- Write like a human, not like a brand. And you don’t need to close each blog with a hard sell. Useful content speaks louder than a sales pitch.
- Establishing credibility helps new website visitors feel confident in reaching out to you about working together.
Every successful real estate agent will tell you that nurturing a healthy pipeline of people who can lead to your next closing is crucial for survival in this business. But creating value during the nurturing process can be a huge challenge.
That’s where blogging comes in. If you already have a blog, you may be sitting on a gold mine of opportunity to nurture and convert your leads into closings.
In this article you’ll learn how to boost your lead nurturing with targeted blog content. But before we start, lets call out the elephant in the room.
What’s the point of blogging?
“Business people have been writing articles for trade publications for decades to become niche experts. That’s why blogging for business is such a no-brainer, as long as you realize that the content you create is a launch pad for other opportunities that build your brand,” said Brian Clark, founder and CEO of Rainmaker Digital.
And for real estate agents in the business of generating leads and nurturing them to a successful close, blogging is one of the best ways to create value during your follow-up process.
Hold on, though. You might be thinking that staying in touch with leads is really difficult. Unfortunately, you’re right. And this often leads to self-imposed limits for following up.
All too often, we give up on our follow-up too early when in reality we should continue the outreach until we figure out how we can best be of service. But even then, we still need to follow-up.
The data to support this is jaw-dropping: while 80 percent of sales leads require five follow-ups to make a connection, a whopping 44 percent of sales people call it quits after just one. This is a huge missed opportunity.
I’m a firm believer that we don’t need more leads; we need more connection with the leads we already have.
That’s why your blog is so important to the lead nurturing process. Every one of your follow-up communications is an opportunity to ask questions, share information that may be valuable to your new lead and showcase how you can help.
Take your hot leads as an example. Ask every seasoned real estate professional you know, “How often do you follow-up after you get a new lead?”
What you’ll discover is that they have a follow-up process with somewhere between seven to 14 follow-ups across various mediums — text, email, snail mail, call and voicemail. Most of these touches are focused on the first few days after initial contact and then spread out over the next 100 or so days after.
This might feel aggressive, but remember that the consumer has already proven his or her interest in what you have to offer. It’s your job to reach consumers in any way possible and prevent them from becoming distracted from the reason they made contact with you in the first place.
1. Align your lead nurturing and blogging goals
When you start creating content for your real estate blog, you’re bound to have a number of objectives besides lead nurturing. How you prioritize them will inform your publishing strategy. Let’s examine some of the goals you can work toward with your blog.- Establish authority: Your blog is the hub of your personal branding efforts where you share your expertise to establish authority in your niche.
- Connect with readers: By sharing useful, relevant information, you’ll connect with customers, partners, other bloggers and every conceivable constituent in your social and business circles.
- Win business: The majority of brands that blog acquire more customers.
- Inspire your social media: You’ll promote your blog posts regularly and take advantage of the amplification social networks can provide.
- Increase reach: Your blog will be shared and find new eyeballs daily.
- Grow your email database: Your blog should inspire people to signup for your email newsletter list, which, in turn, feeds traffic to your blog.
- Generate publicity: As previously mentioned, business bloggers establish authority. When you demonstrate you know your niche, you’ll get asked for interviews frequently.
- Give your brand a voice: A blog is your pulpit, your publication, your journal — the place where you talk about whatever you choose, however you choose.
- Get (and stay) customer focused: By blogging, you’ll learn how to speak in your customers’ terms and grow more in touch with your audience’s wants and needs.