As a real estate agent, boosting awareness around your property listings is probably your main objective. Gaining the level of exposure you are targeting means marketing your business effectively. Even with your website up and running, and multiple ads on classifieds platforms, you might not have yet reached the online visibility you desire.
Once you look into the topic, you will discover that a content marketing approach can be critical for your success. However, while content marketing tactics are promising for real estate agents, a few mistakes can affect the end-results obtained. What should you be avoiding? Here’s a list of top mistakes that could put the success of your content marketing campaign at risk:
Coming Off as Impersonal and Unrelatable
Whether you are writing a post for one of your social media accounts, or you are updating the blog section on your website, the tone of voice used should always be a relatable one. Coming off as impersonal will affect how your target audience perceives you.
Adopting a relatable content creation approach doesn’t mean you should compromise on professionalism, it simply means you should adopt a writing style your readers can resonate with. It’s important for prospective real estate clients to see you are considerate of their needs and you are providing them with information that’s actually useful.
Try to establish a connection with your audience through whatever you are writing. If readers can relate to your posts, they will feel persuaded to resort to your services instead of the ones of your competitors.
Related: Online Lead Generation for Agents: 7 Ways to Beat the Competition
Not Proofreading and Failing to Check Grammar
A great article on your blog section, an ‘About Us’ website description or a social media post can easily lose its appeal in front of readers if your written content is filled with grammar and spelling mistakes. Whether you’re writing a 1000-word article for your blog or a two-phrase post for your Facebook page, always proofread your content carefully. Small errors can alter the image you are trying to build for yourself as a successful real estate agent, making you come off as unprofessional and negligent.
“Attentive proofreading is one of the golden rules when writing content. Grammar and spelling mistakes directly affect the content quality and can ruin a post entirely. Content writers should always go over the text before making it public” – explains Alan Mays, a content marketer at GrabMyEssay and Huffington Post contributor.
Resort to writing tools and services for effective proofreading practices, such as Grammarly, Hemingway Editor or Readability Score. These can help you spot any errors you might have in your texts and will also suggest improvements to make your real estate content more readable.
Using Only One Content Marketing Tactic
Content creation isn’t limited to writing blogs or social media posts. Don’t get stuck using a single content marketing tactic, but take advantage of the various options available, and joggle between multiple resources. From blogs and infographics to videos and webinars, make the most out of different types of content and pursue a creative approach.
Experiment with different tactics, get inspiration from professional content marketers and see what works for you best. Even if not all options might provide you with equally great results, it’s worth exploring new areas of real estate marketing.
Not Posting New, Original Content
Finding and using content from other real estate professionals, or from magazines, publications, and websites can seem like a good idea for a busy real estate agent with limited time. However, not posting new and original content will only show your real estate business lacks personality and authenticity. Your audience should see you dedicate enough time and attention to creating content that drives interest and appeal. To generate the right real estate leads, your content should also be niche-focused as well, and only when you are creating it yourself, you can guarantee the utmost quality.
Misusing Social Media
Social media offers you a variety of effective ways to market your business. Channels, such as Facebook and Instagram, can be used to reach a wider audience, all without having to invest large amounts of money. It’s not enough to just have an account on the most popular social platforms but to keep yourself active, to update the content you share on these channels and to promote on-going engagement with your audience.
Share new content on social media regularly, post consistently and also try to observe how your audience is interacting with your posts. Based on your observations, you can further fine-tune your content marketing strategy.
Related: 9 Tips for Real Estate Agents Devising Their Social Media Strategy
Not Using Images or Videos
Just as it was mentioned above, content creation isn’t limited to text. In the real estate world, videos and images are extremely important. Even if you’ve written a great blog on your site about a luxury property you have available for sale, if users can’t actually see its features and amenities themselves, they will quickly lose interest and stop reading it.
Make use of professional photos, take virtual tour videos to make the most of your real estate video marketing, and add multimedia resources to your written content whenever you have the opportunity to. On social media, for example, visuals can boost engagement rates more than you would expect.
Not Optimizing for Mobile
From watching videos to checking listings and reading blogs, nowadays, people are using their smartphone for pretty much everything instead of their desktop computer. If your content isn’t optimized for mobile, you could be losing a big percentage of your target audience. Mobile devices are how many consumers interact with brands and business and that’s why you should always focus on short snippets and scannable content.
Bottom Line
The real estate market can be quite competitive for the average agent. That is why your marketing practices need to be perfected. In order to gain exposure and expand your clientele base, implementing promising marketing strategies is a must. With content being king, start by assessing your content marketing campaign and make sure you are pursuing the right course of action. The mistakes exemplified above are common ones, so if you want to boost your success and develop your career, try to avoid them. Now that you have a more in-depth perspective on content marketing, you can refine your tactics and reach better results in terms of online visibility.
This article has been contributed by Angela Baker.