In this Agent First Summit, we are chatting with Kyle Handy, a superstar blogger and real estate agent with eXp Realty. Kyle gets close to a hundred thousand page views on his blog and website each month and earns tons of great leads from his blog posts!
Our Agent First Summits happen every Tuesday morning! It’s a perk for all our real estate team members and any of their guests who want to grow their real estate business. To get an invitation, RSVP here: Save Your Seat!
In this session, Kyle will share with us how to get started as real estate bloggers ourselves and how to scale our blogs to earn more business.
Why To Start Blogging
One of the greatest reasons to start blogging is because it allows you to diversify and generate consistent leads. You can generate leads while you aren’t doing anything just because people regularly find your blog even when you aren’t writing.
You don’t even have to be great at writing to get started. Blogging is simple and easy. As long as you provide valuable content that people can read, they will appreciate it and consider you as someone of authority.
There are a few ingredients that you need for a blog:
- A website (ideally one optimized for real estate with an IDX).
- Use a hosting platform so that you can purchase your domain name.
- Ideally, create a personal website—don’t rely on one from your brokerage.
- You can use a service such as AgentFire to help you create the website.
- Blog posts.
- They have to be consistent.
- They have to hook people immediately.
- The topics should target keywords and answer common questions people are searching online.
- A funnel.
- Have an IDX so that people can see properties as well.
- After they read a post and check out your properties, you’ll likely get leads dropping into your email.
- An email list.
- Serve subscribers useful content until they’re ready to become a lead.
- You can reuse snippets from your blog to share in emails.
- Eventually, subscribers will come to you when they’re ready to buy or sell.
It really is that simple. Once you have those four ingredients established, you can put them together to create a successful, lead-generating blog that gets results.
How To Start a Blog
You want to start writing your posts on your own in the beginning so you get an idea of your style and your main goal with your blog. Then, when you’re ready, you can hire someone to help you.
As you get started, focus on creating knowledge-driven posts. You want people to seek out the information you’re providing through generic searches on Google. Create posts that answer common real estate questions and provide genuine value for your audience.
If you’re already creating workflow videos and emails for your clients, you can easily repurpose those to create a blog. Use informational packets, buyer and seller presentations, and other relevant content that can help people all around the world. Your goal is to provide genuine value to people who might need real estate advice and establish yourself as an authority in your space.
However, don’t be afraid to include some lifestyle content as well. After all, people are not always looking to sell, but they’re always taking care of a home. Keep that content coming so that if people spend time reading your blog for anything else they’ll know you’re a valuable and trustworthy source for real estate knowledge.
Don’t feel like you have to be way ahead of your readers, either. As you learn new information, share it right away! Admit that you don’t know everything, are still learning, and have valuable new-to-you information.
Share it and don’t be afraid that it’s too “generic.” Lots of people still need the true information you find, no matter how well known you may think it is! We all find our information through different sources, and yours may be the go-to for any number of people who won’t see that information elsewhere.
How To Scale Up
As you move farther along on the blogging path, you may find that you want to scale up your business by hiring assistants to help you. For example, you may want a writer, someone to post on your website and social channels, and eventually people to help you create videos and other content.
It’s not hard to scale up if you have a little extra cash. Your blog is sure to bring in more leads and more business, so all you have to do is use some of the extra cash you get from those extra leads to hire some people to help you. Or, you may already have the money on hand!
However, even with an assistant, don’t be afraid to keep the charge of your posts! You can still create the headlines, keywords, etc. to make sure your blogs are going in the right direction and that you’re still playing a big part in the information that’s going out.
Eventually, as you grow, you want to get to the point where you can publish multiple pieces of content a week. You can then start using your blog as a script for YouTube videos and repurpose those videos on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
With this type of strategy, you’ll see new leads rolling in on a regular basis. Blogging is not always easy, but it’s something very simple that you can get started on today and that will provide you with immense value in the years to come. You’ll get all kinds of leads and great content to repurpose time and time again!
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