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Rebecca Levinson, Real Estate Marketing Consultant

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The Key to Profitability: 5 Steps to Grow Your Community

02-17-09
Rebecca Levinson, Real Estate Marketing Consultant

1. Choose a Hub- Your marketing efforts should be directing past Clean up your Hubclients, new prospects and current customers to a Hub. Normally this will be your website and that is why I advise real estate professionals to have a blog integrated into their website. A hub is your main marketplace where people can get additional information, purchase products or services, and keep in touch with you.

Do some housekeeping and make sure your hub is warm and inviting.
2. Invite your current SOI to your Hub- This is often overlooked. If you are keeping in touch with your SOI through a newsletter mailing, pop-bys or phone calls this is a great time to mention the information they can find on your blog. Remind them frequently and repeatedly that your blog is a great resource for their questions and current local real estate market information.

Consistency is key.

3. Create a Reason for your Farm Area to Get to Know You- If you have decided that you are ready to focus on a niche market (good for you) than this is an easy step. Let your farm area know through relevant offline venues (local newspapers, mailings, belly to belly events) that your blog will keep them updated on current events. Invite them to read your blog.

Provide plenty o' links and reasons for your blog visitors to go to your website. Don't be afraid to use call to action buttons and white paper sign up promotions. You shouldn't be a dirty little secret.

It's your job to provide the invitation. Let your guests decide whether they want to accept or decline.
keep your focus4. Keep your Focus. If you have more than one target audience or you are selling more than one service your marketing efforts can become cloudy. Stay steady and keep focused. You may need two hubs for your dual effort.
Example: I have a new blog tune up program that I launched with two different markets. One market is real estate professionals. I have created a hub for this market. My other market is Wisconsin Businesses and I have created a separate hub for that market.



I advertise these hubs in several mediums- sometimes they are different and sometimes they are the same. I have two different blogs that support these hubs, my real estate marketing blog and my newly launched Wisconsin Blog.
So I have two similar marketing programs that I sell. I have two different audiences. I have two different blogs and I have two different advertising campaigns which are sometimes on the same platforms.
Focused efforts draw results.
5. Personal Branding. Back to that hang up that I have about personal branding. If you want to make your efforts stick than people need to be able to know, like, and trust you. It's pretty simple and it is the essence of personal branding.

Even the most controversial folks have a keen sense of personal branding and they draw like people to them. Keep your eyes on content, creativity, and transparency. Don't try to emulate others you should strive to be an originator and be your only competition if you want to stand out and shine. You will then attract the types of clients who are ready, willing, and able to work with you because of the things that you say and the things that you can do.
Personal branding works like a set of magnets.
It all starts with creating a marketing plan. When you incorporate social media marketing and blogging into your marketing plan the big picture takes on the form of a spider. Do you remember Charlotte's Web? When YOU are actively building your community members will come. You can use Facebook and create groups, You can use Twitter and microblog local news and have real conversations in real time, You can use Linked In and show your knowledge by answering questions. Once you have built your community you can than invite them to become YOUR community on a network that YOU create which is the ultimate quarterback play.

Breed a Charlotte who Crawls the web
Then comes the fun.

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Real Estate Brokers: Building a solid community is the game changer for a Sphere of Influence Business Model. Do you want to learn more about building a community through solid and creative internet and offline marketing efforts? Call #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@realestateskillz.com and ask about the Real Skillz Community Equals Profitablility Seminar.


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Post Valentine's Day Gift: Cupid's 10 Kisses for Bloggers

02-15-09
Rebecca Levinson, Real Estate Marketing Consultant

Cupid came to my house late tonight with 10 kisses for me to share with bloggers.  I told him he can trust me since I love to share and kisses are great to give.....



Pucker UP

EXPOSURE-Top Directories with Free Website Submission- Why reinvent the wheel when the wheel that was built is brilliant?  This list of free website directories is thorough and categorized by page rank.  A must use brilliant list.


VIRTUAL LIBRARY Scribd- Every document you ever wanted in the library but they didn't carry.  Want some free research on web 2.0 tools or best business practices check scribd.  Many of the documents are public and free.  Also a must use to upload documents you would like to share and get a little viral love.


FEEDBACK Twitpoll- Do you twitter and do you like to get feedback on the questions burning in your mind?  Try some free polling apps like twtpoll and twitter.polldaddy.com and get some answers.


CONVERSION Mediaconverter- If you need to convert media (video, audio) into different formats that are platform friendly this is a great free tool.  I recently used it to embed a YouTube video into a power point presentation and it worked quite well.


COLLABORATION TripIt- A travel organizer that lets you share your travel plans.  I'd say this is a no brainer but I might be stating the obvious.


BREAKING NEWS ireport.com-  Having your feet on the street has it's advantages.  Go to this site, scroll down to the bottom left and see if any of the assignments might be of interest to you.  Submit an Ireport and it might just get picked up by CNN.


BLOG SEARCH ENGINE-Technorati- This is an easy one.  Take two minutes and claim your blog.  Yes it's important to do this.


LINK POPULARITY Link Popularity Check-  Where are links to your website found and where are your competitors links?  This tool has some answers.


WEBSITES Blinkweb.com and Weebly.com-  Free websites with paid versions.  I don't recommend you use these for your primary website BUT I do recommend you use these for sales letters for promotion of ebooks and webinars, special customer programs, member websites....SPECIAL THINGS.


Photobucket

**  Cupid said I could give one more:  IMAGE EDITOR:  My favorite photobucket .  I use this everyday to edit and store my images.**

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Valentine's Day Reflection: The Heartbreak of a Short Sale Seller

02-14-09
Rebecca Levinson, Real Estate Marketing Consultant

In the beginning there's a dream

In 2001 I purchased my first house with my now ex-husband.  We looked online and in Housing magazines for a few months and made some financial sacrifices (like commuting to work and daycare with one car that was some fun). 

When we found our house it was everything we wanted and it was within our housing budget for a family of three soon to be four on a middle class income.  We closed on the house when I was eight 1/2 months pregnant but didn't move in until after I gave birth to my first son. 

My oldest daughter at the time was four.  It was a perfect house for a young family of four.
There were many young families that lived in our neighborhood and we were close to recreation and a short walk from the grade school.  At 27 years old I felt like I had just purchased a mansion.  My three bedroom house was a dream come true. 

A few months after we bought our house my husband was let go from his job.  Financially I was not prepared for this and foolishly proud  I refused to borrow money from my husband's family and instead spent us into debt on our credit cards- Gas Bill- charge, Food- charge, Gas Bill-charge, you get the picture and soon enough we were sitting in bankruptcy court. 

My husband had gotten a new job by then but we just couldn't seem to stem the hemorraging flow of interest and late payments and meanwhile our lovely real estate taxes were busting through our average middle class roof. 



Holding unto an unrealistic dream

I'll never forget the day I went into bankruptcy court.  I felt overwhelmingly defeated, ashamed, and embarrassed.  I know the judge must have seen it in my eyes when he told me to try and relax, that life happens and I was not a criminal.  We decided to try and keep our house and they discharged our credit cards that day. 
We held onto our medical debt, my younger son has asthma and had been hospitalized a few times.  I didn't want doctors to see the bankruptcy and start turning us down. 

We left the courthouse not sure whether to smile or cry.  You see we had been fighting on the upswing- refinancing, using debt consolidation companies, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul and by the time we got through those courthouse doors I don't think we really knew what we were fighting for.

Long story short, my husband's dependence on alcohol grew and we separated.  I stayed in the house with my two children and tried to hang on but about six months in and no financial support, a personal relationship with a con artist gone bad and another baby on the way and the life of a once vibrant young woman let herself get torn astray.  I woke up from my broken haze one day (no drugs involved just a depression I didn't recognize) and decided that we had to sell it was time to go. 

Two broken offer to purchase contracts later and the third one stuck and was a charmer.



The bittersweet taste of a dream that's died

My house closed and I moved on with my life but I can tell you that I was extremely glad that as a Seller I could sign a Power of Attorney.  A few pen strokes on some closing documents and a Power of Attorney and I was selling my dream away.  A really beautiful dream in the beginning that had turned into a nightmare.  Ever since I was a young girl I had a fascination for real estate and having entered the industry at the age of 18 losing my house was completely crushing for me.
 
It took me more than a few months to get out of that funk and even just a few years I would have been embarrassed to talk about my short sale.  I very much considered it a personal failure. 
 
I could tell you a whole bunch of things.  How embarrassing it is when your neighbors ask questions or as a mortgage company puts a Yellow Notice on your Front door after you have moved and you are praying that this buyer won't fall through and you are still taking your children to the same school and you have to look into your neighbor's eyes and wonder what they might be thinking about you AND you still have to keep the utilities on until closing and now you have run completely out of money.
 
Man there were many days I just wanted to crawl under a rock and hide.



Life Goes On if you Let It
 
I am so glad to have been able to move on and kiss that time goodbye.  Wow I haven't even thought about this in a really long time in such complete raw detail and now I am gettin' a bit teary eyed or maybe that's just a bit of dust in my eye.
 
We all make mistakes and I choose not to look back in time too often, if at all, at mine.  It's best to forgive yourself and keep on track.  Then I read so many short sale "horror stories" and the disenchantment of the process at hand.  I trust it's very difficult and never fun for the professional...but trust this.  Nobody knows the woes of a short sale seller better than a past short sale seller. 
It's never a situation that you want to be in and it's more humbling than you could ever imagine staring at the brick and mortar of your dream that now just feels like a heap of regrets.

Short sale sellers and delinquent homeowners there is a road beyond where you are at.  Keep your chin up you don't have to feel like a failure.  Everyone makes mistakes.  Life happens. 

This too shall pass.
 
Valentine's Day Reflection:  The Hearbreak of a Shortsale Seller

 

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Wisconsin Bloggers Come On Down

02-09-09
Rebecca Levinson, Real Estate Marketing Consultant

I'll be brief.

One local gal, who blogs, a lot about real estate, marketing, sales and consumers.

One local gal who like to feed local business when she can.

One local gal who moved from Illinois to Wisconsin 3 1/2 years ago and has never turned back.

I am reaching out to connect to fellow Wisconsin Residents and make it a meaningful experience.Networking

I am inviting you to reach back and connect with me too.....

My local blog makes me social in wisconsin.

Everyday I connectwith a new blogger through my blog or my social networks who lives and breathes the Wisconsin air.  These bloggers are from all backgrounds, races, creeds, and origins.

I love real estate and marketing.  I love Wisconsin.

If you blog and you want to reachout to other Wisconsin Bloggers email me and I will invite you to my newly created Wisconsin Bloggers group on Facebook.  This is a growing site for Wisconsin bloggers,

BUT I have to warn you.....I am not just reaching out to real estate agents.  I am engaging in conversations with Wisconsin bloggers of different professions and generations and I am LOVING it.  There's actual conversation and not much redundancy.  This is what blogging was meant to be.

Who will eventuallly carry their faces from online to offline venues.

If that is still appealing to you, email me for an invite- rebecca@realestateskillz.com.  It's really simple.  You live in Wisconsin.  You blog.

Peace.


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Step Out of The Venus Fly Trap and Concentrate on the Money Work

02-06-09
Rebecca Levinson, Real Estate Marketing Consultant

If you don't have time to blog, vlog, podcast, socially network, face your consumers belly to belly, email or call your prospects and current and past clients, list houses, show houses, write contracts or close on houses it's because you are draining your solopreuner resources on tasks that aren't revenue producing.

Even if you have a business plan you can become TRAPPED in the unproductive money sucking tasks that don't Step out of the Venus Fly Trap and Cocentrate on the Money Workbring you in any money. Free yourself from the cycle now by delegating or outsourcing,

  • Listing Coordination- Setting appointments, providing detailed reporting feedback to the sellers, Creating open house flyers and packages
  • Marketing Collateral Design- Creating flyers, brochures, postcards, email newsletters
  • Lead Management- Managing a database of prospects, sending e-newsletters, delegating leads to team partners, following up on referrals
  • Website Design-Creating a website and managing a website, SEO, PPC Campaigns
  • Marketing- Creating and executing a marketing strategy, keeping up with marketing trends, analyzing marketing.

If you will not delegate or outsource any of these activities don't be surprised that you don't have time for the activites that make the money like,

  • Vlog
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Socially Network
  • Belly to Belly meetings
  • Personal Emails
  • Call Clients and Prospects
  • List and show houses
  • Write Contracts
  • Close on Houses

Make your moneyIt's not about spending money to make money. It's about using your resources wisely and concentrating on the money making activities. Ask yourself one question....Where do you want to be? What activities will bring you closer to where you want to be.

Connection to Close doesn't come from remaining passive on the backend.

Step out of the venus fly trap and concentrate on the money work. You will be glad you did.

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Real Skillz loves it when real estate professionals devotes their time to the money work. Want to learn more about outsourcing some real estate marketing tasks while maintaining control of your brand and your business? Call #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@realestateskillz.com

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