Posts Tagged "content marketing strategy"

This Is the First Thing You Should Do in Real Estate Marketing

by Elizabeth Hines | Oct 17, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Real Estate Marketing | 0 comments

Without a documented strategy, your content marketing is doomed to fail.

Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to elevate your property’s reputation in the market, reach prospective buyers or tenants, and increase occupancy. Yet while many real estate marketers are using content marketing, not all feel their efforts are successful. Why do so many organizations feel they are failing? Simply put, they do not have a documented strategy in place.

You would never operate your business without 1) creating a strategy, 2) documenting it, and 3) following the strategy. Nor should you launch a marketing program without having a clear idea of what you want to accomplish and how you plan to do that.

A documented strategy = a successful strategy

A content marketing strategy outlines the methods by which you will target, reach, and engage your audience. Research and execution of these tasks can be quite complex. Writing out a plan and assigning appropriate resources can offer clarity and guidance to your organization throughout the course of your marketing efforts.

Also, remember that content marketing is more of a marathon than a sprint, and achieving results often takes months, even years. Documenting your strategy allows your team to keep focused on your goals and your plan for achieving them in the interim.

Here’s why you should take the time to draw up a plan and then write it down.

1) A documented content marketing strategy is more successful than an undocumented strategy or no strategy at all.

Research and analysis conducted by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) reveals that only 27% of B2C marketers surveyed have a documented content marketing strategy. 50% of those surveyed said they had a strategy, it just isn’t written down. According to the CMI, “That’s a huge problem. If it’s not written down, then it probably doesn’t really exist.”

Because effective content marketing requires a team effort with a cohesive vision, having an undocumented strategy means you might as well not have a strategy at all. For everyone to be on the same page, it’s important to quantify goals, set a detailed plan, and document results.

2) A documented content marketing strategy helps measure ROI.

Many real estate companies struggle with content marketing or have trouble garnering support for the program because return on investment is notoriously difficult to measure. In fact, more than half of marketers say one of their top challenges is measuring content effectiveness (57%) and/or measuring the ROI of their content marketing program (52%).

Having a documented strategy in place gives your organization measurable goals against which to compare your results. Your strategy should:

Document what you hope to achieve through content marketing — more leads, higher conversion rates, more social media followers, etc.
Outline a specific methodology for executing those goals
Assign human resources to each of the tasks
Designate intervals at which to check in and evaluate/adjust your efforts
Offer a timeframe for completion

Documenting your strategy in such a way clarifies where you are investing time and resources so that calculating ROI is less of an abstract process.

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