Posts Tagged ‘niche marketing’
Seven Qualities of a High-Performance Website
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
The vast majority of real estate sales associate Websites fail miserably to come anywhere close to achieving their full business-producing potential online. Typically these sites fail in a number of different ways. Here is a powerful way you can self assess your own site to see what works, what doesn’t and what to do about it…
It’s Not Just About Driving Traffic
Driving traffic to your site is easy. Getting visitors to engage and convert into serious clients is not. In fact there are seven major qualities that your site needs to get right before it can be a fully productive online presence:
- Targeting & Branding – This is how well your site is targeted and differentiates itself to a specific niche market. Less than 2% of all real estate Websites are targeted. In their attempt to “speak to everyone” they end up talking to no one.
- Design – Just because a site is beautiful doesn’t mean it will be effective (just ask any agent who has spent thousands on a “beautiful” site only to see it not produce a dime of new business). Design needs to take into account many factors including being consistent with the nature of your target market and branding.
- Copy & Content – The primary purpose of you copy and content is to engage the visitor and effectively answer the question “What’s in it for me?” from their perspective. It has been my experience that most real estate Web copy fails completely in this respect.
- Interactivity / Ability to Engage – Information, even great information is not enough. Your content needs to engineered to maximize engagement via irresistible offers.
- Navigation – Ease of use and consistency are the hallmarks of good Website navigation.
- “Internet Empowered Consumer” Friendliness – Reassurances of privacy throughout your site and explicitly not requiring consumers to reveal who they are when they complete a form are crucial for your visitors to feel safe and secure when using your site.
- Promotion & Tracking – How your site is promoted depends upon its target market focus. Keep in mind that some target markets will NOT use search engines to find your site.
NOTE: You can self-assess your own Website for these qualities by downloading a 40 Point Website Assessment form I use to evaluate agent sites. Just go to www.Facebook.com/OnlineDominance and click the “Cool Tools” tab at the top and follow the instructions on the assessment form.
Don’t Bother Calling a Web Designer –Yet
There is no such thing as perfect, only a constant state of refinement to continually improve a Website’s ability to generate business and differentiate you from your competition. It takes many months of planning before you even THINK about talking to a Web designer. Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite approach used by most people in the business.
Even the most gifted designer cannot make an effective Website that scores high in all of the above categories until you give them your written plan and vision for dominating a particular niche. Think of it this way: 90% planning, 10% building and execution. Once you give them your plan, the building of the site is actually fairly straightforward.
Here are some sites that score very high on the above mentioned assessment:
- www.DowntownLivingMiami.com
- www.ChevyChaseLiving.com
- FortSill.GoArmyHomes.com
- www.IntownLivingAtlanta.com
- www.SellingCantonHomes.com
- www.MilitaryMove.ca
- www.GotDreamNeedHome.com
Each of the above sites are highly targeted and required 3 – 6 months of intense planning before their owners even spoke to a Web designer. Take a few moments to examine each one carefully and you will see why they all score so high on the Website Assessment.
Improving your site’s performance starts with determining what its weaknesses are and then taking very well thought out and committed action to correct them, one at a time.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: another version of this article was first published in REALTOR Magazine Online a couple of weeks back. Despite the warning above about not seeking out a Web designer prior to planning your site, apparently that is what many people who read this article did. In speaking with Bobby Carroll of Dakno (the design firm for all of the above sites) he said their phone “rang off the hook” with agents wanting sites “just like the ones in the article”. Another example of how people look but don’t see and read but don’t get it…
Finding Your Real Estate Niche
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Our responsibilities as a team of Real Estate Virtual Assistants include helping our real estate agent client’s re-vamp their websites and perfect their marketing strategies. We understand that these can be very daunting tasks to take on as a real estate agent. Many of our new clients come to us without a strategic marketing plan. When we ask what their specialty is, the answer is often “sellers “or “buyers.”
Giving us this information to start with is good, however, it makes our job of effectively marketing YOU a lot more difficult. How can we possibly improve your SEO (search engine optimization) with a target market as broad as “buyers” or “sellers?” The best way to establish your presence on the internet is by “owning” your own keywords.
Every real estate agent “specializes” in buying and/or selling. This is not a specific niche. You need to find something that you are known for, that people come to you for and that you excel at. Otherwise, what is going to make you stand out from the hordes of other agents out there? What is going to want to make the customer stop at your website?
We understand that you don’t want to pigeon hole your business. Your biggest fear is missing a potential client who came to your website looking for an agent, but realized you only did business with “first time home buyers” so they moved on.
What you don’t realize, however, is that you may be doing just as much damage, if not more, by making your market too broad. When it comes to marketing, it is always easier to work with a niche.
Let’s take a look at a few of our client’s who have honed their niche market:
Oak Shores Realty: The vacation home specialists in the Lake Nacimiento area in California.
Many of the agents in this brokerage are local homeowners who possess an intimate knowledge of the area. Oak Shores is known for their weekly email blasts with the newest Lake Homes on the market, their informative blog (which we write!), their monthly newsletter with all the latest happenings in the Lake Nacimiento area, and live webcam of the Lake Nacimiento dock on their website.
StartingPoint Realty: Chicago’s first time home buyer agency. 
These agents focus on making home buying as simple as possible for the first time home buyer. To appeal to the younger homebuyer, they have built their marketing plan up to include weekly first time home buying seminars, various YouTube videos featured on their website, a strong Facebook presence, and a monthly newsletter with awesome information about home buying and more.
Helena Talbot: The empty nest homeowner’s agent.
Taking advantage of her Northern Virginia setting with its strong focus on golfing, horseback riding and historic towns, Helena positioned herself as the expert to the recently independent-of-child homebuyer.
Joy Rice: Joy Rice shows us that your focus does not have to be on the home itself, but can be as simple as a shared interest with your clients.
As a big dog lover, Joy was well aware that her area of Flower Mound Texas is full of people just like her who consider their dogs as part of the family. Her brand came together nicely when she was able to feature her dogs as a reoccurring mascot throughout her website, a YouTube news report with advice for dog-home owners, and a custom written drip email campaign with little tidbits about dogs on each email.
Good Option For All:
At this point, I am guessing there are still a lot of you who are skeptical about getting that specific with your target market. We understand your concerns and always suggest a second option for our clients that is hard to turn down. If you can’t see yourself focusing on one target market, then you can always market yourself as the expert for your area.
It seems like an obvious choice, but you would not believe how many clients we come across who fail to mention their community, their city, even their state, on the home page of their website. If you can position yourself as the expert to your community, then you present a compelling argument to any prospective client to use you as their agent.
Steps You Can Take:
1.) Talk with your real estate virtual assistant and have them start blogging (consistently) for you. Whether you already have one or you haven’t even considered one because writing is not your strong suit, it’s time to jump on the blogging bandwagon. It is one of the easiest and cost effective ways to organically improve your SEO and communicate with the public. It’s also the perfect place to serve as an expert in your market. If you chose to be an expert in your community, your VA can write about the events, the organizations, and the fun things to do in your area.
2.) Next, you need to talk to your VA about your website. An experienced virtual assistant should be able to perform a website analysis. After their analysis, they should present you with a strategic plan for a content and design makeover. Their recommendations may include writing custom content, designing custom elements, (banner, footer, buttons, etc.) incorporating irresistible offers and more. Make sure they’re writing your content with a focus on your new niche market. Aim to have at least one page (or more!) that can only be found on your website because only you are an expert on that topic and you’ve made the smart decision to invest in custom written content.
If you chose community, your VA can write several community pages for your site. If you chose First Time Home Buyers, then feature a step by step page of what to expect from the home buying process. If you are environmentally friendly, feature a page on the best Green Resources on the web. The list (and our ideas) go on.
3.) Lastly, try to find a few irresistible offers that you can boast about. Mr. Internet wrote a great article with examples of irresistible offers. Remember: make your irresistible offers specific to YOUR niche/community!
It’s so important that you do something to stand out amongst the crowd. In this internet-crazed world, it is easy to get lost at the bottom of the search engine barrel. The chances of you coming out on top are a lot higher if you can appeal to a smaller group of people that are searching for “Empty Nest Homeowner in Loudoun County Virgina,” than compete against all of the other “John Doe: Home Buying Experts.”
Have a great weekend!
Carrie Gable and the team at RealSupport, Inc. are our “VA Quick Tip” columnists offering expertise in real estate marketing, technology and more. RealSupport’s office and team of 9 full-time staff members is located near Chicago, IL. Their successful team works virtually for many top real estate agents and brokers nationwide. Pioneers in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant industry, RealSupport offers marketing, branding, website and logo design, listing marketing, lead generation, technical support, transaction management, social networking, blogging and much more… Just ask!
How to Generate 10,000 Page Views In One Month
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
It is very rare indeed when something comes along that works as advertised. Here is an incredibly powerful, quick and easy tool that will turn your listings into lead generation monsters…
Craigslist the Smart Way
ListingsToLeads.com is a service that automates most of the process of posting your listings on Craigslist in a way that generate results, big time. The sad fact is that most REALTOR’s attempts to use Craigslist to generate leads from their listings fail miserably. Scott Pierce, CEO and Founder of ListingsToLeads.com is a Craigslist Guru that figure out the formula for consistent lead generation results, which includes:
- High-impact HTML ad templates – which can be customized with your brand look and feel;
- Compelling Call-To-Action Landing Pages – essentially a powerful and proven lead capture system;
- Best Practices – for posting your Craigslist ads for maximum exposure and impact.
I Lied…
I have to confess that the title of this post is a little off —the case study detailed in the video below actually had over 12,000 page views in the last 31 days as a result of using Craigslist ads.
Just click the video image below to view a 1 hour full-screen video that includes a case study of how Linda Jefferson of GoArmyHomes.com was able to generate over 12,000 page views in just one month advertising only 31 listings on Craigslist. BTW, she also receive three lead phone calls this past weekend alone asking to see homes just from these ads…
This is one of those things that if you don’t use it, well you are leaving major money on the table —period!
NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.
The Ultimate Listing Website
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
If you think the Web only works for buyers think again. Here’s a Website that is specifically designed to generate listings and doesn’t even use search engines to drive traffic to it.
Focus, Focus, Focus
Mega-producers Noel & Lee Bittinger are members of my ULTRA eTEAM and decided to go after the more affluent listings in the Canton, MI area. Only after months of planning and refinement did they even speak to a Web designer. The extraordinary result is SellingCantonHomes.com. It was the focus of a recent HOT SEAT session we did to evaluate its effectiveness and refine it even further.
The video below is a recording of that Webinar that shows you exactly what they did on the site and why it is such a powerful listing generating machine (be sure to watch it full screen!)
The site shows a lot of clever thinking and the application of rock-solid online business-generating principles. Take some time to study this site, view its “irresistible offers”, read the copy to see how engaging it is and so on. This goes so far beyond the typical “For Sellers” button or menu item on the typical agent Website —something potential sellers recognize instantly.
Websites are not just for buyers. Literally half the market is being ignored online, until now…
How to Drown Your Competition
Saturday, August 21st, 2010
How much can you talk about your real estate specialty? Assuming you have a specialty, do you run out of things to say or contribute after just a few minutes, or can you go on for hours?
How you answer this question is a measure of your professional depth and commitment. Given that Kevin Tomlinson doesn’t even have to look at the Miami MLS to tell you which South Beach condos are for sale, under what terms and what unique features each offers speaks volumes about his depth. One that his competitors can’t hope to match because they are far too busy trying to be everything to everyone.
The same with Linda Jefferson of GoArmyHomes.com who can give you every nuance of working with relocating army families. Like it or not, real estate sales is no longer just about sales. It is also very much a function of how well you serve and stand out from your competition as evidenced by your passion and depth of knowledge. It doesn’t matter if your experience spans hundreds of square miles if it’s only one-inch deep.
This reminds me of something my Dad said something to me when I was in my teens that I’ll never forget…
There are those with years of experience and those with experience in their years.
Max O. Russer (Mr. Internet’s Dad)
Guess which one prospects will be attracted to and to whom clients will refer others. If you call yourself a professional it is incumbent upon you to maintain and grow the depth of specialized experience and knowledge implied by that moniker. Anything less is just posing.
Choose Who YOU Want to Work With
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Do you work with every prospect that comes your way? Even in the best of times most agents do, figuring “Any business is better than no business.” And when times are tough, sales associates tend to look at prospects like someone dying of thirst looks at a glass of cool, clear water.
Yet this very understandable approach to new business could in fact cost you the very thing you want –a steady stream of new business.
The reality is that you will do better by being very selective with whom you choose to work. The reasons are very simple: you will enjoy your job so much more and those that you do serve will appreciate your efforts that much more.
The funny thing about human nature is that the more selective you become, the easier it will be to attract those very people. When I had my Mortgage company in the mid-1980′s, real estate agents told their borrowers they had to call and mention the agent’s name if they wanted a chance to work with me. Needless to say, this created a sense of extreme value in the minds of prospects —they were chasing me, instead of the other way around.
This effect was helped greatly by my very public declaration that I simply did not work with everyone…
It’s not a matter of who can benefit from what you sell. It’s about choosing the customers you’d like to have.
Seth Godin
There is one very important caveat here. This only works well when you also choose to specialize. Trying to be everything to everyone is like taking a megaphone to a crowd of people and screaming that you will take all comers —it kind of defeats the purpose.
Differentiate For Success
Monday, July 26th, 2010
What are the qualities that define a top producer from just another real estate sales associate struggling to keep it all together?
There are two primary ones that really make these folks, well… stand out from the crowd:
- Implementation – they consistently put into practice proven strategies and tactics. You never hear excuses as to why they didn’t do something.
- Differentiation – they strive to be different, stand out from everyone else.
This second one is so interesting because while most agents will talk about “standing out” their actions say something else. Many agents clearly become uncomfortable if they do or even consider doing something that will make them stand out. Maybe it’s a throw-back to the days when we were in high school and “being like everyone else” was social survival rule #1.
When it comes to being consistently successful however, being perceived as different from the rest (ideally in a good way) is absolutely essential both in business and life…
America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered.
Louis D. Brandeis
(American Supreme Court Justice, 1856-1941)
We are all unique beings with unique talents, perspectives and gifts that can positively affect our world. It just takes willingness and courage to allow them to flower.
(NOTE: click on the image above to view a short video about the importance of differentiation in marketing)
The Nearly Perfect Real Estate Website
Monday, July 12th, 2010
As a speaker and author about doing business online I’m asked all the time for examples of Websites that work. There are plenty to point to but almost all have one or more things that don’t meet what I consider certain standards. Well here’s one that does and scores a 10 out of 10 on just about every measure of an awesome productive site.
Don’t Bother Calling a Web Designer
Roman Pavlik, the owner of this Web marvel is a member of my ULTRA eTEAM Alumni and is frankly one of the most coachable sales associates I’ve ever met. Instead of hiring the best Web developer he could find, he spent the first four months planning and outlining every aspect of his site www.DowntownLivingMiami.com from the perspective of his target market. Once he had his written site plan completed (and fully vetted by me and the rest of the ULTRA eTEAM) then and only then was introduced to the best Web developer I know of. With a written plan in hand (including most of the copy produced by a professional copywriter) it was relatively easy for the designer to manifest Roman’s vision for his site.
Hot Seat Wunderkind
During our Tuesday evening Live Group Coaching sessions we will occasionally have what is affectionately known as a “Hot Seat”. This is where a sales associate volunteers to have their site evaluated by me and the group live during the session. For most it is an extremely useful exercise on how to improve their sites dramatically. The video below is a recording of the recent DownTownLivingMiami.com site’s hot seat session. In this particular case it was a struggle to find any way to improve this site. Check out the video and you will see why (and you will also see which criteria I use to evaluate sites.)
(NOTE: it is strongly suggested that you play this video full screen to see all the details being discussed.)
Nothing is Ever Perfect…
You are probably wondering why this site is referred to as “nearly” perfect. Well, if you watched the whole hot seat session video above all the way through (it’s about 71 minutes long) you will have seen and heard about “constant refinement”. There is no such thing as perfect, only a constant state of refinement to continually improve a Website’s ability to generate business and differentiate you from your competition. By the way, Roman’s is the first of several “nearly perfect” Websites we will be highlighting here and during our future live Hot Seat sessions. These others will also be coming from my ULTRA eTEAM Alumni. You will find that their sites are just as impressive and unique as Roman’s but for different target markets.
The moral of the story here is don’t even THINK about contacting a Web designer before you do your planning and outlining first. To do otherwise you are inviting much frustration, financial pain and ultimately ending up with a business Website that is anything but perfect.
The 110,000 Facebook Member Man
Monday, May 24th, 2010
This past February 18th I wrote an article about how Realtor Doug Newby’s Modern Homes Facebook page surpassed 50,000 “fans”. As of this writing he is just a few hours (minutes?) from clearing 110,000 members to his page. This exceeds the sum of the Facebook page membership of every major real estate franchise combined probably at least two times over.
Don’t Blink…
When I share Doug’s Facebook numbers with audiences the very first question I get is “Great, now what has it done for his business?”. I can tell you this; Doug gets over 95% of his business online and traffic to his SignificantHomes.com site is up dramatically since last Fall (when his Facebook membership was zero).
Now if you are one of those folks who still doubt the power (and necessity) of social networking within your business, check this out:
And in terms of impact on your business:
EdgeRank optimization appears to be an order of magnitude greater than search engine optimization…
TechCrunch
*EdgeRank is Facebook’s algorithm that measures social networking relevancy.
Clearly Doug’s Facebook numbers put him as an Outlier in the realm of Realtor social media. Be that as it may, his success on (and as a result of) Facebook is something we all can aspire to. Just don’t expect to play the online game well without this part of the equation. Mainly because it IS the equation for success online.
