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Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

Why You Need a Real Estate Blog

Posted on: January 25th, 2013 by Beth Heilman

RealEstateBlog

Social media and real estate blogs are immensely powerful tools for Realtors. They can help you generate leads and help you grow your business. The power of both tools lies in the exposure and visibility they offer. A real estate blog is useful when you are:

1) Creating brand awareness
2) Marketing yourself and business
3) Connect with potential customers in real time
4) Building customer loyalty
5) Managing your reputation

Property buyers are becoming savvy by the day

Majority of home buyers do not only consult their Real Estate Agents. Most of them seek inspiration from blogs and social media platforms. Research indicates that 90% of home buyers consult online resources and another 50% engage actively in social media. This revelation underscores the immense importance of social media and blogging to find real estate clients. In the next section, we’ll give you some inspiration on building your brand through blogging and social media.

Scared of setting up a blog?

Setting up a real estate blog is not hard as you think. There are many free and easy to use platforms such as Blogger and WordPress. You can start slow, connect with established professionals, and learn into to grow your blog. Most importantly, you need to be really inspired to keep your keep your post up and running. Realtors and agencies that keep an active social media presence reap huge benefits from their blogging and social media engagements.

Want to Build a Professional Image or Monitor Your Reputation?

A real estate blog can help you build a professional image. You can really score highly if you help readers or visitors make important decisions on their investments. If you are consistent and really helpful, clients will trust you and even seek you to do business. Besides building your image online, a real estate blog can help you monitor your reputation as a realtor. Web analytics tools can help you track discussions in social media spaces and most importantly, what readers are saying about you and your services.

What’s Your Entry Point?

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn remains the most common entry point for Real Estate Professionals into real estate community online. A carefully designed and professional fan page not not only appeals to potential customers, but it also increases the momentum of interaction. You can increase your followers by pitching unique ideas, highlighting opportunities, and keeping them up to ate with developments in the real estate market.

Build Your Brand Quickly

Are you are a brand, or are you working to brand yourself? If the answer is yes, then Twitter and LinkedIn can help you develop and maintain a personal branding. Your brand encapsulates your identity, values, and messages or impressions that you create. In real estate, brand is everything. If you’re not a brand, then you are losing out to your competitors. Start blogging an

Convert Social Media Traffic to Web Traffic

Major search engines and even SEO specialists know the power of social media in drawing web traffic. The reason is simple. A consideration percentage of web traffic to real estate sites is drawn from social media spaces and real estate blogs! Homer buyers and trust real estate blogs and social media scene their first ports of call before they consult. So, if you are blog is operational, you can bet a good number of them will follow you from your blog your site.

Final Thoughts:

Unless you exploit the power of social media and blogging, you can never curve a professional image change in the real estate blogging scene. Social media engagement can open up a new world of possibilities. You can get leads to generate more revenue, build your reputation and image, and establish a base of happy and satisfied clients who look up to you as an authoritative figure. Anyway, that’s just one side of it. You need to be motivated to keep your blog up and running. And, that’s where the challenge begins!

Do you have your own blog? If so, do you blog regularly? If not, why not? Let me know below…

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Real Estate Blog: 5 Reasons You Should Have One

Posted on: September 17th, 2012 by Beth Heilman

Real Estate Blog

Can I be blunt a moment? How’s your real estate blog looking? Are you satisfied with the traffic and engagement you’re getting, or does it leave something to be desired?

It’s a tough time to be a realtor now, and you know my passion is helping real estate professionals make great social media connections and boost sales.

And while some real estate peeps understand they need to be on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest (you do understand that, right?), many of them don’t quite get the other part of the equation – the real estate blog!

So maybe you’re not a writer. But before you dismiss the idea of a real estate blog, let me share some information with you that just might have you changing your mind.

Real Estate Blog Site: 5 Reasons You Should Have One Now!

1. It’s In The Numbers
Did you know that businesses that blog have 55% more website traffic than businesses that don’t? And according to some industry research, over 80% of homebuyers research their home buying decisions online. I don’t know about you, but if that’s where people are looking, that’s where I wanna be!

If people are online looking for information about mortgages, neighborhoods, and real estate, a blog is the perfect tool to lead people to you.

2. It Builds Your Credibility
Once upon a time, your company-replicated site was all it took to look like you had a sophisticated business presence online. Not so much today, chica! Today’s savvy home buyer is looking for more value, and a real estate blog is your platform to communicate your professionalism and knowledge to your clients and prospects over time. Every time you post and every time you respond to comments on your posts, you establish yourself as an expert and as a person behind the brand of “you.”

3. It Builds Traffic
This isn’t highway congestion we’re talking about! Traffic to your site is your friend. So how do you attract it?

Online marketing is very rapidly shifting to the world of inbound marketing versus outbound marketing. What is inbound marketing? Quite simply, it’s the way you earn people’s (and search engine’s!) trust by producing quality content that links within your site, out to other sites with related content and receives links from other credible sources related to your niche. The more you blog and engage with readers on your blog, the more traffic you’ll generate from people searching for your particular real estate expertise or area via search engines. And if people are searching for you, well, that’s always a better prospect!

4. It Provides Better Customer Service
You can be the diva of customer service, without having to increase your office hours. Is that amazing, or what? Having a real estate blog gives your customers a place to find you day or night. The simple act of putting a contact form on every page and answering e-mails promptly puts you light years ahead of your competition who might rely on being available only during standard office hours or via cell phone. A real estate blog allows your customers to have access to you – without you having to be tethered to your phone all of the time, giving the perception of great service.

5. It Provides Better Value
More and more in the marketplace, the best way to market to your customers is by providing value to them and being seen as one who provides value. A real estate blog is a place you can provide that value to your clients by providing timely information on topics that matter. Changes coming to the mortgage industry? Put a post on your real estate blog that breaks it down for the average homebuyer. Info on events in the community you work in? Include them in your real estate blog for great location-specific search engine power.

Having a real estate blog is one of the easiest ways to punch up your marketing efforts for a lot less than the cost of traditional marketing.

Stumped for what to write? Next post I’ll offer 3 foolproof tips you won’t want to miss on how to have magnetic headlines for your real estate blog!

Do you have a real estate blog? Leave a link below in the comments!

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5 Reasons Why Real Estate Pros Should Have Their Own Blog

Posted on: July 9th, 2012 by Beth Heilman

 

5 Reasons Why Real Estate Pros Should Have Their Own Blog

 
When I talk to my fellow Real Estate peeps and the subject of Marketing Online comes up, the Conversation usually turns to whether or not they, as a Real Estate Pro should have their own blog.
 
Some argue that since their company or broker has one, that should be good enough, right? Uh, try again. 
 
If you're depending on just having your picture, your bio and the information your Broker puts on the your company site to bring you 
business, you're putting your career and your paycheck in someone else's hands.
 
Here's five compelling reasons why you should have your own separate blog…
 
Compelling Reason #1– You get to show the world who you are as a professional and as a person. By sharing your expertise, your 
personality and the things you enjoy doing, you're bulding a connection with your audience. That's how you attract the clients you really want to work with. How much fun is that?
 
Compelling Reason #2– You are generating your own leads. In real estate, if you have no prospects, you're out of business. We all know that (some of us all too well) As you share interesting articles, photos and events you're naturally going to have folks who will want to work with you. You won't have to depend on buying leads (that aren't really leads anyway) or relying on referrals from your Broker(some of those splits can really cut into your commissions). 
 
The days of giving up a big chunk of your paycheck for a referred client will be a thing of the distant past (as it should be ;-)) Also, when you get those blog readers who live in other areas who want to buy or sell, you can refer them to someone in their area and YOU earn the referral fee. 
 
Now who's smilin' all the way to the bank?
 
Compelling Reason #3– you get to connect on a more personal level with your clients. Company websites are fine, don't get me wrong; but there, you're just another face in the crowd. Unless you have an outstanding photo (not talking about nose glasses or lime green hair here..although now that I think about it…nah) you're just going to get lumped in with all the other suit-wearing, arm-crossed, smiling agents in your office. 
 
Think about this a minute. Who do YOU relate with more? A corporate head shot or someone who shares pictures of their kid's Little League game, a mouth-watering  photo of a perfect loaf of bread that just emerged from the oven (with the recipe to go along with it) or a story of how you helped a deserving young couple overcome huge obstacles to become happy homeowners. I'm betting the warm and fuzzy connection gets you every time. Your prospective clients are no different. People want to work with people they have things in common with. Show them that person is you. 
 
Compelling Reason #4– Your blog is YOUR piece of internet real estate. It's a part of your business that follows you no matter who your Broker is. When you have your own blog (and the marketing funnel that you build to go with it), it's YOURS. You own the domain, you own the content. you own your list of prospects (you will be building a list, won't you? Of course you will) Those are the people you market to for however long you choose to remain in business. 
 
If you depend on your company site, anyone who goes through their site remains a lead of the company. If you choose to leave and you've been working with folks that came to you through the Broker's site, too bad. 
 
Any relationship you may have formed will be left at the door when you turn in your keys. Ain't gonna happen if you've generated your own list. 
 
(Now, all you good Realtor people out there,. I know I don't even need to say this, but you DO need to let your client remain if they're in escrow. Totally not cool to try and take a Buyer or Seller away from your Broker. I'm talking here about the folks who haven't done anything yet. OK…ethics lesson over. Wish I could give you C.E. credits for that 😉 )
 
 
Compelling Reason #5– It's just plain fun to share your hobbies, favorite hangouts, recipes, and real estate triumphs (and some 
frustrations are OK, too) with your audience. By creating your own blog and sharing who you are and what you know, you're helping folks you may never get to connect with any other way. Here's a scenario that happens a lot. 
 
Someone on the polar opposite end of the country reads your blog post about a really cool event you and your family just went to in your town. 
 
That same person just found out they're getting a job transfer to your area (that's why they were reading about the event) and sees that you're a Realtor. 
 
They already feel connected with you by reading your blog and like your style, your sense of humor and the way you posted a picture of your two year-old holding her ice cream cone and letting your puppy take a lick. (If you're gonna be real, you may as well go all in, right?) Who do you think they're going to call to help them relocate? If you don't say you, I'm going to thump you right now…hard. 😉
 
Yes, they're going to turn to you. You've shown yourself to be warm and genuine. They get how much you love what you do and want to help them. 
 
They wouldn't even think about looking for someone else. Besides, they want to see the puppy…giggle. 
 
You got in this business because you want to help people and solve their problems (and make good money in the process). SO do it already and enjoy it while you're at it.
 
These are the five most compelling reasons why you, as a realtor should have your own blog. Can you think of any more? Do you have your own blog yet? Let me know in the comments below. And if you have any questions about how to get started, ask me that too. I'll be happy to help. Until next time…
 
To your blogging success,
Sonrisas (smiles),
 
Beth
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