What makes you pull your hair out about estate agency?
Is it your rivals and their overvaluations?
Or the way Rightmove treat you?
Or that many conveyancing solicitors have god complexes that would make even Bono blush?
What drives me to despair is bad advice.
I’ve seen at least three content marketing ‘experts’ say agents should only create content around property i.e. home tips, garden hacks ya da ya da.
Don’t get me wrong these are essential parts of any good agent’s content plan BUT they are not the be-all and end-all especially if you are thinking smarter and longer-term.
To prove my point we did a snap review of 25 of our members and their best performing content over the past 12 months. (Bear in mind we also do all the bread and butter advice stuff).
Here’s the top five:
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The recent printing for schools appeal. Ridiculous engagement.
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Shop local in lockdown as part of our Community Cheerleader campaign.
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Feelgood Friday (Weekly hits of hope and positivity during lockdown).
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How to keep your pets calm during firework season (in the seven years I’ve been doing estate agent content this annual article is usually the most shared but the lockdown has bumped it down).
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Ways to banish the pack to school anxieties of children returning to school last September.
Nothing to do with property. Everything to do with being helpful and interesting and THAT’S what makes them popular and highly shared. Remember this: ‘when people care, they will share.’
Look at it this way – let’s say you have a Facebook page with 500 members in it. What percentage of those are thinking about moving at any one time? In my experience, it’ll be less than 5-10 per cent give or take a little.
So if all you are doing is posting stuff about property then you are not relevant to the larger majority who, if you can keep them engaged with content that interests them, will possibly make that step towards you eventually.
At the very least if you keep being helpful, interesting, cheerleading for their community you’ll be in the front of their mind when the time is right to relocate or recommend.
My experienced-based advice is to mix it up if you want to stay relevant.
We need to remember we are in the attention business as much as we are in the agency business.
Rant over. Mic dropped. Off to comb dishevelled barnet.