If you want the content you’re investing in to work really hard for you, your initial focus needs to be on what you want it to deliver.

For example, do you want new customers? Are they buyers, sellers, tenants or investors? Of course, your target audience might include all of these, but it’s a good idea to start with just one and then, when you’ve cracked that, to move on to the next one.

Make sure that your content multi-tasks!
Once you have focused on one target group, think through how you can produce information that can be used both off-line, perhaps as a printed guide or a seminar, and also on–line, for example as a PDF-downloadable guide that can then be posted on-line as a series of ‘tips for landlords’ or ‘ten essential things a first time buyer needs to know’. Alternatively – or alongside this – you could film a seminar you’ve presented and place that on-line.

I currently do this with the checklists we create on Propertychecklists.co.uk (http://www.propertychecklists.co.uk). We produce the checklists on-line, then create them as a PDF. We print them out to take to shows so they reach their target audience, such as property investors or first-time buyers. We then promote them as a ‘checklist of the week’ on social media including Facebook and Google+. On the likes of Twitter, rather than promote the whole checklist, we tweet the checklists’ top 5 tips on the hour, every hour, throughout the week.

Create on-going content
One great way to create on-going content is to produce information that needs updating every month and/or quarter, and/or annually.

As an example, each month I produce a summary of all the latest property price reports or property rental reports. (http://www.designsonproperty.co.uk/categories/Latest-Property-Market-Statistics-2014) Every two months I produce an in-depth report on property prices and every quarter I bring one out on rents.

I use these as content for our newsletters, and email PDF versions to the journalists I meet, thus ensuring I always keep in touch with them, along with anyone who has attended a seminar or signed up to my website.

What content works?
Speaking from my experience, and judging from the most popular emails and presentations I do every year, content should meet the following five criteria:-

1. Ask questions in the email/tweet/seminar title, for example, which borough or house type has most increased in value in the last 12 months?
2. Make it specific to your audience, for example, “how to maximise your buy to let returns”
3. Be positive; for instance, for first time buyers,  your heading might read “You can afford a home for £10,000”
   (or less if this applies in your area)
4. Make sure that your emails and any on-line content will work on mobile and other devices, for example, titles need to be less than 60 characters.
5. Above all, be honest and transparent. Whether rents or prices are rising or falling, someone will always be happy. For you, this means making sure that if rents are rising, you let landlords know the ‘good news’, while advising tenants on how to cope in a market where rents are increasing. Similarly, if rents are falling, then offer advice to landlords on how to reduce their costs accordingly while still retaining tenants.

Helping your customers to understand what’s actually happening to rents and prices is really helpful to you as an agent, as it creates trust. Your local media will also love covering what is happening in your region if it’s different to what’s happening nationally, so it’s well worth being straight about current developments locally.

For more help on ideas for content, please email: [email protected] or call 01652 641 722