Sometimes it’s hard to think about how you can get ahead in a very highly competitive market, especially in the real estate industry.
With technology and digital advancements, the industry has faced a lot of new developments that changed the overall landscape of real estate marketing. Gone are the days of door-to-door sales and travelling sales caravans, which may no longer be as effective as it was 20 to 30 years ago.
As the real estate industry has been affected by these developments, so has consumer behaviour. A 2019 real estate industry trends report found that the new generation of home buyers across all age groups begin their search online for listed properties.
For buyers aged 73 years and above, the time and effort spent contacting a real estate agent are relatively the same as searching for listings online.
Around 93% of buyers used an online website during a house search and 50% of all buyers have purchased their actual homes as a result of their online search.
Is your real estate website visible to this 93% of buyers in the market? If you are uncertain about it, then you need to strategise your way to be seen on the internet, not just as a real estate agent, but a leading and authoritative agent in your territory.
It’s time to consider formulating your “secret sauce” to make your website more visible and appealing to your target audience.
One of the most effective ways to reach out and touch your audience is through content marketing and blogging, which Google and search engine algorithms recognise as among the factors that help rank your page and at the same time, provide a valuable informational resource to your audience.
Set your goals and expectations
Before you start launching your content- either by your own or by hiring a real estate content writer- it is necessary to set your goals and expectations.
What do you want to achieve? Do you want to dwell on a specific niche? A solutions provider for homebuyers? A thought leader? Establish partnerships? Develop rapport and trust?
These are some of the key questions you need to ask yourself before you start working smart and become more focus-oriented in your marketing campaigns.
While there’s no one definite or fits-all solution, but you can always customise your content marketing approaches.
There are several ways to manage your content marketing techniques such as evergreen content, technical updates, home improvement tips, and quality articles, just to name a few. Just make sure to determine a purpose and your content will do the rest.
Innovate, diversify, and be consistent
While written articles can be appealing, developing a diverse range of content platforms can provide more robust and dynamic channels to gain more audiences and potential customers or clients.
Blogging, videos, virtual tours, and high-quality images are among the most popular and are among those that attract a diverse mix of visitors to a real estate website.
Particularly for blogging, readers appreciate a lot of value-added efforts by real estate agents and agencies. The most appealing ones are those that provide compelling and inspiring experiences in the industry that motivates people to take action.
Videos content is also running head-to-head with blogging since it makes products more accessible and visible. Based on a recent survey, 72% of people going online prefer to watch videos compared to reading text.
Another effective tool is info-graphics. There are several free generators available online. Having expertise in this platform can also be a good opportunity to teach your network about how to create similar tools that they can use in their respective specialties or organisations.
Providing compelling content that could create a strong impression on your target audience is essential and homebuyers prefer to work with an expert on local real estate.
Develop your voice and message to help create brand awareness in your network and community pages. E-books, podcasts, or blog posts are your windows to your audience which is why making it relevant to their needs and preferences are your best tools to make contact.
Do not be afraid to mix your content marketing ideas and approaches. Take advantage of SEO to optimise your site, generate leads and customers, ensure your ROI, and leverage on your online resources to work to your advantage.
Measure your performance
Do not ignore the importance of measuring your performance and success to see how you are faring online.
Google provides free analytics tools in Google Analytics that can help measure your general online performance.
You will be able to see how your site is performing in terms of visitor source, page visits, views, unique visitors, average duration visit, returning visitors, specific landing pages, and bounce rate.
Social media platforms also provide great opportunities to have your content distributed across different networks and help you get more audiences.
Sell more with your blog posts
Your content can get a better boost with blogs optimised by SEO. It helps you maximise your content potential to reach out to more audiences as you are working on increasing engagement and visibility for your blog posts.
Blogging lets you see more opportunities to let your website and business grow. While you may not yet see overnight success, you will eventually see the fruits of your labour. Just make sure to engage your audience, adapt to changes, and aspire to grow more in the real estate industry.