The data is clear: Developers who are using content marketing (videos, blogs, social media etc.) in their marketing mix are seeing an increase in sales, a lift in brand reputation, and sometimes even selling-out projects in record time.
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What Is Content Marketing?
We already know why content marketing is important for property and real estate, but what exactly is content marketing?
Simply put, it’s when property developers and marketers create content that speaks directly to their target market. This content builds loyalty and trust between the business and potential clients – resulting in more leads and potential sales for the business. It’s about giving value in order to receive value.
If you are ready to leverage these powerful tools for yourself, read on.
How to Use Content Marketing for Real Estate
When used in conjunction with a comprehensive marketing strategy – utilising both traditional and digital approaches – content marketing can be a highly effective lead generation tool for property developers.
The "content" in content marketing can take many forms. Blog articles, Facebook posts, and videos on Instagram just to name a few. For this reason, there can be a lot for developers to think about when it comes to strategy, creation and promotion. Here is a breakdown of exactly what you need to know in order to make more and spend less on your marketing.
How To Maximise Your Content Marketing Efforts
Since content marketing relies so heavily on building relationships between property developers and their potential purchasers, there are two things developers should question: Whether the marketing is for the whole business or the specific project. Both of these goals will have their own distinct strategies, but the common thread is that content marketing is key in both situations.
Content marketing works on a simple premise: That by providing value to your audience you will build a long-lasting relationship with them that will develop sales down the track. Some examples of helpful and insightful articles are:
These offer enough value to the reader to make them feel at ease with your brand and keep you front of mind when it comes to purchase in the future.
Also consider the ways you will share your content. Are you using blogs? Facebook? Instagram? Email marketing? Each of these channels will require different images or videos, and use different methods of storytelling.
Once the goals for the content marketing efforts have been set and a comprehensive strategy is in place, the next thing property developers need to focus on is the actual content creation. Although this can be overwhelming, there are a few time-saving strategies to employ.
Get Multiple Uses Out of All Your Content
Property developers normally have quite a bit of marketing material already produced for either their own brand or individual projects. This marketing material can be re-used and leveraged to create new content pieces that work toward the content marketing goals and messaging, without having to worry about spending excess time creating content from scratch.
For example, if a developer is marketing a new project, the project will already have images, video and marketing material associated with it. These pieces of marketing can be re-packaged into an insightful article on the project with accompanying images in order to both promote the project and educate the target market on the behind-the-scenes aspect of the development.
In CGI’s, Vignettes is becoming popular, they are cheaper to produce and can offer big impact. This is an example from one of our projects.[/caption]
Make Sure You’re Using Great Visual Content
Each piece of content should be centred around a striking visual aspect – either an image, video, infographic or a combination of all. This is what will ensure that the content stands out and is noticed and consumed by your target audience.
Pro Tip: Speak to your photographers, your 3D studios, your videographers and marketers before they create images and marketing materials. If you let them know how and where you’ll use their work, they might be able to specially customise photos or videos for your different purposes. (At Blank Canvas, we specialise in maximising your return just like this.)
By re-purposing and leveraging existing content you can maximise the quality of the images, blog and video content produced while still maintaining consistency in content creation and promotion – which is one of the key drivers of success in content marketing.
An example of repurposing, is vignettes as shown above.
Where You Can Market Your Content
Once the content has been created, the next challenge property developers need to overcome is where to promote and market the content in order to yield the best results with the target market.
Since content marketing is centred on building relationships, the best results are going to come when the content is promoted on digital channels such as a company or project specific blog, email marketing, social media and other relevant industry blogs/news outlets.
Each of these channels has a unique way for developers to interact with their audience. Blog content is accessed directly through the website, and is a good way to direct potential customers to enquire directly through the website. Whereas email marketing as a content channel works well to build relationships and to nurture leads through the sales funnel. A well-constructed email marketing system can turn cold leads into warm, ready to buy customers in a matter of a few emails.
With 74% of people turning to social networks for guidance on purchase decisions, promoting content on these social channels can lead to direct enquiries and leads for a project. If the content on social media is engaging, informative and useful it will help build trust between the brand and create a network of engaged people ready to make a purchase.
It is key to remember that these platforms are centred on relationship building, trust and transparency, which means that content that is designed to be insightful and add value is going to be more well-received and garner better results. These digital platforms also allow businesses to connect with a highly targeted and engaged audience, which is going to generate more direct interest and potential leads.
Using Your Network
These digital channels aren’t the only tool that property developers and marketers can use when it comes to promoting content. In the property industry, professionals are built around networking – meaning that businesses have a lot of industry contacts that can be used to help further their content marketing efforts.
When your content has been created and promoted on digital channels, it is a good idea to reach out to people in your network to encourage them to share and engage with your content to push it in front of their audience. This works to increase the viewership of the content, while also introducing your brand and/or project to a new set of potential customers that are already engaged with similar brands in the industry.
Property developers and marketers have a lot of people they can reach out to, but the most valuable are going to be:
Marketing Agencies
Sales Agents
Project Architects
The Property Development Team
Influencer Marketers
Marketing agencies and sales agents are going to have similar target markets to a property developer, which means getting content in front of this audience is going to be particularly useful for generating leads and sales. By creating content that is valuable and highly interesting to this audience (for example, a how-to guide for buying property off the plan), developers can work with these external businesses to share their content and direct leads back to the developer.
Given that 40% of people say they’ve purchased an item online after seeing it used by an influencer, there is no question why influencer marketers need to be a key part of any property developers content marketing strategy. On average, when used correctly, influencer marketing can generate businesses $6.50 for every $1 invested in the strategy. The key is to find influencers that are directly relevant to your target market and help them promote your project in a subtle way that piques the interest of potential purchasers.
For example, luxury development Trinity Point at Lake Macquarie have been using international supermodel Jennifer Hawkins as their brand ambassador and influencer marketer – and have been seeing great results on social media and other digital platforms. This use of a high-level influencer has helped them develop their content strategy and promote the project to a brand new audience.
An example image that got over 1000 likes on social media.[/caption]
Why Content Marketing Works
Content marketing is a great way to promote your brand or project to potential purchasers in a way that builds trust and transparency – two things that help drive people to purchase from a particular brand over another. A successful content strategy can set your project or company apart from the competition, and lead to a sold-out project.
When done with consistency (through using time-saving strategies such as re-purposing existing content) and when the content is promoted effectively, content marketing can have a profound impact on how well a project is received by the community as well as building up a pipeline of potential customers for a developer's upcoming projects.
An example of our website analytics - the spikes and high points show the increase in traffic when we released content.[/caption]
A key part of all content marketing strategies is to ensure that you have the resources available to produce engaging and eye-catching content – both visually and written. Having a team of professionals to help create all aspects of the content ensures that each piece of content can be produced efficiently and consistently.
When marketing off-the plan property, CGI’s play a big part in supplying you with sufficient content. Don’t overlook the power of having good quality and a healthy backlog of content to supply to your audience.
Blank Canvas works directly with property developers and marketers to provide them with the most effective project images and visuals that will work in line with their content strategies – getting them the results they need.
Contact us to learn more about how we can create CGI content that fits your goals.
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