Marketing Copy Techniques for Selling Listings

Seth Price reports:

"[T]he first thing to talk about with almost all advertising copy is standard language use. Pay attention to grammar; not that you can’t use some slang or abbreviations, but typos are a real challenge for folks. Also, spelling things in all caps may work in an angry email, but it’s not necessarily great for ad copy...Features are great. Those are the things that you detail in the amenities section. When you’re filling out your listing in the MLS and the house has granite [countertops], you want to make sure you list that. But, what you’re really selling is a connection with the buyer and that is generally about benefits. That might be the ability to experience an amazing view or have a fantastic place to live for your entire family. Whatever those things are, you’re creating a connection that they can picture in their mind and imagine themselves a good fit for...[Y]our customers are really smart and they’ve got lots of tools at their disposal to do search. So your job is to be as straightforward and compelling as you possibly can and be careful of words that have a double meaning. Some of those words...are red flags. If you say 'fixer-upper,' they’re thinking it’s a dump. If you say 'it’s cozy,' they’re thinking it’s probably too small to fit a bed into. You want to focus on the features or the best benefits that you can of that particular property and avoid those words that could mean something else to the consumer...[T]ry to frame price in context. You can talk about, for example, a Unique and Beautiful Ranch House Well Below Market Value. That’s the ability to imply that there may be a deal there without shouting, but still be [up front] about the price...Most folks don’t like to be sold to. A headline with 'Priced to Move Now,' is not necessarily helpful in providing information for the consumer. What you might focus on are, again, the benefits...[T]he idea is that you want to be as human as possible in your language and you want to make sure that you’re concise, because people are going to scan your content. They’re not going to read every word [that you] write, so get to the 'who, what, where, when, why, and how,' those important facts that people are searching for. And make sure that you fill out every attribute when you’re filling out your listings. Add as many photos [as] you possibly can. Most people do photos first, they’ve searched for price, and they make sure that the listing has some features they want. They’re really trying to get a sense of 'is this a good fit for [me?'] So, if you leave out some of those things that are really important for their decision[-]making process, you miss an opportunity...[M]ake sure that you include a CTA [call-to-action] on every landing page and every listing. For example, your CTA [call-to-action] might be 'We show at any time, day or night. Call us now.' That’s pretty compelling for someone who works during the day and assumes that the house they want is unavailable to see at night. I might call that agent and bypass everyone else, because I’m able to get what I want sooner."