The home builder industry is a highly technical field that requires knowledge of engineering, architecture, design, and other such specialties. This makes content marketing a challenge for home builders because their target audience doesn’t have the same technical expertise.
Builders may struggle to come up with ideas that will interest and engage their target audiences and are forced to repeat the same set of topics over and over again. In this article, we outline few content ideas that can help you attract and engage your audience.
1. Use Different Content Mediums
Text content is the easiest form of content so most home builders will rely on it. While text works well for certain topics, it’s a good idea to incorporate other forms like video, infographics, white papers, and etc. Videos are particularly effective in the home builder industry because you can actively showcase your skills and talent through this medium. Your target audience will see you perform a repair or construction and it will be easier for them to understand the process and skills behind it. Videos are also a little more personal and can help you connect with your audiences directly.
2. Look for Common Questions That Your Target Audiences Will Have
If you have some experience in the home building field, you know which questions and queries are common among your target audience. Some clients might want to know more about the home building procedures, others may like to know more about the rules and regulations involved. All you need to do is make a list of common questions that your target audiences might have and provide answers to them. This will bring attention to your blog constantly because everyone who wants to build a home will have similar questions.
3. Be Location Specific
Most home building companies operate within one particular area. When you create content, make sure that all your information is location specific. For example, if you only build homes in Arlington, TX, you should create content that’s relevant to people in Arlington. You should mention the rules and regulations, the specific construction requirements of your location, and include some long-tail keywords in your content.
This will draw your local audiences and narrow down the competition. People who want to build new homes always want location-specific information and don’t want to browse through hundreds of government websites to find it. If you provide comprehensive local information, you’ll earn their trust and they’ll be more likely to hire you.
4. Be Consistent
Some home builders don’t update their blog regularly. They only post content when they have interesting content ideas and can let their blog become inactive when they’re busy. While this is understandable, it can have an impact on your search engine rankings. An active blog is actually the easiest way to maintain your rankings because it shows Google that you have the latest and most current information on your website.
As search engines want to provide users with the most relevant results, they’ll always choose good websites that have recent activity. You don’t always need to post well-researched and long-form content. You can post pictures of your most recent projects and explain the process involved. That’s easy to do and will get you good engagement from your visitors.
5. Recycle Content
If you have maintained an active blog for several years now, you can recycle your old content. For example, if you have a blog post from 2012 that was very successful and gained attention from your target audience, you can upgrade the information, correct any misinformation, and repost it. This is easier than creating new content but will help you gain more visibility in search engines and social media. Home builders are often hesitant to recycle content because they believe that it can have an impact on their reputation, but most audiences will appreciate the updated information.
6. Long-Form Content
Long-form content pieces are blog posts with around 1,000 to 1,200 words. You can get away with 800 or 900 words as well but anything below than will be ranked lower by the search engines if there is better information available elsewhere. Long-form content isn’t always easy to write because you need to find information to fill the space, but these pieces provide consistent engagement for several weeks, if not months. They will be well-worth the effort you put into them.
7. List Articles
List articles are very popular because they’re easy to read and digest. People online have very short attention spans and will skim articles if they can. With list articles, your viewers can just look at the subheadings and a few sentences in every paragraph if they don’t have time to read the full post. The organized format is also very presentable and will look good on your website. Posts like “10 things to expect when building a home” or “5 questions to ask your home builder”, etc., should get you a lot of engagement.
These seven tips will help you create a solid content marketing campaign for your home building business.
