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0 Industry secrets from successful agents and wicked-smart CMOs – and your friendly content marketing support from your cohorts here at THM.
It’s almost the COVID-19-interrupted Thanksgiving day which means many of us will likely experience fewer people surrounding our dining room table than last year’s turkey festivities. Maybe we’ll be thankful for that, considering the hot and potentially inflammatory topic of our presidential election here in the U.S. If you’re a real estate professional, maybe you’ll also be thankful for a bit of downtime, because honestly, who would’ve predicted the kind of unprecedented flurry of real estate market activity coming out of a truly stifling and life-threatening pandemic?
As a content marketer for luxury real estate professionals, I’m as amazed as you may be at the level of buying and selling commensurate with these “strange and unprecedented times.” Yet, here we are.
As I sit down to write this blog post, my research leads me to some predictions from industry experts at the beginning of the year right before the pandemic hit. While no one would’ve expected such a disruptive event as the life-threatening illness we’re experiencing to come on the scene, it’s interesting to read the expert assessments and compare them to what’s currently going on. Some are not too far off, like the prediction (from an impressive handful of pundits) that said places like Boise, Idaho or Richmond, Virginia are going to see an uptick in residential real estate interest throughout 2020, mainly because of its affordability. The year’s events, in fact, have only supported these predictions. With the pandemic-induced historically low mortgage rates and stay-at-home work situations, people are choosing to leave the bigger, more crowded cities, to places that hold promise for increased space for less money, as well as greater privacy which translates to less chance of COVID interactions. More populated cities with higher-than-average residential real estate prices are witnessing an exodus to cities like Boise and more rural areas where there may be some breathing room between you and your neighbors.
In the luxury real estate market, the results are similar, but with one slight difference. People are moving to places no matter the price point, with more outdoor space, indoor space, AND more amenities. When you think of this exodus, think New York City to the Long Island suburbs with its waterfront properties and less population density, or heavily technology-executive saturated San Francisco, California to Southern Nevada, a state known for its tax benefits and its position as the entertainment capital of the world. Need I say more? After pandemic restrictions softened throughout U.S. cities, real estate nationwide saw an unprecedented amount of activity; a combination of the spring months’ pent-up interest along with new buyers and sellers entering the market to take advantage of the low mortgage rates and home sale prices.
As content marketers for luxury real estate professionals, requests from our clients streamed in from all over the country. Their worry was not just about addressing the level of activity in the current market, but also the unprecedented amount of new competition. We began seeing more than the typical property descriptions, bios, and website copy. It became all about having marketing ideas for the purpose of standing out, staying ahead, and staying on top of the stream of competition entering their city, town, village, and specialized niche that they have worked years to build; a strong brand, a reliable customer base, and also a loyal following.
In the spirit of generosity and support for our current and future clients, we’d like to share several marketing ideas that have merit, industry-backing (from wicked-smart CMOs), and actual successful results. We decided to put these ideas out there during your “slow” season so you have time to reflect and consider your strategies for 2021, a year which also holds a great deal of promise from industry experts.
So…next up in our blog series, the first, most important, idea, from our perspective: follow the trends and speak loudly and boldly about them, on whatever channel your constituency happens to be on most.
Stay tuned.
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