So you’ve launched your IDX website with all kinds of property search options, featured listings, community pages and more. Now the leads should start coming, right? Unfortunately, it’s not that easy but an IDX website that also has a content strategy will help you attract and convert more leads.
Many agents and brokers stop their online marketing efforts with their website and email listing alerts. With a content strategy, you have more ways of attracting leads than just your website and email alerts. And you’ll nurture leads with content you purposefully choose to build trust and loyalty so your leads ultimately reward you with their business.
Let’s look at what content marketing is and how it’s used to compliment your IDX website.
What is Content Marketing?
Marketing in the digital age has come a long way from websites and emails asking you to “act now!”. To effectively compete online, you must understand and practice content marketing. You could look at content marketing as a form of lead nurturing that also provides additional opportunities for lead acquisition.
Here’s how content marketing is defined by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI):
“Content marketing is the strategic marketing approach of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
“In short, instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.”
Done properly, content marketing contributes to new lead acquisition and delivers ongoing valuable information that leads to business and loyalty. Remember that you also want to keep past clients engaged and informed for repeat business and not just new leads.
A content strategy feeds different forms of marketing that will grow your business:
Social Media
Content marketing feeds your social media strategy. You can’t have a social media strategy without first having content.
For a great primer on building your social media strategy, check out this article from CMI: First Things First – Content Strategy Before Social Strategy.
PPC
Pay-per-click advertising needs great content to support your ad propositions. For example, think about the interest you could generate from ads that offer to educate buyers or sellers through researched articles or studies that would help them with their next transaction. This is lot more appealing than simply promoting listings on your site. You’re offering to educate and provide value through your unique content. In turn, your target audience will be more interested in receiving future communication from you. Before you know it, you’ll be growing your newsletter subscriber list and lead funnel.
SEO
It’s a fact that you need fresh, unique, quality content published on a regular basis in order to improve your ranking and visibility in search engines. Your ranking also improves the more your content shows signs that people are engaging with it. With tools like Marketing Automation, you can drive traffic to your content through links in your automated email campaigns.
Inbound Marketing
Each piece of fresh unique content provides another opportunity for you to be found. More search terms can be targeted in your content to catch the attention of buyers and sellers to bring more traffic to your site.
Getting Started
So how can you start taking advantage of content marketing when you don’t have the time to regularly create content? We know agent and brokers need to spend their time doing what they do best, so our IDX websites and IDX plugin accounts include an optional content service, Express Content. And you can use our Marketing Automation feature to promote your content to all of your leads through automated emails, bringing your leads back to your site for much more than just listings and market data.
Contact us to get a tour!
Original source: https://www.ihomefinder.com/blog/agent-and-broker-resources/nurturing-leads-with-your-idx-website/
