Community-Centric Blog Strategy
Think of the blogs that you like to read. Are they strictly about real estate? Probably not. They are typically a blend of your passions, interests, and career. So why should your blog contain only real estate or real estate technology information? The purpose of creating a community-centric blog is to communicate with your customers during the time between their purchase of a house and the time when they are ready to sell. Since many people don’t buy and sell annually, it’s difficult to stay relevant during this period.
Pros: Creating a community-centric blog also allows you to brand yourself as a multi-dimensional real estate professional. Not only can you help your customers buy and sell their homes, but you know your area’s best events, vendors, neighborhoods, eateries, breweries, kid-friendly outings, etc. While it is more work to write a variety of community pieces, when the time is right, they will come to you for real estate as well.
Best practices: Mor Zucker, with Kentwood Real Estate of Cherry Creek, created The Denver Ear blog in November 2014. The light bulb idea came while she was attending a conference. She wondered why real estate professionals seem to only share content about real estate. From there, The Denver Ear was born. With 8,000 monthly subscribers, her website gets a ton of readership, and it’s all organic. She does not include advertisements.
RELATED: Read the 2018 Online Performance Study for more content strategy
The secret ingredient to The Denver Ear’s success? Exclusivity. Zucker starts her blog posts out with a secretive “Psst.” This simple way of creating buzz around her content has businesses and local companies scrambling to supply her with exclusive information before anyone else—including other local media outlets! She calls this type of information her “secret investor gold” because her customers can keep their fingers on the pulse of up-and-coming attractions before they hear about it elsewhere. How does this help her with customers who aren’t investors? Many people who visit the site know Mor before ever using her services. Because they frequent the site, they “feel familiar with me,” she says. And they trust her with their real estate needs.
On her blog, there is a real estate tab that drives traffic to her personal website. However, her main objective is to include real estate content only when relevant and interesting to her readers. With approximately 600,000 sessions [visits to her page] each year and 73 percent of those sessions being new, Zucker is sitting on something special.