Selecting a real estate agent is a high-stakes choice, as buying and selling a home is often one of the biggest decisions a person can make. So, how does a potential client not only find you, but also know that you’re the right fit for this important process? One smart way to get discovered, set yourself apart from the competition and establish yourself as a trusted, go-to expert is through real estate content marketing.
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What is real estate content marketing?
Content marketing is the process of creating engaging content that is relevant to your ideal client. This may include blog posts, neighborhood guides, videos, infographics, white papers, case studies, and more. The content you create should provide potential clients with information that adds value for them while demonstrating your experience, establishing you as an expert, and building brand awareness for your real estate business.
The value of real estate content marketing
With the real estate market getting more competitive with every passing day, a solid content marketing strategy can make a big difference in helping your business stand out and grow.
Content marketing demonstrates your expertise
When potential clients are looking for a real estate agent—whether they’re getting ready to list a property or looking for the home of their dreams—they want to know they’ve found someone they can trust.
Content marketing gives you the opportunity to demonstrate that you’re in the know about real estate and your local area, that you’ve handled situations like theirs before, and that other clients have had terrific experiences with you.
Content marketing helps you connect with potential clients
Developing engaging content that speaks to what potential clients are looking for is a great way to connect and build relationships with them. And when you SEO optimize your content with relevant keywords (more on that below), you can get discovered by and connect with even more potential clients.
Content marketing helps you build brand awareness
The more quality content you build out, the more chances potential clients have to see and learn about your brand. This increases the odds that when they’re ready to hire a real estate professional, they’ll think of you.
How to build your real estate content marketing strategy
1. Understand the needs of your ideal client
The first step in developing a great real estate content marketing strategy is to think about what information and resources would be most valuable to the people you are trying to reach and work with. To ensure your content is timely, relevant, local, and personalized for your target audience, you want to make sure you understand their pains, fears, dreams, and desires (PFDDs).
Start by thinking about the interactions you have with locals, neighbors, and potential clients in your everyday life and work. Consider the following:
- What questions are your ideal clients asking as they consider moving to a new property or putting their property on the market?
- What do your ideal clients struggle with? For example, what are the hardest parts of preparing to move? What are they worried about when they think of starting over in a new city?
- What are your ideal clients dreaming about for their life and home?
- What are locals talking about? Here, you can also think beyond real estate and consider the news items, neighborhood updates, and other local topics people are buzzing about.
As a real estate agent and member of your local community, you may already have a good sense of the answers to these questions. But it’s important to always keep your finger on the pulse, so you can ensure you continue to develop content that is relevant and timely.
A few ways to make sure you’re staying in the know include joining planning committees, attending community meetings, town halls, and real estate seminars, sending emails to your mailing list that both share information and ask for it, and seeking out local groups and communities on social media to see what people are talking about.
2. Do your research
To take it one step further and become a true expert in what matters to local buyers and sellers, and specifically to your target audience, you’ve gotta do your research.
Tap into local data
Using local data can help you take your content to the next level with information about exactly what your customers want to know. Some great sources for this include Inman, The National Association of REALTORS, The National Association of Homebuilders, Data.gov, City-Data.com, and The National Multi Housing Council.
Use smart keyword tools
To rank higher in the search results and get in front of your target audience, you should be incorporating the keywords they’re looking up. Tools like the Topic Research Tool and Keyword Magic Tool from SemRush and the Keywords Explorer and Content Explorer from Ahrefs can help you learn more about what people are actually searching for, so you can produce that key content and make sure it gets discovered.
For more ideas, here are 141 of the best real estate keywords to boost your website ranking.
Understand top-performing topics
These are the top-performing and most popular organic topics for real estate. They’re a great starting place when you’re thinking about what consumers want to learn about and what type of content to develop. It’s a good idea to take the time to see what’s already out there, what you can learn from it, and where you can add even more value.
- Selling property
- Area and neighborhood descriptions
- Renting and leasing
- Repair and maintenance
- Mortgage and loans
- Planning and rooms
- Prices and the local market
- Community and activities
3. Establish your brand voice
Before you start developing content, it’s important to know your brand voice and tone. This is a key factor that can set you apart from the competition and establish trust. Your brand voice should reflect your personality, represent your brand, and build connections with your audience.
To develop your brand voice, start by thinking about who you are, what you stand for, and who you’re speaking to. For example, if your personal voice and brand identity center around being humorous, you might find ways to inject this personality into your content, in a professional way.
If you’re working with luxury sellers who highly value their privacy, you may use a voice that emphasizes your experience and discretion with clients like them.
Once you’ve landed on the voice that feels right for you, consider building some guidelines to ensure that the content you produce is always on-brand. Here are a few great resources designed to help you with that process:
- Why You Need a Brand Book—and How to Create One
- Expert Tips for Rebranding Your Real Estate Business
- How to Create a USP for Yourself So You Can Beat the Competition
4. Showcase your expertise
Once you’ve done your research, established your voice, and have an idea of the type of content that will best speak to your ideal client, it’s time to start building it out and highlighting your local expertise.
Establish yourself as a subject matter expert
Customers come to you for your expertise in real estate, with the understanding that you deeply know your local market and the ins and outs of the real estate process. Your content is a great way to build this trust.
Consider making a short list of the topics that you think will best resonate with your target audience, and start building out content that speaks to it. Write blog posts, share content on social media, create videos, and show customers that you genuinely know and understand those key details.
Here are some examples of the types of content you might develop, depending on your local market and audience:
- Your local area. You can create neighborhood guides, lists of the best attractions in your local area, or calendars with current lists of upcoming local events.
- Preparing to sell. How can interested sellers get their homes ready for the market? What tools do they need? How can you support them in achieving those goals?
- Packing and moving. Build content that shares insider tips, tricks, and hacks for moving, plus local resources potential clients might find helpful.
Tailor your content for your audience
Clients want to feel like their questions are being answered and their needs are being met. Personalized content helps you do just that. When you know your ideal clients’ pains, fears, dreams, and desires, and what’s on their minds, you can develop content that feels tailor-made for them.
A great example of this is the content produced by Luxury Presence client Jade Mills. As a top-producing Beverly Hills real estate agent, Jade understands how changes in the market have the potential to impact her clients. Her 30 Seconds with Jade series speaks directly to her very specific, highly localized market, offering intel and advice that showcase her expertise and build trust.
In Jade’s own words: “During the pandemic, I started an Instagram series called ‘30 Seconds With Jade.’ In it, I answer pressing questions, explain real estate trends, and showcase luxury listings. Even in an unprecedented and unsure time, it helped me keep in touch with clients and colleagues and bring in new business.”
Talk about what they care about
It’s important to create content that touches on the issues that people truly care about. Honesty builds trust, so don’t be afraid to share both the highs and lows about your market and community. As a local, you probably have your own opinions, which you can thoughtfully transform into brand content that your audience will find helpful.
This might include the status of affordable housing, challenges with the local infrastructure or transportation options, details about community programs, and the pros and cons of certain local amenities.
5. Feature partnerships that grow your network
As a local real estate agent, you probably know a ton of great businesses of all kinds, from landscapers to moving companies to interior designers to caterers. And that’s a great starting point for creating engaging content!
Think about the interests of your target audience, including the types of businesses you’re most often asked to recommend and connect with the ones in your local community that represent the same interests and values you do. Then build content that includes them, including local neighborhood guides, resource lists, and more.
Not only will sharing this information be relevant and useful to your target audience, but your content will also benefit the businesses you mention. This builds connections in your community and can have a reciprocal effect, where they will be more invested in your success and more likely to recommend your business, too.
6. Try out different formats
Different types of content tend to perform better on certain platforms. For example, social media is a great place to share listings or short snippets, while your blog is ideal for longer-form content. And video content is a popular content form on many platforms.
So, don’t be afraid to experiment! To start, think about the ways you like to discover and consume content and how you think your audience might, too. Then, try out different blog formats, social media channels, and lengths and styles of content. This is the only way to find out what performs best for your brand and what resonates with your target audience.
Whatever you do, keep in mind that real estate is obviously a highly-visual industry. So make sure that with any content marketing you develop, you’re prioritizing high-quality imagery and videos.
7. Get your content out there
Once you’ve begun creating content, it’s time to push it out there and make sure it gets discovered. Choosing the right channels to market your real estate business can make a huge difference in your ability to reach your target market.
The best approach is typically an omnichannel one. Here’s an example: Let’s say a potential client is searching for content about moving to your city. You’ve just published a blog post on this very topic and they discover it. But they get distracted by dinnertime and click away. With paid ads, you’re able to retarget them and drive them to a landing page that’s optimized for lead capture.
With the contact information they provided now in your database, you add them to your mailing list and send them relevant, topical content that reinforces your expertise and brand. One of those emails mentions an event you’re hosting—and they come, you connect, and they end up as your client.
Paid media
As it sounds, paid media is content that you pay for, such as digital ads. With paid traffic, you’ll often see results immediately and get the exact type of traffic you want, thanks to highly-specific targeting abilities. Paid traffic is also easier to scale, as you can easily adjust your budget to spend more on the ad network to get more results if it’s working.
Owned media
Your website, blog, and social media accounts are examples of owned channels: the ones you control and can use to help you reach your target market.
Earned channels
Earned channels include those that you have worked for and earned over time, including social media shares, press, reviews, and other word-of-mouth marketing.
Real estate content marketing ideas
Ready to start creating great content marketing? There are tons of opportunities, including the following:
- Your real estate agent website
- Newsletter marketing
- Success stories
- Downloadable resources such as fact sheets, glossaries, guides, stats, and reports
- Evergreen content
- AR/VR for virtual tours
- Co-branded influencer campaigns
- Event-based marketing, including open houses, block parties, meet and greets with brokers, real estate seminars, and industry conferences
Uplevel your real estate content marketing with Luxury Presence
Engaging content marketing can be a game-changer for your real estate business—but it can take time to develop on your own. Our team of content writers, real estate experts, and SEO specialists has the experience to write high-quality content that will help you stand out and attract more business. To learn more and get started, schedule a free demo with our team.
