Positive Real Estate Professionals

As a business person you have realized just how essential blogging can be to your business as part of an overall online marketing plan and now you are ready to join the party. Party may not be the appropriate term for a blog that is meant to maintain current clients while also attracting new clients. After all the world of blogging no longer consists of only the personal journals that once dominated it. Journaling, poetry, and photo blogs can provide insight and be quite entertaining; I actually enjoy several of these types of blogs and maintain my own photo blog, Rich’s Pics. This post however is concerned with blogging for business and that is the reason for this first in a series of marketing posts.

Consider Your Blog’s Purpose

Why are you blogging? There are many reasons people choose to add a blog component to their business website or join a professional network with a built in blog component. These reasons collectively can be used to establish a map of sorts to help guide your topics. Here are just a few reasons:

• to show their knowledge of different aspects of their industry
• to keep visitors informed of the latest developments in their industry
• to demonstrate knowledge of local communities and markets as they relate to their industry
• to provide an interactive platform in order to foster a relationship with site visitors and convert those visitors into clients or referral sources

Consider Your Blog’s Audience

Now that you have a grasp on the types of topics you want to include in your blog, it is important to figure out who your intended audience is. Are you writing for the benefit of other professionals in your industry? Are you writing to general consumers who happen upon your site? Is your site optimized to attract targeted consumers? These are just a few possibilities when it comes to your audience; you could be writing to all or none of these. It is my belief that your blog should actually be written for all of these audiences.

In order to write to diverse audiences you may want to vary your topics. For instance let’s say you write posts on your blog three times a week. On the first day you may want to post about professional topics (i.e. Realtors® might post market reports while home inspectors might post about mold remediation, etc). While these posts might be of interest to both general and targeted consumers, they should definitely appeal to other professionals in your industry and can be a way to build professional relationships. On your second blog day you may want to post about general topics that relate to your industry (i.e. lenders might post about tax credits for first time homebuyers while home re-modelers might post about the tax credits for upgrading to more energy efficient appliances, insulation, etc). These general topics should have a wide appeal to all three groups. On your third blog day you might want to write about local places, events, schools, etc. that make your area a great place to live (i.e. hiking trails, museums, festivals, etc). In addition to demonstrating your knowledge of your local area, this is the type of detailed information that can convey some of the local flavor of your area. Many people, especially those new to an area or considering relocation to your area, are looking for this type of insight into a community. These topic suggestions are to help you maintain the diversity of your posts and should be adapted to fit your particular needs.

Don’t miss the next post in this marketing series. Meanwhile, here are three articles that have been published previously on this real estate network that pertain to the substance of this post:

Separating Business from Personal: The Art of Marketing

How do I attract buyers to my site?

Should I use Generic Content on my blog?

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.