What do winning real estate blogs look like in today’s market, and beyond?
New data shows that businesses that blog enjoy 67% more leads. Demand Metric reports that surveyed marketers consider their blog the most valuable channel they have. A HubSpot survey finds marketers that prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to see a positive ROI. Of course, what works in real estate blogging is constantly changing. So what are the best practices for seeing better results from your real estate blog?
The Benefits of Blogging for Real Estate
It can be easy to take a blog for granted. That said, it is important to remember just how powerful and critical blogging is as a real estate professional:
- One of the most important pieces of branding
- The go to page on your website to see if you are still active and in business
- An easy tool for staying on top of Google and attracting more leads
- A tool for warmly connecting with other marketing channels
- A way to stay in touch with prospects and clients, and keep winning their business
- A powerful conversion tool
- Crucial for standing out from the competition
Nobody wants to be without these tools, so you’ve got to be blogging.
Know Why You Are Blogging
Every real estate pro has their own priority and objectives for blogging. Whatever your reason, you need to be clear about your blogging goals. This way you can optimize the process to get the results you want more of.
Obviously if you just want filler copy, your approach will be far different than if you aim to use blogging as your flagship marketing tool. If you just want filler, you don’t need to be spending $2,000 on creating an epic post. On the other hand, if you really want your blog to be something you’ll be proud of, it may be to your benefit to put some money behind it. So what are some of the best practices for better blogging, or some of the niches which may offer more opportunity to stand out?
Blog Frequency
How often should you be publishing real estate blogs? A new survey and infographic published via Copy Blogger reveals what the competition is up to:
- 85% publish at regular intervals
- The majority publish weekly, or more often
- The most common frequency is 2 to 6 posts per week
Publishing at least five to eight times a week has been directly linked to higher ROI and results.
Blog Length
Blog length continues to be a hotly debated subject.
- 75% write posts of 1,000 or less
- Blog posts of 1,500+ words have increased by 72%
- The ‘sweet spot’ where most bloggers stick to is 500 to 1,000 words
Google has been found to routinely change up what ranks best, and there is a lot more than just word count that matters to Google and Facebook. They also prioritize engagement. So think about the types of posts you read and engage with the most. Are they long reports? Or short and sweet blurbs?
Multimedia Blogging
Multimedia blogging is becoming more popular, and the real estate industry is no exception. Audio and video techniques are growing at an incredible rate. They can be more expensive and intensive elements to produce. Yet, virtually every real estate blogger can afford to invest in some good images to accompany their posts. BuzzSumo reports that blogs with images every 75 to 100 words attract an average of 30 more shares than other posts.
Blog Promotion
Even the most awesome real estate blog post may not take off on its own. Orbit Media Studios reports that social media is the most common promotional channel for attracting more hits to a blog. Many of those posts you see with an incredible number of shares and likes are also the product of paid media pushing visitors to them. Still, no matter what you budget, it is important to maximize your content by getting the word out. If you’ve got an awesome post, make some noise about it! Email a link to your list, send direct messages to other media outlets and bloggers to get their attention, and more. You’ll get far more results and a better a ROI on everything you do.
