As a full-service marketing and public relations agency, we’re often asked if social media marketing can help residential real estate brokers achieve their marketing goals and generate tangible ROI. While there is no denying the power of using compelling visuals to sell properties, a blog can help real estate brokers to position themselves as industry experts, attracting prospective clients and generating new leads. Here’s how a blog can help residential real estate brokers achieve their business goals:
Enhancing Expert Positioning
A real estate blog is a great opportunity to answer common questions that buyers and sellers may have when deciding whether or not to purchase or list a property. For example: how to stage a home for an open house; top questions to ask when choosing a real estate broker; real estate trends in Westchester County; or, what to do before listing your house. By showing potential buyers or sellers that you understand their wants and needs (known as understanding buyer personas), you are positioning yourself – and your brokerage firm – as the local ‘go to’ experts.
Showcasing Current Listings
The best blogs are multimedia blogs, incorporating photos and videos with compelling and relevant content. For residential brokers, this presents a great opportunity to use blogs as an avenue for showcasing current property listings. Let’s say you list a family home near a neighborhood school in a high-performing district – why not write a blog post about finding the perfect family home? Illustrate your key selling points by sharing photos of the property and, perhaps, a virtual tour (video).
Touting Sales Success
While the most effective blogs are a strategic blend of first-party and third-party content, a residential real estate blog can showcase why a particular firm or agent is best suited to handle particular types of listings. Whether you have sold a record number of New York City coops or Westchester condos, the blog is an opportunity to showcase your areas of specialization and demonstrate your industry expertise, which, as stated before, enhances expert positioning and fills the sales pipeline.
Highlighting Community Engagement
Philanthropy, often categorized as corporate social responsibility, is an important ‘qualification’ for many prospective clients. Whether your brokerage firm has a dedicated charitable division or simply engages in days of community service, it is important to showcase your team’s community involvement. It not only positions your agency as a ‘good neighbor’ (pun intended), it shows that you are well-informed about the businesses, individuals and nonprofits in the community in which your client is buying and or selling.
While developing and executing a successful blogging strategy can be a time-intensive process, its success can be abundant. The ability to measure and quantify online marketing success will allow you and your agency to determine if and how the blog is helping to achieve your business goals. Although many companies are motivated to implement a social media marketing program, it is important to remember that the greatest ROI comes from an integrated marketing strategy that ensures one’s online and offline activities are in-sync.
