Develop a large network that knows you and knows what you do.
You’ve heard that you need to create a database of your Sphere of Influence (SOI). This is a collection of contact information on the people that you know, who know you – family members, friends, neighbors, members of groups you belong to, people you have done business with, etc.
You should always be adding to this database, whenever you meet someone new, and add them to a system that will keep you in front of them, and remind them that you are in business. Don’t forget to add all sellers that you list, and all buyers that you close. The biggest mistake that real estate agents make is forgetting clients once the sale is closed.
Follow up consistently to let your client’s know you care and are there to help.
Providing great content, that is quality information pertinent to your sphere, is very important. You can segregate your sphere by type of people there are. Do you have a portion that may be investors, or seniors, or at the stage to purchase their first home? Who are your prospects? What fears do they have? What concerns? What is most important to them or what do they need to know about?
Run a long-term follow up relationship-building campaign.
Building rapport and trust takes time. It’s important to maintain a long-running campaign so you can build a tribe of raving fans.
Automate your follow-up / relationship building efforts.
Using today’s technology, it’s easy to keep your messages going without you having to do the manual work. Using auto-responders, you can set up months or years worth of messages to be sent out on a regular basis, and it can be a set-it and forget-it system.
Differentiate yourself from your competitors.
The worst thing you can do is send out messages that tell people how great you are at selling homes, and how great your company is. Quite frankly- they don’t care! If your messages are not informative, humorous, or interesting, you will lose their interest. Your messages have to be about things that are important to THEM. Your prospects need to know you are interested in what fears and concerns they have. Don’t be like all the other agents in town that tout how great they are. Keep your prospects first and foremost in all your advertising. This will set you apart from your competition.
What modes of advertising have you used in your business? Are there any that you thought were bad choices because you didn’t receive any leads from them?
Was it the mode of advertising, or was it the AD itself?
Anita Clark, in Warner Robins Georgia, had a featured post today about a mode of advertising that she feels she was sucked in to getting. You can see her blog post here.
In her post she talks about buying in to advertising on the slip covers that go over the room key-cards for a hotel, and how this didn’t generate any leads for her, so her assumption is that she was suckered into a mode of advertising that just doesn’t work.
Looking for alternate ways to advertise (gorilla marketing), is actually the best way that you can stand out above the competition, and be seen first. But too many real estate professionals don’t put any thought into the type of ad they place on these items. They think that putting their face and contact information, and some sloppy slogan like “Your Hometown Realtor”, or “I’m the Best”, is going to get people to jump up and take action.
Every day people are bombarded withadvertising. With social media, and the internet, the quest for marketers to get our attention is overwhelming. Everywhere we look we are being “sold to”.
Nobody likes to be sold to.
So how do you stand out, without being “salesy”? How does your message get attention, and generate leads?
Here are question to take into consideration when creating your next marketing piece:
1. Is this advertising to a targeted audience (preferably the target audience you want to attract)? If the answer is “no”, then don’t run the ad.
4. What can you offer to your prospects that will address their main concern, and get their attention?
a. Do you have something you can give them in return for their email address (ie. a special report).
5.Have you addressed the main concern in your ad, and have you provided a “call-to-action” (reason for them to go to your website, to give their email address, to get something of value)?
You see, advertising is only as good at the ad that is on it. Doing the same old thing that everyone else in your market is doing is NOT going to get you the results you need.
You need to find alternative advertising (special promotional items, direct mailing, farming) that will get the attention of your audience, and set you apart from your competition. But once you have that mode, you need to create advertising that speaks to and ATTRACTS the type of prospects that you want to work with, and give them a compelling reason to contact you.
And once you create the ad, TEST IT. See what works and what doesn’t. Professional marketers don’t give up on their first try with an ad. They test it, tweak it, and test it again.
What would your business be like if you were able to attract and only work with “ideal clients”? You know, those clients that you really gel with. The ones you enjoy helping, and they enjoy you! The type of clients that you look forward to speaking to when they call, and you almost hate to see the deal completed, because they were so much fun to work with!
Sound like a pipe dream?
What if I told you that you CAN attract your ideal clients to your business?
Think about the marketing that you do. Are you focusing on one particular type of client, or are you spreading your marketing out to the masses – doing everything that every other agent is doing – hoping to catch anyone that comes along?
In my last post, “Jack of All Trades”, I talked about trying to be everything to everyone. Well, your marketing is probably doing the same thing.
Most real estate advertising is not set up to attract specific prospects. It’s the same old, tired listing information. Travel across this Country, and pick up a real estate magazine in ANY town, and you will see a lot of the same thing. Page after page of listing ads, with photos of agents, and lists of their “hype” (like We’re the Best, or Our Service is #1, etc).
Isn’t it any wonder that the average consumer thinks we’re all just the same?
Now, what if you could create targeted marketing pieces that resonate with the specific type of client that you are wanting to attract? What if your marketing could speak to that particular client – could address their concerns, fears, aspirations? How do you think that could change the response you get on your ads? Do you think that would make a difference?
I challenge you to really think out a new process the next time you are preparing your marketing.
Is it going to be the same that everyone else is doing?
Is your piece going to stand out, or are you going to blend in with the crowd?
Are you focusing your wording to attract prospects to you, and your services, in a way that puts attention on THEIR concerns (and doesn’t focus on you)?
I believe that if you take this approach, even on just one piece in your marketing, you will see an amazing difference in the response you receive!
Michelle has over 16 years of internet marketing experience, and has recently developed a program to assist other Realtors in learning how to set up and grow their business utilizing the tools that today’s technology provides. Secret Agent Blueprint teaches Realtors how to harness the internet to create a lead generation system that will generate quality leads for themselves, without paying some high-priced lead company for leads that don’t ever amount to anything. Using today’s technology, Realtors can easily dominate their market.
Be sure to check out Secret Agent Blueprint to find out more about this step-by-step program.
Before getting wrapped up in business, and starting the new year with a bang, it’s important to look back at the past year (the good AND the bad) because it really sets the baseline of what you can achieve this next year – especially if you take the lessons to heart.
First of all, acknowledge and appreciate what happened during 2011.
Take time to sit down and write out the following questions:
What did I accomplish?
What were my achievements?
What are the things that I feel GOOD about?
Listing your achievements is a great way to remind yourself that, ultimately, YOU are in charge of your destiny! Look at your achievements in business, in your life, in your family. Every aspect of your life affects the others, so don’t just look at your business.
Next, write out these questions:
What were my biggest disappointments and failures?
What do I feel bad about?
What did I learn?
What could I have done differently?
You can’t really grow your business the way that you want unless you become aware of the disappointments and failures from your past, and take the lessons to heart. Just changing a few behaviors that have caused disappointments in the past, or solidifying certain behaviors, can really improve the chances of success for next year!
So, think about how these lessons might be applied to your life and your business in 2012. Harness your experiences and use them to prioritize what’s most important to you in the future.
You’ve heard the saying “A Jack of all trades, but a Master of none”.
Is this what you are in your real estate market?
It never ceases to amaze me how many real estate agents think that being everything to everyone, everywhere, will get them the most money. They believe that casting a larger net will bring them in more buyers and sellers, when in actuality, the larger you cast your net, the bigger the holes are.
I had this same philosophy when I first started as a real estate agent. I had myself spread between two states, since I only lived 8 miles from the state line. I would run here, there, and everywhere, dealing with whatever prospects I could get. I cannot tell you the amount of hours (not to mention gasoline) I wasted.
It wasn’t until I decided to narrow down my business and focus on one niche, and one area, that my business started to explode. I became a “specialist”, and I made more money.
So where are YOU with YOUR business? Does this scenario sound familiar?
Are you spreading your marketing (and yourself) all over the place? Do you “handle” more than one area? Are you running all across a metropolitan area, and into additional markets, grasping at straws just to grab what business you can get?
We’re in the final quarter of 2011, and if your sales aren’t where you want them to be, then you need to take time to sit down and really evaluate your business. What are your strengths? What area of real estate do you love? Where are you getting the majority of your sales?
It’s time to take a cold, hard, look at your business. 2012 is right around the corner, and you need to get your business focused to start the new year out right!
What area of real estate gets you fired up? What clients do you love to work with? Is there a particular niche that you enjoy, that you can really help clients with?
It’s important to focus on your CLIENTS. These are the people that you will be working with, so they have to be ones that you WANT to help. If you focus your business on SERVING your clients (focusing on their needs, fears, desires), you will be amazed at how easy the sales will come.
Make it a priority to get your business really “focused” this coming year!
Michelle has over 16 years of internet marketing experience, and has recently developed a program to assist other Realtors in learning how to set up and grow their business utilizing the tools that today’s technology provides. Secret Agent Blueprint teaches Realtors how to harness the internet to create a lead generation system that will generate quality leads for themselves, without paying some high-priced lead company for leads that don’t ever amount to anything. Using today’s technology, Realtors can easily dominate their market.
Be sure to check out Secret Agent Blueprint to find out more about this step-by-step program.
Here is a clip from a training seminar that I did at Keller Williams in Slidell Louisiana, that discusses why to use video in your real estate business.
If you want to know more about how Video can transform your business, my good friends Lewis Howes & James Wedmore have put together a very special video revealing exactly how to get massive results with Youtube. Check out their VIDEO TRAINING ACADEMY
Gary Woltal - Assoc. Broker REALTOR® SFR Dallas Ft. Worth – wrote an intriguing post on Active Rain today. His post, entitled “How To Not Be A Zombie Realtor®” cited some great points about how we are serving our clients. Are you guilty of giving clients the impression that all real estate agents are the same, or do you differentiate yourself with the strategies and service you offer your clientele?
Gary cites 8 great tips for setting yourself apart from the crowd:
Work your niche in your town like no other. Short sale/foreclosure, luxury, farm and ranch, commercial, first time homebuyers, rentals, condos on the beach, etc. you get the picture
You create custom marketing plans and one size does not fit all to sell their house
You utilize blogging to get leads for the home for sale, or to get wider exposure for you with referrals around the country
You use social media to its highest level with Fan pages on Facebook, or readily have followers on Twitter if that works for you
Along the way you have developed superb video tours and even upload them to common platforms like YouTube and pass out and advertise the links
You have become very innovative with Open Houses and list them on location web sites likeFoursquare
You are extra good at providing rather easily to your clients all sorts of helpful information about the new area they are moving to including hard copy maps, school information and ratings, information about crime rates, income and demographics, employment, weather statistics, shopping, restaurants, and entertainment. Like where’s the closest movie theater?
And even if a new agent, you reiterate your commitment to the client of how you are excellent with your soft skills even if you came out of another profession or working in parallel in another field. Tell them how great you are with listening to them, your communication skills (written/text/email/speaking), how hard a worker you are and good at follow up, and also how organized you are.
Landing pages, also called Lead Generation Pages, or Squeeze Pages, are the best tool to capture leads on your websites, in order to build a list of potential prospects that you can cultivate a relationship with over time. These are basic pages that have a clear purpose, and call-to-action, offering something for free, in return for an email address.
Wikipedia describes Landing Pages as the following:
“a single web page that appears in response to clicking on an advertisement. The landing page will usually display directed sales copy that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link.”
Here is a picture of where heat map technology shows that prospects eyes spend the most time on a page:
There are certain factors that are important when creating a landing page, or squeeze page, to capture your prospect contact information. Brian Lewis offers a few guidelines for what a landing page must have:
“1. A clear vision and singular purpose of the page based on what you want the visitor to do. Effective landing pages are designed with a singular goal in mind. There are many landing pages that either never had a clear mission in the first place or, through poor execution, fail to deliver on that mission. They often try to sell the product of interest to visitors, but then dilute marketing efforts and disrupt the shopping experience by too prominently trying to cross-sell additional products before visitors are sold on the primary product. These landing pages simply distract with too many attention-grabbing elements and calls to action.”
“2. Compelling headline and descriptive subheads. Headlines and subheads are your opportunity to grab the visitor and say, “Yes, you’re in the right place and we have exactly what you’re looking for.” Effective headlines are those that prominently and instantly tell visitors that it’s worth investing their time to scan your page.”
If you are interested in finding out more about which techniques real estate agents need to use in marketing today, be sure to check out my free video “7 Secrets to Dominating Your Real Estate Market”.
Getting started as a new real estate agent can be very exciting, yet at the same time very scary. The amount of information obtained during pre-licensing can be overwhelming, but the most frustrating thing is to realize that most of the information you are taught, and tested on, in a pre-licensing course, is not going to be utilized when you get into the market as an agent.
One of the many things missing from pre-licensing courses is how tomarket your new real estate business. You see, now that you are real estate agent, you are a new business owner. Many agents do not realize, or understand, this concept. They believe that all they have to do is get their license, join a real estate firm, and the business will be handed to them.
The fact of the matter is that real estate agents are independent contractors, and NOT employees. This means that as a real estate agent, you are responsible for running your own business, marketing your own business, and obtaining your own leads.
What’s A New Agent To Do?
I remember starting out as a new real estate agent. Of course, in 1998, marketing was done a bit differently. I was all too eager to sit for “desk duty”, thinking that surely I would start getting a lot of clients to work with by answering the calls coming in.
I spent a lot of time answering calls that came in for other agents, making showing appointments, and not getting much in the way of real leads for MY business. Oh, there were the occasional looky-loos and tire kickers, but it seemed like the random calls that would come in were not the serious leads that I needed.
In the office that I started in, there were two agents on duty at all times, so the calls would be alternated between two of us. IF you were the lucky agent to be “up” at the time a lead called, then you’d get to work with them. This type of model just wasn’t working for me.
Before becoming a real estate agent, I had worked as a web designer. I thought about what I had done for other businesses before starting my new adventure, and I decided to create a website for my new business. I became the first agent in my market to have a full website. As you can imagine, this started driving in business for me. Back then, just having an online presence gave you a great edge over other agents.
As my business grew, and I started to target new construction as a niche, my website provided a wealth of new leads. About 3 years into my career, I started refusing “desk duty” because I had a steady stream of clients coming from my online endeavors. I didn’t need to waste a few hours of my valuable time taking calls and making appointments for other agents in my office, with the hopes of grabbing a lead or two.
But online marketing has changed drastically over the past 5 years. It’s no longer good enough just to have a website. You now have to have a system in place that will attract leads, draw them in to YOUR site, and then convert them into clients.
Help Getting Started
Don’t be fooled by companies that want to sell you flashy real estate websites that have a lot of bells and whistles. The problem with these sites is that they are designed by graphic/web designers, and NOT marketers. Having a flashy website is NOT what is going to bring prospects in to your marketing funnel! Your site must be optimized for search engine placement, and has to be directly targeted to your niche. There are many factors that make for a quality, lead generating, real estate site.
Over the course of my career, I have developed a system that I have used to create my sites and get them ranked in the search engines. Your site should be niche targeted, and have a direct response system in place to capture leads, develop a relationship and foster trust with them, and convert them to clients you can close.
Many real estate agents and brokers are stuck in the old way of doing things. They haven’t adapted to today’s technology, and a lot of them are going to be lost and out of business in years to come. Old-school techniques like cold-calling, door-knocking, newspaper ads, etc, just don’t drive the traffic that they use to, and are a huge waste of valuable time and money today.
You need to have an online marketing strategy to be in front of prospects from the time they start their search for a home, which 90% of the time is online.
12 Steps to Launching Your Real Estate Business
Easy Steps
Marketing your new real estate business is not as difficult as you might think. The trick is to narrow down your focus to one specific niche, center your advertising on that niche, create a lead-generating site online to drive traffic for that niche, and provide something of value for your audience, in order to set yourself apart from your competition.
Even a brand new real estate agent can compete with top producers, with the right marketing strategy.
If you’re interested in finding out what you need to do to get started, watch the first part of my free video to see the “12 Steps to Launching Your Real Estate Business”:
Sound like a pipe dream?
