Three Reasons to Start a Real Estate Blog
This post originally aired as a podcast!
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Blogging for real estate and for REALTORS® continues to offer opportunities for your marketing.
If you’re wondering if blogs are still relevant, I have one question for you. Is Google still relevant? Absolutely, yes!
People are used to turning online to search for information and that includes topics about buying, selling, and living in the areas you serve. Blogging has the potential to engage new people, generate leads, grow your personal branding, and provide value for years to come. So, on today’s episode/blog, we’re covering three reasons why you should start a real estate blog.
My Successes with Blogging for Real Estate
I can’t believe I made it all the way until episode 9 to talk about blogging. Because if you know me, then you are well aware of my passion for content marketing. From a marketing perspective, I think it’s a gold mine. Over the years, I’ve created the strategies of majorly successful blogs, been a part of hundreds upon hundreds of blog posts, and generated thousands of leads from them. The best part? Those old blogs continue to generate results. I tell you this to demonstrate how I’ve seen the impact of blogging first-hand.
Let’s dive right into the 3 reasons you might want to consider creating a blog for real estate or even refocusing on yours.
Reason 1: Real Estate Blogs Forms the Framework for Your Digital Marketing
The number one reason you should start a real estate blog is that it can help form the framework for your digital marketing.
If you’ve ever felt like your hopping from what marketing idea to the next without a clear path, having a content marketing strategy could completely change your real estate marketing approach.
Content marketing, in a nutshell, is providing value in the form of content. This could take the shape of blogs, videos, or even a podcast like this, to attract your ideal audience. You’re the source of the information your target home buyer or seller needs. So, when they are Googling information on a specific topic, the goal is that you come up. If they’re following you on social or see a paid ad of yours, this is the type of information that they will find helpful.
It’s marketing from a place of service.
So, if you’ve ever struggled with marketing because you felt like you were being salesy, content marketing and blogging will allow you to brand yourself (which we’ll talk about later in the episode) without feeling like you are pressuring people.
Successful Blogs Have a Plan
To be the most effective, your blogging needs to have a plan. I talk a lot about niche marketing for a reason. It helps you narrow in on a subject and ideal audience so you can best serve them and connect with them. For a blog and content marketing strategy to work, you need to take a specific approach. Because once you’ve decided the direction of your blog, everything else will fall into place. You’ll have content to share on social media. You’ll have resources to share with home buyers and sellers. Everything you do from a blogging perspective will have lead capture associated with it.
Think back to your business plan and marketing plan for the year. How can blogging support that? If you’re focused on attracting buyers in a new area, blogging about that area and tips for buying in that area fit perfectly into that approach.
If you don’t have a marketing plan, no worries. I’d encourage you to listen to episode 5 all about creating a marketing plan and download my free marketing plan template. In step 3, we choose your target customer and/or farming areas. For you to truly excel at real estate blogging, I highly encourage you to go through this exercise. Because to have an effective blog, you have to know who the blog is speaking to, the challenges they’re facing, and how you can help them.
Now, this can quickly turn into an entire content marketing strategy episode/blog. I’d like to keep it higher-level. This way you can decide if starting a blog makes sense for your business and what types of value a real estate blog can bring.
Once you’ve established how your blog fits into your overall real estate marketing strategy, everything will start clicking into place. By creating a consistent blog, you are investing in yourself online. That’s your corner of the internet to grow, optimize, and shine through.
You Own Your Blog
Think about this - you pour everything into growing your Instagram following this year. And you’re successful at it! People are genuinely reaching out to you, and you’re getting business from it. But what if Instagram changes the algorithm again, and soon you’re finding it very hard to get the same results? Or worse… what if you’re hacked? You can’t access your account or somebody deleted all of your followers. That would be horrible!
You don’t own social media. But you can own your blog and more importantly your email list. Because a solid content marketing strategy always includes lead capture and opportunities for you to grow your database. And social media plays a large part in promoting that content and engaging with people in a whole new way.
That’s why reason #1 is blogging can form the framework of your digital marketing. Content that is specific and targeted at your ideal audience can work double-time for you. There’s SEO value there for your real estate or REALTORS® website. By consistently blogging about homes in XYZ area on your website, your increasing your chances of people finding you though Google.
Social Media & Blogging
Your social media can completely support your blogging efforts. You can simply share your blogs on social, and now you don’t need to worry about what to post. Better yet, you can take snippets of content from your blogs and share those ideas on social. Ever notice, that’s what I do on Instagram? If not, check it out and follow me @IdeasforRealEstate.
Social media for real estate can be very overwhelming.
But what if you used your blog content and shared ideas from it with new photos? You can even take the blogs and turn them into video! This podcast every week is made into a blog (that you’re reading now!). Why? Because there’s SEO value here. I have many people who read my blogs (by finding them - shoutout to my Pinterest readers!) and others who listen to the podcast.
You can also take the content from your blogs and use them for email marketing and newsletters.
Longterm Value of Blogs
Blogs aren’t used once and then thrown out. You can keep sharing them for years to come and repurpose them in new ways.
In fact, I’ve found years old blogs can consistently drive tons of traffic to your site and keep generating leads. It’s a snowball effect. The more you do it and the longer you do it, the more results you will see.
Once you get going, your digital marketing framework will consist of lead capture, social media content, a website that’s focused on your ideal customer, SEO benefits, email marketing content, and personal branding! Speaking of personal branding, this ties in perfectly to my next reason.
Reason 2: It Enhances Your Personal Branding
Blogging for real estate enhances your personal branding and subject matter influence.
Whatever your blogs’ focus is, you can be the expert in it. This is a strategy that works for both experienced agents and rookies alike.
Want to be the go-to agent in a particular market? If somebody finds you online or is researching you online, what is your website going to tell them? If your blogging consistently and providing high-quality content, your website and blog are going to demonstrate your expertise. You’re the real estate agent they’ve been looking for!
Blogging adds not only credibility to your personal brand but also helps you engage new buyers and sellers.
Your blog should support your personal branding and marketing strategy. What type of agent are you? Who are your ideal clients? What type of information are your homebuyers and sellers looking for? All of this info will help you determine what type of content to create.
Blogging to Highlight Your Branding
If I want to be known as a modern agent who provides innovative marketing for my sellers in a particular area, I could demonstrate this with a blog all about selling in that market. I might have an article on “the 5 marketing tactics every home sellers needs in XYZ area to get top price” or “3 reasons why your XYZ area home for sale needs a Matterport tour.” Now, I’ll be the first to admit that content marketing for sellers is more difficult, but I wanted to show you that is possible.
It’s much easier to create real estate blogs for buyers.
You might have noticed I included “XYZ area” in my previous examples. The more specific you can be, the better. This means less competition for you online and the greater chance of people finding your blog. So, if you work in a large city, narrow in and focus on the smaller suburbs or even specific neighborhoods. By writing blogs or even creating videos about these areas, you’re branding yourself in that area but in a very unique way that’s not traditional advertising.
Personal branding isn’t all about you.
It’s about the people you serve and the service you provide. Blogging gives you the opportunity to demonstrate this. You can showcase your expertise on a particular subject matter. The wonderful advantage is your marketing won’t be “me, me, me” focused. Instead of saying, “I’m the best agent to talk to in XYZ area, look at me.” You’re providing value. You’re giving potential customers the information they need. It’s helpful content they will appreciate and then naturally think of you. The blog content is about them and their needs, but it draws them back to working with you.
Personal Branding is the Perfect Match to Blogging
We talked earlier about how blogging and social media work perfectly together. From a personal branding standpoint, it takes you to another level. Your branding from social media will be reinforced and grown through your website/blog. We want your ideal homebuyer or seller to be able to find you! A website is one of the best ways to do this because you can focus on a keyword strategy that will lead people to you.
This ties back into your marketing plan for the year. Where are you focused on growing and how does your personal brand support this? Download my DIY Branding Images workbook for a shortcut to easily creating branding images of yourself for your marketing & social. Inside, you'll find a step-by-step guide to plan and execute a branding photoshoot - from pose ideas to camera tips & more. Click here to download your copy.
P.S. Notice what I did right there? That’s lead capture in my podcast and blog. So, let’s talk about lead capture.
Reason 3: Blogging is for Lead Capture
The third and final reason you should start a real estate blog is for lead capture.
We don’t want people reading your blog and thinking “oh, that was nice,” and clicking away! What good is that going to do us? We want them to reach out to you.
Keep in mind, not everyone might be ready to pick up the phone and talk to a REALTORS® at that moment. They might need a little bit of time or be just starting their real estate journey.
I like to think about lead capture this way - what is the logical next step that somebody needs after they read your blog post? Is the logical next step, call me? Many times, it’s not. I think it’s easiest to grasp this concept through examples.
Example of Lead Capture on Your Real Estate Blog
You have a blog all about real estate in Orlando (because that’s where I live!).
Orlando is one of those places where many people relocate here from out of the area. So, you have many blog posts and each is about a specific community or smaller suburb. You could create a lead capture where you offer to send people the “best deals in those areas as soon as they hit the market.” Which you could easily create by using a form on your website and setting them up with an MLS search. Many people know they can turn to the search sites for this info.
Let’s try a content marketing approach to lead capture! Instead, you could try - “download the ultimate list of the best neigborhoods in Orlando” or “The 10 things you must know when moving to Orlando” or even “What savvy homebuyers should know when buying in Orlando.”
You can get creative with your lead capture. Once you have a good one, relevant content can be used for many blog posts! That’s another reason why I keep saying over and over again, be specific and go niche. It just helps you in so many ways, including efficiencies in lead capture.
You can do paid ads for these blog posts on social geared towards your ideal market. You can advertise just the lead capture, and you can share the blogs organically on Facebook. I will say Facebook does work well for a content marketing strategy because you can directly link to your blog post. Every week, I promote my podcast episodes on Instagram with my link in bio.
Less Advertising. More Value.
Lead capture through blogging might appeal to more people as well because it comes, again, from a place of providing value. You want your lead capture to be something that the other person isn’t just willing to give their information for but they’re also excited to get it!
I’d recommend that you pursue my blogs/episodes. I create every post with a lead capture strategy in mind. This way, you can see exactly what I’m talking about and how to include lead capture naturally in your blogs to make the biggest impact.
The Lead Capture Can Become Popular Itself
I just looked at my blog analytics. The number one most visited page on my site, is Episode 5 How to Create a Real Estate Marketing Plan. The 2nd most visited page on my site - it’s lead capture - to download my social media marketing plan.
When we talk about lead capture, sometimes people get an icky feeling. Like it’s too salesy or it costs too much.
Lead capture from blogging is about providing value. It establishes you as the helpful source of information and gives you the opportunity to connect with your ideal home buyer or seller.
So, Should You Start a Real Estate Blog?
I think it’s safe to say that I believe strongly in the power of content marketing.
If you’re on the fence about whether you should start a blog, consider this:
Do you have a specific area you’re focused (Not sure? Don’t forget to download my plan here)?
Can you commit to consistently (at least once a week) writing about a topic?
Are you excited about the prospect of blogging and what it can do for your business?
I think the last one is one of the most important aspects to consider. Blogging can work for you, but you have to be motivated about it. It’s a long time strategy that takes time weekly.
That said, I strongly believe in the power of content marketing for real estate! I think from a digital marketing perspective, it’s still one of the biggest opportunities out there for you.
Because after all, homebuyers and sellers do go online to research info. So, let’s be there for them when they do.