Location, Location, Location: Content Marketing for Real Estate Agencies

When buying and selling real estate, many realtors agree that the three most important attributes that determine whether or not a house will sell are, “Location, location, location.” 

While this may be funny, in fact the importance of location goes further than just getting your listings moving. In fact, it pretty much summarizes what your real estate agency needs to do to make the most of content marketing. Because when your customers are looking for the best house for their family or the best realtor to make their sale, the only thing that determines whether they connect with your firm is the “location, location, location,” of your brand.

With a growing arsenal of convenient online tools like Zillow, Trulia, and HomeFinder, real estate buyers often start the research process online. And when 31 percent of the world is active on social media and companies that blog receive 97 percent more visits to their websites and see a bigger return on their investment than companies that don’t, content marketing becomes a very real solution to improving your brand’s visibility.

Ready to get started? Here’s how your real estate agency can use blogging and social media to drive prospective buyers to your website and develop strong relationships:

Blogging Informs and Builds Thought Leadership 

The purpose of blogging is two-fold: articles written for specific keywords can bring a search engine optimization (SEO) boost to your website, driving more traffic to your site over time, while well-written content captures the attention and interest of those visitors and invites them to spend more time on your website learning about your business.

To be as useful as possible, every blog post needs to have a specific purpose. Tailor the content to frequently asked questions about the home-buying process, potential problems and solutions you can help customers look out for, and unique insights your real estate team brings to the table. Not only do these topics bring in better traffic (after all, 81 percent of shoppers conduct online research before buying), but providing your opinion and expertise also establishes you as a thought leader in your industry.

For example, first-time homebuyers may not know about different financing options, down-payment restrictions, or how to begin the mortgage process. A detailed blog post that freely shares your team’s expertise could be the stepping stone of trust that leads a reader to call your company first.

Social Media Marketing Builds Community and Engagement

The 2014 Pew Internet Project revealed that the prime home-buying demographic of customers age 30 to 49 are very comfortable using social media to research and ask questions. That means social media and social media networking are crucial parts of content marketing in real estate. If social media is not part of your content marketing strategy, you might be missing a large group of people who want to purchase their home from you.

When you first start networking online, keep in mind that slow growth is strong growth. Without authentic engagement (connecting with current and former real estate clients, following interesting and relatable local business accounts), a high follower count won’t move the needle on your bottom line.

As you post regularly, make sure the content you’re providing is interesting and helpful to the customers you’re trying to reach. Each Tweet or Facebook post is not going to be helpful if it’s an overt ad for your company; but each genuinely helpful, engaging, and well-crafted Tweet or Facebook post acts as an ad for the value your company brings to your clients.

The big challenge, of course, is keeping your blog and your social media feeds stocked with a consistent stream of exciting high-quality content that keeps your audience coming back for more.

Does your brand have prime real estate online? If you do, you know how valuable it can be to have a lively social media presence and an active blog. If not, use these ideas as a starting point for getting involved in your digital community and developing thoughtful content for prospective clients. And if you have any questions along the way, just reach out to Prose Media. Sign up to access our free, no-obligation platform. We would love to see what you have in mind.