How can real estate professionals win the important content marketing battle coming up in 2016?
Inman News recently revealed how one real estate broker is experiencing an exponential increase in business without giving into the advertising giants of the industry. At the same time, this business has acknowledged that they receive about 10,000 visitors a month, all thanks to their own content marketing strategy.
It should go without saying, but content marketing definitely works for generating real estate leads, and could make all the difference in net earnings in 2016. However, there is no question that what works is changing. So what has been working for hot brands? What are experts warning against now? What trends should real estate marketers be prepared for over the coming months?
Hold That Holiday Mail!
Inc. Magazine has sided against holiday emails this year. Whatever their reason, data from AWeber shows that December 25th and January 1st are two of the busiest days of the year for email blasts. Ironically, these days also have the lowest open rates, at just 30% to 40%. HubSpot suggests the greatest engagement rates will be achieved around January fourth or fifth, when workers get back in front of their screens after the holidays. So think before you send out your next email. There is a chance it won’t get read until earlier next year.
What Worked & Changed in 2015
According to Inc., the three main game changers for content marketing in 2015 were:
- Improving timing of publishing and sending messages (as seen above)
- Getting more personal with content
- Better blending social and content together
Inc. also notes that content creation and publishing hit a new high in 2015, as more marketers pushed to increase volume. Fortunately, data shows that investing just an additional six hours a week can produce more traffic, and that doesn’t mean you personally have to be the one doing it.
Content Marketing Tactics & Strategies for 2016 and Beyond
7 evolving trends, and what to do about them:
1. Tailored Content: As the competition gets better at tailoring content to individuals, real estate marketers need to keep up. Specifically, this may mean building more smaller and better targeted lists, versus lumping all contacts together.
2. Going Offline: Inc. predicts that one of the most notable trends ahead will be content that leads consumers offline to real experiences. This is a major trend already seen going both ways, including major retailers such as Apple and Amazon. Those real estate pros and brands that get ahead of this curve in providing more real human interaction will have a great lead in today’s market.
3. More Data Becomes Available: More data and tools for extracting data are becoming available to real estate marketers. More insight helps to hone in on more of what is really going to produce the desired results. For example; a new report from Real Legal Marketing reveals that while long form content has emerged as the leader for gaining backlinks to blogs, (which can boost Google placement), there is no relation between content that attracts a lot of links and content that is more likely to be shared. In fact, the opposite could be true. The verdict is that real estate marketers are going to need both long pieces of content and short ones if they want to both increase Google rankings, and actually drive in more real customers.
4. What Gets Measured Gets Improved: Entrepreneur Magazine is calling for marketers and business owners to get better at tracking their results. All the tools in the world are no good, unless they are used. Use analytics to decipher what is really creating the best results, and not.
5. Content Gets More Expensive: There are lots of people trying to hire marketing help for virtually nothing. That isn’t working. A few years ago, it may have been possible to pick up great content creators for $5 or $15 an hour. Now the best have become a hot commodity. By all means, shop around for good deals. However, some will need to realize they have to start with less, but higher quality content if they want to earn enough to stick around to produce more and keep growing. Focus on quality over quantity. Focus on good, unique content, and lock up good help at affordable rates while you can.
6. Marketing Goes Tribal: As bestselling marketing author Seth Godin has been predicting for a while, we are going to see consumers become more tribal. Meaning that they’ll trend to the brands they have the best connection with, and brands will win by better serving smaller groups better, than trying to blast watered down marketing to the general masses. As we see more marketing noise in 2016, big real estate giants advertising on TV, new well-funded apps coming online, and big players consolidating smaller ones, it is essential that real estate pros focus on building loyalty and stronger connections with their best customers.
7. New Networks: With so many attempts being made at creating new social networks, 2016 could certainly be the year we see another really take off. This doesn’t mean a platform that will replace Facebook or LinkedIn, but another channel that helps connect individuals and brands. Choose to be an early adopter this time! Don’t wait for the competition to test it and master it first. Dominate, leverage it, and connect what you do there with your other content.
