According to the Content Marketing Institute’s new 2015 B2C study, the people who find it difficult to find professional content marketing help has increased 22 percent. So why is this becoming tougher for real estate professionals and brands? How can real estate marketers find expert help that will aid them in maximizing their brands and boost their ROI? More importantly, what mistakes should be avoided?
Four Challenges in Effective Content Marketing
- Content Marketers are In High Demand
Content is one of the hottest and most valuable real estate marketing and branding tools. That means it is harder to find great ones that are free. Most great real estate writers, marketers, and designers are booked well in advance. If you put off your marketing until the last minute, the best will be booked. You’ll want to be ahead of your needs by at least 2-4 weeks. Labor costs are rising too. In some cases as much as 1,500 percent in the last 6 years. Some real estate marketers may simply be looking in the wrong places for great help.
- Failure to Find the Right Match
Beyond finding great real estate marketing help, professionals and companies also need to find the right fit. In any industry or field, there can be many very talented pros that just aren’t the right fit. It might be a personality clash, clash in working processes, or style preferences. There is a match out there, but it pays to test in small quantities first in order to ensure you have found it.
- Failure to Follow Through
Others are falling short – not because of the help they have recruited, but because they aren’t effectively using the content they have commissioned. You can have the best content in the world, but if you don’t use it – and use it well – you may just be throwing your money away. It needs to be published, and published consistently at the right times.
- Not Sure What They Need
The above mentioned survey, and one of our network’s recent reports shows that the biggest challenge for B2C real estate marketers today is a lack of having a content marketing plan. Some just don’t know what they want and need – at least not in a way that is effective and profitable.
Creating a Content Marketing Plan
One thing that deters real estate marketers from creating a marketing plan is not being sure what works. A little time invested in research or investing in a system will help, but everyone also knows that what works is always changing. That does not change the fact that you need a plan. Plans will change, but you do need one. You need to be willing to test, track, and tweak. Carve out the time, and get started.
4 things that your real estate content marketing plan should include:
- Your objectives
- Publishing platforms you will use
- Publishing formats you will test
- Your budget
Tips for getting the most out of a limited content marketing budget:
- Go for high quality, unique, and original posts
- Slowly increase content as you decrease reliance on paid marketing
- Invest in promoting your content as much as creating it
- Be consistent
Six Tips for Finding and Keeping Great Content Marketing Help
- Find the Right Match
Finding a great content expert to help you is just as much about the right match, and someone that understands your industry, customers, and needs as it is about experienced help. Outsourcing platforms like UpWork offer access to dozens of real estate marketing freelance experts for executing your plan.
- Find more than a Writer or Designer
There are advantages to always delegating down. For example; having a cheap data entry assistant do all the low level publishing work. However, some could find great value in content marketers that can write, strategize, and aid in keyword research.
- Order Early
Savvy real estate marketers have most of their annual marketing planned out a year in advance (at least). At a minimum, you should be planning and commissioning content a quarter in advance. Ensure it is ready to launch at least a week or two in advance.
- Understand How They Work
Getting to know how your agency or freelance content marketing aids work best will go miles in avoiding frustration and confusion, as well as for getting the best content out of them.
- Avoid this Major PR Blunder
Slick cash flow stretching tricks often infect real estate marketers and small business owners. Once they get into the habit of stretching out invoices until accounts go into collection or freelancers cut them off it is hard to get back on track. This is invariably counterproductive. You’ll only be left with those desperate enough to risk working for you, and you’ll quickly accumulate negative PR and online reviews. This will rapidly outweigh the perceived gains. Consider that one branding error cost Nike over $2 billion to fix, and years of work. Paying vendors fast and well can create the opposite.
- Put it on Autopilot
Find systems and tools to automate your real estate content marketing and plug them in. Then you can simply focus on closing deals and growing your business.
