Happy new year ActiveRainers! One of my re-occurring resolutions is to quit procrastinating and actually complete the things I set out to do. But, when it comes to posting on my blog, I can always find something to take my focus away from the task at hand.
If you're one of the lucky ones who writing comes easily to, I envy you. For the rest of you who are like me and find it hard to buckle down and add content to your blog, I've put together a Content Generation Cheat Sheet for real estate agents that will hopefully take some of the pressure off and get the blog ball rolling.
What Is The Primary Purpose of Your Blog Content?
The content you create should fulfill at least one (if not all) of the following three purposes for your real estate business.
1. Connect with your buyers and sellers and deepen the relationship with them
2. Attract local traffic and prospects to your business online
3. Entice and encourage your prospects to visit your website and request more information from you
Your First Six Posts
Here are some suggestions for the first six blog articles that you can post to your site, blog or (if you're feeling particularly tenacious) create a video for.
1. Who Are You?
It is important to introduce yourself and tell your buyers and sellers who you are. Why have you decided to start a blog? Do you have a personal story that has led you to becoming a real estate agent? Do you have any passions other than helping people buy or sell their home? Let your audience see that you have a reason for what you do other than just to make money. By sharing a bit of who you are and why you do what you do, you will boost the levels of loyalty and trust from your audience.
2. Identify Your Ideal Audience
When identifying your ideal audience it helps to have a picture of who your ideal client is, an avatar of sorts. Would you like to work with more high end buyers or sellers? Would you like to attract more empty nesters who are ready to down size? Once you have a clear picture of who you would like to target, write a quick post geared towards that group and why you want to work with that type of buyer or seller.
3. What Is The Most Commonly Asked Question?
What is the number one question you get asked regarding buying our selling real estate in your market? Answer it. This is a great way to generate quality content rich with keywords to get more of that Google juice while you begin to establish yourself as an authoritative figure and trusted adviser. Include pictures and external links to trusted resources. Ask your audience to share their knowledge or ask additional questions and let them know that you will answer them in future posts.
4. The #1 Mistake
People love to read stories. Do you have a mistake that you have made in the past that is worth sharing? If so, share this story with your audience and tell them how you fixed the problem. Sharing your mistakes makes you human and will make it easier for people to connect with you. If you are not comfortable sharing your own mistakes, use someone else as your subject or choose a topic like The #1 Mistake Most Buyers Make During A Short Sale.
5. Feature a Local Business
Your real estate blog does not always have to pertain to real estate. Whether you've had a great experience at a local restaurant or decided to try dirt bike riding for the first time at a local training center, use these experiences as an opportunity to create more content for your blog. You can include pictures and external links to local websites and, if you are really on the ball, have that business link to your featured post from their website to bring you more local traffic.
6. Offer Free Information
If you are lucky enough to have a website that includes free real estate reports, use them on your blog. For example, on your website you offer a sellers report titled "11 Home Inspection Traps to Avoid" which requires the visitor to sign up in order to receive instant access to the report. Write a blog post about this report. Include the first few "traps" and then link to the appropriate landing page on your website. Use your blog to entice the prospect to essentially "raise their hand" and register for more information on your website.
Your blog can be many things, and generating quality content on a regular basis that is rich with relevant keywords and information is key. But, if the goal is to generate more business you also need to think about how you are going to capture the visitor's information and get them to "raise their hand" for content that is not open to the public. This is where your Lead Capture website comes in.
One of the hottest topics today amongst real estate professionals is facebook and how to generate quality leads from it. Many of you are using facebook for your business, but are missing the mark when it comes to providing the right type of content for your target audience. Here are the 10 Most Common Mistakes I see Realtors make when marketing their services on the “Social Network”:
1. Failing to be on Facebook at all.
Facebook is a game-changing opportunity to reach new leads on the Internet. With over 500 million active users, half of which access the site daily, and weekly traffic numbers that match or exceed Google's, it's no longer a marketing resource you can afford to ignore.
2. Not using a Facebook Business Page.
Before the development of Business Pages, organizations used customized profiles, or their personal profile, to promote their business. The Business Page is no longer an option - it's how your potential clients are looking for you on Facebook.
3. Sticking with the standard Business Page.
The standard Business Page provided by Facebook offers very little opportunity to attract and pre-qualify leads using direct response marketing. Plus, it does nothing to help you stand out from your competition.
4. Working without a System.
Without an integrated Internet marketing system, you are failing to capitalize on Facebook's ability to generate leads for your business. But succeeding on Facebook requires more than just setting up a business page. You need an optimized Facebook presence that ties into your overall Internet marketing system, combining a powerful branding solution with cutting-edge lead generation tools and property listing information.
5. Failing to engage and keep users within the Facebook environment.
Many businesses treat their Business Page as a redirect point to their website. But redirecting users out of the Facebook environment decreases their engagement with your message. Facebook users will spend more time and interact with you more if they remain inside Facebook.
6. Failing to encourage "Likes".
When users “Like” your page, that activity is published on their profile, with a link back to your Business Page. This is free promotion as well as an implied testimonial to that user’s network of friends. Also, the “Like” button establishes a connection between you and the user, giving you the ability to publish updates to them, which keeps them in the loop and maintains your relationship with them. If you fail to encourage "Likes", you lose contact with your visitors after they leave.
7. Failing to leverage the lead-generation power of listings.
Property listings, Open House Schedules, Virtual Tours, IDX search, and Single Property Websites can all be integrated into your Facebook page, increasing your engagement with visitors and encouraging them to contact you.
8. Failing to keep personal profiles separate from business profiles.
Many an agent has found their professional status torpedoed by tagged photos of them at a wild party. If you maintain a personal profile on Facebook, it has to be completely separate from your business presence. You're allowed a personal life, but you don’t want it to interfere with your business.
Anatomy of a Facebook Business Page - The 4 "Must-Haves"
Get more "Likes" with a "Fan Gate" page
We will setup your business page with a "Fan Gate", prompting users to click the "Like" button to access listings and content on the page. When visitors like your page, it will then show up on their profile. This extends your reach to new prospects by acting as an endorsement to that user's friends who may be looking for real estate information. Thus, the Fan Gate becomes a very effective lead-generation tool.
We also provide customized side bar graphics to complement the look of your framed website and get your page to stand out. Since the side bar graphics can't be set to link to your website, they can include a QR code to provide prospects with your mobile business card, SMS requests, or a link through their cell phone's mobile browser.
Welcome and Engage Your Visitors
With the SuccessWebsite app for facebook, you will welcome your fans with a complete web portal designed to engage and capture leads. The Welcome page will showcase your most popular campaigns with an animated slide show and additional buttons.
You only have seconds to make an impression on your visitor and it is important to project your brand in a polished and professional way. By focusing on the valuable content and services you have to offer, your page will give your visitors the right impression and provide value to those who are fans of your page.
Leverage Your Listings
The SuccessWebsite Facebook App allows you to showcase property listings from your SuccessWebsite within your business page. Providing this information within Facebook increases your engagement with prospects rather than redirecting them to a different location.
From this section the visitor can view details of the property, Open House Schedules and Virtual Tours. They can also request information, send the listing to a friend or call you directly through the SuccessWebsite InstaCall feature - all without leaving Facebook!
Generating Leads On Facebook
With the new SuccessWebsite Facebook Business Page app, you are now able to keep your visitors within Facebook & capture their information without taking them out of the facebook environment.
We have added the most popular campaigns to the app by default – Disstress and Foreclosure Property Hotlists, Free Online Home Evaluation, VIP Buyer and the How To Stop Renting campaign page. If you would like to incorporate another campaign page into the app, this can be done through the control panel as well.
But I do honestly love working with Realtors. Yes, there are common traits that some of you possess that I do have to deal with on a daily basis (i.e. ADHD, extreme fear of computers and technology, lack of patience etc.) but for the most part, I find you all to be highly entertaining and personable human beings who have a real thirst for knowledge and a genuine appreciation for good customer service.
Yet, I can’t help but think of what it would be like to be in your shoes. How would I use my web marketing knowledge to run online campaigns and attract new customers?
Here is my top 10 list of things that I would do if I were you.
1. I would make sure that I had a website that was optimized for lead generation with a clear call to action on each page so by the time I get my ads in place, my website is already setup up and ready to go. My website would be ready to notify me when new leads come in so I can follow-up right away.
2. I would start a blog to target my ideal audience. My first post would be about why I chose to be a realtor and the reasons I do what I do other than just to make money. This information “About Me” helps to boost loyalty and trust.
3. I would start to collect information and write about my prime areas to build keyword rich content that will attract new visitors to my website. This information would be in the form of community pages, blog posts along with lots of great photos of the area.
4. I would use social media channels like facebook, LinkedIn and twitter to build my target audience. Once my facebook business page was setup and optimized and my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts were setup, I would place links like the ones below on all of my correspondence (i.e. email signature, website homepage, newsletters etc.) These links would include their own Call To Action and provide compelling reasons why people should find me and follow me on these channels.
5. I would network with local businesses and setup affiliate links and pages within my website. I would also regularly tweet and post messages on my blog and facebook page to bring more attention to these businesses and help to empower them and build their web presence.
6. I would shoot interviews with local builders and business owners to increase their profile online and provide valuable video content people in my community
7. I would gather as many video and written testimonials as possible from the people I’ve helped and worked with, and then post this content to my website, blog & YouTube channel. Then I would drive traffic to this content from my Twitter and facebook accounts.
8. I would plan open house tours to bring as many people in my community as possible together to show them what is available in my marketplace.
9. I would get a professional photographer to take my photo and make sure it was not from 1982.
10. I would stay focused on two things: Building my presence online by doing all of the above plus some local print advertising like Just Listed postcards and brochures to increase awareness offline & generating a steady stream of new leads to my website through PPC services like Google AdWords, Bing & Facebook.
I would not be threatened by what other agents in my market are doing, but rather be inspired and try to learn as much as possible from those who are clearly making it work.
And lastly, I would not focus on the “what” or the “how” of what I do, but the “why”. And the why should always include a genuine passion for helping people achieve their goals and get the best deal possible when buying or selling their home.
But that’s just me.
Kristie Filion has been with SuccessWebsite for that past 10 years developing and designing web systems for Real Estate professionals. Helping clients generate high quality leads is her specialty.
One of the hottest topics today amongst real estate professionals is facebook and how to generate quality leads from it. Many of you are using facebook for your business, but are missing the mark when it comes to providing the right type of content for your target audience.
Here are the most common mistakes I see Realtors make when marketing their services on the “Social Network”:
1. Using a Personal Profile to Promote your Real Estate Business
Facebook has grown to over 500 million users because people love to stay in contact with friends and family. In this industry, it is sometimes hard to separate your personal life from your professional and personal contacts quite often become clients.
However, promoting your business or pushing out content that is real estate related to your personal contacts is not the best fit. By separating your personal profile from your business you will be able to market and promote your services to the right audience.
2. Setting Up a Separate Facebook Profile Account for Your Business
Managing more than one profile on facebook can be cumbersome and time consuming, not to mention the hassle of trying to remember yet another password for a different account. Having more than one profile is not the right approach when separating your business persona from your personal. In fact, facebook may even shut down your account if they suspect that a profile is not being used for personal communication and flag it as a spam account.
You will also have some trouble moving certain friends and contacts into another profile, or getting them to become “friends” with your business profile.
3. Paying Big $$$ for a Custom Business Page on Facebook
It is not uncommon for a designer to charge anywhere between $300 - $1000 for a custom business page on facebook and although the page may look very nice with some lovely graphics, it is not much more than a digital business card. Chances are you have hired a designer who specializes in graphic design and not marketing. If your business page is not setup to generate the maximum amount of “likes” and quality leads, then you are missing the mark.
Make sure your business page is setup with a “fan gate”. This is essentially the landing page for those who are not yet fans of your page. The fan gate is the call to action that will compel visitors to like your page. To view an example of this you can visit:
http://www.facebook.com/FrankPolsinelloTeam?sk=app_118729868200004
Once the visitor has liked your page, they have access to the content within it. And it’s the content that is going to win people over. Make sure your page includes your listings, special offers, client testimonials along with other popular direct response campaigns like Free Online Home Evaluations etc.
For more information on how to get an awesome fan page for your business take a look at this video: http://goo.gl/YaBws
With the right type of facebook page for your business you will be attracting the right type of audience in no time.
I have spent that past 10 years developing and designing web systems for Real Estate professionals. Helping clients generate high quality leads is my specialty.
ActiveRain Corp. is not responsible for the accuracy of the site's content (which is written by members of the ActiveRain Real Estate Network) and does not endorse the views of the real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and others listed here.
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