By now, you probably understand the importance of incorporating content marketing into your real estate marketing strategy. And, you’ve probably also heard just how important high-quality, relevant content is for attracting leads, building your brand, and engaging with your audience.  

As real estate industry trends change and consumer behavior evolves, digital content can and should follow suit. Content comes in many different forms – from blogs to videos to images to interactive website elements, and a whole lot more. Typically, real estate content falls into written, video, image, and audio-based forms. Below we break down the most prominent real estate content trends in 2021 and examples of each.  

The Top 7 Real Estate Content Trends in 2021

1. Property and Neighborhood Tours
2. Hyperlocal Community Insights
3. Informative Guides, How-To’s, and eBooks 
4. Real Estate Stats and Trends 
5. Highlighting Honest Reviews and Testimonials 
6. More Humanized Content 
7. An Increased Interest in Audio 

Tours of Properties and Neighborhoods

There’s no doubt about it: video content is extremely popular and highly valuable –  82% of all online traffic comes from videos. Specifically for the real estate industry, video tours of properties and neighborhoods are both necessary and highly popular. This was true before the pandemic and the demand has grown rapidly ever since. Now, for working professionals, people relocating, international buyers, and others who feel more comfortable with digital tools like virtual tours, the convenience of being able to see and get a feeling for a home and a neighborhood is a major drive for consuming video content. Including neighborhood focused and listing videos will enhance both your listings and local content. Potential buyers can see if a property is right for them before spending the time and resources traveling there and real estate agents get more qualified buyers as result. On the listing side, most sellers expect their real estate agent to use video, so being able to leverage video for multiple different needs, from listing marketing to attracting out-of-area buyers, will strengthen sellers’ perception of the value you provide and differentiate you from others. As an added bonus to helping your sellers, if you upload your videos to a YouTube channel, you will also boost your SEO and drive more leads to your real estate website. 

Hyperlocal Community Insights

Whether they take the form of detailed blog posts, video interviews with local businesses, helpful infographics, area information like points of interest and schools, maps, or more, people place a high value on hyperlocal content that gives them a true sense of place. The types of information that potential buyers could be looking for are what the schools, childcare options, taxes, laws, entertainment, food options, quality of life, and more are like. Sellers will connect your local knowledge with your expertise and the likelihood of them achieving their desired outcome as well. Keep in mind that hyperlocal may truly mean having a neighborhood, community, development, and even street level focus, especially depending on the area you serve. It’s better for your potential customers, and Google, to be seen as an expert in a few hyperlocal areas first and then expand your content in the most relevant way (based on what people are finding most valuable), whether that be by lifestyle, geography, property type, services, or more.

Informative Guides, How-To’s, and eBooks

Given the wealth of information that’s available on buying and selling a house, many people turn toward online content to help guide them through the process and prepare them for what to expect. Long-form written content gives you the space to fully detail what they need to know and include any accompanying data or visuals. Providing buyers and sellers with this information will also set you up to become a go-to resource for them. 

For those looking to sell their homes, content focused on home improvement, appraisals, home staging, and deciding on a price tends to be of high interest. Buyers also want to be prepared for what the buying process looks like, especially since it’s looked a little different in the past year-and-a-half. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, 15% of all buyers found that understanding the steps involved with buying a house was the most helpful aspect of buying a house. Some other content topics they’re interested in include: knowing when to start looking for a home, how to put in the best offer, what happens if a bidding war occurs, and how to choose the best agent. Because sellers want to know what you’re doing to find qualified buyers, focusing on this real estate content trend makes sense not only to appeal to buyers looking to be as prepared as possible, but also to win more listings.

Real Estate Trends and Market Data

Providing clear, easy-to-digest stats and highlighting key trends helps your potential customers to understand the complex real estate landscape, while also solidifying your value in their eyes. Particularly on social media, infographics are extremely popular. Because the real estate industry relies heavily on images, infographics and real estate go hand in hand. They give the viewer an easy snapshot of the most important information they need to know about the industry and are great for sharing on social media. Plus, they’ll give you something to which to refer back if or when you get questions about why you recommend pricing a home a certain way, what your clients should expect to pay for things like closing costs, and so much more. Check out Canva for an easy-to-use tool to use to create your own eye-catching real estate graphics, including infographics.

Highlighting Honest Reviews and Testimonials

With Internet usage as high as ever, buyers and sellers increasingly toward social media to search for information and seek validation in their home buying and selling decisions. Social media is used to discover places they may want to live, agents with whom they may want to work, and to better understand specific communities. People value the opinions of others in their network, look for honest reviews on companies and people, and are influenced by the idea of “social proof”, which is the idea that the company or person others trust is who they should trust. Making sure you have a sufficient number of reviews, especially on Google and Facebook though also on directory sites like Yelp, and that the reviews look as if real people wrote them is key. As for the types of content in which reviews and testimonials can come, leveraging video interviews or graphics with text is common and recommended over text alone. 

More Humanized Content

You may recall seeing dozens of companies post screenshots of Zoom meetings and virtual team bonding activities during the early months of the COVID-era. You may have been one of them. People like to be able to see others with whom they may potentially work in the future. We all want to feel like we’re connecting with a human, not a piece of technology. Content that highlights photos of your team, organizations with whom and events at which you volunteer, and personal information are all things potential customers want to see and consumers today expect from companies. After all, the trend toward authenticity isn’t new; it’s something millennials have favored for years. Being authentically you and sharing your values can come in many formats. Examples include blog posts in response to different events or causes and videos of you with others, like your past customers and your team. Sharing more of yourself, without making what you’re sharing all about you, is a strong way to establish that all-important trust with your audience. 

Increase Interest in Audio 

Though podcasts have been growing in popularity over the past several years, they – and other audio-driven content and applications like Clubhouse –  have grown even more popular during the pandemic. Audio channels can showcase interviews, be a great vehicle for telling stories, serve as a good place for Q&As, and more. Audio content makes the audience feel as though they’re joining in on the conversation and are a part of an experience, as opposed to less interactive and dimensional content forms. Unsure where to start? Check out this great article on how to start a podcast and remember, you can also experiment with audio ads (called programmatic audio) and other shorter formats to start.

Interested in learning more about these real estate content trends or the best content marketing strategy to help your business grow? Let’s connect!