One problem that I see with lots of real estate blogs is the tendency for the author to want to write about one of two things:
- The state of the industry,
- The latest shiny object in social media.
Now, not that there’s anything wrong with writing about the industry – it is a real estate blog after all. But ready-to-buy homebuyer’s aren’t interested in what’s happening nation-wide. They’re interested in what’s happening locally.
Before we get into an argument of whether that’s write or wrong, let me phrase it a different way and give you something to consider… Are you reporting the news? Or writing a real estate blog to generate leads?
You have to win the local game first before anything else. That means establishing yourself as the go-to resource for everything local about the community, average sale prices, financing options and more.
As for social media, if you’re interested in covering the latest trends, start a social media blog.
I’m not saying that you can’t (or shouldn’t) write about your industry. What I’m saying is that when you’re starting a brand new blog, and it’s purpose is to serve as a referral engine, you need to invest in writing for your customers first.
Why You Need To Write for Your Customers First
Before you start your real estate blog, you need to think about who exactly you’re trying to reach.
Is it buyers? Sellers? Investors? Or all of the above?
Paint a picture of who your ideal client is. Marketer David Meerman Scott calls this the process of creating a buyers persona. The idea behind creating a buyer persona is to develop a deeper understanding of the needs and wants of a specific demographic. Once you understand those needs and wants, you stand a much better chance of communicating and persuading them with your copywriting.
What kind of questions are first-time home buyers asking that you can provide answers to?
- How do I find out how much I qualify for?
- What are the best areas to live in [insert your area here]?
- How to use gift money as a form of down-payment.
…and, what else?
What kind of questions are sellers asking that you can provide answers to?
- What’s the average days on market for homes in my price range?
- How can staging a home for sale benefit me towards the sale of my home?
- How should I prep my home for sale?
…and, what else?
Your Content Is Going To Attract a Certain Type of Client
If you write for buyers, you’re going to attract buyers. If you write for sellers, you’re going to attract sellers. If your writing is off-topic and not very well targeted, you might get a few page views here and there but you won’t derive the high quality traffic that you really want – in other words, people who are genuinely interested in hearing what you have to offer.
Action Steps:
Site down and write out your buyer persona. Make a list of all of the attributes that your ideal client possesses.
- Certain age range,
- Newly married,
- Family or single,
Etc.
Then, make a list of all of the questions that they’re asking and that you can provide the answers to. Again, make a simple check-list of all of the questions they’re asking about buying/selling a home.
Once you’re done, you have a list of blog topics to start writing about on your real estate blog. This should be the foundation for the rest of your content moving forward.
Ricardo Bueno
Author, Real Estate Blog Topics
P.S.
Get here via a link from a friend, Facebook, or Twitter? This lesson is part 2 of a 7-part free email course on the essential pillars of building a lead generating real estate blog. Learn more about it and sign up here.
