Digital Marketing Tips for Estate Agents
Do not confuse advertising with content marketing – do not dump your property stock on FB and think that is good enough, FB is about marketing you and your expertise, not your properties – they go on portals & ads unless you are doing a live viewing or have something unique to showcase. Attract interest, generate trust, develop relationships and do all of that before you start asking people for their business. Content marketing is not about getting instant instructions
Try to win minds not hearts – so aim to get your audience to like you, to rely on you, even to love you (or your brand) – and do this way before they need to use your services. The public are savvy and are not easily fooled, they want authenticity and, on social media, they don’t want to be sold to. So, be honest, enthusiastic and you will generate loyalty because your audience can relate with you.
Understand what is interesting to your audience – Around 96% of your social media audience aren’t about to move house right now, so find out what is interesting to them at the moment, or what will provoke their interest? Your job is to write content relevant to your audience right now. Remember to pose a question and offer a solution to gain their attention.
Do not get caught in the trap of using syndicated content (automatic content inserted into websites or blogs) it is useless and can damage your reputation. Your content should be about your audience and that will never be identical to any other business audience so it should always be unique to you.
Communicate with empathy – find out the issues of your audience by asking questions and then offering free advice and solutions. Prepare some PDF giveaways – get them on your website and send traffic there.
Communicate your expertise – If a hundred know you, there are thousands that don’t! Make sure you can showcase your expertise to your audience by expressing opinions and offering solutions that you would recommend and give examples of times you have helped your clients.
Try not to boast about irrelevant subjects – well those that might be relevant to you but are probably not to your audience, eg. a new board design, your market share, your new website… (You can boast about why it is good for the audience and what the benefit is to them of course).
Use the right images! Select eye-catching images, especially those featuring real people, because people buy from people, not from brands. By providing your reader with a connection to the real you it will build trust, they will probably be honoured to have “the well known property expert” come to their house for a valuation or viewing.
Remember to ask for business, but don’t do it too soon! Put your call to action at the end, so if someone reads your article right through, watches your video to the end etc, you can assume that they are interested now, so make sure you give an easy CTA. On articles it’s great to say ‘whatsapp’ or ‘text’ me if you have any questions – that shows real person to person contact!
Don’t bore your audience – people have a short attention span so make sure that your content title is eye-catching and that you go on to expand fully on the title with short sharp paragraphs, images, bullet-points and lots of value to the reader – aim for 250-350 words in a blog post.
Mention your UCBs (unique customer benefits) and not your USPs (unique selling points). Spot topical opportunities – harness events locally and nationally and write about them from the perspective of your audience.
Remember that people need to be positively influenced with much greater regularity than ever before, you need a minimum of 6 exposures in 4 months before someone will even notice you, so be online as often as you can and repeat the message time and again.
Check your work before you post it online. Poor spelling and grammar makes you look unprofessional – so use Grammarly or a good spelling and grammar checker!
Jane Gardner
I work all over the UK with various business owners, dedicating my creative and expert property knowledge from 35 years in the industry. I am a Level 4 ARLA Propertymark examiner, I sit on the board of Agents Giving Charity and I love everything property related! I can be contacted on 01923 627777 or by email to jane@social-angels.co.uk
