There is no question that valuable content will help your business grow. It may surprise many that the benefits go way beyond having an extra blog post for somebody to read.
When you create valuable content consistently over time, you end up with a content goldmine. This has the potential to attract more leads than you ever thought possible, but it does much more than that.
We’ll look at all the benefits of knowing how to create expert content, from Building Trust and Amplifying Brand Awareness to Converting Leads into Booking and having the Best Social Media content in your area.
Let’s dive in.
Building Trust and Credibility
For anyone to trust you, they need to know who you are. The chances are that when people go looking for answers, they won’t be looking for content you’ve created.
Instead, they will be searching for solutions to the problems they want to solve. This is how you can easily position yourself as a source of credible information.
Should your perfect prospect find the answers they are looking for, many will move on to the next stage of finding out if the answer they have seen is from a trusted source.
Establishing your expertise through informative content
If you only have a few posts, you’re unlikely to be a credible source of information in most people’s minds. It could be that those few posts are the most factual, accurate and relevant posts they’ve ever consumed, but it won’t matter.
You may have a few hundred posts, but there have only been three or four in the past several months. Again, this will indicate to many that this content is not updated regularly or consistently. Oh! And they’d be right. Besides, it would not matter that the past content could all be factually accurate and up to date; it still won’t appear that way to your lost prospect.
For your content to have the power it deserves, you must create it to a very high standard and publish it consistently. Only then will you get all the benefits of being a trusted, credible source of information.
When you do this, your content becomes a valuable source of information that establishes you as a go-to expert for your service in your area.
Showcasing your industry knowledge
Creating insightful articles about different industry aspects has the advantage of allowing your peers to view your perspectives. While you might think this could be detrimental as others may adopt your thoughts and opinions, the opposite is true.
By publishing your views and measuring various industry practices against your values, you position yourself as an expert but, more importantly, a thought leader. This will undoubtedly lead to opportunities that otherwise might not exist without such valuable content.
If you want to appear on the local news, the latest property podcast, or a property influencer’s YouTube channel, they’re unlikely to invite you just because you ask. If you have a catalogue of expert content to back you up when they go looking for you online, that’s a different story.
Thought leadership content that positions you as an expert
Creating expert content and adding your values and opinions for context takes you from “just another agent” to a thought leader.
If there is a change which everyone is talking about, instead of just reporting the facts as released by the government, as 99% of “experts” do, you’ll add why you think it’s a good idea, or perhaps why, in your experience, it won’t work.
You can even list points you’ve made in previous posts that affirm your position and demonstrate that your views are not something you picked up elsewhere but have solid reasoning behind them. That is, of course, assuming you’ve previously written that type of content.
Leveraging client testimonials and success stories
This is, of course, the big one. Creating expert-level content, positioning yourself as a thought leader, and showing up on various influencer platforms will significantly affect your credibility and people trusting you as an expert.
However, what your customers say about you will help you the most. Social proof is a massive part of effectively marketing your brand and business.
When you learn how to follow up with every client for a review or testimonial and build up your rating online, you’ll have a potent tool to help you persuade your prospects that finding a more trustworthy service provider won’t be possible.
It also doesn’t hurt to take a few dozen of your best reviews and add them to a carousel on your website, you know, just so that people can see them there, too.
Boosting Search Engine Visibility
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is something that most property professionals overlook. If I had to guess the reasons why, they would be:
- Not understanding how SEO works
- Don’t know why they need SEO
Many will have looked into SEO, given it a go, and figured out that it’s tough to rank at the top of Google’s search pages.
Some will even have paid an agency to do their SEO and come away disappointed since any results they might have gotten early on probably didn’t last very long. They no doubt felt it was a waste of money overall.
I think you can probably see where this is going.
Yes! The power of valuable content is that it makes it easy to rank on Google. If you’re not creating high-quality expert content that’s well laid out and easy to consume, don’t waste your time or money on SEO.
If you’d like to learn more about SEO without all the technobabble, I have a post called “What is SEO? A stupid simple explanation.”.
How to make SEO work for you
Google loves fresh, original, valuable content because that’s what its consumers want. If you’re not providing that for them, their algorithm will not give you what you desire.
You will get all the website visitors you can handle when you start giving them what they want.
Think of it as a contract in principle with Google.
You want a commodity they are offering: traffic. They’d like to be paid for that traffic.
The cost of traffic is excellent content from a trusted source that helps the people who search for it to answer a question or solve a problem.
That seems fair, doesn’t it?
Now, if you want a steady stream of traffic to your website, the cost is a little higher. You must demonstrate that you’re a trustworthy and credible source of excellent information and a serious solution provider to your audience.
That’s fair, isn’t it?
You build trust with Google by showing up with excellent content regularly.
You’ll demonstrate your credibility by showing up with your peers on other credible websites and social platforms. As you market yourself and your brand more effectively and build a digital footprint that shows you’re a serious player and cannot be described as anything other than a voice for your profession, you will get serious attention from Google’s algorithm, not to mention all the traffic that you desire.
Now, optimising your website for SEO will make an impact and be worth all the time you’ve put in and worth every penny you spent on the help and tools you need.
Aren’t you glad you’ve decided to build your content goldmine?
Crafting content that resonates with search algorithms
To create content that the search engines love, you’ll need to spend a little time learning the basics. Often, there’s little point in writing a 500-word blog that only touches on the problem a visitor wants to solve. Chances are that you’ll not solve their problem and leave them wanting more, which they will go elsewhere to try and find. Google’s algorithm will notice this.
Instead, research what Google already considers the best answers and do a better job.
By creating longer content, you can do several things which Google will like.
- Covering a subject in depth demonstrates your expertise
- You make it easy to understand what the content is about
- Using many keyword types naturally is a big plus, which is easier in longer content
- Adding structure makes your content easy to follow and consume
- Longer content allows more context, which helps readers better understand the topic
- Telling stories about your experiences also adds credibility
Creating long-form content has many advantages. Aside from demonstrating that you know what you’re talking about and establishing yourself as an expert, it also lends itself rather nicely to making checklists and cheat sheets for your prospects to download, which is another indicator to Google that people love your content.
When you put effort into understanding what people want and creating it for them, Google will recognise this and reward you for it.
Driving organic traffic to your website
Using your expert content as a means to spread your message over social media, video, podcasts, and various other channels you have access to will establish you as a legitimate business, willing and able to help your target audience, and being worthy of “free” traffic from the search engines.
Once the “free” traffic starts coming to your website, you can begin to back off on any paid advertising, though your ROI will be the most significant determining factor. As to social engagement and showing up in other locations, you must keep an ongoing presence to stay relevant. Once you become known for being an expert and a leader in your space, you’ll have many opportunities to engage with your peers. It will then be a matter of choosing which aligns best with your ideals and goals and the events that give you the most exposure.
Tough life huh! 😊
Amplifying Brand Awareness
You have more than one brand. If you work in a business with partners, you could have several. Ideally, you’ll all work on your personal brands, attracting people to you and establishing your association with your business brand.
If you have a product or service you’ve developed, that could also have its own branding.
Keeping all of these brands in the spotlight would take an awful lot of effort. So, if you don’t have the budget to outsource all the activities required to keep your company and service brands in the spotlight, you should focus on your personal brand.
It is by far the most relatable part of your business. What I should really say is that YOU are the most relatable part of your business. People don’t connect to logos and slogans as quickly as they do other people.
Transforming your brand into a household name
The fastest way to become a household name without infamy, outrage, or disgrace, is to show up whenever somebody asks anything online even remotely related to your service.
You do this by understanding who your perfect prospects are, knowing what they need, and providing it for them. You establish yourself as an expert by adding your personal and professional brand values, beliefs, and ideals throughout your content.
As you build trust and rapport with your audience, continually showing up throughout their journey towards solving their problems, you become the person they most likely want to speak with when they are ready.
A prospect only needs to visit your website once, and you can show up all around the web with retargeting ads, which are much cheaper than trying to attract a cold audience. You don’t need to promote a service; you can keep providing value and let your lead magnets and nurturing sequences do their thing. This is one of the “secrets” of SEO. It’s one of those things many people know about, but very few actually do.
If you want to be a household name, showing up everywhere is the first step. Retargeting is much better than any other type of ad since the real secret to building a targeted audience is showing up in the right places. That means showing up for people who want the service you provide.
Leveraging shareable and relatable content
When you have an excellent piece of expert content, several topics will be covered along with your point of view, various warnings and maybe a few stories.
Using social media is a perfect starting point to determine which part of your post is relatable to your audience. Just because your post is called “How to find the worst house in the best street and double your money”, and yes, I just made that up, it doesn’t mean you can’t create social posts about your goldmine area, leveraging your power team, how to build relationships with estate agents, or a dozen other headlines that you cover in your post.
If you follow my blueprint for creating expert content, you should already be relatable to your target audience. Testing the various aspects of each post will help you narrow down your audience further and identify who is most likely to share your content.
Once you know that, you can focus on that group for that post and maximise your reach for the lowest cost.
Nurturing Leads into Customer Relationships
Depending on the urgency, the number of contacts required before a prospect is likely to reach out could be anything from one to a dozen.
The NAEA suggests three, while Rightmove says it’s eight. As you might imagine, this is about Estate Agents; other services may vary.
I would suggest that it’s most likely higher than eight. While Rightmove might include a website visit or two in their touch points, I believe, with good reason, that people are so comfortable searching for information online through their PCs, Laptops and Smart devices that once they initially decide to start looking at achieving a particular outcome, they’ll do dozens of searches before they begin to look for a service provider that can deliver.
Many have also learned that the more specific your questions are, the better the results usually are.
If you are not showing up in these initial searches, you’re missing out on capturing and nurturing these leads into hot prospects.
Early lead capture through valuable content
If you start showing up from day one with valuable content and an option to download even more value with a couple of clicks, your chances of becoming the preferred service provider are improved 100-fold.
Sadly, there aren’t many statistics for the property industry about this, but we know a few things that support this, and you know it’s true instinctively.
- Decision fatigue plays a role in all of our choices.
- People make assumptions based on their perceptions.
- Confirmation bias is known to affect our decisions. We often decide subconsciously and then look for the data to support our decision.
- We tend to follow the crowd. This is why your social proof is so necessary.
These well-known factors alone should be enough for you to start building your content goldmine today. Fortunately, there’s a little more to see.
A report by Zillow showed that you’re much better off being the first agent contacted. That alone could nearly double your leads.
This is the bit that caught my attention:
Among buyers that contacted an agent, almost half (47%) contacted only 1 before ultimately hiring them. Conversely, 53% contacted at least 2 agents before deciding which to hire.
First-time buyers, who are less likely to have previous experience with an agent, are more likely to contact multiple: 60% of first-timers reported contacting 2 or more agents, versus only 46% of repeat buyers.
Here is something else to consider. I’ve mentioned SEMrush in a few of my posts since they are an excellent source for the effectiveness of content marketing. If you’ve not seen their annual global marketing report, it’s worth a look. If you don’t want to sign up for it, one of their posts outlines many of the stats in the report: 100+ Eye-Opening Content Marketing Statistics for 2023 (semrush.com) It’s a fascinating read. Well, I think so.
As a property expert, you know that the time between when people start researching a service with the expectation of a particular outcome can be anything from a few weeks to a year or more before they take any action.
This is truer of the property industry than any other. If I had to guess at second place, it would be buying a car.
What do these have in common?
They are very high value, and for most, they can make do with what they’ve got for now.
This means that when people look for estate agents, mortgage brokers, solicitors, property sourcers or anything else related to the property industry, you need to show up as early as possible, with as much value as possible, and collect the prospect’s contact details at the earliest opportunity.
If you cannot do this, it is pure chance as to whether or not you’re in the running. It doesn’t matter how good you are, how long you’ve been trading, or why you are the best choice.
Do you really want to leave your marketing to chance?
Responding to audience feedback and engagement
So, you’ve been found online, a prospect has consumed your content, and they were kind enough to download your checklist by leaving their name and email address.
Step one is complete, fantastic.
Now you need to follow up and stay top of mind. Of course, you’ll have an email nurturing sequence on the back end of your lead magnet, which will provide even more value.
If you’re far enough along building your content goldmine, you’ll also retarget the people who visited your post and downloaded your list with related value posts and social proof about your services.
Responding to your blog’s comments section and socials is essential to business today. I assume you do that already, but you should start immediately if not.
If you’re not very active on social media because you’re unsure what to post daily, expert content solves that problem. I cover this in detail in my book, Automated Property Leads Forever, and there will no doubt be a post dedicated to it soon. The link will be at the end of the post.
There is a very high expectation for a response on most social platforms. Recent research is in short supply, but a HubSpot post about it is here, and another by Sprout Social is here. The longer a message goes unanswered, the greater the chance you’ll lose business. Especially if it’s a sales-related query.
We live in a society that has come to expect instant gratification. Ignore it at your peril.
One final note on response times. One of the biggest complaints about estate agents and solicitors is the lack of responses and delays in updates. If your social media channels aren’t appropriately handled with prompt replies, what does that suggest about the rest of your business?
I’m just saying…
Turning first-time visitors into long-term clients
If you take the three to eight points of contact from the NAEA and Rightmove, factor in the 47% of Zillow respondents who hired the first agent they spoke to, and then consider the proven power of content from SEMrush and HubSpot, there is only one sensible conclusion you can come to.
You need to show up online whenever anyone in your area asks any question related to the services you provide or the problems you solve. You want to be the first person or business that people find.
If you don’t, you potentially lose hundreds, if not thousands, of clients yearly.
By building a content goldmine so that you can show up no matter the question being asked in relation to services your business provides, you massively increase the chances of being one of the experts contacted by the prospect.
It could not be more apparent that the power of valuable expert content can change your business for the better forever.
Outsmarting the Competition
At the time of writing, the competition in the UK property space in general is, honestly, pitiful.
This is only my opinion; you’re welcome to question my judgment. But, given my expertise and how I provide all these posts packed with information to help fix this, I think it’s justified.
Creating first-rate content and leveraging it to generate more leads is the first step in dominating your local area. I am still looking for a single estate agent who does this effectively. Don’t get me wrong, some good ones are out there, but I think they could do much better. Property educators and training companies are the closest I’ve seen to what I would consider a content goldmine.
The simplest way to outsmart your competition is to do what they are unwilling to do.
- Create Expert Content
- Put Yourself Out There
- Do It Consistently
This should be standard for every property expert. Yet only some actually do it. It blows my mind that more of you aren’t grabbing this insane opportunity for simple lead generation and nurturing.
I don’t know what it will take to make people see what is so obviously the best way of growing their business, but when I find it, you can be sure I’ll be using every method I can find to spread the word.
Staying one step ahead in the digital race
Before you can get a step ahead, you need to be in the digital race in the first place.
So many property professionals think they’re in the race but aren’t.
You may be able to guess what’s coming next.
When creating expert content for your website, you have what you need to show up on various other platforms. Using sections of your content with new headlines and images to provide value on your social platforms will put you ahead of the curve.
If you’re starting out, establish yourself on one or two platforms first. I’d suggest Facebook and LinkedIn, but if you know your audience frequents another platform, focus on that.
Once you’re established, repurposing your content is a simple step for any new platform that pops up. You’ll have a baseline to compare it to from your existing platforms, and you can determine whether it’s worth staying. Just don’t expect your old format to work in the same way on the new. TikTok is the most recent platform to take off, and if you tried to use videos you’ve posted on other platforms, they won’t work as well as the content you create specifically for it.
Staying ahead means keeping up with the various trends.
Showcasing unique perspectives and insights
Once your brand values are outlined, look at anything that might stand out. It’s all very well fitting in with the perceived norms of your profession, but it won’t get you noticed.
If something you stand for or against is considered unique, then use that to your advantage.
If you have controversial views, that will make you noticeable and stand out. However, please ensure you’ve analysed your views from all standpoints and can eloquently state and, if need be, defend your position.
Anywhere you can add your insights to an issue, particularly if it’s considered standard practice, but you know of something better, then you enhance your expert status and, again, stand out amongst your peers.
Positioning your business as an industry leader
An industry leader demonstrates a deep understanding of their business and is focused on the customer. They’re always learning and are committed to excellence.
Being unconventional doesn’t faze them if it means they’re pushing boundaries and improving.
Industry leaders also state their values, demonstrate their ethics, and discuss the uncomfortable topics others fear to touch on.
Now, for most, achieving all of that would be an ask. If you want to be the next industry leader, you might think, “Where would I even start?”.
I’m glad you asked. 😁
The easiest way to start your journey to position yourself as an industry leader is to create a content goldmine. Solving problems, weaving in your values, and telling your stories while adding nuggets of expertise is a significant first step.
You become a leader by default when you start to create content that highlights problems in your industry, how to spot the fakers and blaggers, and what can be done to avoid falling foul of their tactics.
If that’s not customer-focused and a demonstration of your values and ethics, I don’t know what is.
Add a healthy dose of networking and collaboration to the mix, and you’ll be well on your way. I discuss this more in my “How To Build A Personal Brand” post.
Using content to outsmart your competitors is one of the most accessible and underutilised methods available today.
Converting Leads into Bookings
Instead of trying to “sell” your services to your leads, isn’t it better to educate them on why your services are right for them?
Of course. Everyone likes to buy, but nobody likes being sold to.
When you have content that can solve any problem, answer any question, and demonstrate your knowledge and value without having to pitch every prospect, you’ll find that getting more clients is much easier than you think.
We’ve also established that showing up early in a prospect’s journey is highly advantageous, and expert content creation is critical to this.
Using your valuable expert content to nurture your leads into hot prospects is part of the attraction marketing system. When people look for answers, and you not only deliver what they want but follow up with more relevant content that adds context, expertise, and value, you position yourself as the go-to expert for your service.
The art of the strategic call-to-action
You only need to nudge your leads in the right direction when providing so much value through your content. The transition from “just another [your service] provider” to a trusted source of information might take a few pieces of content, but that’s why you have nurturing sequences.
Gone is the need for high-pressure tactics and desperate offers for fast action-takers.
You’re educating your leads with all they need to know. They will trust you as a source of expertise, and when the time is right for them, they only need to know how they should get in touch.
This is why being responsive in all business areas is so important. Website, social media, phone calls, texts, or messenger. If, as you should, you educate your leads on the best way to contact you, ensure you fully cover it.
Don’t fall at the most crucial hurdle.
Your strategic calls to action will only be to get on a call if that is the only option for a particular piece of content, which will rarely be the case. Instead, you should be asking your leads to download your lead magnets.
Wherever you have content related to what they’ve just consumed, tell them about that.
If your CTAs are on your website, it’s all about providing more value and collecting prospect details through your downloadables.
On social media, it’s comments and shares or getting them off the platform to your website.
If your CTA is about providing more value, you’re on the right track. You might want to rethink your strategy if you are asking for a sale or pushing for a call. If you’re uncertain which is right, test.
Guiding potential clients through the sales funnel
Whatever service you provide, it is a good idea to have the process listed in an easy-to-follow format. This doesn’t have to be a blog post. You could add the steps in your services section or anywhere else that is appropriate. If it’s a long process or has many variables, then a downloadable guide would be another excellent place to deliver more value.
The important thing here is that your prospects know what they should expect. Like any other expert content you provide, your customer expectations should be addressed, best practices should be highlighted, what you’ll do to overdeliver should be spelt out, and anything that might change the outcome should be discussed in detail. I am trying to do that for you here in the hope that you’ll use my template and deliver the highest level of service to your clients.
It is also an excellent way to reinforce the level of expectation the prospect should have whichever company they ultimately choose to work with. What’s great about this tactic is that if they go with somebody else because of price or an offer and have read an outline of the steps, processes, and timelines you would work to, they will likely expect the same from anyone they work with.
You May Still Get Your Chance
It’ll soon be your time to shine if they don’t deliver. Just be sure that what you’re advertising is authentic and achievable. The last thing you want is to fall short of your service delivery promises.
Now, you might be thinking, “What if my competitors copy my framework and try to say they can do the same?”. Honestly, if you see that happen, you know you’ve got them on the ropes, and you should be flattered that they think copying you will help them succeed.
If they aren’t infringing on your proprietary services or copyrighted content, there’s probably not much you can do about it.
Turning content consumers into paying customers
Naturally, you’ll want to turn the people consuming your content into a payday. Oooh! Doesn’t that sound so crude? I love it.
Let’s be honest: you don’t provide your service just because you love it. It’s a business, and it needs to make sense. So, of course, money has to be involved. Everyone knows this—very few like talking about it.
This is why I recommend you be completely transparent about your service, costs, and extras. If people need to come to you and ask, “How much?” you’re probably losing a lot of business. Especially if one of your competitors has prices on their website, even if you know for a fact there will be hidden extras. Your uneducated prospect may not, so it’s your responsibility to ensure they’re not misled by unrealistic or incomplete pricing from elsewhere.
Is Your Service a Commodity?
If you provide an essentially commoditised service, prices are an absolute must on your website. Oh! And all the “bespoke estate agents”, you’re struggling because you’re not the only one who can sell a house.
Shocker, right?
I’ve never yet seen a bespoke estate agent website that I’ve thought, WOW, I wish they were in my area. I wonder why that is…
If your prices are higher than your competitors, you’d better have a lot of social proof, tons of value on your website, and some evidence to back up why you’re worth it.
Sadly, so often, this isn’t the case.
Having a lot of high-value content solves one of the problems many property professionals have. If the value of your website is only in the products or services you provide, you’re allowing yourself to be compared to anyone else offering the same.
For Unique Services
Now, if you’re providing a service that doesn’t fall into the commodity market, then you will need to work more on the benefits and value of your service. Since your leads may not have a frame of reference, you need to build one for them.
Your focus will be more on qualifying prospects since high-ticket services that aren’t a good fit for a new client will cause you problems.
Whatever service you sell will be much easier when your prospect is educated and reaches out to you rather than vice versa.
Most of your effort in converting a lead to a prospect and finally selling them your service is done through your content and email nurturing sequences. Your retargeting will play a role in brand awareness, but if providing that much value doesn’t do, maybe they were never going to be your client. That’s okay, too.
Speaking to a Prospect
Should you get them on the phone or in your office, most of the time you would typically spend letting them know what you do, why you’re different, and what they should expect is unnecessary. Your content already did that for you.
The confidence you’ll get from having a steady flow of hot prospects ready to work with you will do amazing things when your prospects know you’re not desperate to “sell” to them. The best “expert sales pitch” to a warm lead won’t convert a tenth as well in the property industry as a provider who will be there when the prospect is ready with no urgent need, no “just checking in to see how you’re getting on” calls every other day, just the knowledge that the prospect will get what they need when they need it.
That’s the difference expert content will make to you and your business. You will be working from a place of abundance rather than the scarcity mindset that most property experts have.
Showcasing Property Expertise
You deal with property daily—different properties, people, and situations.
How are you showing your leads, prospects, and clients all these facets of your expertise?
It may be that you’re not impressed by what you do, but many would be if they knew what you did for a living.
Elevating your business through property-focused content
If you’re following my blueprint for creating a content goldmine, that’s my book, Automated Property Leads Forever; in case you weren’t sure, you should never run out of ideas for new content.
If you want more ideas, look at what you do daily and break it down.
- What did you do?
- Why did you do it?
- What considerations did you need to make?
- What experiences were you drawing from?
- Who would benefit from knowing this?
- How long does it take?
- What tools, if any, are required?
- When is the best time to start the process?
The list can go on, but if you take the time to list these questions, you can create some unique and exciting content that will hook your audience and get them engaging with you.
Applying a fantastic headline and exciting images and promoting this will differ from what 99.9% of your competitors produce. So, it will help you stand out, position yourself as an expert, and make you more memorable.
Who says great content is challenging? You’re an expert; this is what you do.
Highlighting market trends, insights, and forecasts
I thought this section would be worthy of inclusion since it is the most likely thing for property experts who aren’t serious about content to create.
Don’t get me wrong; market trends and forecasts are great to discuss. But most of the updates I see are some stats on a graph explaining what’s happened in the last month or quarter but don’t include the most essential part.
Where is the personality? What is your opinion? Why did you even bother posting this information?
- Why is this happening?
- Is it likely to continue?
- Are there other longer-term cycles at play?
- What are you doing to help clients take advantage of the situation?
- Is it a help or a hindrance for most?
- Where are the opportunities?
- What is the long-term impact if this trend continues?
These posts have very little value without some context and commentary.
It’s not that the information isn’t helpful. It’s just that people can get the same information from a dozen different sources. That makes it very forgettable unless you add your personality, insights, opinions, and values.
Since these posts have a very short life, I get that you wouldn’t want to spend half a day creating them. But how long does it take to pen something of interest to stand out from the 30, 50, or 100 other reports all coming out on the same day saying almost precisely the same thing?
Yes, it is worth an hour to think it through, do a little more research and add your insights. It will make your content much more interesting, and the chances that somebody engages with you go way up.
Becoming the go-to resource for property enthusiasts
One of the most amazing things about expert content is that you create it once, and it can reap the rewards for years. Sure, it might need an occasional update, but you become a valuable resource when ranking hundreds or thousands of expert pieces of content on Google.
Whoever your content is for initially, you’ll eventually get to the point where you’ve covered everything you need to and start covering all of your customer avatars and service offerings. Don’t get me wrong, this won’t happen in a few months. We could be talking years here, but it will happen.
When you have this much content and cover as many subjects as you undoubtedly will, being the go-to expert in your regional area is practically a foregone conclusion, however, when you get to this point, you’ll likely have a catalogue of content that you could create based on questions, feedback, and conversations you’ve had that didn’t fit into your content plan at the time but now will extend your repertoire of expertise on offer.
This is where I aim to get to. I don’t know how long it will take to get there, but I’m happy to create value for my prospects, and until that stops, I’ll carry on.
Sorry, I guess you’ll keep hearing from me for a while yet. 😉
Crafting Engaging Multimedia Content
One of the main reasons that so many property expert’s social channels are so dull is that they don’t have much to share that isn’t about them.
When you have a content goldmine available to draw on for inspiration, your social media can be filled with interesting and exciting information that captures the imagination of your audience. The best part is that you don’t need to write everything from scratch.
Repurposing your content for social media is a well-explored art form that increases your reach and expands your presence with only a few tweaks and a small amount of additional time.
Given that social media is such an essential aspect of your marketing and the trust you gain from being a prominent and influential part of the wider community sets you apart, can you afford not to have valuable content to share?
And, in case you were wondering, that is a leading question. The answer is No; you can’t afford to be dull, boring, and the same as everyone else. Your content goldmine solves that problem for you.
Breaking the content monotony with videos and podcasts
As you build your content goldmine, the variety you can bring to your social channels increases. Hosting guests or appearing on other expert’s channels is all new information you can share with your audience.
It makes you more exciting and demonstrates that you’re part of a larger community.
Whether it’s podcasts, YouTube channels, or a webinar, it’s all interesting and demonstrates that you are part of something bigger.
Anything you do online that involves other people could be something else to share with your audience to provide value, and if it’s entertaining, even better.
Utilising visual content to captivate your audience
We, humans, are a very visual species. This has not gone unnoticed by the best advertisers. One of the great things about having a lot of high-value expert content is that you can experiment with your visuals.
This is excellent news for your social channels since you can promote the same content with a dozen different images and see which works the best.
When you look at the lifecycle of the average post on Facebook, for example, it often doesn’t appear in your audience feed for more than a day or two unless it goes viral. This means that if you have a new post and get no engagement the first day you post it, you can try another image and headline a few days later. If you post a lot, you could do it the next day.
The chances are, most people won’t notice.
When you have lots of great content, you’ll always have the option to promote other relevant content, even if it was created six months ago. It will still be new, fresh, and engaging just by adding a new headline and image to your socials. A beautifully simple way of keeping in touch with your audience, even if you can’t publish one time.
It’s easy to outsource, too. Can it get any better?
Tapping into the power of storytelling for maximum impact
One thing that needs to be added to most brands is the story. How do you get your story out there for your audience to consume?
Long-form content lends itself beautifully to storytelling. If you only have a four or five-hundred-word post, telling the story about how you helped a client get a better deal and finish the process faster will look like you’re trying a bit too hard. Your story might end up being as long as the content you’re sharing. That will feel a bit out of place and almost like you’re trying to “sell” the reader on how great you are instead of proving value.
When building a content goldmine and using my framework to outline your content, you’ll have plenty of room to add a story or two. A post of three to five thousand words or more can easily accommodate a story without seeming out of place. You can change the format so people know you’re relating an experience they can skip if desired. This makes your post more visually interesting at the same time.
When you’re telling a story with video, it will make you much more relatable and quickly build rapport with your audience. This, in turn, will make your videos much more memorable.
Try getting those benefits with a paid ad.
The Metrics of Success
It may surprise some that content has an ROI. Yes, since creating content is not free, your investment in creating it has a return.
For many, this will be the cost of their time and any tools they might use. For others, it will be hiring agencies, VAs or additional staff. Whichever is true for you, one thing holds true for everyone.
The more content you make, the cheaper your cost per client gets.
Your investment in content compounds over time. When you’re creating content that answers questions and solves problems, people will find this for years to come.
Imagine your company got to a point where you publish new, original, in-depth content daily. After three years, you would have thousands of posts available to search on Google for people in your area. I assume you built up to that over time and were not posting daily from day one.
It might sound like a fantastic dream if you’ve not even created your first post, but everyone started with their first post. Then, they kept going until success was all but guaranteed.
Tracking the ROI of your content strategy
It’s not too complicated to track your content’s ROI. The most crucial aspect will be asking every client where they heard about you, whether they consumed your content and the key factor that helped them decide to use your services.
Google Analytics will track how many website visitors you get and how much time they spend reading or listening to your content. If you’re retargeting your website visitors, Facebook and Google Ads will have all the stats for that. People who download your content will have open and retention rates in the autoresponder dashboard. Google Analytics can also be used with most mail systems.
Pulling all the data together into a coherent picture of how your content performs will be the main problem for most. Fortunately, there are tools that can help with this. If you’re getting any assistance with your SEO, then your Employee/VA/Agency will need all of this information to optimise your campaigns so they can share that with you.
If you should find yourself needing to do this yourself, here are a couple of tools that might help:
As always, check that the tools will connect everything you use and do everything you require. Other tools are available.
The great thing about using these tools is that once set up, you can see at a glance how your ever-growing catalogue of content is performing at a glance. You’ll track performance over time and be able to dive deep into your data to find trends that otherwise might remain hidden.
Continuous improvement for sustained success
It is only by tracking your stats from various sources that you’ll understand what works for your audience. When you properly use your data to understand why something is working, you can template it and test it in future posts to improve the user experience with your content.
Let me give you an example.
Suppose you have a post doing exceptionally well compared to posts touching on similar subjects. At first glance, you might think, “WOW, this post has five times as many views as the other posts I wrote related to this.”.
However, if you take the time to investigate, you might find that a particular social post has gone a little viral and funnelled more visitors to that one post than you usually expect.
On further investigation, you may find that the time on page stat is lower than expected. This often means that the audience who clicked through wasn’t your ideal target audience, and the chances of them becoming a prospect are much lower than the other posts.
Now, instead of creating content modelled on the page with the most views, you will use a similar post with the highest time-on-page stats. This is much more likely to convert into a hot prospect.
You might find similar correlations when you look at your embedded video stats for a blog.
The critical thing to remember is that when you start your content goldmine, assuming you start tracking your key performance indicators early on, your cost per acquisition will seem relatively high.
Tracking Success and How It Affects Cost
As you understand better what your audience needs, your content will convert better, and your costs will decrease. The better your content matches the searcher’s intent, the more beneficial it is for everyone.
As your results compound over time, your lead, prospect, and sales costs will finally make sense as they reduce and be a much better investment than any paid ads you’re running.
The trade-off is, as you may know, ads can get instant results, but content takes longer.
Both cost time and money. Ads are more money than time. Content takes more time than money. But when you stop paying for ads, you stop getting results. The same is not true for content.
Ads also have no compounding effect, whereas content relies on compounding for its effectiveness. That’s why content becomes so much cheaper over time than paying for ads.
If that isn’t one of the best arguments you’ve heard for creating valuable content, I don’t know what will swing it for you.
The Power of Valuable Content
When you know how to create valuable content, all these benefits are yours for the taking.
- Building Trust and Credibility
- Boosting Search Engine Visibility
- Amplifying Your Brand Awareness
- Automatically Nurturing Leads
- Outsmarting Your Competitors
- Converting Leads into Bookings
- Demonstrating Your Expertise
- Leveraging Engaging Social Media Content
- Tracking Your Content Success for Continuous Improvement
If this is something you want for your business, then all you need to do is learn how to create the all-important, valuable content, be persistent, and add a sprinkling of consistency, and it will all be yours.
I know, it sounds easy, doesn’t it? It must be too good to be true. Surely.
Well, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. It is simple, but easy is a matter of opinion.
If owning a content goldmine sounds like something you’d like to have in your business, and low-cost, hot, qualified prospects are who you want to speak with daily, I’d encourage you to read my other blog posts.
They all provide tremendous value, and they are entirely free.
To be the best-known, most trusted expert in your area, you must show up when people search for anything related to your services. That means you need high-value content so that Google respects you as a trusted source of information.
If you can do this, you can dominate your local area. And I mean dominate, not just do well.
The sky is the limit when you are your service’s go-to name in your area.
I wish you all the best in creating expert content for your business.
While I’d be happy to discuss my coaching programme, you don’t need to spend thousands to get this information directly from me. If you’d like my blueprint for expert content creation, it’s all in my book, Automated Property Leads Forever. Everything you need to get started is there.
Grab your copy now.
