The Key Is To Stay In Contact, My blog Is Instrumental In That Strategy – Malone Hodges, Carmel / Pebble Beach CA
Malone Hodges operates a real estate business in one of the more affluent areas of North America, Carmel and Pebble Beach CA. He began publishing with his Carmel & Pebble Beach CA Real Estate Blogsite mid September of 2008, which has served to build awareness and trust locally for him. In a brutal real estate marketplace, he’s also seeing related new business opportunities. We had the chance to ask him a few questions, which we’ll share for everyone’s benefit here.
Kinetic Knowledge Q: “Malone, what presence have you established online?”
Malone Hodges A: “I maintain a website and my real estate blogsite. I also have property specific websites for each property I list. I am lucky enough to have a unique name so if clients can remember my name it is likely they will find the blog, website, or other reference via a specific Google search. One of the most successful agents in our area has the same name as a well known actor. Even with his success it can be challenging to find him on the web given the actor and others with the same name.”
Q: “What effort do you put into blogging each week?”
A: “I try and post to some aspect of the blog each week. I use my blog’s static pages as a backbone for several URLs. This allows me to use the same interface to write the various pages, and have all these other “websites” help the blog’s position vis a vis search engines. I provide these “report” URLs to clients who are only interested in “the state of the market” snap shot and aren’t willing to scroll through a blog. For example, Carmelreport.com points to a single static page with data, graphs, and analysis about Carmel.”
Q: “Has the blog supported you in the Carmel Community?”
A: “Yes! I recently attended a school board meeting and wrote up a summary of a very tense issue [Carmel River School Boundary] in the blog. I was quoted in both local papers (I made a comment about the real estate markets impact on enrollment—the topic of the meeting) and by having the blog post up before the next morning I was one of the first pages hit when folks searched for the issue. Obviously I was indexed immediately for the post, which is how they were able to find me. I also forwarded the blog entry to the school board to make sure I had my facts right. I think they appreciated that, and ended up referring other folks to the entry.”
Q: “So the blog has been an asset to your business?”
A: “The blog is a useful asset in several situations:
1) If I get a phone call from a potential client and answer their questions about the specific property or reason for their call, I always offer to put them on my email newsletter list or send them more information. Sometimes they say, “That’s OK I’ll call you when I have questions.” I am able to respond, “Great, call me anytime. But also feel free to review the data and market analysis that I post on my Carmel / Pebble Beach real estate community news blog.” Nine times out of ten they ask for the address again and write it down. I have been contacted weeks later by some of these folks that have been to the blog, gotten comfortable with me through reading it, and then decided to work with me.
2)I point readers of my email newsletter to my blog to get updates between email newsletters and as a portal to access data/mls search etc. independent of the email.
3)The blog is an effective tool for my wife and friends. When someone asks them about the real estate market they can easily point them to my blog.”
Q: “As far as search engine marketing goes, are you shooting for organic search indexing with the blog OR is PayPerClick advertising a part of your strategy?”
A: I see the blog primarily as a service for my clients (and potential clients) and a marketing tool second. By keeping that frame of reference I have found it to be an effective marketing tool. I also use Google hundreds of times a day myself. I have only clicked on a paid link once in the last 9 months. When I am looking for information I want the best information, not the one willing to pay the most per click. I take that into consideration when I have my marketing hat on. I’m betting my target client is behaving in a similar fashion, so I’m shooting for the organic index and not using PPC.
Q: “It appears the blog has become very important in the overall strategy for your business?”
A: “Given the state of the [Carmel / Pebble Beach real estate] market, many buyers are “tracking” and trying to find the bottom. Whether that is wise is another question, but the key is to stay in contact with them while they are in the holding pattern so you are the resource they turn to when they decide to act. My blog is an important part of that strategy. There are 1,200 Realtors on the Monterey Peninsula only a fraction are still “in business” full time. The blog is an important way to demonstrate that I am.”
Related Posts:
- Hinsdale IL Realtor® Bryan Bomba on Discipline for Business Blogging
- Business Blogging Success Story: Santa Clarita & Valencia CA Realtor®
chris@kineticknowledge.com
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