Real Estate Web Design and Marketing Blog

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It never ceases to amaze me how ineffective and lackluster our follow up emails can be. This is a common malady in every industry what with our casual use of email communication. It’s gotten to the point that many of us consider emailing like text messaging and instant messages. Too often emails go out filled with spelling errors, lack of capitalization, poor or no punctuation and obscure abbreviations. I say change the way you think about emails. They are permanent digital opportunities you should use to confidently demonstrate your value to you potential prospect or client.

Opportunity Wasted!

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This post is actually the result of an email response I wrote today to Dakno Blogging Bootcamp student, Dena Calivas, Eco-friendly Realtor in Jacksonville, Florida. Occasionally it happens that way. I’ll be writing an email (yes-they are this long. Have pity on the recipient!) and when I have finished writing my (War & Peace) email, I’ll look back and think, now that is blogging material! If you are “hitting the wall” with writer’s block for your blog, go back and read some of your past emails to your clients or associates. Who knows what “blog fodder’ is just sitting in your sent folder.

Please Don’t FSBO Your Brand!

In my email to Dena, I was sharing with her the importance of conveying a consistent professional message with each component in her arsenal of online and offline media. Too often I see a “mashup” of different branding elements all thrown together. Many agents will produce something for their print media, then something totally different for their website. The outcome is a hodgepodge of dreadfully unprofessional branding gone awry. What a missed opportunity to make a positive impression. Much of it is the result of what I call “FSBO” design work performed by “DIY” real estate agents armed with a Publisher application. Most are looking to save a buck. Need I remind you that you get what you pay for.

Building Trust with Your Prospects!

Remember, it really is important you communicate trust and professionalism with your online and offline presence. This is accomplished by offering to your online and offline prospects and your clients a consistent look and feel for every piece of media you offer. It starts the moment you hand a prospect your business card or the instant a visitor arrives at your real estate blog or your website. That’s what I call an “impression” moment! The look and feel of each interaction opportunity should be duplicated.

Repeated Impressions Build Trust

Remember – repeated impressions builds trust. That’s Marketing 101. To do otherwise diminishes the trust factor you work so hard to develop. That’s why every interaction must be exact. I challenge you to take inventory of the following opportunities and make sure every one of these offer your prospect (or client) a consistent look and feel based on the anchor of your brand – your website:

•    Your website (the anchor of your branding!) From it every other piece should mimic it.
•    Your blog (the design should mirror your website)
•    Business cards
•    Thank you note cards
•    Letterhead
•    Email stationery
•    Car wrap/van wrap/moving truck wrap
•    Property take one flyers
•    Just Listed/Just Sold postcards
•    Direct mail postcards
•    Listing Presentations
•    Buyer/Seller Guides
•    Relo Guides
•    CMA’s
•    Yard Signs
•    Billboards
•    Water bottle labels
•    Koozies (form insulation for cans and bottles)
•    Print ads (Homes & Land, The Real Estate Book, newspaper and magazine ads…etc.)

There are probably others I have omitted, the point being, every one of these pieces is a golden opportunity to make a positive impression and solicit a strong call to action to your audience. Call today, email today!

Last But Not Least – Measure for ROI

If you offer any of these media by all means measure each for its effectiveness. If it’s not helping propel your business, evaluate it, retool it and if necessary, eliminate it. Just be careful with your brand. Making a major overhaul of your logo and your corporate identity should be approached cautiously. Take a look at the most recognized brands. They seldom make sweeping changes unless it is the result of a merger or buyout.

Devise a Focus Group

Now might be the most opportune time to gather all of your marketing collateral and place it in front of a small focus group. Maybe your focus group is made up of a past client, a new client and other unbiased friends and associates. Provide your group with examples of each piece of your marketing material and ask for their honest opinion. It’s a great place to start. From there you can begin to reign in your brand and hone it to your target market.

Any Feedback?

Everyone has an opinion – what’s yours?

Until my next post,

Bobby Carroll – Your Real Estate Marketing Guide

Recently I’ve been sharing recently with our Dakno clients and my friends over at Active Rain about the need to expand their Internet presence by exploring the awesome applications available on the iPhone. Yes, you to can begin to broaden your web presence by using the tools that power the iPhone apps.

Map It Anyway!

Even if you don’t own an iPhone, you can begin to map your properties, your favorite restaurants, your area’s bike repair shop, or any other significant location by adding it to the website called Platial. Once the business, neighborhood school or your condo building is mapped and properly “tagged”, you’ll begin to enjoy enhanced search engine ranking as well as maybe a few more site visitors who happen to click over to your blog or website to view more information from their iPhone.

Demonstrate You Are a Tech-savvy Giant of an Agent!

The next time you have a listing appointment, say this to your potential client, “Because it is my fudiciary responsibility is to deliver the absolute best home selling results by helping you sell your property quicker and for maximum value, I utilize every means available to expose your property to as many potential buyers as possible. One of the many ways I accomplish this goal is by syndicating your property on many high-traffic national websites, and I also target the mobile computing tools available on the cell phone.” Follow that by saying; “There have been more than 3 million new generation 3G iPhones recently purchased by tech-savvy consumers and many of those same consumers will utilize their iPhone to help them search for their next home. To ensure your home is visible to those users, I will upload your home to numerous iPhone application powered websites like Trulia.com and Nearby (powered by Platial.com). That way I know your home is reaching even more potential home buyers.”

If You Use Those Lines!

If you happen to mention what I suggested above and you secure a listing, by all means come back here and leave a comment. Now go map your area and dominate your market (and think about buying a new iPhone especially if you close on that listing you just secured :>).

Until my next post,

Bobby

P.S. For a slightly different take on the same topic, be sure to visit my Crystal Coast Blog – it’s your Emerald Isle Real Estate and Rental Resource!

Post Update!

Scottsdale real estate agent Heather Tawes Nelson emailed me to say she dug into Platial.com and discovered from their “Terms & Conditions” that the site doesn’t permit commercial advertising. I suggest you refrain from “advertising” your listings on Platial.com. To take advantage of the Google power and the potential additional eyeballs you could capture, I say work the “I recommend this restaurant” or “this condo building is really close to this awesome gym.” The way you play by the rules. To me mapping schools, recommending businesses and the like are fairgame. Thanks Heather for the email – good call!

As many of you may know. Outlook 2007 shows email stationery much different than in ealier versions. This is because with 2007, Outlook uses Word to render emails. While this does make it easier to format day to day emails, it can be cause Email Stationery to not display properly.

Another “feature” with Outlook 2007 is that you can no longer simply add Email Stationery by “browsing” for your stationery file. With 2007 you must first save the file to a specific folder and then select the stationery. It’s obvious that Microsoft is trying to phase out Email Stationery because with each new release of Outlook, it’s more difficult to incorporate Email Stationery.

It’s Still Possible.

Here are the paths for saving the stationery…

Stationery (.htm)

Windows Vista
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery

Windows XP or Windows Server 2003
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery

Note that you may  have to “show hidden files and folders” in order to access the paths listed above. To do this, follow these directions…

To display hidden folders, do the following:

* Windows Vista
1. In Windows, click the Start button, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Appearance and Personalization.

If you are using Control Panel Classic View, double-click Folder Options, and then continue with step 4.
3. Click Folder Options.
4. On the View tab, under Advanced settings, under Files and Folders, under Hidden files and folders, select Show hidden files and folders.

* Microsoft Windows XP
1. Click the Start button, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Folder Options.
3. Click the View tab, and then click the Show hidden files and folders option.

Now that you can access to the folder, simply drag and drop your HTML email stationery file into the folder.

Now open outlook 2007 and select Tools – Options.
Select the “Mail Format” tab and click the “Stationery and Font…” button

Ensure that the Personal Stationery Tab is selected and click the “Theme…” button

You will now see a list of available themes listed in the left hand side. Select your Email Stationery from the list (it will be listed as the file name).

While they don’t make it easy, it’s still possible. But this leads me to wonder. Is Email Stationery dead?

It seems a day doesn’t go by that a real estate agent doesn’t ask me, “does target marketing really work“? Then they follow that question with a statement of fear by saying, how can I succeed unless my website targets, first-time buyers, luxury buyers, condo buyers, relo buyers, lakefront property buyers and the list goes on and on! My first reply is “absolutely“, target marketing most definitely works! Then I say, don’t let your fear prevent you from experiencing success. The smart ones then say “if target marketing works – prove it“. I love it when they challenge me with questions and comments like that.

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Blogging Boot Camp – Your Incubator for Blogging Ideas

Each week during our Blogging Boot Camp we share creative blogging ideas, discuss how to implement blogging best practices and offer helpful tips to best use the WordPress blog editor with our real estate agent/broker students. The exchange is fun and the ideas that flow out of our time together are always very interesting. During our recent boot camp call (Thursday-week #7), we shared this idea we thought would benefit the “masses”. Just as a helpful reminder, when blogging, think globally but write locally.

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How you ask? Before I answer that question I have to ask you another question. Do you provide links to “great” websites like your local chamber of commerce, your local newspaper website or maybe the area convention and visitors bureau from your website? I know you were thinking those websites offer all kinds of great area facts and information (and they do). And the main reason you provide those links to these sites is because…….? We both know why. Chances are your site fails to provide any solid area information to your site visitors and you want your site visitors to be able to get to know your area. So is it a bad thing to provide your visitors these “community links” to this “valuable area information”? BTW – this is as close to a rant post as you’re going to read from me. Take heart – it’s a mild rant.

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The First Dakno Real Estate Marketing Podcast!

Sit back and enjoy this first installment in a series of podcast by Dakno Real Estate Marketing President and CEO Brad Carroll and myself, Bobby Carroll as we discuss incorporating user generated content in your online real estate marketing strategy. No doubt, in today’s real estate environment what you do with your online presence can make or break your ability to produce income. We invite you to listen and ask a question about anything you hear.

Help Us Name Our Dakno Real Estate Podcast!

As a part of this new venture, we encourage you to help us name this podcasting tool. The more creative the better. For your efforts, we will select the name that most appropriately describes what our podcast is all about. So that means you have to see ….er hear what it’s all about so you can name our podcast!

What do I Win If You Select My Entry?

Great question… if we select your submission we will provide you a choice of one of our eBooks. The chosen entry and winner can select from our Real Estate Website Success Guide or the SEO resource The Real Estate Website Accelerator. For more details on these excellent and much-needed real estate web 2.0 resources checkout our website for more details.

Have a listen and tell us what you think. The podcast links are below.

To your success!

Bobby

 

 Incorporating User Generated Content in Your Real Estate Marketing [32:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (446)

It seems that when people talk about driving traffic to their website, they immediately focus on two methods – Pay Per Click, and Search Engine Optimization. While these both work, they are only two of a number of ways to drive people to your website.

The Problem with Search Traffic

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With the holidays upon us, now would be an excellent time to review your marketing plan for this past year and set in motion your plan for 2008. Take advantage of this slow period to examine and assess your marketing efforts to date. Because of lack of focus or results, is your marketing plan overdue for an extreme makeover or a subtle tweak? Review the questions below:

1. Are You Guilty of Complete Omission of Any Branding Elements: Too many real estate professionals fail to understand the importance of core branding elements i.e. logo, tag-line, and unique positioning statement. Branding elements provide a visual identity which helps your target audience connect with your core values and your services. Your brand should help differentiate you in your market.
2. Marketing to an Undefined Market: Find your target audience and gear your marketing plan and message to that audience. Attempts to appeal to everyone will fail. Not having a clear marketing message that speaks to everyone will end up speaking to no one. Plus it confuses the consumer and will easily miss any chance of hitting your target market entirely.
3. Inconsistency in Your Brand and Marketing Efforts: You need to have the same look and feel of your brand image across all of your media including your online presence, mailers, listing presentations, property fliers and all other aspects of your marketing plan.
4. Lack of Marketing Diversification: Marketing in print or on the Internet alone will reach only a portion of your potential customers. Plan to market creatively through a cross-section of media channels so your potential customers become familiar with your brand and your services at different times and in different places.
5. Not Focusing on Repeat Business: Repeat business typically makes up 80 percent of customers in most businesses. Too often marketing campaigns are heavily focused on bringing in new customers and not building relationships with current ones.
6. Bad Timing: Time your marketing campaigns to coincide with traditional up-tempo seasonal sales (example: early spring through mid- summer) or an upcoming events (i.e. new company relocating hundreds of new employees to your area) that will attract new business. Advance preparation is critical to your success.
7. Don’t Over-hype Your Service: For the consumer, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Too much hype will turn people away. Keep your marketing message simple and direct.
8. Don’t Forget – Slow and Steady Wins the Race: If you blow your entire marketing budget on a particular campaign, then what will you do next? Marketing means building your brand image and reputation via multiple impressions over an extended period of time.
9. Failure to Capture Feedback: Create your personal focus groups for feedback on your campaign and test your marketing ideas. Don’t launch your campaign without obtaining feedback first.
10. Making a Change for the Sake of Change: Just because you are tired of your marketing plan doesn’t mean it isn’t working. Too many real estate professionals make changes because they think they have too. Often a tried and true formula will keep working. Remember- always measure for ROI and refine when change is driven by lack of success.

By addressing and avoiding these critical mistakes, you and your marketing plan will be positioned to enjoy greater success.

Happy marketing!

Bobby Carroll