Starting a real estate blog is one of the smartest things any real estate agent can do in 2017. Why? Because real estate blogging is one of the fastest ways to:
- Establish yourself as a real estate expert
- Build trust and credibility with potential prospects.
- Generate serious and pre-qualified leads by providing content that addresses a niche audience.
But how do you start? The following tips will help.
Develop a Content Strategy
One of the reasons why many real estate agents don’t get any ROI on their real estate blogging is because they don’t have a plan. They see every other agent blogging and decide they will blog too.
The truth is; that hardly works. What works is creating a content strategy. A content strategy answers the following questions:
- Who are we creating content for and what are we trying to accomplish?
- How often will we be creating content?
- How often will we be posting content?
Develop a Content Marketing Strategy
Next up is the content marketing plan. Don’t confuse a content marketing strategy with a content strategy; <this article> explains the difference.
A content marketing strategy comes after you create the content strategy. Your content marketing strategy should include:
- Deciding what type of content to create
- Choosing distribution channels
- Developing an editorial calendar
- Promoting the content to reach its intended audience
- Developing unique content for each stage of the buyer’s journey such as awareness, consideration and purchase.
Write Exceptionally Well
Good writing is the key to the growth of your blog. Good writing and writing what your audience wants to read about.
When writing your blog posts, make sure you are creating content that will resonate with your audience. How do you know what your audience wants to read about? Use these tactics:
- Ask your social media audience
- Go through your blog comments (or those of a more established real estate agent) and note down the questions being asked. Write a blog topic about their answers and consider answering them and pointing them in your direction.
- Go through Quora and see questions people are asking relating to real estate.
Don’t overuse Keywords
Have you ever heard of “keyword stuffing”? This is when you make a list of keywords you want to be ranked for in search engines such as Google, and you try as much as possible to use them in your blog post. This is bad, both for your audience and for your search engine optimization efforts.
Instead, you should do the following:
- Use your keywords sparingly, especially if it’s a short blog post.
- Write longer blog posts; this way, there are more opportunities to include your keywords naturally.
- Use your keywords ONLY when it makes common and grammatical sense.
Provide Value
When starting a real estate blog, most agents are tempted with writing blog posts about their listings and urging prospects to contact them. The truth is that tactic doesn’t work because people don’t like to be sold to.
Instead, strive to provide valuable information that will help your audience make informed decisions.
Other Tips to Consider:
- Use Call-To-Actions.
- Vary content type e.g infographics, SlideShare presentations etc.
- Use high quality images.
Starting a real estate blog isn’t hard. Just follow these tips and you’re on your way to being a successful real estate agent and blogger.
Need help creating awesome content that generates leads? Contact us today for a free consultation.
