Content Marketing Strategy for Real Estate Agents in 2014 (Part 2)

This post is a part two of our previous post on content marketing for real estate agents. If you haven’t read the previous post, you can check it out here. You can also watch a webinar replay that covers content marketing for real estate agents here. Now when we know how much content is created, where it comes from, and what impact on content marketing CSI (Content Saturation Index) has, we can proceed to the content marketing plan for 2014.

1. Know your traffic sources. Analyze your traffic sources religiously and adjust your marketing strategy based on where your traffic is coming from. If most potential clients are finding you on Google, you must work on improving your organic ranking and invest in PPC (Pay-Per-Click). If people are buzzing about your services on social media, then make sure you keep feeding them content on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Don’t underestimate direct traffic. As a real estate agent, you probably network offline a lot. Bear in mind that your offline contacts at some point will check you out online. Make sure they’re able to find what they’re looking for.

2. Know your CSI. Always feel the pulse of your industry. Real estate has a very high CSI index. You must understand it and leverage your content marketing with your offline efforts and multiple forms of content (see # 6 for more on that).

3. Be realistic and ask hard questions. Am I personally capable/have enough time to produce high quality content? Should I hire somebody else to create content? Do I have long-term goals? What are they? Would I read my own content (because you know that consumers have a lot of choices… about 92,000 articles every day)?

4. Be a rebel. Real estate is a very competitive industry. And yet most real estate agents blog about the same topics: tips to sellers and/or buyers; highlight their own achievements (“I’m the #1 agent in blah, blah, blah); how to close a short sale, etc. If you don’t like the ways things are done in your industry, say something! Yes, some people may not like you for that, but you’ll get noticed.

5. Be authentic. If you wish to be a rebel, you must find your own authentic voice. Not only real estate agents choose the same topics over and over again, they usually use the same voice: dull, repetitive, similar to a high school paper. If this is what you really are, it may actually work to your benefit, since people may recognize you as you. Otherwise… stop being somebody else. Don’t be afraid to use less formal style and say what you actually think.

6. Content is more than just plain text. All of the below is content. Test and see what works best for your audience and utilize it accordingly.

• eNewsletters
• Case studies
• Videos
• Webinars
• White papers
• Research reports
• Microsites
• Infographics
• eBooks
• Mobile content
• Printed magazines
• Books
• Podcasts
• Mobile apps
• Digital magazines
• Print newsletters
• Games and gamification

7. Be prepared to open your wallet. I know real estate agents are expected to pay for everything. But this is becoming unavoidable. You’re a player in a very content saturated niche. Facebook, for instance, is pretty much refusing to display your business page posts in your users’ timelines unless you pay or unless your content is really brilliant. Research, test, target, spend, split-test, and repeat until you get it right.