Rent or Own? Why are most Realtors renting?

July 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Wordpress and blogging for realtors and real estate

Wordpress and blogging for realtors and real estateThe National Association of Realtors and Realtors in general are famous for posing the question “Is it better to Rent or Own?” then there are tons of reasons showing why buying is better than renting.  But do they practice what they preach?

What about Internet marketing? Are real estate professionals owning their brand or are they “renting space”.

The secret to successful Internet Marketing is to drive clients to your site through inbound marketing.

I was just on LinkedIn and responding to a question that Frank put out:

I am looking to take advantage of Internet Marketing. Looking for advertisement and Lead Generation. Checked out several: Real Estate Animals (Expensive), Trulia (INTERESTED), and Zillow.
Looking for recommendations and feedback. Wanting the most offered for the price. Just started working with clients that were searchin on Zillow. All the properties they had interest in seeing were off the Market. Please advise

Here is my response to Frank:

I did some internet marketing with some of these sites, Google, and Facebook. Frank, I want to tell you that the secret to making all of this work is to have good inbound marketing.

You want to OWN not RENT space for your clients. When you are paying these folks for ads, the leads stop when you stop paying rent. You want to post on your website.

At http://RealSocialPros.com where I blog 2-3 times a week and I can see the traffic and the google rankings coming in.

If you use us, or someone else, get a good SEO optimized website that YOU control. post about your stuff, or what you are doing, real estate in your city or subdivisions, and let Google do the rest. It will take a little time, but within days or weeks, you will see something happen and you will start getting organic traffic and leads from those folks.

It takes longer, and is more work, but it is cheaper and better.

 

I am going to write a post about the secrets to successful blogging for real estate agents, but for now, there are some basic things you need to keep in mind.

  1. You want all of your marketing to point back to your website/blog.  This is what YOU own.
  2. If you use sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, ActiveRain, RealTown, Zillow, Trulia or even Realtor.com, just be sure all of it comes back to YOUR own real estate website or blog.
  3. Pick a niche.  Don’t try to use the keywords “residential real estate” or “Miami real estate”.  Those are TOO huge.  Get something small that you can defend.  Try “Rogers real estate” or “Shadow Valley homes”.  Those are small enough to own.
  4. When you start your site post often and use keywords so you develop some credibility.
  5. Include a photo in each post.
  6. Use an IDX feed like IDXbroker.  This puts all the homes in your MLS on your site and really drives leads to you. (and gives you marketing materials)
  7. Post a video for at least every 10 posts.

We will stop with those 7, but I am going to make a series about how to get more leads to your real estate website or blog.

Be sure to invest time developing your own site or hire someone to do it.  We can do it for you.  The great thing is that as your site moves up the search engine rankings, you will get more and more traffic and spend less and less money.  You will also get better more focused leads.

If you want to have us setup a great Real Estate lead producing website using an IDX feed just click here.

Sign up here to get your Website with IDX and get valuable leads

just click here at idx.realsocialpros.com and signup today!

 

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Filed Under: Focused marketing, IDX broker, Promote your brand, Real estate social media optimized site Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Google + over Facebook: 3 advantages for real estate professionals

July 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
facebook_vs_google

CEO Larry Page kicked off his recent earnings conference call and described not only the financial data but some other notable figures as well: the number of Google Plus users, how much they’re sharing.

10 million Google Plus users
1 billion items a day are being shared on Google Plus
+1 Button is being served 2.3 billion times a day

Does this look like something that might be huge for your real estate business? I’d say so!

Let’s check out a few plus “es” of the new Google + service and look at some plugins and such.

How is Google + better or easier to use than Facebook?

  1. Google plus comments can be edited. How many times have you posted something to your group on Facebook only to realize that you have made a nasty typo.  Then you have to make another Facebook post to “correct” the mistake.  With Google + you can just edit a comment that you have made.
  2. Easily organize your people into “circles” on Google plus.  You can do this as you add new people into your Google + circles.  Facebook has groups, but they are “clunky” to use and most realtors struggle to define where people need to be.  One of my favorite features is that you can put people into more that one circle.  Like I have people who are in my “Real Estate Tech” group, but they may also be friends and I can put them in both circles.
  3. No Farmville.  I hope they never integrate “games” on Google+.  I really got to the point where I had to block all the people who were farming and doing Mafia wars and the like.  (Sorry Tony, that’s you).

If you liked this press the +1 button !

If you want a Google+ invitation just post to the comments below and we will send you one.

Filed Under: Focused marketing, Real estate social media optimized site, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

4 ways to get new property management clients using focused marketing

May 12, 2011 By 1 Comment

Marketing for property managementI met with a couple of brokers this week who are having great success with their new real estate brokerage. We are developing a solution for them to get new tenant leads for their properties they manage.

I asked them the question that I haven’t gotten a solid answer on yet : “How do sellers pick a listing agent”?

The follow up is “how do property owners pick a management company”?

As I reflected on that question, I came to a realization that the way to get more property management clients consists of four basic steps:

1.Take super good care of the clients you already have.

Make them feel like you really love them and will take care of them and their property.

2. Use a CRM or customer relationship management program to keep track of your clients.

Something like Vtiger, RealFutureCRM, or insightly. Even Constant Contact, MailChimp, or Aweber works well. This helps to make sure nobody falls through the cracks.

3. Collect exerpts from emails and communications that you have with your current property owners.

Use these exerpts in your emails, phone calls, letters, Facebook page, or whatever you use to communicate with them. Share great stories with your clients.

4. Ask for referrals.

Yep, ask and ye shall receive. In those same communications, ask them who they know who might be interested in your property management services.

“Scott, we have a few management spots opening up over the next couple of months, who do you know from work or your group who you think might be interested in working with us”?

If they don’t know anyone right now, they may in the future. Just let them know that you are always on the lookout for good property owners to work with.

Birds of a feather flock together. Your property management clients will run in circles with other people who own rental properties. Someday, there will be a problem, and they will remember you.

If you need help marketing to your clients shoot us an email today at info@realsocialpros.com and we will setup a system that gives you control over your contact with your clients.

Filed Under: Focused marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,