Having the best content in the world doesn’t mean anything if you don’t use it properly to get traffic to your website or sales to your estate agent’s services. After all, what’s the point in having a website or spending hours each week on content if you are not increasing sales and brand awareness?
- SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.
- 72% of online marketers describe content creation as their most effective SEO tactic.
Data From: https://optinmonster.com/blogging-statistics/
When ranking an estate agency website, many agents only really consider the obvious keywords that drive traffic to the main money-making pages, “estate agents in Bath”, for example. The reality, however, is that you can drive a lot of local traffic to your site from your blog posts too, and they don’t even need just to cover property marketing tips.
Here is a few examples of blog content you can create that will help bring local readers to your website:
-
Things to do with the kids this Christmas in (location)
-
Best pubs in (location)
-
Why move to (location)
-
How to sell your (location) property
-
Finding the best estate agent in (location) to sell your home
-
This month’s (location) property market update
-
This month’s (location) business feature
Some of these posts are related to property, and the others are focused on the local community, its businesses, and people. But both types of content are localised and relevant to your audience. This helps you drive local readers to your website via Google but it also increases traffic via your social media channels too. A win-win!
But what if you’re not quite sure where to start?
This simple guide will show you how to write a killer blog post that drives traffic and helps you to build your online presence. By following these 7 simple steps, you’ll be well on your way to creating relevant content that people want to read! Then it is all about consistency.
Pick your topic
One of the most important steps is to think about what you will write about. Before you sit down at your computer, take some time and brainstorm as many blog topics as possible. Once you’ve got a few good ideas in mind, circle one that sounds like the best starting point for your post and then move on to step two. If none of them sound compelling enough, it’s probably a sign that this isn’t the right blog topic for you right now.
Establish your tone
Establishing your tone is going to set the mood of your blog post and help you craft what you want readers to feel. One thing that all good content has in common is authenticity. So, find the voice that resonates most with you and commit. Now, it’s time for you to figure out who your audience is and why they’re reading this post. You can choose who will resonate with what you write based on interests, passions, worries or simply by demographic like location, age or gender. Is your goal to teach them something? Entertain them? Help them? Figure out which one best fits the purpose of your blog post and go from there. Once you’ve determined your tone, it’s time to start writing!
Research
Research is your most important step when it comes to writing blog posts. You want to make sure that the content you are writing about has been done before, or if you are creating content for something brand new. You want research to be about the topic and what other people have written about the subject in their blog posts or articles. The more research you do, the better your chance of having good material to work with.
Develop your ideas.
By now, you should have narrowed down your topic and collected some resources. What comes next is really simple brainstorming! Start by writing out all of the ideas that you can think of for your blog post. You might include something like “what do I know about X?” or “what will grab people’s attention about this subject?” in your list too. If there are any points you think someone would find interesting, add them as well.
Outline your content
After you have come up with your title, an idea, and you’ve researched the topic, it’s time to brainstorm what you will be writing about. Make a list of 3-5 points that will help readers understand the point that you are trying to make. There are usually five paragraphs in blog posts, so use this as your guide for how much information to provide.
Write and edit
Check your grammar and spelling, and make sure there are no typos. But don’t get too bogged down in details or over-edit. Remember, nobody’s perfect. You just want to do your best.
Now is also the time for content editing – ensuring that you’ve written enough of a variety of keywords to be found when people search online.
Share your content!
The old adage, if you build it, they will come no longer applies in today’s era of social media saturation. In order to get your content noticed, you’ll need to take some steps to amplify your voice on social media channels and increase the chances that people see what you have written. After all, posting things on Facebook or Twitter won’t help much if no one sees it! Here are some ways you can share your content without resorting to spammy tactics:
-
Send an email with a link to every person on your mailing list or in your address book.
-
Post an update about your post on your social media channels. Don’t forget you use hashtags and share your content with your local community groups on Facebook.
-
Share the post on your Google My Business profile.
-
Include a video as part of the blog article and then publish the video on YouTube.
-
Include part of the article into a piece of direct mail content with a QR code so prospects can easily read the full article on your site.
Final tip: Each time you write a blog post, include Call To Actions (CTAs) within the article so readers can easily contact you, request a callback or book a valuation.
Before you go, perhaps read about why you should blog to better understand the benefits to your estate agency business.
I hope this helps!
Paul 😀