The nation’s real estate industry has grown in leaps and bounds. As Australians, we love nothing more than sharing a good property story content– record-breaking sales, renovating gems and the local industry’s overall performance. In fact, research conducted by HSBC Bank in 2019 proved it, showing that the nation was the seventh-highest property-obsessed country in the world. The research revealed people spend an average of three-and-a-half hours a week window shopping for homes – even when they aren’t necessarily in the market for a new house.
Today, more than ever, homeowners are taking an interest in agency sales and success.
The increasing market awareness and interest have also spearheaded substantial growth in agency numbers. And, with around 133,300 agents working within Australia (according to 2021 REIQ data), standing out from the rest with strong branding is more important than ever.
So, how can you do this?
Content marketing is the key to increasing brand awareness. There is no escaping the growing reliance on digital research and influence. Now, potential buyers and sellers can do a simple online search to find information, background sale data and articles about an agent or agency. If your story or pitch doesn’t stand out, chances are you could lose a potential sale.
Impressions really do last, which is why your brand needs to be memorable (in a good way). When people think of certain products, a specific brand comes to mind making it easy for them to make a decision about goods and services. Certain brands rule markets just from how quickly people recognise them and those businesses intentionally create that recognition through powerful, engaging content. This should be your goal.
And, this can be done with content marketing. Essentially, this form of communicating and advertising centres on powerful key messaging and stories that will sell your business. Blogs, podcasts and interacting with your online audience are the ideal ways to promote your unique sales pitch and give compelling reasons why you are the best solution for a customer’s needs.
Staying ever-present is a necessity in the real estate industry. Whether the market is at its height, or it has flipped and is in a downturn, a successful agent will be the one who continues to tell their story and resonate with an audience.
5 Content Ideas Real Estate Agencies Can Use to Build Their Brand
Creating a strong and well-planned content strategy will allow you to connect confidently and successfully with potential clients.
1. Incorporate Your Mission and Vision into Your Content Marketing Plan
Your marketing strategy should include so much more than an advertising plan. It should reflect your business ethics, promote your business integrity and professionalism, and identify ways to help you build and foster relationships with clients. Your strategy after all, is the base on which your brand is built.
But, what is the best way to do this?
According to Entrepreneur, there are six ways to align your mission with your content marketing strategy. These include:
- Brand consistency – this will allow you to build continuity with your customers.
- Use your objectives and goals as content for your blogs – this is a particularly great way to ensure your key messages, ethics and aims are aligned and continually consumed.
- Tone and demographics – communicate in a way that will resonate with those who are consuming the content.
- Be vocal – Don’t hold back on self-promotion and sharing your ideas and success stories.
- Supporting content – people love to consume fun and interesting content. This is where videos, break-out quotes and imagery come into play.
- The three Ws – What worked well? What went wrong? What would you change? It is important to regularly review your work.
2. Create a Content Calendar and Strategy
Maintaining consistency with your content is crucial in building brand awareness and growing your audience. A content strategy will not only grow your brand, but generate leads, which in turn creates business. Furthermore, a well-documented strategy will ensure you have substantial content on hand to deliver to your audience.
According to Smart Insights, 69 per cent of marketers have a documented content strategy, which allows them to build a line-up of content for a period of time as well as measure the performance of their initiatives. In fact, 62 per cent reported that the number of leads they get is a sign that their content is working. A documented strategy gives you a clear overview of the themes and topics that you should focus on while helping you identify any gaps in your marketing strategy.
Developing a content calendar and strategy is the best way to increase consistency in terms of content quality and posting. It’s not enough to post whenever you feel like it, or when inspiration strikes. Treat your calendar like a tool, including plans, deadlines and key dates. This enables your content to be streamlined, effective, and hit your audience at the right time. A content calendar also ensures balance – overloading your online feed with content will have a negative impact, while posting too little will have no effect at all.
TIP: A simple Excel spreadsheet will do the trick, otherwise there are plenty of online templates to get you started.
3. Identify the Types of Content That You Should Create
Did you know that 70 per cent of people prefer getting information from blogs rather than traditional advertisements? Or, that short-form videos (TikTok, IG Reels), and live streaming were the most effective formats on social media in 2022, while weekly podcast listeners tune in to an average of eight podcasts per week?
What does this tell us?
That each content medium resonates differently with various demographic groups. Take this for example – for consumers who enjoy reading long-form content, blogs are ideal, but for customers who favour audio listening, blogs won’t work. This audience will prefer podcasts.
How well do you know your audience?
Did you know that 74 per cent of Baby Boomers think email is the most personal channel to receive communications from brands? According to the Hubspot data, this is followed by 72 per cent of Gen X, 64 per cent of Millennials and 60 per cent of Gen Z.
The data is available, it is just knowing how to access it and make it work for you. Knowing and understanding your audience is the first step to developing content that works. In other words, research, research and research some more (or leave it to the professionals like us!).
4. Monitor Your Content’s Performance
Posting and sharing content is pointless if you don’t follow up. What was your audience reach? What demographic did the content attract? Which content did they consume more of, and for longer?
The words ‘metric’ and ‘analysis’ might make you squirm. After all, measuring data isn’t the most exciting of tasks. However, tracking the progress of your marketing initiatives will allow you to identify high-performing aspects as well as areas of improvement. With a templated approach and an understanding of who and what to research, monitoring will be easier than you think.
Breaking down your metrics under easy-to-understand categories is one idea, as outlined in the SEMRush article, 4 key groups to measure your content performance.
The first is user behaviour – who are they, how long do they spend reading or listening, bounce rate, page views? This is where you identify all of that basic data. This is followed by engagement. Identify how people interacted and responded to the content. Did they comment, repost or mention your article in their personal platforms? This data will give you more insight into what type of content captures your audience’s attention. Thirdly, you need to understand SEO outcome – keyword rankings, organic traffic, backlinks. This is rounded up by company revenue.
By having clear reporting goals, you will be able to clearly see how your content is working for you.
5. Establish Your Brand Community
Do you know your brand community? No? That’s okay, not many people do! There is no time better than now to familiarise yourself with the term considering it is one of the best ways to grow your brand and expand your reach.
So, what exactly is a brand community and why is it particularly important for a real estate agent?
In simple terms, a brand community is when you have a dedicated following from social media or listening groups. These brand communities can appear in the form of:
- Social media pages or groups
- Social media hashtags
- Online forums or group discussion threads
- Email or video subscriptions
- Podcast audiences
A brand community has multiple benefits. It will give your business a competitive advantage, improve customer relations (because brand communities are mostly online, it enables you to easily communicate with your customers and respond to them in real-time), encourage brand loyalty, and result in a larger customer pool (a brand community can help real estate agencies create a network of contacts while helping their audience find the right resources when it comes to finding listings and real estate agents).
Although these are all beneficial outcomes, brand loyalty in particular is important for any real estate agency. With loyalty comes a sense of trust, support and brand advocacy. As we know, brand recognition and trust are two of the most sought-after traits people look for in an agent.
The question remains: are you ready to increase your brand awareness? Is your real estate agency a household name? Contact us and we will help make that happen with an impactful content marketing strategy.
To establish your real estate agency as a trusted household name and foster brand loyalty, our copywriting services can craft compelling content that resonates with your target audience and effectively communicates your agency’s unique value proposition.
