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Epic Content Creation for Real Estate
A Guide for Up-And-Coming Real Estate Agents
Jacob Bear
February 17th, 2024
Table of Contents
Real estate content creation is the top performer’s secret weapon.
Content marketing is one of the biggest factors that separate struggling, part-time real estate agents from the leaders who make 10x as much as the average agent.
It’s no surprise that in last year’s State of Content Marketing report, a full 100% of real estate brands said that they saw positive results from their content marketing.
Let’s take a quick look at how content creation in real estate can make or break your career.
Understanding the Landscape of Real Estate Content Creation
The world is filled with content related to real estate. You might feel like there’s nothing you can do to compete.
But when you look more closely, you’ll notice that a lot of that content looks the same. It’s mostly published by large organizations such as Zillow or the National Association of Realtors.
This content often lacks relatable stories and warmth. You can do better by inserting your personality into your own content.
There’s also a demand for original content that’s specific to your region, your market, or your niche. In other words, become relevant by making yourself relevant.
Most professionals in real estate don’t appreciate what happens when you fill a content gap in this way.
The Importance of Content in Real Estate
Most of your clients are making the largest transaction of their lives. There are layers of complex issues related to law, finance, construction, and even psychology.
Buyers and sellers are flooded with more information than they know how to process, so they usually choose a real estate agent based on one of the following:
A recommendation from someone they know, even if it’s a terrible match
The first agent they meet with in person
Someone who is already visible in the community and inspires feelings of confidence
There’s not much you can do about the first two factors, especially if you’re new to the industry.
But you can create the third factor for yourself. Post stories, local information, and other relevant content on a regular basis. You may be surprised at how quickly you achieve local celebrity status and attract new clients.
Content Creation for Real Estate Marketing
Real estate content creation comes down to two important questions:
What kinds of information, inspiration, or reassurance do your potential clients want?
How can you deliver information, inspiration, or reassurance in ways that your market doesn’t usually see?
Types of Real Estate Content
We're going to assume that you already know about different types of content in a general sense. Videos, blogs, photos, a newsletter, and infographics could all be part of your content mix.
But when it comes to real estate content creation, it's more useful to think about the purpose behind the content.
This could include:
Content to attract buyers as clients
Content to attract sellers
Loyalty content to keep you on your clients’ radar after closing
Authority content that showcases your knowledge and sets you apart as an expert and a leader
Utility content that provides helpful information to your readers
Finally, there's an entirely separate category: Real estate content creation for marketing a listing.
Why Trust Us? All beehiiv writers are carefully vetted for their knowledge and experience. Jacob Bear has written real estate content for brokerages all over the United States. He was recently named a Top Copywriting Voice on LinkedIn.
Crafting Compelling Listings
For most real estate professionals, listings are straightforward. You provide the required information along with details about the home you’re selling,
Your MLS, as well as platforms such as Zillow, provide a template. You could simply upload a few photos, write a brief description about the number of bedrooms, and call it done.
Since it's been a seller's market almost everywhere in the United States for the past decade, you might think this basic listing is all you have to do.
But look at what a little extra content creation could do for you here. Your listing doesn’t have to appear in Zillow Gone Wild. Just a bit of extra effort on every listing could make you wildly successful.
You could get more offers, sell faster for a higher price, and cash your commission check sooner.
A compelling listing can increase your revenue on every deal. Because of this, it's worth looking at in detail.
Writing Descriptive and Persuasive Property Descriptions
Which of these descriptions sounds more compelling to you?
A. This house has two bedrooms, two baths, a swimming pool in the backyard, and a fireplace.
Or
B. Imagine the fun your family will have splashing around by the pool on a hot day. Picture your friends coming to visit on the 4th of July for a cookout and a swim. And later when the kids are asleep, you can stretch out in front of a roaring fire for a relaxing, romantic evening.
People don't buy because of facts. They buy because of stories and pictures.
It's no different when they are buying a home. In fact, this can be the most emotional purchase someone ever makes.
Paint vivid pictures of the kind of life one could have by living in the home you’re selling.
High-Quality Photography and Videography
Many real estate agents go through a property with their cell phones, filming a video as they narrate, “Here's the bedroom, here's the bathroom…”
If you want your listing to stand out, consider engaging a videographer and a professional photographer. Use persuasive descriptions like we described above. Hire a drone to fly over the house and film it from above.
If you can't afford a videographer and a drone, at least invest in some good portable lights and a tripod. For less than $100, you can create listings that stand out. This could potentially put tens of thousands of dollars in your pocket each year.
As a bonus, when you go through this level of content creation for real estate, you can repurpose a lot of the photos and writings. Post them on your social media and in your newsletter.
If you’re in a relatively small town, there probably aren’t many REALTORSⓇ doing this.
Virtual Tours and 3D Modeling
Finally, it’s not hard to create a 3D virtual tour of your listing these days.
This is different from merely walking through the property with your camera on. A prospective buyer can choose where to go in the home and what to look at.
Some of the more advanced platforms will show the buyer what a room would look like with a different carpet or another color of paint on the walls.
In a really hot market, this tool alone could be enough to attract more worthwhile offers.
Another advantage of a high-quality listing is that it reflects on you as a REALTORⓇ. If your listings stand out, you can quickly stand out, too.
This is a six- or seven-figure product you’re selling. Pull out all the stops when you create content for real estate marketing.
Blogging for Real Estate Success
We spoke about real estate content creation for listings, but first, you have to get some clients. This is where blogging can be a powerful tool for attracting more business.
How Do You Write Good Content for Real Estate?
It's not hard to create valuable blog content for buyers and sellers. A lot of them have predictable concerns:
Buyers want to know:
Whether or not it's the best time to buy
What kind of loans do they qualify for
How much cash they have to save up before making a purchase
Advice on how to go about looking at homes for sale
Schools, traffic, crime rates, and other facts about neighborhoods and locations
The overall home-buying process
The meaning of escrow, underwriting, and other legal/technical terms
Sellers have an entirely different set of needs:
How much they can expect to earn from selling their property
Their responsibilities for necessary repairs or changes made without a permit
How quickly they need to move out after selling the home
Relatively simple improvements that could lead to a better sales price
Many buyers and sellers are looking for this information months or even years before they're ready to pull the trigger.
If you're the main person providing this information in your area, you'll become the go-to expert by default.
Now, let's address the elephant in the room before we move on.
Many of these questions are obvious, and there are already many real estate writers and brokers posting this information online.
There are three ways to get around the redundancy effect of real estate content creation.
The first is by telling stories, painting pictures, and making your content more authentic and interesting than any competing content.
The second is simply to provide the most recent and up-to-date information. For example, you could address one of these questions or concerns each week in a blog post and then send out the content as a newsletter. Email platforms such as beehiiv will do this for you automatically.
The third way to stand out when you’re writing about the same thing as a dozen competitors has to do with an important SEO strategy for real estate content.
SEO Strategies for Real Estate Blogs
You probably know the three most important words for real estate content creation: location, location, location.
Here's what we mean, almost anyone who is searching for real estate information is looking at a specific location. This is great news for you as a real estate professional.
As we mentioned above, it would be hard to have successful SEO content if all you had was generic information about buying, selling, and owning a home.
However, your potential clients are going to be looking specifically for information about homes in your particular area.
Your job is to fill your blog and other content with location-specific keywords. Don’t write “How Escrow Works for Home Buyers.” Write, “How Escrow Works for Home Buyers in Silverlake”
Blog about local restaurants, art galleries, and festivals. Mention neighborhoods, street names, and even zip codes.
This is the real estate content that will attract people who are looking to buy a home in your neighborhood, as well as those who already own one.
In the latter case, many of these homeowners are statistically likely to become home sellers at some point in the future.
Engaging Local Market Analysis
Chris Jacobson is one of the top-performing Realtors in Vallejo, California. Chris credits much of his success to his monthly Just Sold Report, which provides market information specifically about historic homes in Vallejo, California.
This is a unique real estate content creation strategy that acts like a magnet for home buyers and sellers. It also improves your SEO. All you have to do is talk about your local market.
You probably already have your website connected to local MLS so that properties for sale can show up on your website. Why not take this a step further?
Start a newsletter or blog that updates your readers on the median home price in your town or even in a specific neighborhood. Talk about the highest-priced home that sold in the past week or how long a particular property was on the market.
You could even feature a specific “Home of the Week” and write about it even if it's not your own listing.
Anyone interested in buying or selling in your area will want to subscribe to a newsletter that provides granular data about the local market.
This kind of content builds authority and gives you a regular opportunity to get in front of buyers and sellers.
When Louisiana REALTORⓇ Stephanie Henna began posting regularly on TikTok and Instagram, she had no idea that HGTV would find her content and invite her to be featured on House Hunters.
But as one of the top agents at her brokerage, Stephanie knows that the right use of social media gets results. Let’s look at how this works.
Choosing the Right Platforms for Your Audience
The rule for choosing where to post your real estate content is simple. Go where the customers are.
For example, if your farm is a neighborhood where there are a lot of young first-time buyers, you probably want to focus on social media platforms that are being used by these potential clients. At the time of this writing, that probably means TikTok, Instagram, and Twitch.
In contrast, if you work in an area where most of your clients are Boomers, you'll get better results from Facebook.
If you're a broker trying to attract more realtors, you should also keep a presence on LinkedIn.
What Content Should I Post for Real Estate?
People who look at real estate content are used to beautiful color photography. Include a lot of gorgeous photos in your social media posts, especially pictures of gardens and homes.
Provide a lot of useful, locally-based information in your copy, and make use of gifs to keep your viewers engaged and entertained.
When it comes to real estate content creation, you should also feature local events and businesses regularly. This establishes you as an authority and builds goodwill in the community.
Locally centered content also makes your social media more interesting and relevant to the specific followers you are trying to attract.
If you're only getting traction through paid advertising, it implies that your real estate content isn't engaging enough or possibly that you're not posting frequently enough.
It will take a lot of ad spend to compensate for these issues.
On the other hand, if you are successfully attracting potential clients in your area through your regular social media content, then the advertising will amplify the return that you’re already getting.
It’s important not to get caught on a treadmill. Your paid social media advertising shouldn't just bring local potential buyers and sellers to your website one time.
If you’re spending money on social media advertising, it’s critical to capture leads that you can nurture with an email newsletter or similar tool.
Email Marketing in Real Estate
If done right, a high-converting email newsletter is a real estate agent's most valuable asset, but that’s not all there is to email marketing in real estate.
Building an Effective Email Campaign
An effective email campaign has to do a few different things.
First of all, you have to make it interesting enough that your subscribers will open and read it.
You also need a powerful call to action. What should the reader do next as a result of reading this?
Finally, you have to keep them engaged as you bridge the gap between opening the email and the call to action.
If you nail these three things, then you'll have an effective email campaign.
Successful real estate newsletters like The Blueprint know how to keep readers engaged. They’ll give you more ideas and inspiration.
Segmenting Your Audience for Targeted Messaging
Segmentation just means sending different emails to various groups on your list, depending on their needs and interests.
For example, you’ll almost certainly segment buyers and sellers.
Demographics also make a difference. A young buyer with a family will want to know about local schools and parks. An aging couple whose adult children have moved out will be interested in downsizing.
You’ll have an easier life and better results if you choose an email service provider that can handle segmentation.
Measuring Email Marketing Success
Finally, it's critical that you have some sort of analytics to determine if your email campaigns are successful.
More specifically, analytics will show you which parts of your campaign are working. Then, it’s a matter of repeating what works, and your results will improve over time.
Email marketing is a constantly changing activity based on feedback. Analytics are critical for understanding this data and acting upon it.
Video Marketing for Real Estate
The best thing about video marketing in real estate is that most real estate professionals aren't using it.
The Power of Video in Real Estate Marketing
As we mentioned above, when you're selling a home, you're selling a lifestyle. It's important to paint vivid pictures of what the buyer will experience and feel after they own the home.
Video is the most powerful way to do this – but not if you're simply walking around a house with your cell phone camera.
Video Content Creation in Real Estate
Make a video that tells a story about the home.
If you're filming a walkthrough, talk about how good it feels to sit on the couch or the gorgeous view you can see outside the window.
Tell the viewer about the sound of birds that you hear in the big oak tree in the front yard and how an owner can walk to a popular coffee shop that's five minutes away.
You're selling a high ticket item near the half-million dollar range, or even more. Raise the bar with your video.
Live Streaming Open Houses
You don't need fancy equipment to livestream an event anymore.
You can do it on YouTube or Facebook with little more than a laptop, a phone, or any combination of a tripod and camera.
Live streaming provides social proof because viewers see that there's interest in the home that you're showing.
And in an interesting psychological twist, live streaming your open house makes you look more important. It builds your status and authority as a real estate agent.
Imagine reaching out to all your contacts on the day of an open house and saying, “If you can't come in person, we're live-streaming the event.”
Even if they have zero interest, you’ve shown them how much you’re willing and able to do for your clients.
And if a potential buyer or seller sees clips from the live stream on your blog or social media several weeks later, they’re going to be impressed. This makes live streaming a powerful branding tool.
Creating Informative Real Estate Videos
Another use of videos is to build your authority as an expert while offering valuable help to potential clients.
Here are a few ideas:
If you have skills in home repair and improvement, give tips and how-tos in your videos.
Post videos about tax implications and other financial information about buying or selling a home.
Interview a local attorney, city planner, plumber, or architect to share valuable expert information.
Walk or drive around a neighborhood while talking about its history.
Make a video featuring a popular local business or a local festival.
Show off your own home, yard, or garden, especially if you live in the same neighborhood where you do most of your business.
All of these videos will build authority and possibly provide entertainment for potential clients.
Utilizing Testimonials and Reviews
Nothing can beat the power of social proof.
When a potential client sees testimonials and reviews from people just like them, they’re immediately more inclined to trust you.
Social proof spares your followers the huge cognitive load that goes with finding the right agent. It makes this tough choice a no-brainer.
Gathering and Displaying Client Testimonials
Gathering testimonials is often just a matter of asking.
When the transaction is over, your clients are likely to feel a tremendous amount of relief and elation. Either they're in their brand new home, or they're awaiting the deposit of a large sum into their bank accounts.
This is the best time to ask for a testimonial.
To get better testimonials, make it easy for your clients. Come up with two or three simple questions, such as:
Tell me about your experience.
What problems did you run into?
How did we resolve these?
What would you tell someone else who was thinking about working with me?
Your clients can either answer these questions in a survey or ideally on a Zoom call that you're recording. Later, you simply edit what they say into a testimonial.
It's becoming popular to create a “Wall of Love” where you post all of your testimonials in one place. This is useful, but don't limit yourself to it. Post your testimonials all over your website, your blog, and all your marketing material. Share clips of your testimonials on social media.
Managing Online Reviews
You don't have as much control over online reviews as you do over testimonials, but you can still put the odds in your favor.
After closing, send your clients a quick message asking them to write a review for you. Provide a link, if available.
It's important to monitor these online reviews regularly. If you ever get a negative review, reach out and see if there's a way you can make it right.
If you get an especially positive review, be sure to quote it in other places on social media and elsewhere. Also, contact these clients from time to time and ask for referrals.
Interactive Content for Real Estate
Few people want to passively watch a video or read a blog all the time.
Anytime readers interact with you and your content, it makes you more memorable. So, give them opportunities to interact as part of your content creation strategy.
Quizzes, Polls, and Interactive Maps
Interactive content gives you two advantages.
First, it engages your audience. People like to test their knowledge and talk about themselves. Maps are a fun way to look at properties and see how they fit into the surrounding neighborhood and streets.
Second, quizzes and polls give you valuable information about your market. Pay attention to the answers you get from your interactive real estate content and think about how you can apply this intel.
So how can you set all this up?
Google has a tutorial for embedding their interactive maps on a web page. If you add this feature to your blog, you will stand out in yet one more way. (Not to mention, embedding a Google feature may help with SEO.)
With polls and quizzes, you have many options. The easiest choice is to use an email platform such as beehiiv that has these interactive features built in.
The Role of Webinars and Virtual Events
One last way to build authority is to hold virtual events.
This is a powerful form of real estate content creation because you don't really have to create as much content. Invite people to an event where you talk about how to get pre-approved or another specific topic of interest.
Record the event and post it on YouTube and other platforms.
Now, you've got more real estate content to share, and you've also made a personal connection with several potential clients.
Content Distribution and Promotion
No matter how good you get at creating and posting content, you can always extend your reach by making it a group effort.
Here are some ways to get other people to spread your content where it might be seen by potential clients.
Syndicating Content Across Platforms
Syndicating means having your content reposted on other platforms. Syndicated content will usually say something like “This article originally appeared on…” with a link back to the original source.
Website owners, bloggers, and creators are always looking for extra content. Search for terms such as “republished with permission,” “originally published in…” and “originally appeared on…”
Sites with a lot of these are using syndicated content regularly. Reach out to the editor or webmaster. Many of these sites will include a page with instructions on how to syndicate with them.
Look for places that you can syndicate that are likely to be viewed by potential clients. Local media outlets, locally-based newsletters, historical societies, chambers of commerce, and local businesses are good places to start.
Think a little broader, too. Look for syndication opportunities on sites related to real estate investing, running an Airbnb, home repair, or historical homes.
Collaborations and Guest Posting
Collaborating on real estate content creation should be a win-win.
You could share the research and the credit with a fellow real estate agent from the same brokerage or write about the local history in partnership with the Historical Society or Chamber of Commerce.
Likewise, you could write about local restaurants and other businesses and ask them to provide photos and videos. You could also interview people who are important or visible in the community.
Guest posting is simply creating content for another site. This is different from syndication. Instead of republishing the same content, you're creating something brand new, specifically for another platform.
It’s generally worthwhile to guest post on platforms that are highly visible or platforms you want to be associated with because of their prestige.
Measuring the Impact of Your Content
As with all marketing, it's important to see what kind of impact your content is having.
If your videos are getting more views and interaction than your written content, then create more videos.
Analytics and Performance Metrics
The first step is to decide which performance metrics you want to measure.
For example, getting a lot of likes for your Instagram posts might make you feel good, but be sure that these fans are members of your community. If they’re out of state, it won’t help you very much, unless they’re planning to move to the area and purchase a home.
Here are a few examples of metrics worth looking at:
Repeated interaction with a specific content piece
Click-throughs that lead to an inquiry or an appointment
Sign-ups for your newsletter
Engagement by local homeowners
Comments and questions from investors and property owners in your area
Engagement by people in related industries, such as mortgage professionals, contractors, and appraisers
Adjusting Your Strategy Based on Data Insights
You might enjoy creating a certain type of content and feel proud when you see it posted online. This is a dangerous trap.
Content creation for real estate takes up a lot of time and effort. Make sure that you're only dedicating resources to content that's going to make a difference.
The data doesn't lie. What types of content are ultimately capturing leads and attracting new deals? Focus on creating more of that and phase out everything else.
Future Trends in Real Estate Content Creation
Real estate content creation is going through the same tectonic change as the industry as a whole.
2023 was the year that artificial intelligence became a dominant force in content creation for real estate, as well as all other industries – and that's just the beginning.
As we write this, a lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors potentially threatens the traditional compensation structure for real estate professionals.
These developments are coming on the heels of high-interest rates and an ongoing shortage of inventory in most markets.
Together, all of these factors have created a perfect storm – an extremely competitive environment where real estate content creation is a critical part of your continuing success.
As we said at the start, if you want to be a top performer, you need to master the art of content creation for real estate.
We challenge you to become a local celebrity and a real estate content superstar.
2024: The Year of the Real Estate Content Creator?
Even if you build a well-oiled content creation machine, you’re not home free.
All of your efforts could grind to a screeching halt if your top social media platform changes their algorithm or is bought out by an eccentric billionaire.
If 2023 was the year of AI, 2024 is going to be the year of the Content Creator. And by that, we mean creators who keep control over their content and their audience.
This is why it’s critical to have a reliable audience and a way to capture leads.
If you’re creating content for real estate clients and prospects in a newsletter, your subscribers can’t be arbitrarily taken away.
It’s well worth making a newsletter the foundation of your content, and this is where beehiiv can help you shine. We handle all the technological heavy lifting so that you can focus on content creation for real estate marketing.
Our platform gives you an SEO-optimized website where each email you send is automatically published as a blog post. Users who find your articles can then go to a landing page and become subscribers.
If you choose a name that includes your location and make location the basis of your content, this alone will give you a powerful boost in local SEO.
The beehiiv platform includes completely customizable no-code templates and an intuitive dashboard for analytics. We even offer AI to create content for you.
Essentially, you’re getting some of the most high-tech tools available in a user-friendly package.
Make this your best year ever, starting with a beehiiv newsletter.
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