Creating content for estate agents can be daunting, especially when you don’t know where to start. Fortunately, there are plenty of content types that estate agents should be considering to reach out to their target audiences.
In this blog post, I’ll look at 5 types of content that estate agents should create to get the most out of their content marketing strategies.
Local area guides
When it comes to helping prospective buyers find their ideal home, one of the most essential pieces of information they need is an understanding of the local area. Estate agents can help by creating detailed local area guides that provide potential buyers with information about local schools, amenities, attractions, and key points of interest such as parks, shopping, and entertainment.
These guides should focus on helping buyers feel at ease in their new neighbourhood, providing them with information about the local culture and community. You can also include details about local events, restaurants, and cafes, as well as other activities that are available nearby.
Local area guides provide buyers with all the essential information they need to make an informed decision about the location of their home.
Additionally, when promoting local businesses within these area guides, you are creating a professional relationship with the managers and owners. Not only will these individuals become ambassadors for your business, but they may return the favour and offer backlinks back to your website, effectively boosting your page’s domain authority and ranking.
Creating local area guides is an excellent way for estate agents to show their expertise in the local area and give prospective buyers the confidence they need to choose the right property.
Posts about the buying/selling process
Buying and selling a home can be incredibly complex, and it pays to be informed and prepared before making big decisions. Estate agents can provide valuable advice and assistance to their clients by creating content that helps them understand the process of buying or selling a home. You can even localise the content to make it more relevant to your audience.
For those looking to buy, estate agents can create content that explains the various stages of the buying process. This might include information about financing options, how to evaluate potential properties, and tips for negotiating with sellers. They can also provide information about the legal side of buying a property, such as what documents must be completed and when.
For those looking to sell, estate agents can create content explaining the various selling steps. This might include guidance on preparing your home for sale, the best ways to market your home, and the benefits of working with an estate agent. They can also provide tips on pricing and negotiation strategies that can help ensure a successful sale.
By creating content that helps buyers and sellers understand the buying and selling process, estate agents can position themselves as knowledgeable, reliable sources of advice and assistance. This type of content not only helps build trust with clients but also educates and informs, making it invaluable for anyone looking to enter into a real estate transaction.
You can even include any partners you have throughout your content. For example, you could recommend local painters, removal companies and conveyancers you are close with.
Downloadable PDFs for lead generation
When it comes to content marketing, you have quite a few hurdles to leap over.
- You want people to read your content.
- You want people to love your content enough to share it.
- You want to get those people’s contact information to turn them into customers.
The whole point of having a presence online is to generate leads. To do that, you first need to understand the meaning behind a ‘buyer’s journey.’
What is the buyer’s journey?
- Awareness Stage: The buyer becomes aware that they have a problem.
- Consideration Stage: The buyer defines their problem and considers solutions.
- Decision Stage: The buyer evaluates and decides on the right provider to administer the solution.
So how can you reach all three of these goals at once? The secret is to create an offer they can download, also known as a lead-generating PDF.
A lead-generating offer is a piece of valuable content you give leads in exchange for their email address. After they give you their email address, you can create a lead-nurturing email campaign to convert them into customers.
- Lead-generating offers should always:
- Bring attention to your product/service
- Identify customers’ problems
- Solve customers’ problems
- Establish trust
- Position your brand as an authority
- Create brand reciprocity
- And offer free value to customers
Learn more about lead generation and our 7 vital tips here.
Canvassing material for slow-moving properties
As you all know, the property market is forever changing. By the looks of it, 2023 will see many more properties slow to sell sitting on the market. Bad news for the homeowners but good news for estate agents as they can nurture these potential customers with a string of well throughout content that can earn you their trust.
I know a lot of estate agents that run highly profitable businesses just by picking and nurturing the low-hanging fruit within their territories.
To do this, you would need a prospecting tool such as Loop Prospecting to identify properties on the market within your selected postcodes. You can then automatically trigger your audience once they have been on the market for any given time.
There are three types of content you can then send out to your audience: informative letters, fliers/postcards, or merchandise.
My favourite is informative letters, which are cheaper, and you can maximise your reach and nurture a larger audience more affordably.
Informative letters. Send these out to your entire prospective audience every week. Keep them short but helpful – Tps on getter the property ready for a specific season, a list of local gardeners, things like that.
Avoid brown or white envelopes as they look depressing. Instead, get coloured envelopes and handwrite their name and address. It will take you longer to do but will be far more effective.
Then on the letter, have an image of a human, include your contact details, and even have a QR code that allows them to easily WhatsApp you.
Fliers/postcards. Seasonal greeting cards, promotional offers, sold on your street materials, or even an invitation to meet for a free coffee at the local Costa to discuss selling their home.
Merchandise. Fridge magnets, colouring books with your contact details on each page (parents will have no choice but to put that work of art on their fridge door), pens, brochures, clothing…
Email Marketing
Lead nurturing emails allow you to build relationships with your leads and move them down the sales funnel (remember the buyer’s journey) until they are ready to become customers. It’s one of the best lead-nurturing tactics and an essential part of an email marketing strategy.
You want to avoid the same old emails as they will soon tire of them, and you will lose them for good. Instead, try some of these ideas. And remember, you need to email them at least once a week, so you are top-of-mind and have built up brand authority by the time they are ready to act.
Campaign Types:
- Success stories
- Continually talk about your USPs
- Monthly property market update
- Local market trends
- Testimonials (video, ideally)
- Street of the week (video, ideally)
- How you are helping people move (video, ideally)
- Meet the team (video, ideally)
- Meet your preferred partners (video, ideally)
- Your involvement within the local community (schools, charities, organisations, events.)
Call to Action Ideas:
- Meet for a free coffee to discuss your property
- Ask me anything
- Book a property consultation
- £250 to your preferred charity if you list with me
I hope this helps!
Paul 😀