Whether a real estate rookie or a seasoned Realtor®, leads are the #1 driver of your success. Without real estate leads, you have no business. And we all know where that leads (pun intended.)
In such a fiercely competitive industry, where do you get the leads you need to rock your real estate business? Well… first things first. Don’t just chase leads. What you want are qualified real estate leads.
Real Estate Leads vs. Qualified Real Estate Leads
In any industry, it’s common to place an undue amount of importance on the quantity, focusing less on the quality, of leads that you can collect. What’s better: a thousand people seeing your ad who have zero interest OR reaching and engaging five active buyers or sellers with an extreme interest in hiring a real estate agent? A qualified real estate lead is just that – someone who is actively looking for what you have to offer. The trick is to catch them at the exact moment they are searching. With traditional marketing methods such as print ads, flyers, and mail-outs – this has proven to be a huge challenge! That’s why more and more real estate agents are using content to drive more qualified leads for their business.
So you understand the power of content in driving more qualified real estate leads and you may even already have a few content ideas to get you started. But first things first. Where do you add the content?
How to Add Content to Your Real Estate Marketing Strategy
To get started, you will need to add a blog to your website. DO NOT use a third-party blogging site. Content that is placed on a third-party blog will not give your website the SEO boost you need to get found by buyers and sellers.  The blog must be placed on your website’s domain for this to work.
(Want to learn more about how to use a blog to drive traffic to your site? Send me an email, I’d love to chat!  But, let’s get on with it … what does real estate content marketing look like?)
5 Ways to Use Content to Get More Qualified Real Estate Leads
Real estate content marketing can seem overwhelming at first, but it’s actually a very fun industry with so many topics to explore!
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
1) Provide Expert Advice on Real Estate Topics
From the process of buying or selling to how to’s on decorating a new home, your target audience craves expert information from quality sources. Who better to give this information than a licensed real estate professional? You know the business inside and out and your potential buyers and sellers want you to share! Start with writing blogs on specific topics such as What to Look for in a Real Estate Agent or How to Add Curb Appeal to Attract More Buyers. When you get brave enough, consider making a video or hosting a webinar to expand your reach. Some people read, others prefer video .. you want to reach them all!
2) Give Video Tours of Featured Properties
Video tours have become even more wildly popular in recent years due to the power of social media sharing today. Not only can you show off more angles and features of a particular property, but sharing them on social media expands your reach tenfold. Make sure you place the video tour on your website and then share the link from there to gain traction in search engine results. Â
3) Share a Success Story
Everyone loves a heartwarming success story, especially when it comes to helping someone find their dream home! With your client’s permission, share their story on your blog. You can even ask them if they’d like to write the story for you! This is a great way to connect with your target audience and show them what you can do to meet their needs.
4) Highlight Community Features and Events
Community is such an important part of real estate. Use your blog to highlight different communities in your market and show off what the area has to offer. Buyers want to know that you know your market so you can fill them in on what they need to know before they relocate.
5) Curate Content
Don’t have time to write a blog one day? Some of the best blog posts are curated content.  Curating content involves pulling content from a variety sources on a particular topic such as The Top 10 Ways to Get Your Home Ready to Sell.  Grab a link, write a few sentences about it and then link to the source where the reader can get the full article. Be careful! You want credible sources, but don’t link to your competition!
From Content to Qualified Real Estate Leads
No matter what kind of content you produce for your blog, you want to make sure that it’s well-optimized for search engines. We would love to partner with you to help you get started on some basic SEO strategies that you can use to make your blog an effective tool for gaining qualified real estate leads.  Contact us to learn more about how to build a winning real estate marketing strategy.