As an agent, you want your clients to trust you and to think you are the expert that can best help them list or buy a home. Branding, marketing material, testimonials — these are things you use religiously to try to convey yourself as that expert.
These things are good. But what if there were an easier way — a way to position yourself as an expert without causing skepticism or giving off a try-hard sales-y vibe? Luckily for you, there is. It’s through content marketing.
Content is the ultimate sales tool. It gives you a chance to address directly concerns and questions of your target market. You can create this material to help your clients and prospects. And as a by-product, you will be educating potential buyers and sellers — pre-disposing them to view you as an authority on the topic.
What this gives you is leverage
Here’s just how important it is. Between 2009 and 2013, real estate-related searches grew by 253 percent. According to Sprout Content, 70 percent of consumers prefer getting to know a company via articles, like blogs, rather than ads.
The above statistics tell me that content marketing can be extremely useful. Most simply don’t know how to do it. As an agent who is likely already using paid promotional methods, wouldn’t you like to increase your conversion rates?
Leveraging existing marketing
Creating content is not intrinsically valuable. However, in combination with your other strategies for growing your real estate business — it can help compound your results exponentially. This can come not only through visitors on your site but also as you contribute outside of your blog.
I enjoy writing. It’s my preferred method for producing content. I also happen to do it pretty well. Well enough that I’ve been published on publications with several hundred thousand or millions of readers. When I tell people this, what do you think happens?
They automatically assume I’m an authority on the things I’m writing about.
This is something I refer to as transferred credibility. By being seen in places or with people who are experts — that credibility gets rubbed off on you. If you take this concept and execute on it, you can increase your results everywhere else.
There is a reason companies and blogs use “as seen on” borders. It’s an instant boost of credibility.
That credibility decreases buyer hesitation. In a world where people are bombarded by ads on a daily basis, our bullshit meters are constantly on the fritz. You need to find a way to decrease buyer skepticism and put more trust in your name as a real estate service provider.
I’m going to lay this out in a very simple formula.
If you’re regularly featured alongside experts, you’ll become an expert yourself in the public eye. This can be accomplished without doing any of the other stuff. However, the other stuff will give you the leverage you need to get connecting and collaborating with those experts.
You don’t have to be crazy with it. There is a difference between being recognized as a local authority and being famous nationwide.
All it took for me to get published was being well-versed on the subject and willing to ask. I put in the work. Did the outreach and made the connections. The result is now I have much more leverage to open up bigger opportunities. It’s not complicated.
“Showing up is 80 percent of life.” – Woody Allen
You can’t afford not to produce content.
Better content equals more leverage. More leverage opens more doors. More doors equal greater exposure. Greater exposure and association with other experts equal becoming an authority yourself.
If you put in the work to educate your market and show consumers why they should be working with you in the first place — you’ll undoubtedly create opportunities you would not have otherwise.
What kind of an impact do you think it would have if homeowners went to your website or searched Google and saw you have resources for the exact questions they were asking?
- They automatically put more trust in you if the content is useful.
- They will feel obligated to return the favor in some way.
We’ll cover the “art of persuasion” type stuff in another article, though. Just think about this:
“Whether you like it or not, every person is now a media company.” – Gary Vaynerchuck
You’re a media company — then an agent.
See part 2 to learn how to make your start in guest contributing, where I will cover the exact strategies I used to begin my career in writing for third-party publications.
Connor Ondriska is the chief marketing officer of AgentFire. Connect with Connor on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Email Connor Ondriska.