Why content marketing is the best way to grow your real estate business
In those weeks when you constantly end up in reactive mode, content marketing can save the day. When all those other prospecting plans go out the window, you can send a lead-generating email newsletter to thousands of contacts with just a few clicks.
When I started in real estate back in 2007, the old guard told me you have to go out and prospect to get business:
- Door knocking strangers
- Cold-calling people during dinnertime
- Handing our business cards at train stations
I don't know about you, but in my world, none of those activities sounded like a fun way to spend an evening.
There has to be a better way, right?
17 years later, I'm here to tell you there absolutely is an easier way to get listings. It's called content marketing, and it's the strategy I personally used to build my real estate business from the ground up.
It's a proven way to generate listings without knocking on doors, and with zero cold-calling.
Content marketing is a marketing strategy used to attract, engage, and retain an audience by creating and sharing relevant articles, videos, podcasts, and other media. This approach establishes expertise, promotes brand awareness, and keeps your business top of mind when it’s time to buy what you sell.
- via Mailchimp.com
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Examples of content marketing in real estate
- Sending a weekly email newsletter to everyone in your database with useful content, not just your latest listings!
- Delivering a newsletter to your local farming area.
- Recording a podcast
- Putting a video on social media and promoting it. Hint: Use Agent Monday content as a video script.
- Giving out printed tips at your open homes, like the '41-step preparing for sale checklist'.
You don't have to use all of these methods. Pick at least one that suits you best and commit to it for at least 6 months, preferably 12. If you are just getting into real estate, you might want to consider using every approach until you start getting listings. If you are well established, you might just need to start consistently sending a weekly email newsletter to achieve major growth in your business.
Two key criteria to keep in mind when considering any content marketing approach:
- Would a potential buyer or seller find this useful?
If you want this process to work, you have to send out information that actually helps your audience, like tips for adding value before you sell.
- How many people is this reaching?
This is a numbers game. Repetition is key. If you don't have a big database, focus on growing it every week, and in the meantime, drop more newsletters in your farming area. And be consistent too. A weekly newsletter sent to 500 people 26 times over 6 months, is a lot more valuable than a one-off newsletter sent to 10,000 recipients.
5 reasons why Content Marketing is the best way to get listings
- Build an attraction business with inbound leads
When you go out and chase business, you are up against it from start to finish. It's harder to get price reductions, harder to extend listings, and harder to negotiate in general because owners see you as a commodity, not an expert.
On the flipside, the experience of being a real estate agent is entirely different when owners seek you out and ask for your advice. If an owner has been receiving your email newsletter or seeing your letterbox drops for 12 months before their appraisal, they already know you and believe in your ability to get the job done.
- Content marketing is high-leverage
You can contact thousands of people with a single email newsletter which should only take you 30 minutes to put together if you are using Agent Monday pre-written content. Don't have a big database yet? Print out one of our content club articles and turn it into a letterbox drop for your farming area.
- It's a nicer way to build a real estate business
Help enough people solve their problems and you'll get what you want, too. Content marketing embraces a genuinely helpful, value-adding approach to marketing your services. You will be sending useful information to your database and farming area on a regular basis, gently keeping your name top of mind so they can contact you when they are ready to sell.
This kind of marketing has the power to change the public perception of real estate salespeople for the better. What a cool way to build a business!
- Perfect for the long lead time real estate sales process
You might meet a potential seller at one of your open homes 2+ years before they are ready to go on the market. Ideally, you need an efficient way to keep in touch during that time - a communication plan that helps you stay top of mind and establishes your proficiency in real estate so that when they are ready to sell, you are the logical choice.
Content marketing provides an effective method of contact for sellers who aren't ready to sell now, but will go on the market at some stage. Content marketing allows you to focus on the clients who are making decisions now, while letting your newsletter take care of the contacts who are still months/years away from making a move.
- Content marketing is time-efficient prospecting
We all start our weeks with grand plans of conquering the world. With targets for how many phone calls we want to make, and how many listings we want to sign up. But then you arrive in the office on Monday morning and before you know it, the phone starts ringing and you get pulled in 7 different directions putting out fires and solving problems.
In those weeks when you constantly end up in reactive mode, content marketing can save the day. When all those other prospecting plans go out the window, you can send a lead-generating email newsletter to thousands of contacts with just a few clicks.
It's such a relief at the end of a crazy week to be able to say to yourself: "At least I got my newsletter out this week!"
Agent Monday makes this possible by providing pre-written newsletter content, so you never have to worry about what to write. All you need to do is send the email.
What's the next step?
Commit to sending an email newsletter to everyone on your database this week. Better still, send it in the next 24 hours. Carve out time in your diary for this task right now to minimise your chances of being distracted.
If you feel some reluctance towards contacting people you might not have spoken to, check out our guide on why you shouldn't fear unsubscribes.
Got a different stumbling block that's stopping you from taking action? Get in touch and let us know, we'll do our best to help.