Generating Leads For Real Estate Firms In Nigeria Through Blog Posts

Generating Leads For Real Estate Firms In Nigeria Through Blog Posts

Blogging is one of the most effective ways to generate leads, and yet one of the least used by real estate firms. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying other means are not as effective as blog articles. All of them have their functions. But it will shock you to know how blog articles play a huge role in pulling traffic and increasing sales.

Why You Need It

Based on our research, the following points are confirmed to be true. And, while you read, it may interest you to know that research also found that only 11% of real estate firms have blogs. This makes it an opportunity for you to be one of the few who enjoy this simple lead generating strategy. Here are a few results of research made by Hubspot in recent years.

• Firms that published 16+ blog posts in a month got three times more traffic than firms that published 4 or less than 4 monthly blog posts. 
• Business to Client companies that blogged 11+ times within a month got more than four times as many leads than those that blog only 4 to 5 times per month. 
• 60% of marketers agree that blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority.     
• Due to high competition rate, many real estate firms who have property in similar locations as yours will soon take the blogging advantage and pull traffic to themselves.
• More real estate firms are joining the market with newer strategies for marketing, sales and development.

Why Blog Posts Succeeds In Generate Leads For Real Estate Firms In Nigeria

There are many reasons we believe blogging will generate leads for you. Here are a few:

• Your potential clients are not looking for your real estate firm, they are looking for a property to buy. They search online for certain topics, and your blog post could be the result of their search.
• If your blog post satisfies their curiosity, they are likely to take action such as contacting you to know more, thereby turning from leads to prospects, until you successfully close the deal.
• The process of turning from visitors to leads and to prospects on your blog happens as a result of trust. Because of the many self acclaimed real estate firms out there, some of which are scam, real estate buyers are skeptical, and so they tend to buy trust first, before buying property. 
• Real estate clients are not commoners. They are people who are, to an extent, financially fit. Most of them are business people, High Network Individuals (HNIs) and as such, are meticulous about anything that involves their money. Hence, they will only do business with experts. Your blog posts have a way of establishing you as one. 
• The presence of a blog keeps visitors interacting with your website even longer.

These are but a few reasons why blogging will unquestionably generate leads for you. 

Kinds Of Blog Articles That Pull Traffic

Gone are those days when anything you put on your website or blog will hit the first page or rank top on google. Now you have to put some extra effort to get your post to rank top on search engine for your real estate clients. 

And to achieve this, your blog post should possess these attributes:

• Quality: The posts must rate high in quality. What determines the quality of a post is the uniqueness of the content, how much sense does it make, how educative, informative and entertaining it is. 
• Plagiarism-Free: Quickly following quality is the fact that your content must be 100% plagiarism free. There are good plagiarism checking websites online to use and see how your article rates in plagiarism.
• Naturality. Nowadays people's hunger for relationships is increasing. Even when they engage with a blog, they look for this connection in the post. Therefore while writing, it is essential to avoid writing too formal or in a way that it will sound like a robot.
• Relevance: Ensure the blog post you are writing is just as relevant a year from now as it is today. Let the content apply to all time, rather than being streamlined to a particular season.
• Length of Article: Any article will depend on the number of words to thrive on the google search engine. (Try as hard as you can to publish 1500 words and beyond)
• Consistency: The number of articles to post per week can't be the same with everyone. But in real estate, I will suggest 3articles at least per week.

What to write for Real Estate Blog Posts

I'm sure you will be wondering about what a real estate blog to write about, because as far as you are concerned, real estate is about land, and not about news, gists, gossip or stories writing. 

There are some topics and areas that you can write about that are being searched for in real estate in Nigeria. These topics are general topics from which you draw out specific topics to suit your audience needs. Below is a lit of some of them:

• List of parks, gardens, restaurants, banks, supermarkets, malls, beaches, etc close to the property.
• Topics on the topmost or best places, people, things, around the idea of real estate.
• Topics on real estate sellers
• Topics on real estate buyers
• Information about the Neighborhood
• Information on market updates
• Upcoming and Future events around the neighborhood where the property is located.
• Local activities for children. 
• List of schools around.

Why Real Estate Firms Hardly Blog

Lack of time for real estate blogging

Some say about time that it is the most crucial challenge faced by most real estate agency. Most firms belong to the school of thought that the marketers must all be out there doing field inspection, or visiting clients, or in the office making cold calling with a written script beside their computer on the table.

As far as they are concerned, they would rather spend more time 'generating leads than blogging'. I struggle not to laugh when I hear this. And the reason is, blogging will probably generate more leads for them than whatever they are doing at that moment to 'generate leads'.

You will discover sooner that blogging is meant to bench some of your activities. Again, real estate is a game of the mind between the seller and the buyer. If you must win the game, you have to sneak into your buyer's mind and convince them on WHY they should buy it. This can best be achieved through blog posts. 

Real Estate Blogging is not an Exciting Activity

Let's get this clear. If you are not a blogger, blogging will be boring. Don't fight it. It's boring for firms because even after the above list, some still find it difficult to come up with something to write about. 

This is not a crime. In fact, it is normal. And that is why usually, I advise that you find someone who is not only good at blogging but at blogging on real estate matters.

Getting the right person for the job will not only make it boring. You will begin to have the opposite of 'boring'  when leads, sales, and referrals begin to multiply through your blog.

So here is some advice, get someone to fill the blogging space in your firm so as not to be benched by your competitors. You can always contact me via mail or call/WhatsApp me through +2347080225737 to manage the blogging aspect of your real estate firm.

How to generate leads for your real estate firm in Nigeria

Okay, here is the main work. However note that it is not what you read here that will pull traffic or generate the leads for you. It is the proper application of what you read here that will guarantee that for you. Ready? Push!

• Create a blog to your website: If your website has no blog, its time to contact your web developer to work on it. Ensure the blog is mobile-friendly like the web itself.

• Hire a blogger: Don't ever assume your social media manager or digital marketer can do the work of a blogger or a blog writer. You will ruin the Beauty and efficiency of the blog if you attempt that.

Instead, hire a blogger or outsource your blogging to a professional. Till today, my client keep telling me that the only blog post I wrote for her brand at www.beauticleworld.blogspot.com still refers to customers who have read the post to her. 

Yes, that's another thing you must learn. Learn to ask clients who contact you, 'how did you get to know about us?' It helps you to know where your clients are coming from and which marketing strategy is working the most.

• Write: When writing, some of the things to pay special attention to are the topic, the meta description, the tags, the originality of the text and the depth of the content. 

I wrote a blog post recently about 17 things to consider when starting a business in Nigeria recently, and within a few days of my writing, I had several comments from readers on Manicle. 

One thing that was common about how my readers felt was that the content had depth and insight. 

Nothing less than 20% of the hundreds of readers contacted me via mail or Call or WhatsApp to ask for my services. You can't get any lesser result for your real estate blog. I can assure you that.

• Add a CTA: A Call To Action is what you put in the middle or at the end of your post, asking people to take certain actions such as the following: 
• call you, 
• send you an email, 
• like your post, 
• comment on it, 
• visit your site, 
• subscribe to your weekly mail, 
• ask questions based on your blog post or general questions on real estate, 
• etc. 

Some don't put a call to action to their posts, and this makes the whole work of erecting a blog and writing blog posts a waste of time and energy. A professional blogger will understand better.

This applies to social media posts. He who has an ear...

• Publish: Pushing the publish button means you have gone through the blog article, and are sure that there is no single grammar/spelling error, and that your points are well laid down for your audience to easily get your message. 

• Share: Now this is the part I love the most. There is no foolishness like writing a blog post, only to sit and wait for folks to read, like, comment and share your post. 

Not that your post won't reach people. Of course you will. But your sharing of the post on all your social media platforms and beyond can go a long way to making your post reach a larger and more targeted audience. An example is sharing it on LinkedIn.

• Answer questions: Confused? Here it is. Do you know about quora? It is a question and answer forum where people ask and answer various questions intellectually. 

It's not a Nigerian forum, yet Nigerians participate. Now imagine someone is asking questions about lands in Ibeju Lekki in Lagos, and one of your blog posts has answers to the person's question, it is a good place to sell your post.

How? Answer the question and make reference to your post by putting your link in your answer. You will be shocked at how many people will be converted from visitors to leads through your blog. 

Other questions to answer also include the questions people will ask you on the blog based on your article. 

Okay, if you ever need a professional blogger for your real estate company, you don't need to search far. You can contact me directly via manicle email, and for instant reply and faster and more flexible conversation, you can call or chat me up on +2347080225737

I hope you got something from this article. I look forward to your comments, opinion, just in case you don't agree with some of my points or you feel there are some things I could have added. Kindly drop it in the comment box or contact me directly. I will gladly respond. Thank you for reading this far.

I am Istifanus Sarki, a business strategist, and CEO of Manicle, a business consulting firm based in Lagos. We help businesses and individuals create marketing strategies and proffer solutions to business problems. 

Enjoy!

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