The world economy is slowing down because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Businesses worldwide are going through tough times, but there is a silver lining amidst these difficulties, especially for real estate agents.
People are now mostly in isolation at home and more likely to browse online for content, such as news, social media posts, and ads for products or services. This situation presents an opportune time for real estate agents to work on their content marketing (e.g., video sharing) to provide value and build trust in their services.
During these uncertain and challenging times, it is a must to have trust firmly embedded in real estate agents’ marketing message deliveries. Run-of-the-mill messaging to prospective clients just won’t cut it.
More than ever, real estate agents have to master the application of the “know‒like‒trust” model in their marketing communication initiatives. It is only by doing so that their marketing content could resonate with target audiences grappling with the serious issues and concerns of the day. With this in mind, let’s examine what this know‒like‒trust approach is all about, how it is applied, and how it contributes to create trust in real estate marketing during these tough times.
Letting clients know who you really are
Harnessing the know‒like‒trust model in content marketing first requires that your target audiences really know who you are and what you do. To ensure that these audiences truly connect with your identity, you have to closely examine the mission and vision statements that you have declared for your real estate business. Needless to say, you have to create mission and vision statements if you haven’t yet.
Start with why your business exists in crafting your mission statement or checking if it remains relevant to your target market and the trying conditions it’s now experiencing. The answer to this question should define the passions that drive your career. Hence, putting it another way, your mission should explore why you serve the clients you have.
A straightforward answer to the question what, on the other hand, is the best way to express or check how timely your vision statement is. It need not be creative or elaborate but can simply declare the purpose of your business clearly and concisely. Hence, vision statements like “To be the real estate franchise clients choose” are common amongst real estate agents’ websites.
Although simple and even bland by itself, a vision statement delivers a more powerful message when combined with your mission. A real estate agent, for example, can deftly merge vision and mission into just one succinct statement and declare a business that “Help to build lives through real estate.” Here, the agent’s mission is to help build lives while the vision is through real estate.
With your mission and vision defined or checked, you can then examine or draw up the set of core values serving as your guiding principles towards fulfilling your mission and vision. Typically, real estate agents adopt the core values that clients easily relate with, such as honesty, transparency, unity, and respect. Combined with the agents’ mission and vision, these elements complete the roadmap and compass of your business.
Of course, it won’t be enough to just post mission, vision and values on the “About Us” of your website and social media accounts. To create trust in real estate marketing, these basic elements of your business also have to be creatively projected in your print and digital ads whenever possible. You also need to produce or earn media exposure through digital content such as blogs and online local news for more potential clients to know you.
Level it up for audiences to like you
Striving to have these target audiences to like you will take additional effort, given the heightened media clutter the market is experiencing amidst a global pandemic. Your blogs or posts have to rise above the clutter through impactful and creative messages. In your marketing messages, don’t forget to skillfully weave your business’s mission, vision and values with those of your audiences.
You can cut through the clutter by finding the right time to connect with your target market. In this approach, tools that could be handily scheduled, such as emails and newsletters, would be most useful.
Knowing that most prospective clients are currently confined to their homes, you can drive them to like you as a virtual real estate agent available via video conferencing. You can further enrich your website and contract the services of real estate marketing pros for the production of virtual home tours. Having such content on your website or linked to your social media account goes a long way in motivating buyers to like you and avail themselves of the services you offer.
Most real estate market players are driven by the abbreviated thought WIFM, meaning what’s in it for me. With this market thinking, you may be able to find some opportunities in the real estate sector anxious due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic.
Many investors, for instance, are likely to be now on the hunt for discounted properties. Some prospective sellers too may need a real estate agent who can help them sell fast because of some financial emergencies. Your services may also be vital for empty-nesters or downsizing seniors who want to draw the most value from their properties amidst a declining market. By looking at these customer segments, you may even discover some underserved niches that could provide new growth for your business.
Given this scenario, your content marketing initiatives can play a significant role in educating clients unable to clearly read a shifting market. In your marketing messages, be sure to show that you care for the welfare of clients, whether as a property buyer or seller. By showing genuine empathy, your target market is bound to like you particularly during these dire circumstances.
Building trust in distress situations
The more your target market likes you, the easier it would be to win and maintain its trust even in distress situations. Social media platforms, like Facebook, are the ideal tools to create and build trust by leveraging already established respect you have earned with clients.
Through Facebook, for example, you can generate reviews of your services as well as upload testimonials from satisfied clients. If a client praises your services for making the buying or selling process easier, be sure to capture this testimonial and share it on social media. You should, at least, share this in writing. Better still, have a video testimonial on your website and Facebook page.
Reviews and testimonials on social media are effective ways of showing that your services are trusted, because of its wide reach. Your social media audience is much larger, more so now that the pandemic has kept nearly everybody pinned within their residences.
Social media also provides instant sharing of testimonials to multiple users with little effort on your part. To a certain extent, you are providing value in sharing reviews and testimonials. Your effort helps customers make an informed choice on the real estate services available.
Testimonials can significantly help create trust in real estate marketing if you can ensure their credibility. Transparency should help you achieve this. Don’t forget to include a disclaimer stating that the testimonials are from actual customers and are unsolicited.
Your accessibility to clients likewise plays an important part in your trust-building exercise. On your website and social media accounts, never skip including your profile and the ways to reach you. On Facebook, you can enhance your accessibility just by adding an automatic chatbot to your business page. This can be programmed so that your followers can immediately get answers on frequently asked questions about your real estate marketing services.
Well-produced videos with you as the host is another effective channel to create trust in real estate marketing. The home buyers and sellers accessing your video will feel more connected with you hosting it. Putting yourself in front of them would be most effective in tutorial videos, listing presentations or demonstration videos.
Standing out in a crisis
Summing it up, the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly ushered in economic difficulties and challenges. Real estate agents, however, should not hit pause and completely freeze during this time.
At the end of the day, houses, apartments, and condos will still be built and marketed, and growing families will search for bigger residences.
The social distancing now enforced in many towns and cities is a barrier to marketing that can be easily circumvented using current advanced information technologies. For the savvy real estate agents, now is the perfect time to stand out with a brand image sharper than those who shied away from action and did nothing to create trust in real estate marketing.
At roomvu, we have digital marketing experts who can help you further elevate your market presence. We also have data scientists who can share with you the analytics useful as the real estate market eventually clear the clouds of Covid-19.