A good chunk of your marketing content should come from your own business. Your just listeds and just solds, your client testimonials, your tips for a successful real estate transaction, your personal experience and expertise.
However, it is also a great idea to curate content. This is especially useful for times when you are too busy to create original content, or when there is a lull in your business and you really just don’t have that much to share. Using curated content for direct mail, emails, social media and even videos can be very effective.
- KCM Blog. Keeping Current Matters is a fantastic source for content. Sign up for their monthly subscription and you can easily use their articles, social media images and infographics on your blog, on social media platforms or through email. They post several articles a week so there is always something to share.
- Your local newspaper’s real estate section. In Southern California, The OC Register and LA Times are great sources of real estate content.
- Inman News. This is a subscription news service with really in depth articles about real estate throughout the country.
- Your city’s website and/or social pages. Here you’ll find information about community events, upcoming construction projects, new laws, and other information relevant specifically to your local audience.
- Ballotpedia.org Look up real estate laws that will be on the ballot in an upcoming election
- Investopedia.com It seems so simple, but sometimes it’s best to go back to the basics and explain common real estate terms, processes and ideas. Investopedia does that for you.
- Your local real estate association. Being in California, I visit the California Association of Realtors website often and find great info. Their yearly forecast always makes for a great postcard https://www.car.org/en/marketdata/marketforecast
- The National Association of Realtors. I find their Data and Research section particularly helpful with writing postcard content.
- Housingwire offers lots of free articles relevant to markets all over the nation and covering a wide variety of real estate and real estate adjacent topics. Many of their articles are free to access and share.
- NextDoor. It’s the app we love to hate. But it is a great source of hyper local community happenings. Of course not all of it is worth sharing, but there are always some nuggets that pop up!
- Your partners. Reach out to your escrow company and title rep for info. Or simply follow them on social media and repost them. Other trusted vendors, like contractors, plumbers, electricians, interior designers, house cleaners, etc, are probably sharing great content that you can curate as well. Just be sure to site your source!
A few notes on curating content.
First, make sure you always cite your source. NEVER plagiarize or pass off content as your own unless you have permission from the content creator.
Second, make sure your source is legit. You should know who they are and what their role and experience is in the industry. Even if they are a trusted source, fact check them to make sure you aren’t spreading false information. And if anything they share seems off to you or isn’t in align with your personal beliefs, values or what you know to be true, don’t share it!
Thirdly, make sure you are only sharing content that is helpful to your audience and do not share anything that is demeaning or harmful to others.
Lastly, make sure to include your own thoughts or take on the content. Even if it is just a sentence or two, attaching your own voice will make your content unique and more valuable to the audience.
Need to turn online content into a mailable postcard? We can help! Email info@onestepservices.com or give us a call at 949-587-5301.