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"Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different." - Michael Porter
Real Estate Investment Marketing Solutions www.CashBuyersLists.com
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Disclaimer This e-book has been written to provide information about real estate advertising and marketing. Every effort has been made to make this eBook as complete and accurate as possible. However, there may be mistakes in typography or content. Also, this e-book provides information on selfimprovement only up to the publishing date. Therefore, this eBook should be used as a guide - not as the ultimate source of real estate advertising and marketing information. The purpose of this eBook is to educate. The author and the publisher do not warrant that the information contained in this e-book is fully complete and shall not be responsible for any errors or omissions. The author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this e-book.
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Table of Contents Introduction
Page 6
Advertising
Page 8
WHAT IS ADVERTISING AND MARKETING?
Page 8
General Real Estate Advertising
Page 10
Internet Real Estate Advertising
Page 11
REAL ESTATE ADVERTISING VIA SOCIAL MEDIA
Page 11
Build an Exceptional Real Estate Reputation
Page 11
Real Estate Networking
Page 11
Diversify Your Efforts
Page 12
SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
Page 13
Page 13
Google Business
Page 13
Page 13
Page 14
Google Business
Page 14
Page 15
YouTube
Page 15
REAL ESTATE ADVERTISING WITH EMAIL
Page 16
Traditional Real Estate Advertising
Page 17
REAL ESTATE FLYER ADVERTISING
Page 17
Classified Real Estate Advertising
Page 18
WHAT TO SAY AND WHERE TO POST
Page 18
Real Estate Marketing Solutions
Page 22
Marketing Strategies
Page 22
KEY ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING STRATEGY
Page 23
UNDERSTANDING YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Page 24
DEVELOPING YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
Page 25
TIPS & PITFALLS AZ Social Realty
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Real Estate Lead Generation
Page 27
Real Estate Internet Resources
Page 31
Real Estate Marketing Tools
Page 32
Real Estate Mobile Marketing
Page 33
Real Estate Marketing Plan
Page 35
Your Real Estate Website
Page 38
5 STEPS TO BUILDING YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE (FAST AND EFFORTLESSLY)
Page 38
6 Real Estate Marketing Strategies That Work
Page 41
STRATEGY 1: CREATIVE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR REAL ESTATE
Page 41
STRATEGY 2: CREATING A MONTHLY REAL ESTATE DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN
Page 45
STRATEGY 3: DESIGNING A LEAD READY REAL ESTATE WEBSITE & MOBILE MARKETING Page 48 STRATEGY 4: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Page 49
STRATEGY 5: EFFECTIVE AND CONSISTENT EMAIL MARKETING
Page 50
STRATEGY 6: INVESTING IN THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Page 53
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Introduction Real estate is a tried and true way to wealth for many people. There are different areas of real estate for investors to specialize; residential, land and commercial. Some investors "flip" houses for profit, while others hold on to real estate for an extended period of time for cash flow and long-term gain. Some investors advertise in classifieds, investor groups and online, while others are found through word of mouth. To find real estate investors, one must go where real estate investors go. Most investors are very interested in working on deals relating to their specialty, so it is not difficult to get the attention of an investor with the correct strategies. With almost any real estate project the correct mindset must be established. Wholesalers, (real estate investors who find property selling for below market value), buy low and instead of investing any money into renovating or rehabbing a property, they focus on providing or assigning deals for other investors who want to renovate or rehab a property in order to make a greater and faster ROI (Return On Investment). Real Estate Investment Marketing Solutions has compiled a series of real estate advertising and marketing strategies to help support your real estate ventures. The strategies provided are all DIY or self implementing strategies and do not require payment for any products or services. There are paid options for services however; REI has concentrated on those which produce the best results based on individual effort. Whether you are a novice real estate investor or have been a real estate investor for years, the tools and techniques provided by REI Marketing Solutions can help anyone increase their lead generation, target market contact and ultimately find and fund more real estate investment deals. Advertising is a form of marketing communication used to persuade an audience to take or continue some action, usually with respect to a commercial offering, or political or ideological support. Advertising is the activity or profession of producing information for promoting the sale of commercial products or services where as marketing is the management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. Even though Advertising and Marketing seem to go hand in hand they are two very different parts of business. Marketing includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotions (1) Identification, selection and development of a Product, (2) Determination of its Price, (3) Selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's Place, and (4) Development and implementation of a Promotional strategy. Marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction. Marketing differs from selling because (in the words of Harvard Business School's retired professor of marketing Theodore C. Levitt) "Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as AZ Social Realty
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Page 7 of 56 marketing invariable does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse and satisfy customer needs." In other words, marketing has less to do with getting customers to pay for your product as it does with developing a demand for a product and fulfilling the customer's needs. In real estate, location, location, location has been one of the biggest determining factors for investments. Real estate is the Product and though the Price and Place may vary, the applied properly implemented Promotional techniques will boost your advertising and marketing for your new real estate ventures. Become familiar with the different forms of advertising to get a better understanding of the form which works best for you.
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Advertising
WHAT IS ADVERTISING AND MARKETING Advertising is a form of Marketing communication used to persuade an audience to take or continue some action, usually with respect to a commercial offering, or political or ideological support. Simply, advertising is the activity or profession of producing information for promoting the sale of commercial products or services where as marketing is the management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. Even though Advertising and Marketing seem to go hand in hand they are two very different parts of business. It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotions (1) Identification, selection and development of a Product, (2) Determination of its Price, (3) Selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's Place, and (4) Development and implementation of a Promotional strategy.
Figure 1: Marketing Mix Info Graph AZ Social Realty
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Page 9 of 56 Marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction. Marketing differs from selling because (in the words of Harvard Business School's retired professor of marketing Theodore C. Levitt) "Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariable does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse and satisfy customer needs." In other words, marketing has less to do with getting customers to pay for your product as it does developing a demand for that product and fulfilling the customer's needs. In real estate, location, location, location has been one of the biggest determining factors for investments. Real estate is the product and though the Price and Place may vary the applied Promotional techniques will help with advertising and marketing your new real estate venture. Become familiar with the different forms of advertising to get a better understanding of the form which works best for you.
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General Real Estate Advertising Advertising is an essential part of your business. Effective real estate advertising involves applying several key pieces and using the appropriate tools. Here are some of the most effective types of real estate advertising and marketing pieces you can use to generate more leads. •
•
• • • • • • • •
Business Cards - The first thing to create is a business card, but not just any business card. A great card is like a mini billboard that showcases who you are and what you do. Important elements include a company logo, full contact info, and most importantly, a few bullet points about how you can benefit people. Post Cards – Post cards are a great way to market for leads. They are basically a larger business card with more content. You should always create the WOW factor with your cards. WOW – Make people look twice. State solutions to a problem such as someone in pre-foreclosure… you can say, ‘avoid foreclosure and save your credit today’. Most importantly, get to the point in a clear, concise manner. Newspaper Ads – Newspapers are a great way to advertise your business but I would suggest utilizing smaller, local newspapers. These seem to work better and have the bonus of being more affordable. Seller Mail Outs – Create special reports or flyers explaining your business and how you can help someone out of a desperate situation. These are targeted mailing to leads you know that have specific problems. Yard Signs – Put your solution in front of potentially thousands of passing cars who are either having a real estate problem or know of someone who is. Be careful though, you should check with local city rules before placing signs on your street corner. Bird Dogs – These are people that search out properties for you. You will pay them a finder’s fee when they find you a deal and you profit from it. Finder’s fees range from $500 - $3,000, depending on your profits. Magnetic Signs – Signs that you place on the side of your vehicle letting people know what problem you solve. Keep the content short and be sure to have a call to action with easy to read contact info. Radio and Billboards – Reach the masses by broadcasting your services city-wide or a more traveled road. Keep it short and sweet with a call to action and easy to read/understand contact info. Postal Workers – A great way to know which properties are vacant in your target market is to ask a postal worker who routinely drives the area. They know the properties that are vacant and can lead you to great deals. Real Estate Agents – Agents make a great resource for lead generation. Working with agents properly can produce hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. They have access to hundreds of houses of for sale, expired listings, and comps. Once they learn what you are in the market for, they will send you the information you need. Get a list of expired listings to start with.
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Internet Real Estate Advertising What is the value of Internet Real Estate Advertising? Why is Internet Real Estate Advertising important to your business? What is the value of every client direct from your Internet Real Estate Advertising Initiatives? What is the value of reaching your customer Online? Is your business benefiting Online?
REAL ESTATE ADVERTISING VIA SOCIAL MEDIA Advertising your real estate business via social media is extremely important. Facebook, Google+, Bing, Yahoo, LinkedIn and Twitter are just a few. Learning to target your real estate market and advertise correctly is crucial. ADVERTISE your company to your exact target audience across the entire network of millions of social media users! The importance of knowing your target market is crucial especially on social media. Using social media is a great way for real estate agents to grow their business as they are able to instantly connect with existing clients, potential clients and their real estate peers. While every real estate agent should use some form of social media to promote their business, this type of marketing is only effective if you do it correctly. Knowing how to leverage the power of social media to help build your real estate business will allow you to efficiently spend your time updating your various social media accounts. Build an Exceptional Real Estate Reputation The biggest reason why real estate agents need to be using social media websites to promote their business is to build their reputation. When you are able to position yourself as an industry expert, it will be a lot easier to attract new clients. Providing your Twitter followers or Facebook fans with insightful, quality content is the best way to position yourself as an industry expert. Before every post you make, you want to think about your followers and whether or not they will find this piece of information useful. This will keep your readers interested and engaged in what you are posting as they will look forward to the next piece of information you share about the real estate industry. Real Estate Networking Another reason why real estate professionals should be taking advantage of social media websites is to network within the real estate industry. Reaching out to your current and past clients through your Facebook page is an excellent way to ask for referrals for your business. At the end of your posts, you may want to prompt your readers to share your article or link with someone that they know who is looking for a new house. Using social media to network with your current and past clients is a highly effective way to generate new business. Social media websites are also a great way to network with your professional peers. Following other real estate agents’ Twitter accounts and Facebook pages is wonderful method you can use to see how other agents are marketing their business. Also, you can communicate with these real estate agents through the various social media platforms to ask them some questions about their business. Aligning yourself with other successful real estate agents will help you succeed within the industry as well. AZ Social Realty
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Page 12 of 56 Diversify your Real Estate Advertising and Marketing Efforts The more ways you market your real estate business, the better your chances of being successful become. Mixing in some online advertising and social media marketing will help your business reach new clients that traditional marketing methods never would have reached. Updating your Twitter and Facebook accounts on a regular basis is a good way to keep potential clients informed about your current listings. Also, posting videos to YouTube is another great way to market your business in a new way. Something as simple as a photo slide show posted to YouTube can help you spread the word about a new listing you have received. Being able to show potential homebuyers video of a new home you have for sale is a great way to pique their interest in a home. Finding new and inventive ways to market your real estate business will help your business thrive, especially during this tough housing market. Utilizing various social media websites is an excellent way to reach new clients and promote your real estate business online.
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SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS Facebook Facebook is a great tool for real estate agents. Whether you reach out to family and friends to get referrals or connect to potential clients, Facebook is perfect for expanding your network. When using Facebook, it’s important not to come across as too much of a salesperson. Instead of forcing yourself on potential clients by bombarding them with Facebook messages about your business, take part in natural conversations and let those conversations lead into the services you offer. As far as networking goes, make sure to tag your sellers in the home pictures you post on your Facebook page. This is a great way to open yourself to their networks. Also, try posting messages directly on your seller’s wall so other people can see who you are. Anyone who’s interested will add you to their list. Depending on your strategy (branding your business vs. branding yourself), it might be best if you set up a business fan page in addition to your personal account. You’ll be able to use it for posts more directly associated with selling homes. However, keep in mind that you don’t want to be too salesoriented here either. Offer information that’s engaging and useful, and the sales are more likely to follow.
Google Business View Just throwing up a Google Business page is not going to get you the exposure you desire on the Web, Google Search and Google Maps. A properly optimized Google Business presence will bring together text, location information, photos and video to present your business to your local customer prospects when they’re searching on the Web for your products or services. When searching, Google does not rate your page just because of some words and pictures. It’s about relevance and certain “best practices” in using text, images and video. We’re experts and we’ll optimize your Google Business page to integrate well with Google Search and Google Maps.
Twitter Although time-consuming, Twitter works well if you’re trying to reach a local audience. In order to reach a sufficiently broad local audience and not fail in your Twitter efforts, you need to get followers! To build a healthy following of locals, look at who is following your local celebrities, radio DJs, restaurants, Rotary clubs, and any other personalities or organizations in your city. These types of profiles will almost always have a local following of people. Once you’ve found the locals, follow them. Following locals on Twitter that you haven’t met in real life amounts to a virtual handshake – and gives you the opportunity to have your brand make an impression on them! Once the person has noticed that you’ve followed them, they’ll likely click on your profile and website to see who you are. Not only does this bring traffic to your site, but people who see value in your service will start following you, allowing you to expand your network to even more people on Twitter. Twitter users also tend to be more engaged with brands than Facebook users, and they’re more open to making connections with people (and companies) that they don’t already know.
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Page 14 of 56 HootSuite & Blogger While maintaining an online blog isn’t a necessity, you should consider hosting one on your site so you have a central hub from which you can create content, and to which you can drive traffic from social media. Having a blog is a great way to not only drive online traffic to a specific place (from your other social media accounts), but to showcase your online marketing efforts as well. If nothing else, blogs are by far the best places for Realtors with active web presences to publish content. HootSuite combines all of your social media accounts into one platform. This makes it easier for you to reach out to people and network with them on a consistent basis. If you don’t want to sign in to five different accounts to spread your message, consider using HootSuite. It’ll help you build your brand while saving you time and energy. Editor’s note: Market Leader’s social media gurus use HootSuite extensively and can attest to how powerful and efficient a tool it is! If you want to be successful in the real estate business, it’s important to build your brand. With more people using social media to communicate and learn about new companies, it’s time for you to sign up and take advantage.
Pinterest Both buying and selling a home are processes that rely heavily on visuals. So, it makes sense that Pinterest — the social sharing site made up of virtual bulletin boards — is a useful visual marketing tool for real estate professionals. Indeed, this service can showcase amazing photos of properties, offer inspiration and lifestyle ideas to clients and make thousands aware of your brand simply because of your strategically curated boards. That being said, having a great real estate Pinterest account requires more than just gathering a bunch of pretty images of houses and sticking them all in the same place. It’s important to make sure that your boards are relevant to your audience and engage them in some way. When you create your branded real estate adverting flyers make sure you add them to Pinterest to help circulate your brand across the Internet.
Instagram Instagram is a social media platform that is centered around photo sharing. It’s a way to creatively share what’s going on in the world around you while allowing you to connect with others. People seem to love it too with the number of active users jumping from 1 million to over 200 million since its start date in 2010. With cool tools to upload photos and videos with interesting filters and cropping options, it’s no wonder it has become so popular. With that many people looking at Instagram daily, you can see why it would be a powerful real estate marketing tool for the following reasons: • • • • •
Instant testimonials and credibility Show off listings and sales People are more likely to buy from someone they trust Pictures speak more than words It’s quick, easy, and FREE!
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LinkedIn After signing up for LinkedIn, the first thing you should do is optimize your public profile. After that, get active in various groups that are associated with the real estate industry. Additionally, you can start your own group to attract other people in your area. By starting a group or joining one, you increase the chance of referrals. Not only do you have the ability to contact potential clients through LinkedIn, but you also have access to other professionals within the industry who can point you in the right direction. Either way, by using LinkedIn, you’re increasing your brand’s recognition and expanding your network.
YouTube Videos YouTube is often overlooked when it comes to social media networks because it isn’t like the other more traditional platforms. To attract more business, simply start filming all of your home listings and post them on your YouTube account. When filming and posting the videos, be sure to highlight any details of the home listing and use proper keywords to attract potential leads. If done right, people who search Google will run into your YouTube video listings. When it comes to YouTube, making your video title rich in keywords can be crucial for search engine recognition and possibly even for making it go viral. For example, if your listing is in New York, make your title “New York Real Estate – (insert listing address).” This will drive more traffic to your website and boost your ranking within Google search results.
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Page 16 of 56 REAL ESTATE ADVERTISING WITH EMAIL
Email is by far the best way to advertise. Why? Your real estate market is asking you to advertise to them. Online advertising with email means your customers want you to provide information about your product or service. Online advertising with email is as essential as having a front door on your brick and mortar business. Email is the doorway to your product or service. Email advertising is faster and less expensive not to mention easier to target. This was once done by U.S. mail. Today, advertisers use email as the medium of choice for putting out their messages. The idea of spam developed along with email marketing -- for some reason, customers object to unwanted email much more strongly than they used to object to regular junk mail. You can e-blast your message, meaning you can put out thousands of emails without being called a spammer. Having the perfect auto responder, email sequence and email blasts can boost your business. Having the right auto responder software is vital to your success in email advertising. You can use a free email service like Response Magic or you can use a personal and customizable marketing company like InfusionSoft who will set your company up with one of several auto responder services which best suits your needs in order to increase your deliverability rates for the most cost effective price. This alone will help your business grow because your customers will actually get the emails you are sending. When someone joins your email list its vital they get emails from your company in a timely manner. This is done by setting up auto responder sequences. An auto responder sequence is just a series of emails preloaded which automatically go out to new clients over a certain period of time. InfusionSoft will set this up and write each of your auto responder messages to ensure you properly bond with your new customers. Occasionally your company may want to send an email to your entire database about a new promotion, product or service you are offering. Here are a few additional CRMs and Email service providers: StreamSend Email Marketing GetResponse Email Marketing ConstantContact Email Marketing
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Traditional Real Estate Advertising FLYER ADVERTISING A real estate marketing flyer is a highly effective form of paper advertisement which is being used in various marketing campaigns. Using a do-it-yourself method of advertising is very substantial especially if you want a relatively cheap marketing campaign. Creating a real estate marketing flyer provides you the ability to promote your real estate, which gives your potential investor the visual stimuli needed to move forward with a deal. Below is a very powerful real estate marketing software and it’s free. If you are a real estate broker, realtor, real-estate agent, real estate management agency, or company with any real estate related businesses who want professionally-designed flyers, this premium real estate marketing software is unsurpassed. You can use real estate flyers as promotional tools for your marketing campaigns such as for rent/for sale flyer, multiple listing sale and product promotion. With these professional looking and clean style flyer designs, your business will become more presentable. Click HERE for your free software.
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Classifieds Real Estate Advertising Classified ads: What to say and where to post •
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•
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Chances are you'll look at classified ads in one form or another to find a service provider to get the work done. You may look at the ads in your weekly shopper-type publication or weekly town newspaper. And, you'll probably search online. (The short, listings you see to the right of search results and sometimes on top and/or the bottom of results are pay-per-click [PPC] ads, which are really just another form of classified ad.). No matter what media classified ads are viewed through, these small text ads are a significant source of customers for many home-based and small businesses. An inexpensive three- or fourline ad placed in print, in an online yellow pages ad, or through search engines can deliver customers who need your product or service now. More importantly, if the ad is run regularly, it builds future business by making your name familiar and establishing your credibility. Although classified ads are brief, getting good results from them takes some thought. A wellwritten ad placed in the wrong publication or displayed online to the entire country won’t bring in much business. A poor headline or a poorly written ad, no matter how carefully placed, is a waste of money. To get the most mileage out of your classified advertising dollars, keep these suggestions in mind when you write and place your ad.
Understand your customer Many products and services can be sold to different types of customers. But each type may have different needs. Your ad should stress your ability to meet those specific needs. For instance a job seeker may need your help not only writing their resume, but also distributing it to online sites where it will get found. The owner of a small business may not know they want a "virtual assistant." They may only know they need a freelancer to do their bookkeeping and/or help them build a social presence online. To work, your classified ads need to speak directly to what the customer is looking for.
Choose the right media outreach An ad for pool maintenance services is likely to attract more responses in publications that circulate in upper-class communities than in a weekly shopper that gets distributed in a blue-collar neighborhood. Similarly, you'll waste a lot of money on your ad for your landscaping service if you advertise on search engines and don't geo-target the ad (I.e., have the search engines only show your ad to people from the geographic area you're able to serve.) Be aware that individuals often read the classified sections of several different publications, but read each with a different mindset. A business executive might look in the local newspaper for someone to paint her house, but turn to a regional business publication to find a contractor to perform similar services for her business property.
Do some homework Study ads that appear consistently week after week. Determine what makes such ads catch your attention. Do they mention a benefit? Are they set off in some way from other classified ads on the page? Are they easy to spot because they fall immediately under a category heading in the classified section or near the top of the ads on an online search? AZ Social Realty
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Make the first few words count The first couple of ads in your classified ad work like a headline does on a display ad. They must stop the reader's eye from moving down or across the page and make them want to read the rest of the ad. To do that, those first couple of words must tell readers the most important benefit your product or service offers. In online pay-per-click ads the ad should reflect as closely as possible the terms the searcher typed into the search engine.
Keep the ad brief and explicit A good classified ad is like a telegram: short, clear and commanding. In as few words as possible, tell what you sell, who should buy it, why they should buy it from you today, and how to contact you. Remember, you must identify a problem which your reader wants to overcome, create a (CTA) call-toaction and a link where to the solution. Be careful, though, not to cut too many words out of an ad that will appear in print. The reader won’t be able to click to get more information in a print ad. Here is a simple framework to follow: • • •
Problem headline – Can’t find wholesale real estate deals Directive – Fill this out and we’ll show you how Link – Solution
Get someone else's opinion about the ad Whether you're creating an ad for a newspaper or for online use, ask several people who will be honest with you to read the ad. After they've read it ask them to tell you what you are selling, whether the ad would make them want to contact you. If they have difficulty answering those questions, rewrite the ad.
Make it believable and appropriate Today's consumers are more educated and more skeptical than consumers ever were in the past. If your ad sounds like you are offering something too good to be true, most people will skip right over your ad. Furthermore if you make unfounded income claims or health claims that are not substantiated by scientific evidence, you could get yourself in trouble with the law. To win customers and avoid trouble, sell with facts, not hype.
Look for your competitors Advertise in the same publications and same online media that your competitors do. Look through a year's worth of back issues of a publication. If competitors have been advertising consistently in that publication for a year, it's likely to be a good place to put your ad, too. Try to determine what keywords your competitors are using to promote their business online. Use similar keywords in your own ads.
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Test your ad in several publications Two publications which seem to be aimed at the same readers won't necessarily produce the same results. A Long Island painter who got no response from ads placed in one weekly newspaper, for instance, got numerous responses from ads in a competing publication in the same community. The only way to tell which publications are the best for you is to test your ad in several. Test your ads in several places online, too. An ad that works on Google may or may not work on FaceBook, Bing, or LinkedIn.
Don't plan to make a killing with one ad Run each ad long enough to give it a fair try. Having your business ad appear on a regular basis builds name recognition and convinces prospects your business is not a fly-by-night firm.
Proofread carefully Include a phone number or other contact information in your advertisement. Have someone other than you proofread your final version for typos and misspellings.
Where to post your ad Now you know the in's and out's of ads, it's time to post your advertisements in classfied ads for people to view. Here is a list of 20 free classified ad sites to help get your advertisements up and running along with your first few Real Estate Ads. Here are a few classifieds to help you get started:
1. http://www.craigslist.org
6. http://www.backpage.com
2. http://www.gumtree.com
7. http://www.oodle.com
3. http://www.ebayclassifieds.com
8. http://www.olx.com
4. http://www.usfreeads.com
9. http://www.classifiedads.com
5. http://www.inetgiant.com
10. http://adpost.com
11. http://adlandpro.com
12. http://www.classifiedsforfree.com
13. http://www.salespider.com/online-classifieds-free-
14. http://www.yakaz.com
advertising 15. http://www.thefreeadforum.com
16. http://www.domesticsale.com
17. http://www.pennysaverusa.com/classifieds/usa/index.ht
18. http://epage.com
ml 19. http://www.recycler.com
20. http://www.webcosmo.com
21. http://www.hoobly.com
22. http://www.freeadlists.com
23. http://www.sell.com
24. http://www.bestwayclassifieds.co m/
25. http://www.webclassifieds.us
26. http://www.americanlisted.com
27. http://www.freeadscity.com
28. http://www.chooseyouritem.com
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Page 21 of 56 29. http://www.daype.com
30. http://geebo.com
31. http://www.claz.org
32. http://wantedwants.com
33. http://www.freeclassifieds.com
34. http://www.bonqo.com
35. http://www.buysellcommunity.com
36. http://businesslist.com/postclassified-ad/
37. Pressmania.com’s Worldwideclassifieds.
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REAL ESTATE MARKETING SOLUTIONS
MARKETING STRATEGIES Marketing strategy is the goal of increasing sales and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage in any given industry. Today’s rapidly changing business environment requires marketing that is on target in terms of your market, the method you use to reach your customers and the message you convey to convince them to purchase your product or service. REI Marketing Solutions is here to help our clients move their business forward by developing marketing strategies which can be artfully executed with significant impact with advertising and marketing materials. No matter what the project – logo design, strategic or business plan, company or product brochure, product launch or public relations campaign – we follow the same proven process of defining opportunities, quantifying goals and choosing the optimal media mix for reaching target markets. Based on this strategic platform, we craft messages, produce materials and implement the tactics to achieve the desired results. Whether your business is a start-up requiring hands-on marketing talent, or an established company not delivering on your brand’s promise, making sure you have the correct marketing solution for your business is imperative. Developing a marketing strategy is vital for any business. Without one, your efforts to attract customers are likely to be haphazard and inefficient. The focus of your strategy should be making sure your products and services meet your customer needs and developing long-term and profitable relationships with those customers. To achieve this, you will need to create a flexible strategy which can respond to changes in customer perceptions and demands. It may also help you identify whole new markets which you can successfully target. The purpose of your marketing strategy should be to identify and then communicate the benefits of your business is offering to your target market. Once you have created and implemented your strategy, monitor its effectiveness and make any adjustments required to maintain its success. AZ Social Realty
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Page 23 of 56 The following key elements will helps you identify which customers to focus on and your key objectives in reaching them. It explains what to include in your marketing strategy and how it can be used as the basis for effective action.
KEY ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING STRATEGY
One of the key elements of a successful marketing strategy is the acknowledgement your existing and potential customers will fall into particular groups or segments, characterized by their "needs". Identifying these groups and their needs through market research, and then addressing them more successfully than your competitors, should be the focus of your strategy. You can then create a marketing strategy which makes the most of your strengths and matches them to the needs of the customers you want to target. For example, if a particular group of customers is looking for quality first and foremost, then any marketing activity aimed at them should draw attention to the high quality service you can provide. Once you’ve made the connection between your strengths are your target market, decide on the best marketing activity which will ensure your target market knows about the products or services you offer, and why they meet their needs. This could be achieved through various forms of advertising, exhibitions, public relations initiatives, Internet activity and by creating an effective "point of sale" strategy if you rely on others to actually sell your products. Limit your activities to those methods you think will work best, avoiding spreading your budget too thinly. A key element often overlooked is monitoring and evaluating how effective your strategy has been. This control element not only helps you see how your strategy is performing in practice, it can also help inform your future marketing strategy. A simple device is to ask each new customer how they heard about your business. Once you have decided on your marketing strategy, draw up a marketing plan to set out how you plan to execute and evaluate the success of your strategy. The plan should be constantly reviewed so it can respond quickly to changes in customer needs and attitudes in your industry, and in the broader economic climate.
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UNDERSTANDING YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES Your strategy must take account of how your business' strengths and weaknesses will affect your marketing. Begin your marketing strategy document with an honest and rigorous SWOT analysis, looking at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is a good idea to conduct some market research on your existing customers at this point, as it will help you to build a more honest picture of your reputation in the marketplace.
Strengths could include: • • •
personal and flexible customer service special features or benefits that your product offers specialist knowledge or skills
Weaknesses could include: • • •
limited financial resources lack of an established reputation inefficient accounting systems
Opportunities could include: • • •
increased demand from a particular market sector using the Internet to reach new markets new technologies that allow you to improve product quality
Threats could include: • • • •
the emergence of a new competitor more sophisticated, attractive or cheaper versions of your product or service new legislation increasing your costs a downturn in the economy, reducing overall demand
Figure 2: SWOT Analysis Diagram AZ Social Realty
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Page 25 of 56 Having done your analysis, you can then measure the potential effects each element may have on your marketing strategy. For example, if new regulations will increase the cost of competing in a market where you're already weak, you might want to look for other opportunities. On the other hand, if you have a good reputation and your key competitor is struggling, the regulations might present the opportunity to push aggressively for new customers.
DEVELOPING YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
With an understanding of your business' internal strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats, you can develop a strategy that plays to your own strengths and matches them to the emerging opportunities. You can also identify your weaknesses and try to minimise them. The next step is to draw up a detailed marketing plan which sets out the specific actions to put your strategy into practice.
Questions to ask when developing your strategy • • • • • • • • •
What changes are taking place in our business environment? Are these opportunities or threats? What are our strengths and weaknesses? What do I want to achieve? Set clear, realistic objectives. What are customers looking for? What are their needs? Which customers are the most profitable? How will I target the right potential customers? Are there groups that I can target effectively? What's the best way of communicating with them? Could I improve my customer service? This can be a low-cost way of gaining a competitive advantage over rivals, keeping customers, boosting sales and building a good reputation. Could changing my products or services increase sales and profitability? Most products need to be continuously updated to maintain competitiveness.
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Could extending my product list or service provision meet existing customers' needs more effectively? Remember that selling to existing customers is generally more cost effective than continually trying to find new ones. How will I price my product or service? Although prices need to be competitive, most businesses find that trying to compete on price alone is a poor strategy. What else are my customers interested in? Quality? Reliability? Efficiency? Value for money? What is the best way of distributing and selling my products? How can I best promote my products? Options might include advertising, direct marketing, exhibiting at trade fairs, PR or marketing on the web. How can I tell if my marketing is effective? Check how your customers find out about your business. A small-scale trial can be a good way of testing a marketing strategy without committing to excessive costs.
TIPS AND PITFALLS Before looking at new markets, think about how you can get the most out of your existing customer base - it's usually more economical and quicker than finding new customers. Consider whether you can sell more to your existing customers or look at ways of improving the retention of key customers.
Focus on the market Your marketing strategy should: • • •
analyze the different needs of different groups of customers focus on a market niche where you can be the best aim to put most of your efforts into the 20 per cent of customers who provide 80 per cent of profits
Don't forget the follow-up • • •
Approach a third party for feedback about your strategy - they may be able to spot any gaps or weaknesses you are unable to see. Put your marketing strategy into effect with a marketing plan which sets out the aims, actions, dates, costs, resources and effective selling programmes. Measure the effectiveness of what you do. Be prepared to change things which are not working.
Pitfalls to avoid • • • • • •
Making assumptions about what customers want. Ignoring the competition. Trying to compete on price alone. Relying on too few customers. Trying to grow too quickly. Becoming complacent about what you offer and failing to innovate.
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REAL ESTATE LEAD GENERATION
When it comes to your lead generation, how effective is your real estate marketing? Whether buying, selling, or investing in real estate, marketing is essential to your success. As an investor, the key fundamental element in the first level of your real estate investing business is creating systematic and consistent lead generation. If you are not focused on lead generation, you do not have a business; you have a hobby or a dream. In today's real estate market, 90% of today’s home buyers and sellers start their search online, and it takes 6 - 12 months of "thinking" before getting serious. That’s why it’s crucial for agents and brokers to have a winning online lead generation strategy—starting with a guaranteed number of leads which are sent exclusively to you and having integrated and easy-to-use tools to follow up and nurture all of them until they are ready. We have compiled a set of readily-available resources to help you generate new leads. To start, pick ten ways for consistent real estate lead generation and focus on those. In the beginning of our investing career, we walked neighborhoods with flyers and put magnetic signs on cars. Why? Inexpensive and effective! Not glorious marketing techniques but we got leads and our very first seller called from our magnetic car signs! The number one common element of failures in a real estate investing business is not treating it like a business. And, the most important step to establish in ANY new business is LEAD GENERATION! Without customers, there is no business. Whether you’re looking for foreclosures, REO’s, owner-finance, HUD, wholesale, free & clear, rentals, fixer uppers, spread investing, etc, finding them all revolves around having leads. Get busy and NEVER EVER stop marketing for leads! Your commitment to marketing is critical. There are many different ways to create leads and here are about 100. • • • • • • • •
Accountants and CPA Firms: They have clients with financial problems where an investor can be of help. Advertising: Never stop. Use simple ads with a USP, Unique Selling Proposition: Quick Closing, All Cash etc., We Buy Houses Ads, Newspapers, Flyers. Attorneys: Attorneys know when people need money, often to pay their fees! Not just probate but divorce, family law and real estate attorneys. Auctions: Do your homework in advance. Auctions move very fast and a single mistake can be costly. Visit your local auction a few times to just observe. Know values and repair costs before bidding. Foreclosure: Very risky, not for the newbie Sheriff Sale: Same as Foreclosure, IRS Sales Apparel with Logos: Hats, T-Shirts, Golf Shirts, Hand Bags Appraisers: Often know what is, or is going to be, for sale
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• • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Bandit Signs: Check your local sign ordinances. Some places have no issue with them others do. ✓ We Buy Houses ✓ Stop Foreclosure Bird Dogs: These people can be very valuable to your business. It is important to know your local laws about compensating unlicensed people. “Blue Tarp” Houses: often blue tarps on roofs Boarded up windows: or visible disrepair Business Cards different types: one for seller, one for buyers, one for professionals (banker, attorney, CPA) Builders Models: Frequently builders will sell a model home at a discount. Building Inspectors Car & Truck Loans: Some folks would rather keep the wheels than a roof over their head. Buy here, pay here dealers can be a good lead source. Car Repos: If the car is going the house isn’t far behind. Carpet Cleaners: Many of their customers are preparing a house for sale. Charitable Groups: Frequently receive gifts of real estate, but they’d rather have the cash. City & County Inspectors: Code violations and red tags. If you develop a reputation of buying distressed properties and improving them, you become an asset to the community. Classified Ads: ✓ For Sale: Look for Key Words – transferred, motivated, divorce, owner financing ✓ Want to Buy ✓ For Rent by Owner: Look for burned-out landlords Condemned Houses: Many counties will provide you a free list. Consumer Loan Companies: When their loans go bad they are frequently willing to deal rather than foreclose. Courts: Eviction Filings, Probate Court, Divorce Cases, Tax Liens, Code Violations Credit Repair Agencies & Counselors: Many times the only way someone can get their spending under control is to sell a house they can no longer afford. Direct Mail: Pre-Foreclosure Letters, Probate Letters, Out of Town Owners, Post Cards, Bankruptcies, Divorce, Delinquent Taxes, Military Owners Door Hangers: You can also use pre-printed post-it notes to leave messages at target properties. Be sure to advertise on both sides, you can even sell the back side and recover your advertising cost! Door Knocking: Distribute flyers and go door-to-door asking residents if they know of anyone planning to move because you’d like to buy a house in their neighborhood! Drive or walk Neighborhoods: Get to know them well and take notice of changes. Estate Sales – often the real estate will also be available and perhaps with owner financing Eviction Court: great place to find landlords Expired Listings: Connect with an investor friendly Realtor Family Members: talk about what you do and ask for referrals Farming Local Areas: Become the local neighborhood expert. Flyers: Cut your cost in half, print two to a page and distribute: Shopping Centers, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Malls. Put on car windshields or pay someone to do it for you. Friends: “Do you know anyone who wants to sell?” Most people know 2 people who will be buying or selling a home this year. FSBO Signs: for sale by owner Funeral Homes: Can be a good lead source before information on a decedent becomes public. Garage Sales: Are they moving?
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Page 29 of 56 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Hair Salons: Lots of talking going on during hair cuts! Home Builders: Need to sell their buyers houses so they can close on the new place. HUD Foreclosures: Internet: Rent Clicks, EBay, Craig’s List, Wholesale Sites, Lead Services, USLeaseOption.com Insurance Brokers: Policy changes from owner occupant to landlord or vacant house coverage. Investor Packages: Investor who’s ready to retire and cash out their portfolio. May be able to negotiate seller financing as well as a discount. Judgments: Check the public record or hire someone to do it for you. Large Employers: Let them know you buy properties because if they need to transfer an employee, they don’t get stuck carrying the house. This can be good for renting executive properties for short-term transferees, too. Lenders: Banks / REO’s: – Mortgage Brokers, Private Lenders, Hard Money Lenders Liened Properties: Mechanics Liens, HOA Liens, Tax Liens Lis Pendens: Notice of a law suits, usually a foreclosure. Lists: You can buy lists for anything you want to market to: pre-foreclosures, neighborhoods, properties with no mortgage, etc. Magnetic Car Signs and Wraps: Check with your auto policy carrier as to whether or not this will affect your coverage. A rider may be required. Market Bulletin Boards: Grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants Military Transfers: Military bases provide an excellent transient market for those needing to sell and buy off base housing Mobile Homes: Get to know park managers. Banks don’t like mobile homes but they can become little cash cows. A special license is required if you’re going to get into the mobile home business. Moving Companies Neighborhood Newsletters Networking: Other Investors, Call We Buy Houses ads & signs, Churches, Public Speaking, Investment Associations, Work, Clubs Newspaper Carriers: Who see the vacant houses every day? Nursing & Retirement Homes: Frequently residents need to sell a house. Pens: Buy cheap ones and leave them everywhere you go. Pet Odors: If your home has housed a number of pets we may be the buyer for you. Pizza Boxes: many sell advertising or sponsorship spots Postman Public Speaking: Rotary, Lyons and Kiwanis Clubs, Realtor meetings and other associations Quit Claim Deeds: Are a sign that something has changed with the property. Radio Ads or Show Real Estate Agents Referrals Relocations: Great for Subject-to or buying on lease option Rent Credit: Trade rent credit for a down payment Rental Agents & Property Managers: Let them know you want to buy and also find a local manager. You buy, they manage…win/win!! Retirees: A growing population with free and clear homes. Excellent prospects for seller financing. Section 8 Landlords: Each county maintains a list Short Sales Social Media: A new way to get your message out: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Structural Damage: Once you know what you’re doing, you can buy at a rock bottom pricing.
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Tax Deed Sale Properties: These do not come with title insurance so do your home work. Tax Lien Certificate Properties Termite & Pest Control Companies: Write a check and the termites die. Write another check and replace the damaged wood. May find great deals. Title Companies: Not all transactions close like they are supposed to. Let the title companies know you can help in a pinch, for the right price. Trading Up: Trade your newly renovated property at retail for a property down the block that you can buy wholesale. Try a sign that says “Will Take Your House In Trade” TV and Radio: Cable companies may have community service spots for free. Vacant Properties – look for tall grass and neglected houses Web Sites Wholesaler Lists: A good wholesaler can find you multiple properties. Withdrawn MLS Listings: Easy to get from a friendly real estate agent.
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REAL ESTATE INTERNET RESOURCES
The Internet has become a convenient tool for finding information on just about anything when it comes to real estate. These days it's difficult to find a real estate company or organization which doesn't have its own homepage. Because sifting through search engine returns can be more timeconsuming than a trek to the library, we've compiled a list of websites we've found to be especially useful and informative. www.forsalebyowner.com www.militarybyowner.com www.fsbo.com www.hotpads.com www.hubzu.com www.propertyauction.com www.homesearch.com www.williamsauction.com www.hudforeclosed.com www.incomepropertyusa.com www.zbuyer.com www.renttoownlistingz.com www.craigslist.com www.rentals.com www.homeaway.com www.reia.org www.creonline.com
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www.owners.com www.zillow.com www.salebyowner.com www.auction.com www.treasury.gov www.bid4assets.com www.realtybid.com www.ustitlerecords.com www.buypd.com www.bargainagents.com www.ziprealty.com www.foreclosure.com www.forrentbyowner.com www.zillow.com www.reiclub.com www.meetup.com
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REAL ESTATE MARKETING TOOLS
Real Estate Marketing Ideas are so difficult to come up with when things are not going your way. From creating a logo for your real estate marketing material, having your own virtual assistant, to developing a unique strategic marketing plan there will be issues. Maybe you have had a bad month and are looking for ways to shake things up. The list we have provided of marketing techniques should be able to get your juices flowing. Do not try and do everything on the list. Simply, do what you do...very well. Here is an additional list of tools broken down between "Traditional" and "Online" marketing ideas.
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REAL ESTATE MOBILE MARKETING
According to Google, 92% of smartphone owners seek local (offline) information while shopping with their mobile phones, and 73% of those people took some form of action after searching the internet. Has your real estate website been specifically designed with mobile in mind? Is it ready for the estimated 3 out every 5 smartphone internet searches in 2015? The most powerful data shows how people are using smartphones to help search and research competitor’s prices while inside a store before buying a product …and that nearly 100% of smartphone owners search the internet at least once a week. As smartphones become less expensive and more advanced, more and more people will be upgrading their devices. Therefore, the number of searches performed on mobile phones will also keep skyrocketing. When a customer searches the web on their smartphone, chances are they have a very different mindset than someone behind a computer screen. Mobile SEO needs to target a set of keywords with this in mind. Mobile searches are a growing opportunity for businesses and you should reach potential customers in a clear and easy to understand way. A properly executed mobile campaign builds confidence between the consumer and the business: ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
It’s a two-way dialog NOT simply one-way communication. It helps build a relationship vs. “Telling and selling.” It’s less expensive than traditional marketing. It can help customers find you vs. “Buying your way in.” It’s interesting, informative, and valuable NOT irrelevant or intrusive. It’s measurable vs. Difficult to measure.
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Follow the next Four Steps and you should be on your way capturing the market you target. Step 1. Create & Maintain A Powerful Website An effective website is the hub of all your online marketing and lead generation. Step 2. Generate More Traffic By increasing the traffic to your website, you increase the number of opportunities for visitors to turn into leads. Step 3. Convert Traffic to Leads Create attractive offers and calls-to-action which appeal to potential buyers at all levels. Step 4. Convert Leads to Sales Leads are segmented into lists in order to quickly send targeted messages through lead nurturing mobile campaigns.
Figure 3: Mobile Target Marketing
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REAL ESTATE MARKETING PLAN
Everyone knows you need a business plan, yet many entrepreneurs don’t realize a marketing plan is just as vital. Unlike a business plan, a marketing plan focuses on winning and keeping customers; it's strategic and includes numbers, facts and objectives. A good marketing plan spells out all the tools and tactics you’ll use to achieve your sales goals. It’s your plan of action—what you’ll sell, who'll want to buy it and the tactics you’ll use to generate leads that result in sales. And unless you’re using your marketing plan to help you gain funding, it doesn’t have to be lengthy or beautifully written. Use bulleted sections, and get right to the point. Here’s a closer look at creating a real estate marketing plan that works: Step 1: Begin with a snapshot of your company’s current situation, called a “situation analysis.” This first section defines your company and its products or services, then shows how the benefits you provide set you apart from your competition. Target audiences have become extremely specialized and segmented. No matter your industry, from restaurants to professional services to retail clothing stores, positioning your product or service competitively requires an understanding of your niche market. Not only do you need to be able to describe what you market, but you must also have a clear understanding of what your competitors are offering and be able to show how your product or service provides a better value. Make your situation analysis a succinct overview of your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses refer to characteristics that exist within your business, while opportunities and threats refer to outside factors. To determine your company’s strengths, consider the ways that its products are superior to others, or if your service is more comprehensive, for example. What do you offer that gives your business a competitive advantage? Weaknesses, on the other hand, can be anything from operating in a highly saturated market to lack of experienced staff members.
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Page 36 of 56 Next, describe any external opportunities you can capitalize on, such as an expanding market for your product. Don’t forget to include any external threats to your company’s ability to gain market share so that succeeding sections of your plan can detail the ways you’ll overcome those threats. Positioning your product involves two steps. First, you need to analyze your product’s features and decide how they distinguish your product from its competitors. Second, decide what type of buyer is most likely to purchase your product. What are you selling? Convenience? Quality? Discount pricing? You can’t offer it all. Knowing what your customers want helps you decide what to offer, and that brings us to the next section of your plan. Step 2: Describe your target audience. Developing a simple, one-paragraph profile of your prospective customer is your next step. You can describe prospects in terms of demographics—age, sex, family composition, earnings and geographic location—as well as lifestyle. Ask yourself the following: Are my customers conservative or innovative? Leaders or followers? Timid or aggressive? Traditional or modern? Introverted or extroverted? How often do they purchase what I offer? In what quantity? If you’re a business-to-business marketer, you may define your target audience based on their type of business, job title, size of business, geographic location or any other characteristics that make them possible prospects. No matter who your target audience is, be sure to narrowly define them in this section, because it will be your guide as you plan your media and public relations campaigns. Step 3: List your marketing goals. What do you want your marketing plan to achieve? For example, are you hoping for a 20 percent increase in sales of your product per quarter? Write down a short list of goals—and make them measurable so that you’ll know when you’ve achieved them. Step 4: Develop the marketing communications strategies and tactics you’ll use. This section is the heart and soul of your marketing plan. In the previous sections, you outlined what your marketing must accomplish and identified your best prospects; now it’s time to detail the tactics you’ll use to reach these prospects and accomplish your goals. A good marketing program targets prospects at all stages of your sales cycle. Some marketing tactics, such as many forms of advertising, public relations and direct marketing, are great for reaching cold prospects. Warm prospects—those who've previously been exposed to your marketing message and perhaps even met you personally—will respond best to permission-based email, loyalty programs and customer appreciation events, among others. Your hottest prospects are individuals who’ve been exposed to your sales and marketing messages and are ready to close a sale. Generally, interpersonal sales contact (whether in person, by phone, or email) combined with marketing adds the final heat necessary to close sales. To complete your tactics section, outline your primary marketing strategies, then include a variety of tactics you’ll use to reach prospects at any point in your sales cycle. For example, you might combine outdoor billboards, print advertising and online local searches to reach cold prospects but use email to contact your warm prospects. To identify your ideal marketing mix, find out which media your target audience turns to for information on the type of product or service you sell. Avoid broad-based media—even if it attracts your target audience—if the content isn't relevant. The marketing tactics you choose must reach your prospects when they’ll be most receptive to your message. AZ Social Realty
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Page 37 of 56 Step 5: Set your marketing budget. You’ll need to devote a percentage of projected gross sales to your annual marketing budget. Of course, when starting a business, this may mean using newly acquired funding, borrowing or selffinancing. Just bear this in mind—marketing is absolutely essential to the success of your business. And with so many different kinds of tactics available for reaching out to every conceivable audience niche, there’s a mix to fit even the tightest budget. As you begin to gather costs for the marketing tactics you outlined in the previous step, you may find you’ve exceeded your budget. Simply go back and adjust your tactics until you have a mix that’s affordable. The key is to never stop marketing—don’t concern yourself with the more costly tactics until you can afford them.
Real Estate Business Plan Real Estate Marketing Plan
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YOUR REAL ESTATE WEBSITE
In our technology driven world, having your own website is considered an essential part of marketing your business. When creating your business website, there are some critical pieces that must be in place for people to be able to find you in the sea of information available to them online, though. Main Website – This is your branding site that tells your story, what you do and how you benefit other people with your services.
5 Steps to Building Your Online Presence Fast and Effortlessly Step 1 – Create a website and or squeeze page
Start by creating a website that will tell visitors about you and your services. Set up multiple squeeze pages that are targeted to specific keywords. Example keywords: homebuyer, rent to own homes, wholesale leads, etc. Squeeze Page – Squeeze pages are landing pages created to solicit opt-in email addresses from prospective subscribers. A squeeze page is a single web page with the sole purpose of capturing information for follow-up marketing; that means NO exit hyperlinks. See diagram below:
Figure 4: Squeeze Page Diagram
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Page 39 of 56 There are 3 basic parts of a squeeze page: Part 1 – Headline • Your headline is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make on a prospective reader. Without a headline or post title that turns a browser into a reader, the rest of your words may as well not even exist. Part 2 – Provide benefits • Benefits show the consumer how your product or service will benefit them if they purchased it. Part 3 – Call to action • Simply put, after you've established that you have something of value to offer and that you're the perfect choice to deliver it, you want to ask your prospect to take the next step, ASAP. This is where you deliver a call to action. Step 2 – Set up auto-responders Auto-responders are a series of emails that are automatically sent to your subscribers. There are many companies online you can use, including: and Step 3 – Create a funnel system See diagram below:
Figure 5: Lead Generation Funnel
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6 REAL ESTATE MARKETING STRATEGIES THAT WORK Does marketing via social media scare you? Good. It should scare you, however, it should also give you reason to be excited about your new marketing direction. Social Media is a proven direction for marketing. When it comes to marketing Realtors are some of the best marketers in an offline person-to-person environment. You’re incredibly brilliant at getting to know your clients on a very personal level, getting involved in your community and connecting with your local market. The amount of real estate digital marketing advice out there is overwhelming and can make your head explode from trying to figure out how you are going to do it all. The truth is you cannot do it all. In today’s converging world of email, mobile, social media and gaming, savvy real estate professionals are seeking the most innovative real estate digital marketing strategies to boost their digital presence—and increase their leads. If you’re looking to attract more real estate leads to your website, increase your pull in the digital marketplace or bolster your branding online, here are 6 Real Estate Marketing strategies you are going to want to read about, learn and implement and best of all…THEY WORK VERY WELL!
STRATEGY #1. CREATIVE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR REAL ESTATE There are plenty of articles which cover social media 101 for real estate including social media design, setup and marketing. However, the one thing which all these real estate digital marketing articles are missing is…the “WOW” factor. When you step out of the stale and boring “real estate” marketing which every agent, real estate professional and real estate business is doing, you will not only set yourself apart but you will grow a loyal following. Forget everything else including how many times to post, what times to post and adding hashtags to everything. Just focus on having fun and getting creative for now until you get the hang of it. Check out this short video on Facebook Marketing and pick up some great tips. Then check out Hootsuite which is an amazing tool to manage your social media marketing.
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Page 42 of 56 If you need assistance building your social media marketing strategy you can find help from the team at Social Media Management Plus, that way you can concentrate on your real estate business and SMMP can concentrate on marketing your real estate business. #1 Social Media Platform – Facebook. Social Media Marketing is currently being dominated by the #1 Social Media Platform – Facebook.
Facebook is where people go to connect online with friends and family. Most realtors want to connect with friends and family of clients. The connections can create trust and word of mouth marketing. How can you, as a good real estate agent, tap into the social media market? How can you get your name and listings marketed to your local clients using the largest social networking site? Here’s a few simple tips. Set up a Facebook Page. Normally you wouldn’t use your personal Facebook account for your real estate services. Why? It lacks professionalism, and you miss out on a lot of essential business features (such as the ability to run Facebook contests, and check your Facebook Insights). However, if your marketing is community based then connecting your personal Facebook account to your real estate account. It is really easy to make a Facebook Page, and it’s worth the effort. Facebook has become a necessity for any Real Estate agents online marketing, as it is crucial in helping create an online presence. Not only does Facebook allow you to stay in touch with your past clients, but it is also very helpful in connecting with new ones. Optimize your Facebook marketing strategy with these tactics: •
Tactic #1: Personalize Your Business With over a million active real estate agents in the United States (according to Realtor.org) it’s become extremely important to personalize your business practices. If you’re able to provide your clients with a unique buying or selling experience, you’re bound to better your professional reputation as well as increase your referrals. ✓ Some ways to personalize your business practices are providing clients with unique closing gifts. Every client is different and has their own interests. Paying attention to your client's individual needs, will set you up for success in the long run. If you have a unique brand or strategy - use it!
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Tactic #2: Foster Your Professional Relationships Strong business relationships are important in every profession, so continuing to nurture your existing ones is a great way to set yourself (and your business) up for success. Your professional relationships may be with other agents, mortgage lenders or even title agencies. ✓ If you want to expand your professional sphere in the next year, start networking! Networking with other real estate professionals will not only help you learn more about your industry, but also connect with others and expand your business. Take the time to invest in your connections and learn how to network successfully to grow your real estate business.
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Tactic #3: Target your Audience via your Facebook Page We touched on creating a dedicated Facebook Business Page which will help you promote your business and showcase your listings. However, your Facebook Page can be a great tool for inbound marketing efforts and should be a part of any lead generation strategy. Bypassing Facebook marketing is no longer an option for agents who are serious about maintaining relationships with clients, generating referrals and connecting with future leads.
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Tactic #4: Keep Up The Momentum If you’ve built up a strong online presence and use social media for real estate, don’t stop working now! Even though the real estate market tends to slow down towards the end of the year, it’s important to maintain the momentum to help set you up for a successful new year. And - make sure to clean up any existing social media accounts; social presence is key nowadays. Post valuable content which will keep potential buyers and sellers returning.
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Tactic #5: Continue Your Real Estate Education No matter what industry you work in, it’s always important to continue educating yourself on the latest trends. In Real Estate, it’s even more important because of how often the market (and rules) can change. Your local MLS may offer more formal educational courses, or additional certification programs.
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Tactic #6: Test New Social Media Channels With mobile devices becoming more widely used, the New Year is a great time to start testing different social media apps to better reach your target audience. A great app to take advantage of is Instagram, which has reached 400 million users - a number that only continues to grow. ✓ Instagram is a mobile app used to share photos and short videos as well as keep up with the latest online trends. Instagram is a great place to post unique listing photos which can give your followers an inside look at a property they aren’t able to find in a typical online property search. Taking advantage of this app will help you stand out from the rest of the agents in your market and present yourself as a local expert. You can even create ads to help reach your target audience!
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Tactic #7 Use Relevant Imagery Using quality, high-resolution images within your Facebook posts is essential to their effectiveness. Agents should have the right mix of content, including photos of current or upcoming listings, as well as more content-related posts. A successful agent should aim to entertain, educate and inform a target audience with both text and images. For instance, posting images of local and beautifully landscaped yards may spark ideas for homeowners and keep them coming back to your page. Selling in Cleveland? Then Mid-Century modern homes from Palm Springs aren’t the right images for you!
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Tactic #8 Be Relevant to the Buyers’ and Sellers’ Interests Your posts should always contain relevant information for your target audience. Understanding your buyers and sellers, will help you stay relevant, so that they’ll continue to return to your Facebook Business Page. Yes, you should use your page to brand yourself and promote your listings, but you never want to ‘oversell’ yourself. You should, of course, be proud of recent awards or recognitions, but prospects are initially more interested in what you can do for them.
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Tactic #9 Create and Boost Posts Facebook ads can be extremely useful in targeting leads. These ads allow you to create campaigns based off lead demographics, interests and behaviors, so reviewing characteristics and qualities of your past and current clients will help you find commonalities you can use to target your preferred audience. Facebook ads can be set to only appear in certain geographical areas and you can cap your spending in order to quickly review results and adjust your strategy as necessary. Plus, always remember to add a CTA “Call To Action” button to your ads to drive your leads to your personal website or your Facebook Business Page form.
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Tactic #10 Focus on Leads Facebook can help you focus on finding the right prospects who are serious about buying or selling, but just because a person ‘Likes’ your page or follows you, doesn’t make them a lead…yet. Make sure to include contact forms and links to your personal Real Estate site when posting on your page. This will encourage sign-ups, which in turn, help you build an email database. You want to be certain that you’re capturing as many leads as possible, so that you can begin building relationships with them.
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Tactic #11: Invest in Automation If you generate a lot of internet leads, now is a good time to invest in a CRM or automated email system. Personalized automation can be extremely helpful in staying in front of your leads as often as possible. Often times, leads can get lost in the mix - especially if you’re working with several at once. ✓ Make the most of your real estate marketing budget in 2016 and invest in a smart and reliable automation system that will never stop working for you.
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STRATEGY #2. CREATING A MONTHLY REAL ESTATE DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN I cannot stress the importance of planning when developing your strategy for digital marketing. Trying to market yourself online randomly will drive you insane. Every single month you should stop and plan your content and the promotion of your content. Every week you should type your social media updates in a document and find the images you are going to use. Then put everything into action using automation software like Hootsuite for your social media and scheduling your post in advance on your blogging software. Failure to plan means you are planning to fail, which is a philosophy I hold dear. A real estate marketing plan is imperative for the success of your business, but many just don’t get why. Most of the time when I work with a real estate business who is excited about digital marketing, the same thing happens. I get something like this…
• “I was told if we do “this or that” with social media we can reach millions of people. When can you start tweeting?” One of the worst things you can do is jump head first into digital marketing with no clear real estate marketing plan or goal. The secret to digital marketing success… —-> PLANNING & CONSISTENCY <—-
And the only way to be consistent is to follow a good plan, day in and day out.
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Page 46 of 56 Real estate marketing plan; why does it matter? • Your clients are not stupid. Buying decisions are made online every day. If your real estate business doesn’t have an effective real estate marketing plan then you are leaving dollars on the table. • How can you tell what’s not working if you don’t know what you are doing in the first place? It’s vital to keep up with changing trends and technology and allow the Internet to start working for you as effectively as possible. Here is how to get started. • Step #1 Figure out who is your audience/customer. Don’t just jot something down…really think about it. ✓ How old is your target audience/customer? ✓ What are your audience’s/customer’s likes/dislikes? ✓ What does your audience/customer do for fun? ✓ Who are audience’s/customer influencers? ✓ Why does your audience/customer purchase real estate? ✓ What other industry brands have your audience/customer as industry followers? •
Step #2. Where is your target audience online? Twitter, Facebook and Instagram? Google Plus, Facebook and LinkedIn? Pinterest, Instagram and Vine? Tumblr or WordPress? Forums? Where are they? Once you figure that out, you need to be where they are.
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Step #3. Create an editorial calendar. Creating editorial calendars for every single digital channel above will be very helpful. Your editorial calendar should show what you are posting every single day. This should include company blogs, website content, press releases, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest pins, LinkedIn posts, and any email, webinar or video marketing you should be conducting. Your digital marketing editorial calendar and your social media editorial calendar can link together content and themes for a cohesive messaging over the course of the quarter and the year. By having a clear “map” of what, where and when messages in the digital sphere helps increase your ability to measure through Google analytics and other tools. In the end, you’ll have a great idea of what is working and where, and how to proceed when creating your next editorial calendars.
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Page 47 of 56 Tips for Editorial Calendars 1. Set goals for content (blogs, emails, etc.) and increase each quarter 2. Time your digital marking monthly, weekly, day by day—or even hour by hour. 3. Set themes for seasons and holidays, etc.
Step #4. Create an engagement calendar. This is different than an editorial calendar. An engagement calendar lets you know exactly how to engage with your audience. It will include things like how often to like other people’s posts, how often to retweet on Twitter, who to follow and like, when to thank people for liking your pages, commenting on blog posts…etc. Step #5. FINALLY…The last step is pretty obvious and I mentioned it above…put it to action… —-> PLANNING & CONSISTENCY <—-
And the only way to be consistent is to follow a good real estate marketing plan, day in and day out.
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Page 48 of 56 STRATEGY #3. DESIGNING A LEAD READY REAL ESTATE WEBSITE
What’s a lead ready real estate website? It’s a website that is built and designed with the sole purpose of attracting and nurturing leads. Here are a few tips to make your site a lead generator: •
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No Templates. Get rid of the real estate website template and get a custom website developed from iIntercept Media, which focuses on your brand and how you stand out against your competition. Looking like your competition… not a good idea. iIntercept Media offers a great start with a fully customizable selection of tools. With the help of a designer from iIntercept Media, you can have a unique site instead of just a template from Rapid Listings. Only use site templates like Rapid Listings to point to your own unique site and increase visibility. Go Dynamic. During development make sure your real estate website design agency knows that you want a dynamic website. Dynamic means that it stretches and adjusts easily no matter what device the end user is on. CTAs. You website should be full of calls-to action (CTAs) which take customers to unique landing pages. Blogging is your friend. Embrace it! Blogging one or two times a week keeps you website fresh and filled with new content. Google loves that!
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STRATEGY #4. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION There are actually a few real estate gurus who are preaching SEO is dead and social media optimization is the wave of the future. I agree in the importance of social media optimization, but having a large following is an imperative part of social media optimization. SEO is short for search engine optimization (or search engine optimizer). Search engine optimization is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) -- including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. SEO helps to ensure a website is accessible to a search engine and improves the websiteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visibility to increase the chances of being found by a search engine. SEO is typically a set of "white hat" best practices which webmasters and web content producers follow to help them achieve a better ranking in search engine results. In search engine optimization (SEO) terminology, white hat SEO refers to the usage of optimization strategies, techniques and tactics that focus on a human audience opposed to search engines and completely follows search engine rules and policies. For example, a website that is optimized for search engines, yet focuses on relevancy and organic ranking is considered to be optimized using White Hat SEO practices. Some examples of White Hat SEO techniques include using keywords and keyword analysis, backlinking, link building to improve link popularity, and writing content for human readers. White Hat SEO is more frequently used by those who intend to make a long-term investment on their website also, called Ethical SEO.
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Page 50 of 56 STRATEGY #5. EFFECTIVE AND CONSISTENT EMAIL MARKETING •
Express Email Marketing from iIntercept Media can make your Email marketing very effective. When someone signs up to get more information about a property or service, touch base with them at least 2 times a month. Email marketing has become an essential tool for business ever since the introduction of the Internet to the world
When someone signs up to get more information about a property or service, touch base with them at least 2 times a month. Ensure your subject lines are as compelling as possible so your potential client will actually open the email. Remember, once you’ve created a strong email list, you have a built in customer base which you can communicate with you on your own schedule and terms. Email marketing is still VERY effective, if done right. And don’t forget to make sure your emails are optimized for mobile. Many real estate agents just do not have a large following on social media and they are not “internet famous”. Search engine optimization is still a very viable way to get good leads and increase brand awareness. Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to: Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business. • Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately. • Adding advertisements to emails sent by other companies to their customers. Email marketing has several key advantages over traditional mail marketing, including the following: •
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An exact return on investment can be tracked and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic. Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them. Over half of all Internet users check or send email on a typical day.
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Email allows marketers to reach out to consumers with personalized, relevant, dynamic messages. Transactional emails allow businesses to respond automatically to important consumer events like purchases or shop-cart abandonment.
The disadvantages of email marketing surround the rejection/spam rate of the emails by the consumers’ email program, negatively affecting the delivery rate of the emails. This has somewhat been eliminated with the idea of “Opt-in” emailing, where the consumer consents to receiving the emails and therefore eliminates the idea of receiving unsolicited emails – Ideally maintaining emails which are relevant and appropriate to each individual recipient. So the questions are why and how should one go about email marketing? Well here are a few thoughts on the matter: Why? • Cost – Email marketing is CHEAP, there are no two ways about it. Whether you do it yourself, or through an email marketing agency, marketing to hundreds of consumers via email is going to cost you tiddlywinks compared to other channels of advertising. • Success - Emails can be targeting specifically to the ideal consumer. With this concept in mind, along with email cost-effectiveness, it’s no wonder that email marketing’s ROI often blows other direct marketing strategies out of the water – The trick is that you have to get it right! • Measurability and Flexibility – With the analytics available today it’s easy to track responses to your emails exactly, in order to work out what parts of your campaign are working and what parts aren’t. With this knowledge, you can then react instantly to modify your campaign strategy if need be. How? Dave Chaffey from Marketing Insights offers an experienced view into the success factors of email marketing, using the mnemonic “CRITICAL”: • Creative – This refers to the overall design of the email (layout/images/color). Specifically, it is a good idea to ask each customer whether they would like the emails in text or HTML as there is often a great preference for one over the other. • Relevance – Targeting, targeting, and more targeting. Make your emails relevant and personalized to each recipient if you want that response rate to rise. • Incentive - Recipients look at emails and think “WIIFM?”, i.e. “What’s in it for me??”. There’s no such thing as a free lunch right? Well… Offer the recipient a “free lunch” for participating and they will be more likely to respond. • Timing – Don’t send out an email that recipients will receive overnight, let it pop up in their inbox during their working day. This also expands to selecting certain days, months and even years. Remember – You can test and measure what timing works best for which email. • Integration – Companies cannot just rely on one method of marketing, nor can they rely on several methods of differentiated marketing. Instead, best marketing practices utilise integrated marketing communication (IMC) where all aspects of their promotion work together to create a whole. Email marketing must be including here, therefore your emails must carry the same image and message as your entire operations. Even the timing of the campaign must work in with other aspects of your marketing mix. • Copy – When considering the copywriting for your email you must consider all aspects of the language, from subject line through to your mail signature. With emails, not all links should be saved for the last sentence, pop them in early to grab that impulsive customer! AZ Social Realty
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Attributes – Here Dave talks about the email header, with attributes including the subject line, from address, to address, date/time of receipt and format. Once again, testing your campaigns can rule out the attributes that customers consider spam and highlighting the attributes that will work best for your business. Landing Page – Want those emails to turn into sales conversions? Don’t just hyperlink your customers to your home page; show them exactly where you want them to go and make it quick and easy to complete any forms!
So yes… Email marketing is a vital component in many industries, especially for creating those important customer-firm relationships. Learn to use it well and it will definitely bump up your company’s success.
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Page 53 of 56 STRATEGY #6. INVESTING IN THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Thought leaders are the informed opinion leaders and the go-to people in their field of expertise. They are trusted sources who move and inspire people with innovative ideas; turn ideas into reality, and know and show how to replicate their success. Remember we talked about being â&#x20AC;&#x153;famousâ&#x20AC;? in your industry. This is how you do it so you can begin to build a loyal following so those in your area look to you for real estate advice. Contact blogs and websites which focus on news in your community and pitch yourself to write a weekly "about real estate", get on your local morning show and do a segment on buying a home, write articles and reports which are innovative and cutting edge and distribute them to industry leaders.
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Page 54 of 56 Building Thought Leadership on Facebook Many businesses and individuals have been quick in seeing the benefits of using Facebook to generate their thought leadership. If you want to use the platform to create your own thought leadership you should challenge, intrigue, and inspire audiences already familiar with your brand. Here are 6 ways to do so: 1. Talk Numbers Numbers speak louder than words. Regardless of the kind of content you create and promote on Facebook, using cold, hard stats will help you gain recognition among your audience while making your posts more authoritative. That’s because consumers can’t effectively make decisions based on trial and error or hunches. While they’re more influenced by the opinion and advice of their peers, presenting analysis with numerical information gives you a greater chance to portray leadership and influence their buying behavior. In essence, decisions based on data lead to better results than those based on gut feelings or intuition. Numbers could come out of: • Surveys • Polls • Interviews & Questionnaires • Market research reports 2. Bring in Influencers You can avoid eschewing marketing campaigns and instead connect with influencers in your niche for building credibility. Interview someone known and share what they have to say about your company and your audience will go ‘hey, I recognize this face’, followed by ‘hey, you’re the one who interviewed that face’. Posting your own thoughts along with the thoughts of influencers in your industry not only has the benefit of associating you with established leaders, it may also develop mutually beneficial relationships in the times ahead. Also, by inviting influencers to work with you, you’ll be able to promote credible content as well as broaden your reach when influencers cross-promote the content you post. 3. Engage in a Diligent Way Respond to any comments (positive or negative) left on your Facebook page in a timely manner. Reply diligently to show your interest in the feedback left by your audience as well as respect for the reader (and anyone mentioned in the comment). It is critical to be tactful and understanding when providing answers to commonly asked questions. Get yourself out there and don’t shy away from sharing your personal experience when engaging with your audience.
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Page 55 of 56 Great answers can get picked up by sites such as Help a Reporter Out, which (if it happens) will spread your thought leadership. 4. Portray a Unique and Authentic Character Thought leadership doesn’t come without a distinctive voice. Give yourself/your company a unique and authentic character that sets you apart in your industry. After you establish an identity, use it on all social networks as well as when you create advertising campaigns. Be consistent with your values, voice and character and never allow anything or anyone to shatter your identity’s authenticity. If you’re selling something complex in a crowded niche industry, your personality will increase your chances of building thought leadership. 5. Be Socially Responsible Another way to build thought leadership via Facebook is to show your audience that you care about society and others just as much as you care about your brand. Socially responsible companies and entrepreneurs gain momentum because people know they’ll not just talk about themselves, but also would have something interesting to share about the world around them. You should actively listen to the needs of the communities in your locality and try to bring their social issues into light. Whether it is working with your audience to feed the homeless or donating money – the aim is to humanize your brand and strengthening its leadership. 6. Acknowledge Others While you might have a strict policy against promoting others in your industry on your Facebook page, thought leadership requires acknowledgement where it is due. This way, you also show people that you want to promote great work/actions to ensure the best for them. This tactic can prevent your brand from being perceived as too shallow. Such acknowledgment spreads across the industry and can even spread your thought leadership to the followers of the brand or company you’ve mentioned. You can acknowledge: • • •
Someone from your audience (gives a great tip, idea, etc.) Competitor (low to moderate level) Professional friends (companies in a good relation with your business)
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Page 56 of 56 Conclusion Anyone who wants to establish thought leadership must serve a purpose for their target audience. And as an authoritative figure, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re constantly required to come up with new ways to make the lives of people listening to you better. The tips mentioned in this Ebook will help you establish credibility on Facebook (and you can apply the same strategies on other social networks). Okay, now you have a few strategies soâ&#x20AC;Śget started implementing these strategies and grow your business.
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