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by Christina Ethridge 16 Comments

8 Easy Steps To Build Your Own Real Estate Content Calendar

You hear it everywhere . . .

“Make yourself a content calendar”

“Use a content calendar”

“A content calendar is your key to social media success”

But your mind keeps asking the question, What is a content calendar?

Well, it’s original name is an Editorial Calendar and it is used to control publication of content across different media. Traditional print publishers have used editorial calendars in some form for centuries.

Now days we call it a Content Calendar, yet it’s purpose is still essentially the same. It’s used to help organize content and to ensure content is published at scheduled intervals.

In real estate, a Content Calendar is essential to a thriving real estate online marketing plan. It’s essential to keep real estate agents from going insane. The amount of content needed, the places you need to publish, when you need to publish, how you need to vary it for the different audiences, all of these can be extremely overwhelming.  It’s also essential to help prevent “blogger’s block” or to simply prevent the “not knowing what the heck to say or do next” problem from cropping up.

There are a million and one places you can get a free template of a content calendar. The problem with them is twofold…

  • They aren’t specific to the real estate industry, so the free templates don’t really provide content idea help.

    and

  • Once you’ve used up the template, then what? Did you learn how to create your own content calendar for your own specific needs?

That’s where I come in.

I’m here to teach you how to create your own content calendar, how to take the free template I’m providing and how to expand on that template to work for your own real estate business.

Step One To Building a Real Estate Content Calendar

What media will you use?

First, pick your poison. In other words, what program are you going to use to build your calendar? Or, are you even going to use a software program. Some of you may prefer a tablet and paper, or an actual paper calendar.

Personally, I prefer a spreadsheet. They are easy to quickly shape into the grid that works for you. Spreadsheets also allow for multiple columns for multiple postings in a single day.

Pick your favorite and go for it. I happen to use Google Drive (Sheets). It’s free, completely compatible across multiple platforms and if needed, any document created can be saved in a number of available formats.

Step Two to Building a Real Estate Content Calendar

Where do you want to publish your content?

Start on paper.

Seriously.

Do you have a rough idea of what you’d like to include? For example, do you have a blog? How many? Do you have a Facebook business page? Do you have a Facebook personal profile? Do you have a Twitter profile? Do you have an Instagram account? Do you have a Pinterest account? What about LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Active Rain, or any of these?

(Here’s a quick tip, if you have all of these things, you have too many things. Start simple and singularly focused. You see results, faster).

For me, I picked where I was already spending my personal time and it’s where many of my prospective clients are spending their time. I have our main blog site and then I have our Facebook Business page and my own Facebook personal profile that I share publicly.

Additionally, I’ve got a weekly tip guide sent via email as well as guest posting opportunities. These are the primary “spokes” and “hub” for my business.

Real Estate Content Calendar Example

Step Three to Building a Real Estate Content Calendar

How often do you want to publish?

What are your content goals? How often do you want something published on each of your sites or profiles? Do you know what the ideal saturation rates are? Do you know how often you should or should not publish? Make sure you don’t assume and make sure you don’t project your own personal ideas about how often. Do some research.

To start with, focus on what is a realistic goal for you, personally. Setting a goal to publish a well written blog post on a daily basis will be leaving you writing blog posts all the time and doing nothing else. Setting a goal to publish a well written blog post two to three times each month is much more realistic.

For me, a realistic blog publishing schedule was two to three times each month on the blog. I knew that I could realistically research, write, edit, create photos & quotes, publish quality content within those parameters. I also did my research. I knew how long my blog posts needed to be so that google would like them and readers would eat them up.

For my social media sites, I knew that I needed to publish a whole lot more than I thought. I did quite a bit of research. I learned how often I should post, when I should post, what type of content I should post and how to start conversations with my posts.

Step Four to Building a Real Estate Content Calendar

Narrow your focus.

Now that you’ve made a list of all of the places you currently have profiles and all of the blog sites you own, narrow your focus. Pick a central hub (your blog site) and pick 1 or 2 “spokes” that will filter into that hub. In other words, don’t try to publish everywhere.

What sites do you enjoy using? Do you like sharing pictures on Instagram? Do you like creating boards and showing off photos on Pinterest? Do you like engaging with your friends on Facebook or Twitter? Pick one or two of these sites as your main focus. As your main spokes that will point back to your main blog site.

(Tip: whether or not you love Facebook, you definitely need to be there. It is, single-handedly, the best source for driving targeted traffic into your database. It should be your primary spoke, regardless of whatever else is exciting and popular).

As you already know, my main focus is my blog site. I make sure the site receives the first and most important attention. I do a ton of research. I do even more implementation and testing. I make sure I write what prospects are searching for. I make sure I can answer their questions and meet their needs.

My “spokes” for my “hub” are my Facebook business page, my Facebook personal profile, my guest blogging and my weekly newsletter.

I knew I could also create Pinterest boards (I’m active over there personally), Instagram threads, Google+ conversations, etc. The thing is, you can’t do it all at once. You’ve got to get yourself started and implementing, creating a habit. As I build up my content library, I’ll be implementing several more “spokes”.

Step Five to Building a Real Estate Content Calendar

What do you want to publish?

Here’s where it gets hard for most people. What kind of content do you want to publish? On your blog you’ll want original content. High quality content. It REALLY needs to be written by you. This is your opportunity to create and build know, like and trust relationships and no ghost writer out there can do that for you. From there, you should be sharing that content across your 1-2 “spokes”, to draw people in to your original source.

As a real estate agent you should be focusing on content that provides value. Current and prospective homeowners are looking for a whole lot of things, not just houses for sale. What kinds of things are your prospects looking for? What information? Do they need to learn something? Do they need to share something? What questions do they have? Are they struggling with anything?

For my business, I focus on answering questions. When I see a question pop up, whether asked of me directly or seen on a board, in a group, in a text, I always look at it a couple of ways: Is it a question my ideal client is asking and if it is, does it pertain to a service or product I provide and if it does, have I already answered the question before, and if I haven’t, do I have a knowledgable, practical answer to the question?

As far as my “spokes” are concerned, my goal is to always create engagement while providing highly valuable information, for free. This can be anywhere from curating content, to posting quotes, to asking questions, to providing short tips & tricks, to providing Facebook marketing ideas, to sharing my blog posts, etc. The sky is the limit.

Step Six to Building a Real Estate Content Calendar

Layout an ideal week on your content calendar

Now we get into the dirty details. You need to layout a weekly master content calendar. One that tells you where, when, and what.

Here’s my current content calendar:

Weekly Master Content Calendar

Creating the master should take the most time. You need to put some thought into it. Mix it up. Make sure you have photos, links, text, etc. in your posts, depending upon what site you are publishing to. Allow your real estate social media content calendar to grow with you.

For example, mine started out like this:

Primitive Content Calendar

I’ve since added in more detail. More “spokes”.  I expect to be adding in a few other places to publish in the future.

Step Seven to Building a Real Estate Content Calendar

Don’t let your content calendar define you

Your social media content calendar is a guideline that is meant to be fluid. It’s not a cement statue. Let’s say you’ve scheduled all of your content for the next three days, according to your content calendar. What happens when something unexpected happens? Say, interest rates take a huge plunge, or something phenomenal is going viral in your community and you want to share it?

Don’t let your content calendar stop you from sharing MORE than what you’ve scheduled. Seriously. Honestly, you can’t share too much. Not really. Don’t listen to people who say that. I promise, they aren’t sharing enough, guaranteed. Publish your last-minute sharing idea whenever you want. Just do it!

Step Eight to Building a Real Estate Content Calendar

Implement!

Start using it!  Start filling it in.  Set goals for yourself to have X number of days of content filled in.  Then get the content scheduled into your sites.

My questions for you are:

Do you currently use a content calendar?  If you do, how is it working for you? If you don’t, why aren’t you using one?

Filed Under: Blogging, Facebook Tagged With: Done

by Christina Ethridge 8 Comments

Internet Marketing For Real Estate Agents

Special thanks to Tara Jacobsen for today’s post on Internet Marketing For Real Estate Agents!

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I would just like to start this post with a simple truth. There is no magic marketing that just works for real estate agents!

There are a lot of people and companies out there with a vested interest in telling you that there are special “real estate websites” or “real estate databases” instead of just telling good solid internet marketing practices that Realtors can use brand and market yourself, get leads, nurture them and then onto the closing table!

So here is my take on the fallacies about agent marketing and what you should be doing instead.

Real Estate Agent Websites

This is a biggie! Every web developer on the planet has the brilliant idea that they can help real estate agents build websites and make a gagillion dollars. They go out and research what all the other Realtor websites look like and make theirs look the same. This is why all real estate websites look alike!

Second off, most agents I talk to know that the leverage is in the listings. If you have a listing, statistics show that you will get two buyers from that listing through sign calls, internet leads and other sources. That said, almost every real estate website on the planet starts front and center with a HUGE IDX search box, prospecting for buyers…ack.

I have done extensive research into this and overwhelmingly home buyers are searching on Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com, NOT on individual real estate websites. You are throwing your money away on having a fancy IDX solution and worse yet, driving away the sellers who see you look like all the other Realtors who are catering to buyers.

Social Media Marketing For Real Estate Agents

Social media is perfect for real estate agents, just not the way most Realtors do it. If you check out your “normal” Realtor post, you will probably see something like 1) check out this awesome listing I just got or 2) see another happy buyer talk about how awesome I am.

What about instead if you post things that people want to see like amazing houses, trends in decorating and before and after remodels.

The other BIG thing that you need to watch out for is what social media property is best for your target niche. If you are doing relocations, you will want to get over onto LinkedIn and start talking with big employers in your area. Working with Seniors, Facebook may seem like the place but there is no way you can interrupt pictures of their grandkids with your real estate marketing message. Want to do first time homebuyers, head on over to Pinterest and help them figure out what goes in their “dream home”.

In general you need to remember that social media is just like networking in person. You would never dream of shaking hands for the first time with a new friend and handing them a flyer of your latest listing immediately. Believe me, if you are talking about real estate and house related issues, people will show up to buy and sell houses!

Real Estate Postcards and Calendars

Oh, don’t get me started on this one. I am not sure who had the great idea that Realtors should send out recipe cards (I am hoping this is just a holdover from the 50’s that just will not die!) Realtors are not chefs and sending recipe cards will not help you sell houses.

Also, I cannot tell you how many listings I took with a calendar on the fridgie that had another agent’s face on it. Stop sending calendars and football schedules. Instead send out market stats that show your knowledge of the real estate market in your area. Send tips on which remodeling returns the most money and what buyers are looking for now-a-days. These are great when you are prospecting for sellers!

Email Marketing

Last but not least let’s talk about real estate databases. Top Producer was great in the days before the internet and heavy duty email marketing but is no longer great for online marketing. Wise Agent launched without the ability to even make a web form…sigh.

You should be using an internet marketing database to have free offers, capture leads and set up autoresponder campaigns (not stupid drip campaigns that don’t give any value…but that is a post for another day!)

There is no magical internet that people use to search for homes separate from the “real” internet. If you are not aggressively trying to use internet marketing tactics to get people into your database, you are getting further behind every day!

PS – Don’t forget to check out LeadsAndLeverage.com for help with Facebook and email marketing for real estate agents while you are here!

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Tara JacobsenAbout the author . . .  Tara is a sought after marketing presenter known for her “tell it like it is style” and giving 100 miles-an-hour presentations that keeps her audience engaged and taking notes the entire time. Tara is not just talking about ideas from years past, she is actively working with small business, Realtor and entrepreneur clients on a day-to-day basis, implementing the latest cutting edge concepts that work today. Find out more about her real estate marketing services today!

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Done, real estate marketing

by Christina Ethridge 2 Comments

Hey Real Estate Agents!! Email is Dead!! Move on!!

Email is DEAD!!  Or is it???

This is a BIGGIE.

I have heard it a LOT in the last 12-18 months, catapulting into nearly daily event in the last couple of months.

Email marketing is dying.

~ Big Team Leader Real Estate Agent

Drip emails are marked as spam

~ Another Real Estate Agent

 

Email is DEAD!  Don’t use email anymore.  It never worked anyway.

Hmmm.

Maybe email is dead for real estate agents because real estate agents suck at email.

Real Estate Agents suck at emailYup.  I said it.  Real Estate Agents SUCK at email.  Totally and completely.

They don’t know how to use it.  They never have.

Tell me this… if “email is dead” why on earth are businesses finding that email is THE backbone of their business?

Businesses that are starting to ride the wave of the new “social web”.  Businesses that rely nearly 100% on email to sell their products and services.

Take a look around you . . . Business in the online space today are focusing HARD on building an email list.  That is their #1 goal. And, they are succeeding!  They are building phenomenal businesses!  They are growing… using EMAIL LISTS!

In real estate we say “lead generate, lead generate, lead generate”.  We are supposed to be focusing on adding people to our database.  Guess what.  An email list and a database are similar.  Very similar.  In fact, I’d venture to say that as Real Estate Agents, instead of focusing on putting people in our “database”, we need to be focusing on adding people to our email list.

As Real Estate Agents we need to seriously step OUTSIDE of our industry.  The Real Estate Industry has notoriously been years and years behind the “real world” and decades behind the “new online world” (is it even possible to be decades behind something that is just coming up on 2 decades old?  Why yes!  Yes it is!!)

As Real Estate Agents we need to be modeling the new wave of businesses.  Studying them.  Focusing on their successes.  Modeling them.  Instead, we are still back at discussing how email is dead and looking around for the next “shiny object”.  Finding any “squirrel” opportunity to not learn, deeply learn, about what is actually working in online inbound marketing today.

When you study businesses today, specifically their inbound marketing methods, you quickly realize that email marketing is the key.  Without an email list, your business will die.  Heck, your business will never make it off the runway.  Some won’t even get their engines started.

Are you ready to build a phenomenal real estate business?  Are you ready to jump on the new wave of business bandwagon?

Then start focusing on building your email list.  It’s that simple.

My question now is….  What are you doing to build your email list?  Are you more focused on getting full names, phone numbers and mailing addresses that when you can’t get it all, you get nothing?

Change your focus.  Stop focusing on “selling” and start focusing on “giving”.  How many books have been written about this very concept?  Dozens?  Hundreds?  Thousands?  I know I’ve seen several running around the real estate industry:  “The Go Giver” and “The Thank You Economy” are two that immediately come to mind.

Make an offer to give someone something that they are willing to exchange their email address for it.  Make it something good.  Make it something juicy.  Make it something meaty.

Do it in person.  Do it via snail mail.  Do it on your website.  Do it on your Facebook.  Do it everywhere.  Do it all the time.

Don’t ever stop.  Don’t ever think you’ve got enough emails.  Don’t change your tactic for a shiny object.  Focus on getting email addresses.  Focus on making your email list massive.  Make it monstrous.

Whether your email list has 10 people on it or 10,000 people on it – treat it like gold.  Give it things.  Nurture it.  Take care of it.  Treat it like it’s the foundation to your business that it truly is.  Give it things all the time.  People are fickle.  They have “squirrel” issues too.  They’ll make sure they are getting all they can get, until they get the right thing, from the right person, at the right time.

Be that thing.  Be that person.  Be the right time.

Christina Ethridge is the founder of LeadsAndLeverage.com, helping real estate agents capture, convert and close Facebook leads.

Filed Under: Email Marketing Tagged With: Done, real estate lead generation

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