Charlie Allred
By Charlie Allred
Having a blog can be a killer online strategy for your real estate business. A vibrant blog can be the very top of your online funnel. But your potential clients must feel understood when they first arrive at your site.
Last month, I talked about creating a niche to strengthen your online presence. By all means, you can address several niches on your blog. However, you have to start somewhere, so start with one niche.
I believe all real estate blogs should be as community oriented as possible. Your blog should show that you’re a resource for the community. For instance, you could publish articles on your market’s parks, schools, or restaurants. Write articles about community activities or local places. Think about anything your potential clients would want to know before they moved to the community.
Here are four tips for creating a vibrant blog:
- Address your niche; always address your niche. Think about what people in your niche market would want to know.
- Write consistently. I generally say posting one article a week is ideal, however, if you know you can’t commit to once a week, commit to every other week.
- Answer questions. You are the expert, so answer questions your clients ask regularly.
- Create lists. Create lists of information your potential clients would want to know if they are moving to the area. For example:
Notice the list above goes from a broad subject – moving to Phoenix – to the more narrow focus of Old Town Scottsdale homes. One of my niches is the Old Town Scottsdale neighborhood, which includes even smaller market niches of zip codes 85251 and 85250, as well as the McCormick Ranch area of Scottsdale. I could break this down even further into subdivisions. I suggest, if you can, make your niche market a subdivision, write four or five articles on each subdivision, then move on to the next subdivision.
Focusing your expertise on a specific neighborhoods is much easier in newer communities because they have subdivision names that are often searched online. I specialize in an older area of town where subdivision names aren’t used much, so they I try to use keywords that are associated with my area.
To get started with your killer online strategy:
- Choose your market niches.
- Make a list of questions, articles, lists, photos, and videos you can publish to your blog that addresses each of your niches.
- Don’t forget to add keywords associated with your market niches for each article.
- Start writing your blog posts, but manage your time. I recommend limiting yourself to one hour max per week writing, 30 minutes making graphics or taking photos, then publish the article.
Charlie Allred is a Phoenix-based designated broker for Secure Real Estate and author of the book “Pinnable Real Estate: Pinterest for Real Estate Agents.” She is a Pinterest expert coaching agents on how to gain more leads, followers, and clients by using Pinterest. Learn more at her blog: www.PinnableRealEstate.com.
Comments 6
Charlie
Thank you, this is a great article. I have been going back and forth with whether to start a Blog or not and really wasn’t sure where to start being a relatively new Agent. Your suggestions on the type of information to include is really helpful.
Kathy Dulhagen, Realtor
Myrtke Beach, SC
searching for a friendly user website platform to create additional community sites. Which would you recommend? Thanks
I am a new agent, only in the business since Jan. 2015 and I just closed my first transaction today (5/11/2015). I work at a brokerage of “old money” and no one there is doing online marketing. I got my foot in the door at this brokerage by becoming an assistant and then I got my real estate license. Now I want to set myself apart as the up and coming/tech saavy agent. I started my own Facebook page for blogging about real estate in my city but I’ve not had a very good response. What website do you suggest to build my own real estate website/blog? I love all of your suggestions and tips!
Great questions!
It depends on your tech capabilities. All of my websites are self-hosted wordpress sites. Meaning I bought the url at godaddy and then host it somewhere (godaddy does hosting, but so do tons of companies). WordPress is a great blogging platform. Then I have my local MLS IDX on my main site.
keep your site clean & Simple.
Another great option if you aren’t tech saavy and you don’t want to mess with design is Placester.com, they include IDX & they are super inexpensive. They also help with keywords.
I have a website from my Board for many years and never had any response after reading your blog I know why I need help
Zauditu,
I always compare a website with no new content (articles, area information, etc) to a yellow pages ad. You are hoping someone will find it.
Adding articles and talking about your expertise is key!
Best of luck!
Charlie