Theory Digital Companies

In the old-fashioned world of US real estate, it’s not uncommon even for established professionals to rely heavily on offline methods of lead generation, such as word of mouth. While these channels serve as a testament to the quality of service provided by realtors like Debra, ultimately reaching out to a new and broader audience is key to maintain continued growth.

That’s when TheoryDigital stepped in to work with Debra Dobbs, the Chicago realtor with almost 40 years in the business, to expand her reach and make sure her name gets out there in front of an entirely new audience.

Debra Dobbs has her own marketing department, so the task of TheoryDigital was simple: We worked closely with Debra’s in-house team, developing strategies and offering guidance for implementing strategies to maximize organic traffic to their website.

With regular consulting sessions and monthly reports encompassing actionable tasks, TheoryDigital helped shape Debra’s digital presence and substantially increase the organic traffic coming to the website.

As of January 2024, organic traffic to Debra’s website grew by 1066% and is keeping stable. It’s all the result of combining the merits of Debra’s exceptional service and TheoryDigital’s clever strategies.

Let’s delve deeper into the collaboration and discover how TheoryDigital’s innovative approach helped Debra broaden her audience and establish a prominent online presence.

Background and Challenges of the Real Estate Industry:

American real estate, both residential and commercial sectors, is a highly competitive and dynamic field. In spite of that, traditional methods of lead generation and marketing have largely dominated the industry.

In other words, nobody has been interested in building up their online presence or understood the value of organic PR and traffic generation.

Naturally, in the past few years freelancers and intermediaries have emerged as middlemen, offering to drive organic traffic to real estate agent listings as a service.

That is when TheoryDigital reached out to Debra as we think that this shift has in fact opened an opportunity for savvy agents like Debra to explore avenues for organic traffic generation without the dependence on intermediaries.

Analysis and Strategy Development

One of the challenges faced by Debra in this industry was lack of orientation in terms of organic traffic generation and organic PR. Mainly, Debra’s own efforts to communicate her expertise through a blog were not yielding optimal results. The problem was that the blog posts were extremely high quality but infrequent, which failed to signal to search engines like Google the extent of Debra’s knowledge and authority in the real estate industry.

In today’s short attention span society, the optimal strategy is to publish less expensive content but do it more often to stay in your audience’s awareness.

Last but not least, Debra’s competition began adopting content marketing strategies by creating regular, thematically focused blogs.

However, these competitors were predominantly targeting the luxury real estate market. By suggesting strategic content topics, TheoryDigital helped Debra capitalize on her knowledge of the city and offering unique insights into various neighborhoods and areas. This over time helps Debra to differentiate herself from her competitors, reshape her online presence and reach a wider, untapped audience.

Implementation

To kickstart the transformation of Debra’s online presence, TheoryDigital devised a simple but actionable plan. At the beginning of each month, TheoryDigital delivered a short monthly report to Debra and her team. This report included a concise analysis of the changes in organic traffic at Debra’s website month-on-month, as well as some insights into her competitors’ performance. Building upon this analysis, TheoryDigital suggested six content topics that could be developed over the upcoming month.

These content topics were chosen to align with Debra’s expertise and target different aspects of the Chicago real estate market. The suggestions were divided into three alternatives for landing pages (LPs) and three suggestions for blog posts, each topic coming with a projection of how much traffic it can potentially generate monthly.

Empowered by these recommendations, Debra’s in-house team created a backlog of content topics, allowing them to plan and develop landing pages and blog posts well in advance. In line with TheoryDigital’s guidance, the team committed to publishing at least four instances of long-form content every month.

To further enhance the appeal of the content, Debra’s team took the initiative to create custom-made collages and graphics that were incorporated into the landing pages and blog posts. Unique imagery can help entice search engines like Google with visually appealing and distinct visuals, setting Debra’s content apart from the usual blogs that feature generic stock graphics or listing photographs.

Results and Impact

As you can see, traffic generation is not rocket science - it just needs a consistent implementation schedule over a long time. Within a few weeks Debra’s website saw a consistent flow of fresh, valuable, and visually captivating content.

Soon the organic traffic to her website began to increase. At that point, TheoryDigital set up tracking KPIs for user engagement that the in-house marketing team could use. They did check on them religiously and with a few tweaks on some of the newly created landing pages the team managed to get the engagement numbers up.

Keeping the new visitors on the website means more brand exposure, as people click around instead of just consuming what they came for and leaving. This activity is driving new leads and expanding her visibility amongst a completely new audience.

Conclusion and Key Learnings

In conclusion, the collaboration between Debra Dobbs and TheoryDigital proved to be a testament to the power of a well-executed digital marketing strategy. With a focus on organic traffic generation and brand building, TheoryDigital provided Debra with invaluable guidance and recommendations that transformed her online presence and expanded her reach.

Through the monthly reports delivered by TheoryDigital, Debra and her team gained valuable insights into the changes in organic traffic, not just on their own website but also in relation to their competitors. This data-driven approach, utilizing tools such as Ahrefs and OpenAI, allowed for a comprehensive analysis of the market and the identification of key areas for improvement.

By diligently implementing the suggested content topics, developing landing pages, and publishing engaging blog posts, Debra’s in-house team created a backlog of valuable long-form content. The use of custom-made collages and graphics added a unique touch, capturing the attention of readers and search engines alike.

The results of this collaboration were impressive. Over the course of the partnership, Debra’s website experienced an astounding growth of 1066% in organic traffic. This significant increase in visibility not only attracted new leads but also showcased Debra’s expertise to a broader audience.

Furthermore, the engagement levels of the website visitors were remarkable. The carefully crafted content resonated with the target audience, establishing Debra as a trusted authority in the Chicago real estate market. This engagement was a direct result of the strategic approach taken by TheoryDigital, understanding the importance of not just driving traffic but also delivering meaningful and valuable content.

In summary, TheoryDigital’s expertise, combined with Debra’s in-house team’s dedication, led to a remarkable transformation in Debra’s online presence. The partnership resulted in a phenomenal increase in organic traffic, driving new leads and expanding her reach significantly. By leveraging data analysis tools and implementing a tailored content strategy, Debra Dobbs successfully cut out the middleman and established herself as a prominent figure in the competitive world of real estate.