Let’s kick this thing off with a true statement: Anyone can have a blog. And I truly mean anyone. If agency life has shown me anything, it’s that even the most niche of niches, and jargon-riddled industries that would make Albert Einstein scratch his head, have blogs.
And it’s because of content marketing.
Lucky for real estate agents (and their clients, or prospective clients), the content writing possibilities are endless, interesting and can be incredibly useful to its target audience. So yes, blogging can — and does — work for realtors to generate more leads.
But it’s not that simple. There’s a science to SEO and a strategy to the execution that can help make your real estate blogging endeavor as effective as possible.
Here’s why and how to build and maintain a successful real estate blog.
Why Should Realtors Have a Blog?
Firstly, let’s dig into the main reason why realtors should have a blog — or why anyone should have a blog for that matter.
Blogging helps drive organic traffic to your website. When developed with SEO best practices in mind, high quality blog content can do wonders for your discoverability on search engines. In fact, companies that post regular blog content are far and away in a better position to appear on page 1 of Google.
Blogs help companies increase the volume of site visitors they receive by up to 55% and enjoy a whopping 434% more indexed pages than those who don’t have a blog.
But why does this matter for realtors? Well, no matter the opinions that the general public have about real estate professionals in today’s … society, real estate agents are actually in a prime position to inform and assist readers in a way that few others can. They have their fingers on the pulse of the market and a wealth of knowledge that can help first-time homebuyers navigate its waters and become more confident.
What’s more, blogging can help position yourself as an expert in your field and, if you stick to it, maybe even an industry leader.
It’s a win for your business and a win for the reader.
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Topics To Post About
For every house sold and new house listed in America every month (there are a lot), there are an equal number of blog topic ideas that you could write about. Let’s run through a few of them now, and talk about why they’re great topics for a real estate blog.
Agent Introduction
Dedicating your first blog post to introduce yourself is a nice and organic place to start.
Write about yourself, your career, why you decided to become a real estate agent and how you plan to help educate and assist readers and clients alike about home buying. This is also a great opportunity to establish your personal brand.
Market Trends
Realtors‘ fingers are on the pulse of the market — that much we know. But it can be incredibly valuable to transfer those fingers to the keyboard to transcribe the triumphs and trials of trends in the real estate market.
No one knows better than real estate agents when it comes to … real estate. A blog about current market trends can help inform readers about the landscape, help them make more informed decisions and even generate interest in your services. Better yet, you could publish a market trends blog at a regular cadence — maybe monthly or quarterly — about changes in trends, things to look out for, and predictions about the future.
Consider touching on some of the most important metrics, such as average list price, time on market, average sale price, and any other relevant data points.
A Buying Guide For First-Time Homebuyers
First-time homebuyers are already under a considerable amount of stress. And you, the realtor, can swoop in with alleviating advice to help prepare people who are considering making the largest purchase of their life.
By default, guides like this are incredibly useful to readers and, therefore, can do wonders for your SEO strategy, because of EEAT.
EEAT is shorthand for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness — all things you can instill in your blog to help it rank better. Although, I’m writing this at lunchtime, so it could also be a reminder to stuff my face.
In a blog like this, be sure to include information about savings, mortgages, property taxes and, in general, everything a first-time buyer should know before making such an important investment.
Important Things To Know About Home Ownership
Continuing right along with content helpfulness, you could write a blog that highlights some of the lesser-known aspects of being a homeowner.
Maybe you include information about Homeowner Associations (HOAs), living in a construction zone, general maintenance that’s sometimes forgotten about (gutters, we’re talking about cleaning gutters. Or, if you’re Canadian like me … eavestroughs); or anything else you think is important for people to know that might otherwise fly under the radar.
An Introduction To Mortgages and How To Qualify For One
One of the major first steps in homeownership is qualifying for a mortgage. Without one, it’s much more difficult to buy a house. Writing a blog that details important mortgage information and criteria that prospective buyers need to meet to qualify can help readers become more informed.
Armed with the valuable information they just obtained from your blog, they’ll feel more confident in the mortgage process and can walk into the bank with their chin up when the time comes.
Life In [Insert City, Town, State, Etc.]
We haven’t forgotten that blogs can be fun, and realtors are in a perfect position to capitalize on the 3-letter word. If you need a break from blogging about metrics, trends and generalities, broaden your horizons by blogging about an entire state, town or city.
Publish a blog that dives into what it’s like to live in a certain area. You could highlight attractions, places to visit, information on the demographics, things to do, fun facts and more.
A big part of buying a home is being fond of where it’s located, and to determine whether or not it’s a good lifestyle fit.
How To Handle Buyer’s Remorse
Buyer’s remorse is all too common these days — and a perfectly normal thing for someone to experience. Put together a blog of helpful tips on how to provide reassurance, navigate those feelings and overcome them.
This might include gathering a handful of stats that highlight the normalcy of the feeling; strategies to ease buyers‘ minds, like running numbers more than once, developing a budget or doing thought exercises that help put things in perspective. Or, even highlighting strategies on how to ease the weight of monthly expenses, such as tips on finding a roommate and/or renter.
Property and Home Tours
Here’s an opportunity to flex your descriptive muscles. Sure, property and home tours look great on video, and you should absolutely produce them — but blogging about a particular home can be fun, too.
When writing about a property, there’s increased potential to create a story around it — to really get creative and highlight the charming and appealing aspects of a house. Use this in tandem with a real estate video, such as a virtual tour, testimonial or agent introduction, and you’ll be well on your way to blogging success.
How To Sell Your House (and Get What You Want For It)
Appeal to the other half of your audience — sellers — by producing real estate blog content catered to them. You could author a guide on selling, offering advice from a real estate professional; tips for selling or maintaining a rental property, and much more.
Don’t Forget To Use Pictures and Videos
Lacing compelling imagery into your blog posts is a general best practice, because most people are visual creatures. If you’re writing about a particular home or property, this comes pretty easy. You can (and should) use images of the house and even the surrounding area to give more context to the home.
If you’re writing about something else, just be sure to use relevant and interesting images that complement the blog content.
Where and When To Post
In terms of having full control over your blogging experience, it’s best to build your own website. Consider using WordPress, Wix or something similar to create a unique website and blog experience that people can get excited to visit.
If you don’t have the time or resources to maintain a full-fledged website, you can always post longer-form content on platforms like LinkedIn, or even develop a newsletter to send out to your email contacts.
But it’s worth reiterating — build your own website if you can, as it’ll produce the most value for your business when you follow SEO best practices. Plus, with a dedicated home for your blog content to live, it’s more easily shared across social media channels, which can help point even more users to your website in addition to organic search.
The Best Times To Post a Blog
In terms of when to post, there are no steadfast rules. However, you’ll generally want to aim for times when people are most likely to be pursuing the internet. That means:
- In the morning, after people wake up but before they start work (7 am – 9 am).
- In the afternoon while people are on their lunch breaks (12 pm – 2 pm).
- In the evening when people are winding down at home (4 pm – 7pm).
Tips for a Successful Blog
Before we go, and before you get that blog up and running, keep these things in mind to give yourself the best possible chance at success:
- Choose a topic and stick to it. This is the easy part for you. Hint: It’s real estate.
- Create a unique and intuitive website to host it on. The more user friendly your website is, the more friendly Google’s crawlers will be when they’re deciding how you’ll rank.
- Post regularly. There’s a difference between posting regularly and posting frequently, and the two should not be confused. Choose a cadence that makes sense — perhaps one a month or bi-wekly to start and see where things go from there. Gone are the days of frenzy-posting to appeal to Google. Just be consistent in cadence and quality and you should be fine.
- Write valuable content. Offer readers relevant and useful advice. That way, you can build trust and credibility while simultaneously boosting your SEO.
- Use calls to action (CTAs). It’s a best practice to have an idea of an action you want your readers to take after reading your blog. Whether that’s filling out a form, following you on social media or something else, using compelling CTAs to drive engagement.
So go on, be a real estate blogger. Given the often tumultuous nature of the industry, your audience will thank you for your expertise — and you’ll generate more leads.
