6 ways real estate content marketing is different from traditional marketing

If you are investing in marketing to promote your real estate brand, you must be aiming for maximum return on your investment. Real estate agents can increase brand awareness in many different ways. Two of the most popular options are traditional marketing and content marketing.

While traditional marketing has been the favorite method of launching real estate marketing campaigns for long, more and more real estate agents are adapting to content marketing these days.

Distribution

The main difference between traditional marketing and content marketing is the means of distribution.

Yard signs, ads in newspapers and TV, banner ads, fliers, and brochures are some of the most popular mediums real estate agents use to capture leads through traditional marketing.

Distribution channels in a content marketing campaign include email newsletters, blog posts, infographics, ebooks, online video and whitepapers.

Cost

Depending on the scope of advertising targets and channels used in a campaign, content marketing is generally cheaper than traditional marketing. You may have to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to run a TV commercial for a few seconds, but you can write a blog post on your own or outsource it for a few dollars. Studies suggest that content marketing costs 62 percent less.

Approach

Traditional channels are mostly focused on outbound marketing. You use channels such as TV commercials or newspaper ads to get your message in front of your audience. You promote an offer or build brand awareness so that people see your ad and approach your for your services.

But content marketing is a form of inbound marketing. Instead of placing your offer or brand before your audience, you draw their attention by providing value so that they trust your brand and hire you for your services. For example, a how-to-guide on home buying can be used to educate homebuyers about various complex steps in the process of a property’s transaction.

Communication

A main advantage of content marketing is that it gives you an opportunity to have a dialogue with your prospects. They can ask questions by posting comments on your content. They can determine what value your services bring to the table before hiring you. On the contrary, most traditional marketing channels don’t provide this opportunity. If a prospect comes across a TV commercial, he or she will have no direct way to interact with you or your brand.

 Lifespan

Content marketing materials have a much longer lifespan. For example a blog post that you wrote on your website can be found by your prospects online months or even years later, but the same is not true for a TV commercial, a newspaper ad or a flier.

Targeting

You can launch a highly targeted content marketing campaign, but a traditional marketing campaign is usually not targeted for a specific audience. A newspaper ad will be visible to people who have no interest in buying or selling properties. In a content marketing campaign, the content needs to be directed towards a smaller, more specific audience so that it speaks to them directly and gives them a reason to engage with it.

In conclusion

For real estate professionals, traditional marketing channels are very effective in many situations, but if you want long-term results from your marketing campaigns, you should also invest in content marketing.