by Marianna Muscat | Nov 18, 2019 | Content Marketing
The real estate industry is an ambitious market. So, if you want to stand out from your competitors, you need to employ content marketing to build your reputation. While new agencies attempt to enter the marketplace all the time, there are a few rules to follow in content marketing that will help you to establish your agency’s status.
Content Marketing Rules for Real Estate Agencies:
Do the Research
The first step is looking for questions that your audience might have. You’ll need to spend time researching your audience, their needs and how you can address those issues. The results of this effort will provide you with many possible topics that would be of interest to your audience. Once you have those topics, it becomes easier to focus your efforts on information that will be valuable and to provide good resources to your audience.
Provide Solutions
Content marketing doesn’t stop at the research phase. The second step in the process is formulating answers to the questions you established in the first step. This is where topics are transformed into solutions for your audience. Always aim to add value for your audience, and be very careful to never add a “hard sell” approach to your solutions. The idea with content marketing is to educate and inform, not to peddle anything to your audience. Once you build up your agency’s reputation, audiences will be more receptive to your sales pitches and listings.
Upskill
If you’re planning on being effective at content marketing, you’ll need to brush up on some aspects of digital marketing. Social media marketing, search engine optimisation, link building and quality web design are effective tools that you’ll need in your content marketing toolbox. You don’t need to become an expert at using these tools, but the more you understand the more empowered you’ll be to succeed at content marketing.
Become the Local Expert
People want homes and communities, not just a local building to live in. You need to become the expert in the neighbourhoods you operate in so you can give your clients the inside scoop on the place they might be calling home. Establish yourself as an expert on local life through good content marketing, and people will reward you with their loyalty. Local news and happenings are perfect topics to cover in your content marketing. And. it will solidify your agency’s reputation as part of the community.
Don’t Forget the Visuals
The visual message in your content marketing is just as important as a clean, beautiful show house. By using your agency’s visual style not only in listings but in content marketing too, you’ll strengthen your brand message and help audiences to immediately recognise the content as yours. Good visuals will entice your audience to read the content you’ve created, thereby growing the influence of your content.
Make it Easy To Reach Out
You can have the most beautiful visuals and meticulously crafted content, but if your audience can’t get in contact when they like what they see, your entire content marketing endeavour fails. You want your audience to see you as a resource they can easily engage with because this creates leads without you even trying. Always include a way for clients to get in touch after they’ve read your content.
If you need help with your content marketing, contact us today.
by Marianna Muscat | Nov 14, 2019 | LinkedIn, Social Media Marketing
Are you slogging away at crafting content that gets minimal engagement? Then these social media marketing tips on how to get more views and better engagement on LinkedIn, are for you.
Get Help from Your Friends
When posting content to LinkedIn, the number of shares you get directly following your post impacts LinkedIn’s algorithm. If people are commenting and sharing within the first few hours, LinkedIn takes notice.
A good social marketing tip would be to reach out to your friends and colleagues before you post an article. Ask them to like it to increase the number of people who will see your content in their news feeds.
Post Directly into LinkedIn
Posting someone else’s article on LinkedIn isn’t the best way to get engagement. This is because the reader then has to click on the article, go read it, go back to LinkedIn, and comment. As you can see, this just adds additional steps for them to engage with you. So, you actually get more engagement if you type your post directly into LinkedIn Publisher.
Tips for Posting
While LinkedIn does give you 1 300 characters, they only show the first three lines of what you’re writing to people. Given this, make sure you have a hook that will compel them to click and see the rest of your post.
Secondly, space out your text instead of having it in one big, thick paragraph. Content that is presented as a wall of text is hard to read and will not engage readers. Use subheads as well as shorter sentences and paragraphs to improve readability.
Thirdly, it’s important to note that posts that perform well generally share a perspective. Whether it’s your opinion, personal experience or an interesting observation, make sure you’re adding something new to the conversation.
Are you interested in digital and social media marketing techniques and strategies to enhance your reputation and help you grow your brand online? WSI OMS offers a range of social and digital marketing services that can be customised for your business. Contact us for more information today.
by Marianna Muscat | Nov 8, 2019 | Digital Media Marketing
Digital marketing is a growing industry and, therefore, attracts the attention of many marketing graduates. It is a relatively new branch of marketing, which can make it a little tricky to put together great teams. If you’re in the market to hire, here are a few tips to make the process a bit easier.
Hiring Graduates for Digital Marketing
Should I Look for Qualified or Experienced?
The great debate in hiring comes down to qualifications versus experience. And, while certain professions have very specific requirements and highly specialised training, digital marketing can afford to be less strict on requiring formal qualifications. Because so few higher learning institutions offer courses specifically on digital marketing, you may need to cast your net wider to include candidates without formal qualifications if they have sufficient industry experience.
A skills test or practical demonstration of the candidate’s skills and experience may show you exactly what you need to know to make an informed decision about a candidate, whether they have a formal qualification or not.
What Skills Should I Look For?
The most important skills in digital marketing are communication and organisation. Although marketing is a fairly creative field, the top skills to look out for (especially at a more junior level) has nothing to do with ground-breaking ideas and mind-shifting creativity.
When a candidate has excellent communication skills (both verbal and written) and demonstrates the ability to clearly communicate in different situations (email conversations, interviews, etc.), they have already become a higher value candidate. If good communication skills are paired with impeccable organisation, the candidate should be ranked highly on your list.
In essence, marketing (and digital marketing) is about communicating a message to an audience. And, without solid organisational and communication skills, the ideas will lose their impact or end up not reaching their target altogether.
Arguably, these skills can be taught. But, in such a case, the candidate should really excel in other areas such as creativity, market awareness and analytical thinking.
Characteristics that Should Make a Candidate Stand Out
If you’re lucky enough to have candidates with the ability to communicate and organise, you can create an effective ranking system by looking at other characteristics that will add value to your organisation. Here are some characteristics to look out for:
Creativity and Enthusiasm:
The industry is highly competitive, and fresh ideas paired with passion can often mean the difference between closing a deal or losing the customer.
Coping in Stressful Situations:
Calm, level-headed team members can dictate how an emergency is handled.
Interpersonal Skills:
Candidates need to be able to work well with others to keep the team productive and harmonious.
These tips should help you to hire the correct digital marketing graduates who have the necessary experience and skills to help your digital agency reach its goals.
For more resources on digital marketing, social media marketing, content marketing and web design visit us at: http://www.blog.wsioms.co.za/
by Marianna Muscat | Sep 24, 2019 | PPC
Pay-per-click (PPC) is an extremely useful tool – when used properly. However, when not fully and carefully implemented, it can be not only useless but also costly. We have identified the five most common PPC mistakes made by online marketers, as well as some suggestions on how to give them a wide berth.
1. Not Recognising How Your Market Is Segmented
You need to know from the outset that not all clicks are alike. Your target market can be divided into three general segments: search, display and social. Search covers those audience members who are actively seeking out information on your brand. Display refers to those who might come across your ad purely by accident, as it displays among whatever content they may be looking at. Then there’s social, which obviously means those people who have come across your content on social networks. They could be searchers or displayers. These segments need to be targeted and measured separately and with tailored approaches. Divide your audience into silos and treat each one accordingly.
2. Not Having a Strategy
Doing anything without a strategy usually doesn’t turn out well. To use a fishing analogy, you can’t just throw out your line and wait for a bite. You need to carefully select your bait, put on your waders and perfect your fly fishing skills. You need to know who you’re aiming at, how to reach them and what your exact objectives are in doing so.
3. Using “Broad Match” with Short-Tail Search Terms
As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, short-tail keywords seldom render the best results. In PPC, you may want to bid on short-tail keywords anyway. But, if you do, you should never opt for broad match. Always opt for “exact match” and select all available modifiers. This will make your PPC spending far more cost-effective.
4. Writing Bland, Emotionless Content
You need to write your copy with your click-through rate (CTR) in mind. Generic-looking content with no emotional hook is guaranteed not to deliver a lot of click-throughs, as there is nothing to entice the reader. Make sure your ad content is attention-grabbing and, most importantly, emotionally charged. Give your audience a reason to click through.
5. Running Your Conversion Funnel without Testing
Finally, never ever run your site and conversion funnel without testing them. Use analytics to determine whether it meets all your objectives and is providing the kind of user experience that leads to conversion. Recruit a few test users and check out their responses, make sure that the funnel is working across all devices and check that your analytics are running accurately.PPC is not something you want to gamble on. By avoiding these primary missteps, you can ensure that your spending is always worth it.
WSI OMS is an expert at PPC. Contact us to discuss, strategise and implement an effective, high-conversion PPC plan.
by Marianna Muscat | Sep 23, 2019 | Digital Media Marketing
Holidays and other notable days of the year are some of the “prime” periods for business owners and marketers to take advantage of. Here is how to use digital marketing on that big holiday and festive seasons:
• Social Media Marketing
Make sure that you post content related to that big holiday coming up, you can do this a few days in advance of the actual day. You could also post something on the day. Chances are many folks are trawling the internet looking for special deals especially because of the holiday. This brings us to our next point…
• Create Special Discounts and Deals
Leverage the holidays to improve sales during slow months. As we’ve mentioned, people are always looking for a good deal. Offering a discount will encourage people to buy more because they are saving. Give them a reason to buy your product on this day. Some ideas include offering free delivery, buy-one-get-one-free specials or promotion codes.
You need to make sure that you use search engine optimisation to help your viewers find your promotion.
• Can Your Promo Help Your Customer?
Potential customers have problems – and you need to help solve them. The reason customers are looking at content on your website is in the hopes to find that missing solution to their problem.
Use your content marketing strategy to promote this solution for your customers.
•Let Your Audience Know in Advance
You can increase your sales by telling your audience about your specials in advance. Speak to your audience through digital advertising such as social media marketing, newsletters and emails. You could even take advantage of traditional advertising (TV commercials, newspapers, billboards, flyers, etc).
Using the holidays to your advantage can help to boost sales, especially during relatively slow months.
Do you need help with SEO, website design, link building and other digital marketing solutions? Contact WSI OMS today!
