Catch A Tiger By Its Tail

Yesterday, I noticed some traffic coming from a real estate blog I hadn't seen before: oDotZero.  It defines itself as "Commentary on Commercial Real Estate, Marketing & Technology."  It seems the reason for the traffic is due to an extensive post written in contention of an earlier Tomato article: If You Write It, They Will Come.  In my article, I make the claim that simply blogging (consistently) about the real estate industry will broaden your website's content and therefore improve your reach in the search engines.  It is my take that you may just have a better shot at uncovering niche traffic to your site through the search engines than trying to compete for uber-popular keyphrases such as "San Diego Real Estate."  Apparently oDotZero doesn't agree:

I think Cronin’s ideas are correct at their core, but incorrect as to the application because search behavior isn’t what he describes.

And:

Cronin’s advice suggests that as a residential agent, one should write lots of articles (i.e., start a blog) about residential real estate, on a subject that people would find interesting.  The things that residential buyers and sellers find interesting, however, comprise a very short list:

• Where is it located?
• How much is it?
• How are the schools?
• Any termite damage?

I know I’m being facetious, but I think the point is clear.  Buyers pretty much just want to find a house that they like and can afford, and buy it.  After that, they don’t want to think about real estate except to the extent of paying the mortgage on time.  The next time they think about real estate will be, on average, seven years later, when they’re ready to move to a bigger home.

And again:

That does not, however, mean that Cronin’s insight about content-based marketing is wrong; merely that it was aimed at the wrong type of content.  Here’s how I would go about it if I were the head of marketing at some major residential brokerage company.

• First, recognize that consumers don’t care about real estate in general; they care about their own houses or future houses.
• Second, recognize that residential real estate is profoundly local, without “hits” and “misses”.  Content about real estate is about as interesting to the average consumer as the metaphysics of Immanuel Kant is.
• Third, recognize that housing is a fundamental need, and that human beings really aren’t that different from each other.
• Fourth, recognize that technology and blogging offers a magnificent way of organizing all this local content.

First of all, I appreciate the thoroughness and thoughtfulness oDotZero put into their post.  It made for an interesting read and has given me the opportunity to not only defend my claim, but also to clarify it for those interested.

oDotZero seems to have missed the main point of my article.  This may have been my fault in an effort to keep the article concise and to keep readers reading.  I may have already lost you in this one... The (long version of the) point is, residential Realtors have very little chance of making the top 10 for the keyphrases they feel best represent their industry.  Because of this, they may feel that there is no success for them out there in the search engine world.  Looking at the Long Tail concept, and applying it to real estate and search engines inspired me to make my claim.  Blogging about something creates instant exposure in the search engines for the content you write about.  I know this because it is working better for me every day.

Taking the time to consistently blog about the expertise and experiences that a Realtor has will broaden their exposure in the search engines, guaranteed.  As I mentioned in my past article, Google states that nearly half of all its searches are unique (not commonplace, nor repetitive).  Therefore we can assume a significant percentage of real estate searches are also going to be "unique."

Let's look at it from another angle:
Success in the real estate industry is built on trust, service and education. Your next lead doesn't have to be looking for "San Diego real estate" to be a lead. They may just be looking for an answer to the mold problem they have under their deck.  If you happen to write about how to treat mold and what a pain it can be... you will build trust through education, and a new reader.  Now you can passively incubate him/her and develop them as a client once they're ready to sell that moldy old home.

The pitfall in which oDotZero finds themselves is in thinking that the next lead one generates has to be a hot one.  Residential Realtors know very well that it isn't always the listing that attracts the next person that they will be working for, it's the relationship.

Then again, as a philosophile I find Immanuel Kant's writings on the metaphysical to be extremely interesting.  But I prefer when Ludwig Wittgenstein closes with "Whereof one cannot speak , thereof one must be silent."  Maybe oDotZero should have stuck with how the Long Tail can be leveraged in the marketing of commercial real estate.

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Comments

[Nathan Hughes]

I certainly agree with you on this. I think that the benefit comes not in delving into real estate specifics, but ancillary topics (i.e., local economy and how it affects real estate and the job market, school system reports and upcoming changes). The topics will be a little different for me, since I am looking for real estate investors and restauranteurs rather than home owners/buyers/sellers. The effect is the same, however.

Point is, you have to differentiate yourself and build relationships. I see blogging as an alternate to a newsletter, which realtors have been using successfully for years. (And I intend to have a newsletter at some point in the future, as well.) You need to stay in front of your customers and clients, and establish yourself as an expert in the field. Otherwise, you are relying on catching the potential client at just the right time and that's just not likely to happen as often as you would like.

[Jim Cronin]

The Tomato here:

I just got finished reading one of the best blog articles I've read all week:
--->Apprehending Realtor 2.0: Seven essential skills of the 21st century real estate agent... (http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=124)

At the very end of Gregg Swan's survival guide list for Realtor 2.0 he explains how important writing is for your success:

From Gregg's Post
"Writing. Realtors for some reason seem to congregate over at the left edge of the literacy bell curve. We have clients who never tire of sending us ridiculous locutions they have clipped out of listings. Our current favorite: “Curve appeal,” seemingly a relevant factor in Realtor 1.0 marketing. We are entering an epoch where all of the dubious weapons of traditional real estate marketing are losing their potency. No one cares that you were a high school tennis star or the immediate past president of the Junior League. You probably can’t be physically repulsive, but your prospects won’t know that you are beauty-queen gorgeous until long after they’ve decided to work with you — or with someone else instead. That vast warm network you’ve cultivated, all those people to whom you delivered pumpkins and fly-swatters over the years, even your own extended family — none of what you think of as valued relationships will mean anything to a prospective buyer or seller carefully reading my weblog at 2 am. Merely writing well may not swing the balance my way. But if you write poorly or not at all, I have a huge advantage. Moreover, all of my writing on the web is a permanent investment in client recruiting and retention that also permanently improves my SEO performance. Writing frequently, prolifically, interestingly, sagely, on-topic and with style — which most certainly includes spelling and grammar — is the ultimate triple-threat Realtor 2.0 competitive tactic."
------

That's what I'm talking about. Consistent, interesting and relevant writing will be one of the foundations of your success as a Realtor TODAY- No doubt! Gregg Swan rules.

[John Lockwood]

Hi Jim,

I got your kind words over in my Sacramento Real Estate Blog, and since you wrote some content for me, I thought I'd return the favor and weigh in here.

First, thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it. Yes, I've had some success on search for the Sacramento area, thanks to web site development, and blogs are a good tool to assist in that effort.

But to say "If you write it, they will come..." I don't know if I agree with that. I've blogged quite extensively and consistently on another site of mine, www.oakland-homes-for-sale.com, and so far in over a year haven't managed to break past page 6 of the Google results. I think much of the success I've had in the Sacramento area is a product partially of having started out in this area when it was still possible to do real estate SEO. I'm not convinced it still is, except for perhaps Yahoo and MSN. Google's incumbent advantage is to my advantage in markets where I've already made inroads as it works against my competitors -- it's to my disadvantage in markets I'm trying to develop.

In any case there's both more to SEO than just blogging your heart out, and at the same time nothing special about blogging per se. Blogging is just a convenient way to push content to a site.

Having said all that about the limits of blogging for SEO, I don't really think that blogging has a purpose beyond that. If I ever make a sale or referral off a blog reader, it'll surprise the heck out of me. See for example:

http://www.sacramento-home.com/real-estate-events/2005/you-aint-goin-nowhere_114.html

"Differentiate yourself"? "Build relationships"? Not in my experience. I either meet nice people like you, who aren't buying anything, or Chat-Room-Idiot style idiots with axes to grind, who not only aren't buying anything but are annoying into the bargain. And let's not forget newspaper reporters writing an article about blogging.

As Nathan writes: "Otherwise, you are relying on catching the potential client at just the right time and that's just not likely to happen as often as you would like." It will if you have the #1 organic spot in a fair sized market, coupled with IDX listings to get them raising their hands.

Cheers,

John