What’s your Call To Action!?!

Sadly, for many of the sites I visit… it’s just a Contact Me Page.  Not a COOL Landing Page, that has a video, or a a fun Market Report in a Slide Show… just Contact Me.  When you are competing for leads, it’s going to take more than that

A  little box with some text in the sidebar also isn’t going to be enough to grab your visitors’ attention.  “Sign Up For My Newsletter” has to be the Second Weakest Call To Action on a Real Estate Site! Make your Call To Actions bold, with graphics and colors that they can’t miss. Contrasting colors can help draw a visitor’s eye to the action you want them to take!

Let’s face it, most people are lazy.  I very rarely go to page 2 of Google looking for something.   The same is true with your Call To Action – if their eyes don’t find something interesting in 5 seconds, people are going to “Bounce.”  So keep your Call To Action above the fold on your site.

Call To Action Ideas:

• Free eBook for First Time Home-buyers, maybe you want to have a link to down load it – but take them to a PAGE dedicated to downloading information, offer a quick video, and ask for some basic information prior to the download.
• Because most Gen X and Gen Y are not going to come to a First Time Home Buyer Seminar, consider offering a Webinar.  Remember that when you are pointing people to the information, you want to send them to a Landing Page, not just the front page of your site.  The Landing page should be devoted to getting some contact information prior to them starting the Webinar.
• Maybe you want to title that Call To Action, How To Make Money On Investment Property.  Perhaps you could make that into a “Kit” and offer ROI information for your visitors.

No matter what your Call To Action is – make certain that your offer and the corresponding Call To Action will answer the crucial question your visitors want to know: “What’s in it for me?”

If you have questions about creating leads from your real estate blog, or how to get your Listing seen by more eyeballs – contact me. I’d love to help you and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter? Let’s Connect!

Building a Landing Page

After you create a call-to-action, you need to set up the landing page that it will link to. The landing page is the page where your website visitors arrive after they click on your call-to-action, and where they will fill out the form to receive your offer.  Real Estate Agents often tell me that they hate to have people register for ANYTHING.  Well, if you are giving away a Free List of Foreclosure Properties in Your Area… and that’s a hard list to come by (It’s difficult in our area) then you NEED to get something out of it!  Will the people potentially give you bad contact information?  Maybe – but you can still get business from “bad” internet leads!

You‟d be surprised by how many times I’ve seen calls-to-action that aren’t links. One friend in Alexandria had an assistant who did FABULOUS graphics.  But you can’t “Click” on a picture (often times) and get to the information you directed the person to your page to receive!  Whether intentional or a matter of forgetfulness, the lack of a link will make it much harder for visitors to find out how to receive the offer, and they’ll likely give up.  So double, triple, and quadruple check to make sure all of your Call To Actions link to their corresponding landing pages.

I believe that the landing pages I create with a short, teaser video get AT LEAST 30 to 40% more traffic that I’m able to convert.  I’ve you are providing information for Investors, maybe you want to get one of your Lenders to do a quick video on how you CAN purchase more than 4 Investment properties!  The information you collect on this page will also be used for your drip campaigns.

Once a visitor submits their information on the landing page, they should be redirected to a thank-you page where they can access the offer.

If you have questions about creating leads from your real estate blog, or how to get your Listing seen by more eyeballs – contact me. I’d love to help you and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter? Let’s Connect!

Mail Chimp:  This email service is designed specifically for those folks who organically created a mailing list to keep in tough with people who REALLY know who you are.  This is not a service to use if you purchased a list of contacts.  It’s easy to customize, easy to update – and it’s FREE.  Be careful though, they do NOT work with Real Estate Spammers, and have a whole dialog on their site to that effect… I know that they’ve refused some agents who just wanted to use the service to blast out updates on their listings and didn’t provide a real service.  If that’s the kind of email service you are looking for, I would stick to a paid service like icontact or Constant Contact – both do a great job for a nominal fee.

Happy Grasshopper:  This is a VERY affordable plan for “pre-made” messages to go out to your base.  If you are just growing your contact list, it’s less than $10 a month for 100 contacts!  The messages are real estate Investment targeted, and we have agents who have gotten a higher response from these than any other service they’ve used!  These are fun, referral building messages that all you have to do is approve… pretty cool!

Drivebuy Technologies:  This is something we use to put TXT Fathom to 59559 (or the code for that house) and potential buyers get a text of the single property website for that listing.  It’s fast, it’s easy – and now that the agent has the telephone number looking for information, they can follow up on the lead!

Google+:  I think this is going to give agents the opportunity to start over with their databases, and make more relevant “circles.”   If you have a listing that you want to share with folks in your North Dallas Circle, you can share it with just those folks.  Have an event you want your family clued in on?  Only those folks in your Family Circle can see it!  AND it has a Video Chat Huddle feature that is wonderful! (LMK if you need an invitation)

Recommendations on Facebook Business Pages and Trulia and Zillow!  The “next thing” for all of us is “Social Proof.”  Consumers want to know that you are who you say you are, and you’ll do what you say you do.  Having customer recommendations is a HUGE tool when it comes to converting leads into clients!

If you have questions about building your real estate blog as you build your real estate business, give me a call!   Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301. I’d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter?  Let’s Connect!

What Are You Trying To Achieve

Okay, so we are spending time on the Internet, generating Internet Leads, following up with folks in our Database, and working as efficiently as possible to create sales.  Cash.  Contracts between Sellers and Buyers.  I know that is what you are trying to Achieve.  But do you have any more Specific goals than that?  For instance when you create an email campaign for local Buyers, that you’ve never met or spoken to before – you are trying to get them to connect with you.  Give you a call, let you know more about what they are interested in knowing about the local real estate market.

Before sending out any marketing material, you have to have clear goals and objectives, this is especially true with Real Estate Drip Campaigns. Why are you sending out this email? What are you hoping to achieve and how will you measure the results?  What kind of email are you sending?

5 Different Types of Real Estate Emails For Your Drip Campaigns

• Newsletter – A Generic Newsletter that goes out to your complete SOI is what I see most Real Estate Agents using.  But if you’ve taken the time to segment your Internet Leads and Database,  you could do a Newsletter with market reports that goes to past clients, and local buyers.  Is it information that is UNIQUE, Interesting and Relevant – or is it the stuff they can find anywhere?
• An offer or discount email – Are you offering a Home Warranty, why not let people know about that in one of your emails?  Have you seen the Groupon that Dream Town is doing?
• Event invitation – If you are holding an Open House, you might send out an invitation.  What about holding a session in your office about how to create a Business Facebook Fan Page?  That could be a Monthly Event!  You could also regularly invite people to meet you at a Chamber Breakfast, promoting non-profit events is a wonderful way to connect with like-minded customers.
• New product or service announcement – Is there a new subdivision in your area?  Is there an Innovative building product that the folks at Lowe’s or Home Depot are demonstrating?  Help promote others, as you promote yourself!  The message can not be ME, ME, ME, ME!
• Educational/Technical - Maybe you’ve put together a First Time Home Buyer Webinar, or you just did a blog post on ROI of Investment Properties, and what the local rental rates are.  If everybody in your area is printing Absorption rates – do something else!

The idea is that you can’t just blast out the same message to everyone.  Converting more internet leads means that you need to segment your audience and customers – and then take the time to analyze and understand their needs and requirements.  I think it’s a good idea to let folks who are subscribing decide whether they want you to follow up with them on a ‘daily’, ‘weekly’ or ‘monthly’ basis. Sign up forms should be clearly visible on your homepage and include links to previous issues so that prospects can get a taste of what content you produce and decide whether it’s appropriate for them or not.  Go ahead and ask them directly about their expectations. What information would they like to receive from you? Current marketing information, studies, industry news or tips for the use of existing products are often more exciting than the latest products, new customers or press releases.

Content is STILL King

Our in-boxes are bombarded with emails everyday, so you must  deliver Quality Content that your audience wants to read, and even better, share with their peers. A great Subject line is Critical.   If all of your emails are simply self-promotional, you are going to be in the Spam folder quicker than you can say “Frog Legs!”  You must provide compelling information that is Unique Interesting and Relevant.

“People Do Business With People They Know and Trust.”  You need to be the Local Expert when it comes to Events in your area, your real estate market, jobs, politics… okay, so you don’t really have to talk about politics, necessarily, but you need to know why one school might be ranked higher than another.  You should know if there’s a new coach for the local high school football team this fall – and you should be sharing that information online.  This kind of information let’s people know that they can Trust You to have the information and do the research that they need before they purchase or sell!

Because this IS Content, remember that your newsletters, emails, event invitations, Service and Educational news should include your Keywords.

Here’s some more tips for upping your game when it comes to Email Marketing Campaigns.  If you have questions about building your real estate blog as you build your real estate business, give me a call!   Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301. I’d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter?  Let’s Connect!

Let’s think about SEO and Link building as if you were going to College. 

So the first year at school, the Professors could teach you about the kind of Links you can build yourself, that are relatively easy.

The first set of Real Estate links for your site should be pretty easy.  There are lots of business directories out there where you can just submit your URL, company name and a description of your business.  Some of them require approval, some of them guarantee a higher ranking if you pay a fee (I don’t usually use those sites).  Here’s what you are looking for.

In this class of Level I links, there are also many social media sites where you can simply build links to your site.  Think Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook.  As more and more time is spent on social sites, their native search features will become increasingly important. Be conscientious about using your keywords in your tweets and updates – for example.

Your Sophomore year classes, would teach you links you can build yourself, that take a little more effort.

By now, your Real Estate Website should have a blog associated with it.  Without having a blog on your site with lots of good content, you don’t really have anything to link to… I say this because an html site, that you are simply adding pages to, probably doesn’t have the mobile features you need, and it probably doesn’t have the social share features or RSS feeds on each page.

That said, there are a couple of common link building techniques that work well that don’t require you to be a “thought leader”. Yet. So the first of these activities requires a bit more time investment and a small financial investment.  Before Google made it’s changes earlier this year, Press Releases were a REALLY good way to get hits to your site.  With that change, it’s not as good… but you still might want to check out a paid service like wired pf firm.  Again, with the change earlier this year – Article marketing, submitting your content to a site where it might get picked up and syndicated is really not going to help you either (ummm, duplicate content!?!)

One of THE BEST methods of Real Estate link building and improving your SEO requires using social media.  Leverage the relationships you build and foster on the various social nets out there. It may sound cliche, but that’s only because it’s true. Building relationships, and a community will increase the likelihood that people will pay attention to your content, and consequently share your links, and link to you. It also increases the success you’re likely to have when you reach out to ask for links.  Again, we’re talking about Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, G+. In addition to this – you should be sharing your links and information in your email drip campaigns.

Your Junior Year, Professors will be showing you how to create Links that take a little time and effort.

No matter what route you take, the goal of this level is to make yourself visible among people interested in the same topics as you. This process is a bit self promotional, if you are in a Condo Market – find the top Condo folks. Selling Ranches, find the other people who are doing that! Another great idea is to look for agents who are in your Town’s Sister City. You must promote yourself in a way that you’re adding value. You master this level by being a resource and a friend for other agents.

How do you do this? It’s all about networking and building meaningful relationships. This is past the Social Networking we did last year… The first step in this level is reading other people’s blogs. Then, commenting on them. Then, eventually starting a relationship where you’re communicating 1 on 1 with them. If you just go to Activerain and post information, but you never take time to comment on other people’s posts… well, you are missing a huge opportunity! Be interested in what other people are doing, and THEN get them interested in what you are doing.  On Twitter, be a GIVER – then people will start giving back to you too.

From a link building perspective, the ultimate goal of this level is to get invited to write a guest article for other people’s blogs or website.  During this process, you’re also building up a group of people that will most likely begin following you…

Senior Year, Professors should be able to help you create links simply because you create great content! 

This level is like the last month or two in high school when you’ve already passed mid terms and you’ve been accepted to the college of your choice. You’ve done the hard work already. Now, it’s time to go to parties and enjoy being the care free big man on campus.

You don’t necessarily halt the activities above.  But, you spend more of your time just creating remarkable content… and your goal is to create Link Bait, so that your content can become viral.  Here’s a video of Matt Cutts (Google Master) discussing a Link Bait idea he thought was cool.  Could you see a way to use this exact same strategy to create something uber interesting about your city, maybe with the town commissioners… or a professional athletic team?

I guess in looking at these levels of SEO and Real Estate Link Building, I would tell you that it’s a process. The biggest mistake that newbie internet marketers make is thinking that creating great content on their blog will be all it takes to be successful internet marketers. My biggest frustration is when Real Estate Agents start blogging, and then give it up after a week or two because the blog doesn’t have an immediate impact, the phone’s not ringing… Do you get IMMEDIATE business from everything you do? Building a presence on the Internet takes time, and effort – but it WILL create money and interest as you build relationships, and provide solutions for prospects!

Viva La Internet Leads!

It’s sad, but true that many internet leads that are generated through websites are lost, thought to be bad leads or simple thrown out.

Research shows that when a consumer contacts you by email, they want an immediate response. NAR does expensive surveys each year that tell us the first agent to contact the customer has the best chance of becoming their agent.  It’s a Jump Ball!  You need to be sharp to convert that lead!

The problem is the Hurry Up And Wait part of the buying process – because the online consumer, may be INTERESTED in buying… but they may not be ready (due to finances) or they may not be ready to commit right away.

So the agent gives up, loses interest or doesn’t have systems in place to keep track of that “Maybe” customer to convert them. When they enter the actually buying stage, that is when they need you… And that may be more than a year off!  The A.D.D. agent just doesn’t have the patience!

There’s a Solution

1.  You need to concentrate your efforts, your responses, and your campaigns on getting the appointment!  Stop worrying about anything else. Concentrate on getting the appointment and the rest will follow.

2.  To get that lead to want to talk to you, you must create an amazing experience. What would make someone want to work with you?

• Detailed information on your site for their situation – so when they go online at 9 p.m. they can find everything they need so they don’t go somewhere else.
• Customize the Auto-responder email sent to them. This in depth information should include information on you and the community they inquired about.  Should you have a Splash Page and Video set up?  Absolutely!
• Instant response to their inquiries should include a follow up phone call, and / or a text message.  Don’t make them wait… and don’t just send a “Blanket” email and expect to have a loyal customer.

Assign each lead a category, you know, A, B, C or hot, warm cold. Spend most of your time on the hot leads of course but set up some type of system that sends helpful emails to the warm and cold leads every two weeks or so.

Every email you send can be automated in a drip email campaign, and should include any updated listings that match their inquiry. There are 3 rules to remember. You need to be able to show value to the client, follow up right away and be able to work with an activity plan that lets the system do the work.

Again, it takes some effort to come up with an “interesting” message for someone every few weeks for a year… but it can be done!  And don’t just rely on email messages… connect with them on other networks.  Are they on LinkedIn?  How about Twitter?  If so, you can schedule out messages and include those messages in your campaign!

If you have questions about your creating leads from your real estate blog, or how to get your Listing seen by more eyeballs – call Josh Harley, Fathom Realty,  214-228-0301.  I”d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter?  Let’s Connect!

Have you ever been to a Chamber of Commerce meeting where people shake your hand and at the same time give you their business card and ask for business before really getting to know you?

LinkedIn is a great tool for expanding your Sphere of Influence, which is genuinely a form of Lead Generation.

You can connect to people you went to school with, people from your Country Club or Church AND people you’ve met at Chamber Meetings.  It’s a way to professionally deepen your relationships and get to know someone better, see who you have common connections with.  The more connections you have, the higher you will rank when someone searches your name.We’ve known people who do a TON of business with the people they are connected to on LinkedIn.  Most of those people have a very well defined Niche or Passion. They are WINE experts, and so they connect with people who are selling wine, collecting wine, growing vineyards, having wine tastings… or maybe they are CAR fanatics.  One friend is a part of every Car Conversation that is going on – from how to run a small mechanics business to collecting roadsters, to NASCAR teams and the business of racing.  This is really how you let people know about your passions, and grow your Sphere.

Complete your Profile!  LinkedIn gives you a TON of space to put information about yourself. You can connect your blog and your Website, connect your Status Updates to Twitter, high light past achievements and your favorite books.  You have the option of making your telephone number and email address public, and we would recommend that you do that so that people can contact you faster.

Give and receive recommendations on LinkedIn. Many agents are uncomfortable asking a past client to give them a Testimonial, even though they understand how important they can be for their business.  Connect with those clients, give THEM a recommendation… and then ask for one in return!  Look at all of those people you’ve been getting recommendations from on STIK (Facebook).  Make sure you are connected to them on LinkedIn!

You can update your status on LinkedIn, just like Facebook and Twitter – but it’s important to remember the “tone” of business that is being done on this Social Media Channel. Finding Investors, posting information about the Real Estate Investment Market and connecting to those who are moving to your area (and are looking for a job) will likely be some of the best leads you will get from LinkedIn.

Tip:  You can also post and promote events on LinkedIn. Depending upon the Geographic Area you are in, there are IRL (In Real Life) events of local LinkedIn groups, many of them meet every month.  If you don’t have these events going on in your area, start a group, and start meeting at a local coffee house!

Time Investment on LinkedIn varies depending upon your comfort level, who and how you are mining for leads.  Best practice is to login and contribute at least weekly to a conversation, add connections and make recommendations. This could be a 30 minute time commitment per week, or a 30 to 45 minute commitment each day.

If you have questions about building your real estate presence as you build your real estate business, give me a call!   Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301. I’d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter?  Let’s Connect!

As you read this, millions of people and potential clients are “tweeting”. They are tweeting about everything.

The overstressed single mother is tweeting about needing a massage, new homeowners are tweeting about searching for a new home and the newlyweds are tweeting about their upcoming wedding.

You might be asking yourself, why do I care about strangers tweeting?

Well, as a Real Estate Agent potential first time home buyers are great leads! Just like a spa Owner would be thankful to find people in your local area in need or some rest and relaxation!

Monitoring, and joining the conversations is another way of farming!

Create a Drip Campaign that complements your target audience and the work you are doing on Facebook.  Remember that just like an email campaign – you will not see immediate results, but consistency will be critical.

With this Drip Marketing Campaign remember that people will connect to you because you let them know you are with clients, at a Chamber meeting, taking notes at the Chamber meeting and sharing them.  Plan your tweets, and schedule out what you are going to say.  Include links to Market Reports and Blog Posts that you write.

Look for Tweetups!  Meeting people that you are connecting with online is a great way to generate leads!  There are Tweetups (where you meet in Real Life often Spontaneously) and Twestivals all over the world!  Several areas have annual Scavenger Hunts where people collectively give and receive clues through Twitter!  Organize one of these events and connect with more people!

Remember that under your signature on all emails you should have your Twitter handle, and the words TXT or Call next to your phone number. You need to have your Twitter Handle “Public” in your profiles so that it can be SEEN on Facebook, on your Website, on your Blog Posts and your business cards.  Bottom line… Wherever you have your phone number, add your Twitter handle!

Tip: A quick, easy, no pain way to grow followers is by setting up a paper.li Account for Twitter. Paper.li will create a newspaper based upon the LINKS posted by the folks you are following on Twitter each day.  If you are following many people who are writing about Golf (for instance) then a major feed for your newspaper will be Golf and Golf Courses.  If you are following news and business in your area – then that will also be a focus.  It’s a great way to develop a Twitter strategy, as you consider what types of news you want to share and who are targeting!  This is done every 24 hours, and there’s nothing you need to do beside set it up!

REMEMBER that Twitter is a Conversation – so go out there and talk #RealEstate and #Baseball and #SummerCamps with folks who can send you Business!

If you have questions about building your real estate blog as you build your real estate business, give me a call!   Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301. I’d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter?  Let’s Connect!

Knowing who your Community is will make generating leads so much easier!

“Your Community” is just the new catch phrase for Target Audience.  Who are you trying to Generate Leads from?  Most Real Estate Agents we talk to answer that question with “Anybody who can Buy or Sell a House!” But the reality is that the most SUCCESSFUL Real Estate Practices are built on a business plan that has at its’ core a target market strategy.

This is NOT some new idea for the Digital Movement – but it certainly makes all of your work pay off faster if you know WHO you are trying to connect to, and where they can be found!

Where are you Farming?

A community is simply a group of people with a common interest. You can have a community grow around a hobby, a movement, a profession, an American Idol Contestant and so many others . The days where communities were purely based around geographical factors have given way to online communities where the bond is whatever people want to make it.

Does that mean that Geographic Farms are an “old” idea? Absolutely not!  There are agents in Major Metropolitan areas who built their entire Real Estate Business around 1 City Block and everything that happens on that block, including the Daily Special at the Deli on the Corner, and when the new shipment of Sun Flowers will arrive at the florist… and the couple that’s moving out of the 5^th floor Unit because they are expecting another baby and need more space!

Knowing who you want to connect with, and therefore who your audience is becomes critical in your networking and lead generation success.

Don’t Miss a Huge Opportunity!  Connect with other Agents!

If you went to a National Convention – would you be looking for Real Estate Agents who could refer leads to you?  Of course you would!  Leaving comments, connecting to Real Estate Agents on Twitter, Activerain,  Facebook and LinkedIn is good for business.   You never know who will know someone in your area who needs to list or buy a home – and when they do – you want them to call YOU, right?

What about TARGETING agents in those areas that buyers and sellers actively relocate to and from?  Look at this map, if I was an Agent in Dallas County, Texas  – I would be connecting and looking for friends in King County Washington (for instance) or maybe Jefferson Parish, La.

Be part of the National Real Estate Community through the Designations that you have! You can generate leads through CRS, ePro, ABR – virtually all of your Designations that you’ve spent so much time (and money) attaining!  This is a great Community that you could be a visible leader in!

If you have questions about building your real estate blog as you build your real estate business, give me a call!   Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301. I’d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter?  Let’s Connect!

Did you know that there are over 70,000 iPad and iPhone Apps available at the iTunes Store??  Wow!

I just think it might be fun to see which apps YOU find to be the most helpful! Here are some of my favorite apps (in no particular order):

Evernote:  Gives you the ability to easily see your to do list… and to share your notes on each topic.  With the ipad app – you have more space on the screen.  When you click on a notebook, you get a really nice icon view of your individual notes and documents in the selected notebook, with selected content displayed underneath.

Dragon Diction: This allows you to dictate your notes.  It does require an active internet connection, but it is super cool for searching the internet and then saving your notes.

Dropbox: This is especially great for larger presentations and projects that you need to share and work collaboratively on.  It’s one of the easiest ways to work in the cloud!

Xpense Tracker:  I believe in working my real estate business as a BUSINESS.  Keeping track of mileage, food, travel expenses is smart and EASY.  This is a huge time saver!

Scanner Pro (Cost like $7 bucks):  Allows you to scan multipage documents and upload them to Evernote and Dropbox.  Also generates PDF files.

Keynote: This $10 app allows you to create KILLER presentations that are animated.  The Real Estate agent who goes into a listing appointment with a 3 ring notebook is… well… not going to be able to compete with someone who goes in with their listing presentation LIVE and Interactive!

I’m sure you have more cool apps for me to play with – so SHARE!

If you have questions about building your real estate blog as you build your real estate business, give me a call!   Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301. I’d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter? Let’s Connect!