Your real estate blog provides you with a foundational part of your solid sales strategy - building relationships. Your real estate blog creates the direct connection necessary to building your sales relationships. This direct connection between buyer and seller disappeared in layers of marketers, designers, pollsters and managers that is a part of mass production markets. Though items are more available and cheaper, production costs replaced customer needs as a market driver. Blog entries addressing customer needs customizes your real estate website to the current market drivers.

The Harvard Business Review has dedicated several articles to “one to one marketing” and “mass customization”. All buzz words that say manufacturers are relearning “listen to your customer and sell them what they want”. Maybe the spirits of Silk Road merchants are rolling their eyes at this new understanding. Blogs make this interchange happen time and again for your benefit.

By giving your real estate website visitors both current information and the reasons behind your real estate insights, you build trust. Since the real estate market is based on customers looking for their desired home from among available homes created for other people’s likes, the real estate agent’s expertise is funneling the search to a particular target market. With the stature of an expert, your insights and knowledge of the market will be trusted more. The blog is another doorway to lead people to your website’s online listing search and your services.

Show your customers you care. By introducing a recent concern of a customer as a subject in your blog, you are quickly conveying to your readers how well you respond to customers. Your blog entries are 50% what you say and 50% how you say it. By connecting directly with customer concerns and writing in a conversational way, you improve the “how”. When readers email you feedback to your entries, use some of their responses to get your creative juices going on the next entry and reinforce your caring and responsive personal brand.

The content of your real estate blog entries (”what” you say) is aimed at both your readership and the search engines that index and point to your website. Make sure that your articles include the keywords or key phrases that are pertinent to both your blog entry and the markets targeted by your real estate website.

Expand your influence further by sending journalists who cover your real estate market a link to your blog. Journalists and reporters are always looking for an expert to quote and with your blog you become an easily quotable expert. Blog entries on current legislation or trends affecting the real estate or mortgage markets are great targets for this market.

Your real estate blog entries following these guidelines create a solid foundation for reaching potential sales leads, search engines and journalists.

How do you figure which real estate website tools are best for your website marketing campaign? The search engine standing and maturity of your website as well as your market’s competition are critical determinants in your real estate website investment. Of the many website tools available to real estate agents, some are high priority tools - such as sales lead generation and brand reinforcement - and others are beneficial to add as soon as you can. Don’t lose money by finding the last step you took was the one that created the largest influx of qualified sales leads.

Using an experienced real estate web site design company is one of your wisest moves. Internet Marketing Consultants (IMC) has used the website tools listed below to help many of our clients to regularly appear in Google’s and Yahoo’s top ten keyword/key phrase organic search results (not pay per click) and stay ranked high for years. IMC has clients that are Number One in Google for their highly competitive keywords.

Your domain name is one of your most critical elements in establishing and keeping your internet visibility. If you don’t already have one, your website design company can help you secure one. If your developer also handles your hosting, webmaster duties of overseeing your email server, tech support and training, as well as continual reporting and tweaking your website’s search engine optimization, you reduce your headaches and are able to focus on what you do best - following up on all your sales leads. You website designer will also make sure each webpage is utilized for brand reinforcement with your logo, contact information and any sales motto.

The primary purpose of your real estate website is to gather qualified real estate sales leads. Foundational in any real estate website design is the guest pages that gather contact information and automatic email notification of your new sale leads. All your content-rich pages offering advice to sellers and buyers helps establish your expertise and the tantalizing carrot of the ability to view your online listings are the momentum builders to get the potential client to send their contact information.

Two inexpensive website tools you have are to 1) add helpful relocation and community links such as governmental, business and school links and 2) add testimonials from your (happy) customers. Search engines count updated or added web pages as a plus that helps boost your standing. Testimonials are a proven way to quickly increase your credibility and trustworthiness - key to building relationships.

Your website’s design should be able to easily add modules or upgrades that increase your presence to the search engines and to your targeted real estate markets. The following are real estate website tools that have been proven to attract more qualified sales leads.

Adding a real estate blog is by far the best step to boosting your website’s visibility. Making blog entries take some discipline and creativity on your part, since entries need to be written and posted on a regular basis. But these added postings are why your real estate blog is one of your key website tools. Your postings can quickly address emerging real estate marketing trends, answer basic real estate questions, and add informative keyword-rich entries. Any of these entries will boost your search engine standing, reinforce your real estate expert image, and build a larger base of “landing pages” where potential clients can find you.

A “neighborhood news” feature, your next real estate website tool, allows you to add articles, similar to your blog. These articles address various market niches as big as a county or city and as small as subdivisions, communities or a particular condominium project. These articles make use of your strategic keywords and your intimate knowledge of the area’s real estate trends. The neighborhood news does not need to be added to as much as your blog.

Of course as a “people person”, one of your key skills or time investments may not be writing, much less “advertising copywriting” geared to motivate your readers to action. Finding yourself a good writer is a blessing and your website developer may be able to give you good leads or provide that service. Again, your real estate website should lesson your headaches and increase your sales leads.

At the planning phase of your website, discuss your real estate website tools with your website designer. If you are not placing them in your site at the beginning, set up a tentative timetable to add the other features. Your real estate website is one of your most key tools and investments to reaching your lively real estate market. Don’t lengthen your years in the work force by neglecting this key asset and having it fall off the search engines’ radar. Better to have a website build-out plan of what key website tools to add and when - that is what we are here for!

Real estate web sites have discovered that adding a real estate blog to their web sites is an effective tool to attract more sales leads. For several years, blogs (web logs) have been getting information onto the web quickly and easily. Often, blogs break stories with first person reporting on the internet before the traditional news sources know a story is developing. Blogs have two strong points for real estate agents: they can post up-to-date relevant real estate market news for potential clients and they keep the search engines interested in your real estate web site’s content.

As a key sales tool in your internet marketing strategy, real estate web sites with blogs position you in your clients mind as not just a real estate agent, but an expert in the business. Your blog educates your client with useful portions of your real estate know-how before you ever meet them. When someone is making a decision on the buying or selling of their home - probably their biggest asset, your credibility and trustworthiness is one of your greatest personal branding assets. Your real estate blog can firmly establish you as the go-to real estate agent in their near future.

Adding to your blog is easy - just put down your thoughts on the current market, real estate market trends in your area and potential invenstment areas for the commercial real estate buyer. Potential blog entries come from answering common questions you get from clients or address a topic that is in the news. Conversational writing is the way to go - simple, informal and to the point! Your entry can be one paragraph or several paragraphs, whatever it takes to convey your thoughts - so don’t worry about writer’s block.

Your postings are a great way to customize your real estate website and build a personal presence with your internet sales leads. Your experience with customers is your hard won asset - tap it and use your conversations as inspiration for your entries. Log on to your website and make entries from home or at work, where ever an inspiration strikes you. Log in for a few minutes from vacation if you are feeling guilty about not being at work!

Once you have gained some experience writing to your real estate blogs, expand your internet presence my making guest entries on other real estate blogs. The back link to your site improves your search engine standing and your thoughts only add to your real estate expert standing!