When the operators of realtor.com (MOVE) was acquired by global publishing giant News Corp, there was optimism that the licensee of the REALTOR® brand would move closer to Zillow group in engaging willing consumers who are shopping for property. News Corp is among the top publishers in generating clicks from banner advertising and housing is one of the top economic segments of the publishing industry. Consumers read an article about the housing market and click through to realtor.com to view properties.
Today, most brokerage firms and agents report more lead generation from Zillow Group, but higher quality lead generation from realtor.com. By higher quality, we are referring to consumers who are more likely to buy or sell in the short term. This is a wide generalization of opinion, but it is the industry view.
For years, leading portals have followed Redfin’s lead at publishing housing insights based upon data. Headlines like “The 10 Most Affordable College Towns for Homebuyers in 2022.” Recently, I received (for the first time, I believe) a newsletter from realtor.com called Our Weekly Best. It is packed full of articles that engage consumers.
Brokers Can Follow the Template
If you want to compete as a brokerage, you can borrow the playbook of realtor.com to create articles that leverage your local expertise and deliver the most interesting article content for consumers in your area.
“America’s Hottest Real Estate Markets Can Help Homebuyers Save Six Figures” – change this article to “{county name or state name} Hottest Real Estate Markets Can Help Homebuyers Save Six Figures
“The Housing Market Just Took a Miraculous Turn” – change to “The Housing Market in {county name or state name} Just Took a Miraculous Turn.”
“The 10 Most Affordable College Towns in the US” could change to “The 10 Most Affordable Grammar School areas in {county name or state name}.”
And so on and so forth…
How to Develop Community Content
Like most marketing done by brokers, you can choose to purchase content for your website and newsletter or crowd source it from your office managers and agents. Alternatively, you can do a blend by purchasing some and internally sourcing others. WAV Group Communications is happy to help you pull this communication strategy together.
The trick here is to make sure that consumers are engaging with your content. That is the benefit of following the headlines of realtor.com. They have professional writers who are masters at writing headlines about topics that generate clicks. The problem they have is that they are addressing a national audience. If you localize the content, you will outperform the national site all the time. Consumers are far more interested in what is happening in their county than they are on the national perspective – especially when it impacts the value of their home.
