Real Estate Marketing Pro | Realtor Marketing | Real Estate Marketing

Email Marketing for Realtors

2010-11-04T13:19:00.000-05:00

One of the quickest and easiest ways to stay in contact with real estate leads is through email marketing. Email marketing lists are gathered through Internet or offline sign ups and provide the realtor constant contact with potential buyers and sellers who could earn a realtor a profit in the future. There is one drawback with email marketing, however. There is a lot of time involved in creating new emails and sending those emails to each and every person on the list. Here are some tips to make email marketing more efficient for your real estate business.

Email marketing requires a collection of emails that can be sent out at various times of the year. Maybe the list is updated to send a new email every week or month; this will depend upon the realtor’s goals and needs. Once an entire year’s worth of emails are completed, the hard part of the email marketing process is complete.

Send emails to more than one recipient at a time. A group name can be added to your email client that includes all of the email addresses on your marketing list. The list of email addresses will be given a name and when an email is sent to that name, everyone on the list will receive the same email. Email marketing software can also be used to add a bit of personalization to the emails. This software will include the name of the email recipient throughout the email, making the potential buyer or seller believe the email was intended just for them.

Set it and forget it. Email auto responders are another fantastic invention for email marketing. The auto responder allows the realtor to input individual emails to be sent at programmed intervals. When a new name is added to the email list, that recipient immediately starts receiving the marketing emails starting with #1. An unlimited number of email addresses can be entered into the design and essentially someone could be receiving an email from the realtor every day of the week.

Why Choose Email Marketing?

More people are choosing email as their first line of communication today than ever before. There are many people who wake up in the morning and grab a cup of morning Joe to sip while reading their email. Staying connected with potential buyers and sellers is the most important aspect of generating real estate profit. Email marketing campaigns are inexpensive, or free, and offer that constant connect the realtor aims for without the trouble of calling every lead once a week.
Conversion rates are also a big part of email marketing solutions for realtors. When customers or potential clients believe the realtor is interested in their business enough to stay in contact, they will convert more effectively. Conversion is the process of moving a potential client to a paying client. More conversion means more money for the realtor.

Three Things Most Realtors Forget When Using Email Marketing

Legalities, spelling and new content. Email marketing campaigns should always include a link to the privacy page on the sign-up sheet for the email list or newsletter. Spelling should be check and double checked. New content should be added regularly to continue to communication long after the subscriber chooses to opt in for your realtor emails.

Visit Marketing Artfully for more great Realtor Marketing Tips!

Realtor Real Estate Marketing - Direct Mail Postcards

2009-11-17T09:31:00.001-05:00

Realtor Real Estate marketing has taken a turn since I last spoke with you over here BUT there is one thing that hasn't changed - Realtor direct mail postcards still work GREAT!!!

I KNOW! They are not sexy like Facebook and Twitter. They are not effectively free like having a blog or a website BUT for hard core real estate marketers there is nothing more effective!

And now that fewer and fewer people are mailing out marketing materials, your message with a great postcard design is even more powerful than it was when every realtor was sending them.

Who to send postcards to? Here is a brief list of who could use a real estate direct mail postcard from you!

First time homebuyers who came to your open house
ANYONE in your farm
Past clients who have referrals for you around the country
Listings you have talked to but not signed up yet
People who need to spring ahead or fall behind

This is shorter version of my whole realtor direct mail postcard info, find out more about realtor direct mail postcards...

PS - Never send out recipes!!! You are a realtor NOT a chef!!!

New Blog For Consumers

2007-08-31T06:46:00.001-05:00

So I went to Mega Agent camp and heard a talk a great blog author and I am PSYCHED!

No one up to this point had ever explained to me the way that a blog would impact my lead generation. Now don't get me wrong, I am all for providing information to the masses BUT I never really got the WIIFM connection that the relationships with the commenters and readers would act as a "pre-pre-listing presentation" and that the sheer mass of words that you use to talk about your marketplace would increase your visibility in your market (the long tail).

I paired this with a conversation that I had with my MegaChicks mastermind about what our passion is and decided to go with a full on commitment to this medium for a year.

For any of you that are considering a blog I have done some research:

Typepad is a nice community blogging site - would be great for a non techie user that wants to use a template site.

Wordpress is a more labor intensive product but can be hosted on your domain and would have been my first choice if my technical specialist (my husband John) was not a Blogger already - meaning he can and will help with setting it up for me.

Blogger is nice if you are going to use their templates and then point your domain to the site. The problem for me with this is I lose a lot of the search engine benefits and that is the reason for blogging. With blogger if you want to host it on another server (I use godaddy) you cannot use their predesigned templates. There is some front end work needed to get your site set up and it would be WAY beyond the typical real estate agent's technical skills (html, manually adding links, etc.) BUT once it is up and running it is a great clean look that I am very excited about.

AND I am adding some new tasks to my 411 (weekly, monthly and annual goals). I will be posting 3-4 times per week and visiting 5 other blogs per day so that I can get ideas and also comment which will increase my readership also!

If you would like to take a peek at the new look and sign up for upcoming posts visit www.thetaraandsheilashow.com! More about blogging and how it is going to follow here...:)

What's In It For THEM

2007-05-19T21:00:00.000-05:00

I got a flyer from a friend today and he asked me to review it for content. It was a laundry list of things that were important to their company BUT did not have any relevance for the consumer. A couple of things that were glaring errors:

1. The headline stated what it was (a TIMI Interest Only Loan) in bold large font and the benefits (lower interest rate, no money down, tax savings, etc.) were stated in MUCH smaller type and definitely not bold. While the type of loan is important to the bank, the benefits are what are going to make people want to learn more.

2. It was written in banker jargon - they need to paint a picture of what a 5/1 loan will do, not just state that is what it is! "Avoid scary rate hikes", "protect your interest rate for 5 years", and "Don't get slammed with huge payments" all tell the consumer what the result is, not just what the definition is.

3. The biggest mistake was was "Contact me today for more information" - all about them! A better way to put this is a call to action that will benefit the consumer "Call today to find out how to take advantage of this fabulous loan program".

Now this was just one example of good intentions gone wrong AND I am sometimes guilty of forgetting that there are humans at the other end of the my copy. I will say "large deck" instead of "entertain on the large lanai and enjoy outdoor living in screened luxury". Sometimes painting a picture seems like too much work but I can GUARANTEE that is worth effort!

Always remember that your reader is wondering what is in it for THEM!

Gratitude

2007-05-16T06:48:00.000-05:00

So I am listening to The Secret on my IPod and I got to the chapter on gratitude. They said that we should be grateful for all that is good and bad that has shaped us to this point and it made want to talk about the things that I am grateful for professionally (of course I am thankful for a loving and supportive husband, family and also for having wonderful friends, pets and abundance in my "real" life).

I have always felt that all the jobs and situations that I encountered prior to entering real estate have contributed to my success - some of it in just that fact that I know a lot of people because it took me a while to find this career! I have added all those people to the list of contacts that I mail to and call periodically and they all like the snapshot of the market they get hearing from me. I also learned to work with people - the ones I like AND the ones that I would not pick for friends. ALL of them add something to my work and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to meet them!

I am grateful for the education that I got upon entering the business. It is amazing how hearing what to do turns into knowing what to do. If you are new to the business find out where the people who are successful are and learn from them. If you have classes available - take them. If you do not have classes available ask a successful realtor if you can help her (FOR FREE) and learn what she is doing that you could emulate. You don't have to agree with HOW she does it - just be open to learning WHY she does it and adapt that to your style. If you are an "old dog" learn some new tricks. Read books, listen to Millionaire Mondays, listen to Jeff Wilhems, Brian Buffini, Joe Stumpf, Howard Britton or Craig Proctor. Read Seth Godin, Brian Tracy or anyone else with great ideas either for customer service, lead generating or just being a better person.

Learn the rules of your state, industry or market center. Learn how to protect your clients. Ask questions, practice BEFORE you are writing an offer or going on a listing appointment. Stay current with what is happening in your marketplace. Have the hard talks with your clients about what it will take to get a home sold in this marketplace. Do something EVERY day to try and sell your listings.

I am also thankful for having wonderful professional partners. I have a wonderful listing partner who compliments my weaknesses and celebrates my skills (and who also happens to be a great friend)! My banker (Brian P.) and I walked a neighborhood last week and talked to people about their mortgage and house options. I also have a great insurance guy, a wonderful title rep, and also super coworkers who make working with them a pleasure.

Last but not least - I have wonderful clients. They are patient and understanding even when their house is not selling. They tell me what I am doing right and what I need to work on. They love their new house or are thrilled that their old one sold. They make it fun to go to work each day and also refer me to their friends and family.

Overall I am grateful that I found something to do that wraps up all my wierd talents into one really neat career!

A Million Ideas

2007-04-15T20:41:00.000-05:00

OKAY OKAY maybe just 10 - but they are good ones!!!

1. The yellow pages - my hero Tony DiCello says pick up the yellow pages and get more business. Attorneys, accountants, financial advisors, all great sources of additional referrals.

2. Banks - go to your neighborhood bank and see if they have a realtor they recommend when they give someone approval for a home loan. Bring some flyers to leave if they say they will recommend you. Bring them donuts from time to time so they like you. Bribery works great!

3. Newsletters - I know I say this a lot but it works. Pick a neighborhood and be the expert!

4. Flyers - Lori Crawford and I paired up with our HomeBanc banker (Brian P. Forrester) to print up flyers that we will deliver by hand to neighborhoods that have either move up buyers or a lot of renters.

5. Open Houses - I got a buyer for one of my houses today and also a new contact who may be moving in a couple of months. Not bad for a couple of hours work - and I made my sellers happy!

6. Call your sphere - do as I say not as I do! This one is self explanatory

7. Collect FSBOs like crazy - they are out there and want to sell their houses!!

8. New Postcards - Pick something to tell people about; marketplace statistics, the benefits of moving up in a down market, a great loan package, selling tips or anything that humans would be interested in. Send it to them on some colored cardstock. Use the same color every time!

9. Network with other realtors - go to a training out of the area, introduce yourself to people who have come in for training from out of town. Send a postcard to the realtors in your home town and tell them that you would welcome the opportunity to work with them on their referrals. Take out an ad with a realtor in another state where you want to farm.

10. And the tenth best thing to do...Start today. Do it fast, don't worry that it is not the "right" thing. Don't fret if you have a typo, maybe someone will call and tell you!!! Be bold - do something!

Free Money

2007-03-25T05:44:00.000-05:00

I found this on the Broker Agent News website - if you are a new agent and want to get some free money check this out!

The Real Estate Apprentice™ Foundation - is a non-profit venture created to assist new licensed agents entering the real estate and offers 20 bi-annual grants, totaling $250,000 are awarded with no strings attached.

Realtor.com Is Wonderful

2007-03-14T17:01:00.000-05:00

I am not sure that everyone think that Realtor.com is wonderful, but maybe they do not have the great Customer Service rep that I do. Take a bow Adam! Today he called to let me know that they would be processing my card - BEFORE they did it and was totally understanding and helpful when I let him know that I was experiencing technical difficulties and would have to wait a few days to pay.

He then sent me a handy dandy sheet with tips to making the most of my enhanced listing package, and made sure that I would have the correct number to contact next week when he would be out of town. Holy cow was I impressed!

I also like the enhanced listing features that Realtor.com offers. I can add photos, beef up the descriptions and plug in a virtual tour. We have been pretty successful in generating leads this way and so I consider this to be a part of my entire marketing package. There is also a sliding scale so that when you have more listings you pay more and when you have fewer you pay less. If you are a new agent sign up TODAY before you get 5 listings and the price jumps way up!

If you would like Adam's contact info please email me and I will be happy to get you his direct line so you can share in the great service!

How do you know when it is working?

2007-03-14T16:44:00.000-05:00

So I have been an official realtor for well over a year now and I started in what has been termed a "down market" - meaning that inventory was not flying off the shelf in days for thousands over the asking price! Before that I worked for a 20-year agent and learned A LOT that told me I would like the business BUT that it is hard work and there is famine before the feast.

Since then I have been doing the activities (Keller Williams speak for farming, working FSBOs and Expireds, doing LOTS of open houses, sending just listeds, etc.) and it seemed like I was having some success. Well this week was a very good week!! My listing partner and I had 3 closings and added over 2 million dollars in inventory. We are now making sure that we have the hard talks about pricing right up front so that we have the best possible chance of positioning the homes to sell quickly (which now means between 3-6 months). We also are working on making sure that we have more communication with our sellers and buyers so that they do not feel left out in the cold.

I met with one of my favorite Realtors this morning who started last September after a 4 year hiatus, and she said that she felt like it was sort of working and that she hoped it would break soon. I believe it will and that if she just keeps on doing what she is doing everything will work out just fine.

I would love to know how everyone else is doing out there - if you are having success with something please let us all know so that we can just keep getting better and better!

Try Really Really Hard!

2007-03-06T07:26:00.000-05:00

So this weekend I spent A LOT of time working on a contract for one of my listings. I worked at the office for about 4 hours Saturday and on the phone for a couple of hours Sunday. Then it fell apart (nothing I did and my client was really great about it - disappointed but great).

So how did I wind up feeling good about it? Well I spent some time last night talking to my client and showing her the virtual tour, photos and her enhanced listing on Realtor.com. I also have sent just listed cards and will be featuring her home in an upcoming newsletter. I advertise all of my listings on a rotating basis in print advertising and do open houses. I have also held a broker's open house.

If a house doesn't sell it is not because of lack of effort! The one thing that my clients get when they get me is dedication - dedication to selling their house! Most people just want to know that the person they hired to to sell their house is making an honest effort to get it sold - just make sure you are making that effort and the rest will take care of itself.

Customer Service - Ridiculously Happy Customers

2007-02-25T18:52:00.000-05:00

So sometimes just trying to the right thing is good enough -

I did an open house this weekend and got a new couple for clients. They are fun and very easy to work with and I like them a lot! They were interested in working with me because I ONLY tried to help them. I took them to a number of houses that were not my listings and I offered to help them get prices for houses even if they never bought from me. I did it because it is the right thing to do - and happily they liked my customer service attitude and are now my clients!

My listing partner Sheila spent a good bit of time this week helping a man who is listed with someone else. There is no opportunity there BUT she knew that there were things she could do help help him to work better with his agent. We may never list his house (until after it expires of course) but who do you think he will refer when someone asks him "who is your realtor?"

One of my favorite people (Jud Hennington) always said that you can't fail if you do everything possible to have ridiculously happy customers. I agree!

What is your UVP?

2007-02-23T06:26:00.000-05:00

It sounds like an alternate kind of TV station or a dreaded disease but in actuality it is what you bring to the party real estate wise (unique value proposition). I talked with an agent this week who said she didn't like to work with Expireds because she was not sure she would do anything that the first agent didn't do (i.e. put a sign in the yard and put it in the mls).

I do not have that problem! I know EXACTLY what I will do try and sell that house and I have it written down and in my listing presentation. I spend quite a bit of money BUT you do not have to bust the bank to offer your sellers good features. Here are 8 ideas under $25 or free that you can do.

1. Open houses - Offer to do an open house once a week until they say NO MORE! You can put a sign rider announcing that you will be there from 1-4 on Sunday and also walk neighborhood personal invites to all the neighbors. Make sure you have you have magnets on your car so that the neighbors know it is you sitting in there all the time. If you can't make a week, ask someone from the office to help.

2. Free listing sites - Put your listings on your company sponsored website, on www.zillow.com, www.Point2agent.com, base.google.com and anywhere else you can think of!

3. Pitch sessions - These are back! Let your sellers know you will attend EVERY pitch session available and will tell all the agent about their great listing.

4. Backs of flyers - Put all your listings on the back of your flyers in the flyer boxes. If you don't have your own "borrow" some from other agents.

5. Brokers Open House (Under $25 bucks) - Invite other agents to participate and serve something that people will like to eat. Invite LOTS of agents so that you have someone to talk to!

6. Just listed postcards - If you can not afford preprinted ones, print them out on your copier at work. If you can't afford postage for all of them walk them around to 100 or so neighbors (do NOT put them in the mailbox as that is a federal offense and I will not come and bail you out!)

7. Neighborhood newsletters - List an ad for your home for sale and give the neighbors some statistics about recent sales and some home selling tips. Mail if you have the money or start walking the neighborhood if you are short of cash.

8. The MLS - Put the maximum number of picutes in there. Say more than one sentance about the house. Think about the fact that this house will be competing with over 17,000 homes in the area and some people will not even consider the house unless there are pretty pictures to look at.

If you do something cheap that you would like to share with group please let me know!

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Snaps Award! - Flyer Headline

2007-01-28T06:16:00.000-05:00

So following my "I hate flyers" rant I have a Snaps Award to give to Julia Fischel for her great flyer headline!!!

PreForeclosure Crystal Beach $133/sf - $$ Maker

The flyer that is attatched is interesting also!!! (the house address is 136 Pennsylvania Ave, Crystal Beach FL if anyone would like to learn more!)

SEO - What the heck is that?

2007-01-24T07:10:00.000-05:00

So as I told you, www.cometoclearwater.com is doing well on Yahoo.com (see current ranking).

That the site does well is not an accident. There are a number of things that make the site interesting to the search engine spiders - which is what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) attempts to do.

1. First it is written in HTML and is NOT a dynamic/template site. Many of you use a template site for your main site (a la mode, agent access, etc.) - this is not a bad thing but it will limit how high your site can rank. I think that having a main site is great - BUT to get good rankings you may want to have a mini site for each specialization that you might have. For example I have my main site and then www.tampabayunder200K.com and www.clearwater4salebyowner.com. These are VERY specific and made to attract a certain kind of user.

2. Decide EXACTLY what kind of user you are trying to attract. CTC is made to attract out of town buyers and also to serve as a marketing site for potential sellers. I have a free relocation guide offer on every page - last night I got three requests and wrote a contract on a CTC buyer lead. You may be looking for sellers or for 55+ buyers or for people who park their RVs at home - no matter what type of client you want, you must be very specific in your content and your metatags to make sure that you position yourself well.

3. Last for today is metatags. These confuse many people, BUT basically they are the source code that computers use to help catagorize pages and describe your site to the search engines.

1. Title Tag - This is the bar across the top of browser window. It should include words that coincide with the content of your site. CTC's title is "Come to Clearwater - Real Estate and More for Clearwater and the surrounding communities!"

2. Description - This in my estimation is the MOST important tag of all as it is what shows up as the blub on the search engine page when users are trying to decide what link to click on! CTC's description is "Clearwater information and real estate news! Tara Jacobsen is the leading residential real estate specialist for Clearwater and the surrounding communities of Dunedin, Seminole, Safety Harbor, Palm Harbor, Largo, and Tarpon Springs. She is dedicated to helping you find you dream home. Search for the perfect home on www.cometoclearwater.com."

3. Keywords - Not as important as they once were but still helpful! These are words that you recommend that will help the search engines catagorize your site.

If you have not fallen completely asleep yet and would like to learn more, I am teaching an advanced internet marketing class this month at Keller Williams Palm Harbor. It is Friday the 23rd of February at 1pm!

Yahoo! - WOW

2007-01-22T07:12:00.000-05:00

I have to say that when good things happen I sometimes want ignore them so that I don't jinx them but I have to say that this is GREAT and that I am just going to revel in it for just one day!

For the longest time I have been ranking well for clearwater relocation on yahoo - bouncing between number 5 and number 7 which I thought was great, until I ran a ranking report last night (I know - sitting around submitting your site to the search engines and seeing where they rank is not your idea of a fun time...:)

www.ComeToClearwater.com is number 1 on yahoo for clearwater realtor!

Tune in tomorrow to find out a couple of the things that I did to make that happen...

Open Houses - Just Do It A LOT

2007-01-20T17:12:00.000-05:00

So my listing partner and I spent all day working 3 different open houses. We got 1 showing on another listing, 2 interested in the houses we were at, a realtor who likes the house and 2 sign calls today. I also got TONS of postcards labeled and stamped thanks to my friend Billy C who sat with me at my second open house.

When you are sitting at a house and no one comes it seems like a waste of time, but the chances of you meeting someone who wants to buy or sell real estate are 100% better there than on your couch AND your sellers will remember that you have made the effort.

A couple of pointers:

1. Make sure you have ALL your other listings on the back of the flyers in case the house you are sitting at doesn't suit their needs.

2. Put magnets on your car so that the people know you sit at your own listings OR if you are doing an open house for another agent they will know it is YOU in there.

3. I am going to get directional arrows with my name on them as soon as I have a couple more closings - a great idea I have heard but not implemented YET.

4. You can do open houses ANYTIME - middle of the day, drive time (4-6pm) or on the weekends. I try to make sure I do at least 2 a week unless I am booked with client appointments.

If you don't have anything to do tomorrow get out there for a couple of hours and do an open house - what do you have to lose?

PS - Let me know if you have any successes...:)

Market Like A Maniac! - Do As I Say

2007-01-18T05:37:00.000-05:00

So I am going to be teaching my Marketing Like A Maniac class today and I must tell you I am jazzed about it! It gives me a chance to talk about what I SHOULD be doing and also reminds me of things that I think that I MIGHT want to do.

This happens because I know what I SHOULD do from Howard Britton's star power tapes or from Millionaire Mondays or because I read marketing books a lot. If anyone had the time or money to implement everything they wouldn't have time to sell any real estate...:)

That having been said, I have found some things recently that are working. I am getting more calls from marketing in The Real Estate Book and the Home Search. I am also getting more calls from my yard signs. I also have gotten a huge boost from putting our other listings one the back of our flyers. This one is a perfect example of knowing what to do and then waiting months to implement it. And to sound like a broken record our postcards do great (just listed, expireds, marketplace statistics).

If you are in the Palm Harbor area at 1 today please feel free to drop in for a couple of hours to talk about marketing! It is open to EVERYONE, not just Keller Williams agents. 727-415-9165

Internet - Gotta Give To Get

2007-01-08T06:43:00.000-05:00

I am teaching my class today on the internet for KW and that made me think of a couple of conversations that I have had lately.

One of my dear friends and fellow realtor Bill said that he was not getting any leads from his internet site. I asked what he was offering that would compel someone to contact him and he realized that there was nothing but his listings. Don't get me wrong, I think that it is imperative that you have listings on your site - if you do not have your own BORROW them from other agents. Most sellers in this day and age will check out your site to see if you have listings and if so what price range and what location.

BUT (and it is a big but!) people will not generally contact you directly through your internet site about a specific listing. So what can you do to make someone contact you?

1. Offer a free report - 27 ways to get your home ready to show
2. Generate a list of homes in Dunedin around the Pinellas Trail under $200,000 and offer to mail or email them that list. DO NOT provide addresses.
3. Provide a free relocation guide
4. Offer a free CMA
5. Get together with your lender and get information about the mortgage/rate situation (if you need some good ideas call my friend Brian P at HomeBanc who is very proactive about having this type of info available! 813-361-6350)

All these things should help to get someone to email you or call for more information, and none of them cost you much money!

Holy Cow!

2007-01-07T07:03:00.000-05:00

Despite my best intentions, I have not posted every day this year - I do have a reason though! I have been on a death march of listing appointments...:) My listing partner and I have been on one a day for the last 3 days and there are two more in the next 3 days.

Where are all these appointments coming from?

When I started in real estate last year I was told that if I just continued to do all the activities suggested by my office classes and by emulating other mega agents there would be a snowball effect. If I would contact my sphere, do regular mailings, attend networking events, do open houses and contact FSBOs and Expireds then there would be business. I have the additional bonus of having a web marketing background and so I also put up 3 websites that attract 3 different types of users which also provides me with leads.

This years appointments are coming from a referral, a networking lead, an Expired postcard, a realtor referral, and a co-worker of my husband. Three look like they are turning into immediate business, two may take a little while to simmer, but all were impressed with our professionalism and our dedication to the industry.

If you are in a slow market it is easy to get discouraged by a lack of sales - believe me I KNOW! But if you are doing everything you can for your clients and working to increase your market share you should come out ahead after the dust settles!

Get an appointment!

2007-01-04T07:50:00.000-05:00

This one comes from Tammy McInerney (my RE mentor!)

The only good outcome of a lead (from an open house, sign call, referral, etc.) is an appointment. WAIT!!!! Before you tell me how that won't work listen up...

The best appointment is one to meet face to face. Whether the lead is for a buyer or seller, set a time to get together (SOON) and go over their goals, wants and needs - and then list/find their house!
The second best appointment is a phone call appointment. "Would it be okay if I called you in a couple of weeks to see how you are coming on your plans?" When you actually call them it shows that you are reliable and gives you an opportunity to make a face to face appointment. If they are still hot but not ready to meet, make another phone appointment.
The worst appointment is to tell them that you will be sending them information from time to time and is that okay? Then send them a thank you card and put them on some kind of a "touch" program so that they don't forget you!

So, from now on each contact should result in an appointment (or crushing failure when they say they don't want your services...hehehhe...NEXT). Keeping this in mind helped me to stay on track and to get the next contact scheduled so I did not feel like a dufus picking up the phone and calling them. It also became something of a habit which is nice!

Updating My Clients

2007-01-03T06:28:00.000-05:00

Wow am going to have to work on this one!

I am great at doing things for my clients, running adwords campaigns to get their homes noticed, advertising in a variety of different magazines and real estate guides, open houses, posting listings on our in-house message boards, just listed postcards, neighborhood newsletters, etc. What I am not great at is TELLING them about it!

I do not think that they know half of the stuff that I have done - and that makes me seem less valuable in a market where homes are taking months to sell. I do call them regularly but I think that has a somewhat lesser effect than to see a whole list of SPECIFIC things that I have done to get their home sold.

This is my first new year's resolution (I have things I am working on but none formalized like this!): I write down EVERYTHING I do for my clients and send them an update EVERY month.

Tomorrow - free things to do for your listings (this one will be interactive so start thinking of some ideas!)

(dis) Organization & Real Estate

2007-01-02T06:19:00.000-05:00

My name is Tara and I am compulsively, totally disorganized. I am a piler and a hoarder and it makes me crazy! I came by it naturally as my father is a piler and my mother had to spend hours taking her piles off the dining room table in order to serve Thanksgiving dinner (I do not think my grandparents were pilers but they were hoarders!) I am NOT one of those smug disorganized who say that they can lay hands on whatever they need in a minute - I AM one of those cussing, moaning disorganized who has to go through a pile of stuff every time that I need something.

Until now

My mother in law got me the fancy Treo real estate phone and that is just wonderful. Top Producer, MLS and my lead generation spreadsheet all walking around with me. My husband also jumped in and got me a desk where I can put my electronics and hopefully walk out the door with everything all at once instead of getting to the edge of my neighborhood and coming back for whatever I left today.

I have started a postcard program for the office that I am using as one of my mailings each month to my expireds, fsbos and sphere. I design it and the mail market house sends it out - no sticky sticky on the labels and since others rely on me to do it on time it gets done. I also have started writing down my hot prospects and potential clients each week with my listing partner and that helps A LOT as it reminds me of what is important - following up on my leads and getting them under contract!

I have other things that I will implementing (like a budget!) but for now it is a start. If you are out there totally organized and ready for the new year I applaud you - if you are a work in progress like myself I wish you and organized and happy new year!

New Year New Focus

2007-01-01T09:40:00.000-05:00

I am so excited to start the year out! I am using my company's model of doing the activities and letting the rest take care of itself. With that in mind I am using a lead generating model and I already have 2 - they actually came in yesterday but I am counting them!!!!

(1 Realtor.com and 1 from putting flyers on my yard signs - more about that another day...:)

Have you decided how you are going to measure success this year? I am a firm believer that if you do not measure it you cannot change it. That having been said, I am the worst at tracking expenses and will have to buckle down and start counting my dollars.

I will be back to making (almost) daily entries in the blog. If there is something that would be interesting that I haven't talked about yet please let me know - if I am focusing too much on a certain area let me know that too!

Have a great day and a very happy new year....Tara

Website - What are you missing?

2006-12-26T08:29:00.000-05:00

So I was updating my site today to take off the Open House from DECEMBER 2ND - that is a MAJOR no no since it shows the users that come to the site that it is not current and that the webmaster (me) is not keeping up with the content.

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to work on one of my sites (I currently have 3 and am working on a forth) each week for at least an hour. Some of you have asked me what kind of leads I get from my sites - over the Christmas holiday I got a buyer's lead from www.cometoclearwater.com (relocation guide request) and a FSBO lead (list my site on www.tampa4salebyowner.com) . These are very easy for me to fulfill and will hopefully help round out my 'haven't mets' leads goals for the coming year.

One thing that I noticed was that I did not have some pertinent content on my home page about second homes and vacation homes. I think that I am missing an opportunity by not having those links and generating more good search terms for the engines. I will be adding that kind of content soon as a FEATURE and see if they generate me some targeted leads.

Is anyone getting good consistent leads from their website? Don't forget to follow the path of least resistance - if you are getting a bunch of people that want to see cheap homes add affordable housing links and pages to your site. If you are getting first time home buyers add links to the area programs that offer those types of services and work with your banker to see if he has anything that can help like the loan advisor tool bar from HomeBanc.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T18:42:00.000-05:00

Hi all! I just wanted to pop in and wish you all a very Merry Christmas...:) Santa was VERY good to me (I got the Treo PDA that is the real estate agent's best friend AND a laser printer for my office!).

I am standing right next to myself about the opportunity the coming year is going to bring and can't wait to hit the ground running with all my new toys!!!

I hope that Santa was good to you all and that your business has a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Marketing Response

2006-12-19T06:44:00.000-05:00

I like to find out what is working for me so that I can do it some more - a revolutionary thought isn't it? BUT I also like to make sure that I am working as smart and as affordably as I can. With that in mind I have a couple of suggestions (sorry guys some of these are Keller Williams related but use your own company perks where appropriate).

I have a magic credit card! Because I do so much mailing I go through a lot of paper and mailing labels, Office Depot loves me! Anyways, Keller Williams allows you to register your credit card so that you get the highest discount possible when you check out. For example I saved over $5 on a box of 3000 labels last night - not bad.

I had a conversation with my business partner yesterday and she said "are you sending out Christmas cards?". I did not - I sent out postcards that I combined with other agents in the office to make them beautiful and cheap - then sent them out to be processed at my friend Tammy's mail marketing house - SO EASY! If you would like to find out more about our KW 12X12 program that "touches" your clients once a month shoot me an email and I will send you the flyer. Many other mail houses offer this service also (I just like my own designs better - this month we have a baby turtle!)

Newsletters on colored paper - two agents I know are working on these and have devoted between 2 and 4 hours to getting them set up in Publisher. Not a lot of time and from now on they can just drop their numbers in and send monthly updates to their targeted farm. A VERY good way to become the neighborhood authority - BUT don't count on an immediate response, pledge to do it for 6 months OR send it every other month for a year.

A formalized plan - my banker guy (Brian P from HomeBanc) is a very forward, out of the box thinker - for a banker...:) We sat down and figured out an 8 step program to target top notch realtors whose business he would like to have. So far he has had a good response - at least two real opportunities to talk with agents that were somewhat hesitant before AND it is supposedly the worst time of the year to make those contacts.

What ever you do - start today. Call more, send more notes, get on a postcard program, vow to visit 3 FSBOs every week, join another club, volunteer for a cause, do an open house (or three). There are a million reasons NOT to do anything (it might not work, it is the wrong time of the year, everyone does that, no one does that, it is too rainy today, it is a nice day no one will come) there is only one reason to do something - you have 100% more chance of being successful if you do ANYTHING than if you do nothing!

What you feed your brain

2006-12-16T07:07:00.000-05:00

So I am going to wax eloquent for a bit about what I listen to/read, who I have been spending time with and what has happened to my real estate business.

First off I attended a business planning clinic. At the clinic (which I did NOT want to attend because that kind of specific planning hurts my head) I learned that the amount of leads that I need to be super successful next year is not that big. Try it yourself - you may be surprised to see what it will take to meet your goals. I have a worksheet that can help - email me at taradactyl@gmail.com and I will be happy to send it to you!

Then I started listening to a Brian Tracy Success Series Book on Tape. Holy cow. Then I was told at another meeting to read Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy and finally one last person told me that Brian Tracy was inspiring. Well the universe has told me that having him playing in my ear all the time will make me a better realtor and person!!! I was wondering the other day why I don't get too upset when a contract falls apart or I have to take a listing off the MLS. It is really hard to feel sorry for yourself when Brian Tracy is talking to you or when Seth Godin is telling you all the great things you can do to market yourself or when the Millionaire Monday realtors are telling you how to make your business better. Ask Santa for an iPod and load it with inspirational people.

Finally I spent a day "Shadowing a Superstar". We had the opportunity to listen to three of my favorite speakers (Gary & Nikki Ubaldini and John Dietz) and then go on a caravan. One of my houses was part of the caravan and I may be getting a price reduction from the comments that I got.

I will not tell you that my life has changed over the course of the last couple of weeks. I am generally a very optimistic person so that is in my favor to start. BUT I have negative self talk - I tell myself that buyers are scary, I tell myself that I did not get everything I wanted to do done so I am a giant loser and that I have to work harder. BUT I did realize that if I try hard with a plan I should do better than OK and definitely better than most of my competition out there.

It works! - Out of Town Buyers

2006-12-12T08:47:00.000-05:00

Just a quicky to let you know that the internet does work for getting buyers in the car! I first got an email from Peter on Aug 6th, 2006. He is an investor from Canada who wants to purchase some property. It took a bunch of dinky postcards, two phone calls and setting him up on auto notify but I am taking him and a friend out today to look at a BUNCH of properties.

As they say the timeline for internet leads is protracted and many do not pan out BUT if you are persistent and help them with their needs you may just get some business out of it!

Stop Following the Directions!!!

2006-12-09T06:50:00.000-05:00

Even I sometimes I wish I was more like the Pilots referenced in Seth Godins blog today. According to Seth "Pilots have to get it right every time. They have to follow a myriad of procedures. They must be calm and focused and consistent, and yes, boring." Boring, but with less drama, less searching for documents that you KNOW are on your desk, less freaking out EVERY morning to find your nametag.

BUT when I do something that is different than the rest of the world I feel energized and hopeful. Thinking of a new way to do the same old thing can jump start your prospecting, marketing or even your entire business plan for next year.

An agent I was talking with yesterday said she wasn't great on the phone in the morning and she was hesitant to start an Expired campaign because she would be calling during dinner time. EVERYONE knows you have to call from 9-11. EVERYONE calls from 9-11. What if you called from 7am-9am? What if you called from 5:30pm-7:30pm? AND what if you just called whenever you had a second. Say you make 5 more calls a day than you were before - do you think you would get more business?

How about the fact that EVERYONE mails out on Thursday. I am sure that when homeowners get 3 marketing pieces at a time they are NOT doing a personal assessment to see which they like better. They are not comparing the relative merits of all three agents and making an informed decision. They are throwing them all out and grumbling about how much crap they get from realtors!!! Go nuts - mail out when you have time, mail out on Monday, mail out 3 times this month and see if you get more response because you have barraged them with info. Mail out anything - DO NOT wait for the perfect piece, spend a fortune and then save them for only your best clients.

Send out something today - I know it is Saturday during the Christmas season and you are busy. I know you are SUPPOSED to mail out on Thursday. I know you are waiting for the new year so that you can get the perfect piece together and then start a whole campaign.

Do me a favor -- stop following the directions and do something zany this week and then tell me about it!

Flyer Rant

2006-12-07T06:43:00.000-05:00

***** WARNING - FLYER RANT COMING!!!! ******

About the flyers that I ignore - quit sending me flyers from Naples, Miami, Orlando - I am a TAMPA BAY REALTOR and I will send my referrals out if I get buyers in those areas.

"4% COMMISSION -OPEN HOUSE SAT. & SUN" Quit sending ones that say 4% Commission - New Listing - I do not have enough time in the day to read all the 6% commission ones. Where is the property and how much is it?

"COMMERCIAL LAND & BUILDING .92 ACRES" - Where IS it?!??! Location Location Location, part of the reason I stopped looking at these is that I generally found something interesting and then found out it is in Lutz - I don't even know exactly where Lutz is and I sure don't have any clients there.

"5 STAR HOME REDUCED 35K" - SO WHAT!!! - Except that it is now only $172,900, there are not that many houses in exceptional condition in that price range. Don't you think that would be interesting to an agent?

"Refer Me A Buyer Or Seller 25% Referral Fee To You" - SHE IS IN LAS VEGAS! Using the flyer concept to get referrals is great - angering half of Tampa Bay's Realtors is not!

Some suggestions:

Las Vegas Realtor - Will Pay 25% Referral Fee!
Stunning Home $173K In Pinellas Park
Comm Land+Building .92 acres - Downtown St. Pete
New Tampa Home - 4/2/2 Immaculate - 4% Comm

Doing It Right In Ybor!

2006-12-07T05:27:00.000-05:00

So I was trying to figure out what to talk about today. When I checked my email I had 7,000 flyers that I ignored (a very small exaggeration) and one that said "Ybor City Pre-Foreclosure and Distressed Properties" which was different enough to at least open. The flyer was beautiful and well thought out with information about the properties and a link to the agent's website.

On the website was a link to Kevin's blog - only one entry but hopefully he just started!

Overall, one of the most impressive marketing packages that I have seen lately - snaps to you Kevin Stuteville in Ybor! I also am sending the MLS listings to my out of town buyer who is looking for Foreclosures in the Tampa Bay area.

Kevin's Flyer
Kevin's Website

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Internet - SEO

2006-12-04T06:22:00.000-05:00

Many of you may not know what SEO is or why it is important to you. SEO is "Search Engine Optimization" and it is important to you because it makes your site visable and desirable to search engines. It may seem scary but in fact is mostly just common sense.

To give you an example of SEO and how it works, please visit www.tampabayunder200k.com. You will notice a couple of new things:

1. I traded out the graphic banners for html links to the request more info pages - this is because search engines cannot "read" graphics but they CAN read text AND they think that html text is the most important kind! (Tampa Bay Real Estate Experts...)

2. I also added some text at the bottom that talks about being a Clearwater, Tampa, etc. realtor which was not on the site before this. This will help the search engines index the page.

3. I also added some additonal text about affordable housing - again just to make it easier for the search engines to know what the site is about.

4. Lastly I added some new metatags (view>source) that include clearwater realtor, tampa realtor, etc.)

I then resubmitted my site to the search engines - we will see if there is any increase in leads!

Dinky and Not So Dinky Postcards

2006-12-01T06:55:00.000-05:00

I have to say that the last two days have reminded me that sending out mail makes things happen! I got a phone call from a large 4 color high gloss postcard that I sent to the expired people and also a FSBO call from a dinky postcard.

The hard thing to judge is how much is too much (I am hoping Santa brings me postage for Christmas) and what works the best. Some recent mailings have included:

Neighborhood newsletters - sponsored by Somers Title and Homebanc, these mailers are too new for results

Large Expired Postcard - my partner and I have a comprehensive program designed and after just 3 months of mailings we are finally seeing some results. This is normal and the reason why many programs fail. DO NOT send one postcard and expect results!

Just Listed Postcards - you need to send them anyways, hit your farms, your sphere and your specialty lists like FSBOs and Expireds.

If I sent out even more would I get more leads?

Internet - Small Sites

2006-11-29T07:55:00.000-05:00

I thought that I would talk a little bit more about the difference between having a subpage for your site and having a mini site (1-3) pages.

Some SEO companies recommend using doorway pages to increase your rank. These are subpages of your site that have very little graphics but a lot of html and links that the search engines can index. Here is a subpage that looks like this www.realestateexpress.com/prelicense/FL/prelicense_info.asp. It is a subpage of the www.realestateexpress.com site. They have a ton of information that is specific to prelicensing in florida. They come up number 34 on a search for "real estate real estate real estate clearwater fl".

The problem with that is that number 34 is not a great place to be AND NO human will ever do a search for "real estate real estate real estate clearwater fl" even though the SEO company will use that as one of their keywords to show you how high they got your ranking.

In my opinion site promotion is best when you have a specific site that is dedicated to one topic and the title, keywords, URL and content all match. The search engines know that you are sincerely trying to provide specific information and the paid search results seem to be a little better also.

A mini site that seems to be ranking very well is "tampa bay 55 plus communities" http://www.active55adult.com/. This is a mini site rich with hyperlinks and text AND a link on the left hand side to "visit our main site". They are doing everything right! And since they come up as #2 they have made the search engines happy also.

Promoting Like It's 1999

2006-11-28T20:14:00.000-05:00

So I was working with one of the agents in my office one-on-one to see what we could do to increase her free search placement. Since I hadn't done paid promotions for about 5 years I thought that I would do a quick search to find out how and what to do currently to make the search engines happy.

Well come to find out the exact same things that I was doing in 1999 work today (and are much cheaper than paying hundreds of dollars for SEO - search engine optimization). I will give you my top 5 list of things you can do to make a difference in your placement.

1. Your URL - make sure that your site has a good www.yourname.com. Take a few minutes to pick something that the search engines can understand. In less than three minutes I came up with www.TampaBaysBestRealtor.com, www.TampaBaysAgent.com, and www.AOneAgent.com.

2. Little Sites - having one main site is a good thing, use it for all your marketing BUT make little sites that focus on only one aspect of your business. www.TampaBay55Plus.com could be a 2 page site that had a BUNCH of information about the Tampa Bay area and specifically communities that featured 55+ living on the front page, links to all your other sites and a link to a contact us page that would "feed" into Top Producer. For an example of this kind of site see TampaBayUnder200K.com. These are comparable to "doorway pages" which are a keyword packed page that search engines can index but that are part of your big site. I think you get way more bang for your buck by have several small sites that the engines can index separately - especially since they feel top level sites are better than subpages of your main site.

3. Content - have great keyword rich content that matches your title, keywords and description. Make sure that your links are hyperlinks that describe what you are sending people to - in other words make your link say "On Top Of The World - 55+ Community" instead of "click here".

4. Submit your site to many different search engines. There are two free tools that I can recommend - Site Submission Beta and SEO Studio . They are both a little hard to get set up, but once they are ready to go regular submissions are a breeze.

5. Adwords or Overture - OKAY you got me - they did not have these two paid submission opportunities in 1999! BUT that having been said, paying just a couple of bucks a day can help to jump start your search submissions and hopefully you can pay less and have more "real" results fast!

Be Specific! - Part Deux

2006-11-26T17:24:00.000-05:00

So the holidays have slowed the blogging a bit - I will get back in the groove starting TODAY!

My friend Lori Crawford volunteered to be a "specific" guinea pig so here goes (see previous post for starting point). Lori is very social and will probably focus on lead generation and sales activities that involve a lot of talking and networking with other human beings. Also she is a total class act who presents herself very professionally, as well as bringing a broad and varied business background to real estate that will serve her clients very well! She is VERY contentious and will do her very best to make sure that her clients are satisfied with the service that she provides.

Lori has a good start on branding herself with her www.sanddollarsanddreams.com website, and she incorporates the sandollar theme throughout her marketing pieces. She has also included "commitment & loyalty" as the tagline for her logo.

So here is one possible elevator speech...

"Lori brings a strong business background to all of her real estate transactions. She uses her extensive knowledge and experience to provide the best possible service to her clients, utilizing every means necessary to help them buy or sell their dream home. Commitment & loyalty are not just words to Lori - they are the way she works!"

Lori's goal may look like this...

"To build her real estate practice utilizing her personal and professional contacts to facilitate new business. To work with affluent clients who want to buy or sell high end homes in the Trinity area."

So basically Lori's day should start and end with an assessment to see if she had done things to increase the likelihood of meeting her goals. Did she send dinky postcards to her Trinity farm. Did she go to the Country Club for dinner and network with people who will be buying and selling homes in her target area. Has she previewed all the homes in Trinity? She has already joined the Rotary for Trinity - has she invited any of the members out to lunch?

Any of those things increase the likelihood that someone will notice that she is a realtor in the Trinity area and that is what her main goal is for the very near future!

Be Specific!

2006-11-20T07:46:00.000-05:00

So this is an over-riding theme here - specificity! It makes marketing, decision making and almost everything else easier. One of my mentors told me to develop an elevator speech - a 30 second description of my business that could be told in the time it takes to ride in an elevator (this is also sometimes called a mission statement). The beauty of having an elevator speech is that you can judge all of your daily tasks against it to see if you are moving forward towards your goals or away from them.

It is very easy to get caught up in the day to day tasks, but if you string too many days together where you did not accomplish anything toward your main focus you can easily get off track.

My 30 second speech is that I bring a creative approach to real estate. This means that I am able to showcase your property in a way that other Realtors are unable to and provide your listing with increased exposure to the market. My tagline is a "New Market A New Approach".

Now it may seem silly to spend your time making taglines and mission statements - but if you don't, what are your main goals for today and what do you talk with your clients about being your strengths when working with them as buyers or sellers?

Tomorrow I will give more real world examples from the people that I know - if you are one of them and would like a 30 second assessment please let me know and I will use you as a test subject!

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Networking - Super Fun Bankers and Accountants

2006-11-18T11:49:00.000-05:00

So I crossed the line again this week and went out amongst other humans. My bankers Kelly and Brian invited me to a Tampa Bay Lightning game on Wednesday. We were in a really nice box and there were a bunch of fun people there BUT the best part was that there other marketing junkies there!

My friend Brian P (the banker) and another guest (the accountant) were willing to sit and rap for a while about what makes their business unique and what they could do to generate more clients. We talked about what we were doing to set ourselves apart from other professionals and what we could do that would make us even more successful.

It got me all fired up again to do some out of the box marketing. I have a great feeling that the coming month is going to be key for scooping up market share while other agents are taking the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's off!

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Search Engines - Organic -vs- Paid

2006-11-17T06:13:00.000-05:00

So I was preparing for my marketing class today and I noticed that www.cometoclearwater.com was listed on Yahoo at #6 for Clearwater Relocation. How did that happen you ask?

I designed the site to attract out of town visitors - it is loaded with information about Clearwater and the surrounding communities
There are links that say "Free Relocation Guide" on EVERY Page of the site. What is so unique about that? Most links say "click here".
I have spent some money (not a lot) on AdWords to get some traffic to the site in the first place.
My site description in the metatags is good and compels Yahoo search engine users to click through.

There are numerous other reasons that www.cometoclearwater.com has moved up the search engine from its lowly start at 200 millionth. I read all the current theories about how to fool the engines, how to upgrage your site and how pay per click is the future, but this was just plain old 1999 good content, good keywords and time!

It works!

2006-11-17T06:09:00.001-05:00

Just a quick note to say that Open Houses do work! Last night (Thursday) I was sitting at an open house where no one had come by 5:45, it was getting dark and I was getting ready to pack up. A couple walked in and said they were surprised that I was having an open house at this time. I said that usually if someone came to an open house at that hour they REALLY wanted to buy a house. They said that they did not want to buy a house but that they needed to put their home on the market - I have a listing appointment with them this morning at 9:30!

Real Estate Marketing Pro

It works!

2006-11-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

So I had a great real estate day yesterday! Took another listing, had a buyers appointment, had another couple ask to preview that house also AND had another out of town buyer pre-qualify with my preferred lender (Brian and Kelly at HomeBanc).

How do days like these come about you ask? Well, the first buyer came as referral from an agent in my office. He was out of town and knew that there was a good chance that either my listing partner or I would be in the office and working at real estate. I know that sounds strange, but many agents do not work at real estate as if it is a regular job with regular hours, or they do not come into the office where there is a chance for opportunity. Putting yourself in the money stream helps!

The second buyer came because I was there. Show up, run out when another agent wants to give you a referral, do open houses, attend brokers opens, go to training, just do it!

The listing came because of FSBOs. I like the FSBOs, they are a nice bunch of people who think that they can sell a house. I am having a hard time selling houses and I do a ton of marketing and work at it from 5:30 AM to 9:00 PM most days, so I am sure that they are somewhat frustrated trying to go it alone. It was definitely a drawn out process, I went and looked up when I first talked with my client, May 2nd - first contact, November 13 - listing. This is not a fast process and this lady has received a TON of dinky postcards and other materials from me over that time. When it came time to pick an agent who else was she going to call but me?

Oh - the last buyer came from personal contact - my Father In Law is one of his best friends. I know - talking with humans directly works too!

Newsletters and Lead Generation

2006-11-13T06:23:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! It is lead generation Monday (my favorite day of the week dont-cha know!)

Today I am working on a new project. I have partnered with Joyce and Diana at Somers title to target three neighborhoods with a quarterly neighborhood newsletter. For targets I selected 1.) my farm, 2.) a small subdivision that is close to my home and where I listed/sold a home earlier this year, and 3.) part of a neighborhood where I have 2 current listings. This totals about 300 homes and will provide a nice test market to see if the newsletter will help to generate some leads.

The thing to realize when doing a newsletter is that although you are fascinating to yourself, hardly anyone else wants to read about you! This means your newsletter better have a lot of interesting things that will make people want to read it and not just be a disguised advertisement for yourself.

I am including tips for how to get your home ready to sell, information on Homestead exemption deadlines and eligibility (this is a Florida based homeowner tax exemption for my out of town readers!), and neighborhood sales and currently listing info. I also have a one panel of the six panel flyer dedicated to Somers Title as they are helping to sponsor the newsletter.

Finally, one panel has two of my listings as featured properties. They are targeted to be either move up or move down for the neighborhood I am sending them into. For example - in the $300-$400k neighborhood I listed a $659K car lover's house and a $149K 1/1 Waterview Condo.

If you would like to see a copy of this quarter's newsletter, email me at taradactyl@gmail.com with your name and address and I will send it out right away.

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Customer Service - What NOT to do

2006-11-11T07:19:00.000-05:00

Anyways, anyone who is around me a lot hears how much I like VistaPrint. I like the quality of their products, I like the ease of ordering and I tell EVERYONE about it. Yesterday I found out that for some reason one of my orders was delayed (I could never get the customer service person to talk fast enough to tell me the reason) and I requested an expedited order. The customer service person hung up on me. I called back and requested a supervisor and another rep promised one would call me back by COB, no one did.

I will probably not stop using them as generally their printing service is impeccable, BUT their customer service department leaves A LOT to be desired. The person who answered the phone did not understand how to talk to someone like me - I want to get to the point and get a solution. I am not concerned with what went wrong or her evaluation that a week late delivery is FINE. It is NOT fine. Offering to cancel the order is not a good suggestion either as that defeats the ENTIRE purpose of wanting to get the item faster.

My listing partner and I are Robert LeFever groupies. He is an FBO profiler who uses the DISC profile to tell how to talk with your clients the way that THEY are most comfortable with. The rep yesterday missed the boat badly. Staying calm, talking in a low tone, droning on and on about why the order was late only made me mad, although it might have made another customer feel better because they need to know all the facts, or could have helped someone else because she was nice and they like nice people. I constantly have to remind myself to try and communicate with my clients in the way that makes them feel the best, not in the abrupt, get to the point way that I like, but which sometimes makes other people feel like they have been sideswiped by a bus.

How do you interact with your customers? Do they end the conversation with a smile or do they feel like you have missed the boat like the VistaPrint rep?

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Market Like A Maniac!

2006-11-10T07:28:00.000-05:00

My market like a maniac class is a week away and I have to say that I am super excited. I used to teach the entry level website class which was nice but pretty basic. I intend this to be VERY specific and very interactive so agents can get right in there and start marketing right away!

With all that marketing buzz going on, I would like to talk about making things beautiful. At our market center they just hung a bulletin board up that agents are able to post their properties on and pay $3 for an 8X11 area. When that board is covered with flyers and agent printouts, I hope that mine will stand out because I intend to spend just a couple of extra minutes to make it look different from all the white pieces of paper up there.

Many times it just takes a couple of extra minutes to make something look great or different or on a different color of paper and IT DOESN'T COST ANYTHING!!!! Setting your work apart with good design is a cheap and easy way to make your marketing stand out!

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Internet Marketing - A Tipping Point

2006-11-07T06:15:00.000-05:00

I watch where my website visitors come from very closely, I monitor my AdWords campaigns to make sure I am not spending too little or too much, AND I do this several times a day FOR FUN!

It is exciting to see where your visitors come from because it tells you what you are doing right and where you should spend your money. I get visitors from many different places including my ILS Castles and Estates Listings, my Ezine articles, my other websites, press releases, search engines and paid placements on Google Adwords. Whenever I can think of some way to drive more visitors to my site I do it (like blogging for example!).

Something wonderful has been happening lately though.... More people are coming from other sources than are coming from Google Adwords! Don't get me wrong, I think if you are going to pay for placement that Adwords beat SEO all day long, BUT it is nice to know that the other things are starting to have an effect. It has taken about 6 months of concerted effort, but it was definitely worth it. For about the last month the paid and the other visitors have been about equal, but this week the others have definitely overtaken the paid!

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this trend continues.

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Get out and vote!

2006-11-07T06:08:00.000-05:00

Last week I sat down with my handi-dandi voter checklist they send me and decided who I was voting for today. My husband knows how much I like voting and so he recommended that I go camp out at the polling place so that I could be the first one there.

I have loved to vote since I was 20ish and worked on a campaign for "my congressman Tom Ridge" in Meadville Pennsylvania. Over the years I have been more or less militant about it, but throughout I have felt that whether you are voting for my party/representative or against who I would like to see in office, that it is our responsibility to make ourselves heard with our one vote.

Voting is a privilege of being an American citizen. Get out and vote.

Lead Generation Mondays - The Best Day of the Week!

2006-11-06T06:17:00.000-05:00

“Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right.” Henry Ford

I think that today is the day that I will generate all the good things that will happen to me later this week. I will be sending out thank-you notes from this weekend's open houses, mailing my dinky postcards, sending out brochures and also designing a new neighborhood newsletter that I will be working on with my favorite Title Company (Somers Title - Joyce and Diana are the absolute best!).

I will be ordering new materials for some marketing clients, getting more neat notepads from VistaPrint (ridiculously expensive but discounted to try) and also sitting down with my partner to go over our "Hot Prospects" and todos for the week.

As I sit and sticky-sticky the stamps and labels, I think about all the good things that will come from doing the activities to bring in clients (and advertise my listings at the same time!!!). Even if you hate doing lead generation, do it today like it will bring in business later this week and see if it isn't a little easier and more fun!

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Adwords - Max Out Your Money

2006-11-05T05:07:00.000-05:00

I was talking with an agent in the office this week about how to get her adwords cost per click down and thought that you all might like to hear it!

As you know from previous posts www.TampaBayUnder200K.com had a great click through rate. I was getting 2-3 clicks per day at an average cost of $.41/click. BUT I got nothing from that money - no leads at all AND I was mad that I was spending $1/day for no leads. Now I know that other people have much higher budgets and that wasting $1/day is not the end of the world, but it matters to me!

I set out to make a difference in that expense. First I changed the content of the site so that when they came to the site there were lots of good links to my other sites and other listings. Then I started trying to get that cost per click down. You do this by watching the CTR. This tells you how many times your ad is viewed compared to how often it is clicked. The higher that number the less you will pay per click.

You can effect this by making sure your ad says EXACTLY what they will get and that it is a compelling enough to make them click through. Changing just "Affordable Housing" to "Affordable Housing in FL" increased the CTR. Then I made sure that the keywords that made the ad show up were VERY tightly controlled*. If you have wishy-washy keywords like real estate, realtor, new home sales, you will spend a lot of money and have a lot of impressions but not a lot of clicks because they are too broad. Use tampa bay real estate, clearwater realtor, trinity new home sales and other more specific keywords to tighten up that CTR.

Perry Marshall has a great (and FREE!) Google Adwords training course that I can highly recommend!

So how did it come out? Am I spending less for more clicks? I now cap my daily spending for that campaign at $0.50/day, last month I got 70 clicks at an average cost per click of $0.22, my CTR is 0.15% and I spent a total of $15.66!

Real Estate Marketing Pro

*If you email me at taradactyl@gmail.com I will be happy to send you what I am using now. Please remember that you need to modify them to fit your campaign or area.

Motivation - Opportunity Magnet

2006-11-03T06:12:00.000-05:00

A shorty today since I have to be out of the house by 6:30 (early even for me!).

My Broker (Nikki Ubaldini) has an affirmation that she has passed onto me like a good virus. I AM an opportunity magnet. With that in mind this week I have had 3+ listing opportunities, at least one buyer opportunity and also some marketing options. I have intiated a campaign that I think will result in a steady stream of fantastic and unique properties to market AND my business partner and I are starting to really get up and running!

Go out there and be an Opportunity Magnet today!

Lead Generation - Do it! Update

2006-11-02T06:22:00.000-05:00

So I was leaving a listing appointment last night and I got a call from a FSBO who said he would like me to come and preview his property. Not a listing appointment but definitely the next best thing. AND it this opportunity came from dinky postcards that I sent out on Monday during lead generation - I love when this stuff works!!!!...:) Tara

Articles - Get Published!

2006-11-02T06:04:00.000-05:00

So I was talking with my office mate yesterday and she said on her list of 100 things to do before she dies is to be a published author. Well today that dream is easier than ever!

I got the notification today that ezines had accepted another one of my articles. They said that it was worthy of expert status and also said "Your article has also been sent to our exclusive EzineArticles RSS Feed and to our proprietary EzineArticles Email Alert Members." That means that I am getting a BUNCH of exposure for my articles AND my website. I include at the bottom of each "Visit realestatemarketingpro.blogspot.com for free daily real estate marketing ideas. See these tips and tricks in action at www.ComeToClearwater.com" which accomplishes a bunch of cool things:

1. People read my article (79 views)
1. People read and sign up for my blog (Unknown #)
2. People read my article and visit my website (as much as 20% of my traffic some days)
3. There are now more links in the internet universe to both my blog and my main site

I may do some more articles that feature my affordable housing site or my high end site or even my FSBO sites. Whatever I do it will be a great way to get more people coming to my sites, for free!

RealEstateMarketingPro

Halloween - Dress Up Your Marketing

2006-10-31T19:02:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween! I love Halloween because everything is not as it seems. My husband becomes a social creature who has fun dressing up at work and making a huge spectacle of himself (usually he is a mild mannered IT Manager who doesn't say too much and dresses the same every day). Children get to pretend to be fairy princesses, Spider man or even their "favorite" politician!

You can dress yourself up professionally also. I have very slick, very professionally designed marketing materials that scream this agent has a track record. If you are new to the business, spend a few bucks and get a professional brochure done OR go to Vistaprint and they will help you design one for free if you order your brochures through them OR use one of the MS Publisher templates and buy some high quality paper to print them on.

This may take some time, but it eliminates A LOT of questions during the listing presentation. Because your materials look professional the client projects that on you also.

If you are a seasoned agent, look at your materials with a critical eye. Have any of them gone out of date? Could you change out some pictures and show a higher end clientele than what is on you materials now? How does your current look translate - have you stepped up into luxury while your listing presentation still says bargain basement?

Make your materials match what you are (or want to be!)

RealEstateMarketingPro

Lead Generation - Do it!

2006-10-30T06:21:00.000-05:00

So this weekend I got a lead on a buyer from an article I wrote and a lead on a seller from www.tampa4salebyowner.com I will not be working either of these BUT will refer them out and and MAY make some money from them. That is much better than not having those opportunities.

I think that it is easy to forget that there is a direct correlation between how much prospecting and lead generating we do and HOW MANY LEADS WE GET! As anyone who has ever taken one of my classes knows - you have 100% more chance of getting a lead if you do ANYTHING instead of doing nothing.

Mondays are typically slow days for me (not many appointments) - so I spend them following up on leads from the weekend, adding to and mailing out to my FSBO and Expired lists, and in general contacting people who might like to buy or sell real estate from me.

I like to lead generate so this is one of my favorite days of the week - (sick I know) but I just feel like each thing I do COULD return me a new client!

RealEstateMarketingPro

Sincerity - Elections and Seth Godin

2006-10-28T08:33:00.001-05:00

So I spent the last hour filling out my voting ballot for the election. Luckily there was only one race where I was UN-happy with both candidates and had to choose the lesser of two evils. Then I read Seth's blog about manipulators and I was reminded that there ARE people in the world who are out to do harm or manipulate the system, BUT I think in general the realtors that I know are just trying to do a good job and work hard for their clients.

When I read Freakonomics and the author spent a good part of the book comparing realtors to the KKK, I thought how far that was from what I see day to day in the office. I see agents agonizing over the fact that a client will lose their dream home - NOT pining over the lost commissions. I see agent who go ahead and price homes high and still market the heck out them in order to help a client who has gotten in a bad situation. AND I see agents working their tails off to sell houses in a market where a lot is stacked against us.

So today I have to apologize because there is not a lot of marketing in this post, but I just want to commend my collegues in the real estate community for going out there each day and working from a really sincere place to do the best for their clients. Keep up the good work!

Real Estat Marketing Pro

Slogans and Logos - Oh What A Relief It Is

2006-10-27T05:40:00.000-05:00

Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, Oh What a Relief It Is, Tough On Hands - Soft On Dishes, I'd Like To Build the World A Home And Furnish It With Hope

Anyone who is over 38 years old has heard these and is probably mad at me for getting them stuck in you head for the day, BUT.... Logos and slogans can make or break a product or an agent. Make sure you have a good one!

Marsee Wilhelms from the Millionaire Mondays series has the slogan "And get packing" - how cool! I have a more convoluted slogan A New Market, A New Approach | Market Your Home To A Local, National and International Market, BUT my Come To Clearwater Logo and the Little Waves are easily recognized on everything I do.

I was talking with a fellow this week and he does the beaches, that made me think of "He sells sea shores" or "Let's make some waves". Whatever you speciality, make sure you have something memorable and then run with it!

Real Estate Marketing Pro

------ Shameless Listing Promotion To Follow! -----

1040 Wideview Ave - Historical Tarpon Bayou, This home is an Auto Enthusiast’s Dream the 5 bay Garage opens into a show room. 4 Bed/3.5 Baths/5+ Gar Find out more!

Public Relations - Blatant Self Promotion

2006-10-26T05:45:00.000-05:00

So today is all about me - I can hear the groans now. You guys don't want to hear all about me and my accomplishments. You don't want to know what I have been doing (writing articles, press releases and adding info to my websites) and which societies I have been joining (ILS - International Luxury Homes) , or which marketing campaigns I have launched. But you might want to know the hows and the whys of what I am doing it to keep my name and websites out there!

Today I am writing press releases about my blog. I will set that to release Saturday or Sunday as I do not consider that "news" and I do not think that any news outlet would like to pick it up. I DO however know that if I send out a press release and it is well written and thoughtful then realtors who are searching will be able to find out about my blog and then read it. I like that.

Today I am also writing a press release about becoming a founding member of the ILS. I DO think that that is news so I will submit it for release on Tuesday or Wednesday. Why Tuesday or Wednesday? Well Monday is when all the news junkies come back from the weekend and they will be innundated with things that are much more interesting than my press release. Tuesday or Wednesday I will be more interesting.

I am also adding the "Expert Article Writer" logo to my website with a link to my articles that have been published on www.ezines.com. I get some hits from my website through the links on the articles.

In addition I am going to add the ILS logo to my homepage with a link to my internal page that lists the properties I have available at that price range, a link to CastlesandEstates.com and I am uploading my listings there also.

What have you been doing that is noteworthy lately? Can you write a press release about joining a civic club, volunteering at a hosiptal, receiving an award, sponsoring a classroom, changing companies, launching a marketing campaign (I know news about news!) or ANYTHING else that is interesting or pertinent to promoting you. Do it today and tell me about it - I like that too!

Networking - Talking to Humans Face to Face

2006-10-25T14:08:00.000-05:00

I am not a huge fan of networking. It is something that I am sometimes dragged kicking and screaming to do, but once I am there I usually have a great time!

Today I attended a Realtor.com event where my listing partner and I got to have a giggle over the FBI profiler, who told us all about our personality types and why we get along so well or get frustrated with each other sometimes. While there I handed out about 25 property cards to realtors from the tampa bay area AND met some nice agents who I might be able to recruit or use as referral partners in the future.

I then went to a brokers open house held by one of our office agents and then one held by an agent from another office. It was great to get to talk to the 8 or so agents I saw at them and in the process got to preview two great properties.

Yesterday I went to Rotary and got a lead on a listing and also talked to a banker about vender opportunities.

You other agents might say - that is a normal week for me. Well I tend to like to do the things that more solitary like designing marketing campaigns, working on adwords placements, doing website tweaks, or writing blogs! I guess today's post is to remind me as much as anybody that real estate IS a contact sport and sometimes you have to make contact.

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Print - Why you need a brochure

2006-10-23T05:17:00.000-05:00

Having a 4 color trifold brochure gives you credibility. It gives all of your most important information to your prospect in gorgeous 4 color glossy splendor. It gives you an air of having been in business for a long time and having professionally done marketing materials. It makes you seem a step above the competition who does not have such a marketing piece. And now it is actually affordable enough that you will not buy 5000 of them and then never give them to anyone because they cost so much!

Some things that ARE important to include when designing your brochure:

What do you do for the client
What are your qualifications as they relate to the client (how does your background help them?)
Interesting facts about you, your business or your clients' business
Contact Infomation
Usability - I like to make my brochures as mailing pieces so that I can drop one in the mail when people request more info
Testimonials
Past client lists
Your designations (and how having them will help the client)

Some things that ARE NOT important to include when designing your brochure:

Going on about your history, your education or anything else IF it is not of value to the client
Pictures of the building where your business is housed
Infomation abou the team, group, agent to the exclusion of all else
Large pictures of you (a small picture by your bio is fine, a large picture of you on the front of the brochure is not!)

Overall just consider that they are buying your services, experience and knowledge and the more that you can tell them about how it will serve them the better!

Warning - Commercial Coming

People ask me all the time where I get my business cards, postcards and brochures - VistaPrint. It is cheap, easy to use and did I say cheap? The quality is stupendous and they have a superb interface that works much like MS Word so anyone can use it. If you are thinking about ordering some materials check out their templates and pricing BEFORE you spend a fortune.

End of Commercial

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Branding - I am NOT a criminal!

2006-10-21T16:56:00.000-05:00

So this morning I did something fun and productive - I picked up trash by the road with members of my Rotary group. While it fast and easy, we were unsafe and risked being hit by a car because of branding. Everyone but one brave soul refused to wear the bright orange vest that would have provided more visibility. We risked life and limb because the work release program in Clearwater allows criminals to leave the jail to pick up trash and do landscaping IN ORANGE VESTS!

This reminded me of a great branding opportunity - when you go out of your area for Turning Points or Mardi Gras or Family Reunion get togethers, brand yourself. Have your website stitched onto the back of your shirt or have "ask me about clearwater" silk screened on a jacket. Let people know your affiliation and they WILL send you referrals when they have clients move to the area.

RealEstateMarketingPro

Internet - Flash and Music

2006-10-20T04:47:00.000-05:00

Please be prepared for a rant! If you have a fancy Flash site with a landing page that people have to "click here to skip into" or if your site has music that plays as soon as you open it and people have to "click here to turn off music" this post is for you.

In 1999-2001 I worked for a company called Digital Chainsaw (I swear that was the name) and we were bought by a rather forward thinking broadband company because they liked the edgy nature of our work and our internet background. They were primarily concerned with selling Voice Over IP which still hasn't caught on with the general poplulation 5 years later - hence the forward thinking part. Well I sat in a meeting with them where they were telling me about this "great new stuff Flash" that would revolutionize how people viewed them and how we needed to spend tens of thousands of dollars developing a great Intro.

I told them what I am telling you now (5 years later) - EVERYBODY skips the intro. People do not have time to sit for even a minute to watch a mini advertisement about your company. If you are a realtor, I guarentee people want to see what services you offer OR view listings - NOT a mini movie. If you have music (and I know some of you do) - DISABLE IT. If people are looking at your listings or checking out your services they are not sitting in a totally silent room, they are watching TV or listening to their Ipod or doing something else and YOUR MUSIC IS DISTRACTING and could cause them to leave your site.

That having been said there are some great flash features that do add to the users experience - keep those and ditch the rest.

End of Rant

RealEstateMarketingPro

Public Relations - PRWeb

2006-10-18T05:55:00.000-05:00

So today I am going to practice what I preach!

Almost every day I get a hit or two on my TampaBayUnder200K website from PR Web. That does not seem like a lot but considering that there have been 94,722 views of the article through PRWeb and that it was published on May 22, 2006 -- that adds up to about 225 (1.5X150 days) hits.

Today I am going use the $10 service which allows me to see stats but does not put the press release out to all the news agencies to advertise my blog. If the content of my release is good some nice things might happen:

1. I may be quoted as a knowledgable source
2. News feeds may pick it up and put it on their website for distribution
3. People may read about my blog and sign up
4. People may read about my services and decide that they want to be represented by someone with my expertise

Whatever happens today it will be more that what would happen if I did not send out a press release -- and isn't that the whole point?

RealEstateMarketingPro

Direct Response Mag - Marketing Addict

2006-10-17T05:33:00.000-05:00

My name is Tara and I am a marketing addict. I know this because I spent this morning reading Direct Response Magazine which is the only publication for infomercial producers. I got excited because Andrea Boticelli beat out Girls Gone Wild on general principles because I think that GGW is exploitative and classical music needs a win. But overall it was a magazine about a marketing medium that I have very little chance of using BUT I still liked it!!!!

I talked with one of our agents in the office who has a jones on for Investing. He REALLY likes it and all the opportunities it provides to make money, network, travel and just in general enrich his life and other people's lives. This bears watching to see how far and how fast he can go - I will update you when he has the kinks worked out.

And last but not least is my closing coordinator - this woman gets the chills when she consumates a closing for us and has all the I's dotted and the T's crossed. Her face lights up when all her files are in order and when she has had a really great weekend of organizing them.

What do you like to do? Helping people buy or sell houses is a little vague. Figure out what you like to do anyways and then incorporate it into your real estate business. If you golf become familiar with all the golfing communities (maybe you can get a free round out of it!), if you are into art develop a list of homes that have galleries or great natural lighting, or if you like helping people become an expert on 1031 exchanges and help them keep their money!

Just because you pick an expertise does not mean you can't sell to everyone BUT it can make your career more enjoyable to you!

Tara

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Branding - Tell Them EXACTLY What You Mean!

2006-10-15T19:35:00.000-05:00

My husband and I were driving through Dunedin today and we passed a small business that had just opened. It was in a small strip mall and was called "This and Thats" or Betty's "These and Those" or SOMETHING like that. The problem is that there is no indication of what the store does. Does it sell home furnishings or clothing or crafts, do they provide services or products? AND how is anyone going to remember that name? It is SO innocuous as to be harmful to the business.

I worked this week with a realtor who knew EXACTLY what she wanted to name her business and also what image she wanted to project. Her name is Minnie, and so she named her business/website Minnie Mighty Realtor. We developed a neat logo that featured those exact words. It was black and white and VERY tailored, just like the image she wanted to project.

I designed a look with another realtor who chose the icon of a sanddollar and who wanted a very polished look. She has carried that theme through her car signs, business cards and also sanddollar candies and handouts for her open houses and home flyers. This continuous look even helped to break the ice with an open house visitor who noticed that everything had a sanddollar on it! Her website also will carry out the theme.

Both these realtors will benefit greatly from their focus and how they have branded their businesses. It is easy to "picture" their logo/branding and so clients will be able to associate them with their businesses simply and quickly.

Real Estate Marketing Pro Blog

October - Holy Cow Is There A Lot To Do

2006-10-14T07:10:00.000-05:00

I love October because it is the month of my birth and I make my family crazy by reminding them of that fact and making them celebrate over the course of 2-3 weeks! But I also noticed this year that there are A LOT of happenings that I could be involved with and I want to make sure I balance all of those things with the primary goal of selling houses (becasue as Arthur Motley so aptly stated Nothing happens until somebody sells something.)

One thing that goes on the caledar for sure is the Homebanc speaker. He is talking about busines planning and goal setting BUT that is not why I will attend. I will attend because I want to support my friends and associates Brian and Kelly (mortgage bankers). They support us by sponsoring events in our office, attending our brokers opens and working with us on various programs throughout the year. The least I can do is come to their speaker event.

I also may attend the Realtor.com seminar which features a former FBI profiler. I don't really need to know about Realtor.com BUT the information that he gives about how to profile your clients and the other realtor in the transaction is invaluable.

That having been said, there are numerous other events that I can attend during the working day that I will choose not to go to. I am focusing on time management and making sure that the things that will bring in business, make my clients happy, strengthen vendor relationships or increase the likelyhood that one of my listings will sell come first and everything else MUST be a distant second. I am not totally succeeding yet but I feel like I have a better chance of that happening if it is my first priority.

Does anyone else struggle with time manangement, and if so, do you have any nifty coping mechanisms? Real Estate Marketing Pro Blog

Friday the 13th Has Great PR

2006-10-13T04:47:00.000-05:00

Friday the 13th is here and I must say that I am very impressed with the universal nature of people's fear of the number 13 and all associated with it. The fact that no one REALLY knows how this started would make me think that it would have died out by now - but it is going strong.

PR is much like that to me. Many people misunderstand the power of PR if it is used consistenly and aggressively. If you say that you are "Tampa Bay's Premier Realtor For Corporate Executives" in your marketing materials, in your website and on your signs, AND THEN send out press releases confirming that fact, human resource directors in the area will come looking for you when they are tasked with finding a home for the new CEO the board hired.

I love this concept (and may use it sometime so Tampa Bay Realtors you better hurry up and declare yourself soon so I don't beat you to it). Some things that you have to do to qualify include marketing early and often to the top 100 local companies' human resource directors, know the inventory for homes in prestigious areas ALL OVER Tampa Bay (you cannot just know the ones near your home or office for this gig), have affiliate relationships with interior decorators and other support staff AND then tell the world this is your niche.

www.PRweb.com allows you to send out press releases FOR FREE. I would utilize this service for at least monthly notices about your Corporate Executive Relocation superiority and then pay the extra fee (approx $80) only when you have milestone that you want to make sure everyone knows about - "Jane Doe, Tampa Bay's Premier Realtor For Corporate Executives Announces That Company X Has Successfully Completed Their Bid to Recruit Corporate Raider Jones Thanks In Part to Her Ability to Find A Suitable Mansion In Tampa".

This doesn't sound so hard to do - BUT tooting our own horns sometimes feels a little weird - get over it, pick a speciality and start talking about yourself to anyone who will listen!!!

PS - Make sure you put links to each of your "news stories" on your website to reinforce your position.

Print - Sharing The Load

2006-10-12T05:27:00.000-05:00

I have to say that I am pretty pumped up about the print advertising that I have been doing lately! I am in a local free paper with an article plus an ad, the Pinellas Home Search and also the Real Estate Book....I can hear the groan from you all now - I can't afford that, print advertising doesn't work, there are no buyers right now so why spend the money, yada yada yada.

Well let's go over this step by step and see what all this print is costing. Timez Out (small local paper) The article is free and allows me show that I am a "real estate expert" in area. Small local papers are often looking for good, reliable submitters and you might just fit the bill. Here is this month's article. As you can see I was able to quote other industry sources like my Homebanc partner, Brian P. Forrester and also another agent from the office in the article, spreading the love around. I also paired up for the ad with my high end listing partner Sheila Santini so the cost was cut in half. $100 total (you also get a discount on the cost of the ad because of your article submissions!)

Pinellas Home Book This seemed somewhat cost prohibitive when I checked it out orginally, $500 a page per month. But what I did was buy two pages and sell the other ads to agents in my office who got the benefit of the lower price and "all" it took was my time (I had to commit to 6 inserts per year and have to do the individual agent billing myself). I figure I have about 10 hours in designing the ad and laying out the first spread. This month we added pages 3 and 4 which added another 6 or 7 hours to the process, BUT as they always say, when you are a newer agent what you have is time rather than money so I consider it time well spent!!! $38/ad

The Real Estate Book I went in with 2 other agents (Lori Crawford and Bill Sullivan) for this one. There is a year's commitment, but we all vowed to stay the full year or to find someone to buy us out if we were unable to do it. I got it in from the printer yesterday and it is GREAT!!! This one features 3 properties for each of us and is a month long publication (I just noticed that they all are month long - even better! Cha-ching). They also have an extensive online presence that comes for free with the listings. $136/month - 12 month committment.

So my monthly costs are about $312 to get in three separate publications. Considering I was spending well over that to be in one high end print magazine, I am VERY pleased that I have gotten my advertising costs under control and I am achieving a pretty high visibility.

Let's talk about print not working - I have heard from three separate agents in our office that they have gotten calls already from the Home Search magazine. I just started the Real Estate Book so I don't have any data on that one and the Timez Out is more for visibility and to show my listing clients I am advertising for them than to make the phone ring. Would I like more calls? YES! But....I also find it much easier to sell my services at a listing appointment when I am able to show them all the places they will be featured.

As for there being no buyers - I always am reminded of Henry Ford's quote "Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right." If you are sure that there are no opportunities and that doing nothing is the safe bet, the results you get should be commensurate with your effort!

Print - Flyers, I Have Heard It A 1000 Times...

2006-10-11T04:56:00.000-05:00

I have heard it 4 or 5 times (I know I exaggerated in the headline - get used to it!) that you should put other properties of your current inventory on the back sides of the flyers you hand out, well today I am going to do it!!!

It seems so simplistic, but I am doing a brokers open today and I think it would be nice if other agents got to see ALL of my listings and not just the one I am sitting at. Also, I was at a pitch session the other day and I handed out a flyer for different property and did not let the 20 or so other agents there know I had OTHER properties that are equally as wonderful.

I think that I may be missing a chance to "pick the low hanging fruit" as Mark Stevens in Your Marketing Sucks talks about.

Internet - Two For One On Google

2006-10-10T07:17:00.000-05:00

So about a month ago I read an article on how to save money on Google Adwords, implemented the suggestions and totally broke my campaigns, going from a pretty good response to almost nothing overnight. If you are new to internet marketing I am sure this will sound strange to you, but if you have been doing it for a while I am sure you have done this before too.

Well last week I took a morning and fixed my AdWords campaigns and made some changes to my websites to try and get more leads, not just traffic. IT WORKED!

I have one site that gets A LOT of hits for very low click through costs on google (www.tampabayunder200k.com) but which is not a great lead generator for me. Knowing this I changed the format of the sidebar on the site to show pictures of my properties with compelling prices AND changed the link to my main site instead of linking to a subpage of the TBU200K site.

Traffic at TBU200K has increased (which is nice but not all that productive) BUT click-throughs to www.cometoclearwater.com and www.clearwater4salebyowner.com have ALSO INCREASED! Basically I am using my low click through cost on google to help drive additional traffic to my "real" websites - Two For One On Google!

Marketing Ideas and Anxiety

2006-10-09T08:02:00.000-05:00

Trying something new is always hard - even when you are adventuresome - which I am. Starting a blog was somewhat intimidating for me - will I have something to write every day? will ANYONE ever read it? will I give all my ideas away to people who are wildly successful?

I hope to answer yes to all of these???s in the coming months. I have at least one "great" marketing idea each day and I agree with Seth Godin who says that ideas that are hidden die. I will be posting my ideas here each day and if you use any of them please let me know so I know that they went out into the world and GREW LEGS!

T

Real Estate Marketing Pro | Realtor Marketing | Real Estate Marketing

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