It pays to know what’s up and what’s not in digital marketing, especially with real estate agents who want to boost their professional presence online and get ahead of the competition.
When it comes to online supremacy, one of the major factors for success is content marketing.
But make no mistake, content is not just about filling your pages with random articles, images, and videos, rather it must be carefully planned, implemented, and maintained to build credibility, customer confidence, and authority.
Today, content marketing is not just about standing out in the market but has become a vital ingredient in building a brand, especially when you are in the real estate game.
What is it about content?
Ideally, it is how you put your thoughts and ideas for the public to see. This means that as a real estate agent, your medium of communication is your website and social media.
But will any content be enough to get me there? No, because compelling and relevant content will be the determining factor that will bring your message to your audience.
Planning your content is best when backed by data and trends that dominate the online environment and with your real website optimised to respond to the latest trends, then you can surely count on getting more traffic, generating leads, and closing sales.
User search intent
People spend time online for a reason and every search activity is fuelled by intent and not just some random query.
Based on a recent study no less than 93% of online experiences start with a search engine with approximately 72,000 search queries made every second and almost 6 billion searches in one day.
Google’s algorithms, of which operating details are held in secrecy, are presumably trained on several factors, one of which is user intent, to provide the best user search experience.
This is why it is vital to take advantage of trending and essential keywords to help determine user search intent. Here are some useful and helpful keyword specifications to focus on.
Navigational search. This is about users typing in keywords to help then access entertainment, news, and social media, among others.
Informational search. These are the use of keywords to acquire information or knowledge regarding topics or niches.
Transitional search. These are focused on keywords used when buying or selling something online.
Understanding user search intent will help you develop impactful and responsive content marketing strategies for your website and social media channels.
Responsive and interactive content
People nowadays expect quick responses and interaction to keep them engaged and entertained. Among the tools that you can use to help understand the pulse of your audience is to conduct surveys and polls, provide animated informational and educational content, online contests, etc.
Today’s focus on content marketing is more on experiences created for the audience instead of putting more words on your webpage.
Interactive and responsive content will help improve your audience’s attention span on your website and get ranked higher online.
Social media
Giving focus on your social media pages can give you access to the more than 3 billion social media users around the world, with 95% of adults aged 18 to 34 actively following a certain brand on social media.
Your content focus for social media can be based on trending content categories such as ephemeral, social media business, niche social platforms, and video contents.
Social media is the future of content marketing so you should start optimising social media.
Virtual and augmented reality
Combining new age virtual and live streaming technology for visual capabilities to enhance your content delivery is strongly becoming a popular medium, especially in real estate.
Global data analyst Deloitte revealed that no less than 90% of all companies earning annual revenues of $100 million to $1 billion are taking advantage of VR and AR technologies. They aim to provide users with real-time experiences on interior design, shopping, immersive experiences, etc.
AR also plays important roles in social media platforms to spur customer interest and sustain engagement by providing fun and worthwhile experiences online.
Webinars and podcasts
It’s no surprise that there is a deluge of podcasts and webinars because content marketers find this a very relevant medium of communication to people who crave for information and insights, especially in the Coronavirus era.
Videos are powerful tools that influence emotions and inspire viewers to take action. Streaming live videos allows you to communicate with your audience. For instance, instead of simply filming a property and uploading it on your website, you may want to live stream your walkthrough and welcome questions or inquiries during the online session.
Voice search optimisation and chatbots
The reason why voice search is becoming increasingly popular today is that it allows people to multi-task by searching online while either jogging, cycling, cooking, etc. Voice search allows them access to instant search results without getting sidetracked from what they are doing.
A recent study by Google revealed that 20% of mobile users use voice search on their devices, and another report predicts that smart speaker usage is expected to surge by 55% by 2022. Audio-centric technologies are gearing up for integration as 30% of all web-browsing sessions will be conducted using Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Apple AirPods.
Similarly, chatbots are providing users with great experiences through instant and quick results by automating responses to customers.
By the end of this year, it is predicted that 85% of interactions with businesses and companies will be made with chatbots.
EAT- Expertise, Authentication, and Trustworthy Content
This is a major factor in content marketing and a major deciding factor that boosts your online presence. Google launched the Quality Rater Guidelines back in 2015 to guide marketers regarding EAT when developing content.