Where I Wanted To Take Real Estate Marketing
The Goals…
I had a million and one ideas of what I wanted to do with our team’s marketing. It almost had a freezing feeling because the ideas would come so fast and I wouldn’t know what to start on next.
Eventually the team essentially dissolved due to some moving and changes in career paths. But I had a lot that I wanted to do. Right now I’m actually working on a side project where I will be doing my best to help other Realtors with their marketing and how to grow their business.
Video. Video. Video!
While we did listing videos, highlights of various elements of our community… I felt like we could have done a lot more. I even bought domains that I intended to make use of (Like WalnutCreek.show or .tv) and forward them to our YouTube channel. I wanted to do a lot more to highlight the community in a way that yes we are realtors, but we want to show off others. No one wants to hear about a realtor talking about themselves.
Disclaimer: The idea of being on video scared the living daylights out of me!
Here are some video ideas I had, and if you are a Realtor please make use of them!
Interview local business owners (coffee shops, bakeries, restaurants, contractors etc…)
Interview figures within the school district(s). Schools are well ranked in this area, and there was definitely a lot of opportunity.
Video of the local farmer’s market in a cadence of 1 per month or 1 per 2 months.
Video of various community events. We have multiple things going on downtown throughout the summers, and there is always something going on at local parks. All very family oriented and would make great material.
I’m an outdoors kind of guy, so highlighting the local hikes and trails was high on the list. We have Mount Diablo here and on a clear day that could be pretty epic!
Videos that highlight easy day trips for those who live here, like out to muir woods, Napa Valley, big sur and more. We are fairly centrally located to access a lot of areas nearby.
A big production on tips to make a Tahoe weekend getaway go smoothly. Tahoe is basically THE weekend getaway here in the bay area. I personally make the trek to the area often and something like that would be fun to make.
Where to find the best (blank). You know, the main stuff like tacos, coffee, steaks, yoga studio, local beer, winery, golf courses…
In short, absolutely anything in your community can be great content for your real estate business. And all of this is in addition to doing some of the traditional videos (how to get a loan, what are closing costs, etc…). And this is the stuff people are most interested in. If people are already going to Google to find out where the best local tacos are, don’t you want them finding your video?
My favorite element to this kind of content marketing is that people are discovering you for a reason outside of real estate. You aren’t selling yourself. This makes the path to building trust much easier. If we are all exposed to thousands of marketing messages per day, wouldn’t you want to be one who stands out to that prospect?
A lot of this was being worked on up until our team dissolved. Feels like unfinished business! Which is why I want to help other Realtors with this stuff. That’s the goal for me, helping others do great things.
Community Centric Branding
I still have ideas about doing this anyway as I truly love the community where I live. In fact if I get to it I will be documenting everything I can to make it a case study other Realtors could follow. (ooh, non-descript tease…)
The best Realtors out there are the true experts of their area, and that’s how they market themselves. A realtor could create a web presence that is practically completely free of any real estate branding. And you see this in some areas already. But there are so many communities that are just ripe for the taking!
Say your town is called “Lightsville,” (I don’t know, literally first thing that popped in my head). And you create a web presence (website and social media) called “Lightsville Living.” That is a brand. That is something you can create and build off of. Its an entity completely dedicated to living in that town, and the lifestyle with it. You are creating content of what the best restaurants are, where are the best trails, featuring small business owners and more.
As Google sees you being the expert, and consistently creating great content they are going to keep sending searchers your way. And you can easily have a call to action on your page to get email signups, or for visitors to ask you questions and so on.
One thing that I think could be doable, is letting this entity be a source of monetization. Things like shopify and drop ship partners make it real easy to incorporate a store on your website, and ship products for you. Maybe visitors to “Lightsville Living,” would buy branded tee shirts, or mugs or anything else. You would have to look deeper into it, but this kind of thing can be set up. And it’s been done before. Not only is it an avenue of monetization, but you could always give merch packs to your clients at closing. After all they chose to work with you to buy a home in the area since you are the expert. What a way to make a more memorable experience! (And no, not a single soul will wear a screen printed shirt with your business name…community related ONLY).
These are two elements that I wish I dug deeper on while I did real estate. Now my goal is to share with others and see if they work for them.