5 tips to market your listing from Chris Smith

In a recent webinar from Adwerx hosted by Inman, Chris Smith from Curaytor was in top form.

It’s no wonder he’s a sought-after speaker and best-selling author. His book The Conversion Code is one of the dog-eared copies of books we’ve seen at major real estate events. So Chris Smith wanted to help the agents on the webinar understand how digital advertising can help them market their listings.

His one-word answer? Content.

But not just any content. The right content and the right way to get people to see the content. He calls it CABing.

Create great content.

Advertise your content.

Blast it out.

So how do agents create the right content?

“Take it back to why you got into real estate,” Chris Smith told the attendees. “The agent’s goal was to list homes and work with buyers.”

And that goes to the heart of your digital marketing strategy. But so many agents struggled with filling their content pipeline. Chris says the place to start for the best content is with a listing. And every listing offers 5 unique opportunities for content marketing.

Coming soon. This isn’t allowed in all markets. But if it is allowed, use it. That means you announce a listing before it goes to Zillow and before it’s on the MLS. It lets you offer access before anybody else can. “These are some of the best leads we get because it’s exclusive,” said Chris.
Just listed. In the old days, you sent postcards. Did the postcards sell the home? Not usually. But did it promote the face that you are the agent that is listing a local home for sale? It sure did. And social media now fills that role even better. Use Facebook to announce new listings and you can geo-target those ads in the same way as postcards, but you’ll be able to see engagement as well.
Price reduction. It happens. The house wasn’t priced for the market. Maybe that was a dialogue between you and the seller, but however it happened, Chris wants you to capitalize on it. Share the news with your digital content and open the conversation.
Open house. This isn’t just about times and dates. Why does this open house matter? What’s different about the listing and the experience the buyers can expect? How can you tease the open house to make it worth exploring?
Just sold. Here’s the celebration. You sold it! Your sellers are happy. Buyers are happy. Two parties are about their change their lives and you were at the heart of the transaction.

Okay, the truth is there is a 6th tip, but Chris wanted to give credit where credit was due.

“We learned this from Redfin,” he freely shared.

And it’s a last call for offers. As in, you announce that there is now an offer and 24 hours left for any other interested parties to get their offer in. It’s exciting, it’s timely and it’s a powerful piece of content for you.

Remember, the type of bait you put on the hook is proportionate to the fish you catch. This means that if you market a Home Search tool, you’ll get all sorts of buyers looking for homes. But if you market the $850K home, you can catch more $850K fish.

Market your listings with Adwerx digital ads

While you build out content around your listings, you can run Adwerx ads that echo the content of your post: from Just Listed to Just Sold. Then drive to the content you developed! Chris described how Adwerx ads and their retargeting capacity are an integral part of your content strategy.

“They see your ad, but instead of clicking it, they go search it,” he said. “That won’t show up in your Adwerx analytics, but you’re still seeing a lift.”

But how do you know something is working if you can’t measure it precisely? Chris Smith has the answer. “The two analytics that matter most are your growth and your gut. Do you feel good about your ads? Are you growing? If the answer is yes and yes, the stats don’t matter as much.