One of the many marketing-related tasks and activities your real estate marketing assistant can help you with is writing content. This includes writing content for your website, your blog, social media captions, email newsletter, brochures, flyers, mailers, scripts for videos, and more!

Let’s say you want to write a blog for your real estate website, and you need your marketing assistant to help you get it done. How should you approach collaborating on this? How can your real estate marketing assistant help you write blog posts?

Before I dive into the specifics, here are a few things to make note of:

The blog (or whatever you’re creating) is 100% yours. To be clear, what you and your marketing assistant create is 100% yours (or at least, it should be. Make sure your contract/agreement is clear on this!). Your marketing assistant is not the author of the blog, although they may be the ghostwriter. They are there working behind the scenes to support you.
You need to understand the voice of your content. If you are a single agent, this blog is coming from YOU, and it’s in YOUR voice. If you are a real estate agent on a team, or if the blog is coming from a real estate brokerage, there needs to be a clear understanding of the voice behind any piece of content. If you’re writing a blog for your real estate team’s website, are you writing from a “we” (aka the entire team) standpoint? Or are you writing as one specific team member? There’s no right or wrong answer here; you just need to know this before you start.
There are many different work styles. There is no right or wrong way, you just need to know which one is you! Which method will ensure the work get done? Which method gets you the end result you desire?
Do keep in mind that marketing assistants do not all have the same level of writing skills. Marketing assistants in the real estate industry are often expected to be a jack-of-all-trades. At large companies, there’s an entire marketing department with several employees each with their own special areas of expertise; there are copywriters, graphic designers, social media managers, etc. Most real estate assistants/managers are expected to do all of this and much more. Just remember that everyone will have their own strengths and areas where they will grow while working with you.

Now, let’s assume that you already have a blog topic in mind and you are ready to get to work. How should you approach writing this blog post?

Here are a few of the different content writing collaboration styles I’ve used with my clients:

1. You write the blog. Your marketing assistant proofreads and makes any basic edits.

This is the perfect option if you enjoy writing, know you will sit down to do the work, and need some space by yourself to get your ideas down. Once you’re finished writing, you can turn it over to your marketing assistant and they can take it from there.

2. You write a very, very rough draft. Your marketing assistant cleans it up and makes it make sense.

In this scenario, your rough draft is NOT meant to be finished in any way. It might even be a kind of stream of consciousness (although hopefully a bit more coherent), or an outline where you dump your thoughts. Your marketing assistant needs to help organize your thoughts. Once they take the draft to the next level, they will likely need to check in with you to further fill in the blanks, or ask clarifying questions.

3. Your marketing assistant interviews you and takes notes on everything. They write the first draft, getting it as close to finished as possible.

Many real estate agents are better at or feel more comfortable talking through their ideas. You and your marketing assistant will sit down together, and you will talk while your marketing assistant takes notes on a computer. (Personally, I can type much faster than I can handwrite anything!). Your marketing assistant should also be prepared to engage with the material, and ask you any follow-up questions that might be pertinent to the topic at hand.

Then, your marketing assistant will take their notes and write the blog. They’ll get it as close to ready as possible, and then it will be time for you to review and make your edits. At this stage, it’s completely normal for you both to need a few more back and forths to get the blog post just right. It’s also normal if you love it and the blog is ready to go!

4. Your marketing assistant writes the blog, and you revise.

This option is great if your marketing assistant has a decent understanding of you + your business, is good at researching, and is a strong writer. You’ll need to tell your marketing assistant things like the topic and a general idea of what you have in mind. It’s also helpful if you can show them a few examples of writing you like (could be other real estate blogs; just for inspiration, not for copying), and share why you like it. Your marketing assistant should try to get the blog post as close to being finished as possible. Then, it’s your turn to make revisions and share feedback.

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No matter which type of collaboration style you choose, your marketing assistant should be the one to do the following final steps:

Upload the completed blog on your website.
Format the blog, paying close attention to detail.
Add links wherever applicable. (Google loves it when you include links to other websites AND to other content within your own website.)
Gather, label, and upload photos. (You’ll likely need to collaborate on this together. Your marketing assistant can be in charge of providing options for the cover photo and any applicable photos within the blog, and you can have the final say (if you’d like). This includes embedding photos/videos from social media platforms.)
Fill out any fields on the backend. (Like SEO optimization, for example).
Hit the publish button!
Make sure the published public-facing version of the blog is displaying properly.

As you can see, once the written component of a blog is finished, there’s still quite a bit to be done. And this doesn’t even include distribution of the blog, which might include sharing it on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, your email newsletter, etc.

If you’d like to learn more about collaborating with a marketing assistant, be sure to check out my blog “Your Real Estate Marketing Assistant Can't Read Your Mind, So Here’s What To Do!”!