Top tips for creating engaging blog content

Putting fingers to keyboard to create blogs and articles isn’t always the easiest job for agents, particularly when meetings, viewings and market appraisals will always take priority.

However, that’s not to say writing and publishing blogs on your website and social media channels is not a valuable and rewarding activity. In fact, it can be both these things and more.

There are a huge number of benefits to being an active agent blogger. These include: cementing your position as a trusted industry authority, keeping local consumers up-to-date with the latest market news, drip-feeding key brand messages, encouraging people to stay on your website for longer and providing prospects with another opportunity to engage with one of your call to actions.

As publishing and sharing regular blogs has become so important, we’ve put together some tips to make sure what you’re producing is as engaging, interesting and worthwhile as possible.

Titles - what’s in it for the reader?

Coming up with a good title is a very important part of the process. It needs to be something succinct that immediately grabs the attention of the potential reader.

It also needs to convey what reading the blog will give to them – maybe an update on Brexit or perhaps some tips for home staging. If the reader isn’t sure what the blog is going to be about or how it will affect them, they’re highly unlikely to read it.

We find that asking a question in a title is often an effective way of grabbing the attention of prospective vendors and landlords.

Remember your target market

It’s good practice to think about the aim of your blog from the outset. Imagine asking an initial question and then continuing to answer it throughout the article. This can help to provide focus and give the article structure.

It’s also crucial to make sure the piece has a defined target market. Are you looking to engage with property buyers, accidental landlords or frustrated sellers? Targeted articles are likely to be more effective in generating engagement.

Advise and educate

When writing blogs for your audience, always remember that you are the expert. People will be looking at your articles in order to benefit from your property market experience – use this to your advantage.

Readers will come away happiest – and with a positive memory of your brand – if they feel they have learnt something from your musings.

Don’t focus on niche property subjects that only affect agents, instead pick out the issues that consumers will want to know more on – whether that’s local house prices, what happens once an offer has been accepted, how much stamp duty landlords have to pay or the average yields in the local area.

Don’t sell overtly

It may be tempting to bombard readers with all the reasons why your agency is so great, but it won’t work and that’s what other parts of your marketing strategy and website are for.

You can use the final throes of the blog to give the critical brand information and a call to action, but save the rest of the blog for providing genuine insight, information and advice.

If the blog is engaging and useful to the reader, they are much likely to read to the end and then take the necessary action!

Consider your structure and formatting

From a visual perspective, it’s important that your articles are easy to read – tiny font or unreadable colours just won’t cut it.

It’s also advisable to include at least one relevant image with your blogs. Stock images are fine, but try to pick ones that will attract the eye of a potential reader.

Structure-wise, it helps to break blogs up into small chunks, divided by sub-headings (just like we’ve done). Stodgy blocks of text with no prospect of respite can be daunting and off-putting for readers.

You also need to consider the length of your posts. It can be useful to mix them up a bit, but generally it’s advisable to make sure they are between 500 and 1,000 words.

Mix up your blog styles for maximum impact

There are many different styles of blogs you can try out to keep things interesting for your readers. From top tips blogs like this to listicles (e.g. 5 ways to get more viewings), to news updates or blogs which answer a specific property question a consumer might have.

Having a mix of topics and styles allows you to cover more ground and therefore target a larger cross-section of different prospects. People also respond differently to different types of content so it’s useful to try everything out.

It’s time to get started!

As mentioned at the outset of this piece, maintaining a blog and sharing your content across social platforms is a must.

Taking into account the above advice can help you to create engaging content which promotes the professionalism of your brand and the expertise of your staff, all the while providing people with more opportunities to contact you.

If you need further guidance on blog writing and content marketing, we’re on hand to help. Our in-house team of writers are well-versed in writing articles for agents and are all contributors to our award-winning Today sites.

You can find out more information here.