Top 5 reasons for Jamaican Realtors to Blog

Blogging is a tool that helps to broaden or establish an online presence, build a community and start dialog in an open and unfiltered way and provide valuable information. From a business standpoint, it is a low-cost marketing tool that helps to increase your company’s online visibility.


1) Build credibility If you have a blog outside of your corporate website, it helps to build trust and credibility among prospects or leads. Typically, the corporate website contains static information about your company, team, listings, etc. However, a blog allows you to be more conversational and provide valuable information.


2) Makes you seem more real In other words, more approachable. It puts a voice on your business. Blogs have the distinct functionality of inviting visitors to make comments on your blog posts and everybody likes to be heard. This adds tremendous value and creates a community type of environment. It’s also the easiest way for people to start a dialog with you or your business. So when you do speak ‘in real life’, it’s as if you already know each other and the formalities are already out of the way. Then you can get right down to business. [Quick side note: Let me know that you are real too, leave a comment on this or any other blog post that moves you. I would love to hear from you!]


3) Lead generation Getting website traffic to a blog can be easier than a website because the search engines rank blog posts with valid content higher. Once you have a blog set up and post on a consistent basis you will see a surge in traffic to your corporate website as long as they are linked. Of course, the smart thing to do is to capture these leads via a sign-up form for a newsletter because the fortune is in the list. You can send property alerts, updates and a newsletter to an email list and keep them in ‘your space’ as a ready market.


4) Position yourself as an expert Blogs are a platform to express your views, demonstrate your knowledge and provide expertise on Jamaica real estate industry issues. If you are very vocal on the issues and post regularly about them, prospects will view you as an expert in the industry, which means more business.


5) Sets you apart from competitors How is your firm different from the hundreds of others in the industry? Why should prospective clients do business with you? A blog can help to bridge the gap towards differentiating your firm from your competitors. A blog gives your readers insight to who YOU are and what YOUR firm is all about.
So how do you get started? Well you could get started tomorrow if you’d like using a free platform like Blogger or Wordpress If you want a unique domain name, you can get that inexpensively at GoDaddy.com In terms of design, you can go very basic, minimal branding and get decent blog themes for free or you can incorporate branding and premium themes quite inexpensively as well.


I use Wordpress for a personal blog on a unique domain with a free theme (still under construction but I will provide you with the link at a later date). I use Blogger for the Butterfly Publications blog using a free theme called Revolution.


With regards to updating, you will have to decide on a schedule and stick to it. This can be once a week, bi-weekly or Monthly. However, some email newsletter programs like Aweber actually allows you to do what is called, Blog Broadcasts at scheduled intervals with some minor programming. The idea is to write a series of blog posts and input in Aweber to be delivered on the dates and times you set.


If you are interested in consulting services to start your blog and get it up and running, please contact me directly here.


Happy Blogging!