Roberto Pizzinelli, CEO of the Bologna-based web agency that has been Great Estate’s web and social media partner since 2017, explains the transformation of the magazine in the last three years of activity.
The deep revolution in Great Estate’s communications has inevitably affected one of the agency’s key promotional tools as well. The Great Estate Magazine, one of the greatest group’s tools, has undergone a series of important changes over the years, not only in terms of technology and graphics but also and above all in terms of style and content. A process of substantial change, aimed at transforming the Magazine into an accessible tool open to any type of audience, not only related to insiders or acquired clients but also suitable for any type of user, who surfing the web is looking for information on the universe of Real Estate. After all, it is every entrepreneur’s dream to make their work known in all its facets, strengths, and peculiarities. But succeeding in constant, targeted communication with quality content is no easy task and requires a major effort in terms of time and resources, even for the most structured company.
The GE Magazine is the result of all these efforts and of a long-term vision made up of objectives (communication and otherwise) to be achieved. In order to achieve relevant results and fit into the Group’s new strategic plan, our Magazine has become much more than a blog, revised and enhanced first of all in its technical infrastructure.
After a careful study of the situation, the Engine Lab staff, who took over in 2017 as head of the company’s web & social sector, first of all, implemented the WordPress platform, on which the magazine is based, optimizing it in every aspect: security, performance, and user experience, customizing the code according to the new editorial requirements. At the same time, a deep transformation was needed in the choice and creation of content and its timing and mode of publication.
One of the first actions taken by the Engine Lab staff was to analyse all the content of the magazine, to understand its structure and strategy. Once this was done, a new communication plan was drawn up, which not only included a complete overhaul of the tool. The aim was not to use the magazine as a duplicate of the site, but to give it a personality and an independent life, playing above all the card of in-depth analysis. A new editorial plan was therefore drawn up, identifying well-defined thematic headings with varied content.
Not only properties for sale, but also focus on real estate agents and their daily work, interviews with clients, sellers or buyers, in-depth analysis of issues closely related to the regulatory and technical aspects of a real estate negotiation, but also to the territories hosting Great Estate properties.
The intention is to focus attention, above all, on the work done to manage the properties offered for sale, on the experiences of those who have relied on GE with an important expectation: to sell and buy a dream property.
Useful experiences to guide and inform future sellers or buyers of luxury properties who will rely on Great Estate to tell their success story.
The broadening of the topics covered was also accompanied by a significant reduction in the weekly publication, moving from a massive production to a more rationalised one that was more in line with the trends in blogs in the sector. There was also more technical work on content creation: from the tone of voice to the general style, from the choice of images to the call to action; Everything has been studied in detail to ensure that the magazine really becomes a central tool in Great Estate’s communication, not only to the outside but also to the inside of the agency.
In order for this new strategy to work, it was essential to create an even stronger bridge between Engine Lab and Great Estate: teamwork, especially on the Magazine, was the real trump card, which allowed the platform to grow, not only in terms of quality, but also in terms of audience, both nationally and internationally.
In this regard, a big thank you goes to Chiara Peppicelli, Magazine Coordinator, who chose to get involved with us, taking charge of this project and being guided in its transformation to become the true heart of the Magazine.
Would you like to read her interview? Click here.
All these strategic activities have proved, after three years of work, to be highly significant and have led Great Estate towards a new communication in the world of Luxury Real Estate, where professionalism, sharing of experiences, professional growth, and constant communication become a reference in the sector.
At a later stage, the Engine Lab staff also planned specific indexing work for the magazine. Right from the start, the strategy adopted for the magazine involved a series of very important interventions on the structure of the blog and, in order to achieve significant results in terms more closely related to web marketing, it was necessary to envisage several phases of intervention.
At the basis of the web marketing strategy adopted was the desire to follow a path in several steps that would mark a strong separation in content between the site and the blog, leading to greater popularity (and therefore visibility on the part of Google and the network in general) in order to increase circulation, notoriety, and user traffic volumes.
As with the GE site, a dynamic SEO plan was devised for the magazine, capable of guaranteeing a correct start-up of the new site (which has been optimised and has undergone considerable changes in its code) and of following its evolution.
The first phase served to “mark the change and propose the new working method to Google“, then went on to show them a site that was technically correct and rich in original, quality content (a prerequisite for a blog). Subsequent phases saw a more aggressive strategy, able to get more “visibility credit” from Google by virtue of the good work done previously.
At present, a complete monitoring of all keywords used in the SEO plan is carried out every 3 days in all markets where the magazine is present and working.
This monitoring provides the Engine Lab’s marketing staff with the information they need to assess trends and the need for action, changing strategy and activities as necessary. The enormous speed with which Google takes in the Magazine’s posts (spreading them across the web) together with the countless updates that it introduces to the market, requires constant updating which, together with the stability of the IT infrastructure, guarantees constant growth in indexing and visitors.
A complex and daily work, which has the fundamental objective of making the Magazine become a more and more active part of Great Estate’s commercial activity.
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