Develop a unique content voice.
Content comes in many forms. Writing is obviously a large part of blogging, but based on your skills and the time you have to devote to content creation, you may have to reconsider how you’re going to approach your blogging so it reflects your best traits. Let’s consider some options:
Be unpredictable with content types. A great way to get around writing long posts is to switch up the style and variety of blog formats. This keeps your audience guessing and gets them excited to revisit. Some ideas:
- Tutorials
- Cheat sheets and checklists
- To-do, must-see and must-have lists
- Interviews and reviews
- Controversial entries (offering a striking opinion)
- Series of posts (good way to break up a large topic)
- Weekly roundups and ranked lists
- Personal tales offering expertise and tips
Reuse content. Your audience is looking for similar things within the same topic area, so find ways to revamp and reuse your old content. If a reader is clicking “how to organize your house search,” they’ll probably also be interested in topics like “quick search tips for a new home buyer” or “the best neighborhoods for young home buyers.” The first post may be more editorial with advice, where the second post may be a checklist they can print and the third may be a “pinnable” photo album that includes interesting area-specific details. See how they’re all related but still offer unique information that’s digested differently? Try that.
Provide commentary. Many readers are coming to your site looking for your guidance and expertise. In fact, they crave it. Especially if readers are in the midst of making important decisions about their home search, it’s up to you to give them some honest advice. Injecting your unique opinion through commentary about industry news or trends shows that you’re “in the know” and an expert in your field. This is especially relevant in the real estate industry because often industry news directly impacts buying and selling decisions.
“Quality is not an act, it is a habit.” — Aristotle CLICK TO TWEET
When in doubt, go visual. Photos. Videos. Infographics. Slideshows. GIFs. Webinars. Whichever you choose, you’ll be striking chords with readers: 40 percent of people respond better to visuals than plain text, making them amazing for content that will capture your readers’ attention. Often visuals offer ample emotion for your post, so use your visuals as a springboard for discussion but don’t overwhelm these posts with lots of text. Make sure your visuals are high-quality and have exciting elements worthy of being shared.
Create videos. While any visual content type can yield lots of positive engagement, I have to mention the power of video. Site visitors spend 100 percent more time on pages with videos, and increases visitors’ understanding of your product or service by 74 percent. If you’re not a wordsmith but love to entertain readers with storytelling, a video can get you the biggest return on your efforts, whether that’s a viral social media short or a professional cut.
Offer a guest post. Promising a guest post to another website is a great way to hold yourself accountable to blogging. You’ll want to pick a source that has fairly high traffic and whose customers can also benefit from your content (ideally they should have similar customers and more of them). Then set a date. Once you have a date promised to another person, it’s much easier making blogging a priority.
Share other content. As you’re sourcing content for inspiration, you’ll come across those posts that are oh-so-perfect, you’d rather share them then try to reconfigure them. This is a great option for blogging without the heavy lifting. But do write some commentary for your readers about why you love it and how it is useful to them, along with a shoutout (and link) to the original creator.
Host guest content on your site. Commissioning guest bloggers for your site helps you provide your readers with content while helping you meet your own blog goals. Just make sure that the content they create will be useful for your readers and that their voice is in-line with your brand. Give concrete deadlines and iron out the agreement ahead of time so there are no surprises. If someone was pleased with using you for their home buying or selling experience, ask for a customer testimonials that will highlight your great work.
Qualify content for search results. Optimizing content is especially important when the format isn’t a typical long-form text post. Use an enticing title to draw readers in. Insert your target keywords and topical keywords appropriately into your metadata, headers and image ‘alt text’ fields. Make sure that your words are strategically used to support your subject.