Are You Blogging For Speed?

by Brian Brady

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I don’t subscribe to the theory that you will fail if you blog for leads. I blog for leads. Even now, I’m attempting to share some knowledge with my target audience in hopes that one will pick up the phone and say, “I want to do business with you”. Marketing communications (and blogging IS a form of marketing communication), are designed to garner potential customers. Many will proclaim that blogging is different; they are lying by omission. Pour a bunch of liquor in them and ask them why they blog. Eventually, you’ll hear the phrase “to communicate with existing and potential customers” in their response.

Dustin Luther and I discussed this at the Inman Connect NYC Conference, a month ago. If you click the link, and watch the video, I proclaim my “call to action” within 30 seconds. My opening (and concluding) line is, “We gotta get busy“. My theory is simple; in 2-3 years, the big guys will have caught on and beat us at our own game. They have the three important resources that you and I don’t have: time, money, and people.

Does that mean that you should throw in the towel? Absolutely not; quite the contrary. It means EXACTLY what I said; we gotta get busy. You need to be taking action today so that your 2011 is filled with listing appointments, from people whom you’ve met, through your interactive marketing efforts.

I break a lot of rules (or urban myths) because I recognize that my time as “America’s #1 Mortgage Broker” (that’s what Google calls me) is limited. Here are a few things I do to flood my inbox with e-mails and make the phone ring:

1- I syndicate my Mortgage Rates Report on 5-6 different sites. I am constantly being contacted by “experts” who warn me that I’ll be subject to the Google Duplicate Content Penalty. My two responses are:

a- When? If you click the Google Duplicate Content penalty link, you’ll see that the efforts are aimed at search engine spam, namely, trying to get your site ranked on numerous keyword search phrases, unrelated to your content.
b- Why? Relevancy is what the Google gods seek; I hardly think mortgage rates reports on real estate websites break that rule. You’ll also see that their target is templated affiliate sites that solely populate with third-party content. The same article, published in 5-10 places, won’t hurt me.

While the critics contemplate what the duplicate content penalty is, I’m taking action. That action has resulted in over 1500 inquiries, in the past eighteen months, and 600 permission-based contacts in my database. The name of this game is contacts… raving fans. If I can reach the 1200 contact mark by 2010, I’ve won the game before the big guys troll on my turf. I will be reminding my database, through an e-mailed newsletter, to come and read my “best” blog posts, monthly. The efforts become viral as more of my contacts forward those e-mails to their friends and family.

2- I write with an eye towards SEO. Note what I just said. I write (first) with an eye (which means I recognize it’s power) towards SEO. How can any internet marketer not harness the power of SEO? Balancing readability with proper keyword-rich content is difficult so err on the side of caution. Jay Thompson points out the abuse of keyword phrase writing here.

Arguing against keyword phrase writing is like arguing against scripting. Most real estate salespeople won’t use scripts because it sounds “canned”. My response to the script-phobes is the same as my response to the SEO-phobes; you “hate” it because you suck at it. You suck at it because you don’t practice. Do I overreach in this effort? Sometimes, but practice makes perfect.

3- I make my presence known. Tony Gallegos called me “ubiquitious“. Critics have called my strategy “puking all over the internet” (but placed my results in the top 20 of all real estate bloggers). I will often fill out a profile, with my suspendered head shot, on any imaginable website a potential customer might roam. Branding requires consistency. When one of my neighbors proclaimed that she “saw me on Zillow“, I knew the strategy was effective. Why do people buy advertising space on bus stops, shopping carts, local newspapers, and magazines? Because branding works. Ubiquity translates to click-throughs, which become at-bats (reading your content), which can turn into an inquiry. Inquiries find their way into your permission-based database and eventually turn into clients.

4- I’ve only recently experimented with the idea of pay-per-click but I’m pleased with the results. I’m serving food to starving people so that may be the reason for my initial success.

5- Finally, I bridge the digital divide. If a referral source or consumer is “fishing for free advice”, you don’t owe them a thing. Get them on the telephone so you can start dating. You can’t get married until you have a few dates. Here’s the big epiphany, folks; if “they’re not that into you” when they initiate contact, they probably “won’t be that into you” later. Anybody who’s struggled with a bad relationship can verify that statement. Give birth. Don’t try to raise the dead. I’ve only heard of one guy who can perform the latter.

The advice I offer is as practical as a jackhammer on a construction site. It is designed to get you on the telephone with gobs of potential customers. I recognize the weblog for what it is; a tool. A tool to communicate your expertise with existing and potential customers. You won’t have to pour a bunch of liquor in me to get me to admit that blogging is, in fact, marketing communication. The sooner we realize that, the faster we can capitalize on the HUGE but limited opportunity available to us.  When this market turns (and it will), I want you to be flooded with business.
In closing, I offer you this advice from novelist Anita Brookner. Think of it the next time you read an article about “how SEO is detrimental” or about “developing a long-term approach” to the internet:

In real life, it is the hare who wins. Every time. Look around you. And in any case it is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. Hares have no time to read. They are too busy winning the game.

We gotta get busy. Start taking action TODAY.