Reassuring Voice
The death of our beloved Queen Elizabeth, after reigning for 70 years is causing a general air of depression, and uncertainly in the future, so it’s more important than ever to make sure your content is hitting the nail on the head every time, whilst being informative and avoiding negativity and fear-mongering. Never fear, Katie’s here with her 5 top tips for developing a reassuring voice throughout your digital output.
Regularly update your blog with up-to-date information
When I say regularly, I mean regularly. Don’t just write an update, and then roll your eyes when it’s out of date in a week’s time. As soon as an announcement is made, crack your knuckles and get a post written ASAP. Not only does this mean people can rely on coming to you for information when they need it, but for people who don’t get to see what you do and how hard you work behind the scenes, it’s also a way of showing that you’re on the ball and able to react to the ever-changing times which we find ourselves in.
Ditch the jargon
Think about who you’re writing updates for, and make sure you’re explaining things in simple terms. If you need to use acronyms for something, make sure you’re including what the letters stand for and making it very clear.
By doing this, it’s not patronising your audience, it’s giving them all the tools to understand what you’re saying without getting frustrated and resorting to Google. From a writing perspective, this also forces you to think of different ways of putting things rather than nearly copying the words of a dry news story, and that immediately makes for more interesting piece to read.
Get social and meet people where they are.
In times of massive uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to be present on social media. This doesn’t mean you need to be monitoring it, and jumping into relevant conversations 24/7, but it does mean you need to be prepared to meet people where they are.
Why not set aside an hour each week for ‘ask the estate agent’, where you broadcast live for an hour and you answer any questions from your followers? If you can it’s always good to be doing this with someone else, so one of you can do the talking whilst the other reads the comments and vice versa. Be prepared to not have anyone watching at first, but when people get to know what you’re doing, and that you do it week in, week out at the same time – you’ll gain trust, and get people following you.
For the first few times while you don’t have anyone watching, come prepared with some questions you get asked a lot. If you save the live video, it will also stay on your feed for people to watch when they’re available.
You don’t even need to know all the answers, if someone asks you something and you aren’t sure, say ‘that’s a great question and one which I’ll have to actually go away and check out for you. If you private message me with your email address, when this video ends I’ll look into it for you and send you the answer.’ taking away any pressure to be the person who knows everything.
This kind of interaction isn’t just about answering questions, it’s about showing your face and letting people know that you’re approachable even during a crisis.
Honesty is the best policy
There is often a tendency with property industry content to glaze over the bad, and scrabble around until there’s something positive to say. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a live video, a blog article, a web page, a social media post, a TikTok or a Snap chat – people can see right through this and in the age of the internet they’ll easily be able to find out what’s really going on. When they do get to the bottom of the truth, it’ll make you look silly and it’ll make them think you don’t know what you’re talking about.
As one example of this, are sales numbers down? Give the facts, give your opinion as to why that is, and how it can be made better than point your followers to some content about preparing their house to go on the market to reach the best price possible even when the market seems slow.
Watch your tone
Being honest when things don’t look so great, doesn’t mean that all of your content needs to sound like it was written by Eeyore. It’s possible for your content output during challenging times to also sound upbeat and hopeful for the future. If you feel like your predominant emotion is ‘despair’, let someone else have a read over what you’ve written before posting. They’ll be in a better place to make suggestions than you reading and trying to edit your own work.
At the moment, it’s easier said than done to get into a headspace where you can write content with regularity. If you need a helping hand with ideas, would like a series of posts written for your website, or want someone to help you with your social media – look no further.
We’ve been helping agents with their digital marketing output since the start of the pandemic, and we’re here to stay. Simply drop us a message via our contact page, and we’ll have a chat about what you need.
Katie Gillingham
Katie is a Freelance Copywriter living in rural Dorset with her daft old Labrador. She first started writing content for the property industry back in 2015, and loves nothing more than bringing brand voices to life!
