Bobby Carroll - Real Estate Marketing

Do you use all the right online marketing tools to connect with the largest growing homebuying segment in America - women homebuyers? Do you encourage your friends and followers from social media sites to take the short trip to your online marketing hub? Do you know where women congrate giving you easy, instant access to all their personal information, their preferences and what's happening in their world? Did you know you can lurk and listen for "social triggers' which are golden opportunities to connect and be top of mind with your target audience?

Online Marketing Tools You Should be Using!

This list below is an abbreviated summary of some of the online tools I'll highlight when I speak to the local chapter of the Crystal Coast of NC Women’s Council of REALTORS® on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina! If you live along the Crystal Coast, be sure to attend the luncheon which is scheduled for February 24th Wednesday, at 11:30am – 1pm at the Country Club of the Crystal Coast in Pine Knoll Shores.

Practical Tools to Target The Female Homebuyer!

Below are the tools you should be using to grow your business in your respected target markets. The tools I’ll highlight at the Women's Council meeting include:

1. Every agent must maximize their online “hub” which is your real estate website and your blog. Do these tools provide the answers to the questions female homebuyers are asking when they arrive on your “hub”? Do you even know what they want when they arrive on your website? Do you make it incredibly easy for your target audience to find the answers to the burning questions they come to your website to find?
   
2. Not ready to devote huge chunks of time to write a blog? Blogging made easy – The 5 minute blog post women love to read and agents love to write!
3. Facebook! The ultimate haven for women!

Be sure to visit my Bobby Carroll social media and speakers blog for the rest of the story on the tools you should be leveraging to connect with this growing group of homebuyers!

Follow me at Twitter @rewebcoach

Bobby Carroll

Need tips to help your blog or website rank higher in Google? Be sure to read this recent post at the Dakno Real Estate Marketing Blog!

Before I answer that question, let me tell you how this post came to be. Where do you dig up your post ideas? For me, this post had its genesis as a result of an email I recently sent to one of our real estate website clients and Iowa City real estate agent Toni Rubin. Toni had a question about writing content for a blog page she was creating for her new Iowa City Blog Dakno designed and built for her.

Turn Your Blog Green! Recycle Emails Into Blog Posts!

How about you? Have you ever recycled an email and turned it into a blog post? If you haven't, you should! I suggest you take a peek in your sent folder of your email client and find that email you constantly use to answer the same question over and over again. You may discover the best post you may ever write has already been written! It's just sitting in your sent folder of your email client dying to be shared with your prospects, past clients, and current clients.

Get the Google Juice!

That way everyone can benefit from the information. Plus, you gain the benefit (Google Juice) of adding fresh, original content to your website or blog.

No More Writers Block!

Thank you Toni for being the inspiration behind this post! After reading this post, you have no more excuses about experiencing "writers block"!

Now Back to the Topic at Hand - Posts That Provide ALL the Answers!

One importanrt concept to note about creating content whether it’s for a blog or a website, be sure your post or article answers these important questions:

1. The what
2. The who
3. The why
4. The when
5. The where
6. The how

I'm Just a Tease!

Ready to read more on providing ALL the answers when writing posts and articles? Please go to my Real Estate Marketing Blog NOW!

In my previous Active Rain post, many of you voiced your desire to know "a little HTML code" so you could add those uber important h3 tagged sub headlines I mentioned on several occcassions. I confess, I'm a novice at HTML code, but I can wip out some code when I need to and sub headlines beg to be coded with h3 tags. With that said, here are some quick, and easy to follow instructions on using and adding HTML code to your AR post.

Tips to Adding H3 Tags in Your Sub Headlines

1. To make it easy, write your post first, then save it as a draft
2. Click the edit button and click the "HTML" code view tab. You'll need to locate the sub headlines you created previously in visual view and substitute the "p" in code with an "h3"
3. You will also need to close the tag. Again, substituting the "p" with the "h3"in the closing tag (</h3>.
4. Next save the draft again, and take a look at the saved draft post. You should see a "bolded, larger text" of the sub headline.
5. Once you have designated all your sub headlines with the h3 tag, you are ready to change the visibility from "draft" to "public" for your AR post. You may have toggle back and forth several times to get the post the way you want it.
6. BTW-Don't forget to also include your hyper-local keyword references in your sub headlines. It has tremendous impact when your post is indexed by Google.

Add Interest & Some SEO Pop!

Taking these extra steps will help make your post not only more interesting but it will make them easier to read, and even add a little SEO POP to the post as well.

If you have a question, do leave a comment. I'll do my best to help. :)

Bobby Carroll - Dakno Real Estate Marketing

Connect with Me on Twitter: @rewebcoach

P.S. If you own a WordPress blog, be sure to take advantage of the h3 tag in the dropdown in your WP blog dashboard. Most bloggers using WordPress are clueless and never use it!

Do you find yourself being asked by blog and website owners to read “War and Peace” novel articles with forever scrolling content? I call these novels a "Wall of Words". The sheer thought of reading it sends me in search for the big red X or the back button. Admittedly, I have written my fair share of terribly long articles in the past, but no more.

Are You a Tease?

Plus, most real estate web sites fail to use proper structure. Failing to use sub headlines (designated with a Headline tag-h3) to help tease the site visitor to what the paragraph will say is a missed opportunity on so many levels. Your website backend editor should allow you to designate your sub headlines with an h3 "tag". If your current website editor prevents you from having the ability to designate sub headlines in this fashion, you are handicapped and it may leave you on the “long end of the search engine results“. Having the ability to easily edit your headlines, sub headlines and body content really is important if you want to be near the top of the search results.

Format Your Copy to be Scanner-Friendly

I also strongly recommend you format your copy with the following structure (when practical). You might be asking why? Your website copy must be scanner-friendly! Site visitors all have a terrible case of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Consider using this format for your content:

• Page Name=Headline (h1)
• Short intro paragraph
• Sub headline (h3)
• Short content paragraph with complimenting image (images give the reader's eyes time to rest plus it adds interest to the page)
  
• Use bullet points so the reader can scan and easily find the information they are looking for
• Sub headline (h3)
• Concluding paragraph containing a "call to action"

Avoid Using Multiple Font Styles, Colors and Sizes

If you long for your website or blog to look like it stepped out of the 1990's, go ahead add all the weird font styles, colors, words bolded and underlined! Just know that you will probably be the only site visitor who hangs around long enough to read your content. Using these tactics to format your copy is so unprofessional. Now add spelling mistakes and you'll get an "A" for making your site and it's information look less than reliable.

Ask the Site Visitor to Take Action! (this is an example of a Sub headline with an h3 tag)

In your concluding paragraph, always include a strong call to action (request this information, read this article, search homes now....). When should the reader take action….NOW!

Don't Forget Those Geographic Keywords!

So the next time you write copy or have real estate web copy written for you, think “geography” and then add the geography identification to the copy. Once you have written the copy 21 times using these techniques, it will become a habit and you’ll write great, reader-friendly, SEO-rich copy formatted properly without missing a beat!

What's Stopping You Now?

Be sure to leave a comment now (I practice what I preach!! - call to action) and let me know what is preventing you from taking action (and control) of your website (and its content). Implementing these best practices TODAY, you will begin to see better results.

Bobby Carroll - Dakno Real Estate Marketing

Follow Bobby Carroll on Twitter (@rewebcoach)

P.S. Have you visited Dakno.tv? You really should!

Update!

See my next AR post on easy instructions to adding h3 tagged sub headlines to your AR post!

You have probably been told that you need to maintain at least one real estate blog, a Facebook Fan page, maybe you have a Twitter account plus you have to manage several profiles scattered all over social media, but are you really getting the most from your efforts? Utilized correctly, your blog and all those portals can work in your favor. Hang in there help is on the way!

Learn & Achieve Greater Results with this FREE Dakno Real Estate Blogging Webinar!

During this hour-long live streaming video training session Brad and I will show you ways how to help you truly benefit from what you have started and how to maximize your efforts. You will also discover how to drive more traffic to your blog plus you will gain incredible insight how to increase your Search Engine Optimization.

For more information about this free streaming webinar. Visit www.bloggingbootcamp.com/free

If you will be unable to attend this FREE Live Streaming Webinar but want to ask a question, just leave it in a comment below.

To your blogging success,

Bobby

@rewebcoach

Visit the Crystal Coast Blog

P.S. Checkout our new Dakno studio in Brad's promo video below. It's pretty sweet if I do say so myself!