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Content marketing is a core business strategy, but are real estate professionals doing enough of it? The rules of the road are evolving, and the top players are using content marketing to their advantage (just look at the Oppenheim Group).
The secret to success? Diversifying content to meet buyers where they’re at (digitally), socializing the “keep in touch” strategy, and working with smart digital content tools that help agents streamline their workflows so they can get back to — well, selling.
Meet buyers where they’re at (digitally speaking)
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that 73 percent of homeowners are more likely to list with a real estate agent who uses videos to sell a property. That’s great, but the video has to be distributed across the right platforms in order to be most effective.
And millennials and Gen Z are embracing video marketing – with nearly 39 percent of millennials being comfortable buying a home online. In fact, 59 percent of those aged 27 to 41 are confident about making an offer even without seeing the property in person first.
With access to platforms like Zillow and Street Easy, as well as social media, agents nowadays are focused on diversifying their digital portfolio. Real estate professionals are sharing more than their listings. They’re sharing advice on when to best buy and rent and offering general guidance to first-time renters and homebuyers.
Realtors are uniquely positioned to engage closely with potential buyers to create lasting relationships, and the upsurge in available content creation tools allows them to further establish themselves as trusted sources.
TB Realty Group, for example, used to print brochures for each of their properties, but the production and distribution process was complicated between photography, printing, and driving time. Looking to replace the cost and hassle of print by moving to digital, the group leveraged tools to create digital brochures and flipbooks that create a big impact with less effort. Today, all of their marketing content is digital.
“With our marketing content now 100 percent digital, it’s been a great replacement for finicky prints and has been well received by our market and client base. This modernized approach allows us to push digital content to do more than a printed brochure, and the combination of professional listing photos with 2D floor plans and 3D walkthrough videos prevents buyer’s perceptions from being skewed,” said Theresa Baird, broker at TB Realty Group.
Socializing the ‘Keep in Touch’ strategy
As the housing market continues to fluctuate, so too will the traditional “keep in touch” strategy. Sharing a digital brochure before and after a showing is always a must (bonus points if it provides easy access to similar listings), and today, agents should consider diversifying their approach by amplifying their social marketing tactics as a second form of follow-up.
This is where high-quality visuals and audio are extremely important – like offering a 3D tour embedded in an interactive digital flipbook.
The Saint Lucia Preserve is a conversation development boasting a golf and ranch club, recreational activities, and 297 homesites within a 20,000-acre nature preserve. To market the preserve to current and prospective members, the team wanted to deliver digital content to current residents and target future homebuyers by showcasing amenities, scenic houses and hikes in its magazines, sales reports and brochures.
The team also distributes a monthly newsletter to real estate agents, prospects and local industry partners, as well as personalized one-to-one emails for prospects.
“The ability to deliver digital content to our current residents and prospective homebuyers has been instrumental in connecting with audiences on a deeper level. Our goal is to highly utilize the fullscreen experience so users can be fully immersed in The Preserve’s natural beauty, and our monthly newsletters and personalized one-on-one emails are a key factor in our efforts to stay in touch with key targets,” said Caleb Rosenberg, marketing and communications coordinator at The Santa Lucia Preserve.
PRO TIP: Your content needs to look good on all platforms, especially mobile. Reports show that 70 percent of total digital media time in the U.S. is spent on smartphones; if your content isn’t mobile-optimized, it won’t be seen.
Implement smart tech solutions to streamline workflows and measure success
User-friendly solutions such as Canva, InDesign and Mailchimp exist to enable professionals in any industry to streamline, automate, accelerate and analyze their digital content efforts in a seamless workflow.
Real estate professionals can use these platforms to craft digital content, distribute it to eager audiences, market themselves, engage with their followers, build partnerships and so much more.
Deloitte reports that 58 percent of real estate companies say they already have a digital marketing strategy, and as agents put these strategies into place, the final step in a successful marketing approach is in performance reporting.
Platforms like Buffer and Hootsuite provide built-in, real-time analytic tools that marketers and real estate agents can use to track and report the success rates of their content marketing initiatives.
Implementing these kinds of robust solutions will allow agents to prove the value of their content marketing efforts, while also enabling them to evaluate and plan new outreach strategies guaranteed to drive engagement and conversions.
Real estate has always relied on technology, and with new technologies emerging, it’s integral to modify your approach to selling and purchasing property. Whether that approach is relying on data analysis, virtual reality, well-crafted digital content, or a combination of several, agents must implement appropriate solutions that will have an impact on their efforts.
Joe Hyrkin is the CEO of Issuu, the world’s leading omni-channel content tools and publishing platform, which enables millions of marketers, brands and creators and publishers digitally share and monetize their longer-form content and create content marketing materials. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
