Now that we’ve talked about content marketing and the benefits of working with an agency, I think it ‘d be good to show you a few examples of real estate companies that did choose to outsource their content marketing jobs and had to gain because of this.
You too could one day be featured on such a list. In that case, your primary concern should be choosing the right agency. Might I suggest Squirrly?
Why these real estate companies choose to outsource content marketing
While we have several articles on the subject, let’s take a quick look at why these businesses in particular prospered because of their choice and how you too can achieve the same results or even better.
As you’ll see, the size of the company, the area they operate in or its size have no relevance when it comes to successful content marketing. Any real estate business needs digital marketing in this day and age since 94% of Millennials use the internet to search for homes before buying.
Since each lead is important in this industry and possible customers always consider several companies before doing business, it’s important that your business stands out and attracts buyers.
[bctt tweet=”Did you know that 94% of Millennials use the internet to search for homes before buying?” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]
Content marketing excels in this area. Highly-targeted, original and insightful content regularly provided on both blogs and social media is great for two things.
Firstly, it attracts new leads since it specifically caters to their needs and interests. Secondly, it keeps them invested in the company so they’ll come back when it’s time to move again.
Let’s see the seven companies now, analyze what they do best and see how we can incorporate that into your marketing strategy.
[sqcta text=”Red Oak Realty” type=”bullet” color=”yellow” cnt=”1″]
One of the things that they do best is knowing their audience.
[sqcta text=”Content marketing is meant to engage with people on a more personal level, to make them feel like the content was specially made for them, and you can’t do that if you don’t know the reader at all.” type=”blockquote”]
Red Oak not only knows the niche of people that read their content but they also know a great deal about leads without having ever interacted with them before. That’s because, in a general sense, all clients can be organized in a few groups, like those looking for luxury houses or modern apartments, for example.
Based on the data they have, Red Oak knows how to engage leads efficiently and, as a result, get a large number of sales.
[sqcta text=”The lesson: Use buyer personas” type=”header” color=”gray”]
[sqcta text=”Buyer personas are generalizations of your clients. A buyer persona represents a niche that you cater to. When they’re well made, you’ll be able to use them successfully to provide better and more personal services to your clients.
A buyer persona doesn’t represent only a portion of the customers that you already have; they’re extremely useful for understanding leads as well. ” type=”lite” color=”gray”]
If most of your clients have the same preferences, you can create a buyer persona based on that data, and you’ll be able to attract more leads and do business with them because you already know what they want.
Even if you feel that you know the clientele well, create a buyer persona, so the information is clear and accessible.
If you don’t have enough information to create the personas, search for trends in your client database and start doing a few interviews. You should start with your existing customers, ask them about what they want and the obstacles that are stopping them. It’s also important to interview people that haven’t yet done business with you or who don’t know much about your business to find out if they fit into the personas.
[bctt tweet=”Use buyer personas. They will help you provide better and more personal services to your clients.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]
[sqcta text=”Brickell Global Realty” type=”bullet” color=”yellow” cnt=”2″]
This company took the idea of knowing your audience one step further and went to work on creating unique tools for their clients to help them with their particular problems.
They’ve created a “calculator” that takes information from customers and gives the most relevant offers to them based on said data. Creating the tool had two significant benefits: the client was happier than before, and they gathered data without pestering people.
Another great idea is their effort to help leads get visas. That kind of thing could have been a huge hassle for clients but thanks to the company it isn’t. They obviously did this because they know a large number of leads don’t have visas.
[sqcta text=”The lesson: Cater to your niche as much as possible” type=”header” color=”gray”]
[sqcta text=”One of the fundamental ideas of content marketing is that if you try to attract everyone, you’re not targeting anyone.” type=”blockquote” color=”gray”]
I can assure you that leads know when you’re trying to bring in anyone and everyone, and that’s a big turn-off for them. As I said earlier, they’re looking for something more personal. Instead of shouting trough a megaphone about your company, try to approach each person individually and you’ll see that it’s much more effective.
[sqcta text=”Like Brickell Global, you should consider the biggest problems your clients have and look for ways to help them, it doesn’t even matter if it’s not strictly related to real estate, they’ll be grateful either way.” type=”lite” color=”gray”]
[bctt tweet=”If you try to attract everyone, you won’t target anyone. Cater to your niche as much as possible.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]
[sqcta text=”Metro City Realty” type=”bullet” color=”yellow” cnt=”3″]
One thing that this company does and I haven’t seen many others do is create a description of each area they operate in. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Clients don’t care only about the land they get; they want to live in a safe neighborhood, close to shops and such.
These descriptions aren’t copied from Wikipedia either; the staff does them. They are made from the team’s point of view. Not only does this help inform clients, but it shows great attention to details.
[sqcta text=”The lesson: Add a personal touch to everything you do” type=”header” color=”gray”]
[sqcta text=”One of your marketing goals should be to make people see the company more as a person.” type=”blockquote” color=”gray”]
They can’t relate to a business; that’s why giving personality to your brand is so important. No one is forgetting that they’re doing business but leads still enjoy dealing with a friendly face, instead of some featureless, soulless robot.
It’s obvious that your blog and social media accounts should show personality and feel like they were made by humans, with other humans in mind but don’t stop there. Create bios for your employees so leads can know who they are, adopt a less rigid writing style.
[sqcta text=”Try to add bits of humanity to every corner of your site, from the about page to the contact one. Adding these will not only be more attractive to people, but it will also make your site stand out from the rest.” type=”lite” color=”gray”]
[bctt tweet=”Create original content for your website, even for area descriptions, and add a personal touch to it.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]
[sqcta text=”Juwai Realty” type=”bullet” color=”yellow” cnt=”4″]
This company‘s high point can’t be replicated easily but, nevertheless, the idea can be applied in many different ways, and it will still prove to be beneficial: the founder, Bridgette, owns several companies that all cater to home owners and she uses this fact to the full extent.
By creating strong links from one business to another, she creates a “chain” of sorts that the customers progress on. At the beginning of the chain is the real estate company and once the clients buy a home, they’re presented with other businesses that can renovate, furnish or clean the new home.
The customers already trust her since they’ve already done business with her before and get anything they need from her. Bridgette gets a “universal” customer, and the client uses a one-stop shop for all his needs related to their home.
[sqcta text=”The lesson: Make all your services clear and available to people” type=”header” color=”gray”]
[sqcta text=”While modern customers are always looking for valuable information, if you don’t make it clear or easy to find, you can expect that they’ll miss it and, as a result, they won’t do business with you.
You should clearly state and explain everything you have to offer on your company’s blog, social accounts and also on the site itself.” type=”lite” color=”gray”]
If you have several areas you work in, tell the clients, they might be interested or, for example, you could arrange a partnership with a furniture company: you direct your customers to that company, and they offer a discount to those people. The clients are happy because they spend less money than they normally would and both your business and the furniture one enjoy more customers.
That was obviously just an example. All I’m saying is that you should make your services easy to see and understand, maybe even promote them if it seems appropriate, so you get as much as possible with every client.
[bctt tweet=”If you don’t explain all the services that you have to offer, you stand to lose leads.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]
[sqcta text=”Wenzel Select Properties” type=”bullet” color=”yellow” cnt=”5″]
What I liked about this company is that they don’t like talking about themselves. Instead, they let happy customers do the talking.
You might have guessed that I’m referring to testimonials.
[sqcta text=”It’s a healthy policy always to ask a client how they feel after a transaction. Besides the chance to get a great testimonial that will help you get more leads than usual, you also stand to learn new things about parts of the process that can be improved.” type=”blockquote”]
What you might not have thought about though is the focus they have on making connections, both between themselves and their audience but also between the clients themselves.
[sqcta text=”The lesson: Create a community” type=”header” color=”gray”]
I don’t have to tell you why it’s in your interest to have people talking about your company so make an effort to help your audience interact and mingle with each other.
[sqcta text=”Since you’ll provide them a constant stream of content, they’ll have things to talk about, but you’ll still have to help break the ice if you want a loyal and active community to form around your business.
The best way of doing this is to lead by example: be active on social media networks and any other places you know where your audience hangs out.
Don’t just dump content and then wait for results.
Great ways to get the ball rolling are to ask the clients what the next article should be about, ask for opinions or organize events.” type=”lite” color=”gray”]
The end result is a community that promotes your brand without you even asking.
Your clients will come back to you when they need something related to real estate and recommend you to their friends and family.
[bctt tweet=”A referral means a lot more than most marketing strategies. Let your customers do the talking.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]
[sqcta text=”NAI Hiffman” type=”bullet” color=”yellow” cnt=”6″]
A branch of NAI Global, this company impressed me with the level of detail present in their content. We often see businesses that adopt content marketing only on a very superficial level and post content only for the sake of posting. That’s an awful approach because people don’t get anything from reading the content, it has no effect on them.
NAI Hiffman is at the other end of the spectrum, posting detailed and insightful information that will probably help clients make better purchases for their whole life.
[sqcta text=”The lesson: Content is king” type=”header” color=”gray”]
[sqcta text=”The reason content marketing is so effective is because one of it’s core values is to provide readers with content that people want to read, not with article-long ads.” type=”blockquote”]
NAI Hiffman understands this and you should too.
While it might not seem immediately obvious, the fact that you provide insightful advice to your readers creates a strong bond between you and them. They will become loyal customers because they know you’re out to help them make smart decisions, not just get their money.
If you post helpful articles at least once a week, you’ll prove your intentions to the customers and even if they won’t read everything you post, they’ll remember you fondly and want to do business with you again.
[sqcta text=”Don’t be afraid to share some of the trade secrets with your readers; you stand to win much more than you lose. Above all else, create content as often as possible but never post useless articles. You’d only be hurting your brand.” type=”lite” color=”gray”]
[bctt tweet=”Content is king, but only if your posts are valuable and insightful to the reader.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]
[sqcta text=”HomeAdvisor” type=”bullet” color=”yellow” cnt=”7″]
I have to admit that it’s kind of like cheating to add HomeAdvisor to this list, but there’s a good reason behind it.
You see, HomeAdvisor isn’t a company, it’s a very helpful website that contains pre-screened and customer-rated service professionals. They don’t work in real estate; it’s more of a database for people that want to make any sort of improvement or repair to their home.
The reason I added this site to the list is to show you the importance of social media in any content marketing campaign. Homeadvisor is a case of huge success because they became a social media network on which clients and leads can talk directly to companies and read reviews.
Just because they have these capabilities doesn’t mean that they don’t need or don’t use social media. It’s quite the opposite, besides providing content on their blog and Youtube, they use social media extensively.
[sqcta text=”The lesson: Find the right network and never let go of it” type=”header” color=”gray”]
I mentioned finding the right network because it’s much more important than you might think. As I said, HomeAdvisor uses YouTube, and that’s not exactly a social media network. You should treat this step seriously and gather data on what network people that fit into your buyer persona use the most.
[sqcta text=”Once you know which networks hold most of your target audience, focus on them.” type=”blockquote”]
HomeAdvisor for example, know that their audience is interested in home improvements and that pictures are crucial for that, so they focus a lot on Pinterest.
[sqcta text=”You shouldn’t spend much time on other networks; you might as well make an account in case someone does contact you there. You’ll get the best result if you dedicate the most to the places where you know you have listeners.” type=”lite” color=”gray”]
[sqcta text=”Final thoughts” type=”header” color=”gray”]
I’ve focused on one individual aspect of the content marketing strategies of each of these companies but don’t think that those were the only things going on for them. If you want to attain content marketing success, you’ll have to put effort into all the things I talked about, not just one.
My primary motivation for making this article was to show how content marketing agencies can help companies, especially those in the real estate business become great. Most companies already incorporated content marketing as part of their strategy but not many commit to it.
Feel free to check out our next article from these series, where we talked about how content marketing helps real estate marketing directors.
I hope you understand better now what a big impact this way of doing marketing can have when done right. So, if you want content marketing done just right for your company, I know the perfect agency. It’s called Squirrly.
[bctt tweet=”Know the social media network where your audience hangs out and never let go of it.” username=”SquirrlyHQ”]