When it comes to your online presence, your ducks are in a row. 🐤🐤🐤 Your website is attractive, mobile-friendly and easy to navigate, and you’re regularly posting on social media. Excellent! But if content marketing isn’t part of your overall marketing strategy, you could be missing out on a lot of opportunities.
Content marketing conversion rates are six times higher than other methods.
So just what is content marketing, you ask?
As defined by Marketo, content marketing is:
The process of creating valuable, relevant content to attract, acquire, and engage your audience.
So rather than JUST focusing on you and the services you offer, you also focus on the consumer and try to address their needs and ultimately build a relationship. Simply put, if you provide answers home buyers and sellers are looking for, content marketing can help you:
Generate new leads
Stay top of mind by educating your audience
Build loyalty with existing customers
And it’s not as hard or time-consuming as you might think.
To help you implement a solid content marketing strategy, we asked a successful real estate agent how he does it. Ben Kono and his team produce valuable content using smart strategies, but before we dive into what they do, let’s look at a real-life example of content marketing in action.
Is content marketing worth my time?
Indeed, it is and here’s a quick story to prove it.
Once upon a time, a woman landed on a real estate agent’s website (spoiler: the agent is Ben, the woman is me). This woman was a homeowner that was new to outside chores like gutters, fall lawn care, etc. But after watching Ben and Jake’s funny and informative video, she now knows the ship has sailed on seeding her lawn and she downloaded the fall checklist for future reference.
The overall impression left on the website visitor: “Wow, these guys know their stuff. Their marketing is pretty great too.” And will she perhaps return to their site for future homeowner tips, or reference the fall checklist next year? Likely.
Key takeaway: If you provide value and show off your expertise, you can’t lose.
5 tips for content marketing in real estate
I first sat down with Ben in September of 2021 where he shared how he plans to grow his team using Top Producer. And one of the things that stood out to me was that their approach to real estate content marketing is some of the best I’ve seen in this space.
Here are 5 tips courtesy of Ben’s team.
1. Show your human side
It’s no secret that today’s consumers want transparency and authenticity, and Ben and team strike a great balance with their content.
They arm buyers and sellers with tips and market knowledge that only real estate pros have. But they also take a funny approach that’s pretty refreshing. Case in point: this Thanksgiving video where Mikhail—a buyer’s agent dressed in camo—chases a turkey-suited Ben through the woods.
Is there a better way to say Happy Thanksgiving? I don’t think so.
The team produces the following content on a regular basis:
- Market updates: To provide market knowledge and showcase expertise.
- Buyer & seller tips: To educate the audience and be a valuable resource.
- New listings & recently solds: To show business volume.
- Silly & fun videos: To be relatable, show their human side and best of all—make people laugh!
And it’s no surprise that #4 holds the crown 
for top-viewed videos because that’s what people respond to. The turkey video and top bloopers of 2021 are the team’s most-watched videos.
2. Make it valuable—to them, not you
87% of marketers prioritize the audience’s informational needs over the organization’s sales/promotional messages (CMI)
Remember that the goal is to make it valuable—not tell them what an amazing realtor you are (even though you so are). So don’t be too promotional. Look to answer their questions and you won’t go wrong.
Ben and his team provide highly beneficial info and look to answer common questions, like what’s going to happen with interest rates, and what’s the average price range in their area. And while their target audience is anyone thinking of making a move in the next 3-6 months, this content appeals to any homeowner or those interested in real estate. They also look to educate with pieces like ‘3 mistakes to avoid when selling a house in Jackson’.
So, whether you provide market updates via videos like Ben and team, or send a branded market report that contains real-time updates like these, you can’t lose with a consistent and valuable approach.
3. Go beyond the blog post
There’s a reason why agents have been blogging for years—it works.
Small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small businesses without.
But it’s a good idea to produce other types of content too.
Video is an obvious choice, with online videos making up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2022 (Cisco).
And think helpful checklists—like a First Time Homebuyers Guide—that you can give away for free in exchange for an email address. Then you can wow them with your amazing content and stay top of mind until they’re ready to buy or sell.
Pro tip: Be sure to include captions in your videos, since over 80% of videos will be watched without sound in 2022. (Adding captions to your Facebook videos is a snap, and other free solutions are just a quick google away.)
4. Repurpose content and share it across multiple platforms
To Ben and his team, one video = multiple pieces of content. For example, they’ll turn a video into:
- A blog post that they can promote via email and social media.
- Bite-sized videos for Instagram and TikTok.
They’ll structure the video in 3 parts so they can first post the full-length video to Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. And then they’ll drip out the 3 snippets on Instagram and TikTok throughout the week.
Pro tip: Ben’s team uses repurpose.io to chop up the video and distribute it to all their platforms.
5. Take the time to do it right
While Ben has a team that allows him to use the tag-team approach to content marketing, you can be successful if you just devote some time to do it right. Ben’s seen what can happen when you don’t:
“Sometimes agents end up doing things poorly because they squeak out a piece of content in the half hour they have slotted for it.“
Making the time likely involves time-blocking, which is a solid way to make sure the important things get done. And if you invest a little time to do content marketing right, you’ll reap the benefits in the future.
To close, a special thanks to Ben and his team for sharing the secrets to their content marketing success. We wish you much success in the years to come.
