NEW YORK – March 7, 2013 – CopyPress recently surveyed 329 marketing specialists to identify changes in marketing focus.

According to the study, about half the marketing specialists planned to change part of their focus this year, and most (34.8 percent) were making a turn toward content marketing. In 2012, 18.9 percent moved toward content marketing.

Content marketing emphasizes the information delivered through a blog, video, picture, white paper, etc. In the past, keyword optimization moved a website higher in search engines, which generally raised a company’s profile and got more consumers to visit their website. While that still has importance, the sheer magnitude of copy on the Internet and through emails is staggering. Content marketers say it’s more than number of clicks – it’s how long people stay; how much they trust the writer; how often an article or Twitter post goes viral.

Many real estate companies have started to focus on content marketing. RealtyTrac’s network of brokerages, for example, create local market-specific reports. Trulia publishes a “Real Estate Lab” that identifies housing market trends. While other marketing efforts may get consumers to visit real estate websites, Facebook, etc., the companies believe that intelligent, usable content will entice buyers and sellers to return.

“I think with all of the new content marketing sites and home-based businesses, the competition (for consumers) is going to grow,” says Andrea Buginsky, a freelance writer with a BA in Mass Communications-Journalism from the University of South Florida, in the CopyPress report. “If your prospective customers are not impressed with your content, they will move on to the next vendor and not look at what you have to offer.”

The report asked survey recipients about their primary marketing focus in 2012 and 2013.

Primary marketing efforts – 2013 percent – 2012 percent
Content marketing – 34.8% – 18.9%
Social media – 24.7% – 24.3%
Search engine optimization – 14.6% – 18.9%
Email – 10.4% – 25.6%
Mobile – 9.2% – 3.2%
Pay-per-click – 3.2% – 6%
Media buying – 3.2% – 3.2%

© 2013 Florida Realtors®