Starting a blog is an excellent way to grow your title company and closing volume—and it’s not just about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or greater Google visibility, though it is great for that. There are many reasons to invest in blogging and other forms of content marketing. Below, we discuss some of the most compelling reasons to start a blog and develop content for your title insurance company.
1. Blogging Content Helps You Demonstrate Authority as an Industry Leader
Establishing authority is important for SEO and greater Google visibility, but it’s also important for engendering trust with your current and potential agents and clients. You don’t want clients to view your title company as a commodity, an on-going challenge in our industry—you want to position yourself as a leader, and as a valuable resource for not only your clients, but for your clients’ clients – buyers and sellers. Sharing your knowledge on your blog is a great way to demonstrate your expertise, trustworthiness, and as a go-to for industry resources.
Demonstrating your authority in the title industry also helps you be seen as a thought leader by industry peers. This is a key component for your title company’s online marketing strategy and it may also lead to referrals, collaborations, and other business opportunities.
If you don’t have time to write blog posts yourself, that doesn’t mean you can’t establish yourself as an authority in the title industry. Many title company owners outsource their blogging and content marketing to a digital marketing agency, but the key here is to make sure any content creator you hire is familiar with the title industry and its inner workings so you can feel confident putting your name on their ghostwritten work. Before hiring anyone to write for you, make sure to review several examples of their writing work and ask for references -- this will save you a lot of time and hassle versus hiring a generalist agency or writer.
2. Blogging Gives You Instant Content for Social Media
Does your title company struggle with ideas for what to post on social media? Blogging serves the dual purposes of creating content for your website and creating content for Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business), and any other social media platforms you might use. Sharing your title industry content on social media can help increase your engagement with clients and prospects, and also send more visitors to your website. Create great content and agents might even share it organically with their friends. This, too, results in important backlinks that tell Google your website has value.
Remember, though, that it might not make sense to share all of your blog content on social media—you want to share content that your clients will actually click through and read. It should be engaging and have a real purpose, in other words, it should add value and not be salesy. Ask yourself if you’d read the article if you stumbled across it on Facebook; if the answer is no, then don’t assume your audience would want to read it either. Don’t tank your engagement rate by sharing uninspired content on your social media platforms!
3. Blogging and Email Marketing Can Supplement Sales Efforts
Many title companies have one or more employees dedicated to sales. This sales rep often calls on, visits, or otherwise engages with current and prospective agents and clients. However, in the title industry, unlike other sales roles, there really is no contract – your clients can recommend whomever they choose for their clients’ title policy. So, what to do to ensure you stay top-of-mind with potential clients while you try to convince them to give your title company a shot? Content marketing.
Rather than a scheduled phone call with a dormant agent, why not send them value-add blog content via email marketing on a consistent basis? It’s a great way to nurture them without having to constantly pick up the phone without much to say to them. Plus, we have found that real estate agents love to have content to be able to share with their own clients that helps educate them on the home buying process.
Most website platforms have a tool or widget that lets visitors subscribe to your email newsletter. In this way, generating traffic for your blog can also build your email marketing list. These days, it takes a lot to get people to sign up for an email newsletter, so make it worth it for them!
Your blog will also help your email marketing efforts by increasing your open and click-through rates when you send email updates that include blog posts. Craft newsletter headlines that generate interest in what you’ve posted on your blog, rather than using the same generic subject line for every email you send. Are you more likely to click on “John Smith Title Company Newsletter” or “5 Tools Every Real Estate Agent Should Be Using”?
4. Blogging Is Fantastic for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
We started this article by saying that blogging isn’t just about SEO, but since SEO is a universal benefit for all small businesses, even in the title industry, it’s earned a spot on our list.
The first way blogging helps improve your SEO is by creating a steady stream of new content. Google gives preference to websites that are fresh and current; if you haven’t posted anything new on your website in years, it appears to be stale in the eyes of search engines. Of course, the caveat here is that you shouldn’t just create content for the sake of creating content—it should be good content. That means relevant to the title industry or to your clients.
In addition, blogging is a fantastic opportunity to build internal links within your website and to create high-quality content that other sites may want to link to, thus also building valuable backlinks to your site.
5. Blogging Allows You to Engage With Your Audience
The best blogs engage and educate your audience. This can sometimes feel at odds with writing for SEO, but it shouldn’t. While it’s ideal for your posts to be useful for SEO and for engaging your real estate agents and other clients, there’s also a place for blog posts that are purely for engagement and building brand loyalty. A contest to name your company’s mascot by commenting on a blog post won’t have legs on search engines, but it will get engagement; similarly, sharing an upcoming sale won’t yield long-term results, but it can generate short-term interest from your customers.
Although this isn’t possible for every title company, some may be able to create content so useful and compelling to readers that they regularly visit to see the latest updates. A title company that shares local events or trends in the local real estate market are some examples of how you can create content that agents get excited about reading, and sharing.
Need Help with your title company’s blog or content strategy?
Dalton Digital is a marketing agency exclusively focused on helping title companies grow their closing volume by getting their digital marketing right. Contact us today for a free strategy session to discuss your goals and learn how we can help with an effective blogging and content strategy.