Writing a successful blog is an excellent way to keep in contact with old and new clients as well as attract more clients. So, what makes a blog successful? How can you make your real estate blog an influential and widely read publication?
The first step is to decide, really decide, that you want to make your blog amazing. That’s right, a strong determination to succeed and then implementing the following 5 tips will transform your blog into something powerful and informative. In short, your clients will love it. And, we all know that what a client loves is what a client shares with his friends – meaning referrals!
#1: Present Frequent Q & A’s
What are your clients interested in learning about? Generate a list of common questions that buyers and sellers have and answer these questions. If you need some ideas check out our new series, “Real Estate Blog Ideas,” to get a jump start on writing.
If you’ve developed a list of leads reach out and conduct a survey to find out what specific real estate interests and topics they want to know about. There are a lot of free survey tools on the Internet (i.e., SurveyMonkey, or CreateSurvey). Offer an incentive for completing the survey to motivate those buyers and sellers. Send the survey to friends and family, because they are “buyers and sellers” too. Then target those hot topics with developed blog posts. Create stickiness with compelling information.
#2: Break Down Hot Topics
If at all possible, don’t overload a post with too much information; break it down into several key topics. Aside from retaining client interest, there is another major benefit to having SEO key words and phrases show up in several posts – before you know it, the search engines will index your posts and hopefully recognize your site as an expert in that topic.
Here is an example of creating a series of posts about the topic “foreclosures.” Each post could answer a question about the topic. Your series might look like this:
1. What is a foreclosure?
2. What are pre-foreclosures and the benefits of researching the pre-foreclosure market?
3. What are the benefits and pit falls of purchasing foreclosed homes?
4. Where to search for newly listed foreclosures.
5. Posting profile pages of your foreclosure listings.
As you can see, breaking down the topic provides clients with useful information without overwhelming them. Plus, the incentive of “more to come” motivates them to return to your site.
#3: Add Muscle with Guest Authors
There is a reason that top blogs have multiple authors that contribute content. They view themselves as a publication or online magazine. What kind of magazine only has one author contributing articles? None! You might not be able to hire a staff of writers, but bring in guest authors and your site takes on more perspectives.
Multiple authors add variety, diverse experiences, and a fresh “voice” to your blog. Real estate agents can bring in other experts in the real estate field to provide a new spin on a topic. Guest authors might be any of the following:
1. Mortgage Broker
2. Home Inspector
3. Neighbors or Community Members
4. Kids Opinions (could be fun and insightful)
You could even run a contest for the best guest post or offer them something for their time, i.e. a gift certificate or referrals for services. This is a great opportunity to create goodwill with other business owners and a chance to gain referrals through them.
#4: Empower your Readers
Utilize the influence of top social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ to promote your business. This is easily done by embedding social sharing buttons at the end of your posts or somewhere else on your site. If your reader likes what they see, they can share it with friends with the click of the mouse. More eyeballs looking and reading your website means more word of mouth!
#5: Inspire Repeat Visits
Encourage clients to sign-up for email newsletters or notices. These emails can contain a simple announcement about a new post, a teaser of a few lines of a hot topic to get clients to read more, or some kind of incentive to draw them to your site. Incentives could be a gift certificate for the first person to comment, or the chance to be entered into a drawing for a prize.
Use services like MailChimp or Constant Contact to send monthly newsletters, or even your newest blog posts can be syndicated. Whatever you do, don’t underestimate the power of email. This is a great way to show featured listings, or trends in the market.
Decide Now!
Once you decide that you will do everything you can to make your real estate blog widely read and successful, you will be surprised at how easy it will become. People practically live on the Internet these days, so keeping your blog posts current with interesting topics and information will help you expand your client base.
You will wake up one day to find that new and returning clients will contact you first when they are ready to buy or sell. Why? Because you have kept them informed for so long there was no question about who their real estate agent is.
A successful blog starts with a professional real estate website. Here at IDXCentral.com we have helped over 10,000 agents and brokers develop successful websites that deliver. If you are searching for a WordPress real estate website then take a look at what we have to offer. IDX sales, IDX integration, responsive and mobile friendly designs wrapped together with training and support – what else could you ask for? View our real estate website designs and IDX solutions today!
