If you want to be a successful Real Estate Agent, you need to have a real estate blog. A blog will help you attract leads, build trust and credibility, and establish yourself as an authority in your field. A blog that is not just a new-listings blog, but is also an informative resource for your clients and prospects. Oh, and it needs to be updated consistently.
Don’t disregard a real estate blog as being too much work, too time-consuming, or difficult to create. There are plenty of compelling reasons why you should be enthusiastic to start or improve your own real estate blog.
A Real Estate Blog Improves Your SEO For Better Visibility
What does that mean? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Google is more likely to find your site and present it as a higher-ranking search result when people search for “real estate”.
Think for just a moment about how you Google. You scan the first few returned search results. Maybe even the entire first page. How often do you go to the next pages? Do you normally go beyond the fourth page of search results?
That’s why SEO is so important. If you want potential customers to be able to find you easily when they search for real estate agents in your area, it is important to have high SEO.
Simple enough, but think of the implications:
- The next generation of buyers and sellers (the generation that doesn’t go to lunch without Googling or Yelping first) finds you instead of your competitors.
- Out-of-area agents looking to refer clients to an agent in your market also see you when they search for reputable agents to trust their leads to.
- You have automatic credibility with anyone searching for real estate in your market. People trust Google to return the best results, so if Google lists you on the front page of the search results, people (buyers, sellers, or out-of-market agents) will trust that you are the best.
The wonderful thing about having strong SEO is that people will come to you. We’ve all spent countless hours chasing new business. SEO will help to bring customers to your business even when you are not actively working.
How Does a Real Estate Blog Help with SEO?
We won’t spend a lot of time on this today, but I’ll give you a quick, basic explanation of how a real estate blog can help with your SEO.
Google has an algorithm that is sophisticated and searches web content for keywords that are relevant. It then analyses whether or not the web pages with those keywords are credible. It’s considering factors like:
- How much content is on this site?
- How often is this site updated?
- Are people sharing or commenting on this content?
- Does this site link to other sites, and do other sites link to it?
In order to make your site effective, you need to ensure that it is concise, user-friendly, informative, and visually appealing. By regularly posting on a real estate blog, you can attract more attention to your listings and drive more traffic to your website!
Pull In Your Leads Rather Than Push
Most real estate marketing tactics attempt to convert potential leads into sales. Push marketing is a type of marketing where businesses “push” their product onto customers. It involves putting the product in front of the customer, usually through advertising and promotion.
It’s sales 101. Cold calls, billboards, bench ads, etc.
Meanwhile, pull marketing is usually a good experience. This is when you provide enough value for the customer that they will choose your product on their own.
This is sales 2.0.
There are three ways to generate leads: word of mouth, referrals, and online content.
Inbound marketing begins with one crucial step, one that makes all the difference: The customer reaches out. They want to learn more about a specific topic. They type their question into Google.
You have the opportunity to make a good first impression that will make people want to keep coming back and (hopefully) encourage others to do the same.
And it all begins with a real estate blog.
A Real Estate Blog Demonstrates Your Expertise
Writing blog posts gives you a chance to show off your knowledge to potential clients and other agents who might want to give you referrals.
You can demonstrate that you are knowledgeable about your specific markets by writing about local market conditions. A recap of the sales statistics for the month, followed by a quick analysis of the data to make it meaningful to your audience, will give you immediate credibility.
You can show that you know a lot about real estate by writing articles that explain what people should do when buying or selling property. Provide your readers and clients with guidance through the transaction process, something they will be grateful for. The posts can also be used to set client expectations so they know what to expect, for example, an inspection that returns fifty “issues”.
Making yourself the authority on local real estate will work in your favor. Potential buyers and sellers will be more likely to work with you because they will know that you are experienced and know what you are doing. The agents who work in areas outside of where you live will be able to give you leads with confidence, knowing that the quality of your work will make them look good.
A Real Estate Blog Increases Engagement with Your Prospects and Clients
A real estate blog helps people find you, makes them want to work with you, and also increases engagement with your prospects and clients. In multiple ways actually.
Blogs increase engagement by:
- Helping you stay in front of your audience
- Potentially opening a dialogue through the post comments
- Making it easy for people to share your content with potential leads via social media
- Providing a comfortable way for the next generation to reach out to you; they aren’t going to pick up the phone and call, so you want to be available for their questions through social media, email, and blog comments
If you’re more engaged with your clients and prospects, you’ll have more opportunities to establish yourself as their agent in their minds. When it comes time to list or shop, they’re going to go to the person they trust the most.
A Real Estate Blog Builds Your Email List
Building your email list can be a great way to expand your business. This is a missed opportunity that many agents do not exploit.
Here’s why you need to build an email list:
- You can send notices to your email list when you publish a new blog post for increased touches and opportunities for engagement
- You can email your list when you get a new listing, increasing visibility
- You’ll already have a list of warm leads
An email list will be very helpful for your future projects and will probably make them more successful than without one.
How Does a Real Estate Blog Build Your Email List?
Your real estate blog can build your email list by giving readers an option to subscribe to your blog and providing their email addresses. The email address of the person you are sending the email to is then stored with the email management provider you have chosen. The email management provider will send an email to your list whenever a new post is published, prompting them to take a look.
But blog subscription sign-ups alone aren’t terribly effective. If you want more people to share their email addresses with you, you need to give them an incentive. Lead magnets, or freebies, are a great way for bloggers to attract new readers.
The Goal of Your Blog
The main aim of all of this work is to increase your audience, generate leads, build your business and grow your income.
Having a real estate blog is a competitive advantage for now. Not many agents have a blog with consistent and unique content. You can be better than 98% of your competition by writing one post per week!
For more tips, be sure to also check out your blog, How to Write a Great Blog Post.
