The 2022 Guide to Real Estate Content Marketing

A few weeks ago, I was at a networking event and had the opportunity to chat with a few of the attendees. One particular person was interested in real estate investments but didn’t have much experience in the field. He asked me what steps he should take to get started and how he could better position himself for success.

Of course, the usual things come to mind: reading books, taking classes, and speaking with other investors. However, a friend of mine who’s a realtor let me in on a publicly concealed secret – real estate content marketing.

Nine out of ten home buyers use the internet to find properties, and seven out of ten of them will build trust through your online content before reaching out. 

Iglesias Realty Group publicly attributes their many wins to content marketing, with over 75, 000 followers on instagram alone. They feature high resolution images of properties on their social media platforms with captions covering details such as location, size, etc.

CrowdStreet’s online presence is bustling with purely informative content that answers questions about real estate and their company’s investment process.

Whether you are a seasoned realtor or new to the real estate space, the question is always “How do I win big and close as many sales as possible?” 

In the succeeding sections, I’ll be discussing:

1.  The importance of content marketing in real estate.

2. Things to do before creating content in real estate.

3. Tips and effective practices for real estate content marketing.

4. Some great content ideas real estate companies can implement.

Why is Content Marketing important in Real Estate?

1. Better brand presence is great for Marketing and Sales. Period.

Posting content on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is a known way for real estate companies to grow their brand recognition. 

If your company takes SEO seriously, then you could have the advantage of being able to show your company’s expertise and increase your visibility with potential unique users.. 

People have a lot of questions you could answer. You can write about anything – from the most mundane details of home buying or selling to more complex topics like mortgage financing or land development.

2. It helps to generate, nurture and convert leads

In today’s digital world, people are looking for information on the internet before they make any decision about a property purchase or selling their property. 

Potential buyers can find out about new listings or homes for sale in their area via social media or search engines like Google Maps or Yelp.

Also, creating, say, an infographic or video showing how much money would be saved if someone were to switch from renting an apartment to owning an apartment might just be the inspiration your target audience needs to buy that property. 

3. It is an avenue to inform and educate your target audience

Content marketing is also an opportunity for you as an agent to inform and educate your target audience about what they should expect from the real estate process. 

You can do this by creating educational videos or podcasts that explain what happens during every step of the real estate transaction process from listing to closing on the sale of a home or investment property.

4. It is cost-effective

Content marketing allows you to reach thousands of potential buyers and tenants through blogs, social media and other platforms at low or no cost. 

You can also use these channels to keep in touch with your existing clients, as well as attract new ones who have never heard of you before.

5.  Helps to build relationships

When you publish great content on your social media handles, website or blog regularly, it sends a message about who you are and what you stand for, thus building credibility. 

The more people see your message and engage with them, the more likely they are to trust your brand and want to work with you — especially if they heard about it from someone else! You also get to understand their preferences and challenges with buying or selling a property.

6. It helps to build trust with your target audience

Customers greatly appreciate content marketing efforts because they recognize the fact that you are showing them how useful you could be to them. 

They recognize the fact that you care enough to do that. 

Creating relevant content helps you build the right kind of trust with your customers and in turn forms a lasting relationship with them. 

7. Helps enhance the effectiveness of your SEO strategies

In addition to leading to an increase in your leads and your purchases, Content Marketing helps enhance the accessibility of your content online. 

The point of SEO strategy is to get your content to places where minor efforts won’t take it to. Adding content marketing to your SEO strategies increases the chances of this happening. 

The more you employ the use of content marketing, the more your brand gains traction and consequently, the greater your online presence.

Content marketing also helps with SEO because search engines like Google like content that is well-written and has good keywords in it as well as links back to other websites so that people can find out more about what they are looking for.

8. Helps increase your knowledge on your target audience

Content marketing not only gives immediate results but also helps with the process of understanding your customers/target audience. 

With insights gained from your content marketing efforts, you are able to fully understand and even predict—to a considerable extent—the behavior of your customers, tweak your buyer persona findings, consequently improving personalization.

All the advantages of applying content marketing to your real estate brand listed above look attractive, I’m sure. To get them for yourself, a good amount of work is involved. 

Now before you rush off to start creating content, there are a few things you must do

Things to do before creating a real estate content marketing strategy

1. Keep up with the trends in real estate

The fact that times are constantly changing, and that nothing stays the same should not be ignored. 

You know what’s changing in your industry, so it would be right for you to act accordingly. 

By now, certain styles of buildings are outdated, so it would be smart thinking to gear content marketing efforts towards the buildings that are in vogue now. 

Take for example the emergence of smart tech apartments. Keeping up with trends would be gearing your content marketing efforts towards enlightening your customers about these types of apartments and its perks. 

2. Religiously monitor the changes in and tweak your buyer persona

The kinds of people that patronize your business, whether they are foreign business people or young local workaholics, change overtime and it’s a great idea to be watchful of these changes.

This, evidently, helps you make better decisions. 

For example, if the age bracket of people who buy homes around a certain location changes from senior citizens to middle-aged people, it helps to note that down and make the required changes to your buyer persona so you could then direct your content marketing efforts the right way.  

You could also use this as a blog post idea like, “Why more and more middle-aged adults are moving into this neighborhood”.

Neat stuff. 

3. Come up with a Content Schedule

Creating a time table for your content and setting aside time to brainstorm does more good than you imagine. 

As a real estate company, of course your customers are aware that you are not solely a writer, so bombarding them with content isn’t a must. 

You could set a time for when you release blog posts addressing the trends in real estate, or for when you give tips on how to make the most from one’s real estate investment, and so on. 

Creating a content schedule grounds you and aids in creating quality content for your customers.

Now that you have been acquainted or reacquainted—however the case may be—with the actions you need to take before creating content as a real estate company, here are some tips for your real estate content marketing.

Tips and effective practices for your real estate content marketing 

1. Aim to be a go-to resource

It is evident that making one of the most important goals of your real estate content marketing to be a go-to resource for your target audience does a world of good for the brand. 

For example, creating blog posts that answer some of their questions on investing in real estate.

Your target audience would eventually be convinced that your brand doesn’t just see them as money making opportunities only but as people you really care about and want to help. 

2. Focus on selling experiences

Don’t focus on only the features of a property while creating content. Instead, focus on the amazing benefits a customer stands to gain from that sale. Here’s what I mean.

Customers would prefer a “Come and buy this building because of its beautiful scenery and the way it makes your processes easier” to a measly “Come and buy this building because you need it”.

Selling experiences would be you going that extra step to let your customers know why exactly they need to buy a property. 

3. Give tips on what your customers should look out for, and places they could visit around an area

This is my favorite- offering customers information on interesting and significant landmarks around a property. This shows you actually care about them and are not just interested in closing a deal.

For example, if there is a coffee shop just before a building you are trying to sell you could mention this-it would definitely excite workaholics. 

4. Create more appealing content like videos and infographics

Human senses are excited by aesthetically pleasing things.

Your target audience is made up of humans too—we’d like to believe—so taking this fact into consideration when creating content for your real estate brand would be a great idea. 

Things like videos and infographics can be employed here to grab the attention of your target audience quicker. 

An example is employing an infographic to explain why exactly younger people might be moving to a particular neighborhood more than before.

This would get people to take their time to look through and actually gain something they might not have gained by reading long form content.

5. Have the right tools at your disposal

Content marketing tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, WordPress and Canva are well known and well used. 

Without undermining the capabilities and the helpfulness of these tools, I would like to introduce you to some lesser known tools that do just as great work for your real estate company as the popular ones you might have heard of or even used. 

Here they are:

• Airstory: When writing content for your blog as part of your content marketing strategy, this tool is a great help. It helps compile your research notes for future use. So instead of traveling to the webpage you might have come across weeks ago and trying to compile your research notes or copy and paste, airstory helps you compile and save those notes for your easy retrieval. 

• Yoast: This tool is especially useful in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It works in conjunction with WordPress. Yoast helps you see exactly how your content ranks for specific keywords, improves your site search and lets your users find your most important content among a host of other things. And if you don’t want to trust our word alone, you could head over to their aesthetically pleasing site to feed your eyes while also learning exactly how they could help with your real estate content marketing.

• Vidyard: this tool makes remote selling easier. In their own words, they’re a tool for easy, powerful video creation. Remember the video marketing I highlighted earlier, well Vidyard helps you stand out to your real estate prospects with the help of very memorable video messages. Even further, they help you put tailored follow-ups for your prospective customers at the top of your to-do list. 

• PathFactory: this tool works to make it easier for you to gauge your buyer intent and react to those you have found to be very engaged. Neat, isn’t it? Absolutely. And it definitely takes away all the stress off your shoulders when it comes to this analysis.  Again, don’t feel obliged to take our word for it, check them out here too.

• Parse.ly: as one of the best tools for content analytics, it gives you as a creator and marketer, the tools you need to understand your content performance, and helps deliver tailored content experiences and drive meaningful results. 

Now that you have imbibed these tips, it is time to give some thought to actual ideas for your real estate company’s content. 

What content ideas can real estate companies implement?

1. Blogging

When the topic of content marketing comes up in your conversations as a real estate brand, the first thing that comes to mind is Blogging, and for good reason. 

Whether your target market is made up of big readers or not, you can’t go wrong with blogging. 

Humans are constantly asking questions and to those questions, they require answers. Creating blog posts that seek to answer these questions and just generally be helpful is a great strategy. 

For example, you could work on creating a blog post that explains why your customers should think about investing in real estate. 

This is another great way to execute your real estate content marketing. 

2. Video marketing

The use of videos could be along with or an alternative to blogging. 

This is another reason you need to study the changes in your target audience. Knowing exactly which they prefer over periods of time would help a lot with decisions concerning the kind of content you want to put out. 

An example of a way you could leverage the use of videos is to go the extra mile where you explain in fun detail the perks of a particular building you think is a good deal for your customers.

3. Ebooks? Not a bad idea either

For people who want in-depth knowledge about real estate, an e-book would be a good idea. 

People who want as much knowledge as they can get are prepared to go to any trouble to get it. This is the part where you leverage that, and introduce an ebook into the mix.

It could be an ebook about real estate as a whole or about your company and its services in particular.

4. Leverage the use of social media

Everyone is on social media these days, and it would be absolutely erroneous to not take advantage of this. 

Leveraging the use of social media in your content marketing strategy helps you meet your customers where they are basically waiting for you. 

On social media apps like LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or even Reddit, you could go ahead and flex your content muscles. Drop quick and helpful tips on how to make the most from smart tech apartments, your company’s offers on buildings, and you can even link your blog posts where you talk about these things in depth too. 

Whatever you do, do not ignore the use of social media.

Wrapping up

Sometimes doing your own content marketing yourself might not be working. Because well, sometimes, things like this are done best by professionals that seek to take all the work off your shoulders and leave you stressless. 

This is where Hera comes in. We are a remote marketing agency with white-glove experience that can help you successfully launch and run your real estate content marketing. 

So go ahead and contact us today!

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We have worked with over 24 startups to drive conversions through increased community presence and relevant blog posts that we help distribute. To understand our process, book a 15 - 30 minutes meeting with us.