How do you get the most return on investment (ROI) out of your real estate content marketing? It’s what every real estate agent wants to know. The predictable answer to this question is: leads. If you are getting leads from your content marketing, you’re winning — right?

Wrong. Because then the opposite would have to also be true: If you aren’t getting leads from your content marketing, you’re wasting your time. And that could not be further from the truth.

What does content marketing accomplish?

In my opinion, content marketing is designed to do two things:

Create value to the consumer

You’d better believe that the content you’re producing is providing value to those who read it. It needs to be solving a problem your readers are having, answer a question they’re asking or create a “light bulb moment” for them that they didn’t even realize they needed.

Set you apart as an expert

Creating high-quality content should establish you as an expert in your field. When consumers can Google something and find your educated opinion online, you’ve instantly broken down the first wall in the sales cycle — you’ve made them trust you.

These two things should produce leads down the road, but tracking leads is a terrible metric for content marketing in its beginning stages. Content marketing is a huge benefit to your business, but it requires a long-term game plan. Here are five things you can start doing today to maximize your efforts over time.

5 ways to increase your real estate content marketing ROI

1. Don’t stop

If you want to maximize your ROI with content marketing, you have to have a steady flow of content to be marketed and found by others. Most people stop just short of the breakthrough. You will produce content for a few months, not see much fruit from it (because all you tracked were leads) so you quit.

Force yourself to keep going. It takes blogs an average of two years to start picking up traction. Don’t stop short.

2. Cross promote

A large part of maximizing the ROI here is getting your content out across the internet as quickly as possible. So find some partners willing to share your content on social media, their email list and even on their websites. Every time they do, you get to borrow their influence to get eyeballs on your content.

But this can’t be a one-way street. You will need to be willing to share their content as well if they ask. Partnering with the right people can do wonders for your reach.

3. Invite others to be a part of it

If you blog, have a couple guest bloggers to give different perspectives. If you do video, interview others or have someone take over your channel for the day. New people break up the monotony of what they’re used to seeing or reading. Also, these people will also share the content, and typically, some of their people will as well.

This is the fastest way to increase your audience without spending any money.

4. Facebook and Instagram ads

As you produce more and more content, you’ll create some content that you could choose to keep close to your chest until someone gives you something to get it from you.

For example, you could create “10 things to do to prep your house to sell,” and then run an ad that says, “Are you prepping to sell? Here’s what you need to do first.”

Then when leads submit their email and/or number to receive your article. It’s a very straight-forward way to get leads directly because of your content.

5. Be an author for bigger sites

Look what I’m doing right now. You are reading this article on Inman, and if you like it, you will figure out how to find me. Or you can scroll to the bottom where you can click my website or social media channels. I add value to Inman, it gives me access to its viewership. That’s how content marketing works.

Who are the players in your city who have large amounts of eyeballs? Go write for them. Go create content for them. If they attract your type of audience, you will be able to leverage that relationship to borrow their influence and attract their people. It’s very easy to do, and most companies would love more bodies around that can help them crank out content.

Stop considering content marketing and do it. Our world is changing, real estate is changing, and every day another company shows up trying to further automate what you do.

How do you battle that? With expertise and relationships. The two things that robots can’t do. Start producing content. Follow the steps above, and watch your business change and grow. It will happen. I promise.