Most real estate agents are great at showing listings, advising and interacting with their prospects. They also know the ins and outs of their real estate market and can talk endlessly about it. But when it comes to putting those ideas into writing, most agents will just chicken out.
Love it or hate it, we are in the digital era — and in this era, you must be able to put your real estate market knowledge into writing if you truly want to dominate your niche. Even in the era of print media, savvy agents farmed their niches by writing editorials for their town newspapers and magazines.
The good thing about writing about your real estate market, whether through digital or print media, is that it’s totally free and you don’t need to spend a penny of your marketing budget before your post is published. All that’s required is your time, dedication and effort to come up with and write an engaging piece of content.
Let’s make that process very easy for you by breaking it down and explaining to you how you can go about creating a great blog post from the ground up.
1. Generate unlimited blogging ideas.
The funny thing about blogging for your market is that, despite the fact that you know your market intimately, when it comes to putting down those ideas into a blog post, that knowledge seems to vanish.
Here’s how to generate unlimited blogging ideas like a pro.
- You need the ability to take note of your ideas wherever and whenever possible because inspiration can arrive when you least expect it. Either keep a pen and small notebook on you at all times or invest in an intuitive smartphone app for note-taking. When an idea comes, quickly jot it down and elaborate on it when you have a moment to spare.
- Pay close attention to the questions your prospects ask you. These can be your next great blog post. If they ask you any questions, chances are that there are many other people seeking answers to those questions. Those questions can arise when you are face to face with your prospects or on the phone, as well as in an email or via a comment from your blog.
- Subscribe to other agents’ blogs. This can give you great blogging insight.
- Eavesdrop on your prospects on social media and forums, and use Google alerts to find out what questions prospects are asking about real estate in your town.
2. Elaborate on a topic and make it captivating.
Once you’ve got your ideas down, the question becomes how to write a unique blog post that will stand out from similar articles.
The first thing you need to do when elaborating on a topic is to Google it. The content you are writing likely exists in some form or another elsewhere on the Internet. You need to make yours better than what’s already available to the real estate consumer.
Check the content that’s ranking on Google’s first couple of result pages. Review it and ask yourself if your content is good enough to challenge what’s ranking or whether the ranking articles are not elaborate enough or lack key points.
3. Create a catchy title.
“On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.” —David Ogilvy
Creating quality content is just the beginning. What increases your click-through rate to your blog post is not the content itself but the post headline. Spend some time brainstorming a headline that captures your point and is enticing to your readers.
The post headline will get you clicks or make your visitors tempted to read, and great content will keep your visitors engaged and converted.
4. Proofread your content before hitting the publish button.
A poorly written article will reduce engagement rate and increase bounce rate. So it is highly important to give your content to a third party who can proofread your article and correct any grammatical errors before publishing.
If you don’t want to hire a human, try Grammarly. It’s a good tool for correcting basic grammatical errors and detecting typos.
5. Hit the publish button and promote the post.
Content might be king, but great content without great promotion is dead. Don’t fall victim to the popular myth that if you create a great article, people will find it and link to it.
They can only find your article and read it if you wave it in front of their faces. So after hitting the publish button, promote your post like your whole world depends on it.
Ibemere Obinna is a Realtor and an Internet marketing expert. He blogs about real estate Internet marketing and SEO on his blog, Realtor Guide.