How most estate agents waste £££ on blogposts for their estate agency that have no impact.
It's no secret that content marketing is one of the most fabulous tools in an estate agent's marketing toolbox.
Long-form articles show potential clients that you're an expert in the industry. Particularly helpful when the industry is as secretive and confusing as estate agency.
Content allows potential clients to engage with your company.
It allows you to clearly show your brand's tone of voice as you nurture potential clients toward using your services. Feeding people into your nurture journeys to keep your valuation diary busy and your sales pipeline high.
All these benefits work together to build the level of trust a potential seller will have for your brand.
But many agents I speak to feel all their content needs to be bespoke to them and their brand.
They feel that the popular subscription model of content that many of us estate agency content writers offer will not help them.
Some would rather pay more than triple the price for me to write multiple individual articles, just for them, each month.
And whilst I like the invoice's size, I can't help but feel they're wasting their money.
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Content marketing is balanced; as with many things in this world, that golden ratio is around 80/20.
You should have some bespoke content in the mix because that's where you get to show off and shout about how great you are, to show off and shout about your successes and USPs. So, if this makes up 20% of your content strategy, what's the other 80%? And why is it ok to have this content 'off the shelf' rather than bespoke to you?
The content written for subscription clients and shared and posted by multiple agents across the country is known as AWARENESS content.
What is awareness content?
Awareness content is intended to get your foot in the door. It's the initial 'awareness' of your brand and company. The content should be aimed at the first digital meeting with the client.
It moves them along the journey of researching or perhaps thinking about using someone to decide to go ahead. They're not ready yet to jump straight in just yet.
Long before they've actually decided to use you, they're researching and becoming aware of the companies that can possibly help them. If you have no awareness content for them to see, then there'll be nothing to attract them to your brand during their research phase.
What does that look like for estate agents?
Awareness content should be relevant to property but not so specific that you ask them to book a valuation. In an estate agency, it should be something that you would speak to agents about. Recipes for scones around the Jubilee are nice, but I'd probably ask Nigella about that, not the local estate agent.
Imagine that the reader is at the very early stages of thinking about moving house. Before making that decision, they'll likely have thought about many other things first. Decluttering, storage ideas, downsizing tips. Something that you might consider before eventually deciding to sell your house. They may have even considered extending the property rather than moving. This content doesn't need to say that you are an awesome estate agent because, at this stage, the reader still doesn't need an estate agent. It is simply articles about property-related topics that they may find helpful.
Don't be too much too soon.
The call to action shouldn't be too intimidating. You aren't asking the reader to sign up with your agency and sell their home. It has to be a much lower level of commitment. Otherwise, it'll be too pushy, and they will be immediately turned off. The great Tom Panos calls this 'commission breath', and potential clients can smell it a mile away.
They're researching and figuring out what they want to do. It could be a few months or maybe even years down the line before they go ahead. And when that time comes, your brand will be top of mind after months of reading your posts and engaging with your content. Spending all that time with you digitally will ensure that they feel the most trust and affinity with your brand over your competitors. Your company will be on the list of estate agents invited to provide a valuation. Of course, it's not a guaranteed instruction, but at least you are given a chance to put your hat in the ring and pitch to the seller. Then, and only then, should you be waxing lyrical about how good you are at selling houses because this is when they'll be ready to hear this message. Until this point, your sales pitch will just be white noise to them.
So, with all that in mind, does it need to be bespoke to your company and brand?
In a short answer, no.
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At the awareness stage of the customer journey, the client is not interested in what you charge or how you offer the best photography.
They are so early on in their journey that they may not have given moving a second thought. They may not even be aware that they might want to move. They're simply reading articles that have captured their interest, relating to property.
And your company's USP will probably not resonate with them at this stage. YET!
They don't need to know that you accompany all viewings or will send a professional photographer to take pictures.
Remember, as far as this client is concerned, they don't even know that they might want to move just yet, so they've given absolutely no consideration to doing viewings or photographs.
Bespoke content comes into its own later down the line.
Once the client has engaged with a few awareness articles and has started to think about moving.
This is when you level up the content with a more significant call to action.
Ramping things up after a few articles will ensure that your potential client moves along your customer journey and is closer to signing up with you.
This is interest content and is more of a sales pitch cleverly disguised within your helpful articles.
Interest content starts to discuss how amazing you and your firm is. If they want to move, your firm is the only viable option if they want to have the very best experience.
If you told them about all of the awesome things you do in the very first post, they would not care.
But now, after reading a few pieces and following your social media, maybe even registering with the office or completing an instant online valuation of their own house, maybe now, your post about fees and accompanied viewings would hit the mark perfectly. Just as they're starting to think about moving and considering which agent to use.
So, you should be putting out regular content in the awareness category. Consistently, regularly, reliably. So that you are attracting those lurkers that are starting to think about moving.
Then, you sprinkle in bespoke content here and there to showcase what you do. How your clients had a fantastic experience selling their property with you.
And here, after they've read your bespoke articles, is where you add in the killer call to action. The one that cements you in their mind as the agent of choice. The one that gets your physical rather than metaphorical foot in the door.
So as you can see, there is a place and a need for both types of written content.
JUST generic content will not push people through the funnel and into calling you. It's simply giving you lots of content to post online and nice helpful articles for your followers to read. All very lovely, but it won't significantly impact your bottom line.
In contrast, JUST posting bespoke content is too intimidating for the reader. You could scare them off. This content can just feel like a sales pitch if it's read by the audience too soon in their journey.
The best agents have an 80/20 combination of both types of content to appeal to the audience at the right time.
It takes 11-12 touch points with a company before the client will even get in touch with them, never mind actually using their services.
Your generic content will bump up those touch points nicely until, one day, that client will be ready to make a decision. The bespoke article will help push them into finally getting in touch and moving towards instructing you to sell their house.
Content increases the brand awareness, gives agents lots of things to post all around the internet, newsletters, emails etc., and ensures that the agency is visible to the audience that is most likely to engage with them.
There isn't one answer.
There are many elements of a marketing strategy for an estate agent. But, paying through the nose for bespoke content each week is unnecessary. Subscription content is absolutely the most efficient way to spend your precious marketing budget.
And bear in mind that, with postcode exclusivity offered by all blog post ghostwriters, the likelihood of a potential seller reading a blog that you've posted and seeing another agent in a different town has also posted it is very slim.
And, even if they did, will they care? Probably not.
Content marketing is a slow burn.
It takes months of consistency before you will see a positive response. But when you see clients engaging with your content and your profits increasing, you'll be streets ahead of your competitors that are still filling their social media platforms up with links to Rightmove!
For your own subscription, get in touch with this link.
If your location's available, you could have all of the content for July emailed to you within minutes and start attracting those sellers and landlords to your agency.
