How Blogging Can Help Real Estate Professionals Grow and Excel
Real estate is competitive, so brokerages and agents need to seize every possible opportunity to stand out. Given that nine in 10 home buyers begin their search on the internet, online presence is key. A cornerstone of successful digital marketing building expertise online is content. There's a lot riding on content, so it's important to have a strategy that works (and that you can stick to).
What is content? Why should real estate brokers care?
"Content" means any written, visual, or audio resources you create to appeal to your ideal customer online. This could be blog posts, videos, pictures, infographics, social media posts, and even podcasts. Once they're out in the world, these resources are an inbound marketing goldmine, providing answers to your prospects' questions and bringing them to your website, where you can turn them into leads.
In this post, we're going to focus on the importance of blogs for real estate agents.
What can real estate agents gain from creating engaging blogs?
It's difficult to emphasize just how valuable blogs can be. Some of the many business benefits from maintaining a good blog include improving your search engine optimization (SEO), establishing expertise and trust in your market, and enhancing organic lead generation.
Let's explore these benefits in greater detail.
Content is king. Posting regularly helps send your website rankings soaring.
Content is a crucial component of higher SEO rankings.
Why? Content fills your site with the keywords your prospects are searching for, like "Homes for sale in [insert where you live]." Once you start ranking for your target keywords, when people search for them, your site will appear on the first page, driving organic traffic.
Another important element of SEO is external linking, which is when another site provides a link to your website. For this to happen, you need a sufficient library of relevant, accurate, valuable content that other sources want to cite (think local and regional news outlets, lifestyle bloggers in your city, industry publications, online newsletters, and more).
Thoughtful blog posts help homebuyers believe and trust you as their potential agent
When you provide answers to your audience's questions, you're doing two things:
Cultivating your authority as an experienced real estate professional
Building trust
This applies to two different audiences, too:
Potential customers, who see you're a good partner for their transaction
Search engines, which are trying to send searches to the most useful resources.
As search engines start to trust your content, more prospects will see it, and your reputation as an expert in your market will grow.
Real estate posts help generate vital leads and boost conversions
Leads are the backbone of your brokerage, and converting leads to customers is how you keep your business thriving. Blogs give you ample opportunity to generate more leads, then convert them using strategic calls to action to guide your audience towards a property search, home valuation, digital download, or contact form.
According to HubSpot, consistent, high-quality, engaging content impacts audience decision-making more than any other technique. Quality blog posts can ultimately have a big impact on whether consumers decide to list with, or buy from, you and your team.
Create more original content on your blog with a new automated posting feature
One challenge of writing a high-quality blog is finding the time: you not only need to write the post, you need to source high-quality, properly licensed images, promote the post on social media, engage with comments about the post, and then do it all over again. Consistency is key, but that doesn't always fit into agents' busy schedules.
Thanks to a brand new Constellation1 Website and Digital Marketing Suite integration, we leverage the information you've input into the MLS, including photos, property details, and property descriptions, to automatically post engaging property listing and closing posts to your website's blog.
We'll also post weekly real estate news, information, and advice to keep your audience informed and engaged, so you can experience the benefits we've talked about above. Your team can complement your blog with original posts any time, then promote them on all your social channels if you so choose.
Many of our customers have reaped the benefits of automated social media marketing. Now they can add automated blog posts to the mix, and so can you!
To view the original article, visit the Constellation1 blog.
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Articles
Mark A. McLaughlin Starts New Endeavor Worth Watching
If you are part of the brokerage community, you have probably met or know about Mark A. McLaughlin. He has grown a few companies and had some very successful exits, including Pacific Union to Compass, one of the largest real estate brokerage sales in history.
Even if you do not know Mark, he is worth listening to and watching. This week, he launched his new website where he posts insightful observations about the industry. The cornerstone of Mark is that he is a huge fan of the industry and does not believe that a '#', '@', or '.com' is going to disintermediate our business.
In the first post on his new blog, he talks about the $9 billion in new prop-tech investments of 2021, recognizing that that influx of capital is going to "move the needle" and our industry needs to have the courage to invest wisely. In real estate, there is a battle being waged between agents on the street and technology in the cloud. Will the industry go to the cloud, or will the cloud connect to the street?
Well, the cloud is here but the agents on the street are winning as much today as they ever have. "Our clients have voted with their checkbooks [commissions] that they value a real estate professional's advice over a discount," says McLaughlin.
Take a moment to visit mclaughlin-ventures.com where you can subscribe to Mark's writings. You will be glad you did.
Below you will find the first blog post on McLaughlin's newly launched site.
October 1, 2021
What is your vision for 2026? How will you plan and execute?
I am a friend and huge fan of our industry. I have said many times— as long as our real estate professionals have the trust of their clients, I do not see a #, @ or .com disintermediating our business.
But things are changing at an ever-increasing rate. Nine billion dollars of new prop-tech investments in '21 YTD will 100% "move the needle." One thousand software engineers at Compass will "move the needle."
Stepping away from fifteen years of experience focused on strategic growth of brokerage operations, including nearly a dozen acquisitions, joint ventures, technology investments and a one-of-a-kind China Concierge program, I challenge you to think like Gretsky used to skate. Push boundaries and be willing to embrace the hard and execute on the expensive— others may not.
To quote Roger Staubach, "There are no traffic jams on the extra mile."
Don't model your future based on your bordering competitors as that compromises innovation and greatness. Model your business and your team around the consumer– our real estate professionals' clients!
Gather your leadership team and ask everyone to bring a good idea to a strategic planning meeting (one or two days). Challenge your team to make a few of the good ideas into great ideas. Then agree to execute the great ideas to a standard of excellence.
A former executive at SoFi expressed her approach to consumer finance, "If Chase does it this way, we need to innovate and do it better." Love this! Don't accept the current state. Don't benchmark against the company across the street. Innovate!
In 2017, I started pushing a vision that the race was on "To Connect the Cloud to the Street." "The cloud" being the "disruptors," and "the street" being the legacy company. Would the street rise to the cloud or would the cloud collapse to the street?
Well, the disruptors are here– the street did not exactly rise!
In 2019, Chris Gough, Managing Director, GCA illustrated our industry in nine verticals. Each one of these companies is chasing your clients.
The chase is on! Everyone is chasing your client and your real estate professional.
How do you envision 2026?
We have not seen disintermediation— but the pie might be shrinking. We have new players in our business— iBuyers, mortgage banks like Rocket Mortgage & Loan Depot, conventional banks, institutional investors and countless start-ups offering consumers technology and discounts.
We will sell 6.5 million homes in the U.S. this year— setting records, but what's "eating" at your business?
Have you thought about "Who is Chasing Whom?"
Our clients have voted with their checkbooks (commissions) that they value a real estate professional's advice over a discount. Your teams' knowledge and advice are core to real estate in America.
Your real estate professionals may not know what they need or want until you deliver "it," but they will know you haven't delivered when they get the recruiting call from those who do have "it."
My friend, Brian Solis, and I recently collaborated to address one hundred top team leaders in the U.S. His message was to "Thrive in 2026" your business will need to embrace automation of the mundane and routine and integrate AI for decision support. This thesis was confirmed via a CNBC report on September 17, 2021.
Push your technology vendors to be ahead of your expectations.
Envision and strive to 2026. Invest in and protect your assets – people!
Remember that our clients are far more demanding of instant gratification than your real estate professionals. In the end the clients get whatever they want because an entrepreneur will give it to them.
I have always said, "Get the people right or nothing else really matters."
Your people want your everyday presence and your Vision for 2026.
This is Where We Are Now.
Thanks!Mark A. McLaughlin
To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.
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Real Estate Marketing 2020: Special Dates and Themes
2020 is coming, which means it's time to start planning your marketing strategies now. Because there's so much content out there, today's consumers--and future homebuyers--expect a little something extra to inspire and inform them.
No matter whether you're focusing on email, social media, or even a real estate blog, here's a list of special and themed days you can use to inspire and inform with your content!
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Products
Postling Social Media Dashboard
Postling is a social media marketing platform for real estate professionals. In one personalized dashboard, agents can post, respond and schedule posts. Agent s can monitor their screen, and see what other professionals and clients are saying about you via social networks and blog sites. Postling is free for personal use and small businesses. Agents can use Postling to post content, stay organized and reach their customers. Key features include: Publishing all in one place – Agents can publish to social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Tumblr, and Flickr. Schedule posts in advance- Any post created in Postling can be scheduled to publish in advance, including Twitter, Facebook, personal blog, photos, or videos. Stay on top of comments - Postling brings all of the comments an agent's readers leave on their blog, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube into one place. Agents can respond to those comments from within Postling. Know social media statistics – Postling shows stats so agents can see which days their posts are most effective and their post-to-comment ratio Connect multiple users to a Postling accounts- Postling allows agents to create new users in Postling and link them up to their social networks Daily email summary- Every morning Postling sends a daily digest email recapping the recent activity for all of their social media accounts, where you can see your newest comments, Yelp and CitySearch reviews, and tracking results. Track business and competitors- Create personal search terms and Postling pulls in results from blogs, news articles, Tweets, and Flickr photos Instant email alerts of comments- Postling sends instant email alerts to any account the agent selects, including alerts when they get a Twitter reply, blog comment, or post on their Facebook Page Postling supports the following services: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Tumblr, Squarespace, Drupal, YouTube, Flickr, Bitly, Yelp, and CitySearch.
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Postling is a social media marketing platform for real estate professionals. In one personalized dashboard, agents can post, respond and schedule posts. Agent s can monitor their screen, and see what other professionals and clients are saying about you via social networks and blog sites. Postling is free for personal use and small businesses. Agents can use Postling to post content, stay organized and reach their customers. Key features include: Publishing all in one place – Agents can publish to social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Tumblr, and Flickr. Schedule posts in advance- Any post created in Postling can be scheduled to publish in advance, including Twitter, Facebook, personal blog, photos, or videos. Stay on top of comments - Postling brings all of the comments an agent's readers leave on their blog, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube into one place. Agents can respond to those comments from within Postling. Know social media statistics – Postling shows stats so agents can see which days their posts are most effective and their post-to-comment ratio Connect multiple users to a Postling accounts- Postling allows agents to create new users in Postling and link them up to their social networks Daily email summary- Every morning Postling sends a daily digest email recapping the recent activity for all of their social media accounts, where you can see your newest comments, Yelp and CitySearch reviews, and tracking results. Track business and competitors- Create personal search terms and Postling pulls in results from blogs, news articles, Tweets, and Flickr photos Instant email alerts of comments- Postling sends instant email alerts to any account the agent selects, including alerts when they get a Twitter reply, blog comment, or post on their Facebook Page Postling supports the following services: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Tumblr, Squarespace, Drupal, YouTube, Flickr, Bitly, Yelp, and CitySearch.
Writing Services from RE Technology
Let’s face it, you don’t have the time or the bandwidth to create content on a regular basis. Even if you had the time, your efforts are better spent on business development or using your own unique skills. Now, you can leave the writing to us. We have a solution for you – our new suite of Writing Services. Why Choose RE Technology Writing Services?There are many reasons to choose our Writing Services. Our content is of the highest quality. We are experts in the real estate industry, making us uniquely qualified to write industry-related content. We understand the principles of branding and brand management. We’ll make sure your copy clearly articulates the factors that set you apart from your competition. We’ll schedule a phone conference to discuss your ideas and requirements. We’re seasoned professionals, so we can ensure quick turn-around and time efficiency. The Details Services AvailableIf you want it, we can write it. In general, our most popular services are: articles, press releases, directory profiles, blog posts, and Web pages. PlacementSo where will all this fantastic content live? You own it – put it anywhere you’d like. With your permission, we’ll place it on a variety of sources to ensure maximum exposure. The content can be posted on www.retechnology.com, your blog, your website, and social media sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). FrequencyWe can write up to one article per week for each client. However, if you require more content for a time-sensitive project, we will work with you to make special arrangements.
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Let’s face it, you don’t have the time or the bandwidth to create content on a regular basis. Even if you had the time, your efforts are better spent on business development or using your own unique skills. Now, you can leave the writing to us. We have a solution for you – our new suite of Writing Services. Why Choose RE Technology Writing Services?There are many reasons to choose our Writing Services. Our content is of the highest quality. We are experts in the real estate industry, making us uniquely qualified to write industry-related content. We understand the principles of branding and brand management. We’ll make sure your copy clearly articulates the factors that set you apart from your competition. We’ll schedule a phone conference to discuss your ideas and requirements. We’re seasoned professionals, so we can ensure quick turn-around and time efficiency. The Details Services AvailableIf you want it, we can write it. In general, our most popular services are: articles, press releases, directory profiles, blog posts, and Web pages. PlacementSo where will all this fantastic content live? You own it – put it anywhere you’d like. With your permission, we’ll place it on a variety of sources to ensure maximum exposure. The content can be posted on www.retechnology.com, your blog, your website, and social media sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). FrequencyWe can write up to one article per week for each client. However, if you require more content for a time-sensitive project, we will work with you to make special arrangements.
RISMedia RESource
RESource, or Real Estate Content Solutions, is RISMedia’s answer for the content creation challenges of today’s busy real estate professional. With RESource, you can populate your blog or website with articles and videos from RIS Media. With RESource, you have access to: Daily content updates A prolific article library An extensive article library Content tools Contact RIS Media to learn about the different pricing options for Real Estate Content Solutions.
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RESource, or Real Estate Content Solutions, is RISMedia’s answer for the content creation challenges of today’s busy real estate professional. With RESource, you can populate your blog or website with articles and videos from RIS Media. With RESource, you have access to: Daily content updates A prolific article library An extensive article library Content tools Contact RIS Media to learn about the different pricing options for Real Estate Content Solutions.
Industry News
Elm Street Technology Poised for Growth, Launches Elevate for Real Estate
GREENSBORO, NC--(Oct 11, 2016) - Two best-in-class acquisitions, including one of the most established real estate marketing brands used by millions of consumers -- Listingbook, has catapulted Elm Street Technology into the real estate industry spotlight. Headed by a team of well-known real estate industry entrepreneurs, Prem Luthra and Randall Kaplan, Elm Street Technology today launches Elevate™, a new Digital Marketing System that uses advanced automation to move Elm Street Technology towards delivering "everything real estate agents and brokers need for new leads and client-for-life retention, all in one place."
"Elevate offers brokers and agents a single digital marketing platform with all of the outstanding features that millions of consumers who've used Listingbook love," Luthra, President of Elm Street Technology says. "Elevate includes Listingbook's powerful client servicing platform with best-in-class MLS-powered listing search for home shoppers, access to public records, recent and past sales information, community and school details, taxes, loan calculator, shopping and recreation, and much more," he adds.
Luthra notes Elevate also introduces advanced automation that delivers custom Blogs, automated listing postings to social media channels, automated YouTube property tour videos, and beautifully designed, mobile responsive agent and property IDX websites embedded with the best-in-class lead generation technology, all from a single vendor.
"With Elevate, Elm Street Technology begins to solve one of the biggest challenges for real estate brokers and agents: The marketing technologies they use to promote listings and their businesses don't talk to each other. Elevate moves brokers and agents onto one digital marketing system, from one vendor, and that means only one phone call for support. Now that's an industry first," Luthra says.
Luthra, who founded Elm Street Technology in February with a group of investors, added Randall Kaplan as its Chairman through its first acquisition, Listingbook, the real estate industry's proven lead nurturing and client servicing platform that allows consumers to "search like an agent." In September, Elm Street also acquired RLS2000, a top broker and agent website provider and marketing services firm based in New England.
According to Luthra, Elm Street Technology is in the process of rolling up other successful technology and marketing services companies. "We will be able to deliver everything a broker or agent needs from lead generation, to customer for life retention solutions," he says.
Prior to pursuing his vision of creating Elm Street Technology, Luthra served as Chief Marketing Officer at Xome. He also was the Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer for Real Estate Digital, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Xome. Luthra was also the Chief Strategy and Sales Officer for LPS Real Estate Group, and Senior Vice President of Consumer Media at Move Inc.
Randall Kaplan has quietly established a daunting track record of innovatively creating, rapidly growing and skillfully selling a number of businesses that stretch across multiple industries. He started out running Kay Chemical Company, a leading supplier to McDonald's and other fast food franchises, which was merged into Ecolab, the world's largest institutional chemical company. As an entrepreneur, he started, grew and sold a number of businesses, including Sterling South Bank, now the Bank of North Carolina. He also bought most of Listingbook and became its President in 2006.
Elevate is powered by Listingbook and fully integrates all of its features with RLS2000's powerful automated marketing services and best-in-class websites to deliver one source for new leads, client management and client-for-life retention. Product pricing information for agents, teams and brokerage licensing is available by calling Elm Street Technology toll-free at 1-866-353-3456 or visit www.elmstreettechnology.com.
About Elm Street TechnologyElm Street Technology offers a portfolio of real estate technology and marketing services companies that provides one vendor, one point of contact, one solution fully fused into one platform to deliver a single source for new leads, client relationship management, and client retention tools for agents, teams and brokerages. Elevate from Elm Street Technologies is the single solution that real estate professionals need to handle the marketing while brokers and agents handle the business, including high end IDX websites, lead generation tools, powerful CRM and incubation tools, mobile app, social media management and blogging, and client retention tools. For more information, call 1-866-353-3456 or visit www.elmstreettechnology.com.
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WordPress Blogs Come to Point2 Agent
We are very excited to announce the addition of WordPress blogs to our Point2 Agent Professional and Elite membership levels!
This new blog solution is fully integrated with your existing Point2 Agent account and can contribute enormously to the SEO of your website.
Here are some WordPress blog highlights:
Host your blog on your domain (e.g. www.yourdomainname.com/blogs/customer#)
Choose from 8 available themes
Track performance with Google Analytics compatibility
Enjoy built-in SEO optimization tools
Create posts with a straightforward WYSIWYG editor
Embed photos and videos to posts without a hassle
Auto-post from listings and open house announcements
How do you get started? Easy: log in to your Point2 Agent account and go to the Blogs section at the bottom of the page. Then just click the button to create your blog (if you already have a blog, you can still create a new WordPress one). Voila, you're now a real estate blogger!
We've created a number of FAQs to help you out along the way. You can access those here.
As always, if you have any questions or need help with this new feature, our world-class Customer Care team is just a phone call (or email!) away. They can be reached at 866-977-1777 or via email at customercare[at]point2.com.
Need blog inspiration? Check out 7 Blogging Tips for Real Estate Agents and 5 Blog Post Ideas for Real Estate to kick start your creative process.
Happy blogging!
Have any questions about your new blog capabilities? Let us know in the comments below!
To view the original post, visit the Point2Agent blog.
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Companies
HomeActions
HomeActions is an efficient, easy and economical e-marketing and prospecting system for Realtors®. Over 3500 top producers from national brands such as Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, Long & Foster, and Weichert rely on HomeActions to build their pipelines and production by annually emailing 25,000,000 e-newsletters to their clients and prospects.
More than an e-newsletter, HomeActions is a unique content delivery system with articles of interest to all homeowners, not just those actively buying or selling. This compelling content is delivered in newsletter format via email as an active web page. Emailed every two weeks, including the agent’s branding, bio, and listings with timely articles portrays them as an expert Homeowner Advocate to all of their prospects. The result is enhanced top of mind awareness by an agent’s prospects which generates more leads, listings, and buyers.
HomeActions specializes in Raving Fans customer support. Our 24/7 Organize-IT service (free with every subscription) helps agents build their email database and get started quickly and efficiently. The result is that Realtors® don’t have to be tech savvy to be successful. Busy agents can “set-it and forget-it” freeing up their time to focus on listing and showing properties.
Ask your broker to schedule an in-office HomeActions demonstration or register to attend one of our Live Webinars to see how HomeActions can make you more successful in 2014.
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