Reputable copywriting services are usually expensive. This mostly has to do with the facts that good creative writers are at a premium, and that copywriting as a trade is time-intensive by nature. If you, or someone working with you is able to write compelling sales copy for your real estate business, then that could be a huge money saver when developing, revamping, or building upon the original resources of your website. Here are some handy tips that, when practiced together, will help you avoid the biggest common mistakes amateur sales writers make.
1. Be Confident
Most of the time, a home transaction is the biggest financial deal a person can make in their lifetime. If you don’t project confidence in your writing, that belies your status as a well-qualified real estate professional. We’re not saying you should bury all humble language six feet beneath the earth, but choosing to use a writing tone that reflects the best of what you have to offer is important.
2. Express The Personality Of Your Business
If you don’t tap into what it is that makes people enjoy working with you, chances are your real estate sales copy will sound flat like every other generic, template-based Realtor website’s pitch. Don’t be afraid to use humor and compelling personal stories, so long as they “work” in real life. Basically it’s your job to translate the successful parts of your professional style into writing with your website sales copy.
3. Write With Purpose And Substance
This tip is two-fold; first, you must have an objective with each piece of copy, then you must ensure that whatever you are addressing is done in a thorough fashion that truly provides useful information to your audience. Whether you are writing a property description, an open house flyer, or your website’s homepage content, the facts that you must strategize your writing approach and give your readers a quality experience of the topic never changes.
4. Use Proper Spelling And Grammar
No, it isn’t spelling class and you won’t be graded by a teacher. However, anyone who reads an article you’ve written on the intricacies of a short sale that is filled with runon sentences and improper use of punctuation will subconsciously (or outright, if they are sensitive to reading poorly written documents) begin to question your authority as an expert on the topic. And the likelihood of a website exit becomes… well, much more likely.
5. Address Your Core Demographics
Keeping this in mind will decrease the chances that your real estate sales copy falls flat. This is because forcing yourself to write to the types of clients you typically serve will take you into the comfort zone of your strongest suits as a real estate professional. The idea is to get yourself into the “success zone” that you find yourself in when you are on the path to closing deals, and speak to your usual clients with the same language in your writing.
6. Underpromise And Overdeliver
If you provide unique services that go above and beyond the competition, that’s great. Don’t simply spend all of your best writing energy bragging about them. It is far more important to immediately reassure your reader that they have reached a reliable resource (your website), provided by qualified professionals (you and your team). Anything else is icing on the cake.
BONUS TIP: If there are a couple of special things you do for clients, it might be best to hold onto those as “tuck-ins” when you get leads on the phone or in your office. Those are the kinds of things that can instill additional confidence, but aren’t likely to sway your readership alone, as they are first trying to figure out if your business can provide them with what they are looking for on a basic level.
7. Emphasize Your Qualifications
In the same spirit as the last tip, this one points to addressing the immediate concerns of your readership. If your real estate sales copy doesn’t quickly convince your target demographic that you are qualified to speak authoritatively about the industry, they will likely leave the page. That’s why it’s a good idea to intersperse into your writing, when appropriate, the professional affiliations, real estate certifications, and practical experience you have. Strong testimonials are another direct reflection of your ability to deliver upon promises you make.
8. Direct Attention Towards Actions
No matter how well you intelligently inform your audience about a topic, establishing your qualifications as you go along, eventually you will need to direct attention to how you can be of service. There are two types of ways you can help your reader another step with you; through additional resources your website has, or through contact with your business. Most of the time, if your website has contact information prominently displayed on all pages (as it should), your prompting people to outright pick up the phone and give you a ring will fall flat. The more effective tact is to continue directing your readers to additional relevant and useful resources on your site until there really isn’t any other step but to contact you directly.
9. Keep Keyword Relevance In Mind
This is not an article on the scientific definition of “search engine optimization,” but it never hurts to make sure that your real estate sales copy has keywords that your readers will typically associate with services provided by a real estate business. This is more just something for you to use as an editing tip; if your writing doesn’t seem to mention new homes, high-rise condos, waterfront properties, some other key inventory your market contains, then tastefully add them in. Just be mindful of your content’s “keyword density,” as human beings don’t enjoy reading a list of keywords. That just looks spammy.
10. Monitor Your Readership
We emphasize this in nearly every single tips article: it doesn’t matter what you do to market your website if you aren’t tracking the results you get from your efforts. To do so is like being completely blind. You’d be just as well off guessing what writing strategies are most effective for your unique real estate business and its search market. Google gives you a killer freebie called Analytics that will make tracking how long people spend on certain content pages a breeze. After a couple of months, you’ll probably see a clear difference between which pages have a high bounce rate (and could use improvement) and those that keep your readers going through the entire article and then exiting to another article, search feature, or contact page.
For more expert advice on effective real estate content writing, visit our Search Engine Optimization section.