where writers have left feedback for themselves in the post, then forgotten to remove it before it went live.

These mistakes are easy to avoid. If you write your blog posts on Thursdays, block out an hour on Friday morning to read over them and make any required edits. You’d be amazed at how much better they read after you’ve gone over them a couple of times.

7) Failing to Promote Your Blog Posts

You could have written the most insightful blog posts to ever hit the real estate world, but if you don’t promote it, not many people are going to find it. In addition to following SEO best practices, promoting your content on social media will help to build your online presence. Publish your posts to LinkedIn, Facebook, and any other social platforms you use to maximise the number of readers it reaches.

Neighbourhood Questions You Should Expect to Hear

Promoting a neighbourhood you work within should be a core part of your local marketing strategy. Potential buyers you’re working for aren’t just interested in properties – they want to learn more about the area they’re potentially moving into, as it’ll become their new community.

As a result, you’re likely going to receive a tonne of questions about the local neighbourhood from interested buyers, and it’s your ability to provide accurate and fair information that could be the make or break of the deal.

Fortunately, there are some common questions you can expect to receive from most buyers. Read on to find out more:

1) How Does Living in the Neighbourhood Feel?

The cliché “Agents don’t sell properties, they sell lifestyles” is a cliché for a reason, and it should be the starting point for your local marketing plan. Understanding the lifestyles and demographics of people within your neighbourhood, as well as lifestyle choices of buyers, will help you bring offers in.

You should also be able to create an insightful description of your local area to make it seem unique, including a throwback to recent history and look forward to future developments.

2) Does the Area Have a Strong Sense of Ownership?

Areas that have higher rates of homeownership tend to be safer, more prosperous, and therefore more appealing to young families. This is because homeowners tend to take more care of their properties/neighbourhood and give more back to the community than renters.

3) Does the Neighbourhood Have Good Medicare Bulk-Billing Services and Schools?

The hunt for better education is a principle driver for families moving from one neighbourhood to another. As a result, it pays to know everything you can about local schools, as these will help you to upsell your listings.

In lower to middle socionomic areas, access to bulk-billing medical services is a quiet often a must, especially for young families. Knowing what medical services are available in an area will help you when dealing with those types of buyers, looking to settle their family in a new area.

4) Will There be any Community Association Rules to Comply with?

Community associations often have the final say on what individuals can and can’t do within an area, such as painting the exterior of a property pink or keeping a bike out on the street. Occasionally, community associations will also gather fees for community needs.

As an agent, you should find all of this out so you can give your buyers accurate information.

5) What Taxes Should I Know About?

If your buyers are moving from different cities or municipalities, understanding tax can be hard. So, when they ask detailed questions about their obligations, don’t get caught out by not knowing the answers.

6) How Walkable Is the Area?

It’s not uncommon for Australian neighbourhoods to have such strong infrastructure that cars aren’t really needed. If your buyers can walk to shops, restaurants and other facilities such as libraries in minutes instead of hours, they’re going to look favourably upon a neighbourhood.

Less cars also mean more bike lanes, less pollution, less noise and wider sidewalks.

7) How are the Noise and Light Levels?

Whilst some people like to live amongst sweeping city lights and noises, others don’t. As a result, you should be prepared to answer a wide variety of questions from buyers relating to light and noise levels.

8) How Prominent is Crime in the Area?

This is a common question with an easy to find answer. Take a look at the websites of your local authorities to find recent figures. Don’t forget to make comparisons between your area and neighbouring suburbs.

9) What’s the Restaurant and Nightlife Scene Like?

Discuss any local breweries, restaurants, bars and clubs with your buyers to give them a sense of the local culture and community vibe. Understandably, this will be much easier if your area has a bustling nightlife scene.

10) What Outdoor Opportunities are there?

If your neighbourhood is bustling with parks, hedgerows, tennis courts, swimming pools and other areas for outdoor activities, you’re onto a winner. As with local restaurants, if you refer your clients to facilities in the area such as gyms, they’ll be likely to return the favour.

Social Media Marketing Ideas You Need to Know for 2018

Are you planning your social media marketing strategy for the rest of 2018? If you are, there are several important changes that could reshape how your agency uses social media, with many of them directly impacting your online presence.

Before you set your plan in stone, take a look at these social media trends to make the most of your campaigns.

1) Video Should be Your Priority

By 2020, a crazy 80% of all online traffic will be directed to video. As a result, it should be a key priority for your content marketing and social media efforts.

2) Audiences Favour Live Streaming Over Static Content

Social media is all about engaging with your followers, and live streaming allows you to do exactly that. Facebook Live videos are watched for 3x the duration of their standard counterparts. Within 3 years, the live streaming industry itself is expected to be worth over $70 billion dollars.

3) Ephemeral Content is On the Rise

This is short-lived content, such as that found on Snapchat or with Instagram stories. If you’re thinking it’s not smart to invest time and money into something that’s not there forever, that’s understandable – but it is.

A large number of agencies have embraced ephemeral content formats to release behind-the-scenes footage and promotions that get real results.

4) AI and Chatbot are Becoming the Standard

By the end of 2018, it’s predicted that 30% of all our chat conversations will be with chatbots. Most of these are used for 24/7 customer support, so it’s easy to see the value they can present to your agency.

5) Influencer Marketing is Huge

Influencer marketing now outperforms organic search and digital advertising. A crazy 94% of marketers who invested in influencer marketing said it was effective.

6) Mobile Content

By the end of 2018, the number of global smartphone users is expected to reach 2480.4 million. In fact, the only social media platform people access on desktop more than smartphone is YouTube.

7) The Importance of Dark Social

Any private messaging app where brands can’t see what’s being discussed falls under the banner of dark social. These include Messenger, WhatsApp, Wechat, and email. The global market share for these products has hit 69% and more and more often, real estate brand are harnessing the power of dark social and using it to their advantage. These are very common for markets such as China.

How Can You Charge More for Your Service?

With the battle for new business getting fiercer for real estate agents every day, there are only two main ways to boost your profitability. Either you focus on outperforming your competition, or you turn your sights to the customer. However, choose wisely, as one of those two is footing the bill at the end of the sale.

Real estate is an industry obsessed with how competition is performing. If someone tries a new tactic, we sit still and wait to see if it works. If it does, hundreds of agents will be using the same technique within days. It’s just the way it works.

But in 2018, with so many agents causing disruption to the status quo and reducing value propositions, a lot of us are left complaining about stiff competition. The introduction of lead generation websites, online agencies offering rock-bottom fees and higher splits have left us confused, concerned, and out of pocket.

However, all of this is nothing more than a distraction, because it focuses on the present customer, with banks even entering the market to offer them the “real market value” of their properties. The old favourite “free assessment and appraisal” lead magnet is done and dusted.

So, how can you come out on top?

You need to learn to put your customers at the centre of everything you do. This is known as customer-centric design and involves you identifying what sticks, where there’s friction, what doesn’t work at all – then you focus on delivering the best service, proving your value to the customer.

You need to understand that the vast majority of customers aren’t concerned about your precise price point. They’re concerned about value. You need to prove to them that your service will demonstrate value above and beyond that of your competition, especially if their fees are lower.

If you’ve started working in the last 5 years on the East Coast of Australia, you’re not going to know much about GFC conditions. And whilst we’re definitely not heading in that direction, we’re certainly remoulding what great agents have to do to win business.

Are you working on your digital presence?

At face value, everyone in the digital space is equal, and this is becoming vastly more true with the mainstream adoption of marketing strategies. And that’s exactly why the agents that take the time to make the calls, visits and face-to-face appointments are going to come out on top. They’ll win, because they’re the ones building relationships with their target audience. Not via an online persona that all-too-easily blends in with their competition – they’re doing it in person.

Your target customers are time poor. They live in a fast-paced online world where everything happens at the click of the button. So, you could focus on the free bottle of champagne you’re giving to your customers, or you could add more value by giving them a building and pest report, or sending a cleaner round to help them get ready for their Saturday morning open house.

The most successful agencies in this business don’t focus on the competitor – they focus on the customer. As a result, if you’re following the tactics and techniques of others, be careful who you’re trying to replicate. You could well be following them into lower fees, reduced profitability and loss of business.

Facebook News Feed Changes – What Can You Do?

By now, it’s likely you’re aware of the changes Facebook is making to its News Feed algorithm. It’s also likely you’ll understand the potential issues it poses to your social media marketing activities.

If you’re not aware of what’s taking place, now is definitely the time to scratch up. On 11^th January, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be switching its focus from businesses to people, placing them at the centre of everything Facebook does.

This is no doubt going to benefit social Facebook users, but it poses a number of problems to those using the service for business marketing purposes, as personal content will have an even higher News Feed priority than it already does. That means it’s going to be trickier than ever before to get your content seen by the right people. In fact, once these changes take place, even the best of your content will only organically reach around 1% of your audience.

It’s understandable that this has huge implications for real estate agencies’ digital marketing strategies. So, what can you do to combat them and stay ahead of the curve? Read on to find out.

1) Focus on High-Quality, Engaging Content

If organic reach is an important part of your marketing strategy, you need to focus on creating high-quality content – now more than ever before.

You’re not communicating with online traffic – you’re communicating with real people. You need to learn to create content that they’ll want to consume – content that’s helpful and entertaining.

Take a look at your Facebook Insights and find out which types of posts have performed best in the past, as this is a strong indicator of what will work well in the future. Axe the post types that haven’t done well, as these won’t help you in the future.

2) Study Your Ad Audiences

Realistically, if you want to get your content seen by the masses, you’re going to have to get used to using Facebook’s advertising platform. Instead of simply scrolling down your real estate business page and clicking ‘Boost’, you’re going to need to look into the background of who you’re targeting and who is engaging most with your content.

Facebook don’t just reward content that gets a lot of engagement – they also penalise content that doesn’t get a lot of engagement. This means that if your boosted content isn’t achieving the desired engagement results, you’ll be less likely to get through to your target audience in the future. As a result, it’s best to review your organic and paid post performance on a regular basis to learn from the results.

3) Use Live Video Wherever Possible

Over the past year, Facebook has developed a firm foothold in the live video broadcasting space and they’re continuing to expand their presence. As a result, Facebook is expected to reward any businesses that use live video by increasing their reach.

However, be wary of what you use live video for. Make it work for your audience. For example, instead of adding a weekly blog post, consider doing a round-up of your content, as well as local real estate market changes, in a live video broadcast.

5 Key Tips for Boosting Your LinkedIn Profile Success Rate

Take a long, hard look at your LinkedIn profile. What do you think? If your profile doesn’t have a strategic approach, you need to get back to the drawing board and start fresh.

Sure, LinkedIn might not measure up against social media giants Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, but it definitely shouldn’t be left out of your marketing plan. Over the last 5 years, the networking facility on the business platform have skyrocketed past the basic messaging function it launched with.

Today, LinkedIn is a major player in the content marketing game, making it a great means of sourcing new business leads. Read on to find out how you can improve your LinkedIn profile to get more inbound business heading your way.

1) Clearly Reflect Your Brand Image in Your Profile

Even if you’re not making LinkedIn your focus, you absolutely need to have a polished profile. Each and every channel you have a presence on is a great opportunity to drive new leads. So, if your different profiles have an inconsistent brand message, you’re not going to be doing yourself any favours.

2) Carefully Choose Your Profile Picture

Whilst that photo of you on your last trip to the beach might serve as an interesting placeholder, it shouldn’t be the permanent resident of your profile picture slot.

As a standard, you should use the same headshot or business logo to reflect your brand across all your social media profiles. You want to convey a professional, approachable brand message across your profiles, especially on a network dedicated to businesses.

3) Don’t Hold Back on a Cover Photo

Real estate is a visual market. As a result, you don’t want to miss out on any opportunities to include stunning photos of your offices or best properties.

Your cover photo is an extension of your brand where you can press to visitors why they should be working with you, so put it to work and get a high-quality image in there to boost your presence and professional image.

4) Write a Complete LinkedIn Bio

Picture this – you’ve found a company you’re thinking about working with. Their brand image looks great, so you head over to the ‘About Us’ page. It’s blank. Are you going to feel like picking up the phone after that?

Chances are, you probably wouldn’t. and the same goes for your bio. If someone is interested enough to read this section, they’re potentially considering doing business with you. So, give them something to read.

Use this section as an explainer of your background, who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. At the bottom, include a call to action of your choice, such as “Get in Touch Today to Claim Your Free Valuation”.

5) Create Valuable Real Estate Content

As we mentioned earlier, LinkedIn is a hot bed for content marketing success. On top of photos and a full bio, any content you share will be automatically added to your profile for viewers to read.

If you’re writing articles that your target market is interested in, you’re only going to make yourself more relevant in the eyes of potential clients.

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