I made this list so you could get an idea of what is currently popular in Real Estate. I do not recommend that you directly copy these ideas. However, try spinning the articles into something uniquely yours. You can bet that your odds for creating viral content will dramatically increase.
SEO
Producing great content that drives social shares can be tough. You need to have the right ideas. Your message has to be one that people are looking for.
In short, people are looking for you to solve their problems. They want high-quality advice that they can take and implement. This means you need to understand how home buyers and sellers think, and what their problems currently are.
A great way to decide what to write about is by analyzing what your competitors are doing successfully. It will give you an insight into what problems your audience faces and the solutions they’ve been offered.
I made this list so you could get an idea of what is currently popular in Real Estate. I do not recommend that you directly copy these ideas. However, try spinning the articles into something uniquely yours. You can bet that your odds for creating viral content will dramatically increase.
Is 2016 going to be your break-out year for content? I hope so.
I also hope that these article examples give you the push you need to see what you can accomplish with the right strategy and hard work.
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Popular Articles For Home Buyers (3 Articles)
Popular Articles For Home Sellers (13 Articles)
How-To’s & Tips For Homowners (4 articles)
Popular Articles For Home Buyers
1. Mistakes People Make When Buying a Home
This is a list article that covers 5 different mistakes homebuyers make. It’s a decent length (at 1000 words) and packs a lot of information, as well as decisive advice. Being decisive and giving easy-to-follow advice is good practice.
Our Takeaway: Don’t sugarcoat anything. Tell your audience what they need to hear. Give direct and actionable advice.
2. Things To Consider When Buying a Home
What this article does right is: using custom visuals, breaking down text into well-organized sections and minimizing the length of paragraphs. Seriously – visual beauty is important. That means use a lot images and stay away from huge text blocks. Text blocks are overwhelming and increase bounce rate.
Our Takeaway: You can’t over-stress the importance of simplicity. Not only does your writing have to be simple; So does your structure. If your article doesn’t flow, your readers are going to go.
3. How to Buy a House From Start to Finish
This is both an infographic and text article.
The infographic packs a lot of information, statistics, and advice into a well-designed package. It focuses on quick, punchy information. When creating an infographic, you need to minimize your text as much as possible. You can’t have any bulky paragraph blocks.
The article is broken down into individual sections, starting with “Are you ready to own a home?” and ending with “Congrats! You own a home!” The author(s) is clearly delivering on their promise of describing the process from start to finish. In addition, they use a custom design within the article to create a nice visual.
Our Takeaway: It’s no secret that high quality infographics generate lots of traffic. Images perform well on any social media network. Using Pintrest you can especially leverage our tendency toward visual consumption. Couple this with a high quality, long-form article… And you just may generate 1000 shares.
Popular Articles For Home Sellers
4. The Cluttered Home That Wouldn’t Sell
This article stresses the importance of a well-kept home. Homebuyers logically know that all of the clutter isn’t going to come with the house. That doesn’t prevent them from feeling uneasy.
Our Takeaway: Selling a home can be taxing. Write to justify fears and propose solutions for worrisome homeowners. If you can make them feel good about their decision, you’ll be able to build trust and confidence with potential prospects.
5. How To Stage a Home For Sale
This is a Q&A style interview. The article begins right away with a great introduction for the interviewee. Tamara (the author) then proceeds to go through a list of high value questions targeted directly for her viewership. Not only does this provide value – both parties involved gain credibility.
Our Takeaway: Collaborating is a great way to expand your audience and establish your credibility. If you are seen with trust-worthy people – that trust will become yours. Do interviews or round-ups whenever possible.
6. Emotional Hurdles of Selling Your Home
This article is extremely short. It is also to the point. Again we have an example of actionable advice. The author presents his ideas without fluff in a clear and decisive manner. He justify’s the fears and shortfalls of home sellers. Then, he proposes solutions.
Our Takeaway: Empathize with your audience. Show them that you care, but also show them the way. The way to be better.
7. No-Cost Tricks To Sell a Home Faster
This is another article from the author directly above. Again the information is directly to the point. The author describes the readers’ situation and begins with a high-value statistic. The statistic also co-signs the importance of the article. In one paragraph, he has their trust, and full attention.
Our Takeaway: The most important part of the article is the very first sentence and paragraph. You have to capture the audience’s attention immediately. Begin your writing with something super high value or interesting.
8. Photos Helped Sell a Home in 8 Days
This post has 10,000 shares on Facebook. It also has less than 150 words in total. The situation was explained right out of the gate. Then, the author proceeded to feed into our desire for visual consumption. The photos showed us what a difference proper lighting and angles can make when taking photos of your house for sale.
Our Takeaway: This article is literally 2 paragraphs and 14 pictures. Sometimes the simple ideas are the best ones.
9. Selling Home FSBO Nets Less Than You Think
This article is basically saying: Don’t try to sell your home unless you know the right things to do and have the time to spare. The FSBO route rarely results in higher gains for home sellers. Lacking negotiation skills can actually result in a large loss for the home seller. All because they want to do it on their own…
Our Takeaway: Sometimes you have to tell the hard truth. Just remember to remain unbiased. If your audience smells a sales pitch, your credibility will be thrown out the window.
10. 10 Really Smart Ideas About Selling a Home
The first thing we notice is the title. It’s attention-grabbing. Then, the author gives an analogy about home selling, football and the right plays to make. Storytelling is a great way to present ideas. It gives the reader something to latch the information to. This results in them remembering you more.
Our Takeaway: Do something different.
11. Listing With a Realtor Beats FSBO
To be honest, this article seems to pack too much into one place. However, you can’t argue with the results! (Over 750+ Shares) First, they’ve got an awesome infographic with a solid theme. Second, they reference three different experts. Third, they created a thorough and easy to read article that packs a lot of value.
Our Takeaway: Aside from being high quality – The reason this article probably did well, is because they offer more than one way to consume it. Either visually through the infographic, or reading the full article. They make it easy for the reader to enjoy the content.
12. 10 Signs Your Home is Priced Too High
This is another one of those articles that makes you realize that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. “Top 10” posts have been and will remain popular – as long as you deliver on your promise. Every point that the author makes is an affirmation of something the reader has probably felt at one time.
Our Takeaway: Don’t over-complicate things.
13. First Time Home Seller Tips & Tricks
The title starts with “Top Secret”. Immediately it draws readers in because they want to know what has been “hidden” from them all this time.
Our Takeaway: People are always looking for a short-cut or magic pill. They also want to be special. IE: Having information no-one else does. The scarcity mindset is something a lot of marketers use to attract buyers. Use it – but only if you can deliver on your promise.
14. How To Sell a Home With Pets
This is a really simple article that helps to answer a common question among homeowners trying to sell.
Our Takeaway: Tackle common problems and offer practical advice. (Plus the dog is really cute.)
15. 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Bought My First Home
This article tackles common misconceptions related to the home-buying process. For example, Janis explains that “mom and dad” are not real estate agents. She advises people to take advice from the professionals and not just your family because you trust them. It’s basically one big reality check.
The author touches on many things we don’t expect to come along with home ownership. It gives the audience a way to prepare before making the leap.
Our Takeaway: People hate to make mistakes. Make them feel better about their decision. Buying a home is a big deal.
16. 4 Reasons To Sell Your Home Now
This article uses hard numbers and quotes from experts to convey their message. The statistics back up their advice – and the expert opinions cosign it. Now, you’ll notice that this was written on CNN Money. I’m sure CNN doesn’t have a problem with credibility. But you can still employ their methods to bring more of it to your writing.
As for the actual advice, there are only 4 points. But they are thoroughly covered and backed-up. It’s less to absorb and not overwhelming to read. After reading the article I would be convinced that it was the time to sell.
Our Takeaway: Long-form content is great. However, try to distill your message when possible. Present them with the core and not a diluted version because you want to boost word count.
How-To’s & Tips For Homeowners
17. The Ridiculously Thorough Guide To Decluttering Your Home
This article is just plain amazing. The title is awesome, images are used extensively, and experts are cited left right and center.
Our Takeaway: Be ridiculously thorough in your research and writing.
18. How To Make Your Home Look More Expensive on a Dime
Any input I give on this article will not do it justice. Just look at everything. The title, the personalized intro, the tackling of a common problem (how to renovate on a tight budget)…
Then, look at the shares.
19. Remodeling Ideas To Increase Home Value
This is another great example of using an infographic and article in combination for a great result.
20. Tips For Buying & Selling Your Home
This last one is Martha Stewart… Obviously, she is going to get a lot of shares.
Our Takeaway: A great personal brand can serve as the fuel for your content (or vice-versa). Remember the importance of having people value and trust what you say. Not to mention, how many people you can influence if you can create a great brand. And by influence I mean getting more listings 🙂
What You Need to Know
In this research of the top performing real estate content, I made a few observations:
- The percentage of high-quality content catered towards home sellers dwarfs that of home buyers.
- There is even less great content directed at first-time home buyers.
- How-to’s, list posts and “tips and tricks” content gets lots of shares.
Use this information to your advantage. Maybe point number 1 and 2 means that articles written for first-time home buyers don’t perform. Or it could mean that there is an opportunity to write content where less realtors are focusing.
You’ll have to experiment yourself because your location could have a dramatic effect on how your content performs. If you want a deeper look at what is getting the most “action” in general, check out this article from the founder of CoSchedule.
In Conclusion
We’ve looked inside the mind of your target demographic. By understanding the type of information they’re looking for and/or actively sharing, you can create a strategy for content marketing of your own.
At the end of the day, you’re writing articles to get leads and establish your personal brand as a real estate agent. The only way you can do that is if you are actually seen. And the only way to be seen is by creating high quality, shareable content.
I used BuzzSumo to find the articles featured in this round-up. You can do the same with a greater focus on Hyper-Local. IE: Find not only what’s performing well – but what is performing well in your community.
Putting a spin on already popular content is a tactic extremely successful bloggers use. Replicate their success.
Is 2016 going to be the year you become a content marketing expert?
