As a freelance content marketer who spends my days writing articles for businesses (both B2C and B2B), I firmly believe that every company can benefit from having a blog. This is especially true for real estate companies, as maintaining a consistent local presence can generate a lot of awareness, and you have an advantage. I’m going to tell you why.
These days, the first place people go to look for a new property is the internet. This means that people need to easily find you online, so you can get more clients and more business.
One of the ways you can do this is by creating a blog. Blogging gives businesses the chance to rank well on Google and other search engines for relevant topics, products, and services, as well as creating thought-leadership to show your expertise in the real estate industry.
In this article, you'll learn why your real estate company should try content marketing, and how to get started.
It’s a long one, as I’m so passionate about this topic. So, grab some snack, your beverage of choice, get comfortable, and let’s dig in.
Ready?
Let’s go!
First - why?
It won't hurt to give it a try, especially if you're looking for low cost marketing ideas. Just set your expectations, be consistent, and only continue if you find value in it and find it fun.
Even if your service area has a relatively low population than an urban center, you can still reach people through content.
They won’t come to you if they don’t know you exist. Right?
Firstly, your blog will help you find new clients. If they’re searching up a query about real estate and properties in the area you’re serving, and you’ve got a blog post answering their burning questions, these new clients can find your website thanks to the content you’ve posted.
Blogging helps you be seen next to valuable keywords.
The main reason companies start blogging, is to be found on Google. But more than that, you need to know which keywords will help you convert visitors into customers. Especially if you're also going the paid media route via Google Ads, you'll also want to rank for those keywords organically.
Ideally, you want to be on the first page of Google, in the first few spots, but bear in mind, competition is usually fierce for high-volume keywords. The trick is to find the “low-hanging fruits” which usually have a healthy search volume of around 100-1000 but a medium to easy difficulty score (between 1-40) in terms of ranking. The more you write, the higher the chance of appearing in Google’s search results.
But not any old content will do – you need to make sure your content is unique. Google wants you to showcase “experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness” in your blog posts.
If you’re serious about making blogging a channel that works for you, please refrain from regurgitating information already out there using ChatGPT or the like. Take your time to write content that’s really helpful, and truly serves your ideal customers.
The right type of blog posts can help generate leads
When people subscribe to your blogs, download your manuals and guides, or submit their details for a tour, discount, or offer, you can get their contact information. Use subscription forms or tracking tools to swap the guide for the info. For example, "25 questions buyers need to ask when buying a home in [AREA]".
Treat your blog section as a way to educate the audience
Blog posts can teach your clients about different aspects of real estate, like buying, selling, home inspections, home improvements and property management. When clients are well-informed, they're more likely to make confident decisions and trust you to help them with their deals.
Set yourself as an authority in the industry
Finally, your blog can let people know that you’re experts in the real estate industry. This is essential because, with the amount of money and stakes tied up in real estate, people really need to trust the company they choose. By coming across as knowledgeable about the real estate industry, you can help foster some of that trust from the get-go.
Keeps your website up to date
Adding new content to your blog regularly keeps your website interesting and fresh. This improves the experience for users and encourages them to come back to your site.
The sales funnel and your real estate blog
The sales funnel refers to how someone goes through the entire sales journey from discovery to sale. It’s applicable in the real estate industry too. It refers to the starting point of when a person searches for a home online, to making it through to the end with a contract.
These days, most everyone is going to do their due diligence online. According to AdWeek, a big 81% of shoppers check things out online before buying. And for young families searching for their first home, it's even higher.
The idea is, you can create blog posts and other content to feed different stages of the buyer journey. Here’s how it would look:
When it comes to topics, keep in mind that it's all about this funnel – the journey from lead either looking to buy or to sell, to the property being bought or sold. You're aiming to spread topics across all levels of the funnel to encourage readers to go down it toward an inquiry.
With this framework in mind, blogging can feed a large part of the awareness stage of the sales funnel, where they discover you exist. It’s all about getting those leads into the funnel, and making sure people are aware of your brand. Once you’ve captured enough leads from traffic to your website you can move on to creating other types of blog posts to feed the middle of the funnel and bottom of the funnel.
It doesn’t end there. You want those customers to come back to you or refer their friends to you in the future. This is where perks and incentives come into play to generate word of mouth referrals and renewed leases.
Eventually, you’ll be able to find new leads, move them through the sales funnel and hopefully turn them into clients and then brand advocates!
Highlighting your local market knowledge
The advantage of having a blog is to showcase your expertise on the local market, to local readers.
To demonstrate your expertise, you could investigate and commentate on current market trends, both in general and in your local area. Weekly, you can create a post about a particular trend and give your advice on how to react to it.
You want your blog to provide readers with valuable information about real estate, so they can take something away from your website and feel educated, which makes them more likely to become a client. Consider it your way of building further trust as an authority in your space.
Generating leads and conversions
As we mentioned above, blogs can help you get leads and conversions in your real estate company, but it’s essential to make sure you promote this in the right way.
A call to action works well at the end of a blog. For example, if your blog post is about buying or selling real estate in a certain local area, a simple “get in touch to find out more” at the end of your blog could help you get leads and conversions from people who’ve read the blog and are intrigued.
In addition, you can even offer exclusive deals or promotions to clients at the end of your blog post, so they’ll engage with your brand more for a reward.
If you’re looking to give readers and clients even more reason to keep your brand at the top of their minds, with Paylode, you can offer your clients a wide range of perks and rewards.
You can even add a Paylode perks widget at the bottom of your blog posts, along with your call to action, to entice readers and motivate them to get in touch.
Getting started with your real estate blog
You likely already have the ability to add a blog through your existing content management system. All you need to do is create a blog page on your website, which should be accessible through your main menu.
All your blog posts will show up on this main page, so it’s essential that they are easy to see and navigate, and also that they all fit properly, ideally with a featured image and excerpt to hook readers.
How to come up with good topics
What should you be writing about?
You should be blogging about the things readers care about. Whether this is home decor, like the example we saw above, or first-time buyer tips, your readers and potential leads want to come away feeling informed and educated - so you need to ensure your blog achieves this.
There are multiple ways to get inspiration – explore them all and you'll have a lot of topics to test and see what gets the most readership. Then, turn that into a regular column.
- Use software like Semrush or MOZ to see Google search data, in relation to the real estate services you provide.
- Talk to your tenants, landlords, buyers, and sellers. They know what the pain points are in the market. Once you hear the same thing twice in different contexts, it's a pattern. Write about that.
- Check out real estate forums like community boards, online discussions, or social media groups. Pay attention to common questions or topics people talk about and use them to generate topic ideas that solve the most common myths or problems.
- Look at your own data from your website, email, or support, as a good place to start when it comes to blog topics. For example, if you get a lot of people coming to you about real estate on a certain area or post code, you could write an article related to information on this post code and the properties and opportunities available there.
- Look to your role models. What kinds of tactics, content topics, or marketing avenues do other successful local agents use? Look outside your area and try to find your "sister brand" in another area.
- Look at your most popular services. Think about what people like about your company, whether it’s your excellent customer service or your ability to find good prices for real estate. Whatever your specialty is, write about that!
Once you know what people are asking, it’s time to create a blog article which adequately answers these questions, and then bring in your business and call to actions in the end.
14 topic ideas that work anywhere and can be repeated
- Weekly reactions to interest rate movements
- Things to do and places to eat in "neigborhood" (where your listings are)
- Is it worth buying a home in "neighborhood"? Describe price movements, schools and safety trends.
- Should i buy/sell right now? Based on weekly news in the market
- Explain a commonly misunderstood local or national regulation
- Local and regional market news roundups
- Best neighborhoods for first-time buyers in [area]
- Summarize landlord/tenant and buyer/seller rights, tips on working together, common challenges and more.
- Make lists of vendors in your area. Recommended painters, contractors, insurance, and more.
- Virtual tours of every location you have.
- What it's like to live at [building name]
- "Building name" reviews. Summarize all the reviews out there and be balanced in your approach so its trustworthy.
- Itineraries for "3 great days in [area]", "fall foliage road trip around [area]," "best swimming holes in [area]," and any other local insider knowledge.
- Community events calendar. Make it easy to be the center of the community when you share what else is going on with orgs you support.
Create a content strategy and calendar
Once you’ve thought about the things you’d like to cover in your blog, it’s time to create a content strategy and calendar.
This is where you need to consider what exactly you want your blog to achieve. For example, you might want to prioritize coming across as an expert and knowledgeable real estate company. If this is the case, it’s a good idea to create more blog posts based on local trends to forge that trusting relationship with readers, keeping them educated and informed about what’s going on in your area.
So, think about what you want your blog to focus on, and based on this - and your ideas for topics - create a blog calendar.
At a bare minimum, this should include the title of the blog, ideally the links you’d like to include (to other sites and to your site), the part of the sales funnel which the content will serve, the target audience type, and when you want to post it to your site.
Word count should be whatever you need to cover the topic
Write comprehensively. "Thin" content means website pages that don't give visitors much useful information. In other words, they don't answer what people are looking for or help them do something. These pages usually don't have enough words to deliver useful and adequat.
For most blog posts, I’ve found the sweet spot to be 1000+ words. Long enough to get the main point across, but short enough to be readable.
Timing
It’s a good idea to post at least once a week, to encourage a consistent schedule that you can actually stick to. Don't be too ambitious and try to do more than that at first, as you'll be more likely give up entirely.
Now is a good time to start as any! All you need to do is come up with a content strategy and calendar, so you have your first few blog pieces to write and an idea of when to post them – and then it’s time to get writing.
How do I get people to visit and read my real estate blog?
There are a few ways you can get people to visit and read your blog.
Firstly, write about what people want to know. Search up what people are looking for, and the questions they’re asking online, and answer them in your blogs.
Secondly, make sure your blog posts use keywords strategically (but make sure they’re not stuffed, as Google doesn’t like this) that you want to rank well for on Google. This will help people find you online, making them more likely to visit and read your blog.
Finally, share your blog articles on social media platforms and potentially even boost or create paid advertising campaigns to direct traffic to them, so more people see your content.
Spend more time on distribution than you think
Don’t just write the post and be done with it. To get real traction, you need a distribution strategy. For one, link to your new article from other places on your site. Then, share the blog post where your target audience tend to hang out – like your facebook group.
If you want more people to read your blog and you’ve got a good following on social media, it’s worth posting about your blog on your different platforms, so your followers can read your articles.
If you have a newsletter, include links to it in the next one. Or prepare a specialized e-shot to let your mailing list know you’ve posted new content.
You can also create a link in your email signature with the latest blog post inserted at the bottom like this:
Examples we love
Realtor.com
Realtor.com is a great example of a real estate company with a great blog section. As you can see, their topics are interesting and highly relevant to what’s going on in the real estate industry right now and they are consistent in creating posts on a weekly basis.
They also use a clear and effective call to action at the bottom of their blog posts.
Century21
Century21 is another good example of a real estate company using their blog to hook potential clients. Their blog topics are a little more varied, including house tips and decor, which are still relevant for awareness audiences.
Keeping customers engaged
In any industry, as well as in real estate, blogs are a useful way of getting new customers, as well as keeping customers engaged.
Customer engagement is needed, especially in real estate, because it leads to customer retention. This means getting repeat customers who always have your company at the top of their minds, so they’ll also likely help you find new customers through word of mouth.
One way to do this is by giving your current customers access to perks and rewards to encourage loyalty. With Paylode, you can link perks within your blog by adding widgets and call to actions at the end of your blog.
It’s mostly about making sure your customers don’t forget about you and that they come back to your company when they need your services. Why? Because you’ve delighted them with a little extra perk.
If you’re looking to boost your customer engagement and retention via the blog posts you produce for your real estate company, it’s time to check out Paylode, a perks platform used by thousands of companies looking to give their customers something extra for their loyalty.
Get in touch today to find out more.
