Estate agents are well-versed in the traditional ways of advertising real estate property but as the digital marketing landscape evolves, they need to think beyond conventional outdoor advertising to entice new customers.
To stay ahead of the increasingly ‘smart’ competition, you must become skilled in online marketing beyond billboards, open houses and posting flyers. But there's one traditional skill that will always remain essential to any marketing campaign, no matter how advanced modern marketing methods become – creating quality written content.
A dedicated real estate content writer is key to executing a successful property marketing campaign. They dive into the minds and lives of the target customers and find appealing ways to present the true benefits of their client’s selling techniques, customer service, and accessibility.
Here at Contese Agency, our real estate content writers work with our digital marketing experts to put quality content in front of the eyes and ears of the people that matter, and here we’ll share with you how we work as a team to achieve that.
Counting the costs and returns of marketing campaigns
Creating a snappy slogan and an engaging real estate description that appeals to your target audience remains as important as ever to capture your audience’s attention, whether it’s for a billboard, flyers, radio spots or clickable ads online.
The biggest difference and by far the biggest advantage of digital real estate marketing campaigns over conventional advertising is being able to measure every interaction with your audience, giving you a much better idea of your campaign’s impact and your return on investment, if any.
Take, for example, the cost of broadcasting a single 30-second ad during peak viewing times on British TV, which could set you back anywhere between £3,000 and £5,000 per spot.
Advertising your real estate in local newspapers and magazines is still a very effective way of reaching a local audience for a lot less. A few hundred pounds might get you some premium space in a local rag, but if you really want to push the boat out and advertise your property in a national newspaper, you’re looking at spending a minimum of £2,000 and as much as £30,000, depending on the size and placement of your ad.
Yet, despite these enormous advertising costs, there’s no way of knowing just how many people actually read or saw your ad until perhaps customers walk through your door and tell you or take the time to respond to a customer feedback request from you to find out what motivated them to make a buying decision.
A digital marketing campaign, however, lets you see exactly how many people have read your real estate description in blog posts or online ads, for example, as well as the number of those readers who went ahead and moved to purchase your product or service.
Similarly, you now have the opportunity to reach wider audiences through search engine optimisation and then interact with potential customers through your social media channels. Every message you send involves some form of writing, and you must be tactical in your responses. That’s why we help our customers build a unique campaign and a brand tone that you can follow consistently.
How we create content for real estate marketing campaigns
Before publishing any real estate blog posts, SEO-optimised content or social media posts, we craft a step-by-step digital marketing campaign to guide the content creation team and the writers through the process.
Step one involves determining your customer base. Do you sell luxury real estate for high-earning single or professional couples, or are you appealing to families looking for their very first home?
Each demographic requires a different writing approach as each group’s wants, needs, and budget is entirely unique to them.
Once you know who you are targeting with your campaign, you can establish their pain points and focus on how you’ll address them. Ask yourself the same questions your customers might ask, and make those answers central to your campaign, so your audience knows that you are the solution to their problems.
With your ducks in a row, it’s time to prepare your first post in your digital marketing campaign by establishing the most appropriate SEO keywords that will rank well on search engines and reach your target audience demographic.
How we build a content strategy
Blogs, social media posts, PPC ads, and content for real estate websites are all part of a comprehensive digital marketing campaign. You should have several SEO keywords at your disposal from when you designed your campaign, but consider doing some further research for more specific keywords to cast a wider net and attract more potential customers.
If a real estate content writer on our team is planning a blog post about mortgages, for example, we’ll research the latest keywords and phrases currently ranking well that are related to mortgages, loans, and buying a brand
new home.
Most real estate companies don’t have their own in-house writer to perfect their content, and that’s when a content marketing agency can help. This is often the most beneficial solution that reaps the most results, as hiring a brand new writer can be costly, and there may be further costs if you end up training them in SEO.
Focus on what your clients want
Every piece of content you publish should have a purpose for your target audience. Write about the things that interest or concern them, as well as beneficial actions your company has undertaken for clients or local communities. Then engage them from the very first sentence and keep them wanting more throughout the text.
Even if you have a wizard marketing team, specialised real estate content writers give you the edge by curating marketing material with a fresh perspective and polished content that your audience will find relevant. And with the help of SEO specialists, your real estate blog posts will really hit home.