If you're a real estate agent who has followed content marketing, you may have heard the term "content shock" recently.
What Is Content Marketing?
For those of you who are not familiar with content marketing, it is basically a strategy to use quality content to attract an audience with the end goal of converting them to customers.
Content Marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defind audience - and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action
In general, I believe there is some content shock in real estate. There are a lot of content creators who are being told they should be creating more content, but few are focusing on quality content.
I have worked for marketing agencies who claim they provide content marketing for Realtors, and the truth is the time and money allotted for the work is woefully insufficient to create anything of quality. It is the reason I branched out on my own.
Most Realtors are told they can have a piece of custom content created for them in 45 minutes or less. Anyone who actually cares about quality content creation knows that this usually isn't enough time to create anything good, let alone great. I could rant on and on about this, but I'll get back to the topic.
What really got me thinking about content shock as it applies to real estate is a podcast I listen to called PNR This Old Marketing podcast. In episode number 118, they discuss content shock and bring up a lot of great points.
At around the 42 minute mark in the podcast, real estate is mentioned. Of course I perked up, because that's my jam. However, it was only mentioned as an industry in which there is too much content. I was hopeful that the hosts would delve into why they thought this was the case, but alas they did not.
I found it interesting, as I actually see plenty of room for content creation in real estate. I hope to dial in on what content there is too much of and what content is still lacking in most real estate markets.
I have worked for marketing agencies who claim they provide content marketing for Realtors, and the truth is the time and money allotted for the work is woefully insufficient to create anything of quality. It is the reason I branched out on my own.
Most Realtors are told they can have a piece of custom content created for them in 45 minutes or less. Anyone who actually cares about quality content creation knows that this usually isn't enough time to create anything good, let alone great. I could rant on and on about this, but I'll get back to the topic.
What really got me thinking about content shock as it applies to real estate is a podcast I listen to called PNR This Old Marketing podcast. In episode number 118, they discuss content shock and bring up a lot of great points.
At around the 42 minute mark in the podcast, real estate is mentioned. Of course I perked up, because that's my jam. However, it was only mentioned as an industry in which there is too much content. I was hopeful that the hosts would delve into why they thought this was the case, but alas they did not.
I found it interesting, as I actually see plenty of room for content creation in real estate. I hope to dial in on what content there is too much of and what content is still lacking in most real estate markets.
Too Much & Not Enough Real Estate Content
In real estate there is and isn't a problem of too much content. What do I mean by that? It depends on the type of real estate content and the physical location the content is being written for.
Types Of Real Estate Content in "Content Shock"
There are tons of web pages and blog posts about first time home buyer guides, getting pre-approved for a mortgage, staging tips, and home selling guides. This type of content often comes pre-loaded on real estate websites or is auto-blogged, and the sad fact is very few Realtors take the time to customize this content.
If you're a Realtor and you want to offer guides and resources on your website, great! Just please, please, please put in some effort to make your resources truly useful and specific to your own local market.
Take a moment to look at other local Realtor websites and see what they are offering for resources. It is likely that they are doing the minimum, and you can easily create something of more value. At the very least, your pre-loaded content and automatically fed blog posts need to be rewritten so it isn't duplicate content in the eyes of Google.
If you're a Realtor and you want to offer guides and resources on your website, great! Just please, please, please put in some effort to make your resources truly useful and specific to your own local market.
Take a moment to look at other local Realtor websites and see what they are offering for resources. It is likely that they are doing the minimum, and you can easily create something of more value. At the very least, your pre-loaded content and automatically fed blog posts need to be rewritten so it isn't duplicate content in the eyes of Google.
Content Saturation In Local Real Estate Markets
As someone who works in real estate marketing as a virtual assistant, I have created content for Realtors across North America.
While I have found that Realtors in major markets such as Miami, DC, or New York do have to put some serious money on the table for exceptional online marketing and content creation, Realtors in smaller markets have a lot of space to grow. There is a large gap between content marketing in major markets and small town America.
I live in a small town outside of Raleigh, and the difference between the amount of real estate content in Raleigh and in the surrounding rural communities is significant. I see a lot of the same across the country.
First, the number of Realtors actually writing even half-decent local content is low.
By local content I am referring to pages or posts drilled down to the neighborhood level. A Realtor's website and blog should give visitors useful information about cities, subdivisions, and local attractions.
While you will likely find real estate websites in your local market with some basic city or neighborhood pages, in most markets there is plenty of room for more.
If you're a real estate agent in a location that is fairly saturated with neighborhood content, what about parks? Local attractions? Restaurants? What types of content are missing? For instance, few Realtors have good video tours of neighborhoods or even pictures. This is low hanging fruit for most real estate agents.
For instance, I have a client in my own small town. They are a new brokerage and needed to get a website up and running. I already had an idea of what other local Realtors were doing for online marketing, and it wasn't much.
Plus, because it is a small town, the bigger agencies in Raleigh aren't providing much information for our little area.
There are many subdivisions here that nobody has written anything about. There are beautiful parks with little to no online information available, even on the town's own parks & rec page. There's a community center with excellent programs that no one has delved into. And again, this is the case in small towns across America.
While I have found that Realtors in major markets such as Miami, DC, or New York do have to put some serious money on the table for exceptional online marketing and content creation, Realtors in smaller markets have a lot of space to grow. There is a large gap between content marketing in major markets and small town America.
I live in a small town outside of Raleigh, and the difference between the amount of real estate content in Raleigh and in the surrounding rural communities is significant. I see a lot of the same across the country.
First, the number of Realtors actually writing even half-decent local content is low.
By local content I am referring to pages or posts drilled down to the neighborhood level. A Realtor's website and blog should give visitors useful information about cities, subdivisions, and local attractions.
While you will likely find real estate websites in your local market with some basic city or neighborhood pages, in most markets there is plenty of room for more.
If you're a real estate agent in a location that is fairly saturated with neighborhood content, what about parks? Local attractions? Restaurants? What types of content are missing? For instance, few Realtors have good video tours of neighborhoods or even pictures. This is low hanging fruit for most real estate agents.
For instance, I have a client in my own small town. They are a new brokerage and needed to get a website up and running. I already had an idea of what other local Realtors were doing for online marketing, and it wasn't much.
Plus, because it is a small town, the bigger agencies in Raleigh aren't providing much information for our little area.
There are many subdivisions here that nobody has written anything about. There are beautiful parks with little to no online information available, even on the town's own parks & rec page. There's a community center with excellent programs that no one has delved into. And again, this is the case in small towns across America.
Get Local & Provide Value
So Realtors, if you're hearing about "content shock" and thinking "oh well, I guess I missed out on content marketing" you probably didn't. It is highly likely that there is still plenty of room for content creation in your own area.
And as they do mention on the PNR podcast that sparked this post, take the time to create better content, not simply more content.
High quality content created for your area will help you dominate and become the go-to local expert in your real estate market.
And as they do mention on the PNR podcast that sparked this post, take the time to create better content, not simply more content.
High quality content created for your area will help you dominate and become the go-to local expert in your real estate market.
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