Every real estate professional knows that marketing your services is the key to long-term success. Simply put, you need strong sales to funnel directing prospects to you whenever they’re looking for the services of a real estate agent. Today, that means having a strong online digital presence Without a sufficiently robust presence, it becomes increasingly difficult to source new clients, especially since today, so many house hunters - up to 97 percent! -  begin their search online.

Therefore, it’s crucial to market effectively, and that means generating plenty of traffic. One of the most effective methods for doing so is through creating and maintaining a real estate blog, as this offers untold opportunities to build your brand online and then market that brand far and wide. Knowing what you must do to be a successful real estate agent is one thing, though; knowing how to do it is something else. Here’s what you need to know about how to start and market your real estate blog to build traffic, and interest, in your professional services.

Why a Real Estate Blog?

First things first: why choose a real estate blog to market yourself as a real estate professional? Blogging is often considered counter-intuitive by those who think of marketing as high-profile promotion that’s designed to generate revenue; unlike marketing properties directly, for example, blogging is much more indirect, and running a blog of any type seems like a lot of effort for not much direct return. What’s the point in making regular blog posts that aren’t directly telling readers about opportunities that you’re offering them, such as a new property on the market?

The secret, of course, is that a real estate blog isn’t about a direct or short-term return. Instead, it’s about long-term relationship building between the real estate professional and their audience. Establishing yourself as an expert in a certain facet of real estate, such as a specific neighborhood and all it offers to residents, offers countless opportunities to attract an audience looking for a trusted source for the information they need. This, in turn, leads to a higher likelihood that someone will turn to you when they have need of your expertise in related matters - such as buying or selling a home in that neighborhood.

What Kind of Content Makes a Real Estate Blog Effective?

Now that you know about how having your own real estate blog is a great way to build long-term relationships with prospects, the question then becomes what type of content do you need to focus on while creating your blog posts? While there are dozens of different approaches to content creation, here are some excellent examples that you can use for your own ideas.

• Housing market trends: Much of your work towards content creation may be locally based, but general housing market trends will impact your territory - and your prospective buyers and sellers. When interest rates change that will make mortgages either more or less expensive, for example, it’s important to bring that to the attention of your readers, considering the impact it will have on them.

• Neighborhood news: doubling down on local goings-on is any real estate professional’s bread and butter when it comes to establishing yourself as an expert. If there’s a noteworthy festival, parade, concert, or another event that’s fast approaching, be sure to bring it to the attention of your readers so that they know what’s going on.

• Local businesses: just as you should publicize neighborhood news, talking about local businesses also helps establish how well you know your local community. Locally-owned businesses of all types definitely gain more traction here, as a national chain store can be found nearly anywhere. If your neighborhood has a local coffee shop or restaurant, though, that’s something notable to publicize.

• Ways to have fun: Imagine you’re looking for information on a neighborhood that you’re considering moving into. Wouldn’t it be helpful to find a blog post about all the entertainment and recreational amenities in the area, like local beaches, dog parks, hiking trails, or concert venues? Show your readers you’ve got your finger on the pulse of your community.

• Benefits for families with kids: Families looking to move to a new location always want to be sure it’s going to be a good neighborhood for their children. Focusing on blog posts that describe the local school districts, playgrounds, or kid-centric amenities like children’s museums or mini-golf courses is a surefire way to attract attention to your blog - and your real estate services.

• DIY home repair tips: While not necessarily about local content, providing tips on home maintenance can also help establish you as an authority on all things real estate. The more varied types of DIY tips you offer, the better - simple posts about how to change light switch cover plates are just as good as more complex ones such as how to clean a home’s gutters. Landscaping tips and tricks are also a great way to build authority - and offer opportunities to plug a local landscaping company as well!

• Moving tips: House hunters looking to relocate to your area are likely looking for information on how to pack up their belonging and move house. This means sharing tips on how to do so can generate plenty of traffic while also creating opportunities to reference blog posts you’ve already written about your community’s benefits. This helps attract people moving to your area in two different ways.

• The property showcases: No, we’re not necessarily talking about showing properties for sale. That’s for your MLS listing. Instead, showcase a property that just sold, preferably one that you had a hand in selling. Talk about the clients and their own journey, highlight the things about the property that attracted them to it in the first place, and take the opportunity to throw some light on the process that they had to go through for them to take possession of their new home.

• Tips for home decorating: Home decor is always on people’s minds. Whether they’re looking to decorate their new home or they’re thinking of redecorating their current one, people are always looking for tips and tricks on how to create different looks and feels for specific rooms in their house. Also, consider partnering with a local interior designer to promote their services in posts dedicated to home decorating tips. 

• Rental versus ownership: This one is a surefire way to generate interest. The debate between whether you should rent your home or buy one has been raging for decades, and while you might not be able to put it to rest in blog posts dedicated to the topic, you can provide some crucial insider information that many people might not otherwise be aware of. There’s no better way to establish yourself as an authority than sharing your behind-the-scenes view!

Beyond Content: How to Market Your Blog Effectively

Creating compelling content for your real estate blog is just the first step, of course; you now have to ensure that the people in need of such content can find it on the internet. This is where knowing the ins and outs of effective digital marketing techniques come into play, as you need to find ways to stand out from the crowd and attract the kind of attention you’re looking for.

This can seem like a daunting task, to be sure. The internet is vast, and it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle thanks to the high level of competition there is online. Here’s how you can help cut down on that signal-to-noise ratio so that your blog content stands out, gets read by others, and leads to potential new prospects converting into clients.

Social Media Integration is Crucial

First things first: you need to go where the people are. Today, that means social media. You need to ensure that you have a strong social media presence on the platforms that matter, so that you can share links to your blog posts on these platforms. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how good your blog is if nobody knows it’s out there. 

Choosing social media platforms to showcase your content on isn’t necessarily difficult, however. The biggest ones are likely to remain Facebook and Twitter for the time being, while others like Instagram and TikTok are also excellent choices. The latter two are most well-used when you have video or image content to share, while the others are better for longer, more traditional content. 

Always Optimize Your Content for Search Engines

Beyond sharing to social media, the next best thing you can do to market your blog content is to ensure it’s easily found by people looking for information online. Search engine optimization is the tool to use to accomplish this, as SEO ensures that your blog content is crafted in such a way as to show up in relevant Google searches.

Search engine optimization is a major topic, and not one that you can necessarily master overnight. There are dozens of different approaches that you’ll need to keep in mind, but the core concept is that posting well-written, well-organized, and relevant content in the form of blog posts will result in those posts being ranked more favorably when someone searches for specific topics. As a rule of thumb, good SEO includes the following:

• Well-researched keywords: Know what types of keywords people are using to search for specific topics, and then write blog posts that use those keywords whenever you’re crafting a blog on one of those topics. 

• Image content: Search engines tend to prioritize content that’s more than just text. Including attractive images helps bump up your search ranking, so make sure to choose one or two appropriate images for each blog post you make.

• Links to related content: Whether it’s content you’ve already written about or it’s content you found elsewhere on the internet, be sure to link to that content whenever you’re writing a blog post. Search engines like Google prioritize content with links to other useful, high-quality content.

• Mobile optimization: With so many people primarily using mobile devices to browse the internet, ensuring your website reads well and is accessible on those devices is a must. Many search engines like Google actively look for mobile optimization and rank that content higher as well.
• Consistent content generation: The more content you have available on your blog, the better - especially if you add to that content on a consistent basis. Posting blog updates regularly over weeks, months, and even years all helps your search engine ranking.

The Last Word on Starting and Marketing Your Real Estate Blog

Being successful in the world of real estate requires you to market yourself and your professional services effectively. One of the most important aspects of this professional marketing is by doing so over the internet, and using a real estate blog as one of the primary vehicles for this professional marketing can yield major results - provided you do it right. Ensure you focus on providing useful content to readers that have been optimized to rank well in search engine results and then sharing that content to social media platforms will help build your online following. This, in return, helps build your real estate business in ways that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise.