Real Estate Internet Marketing

Here’s a press release I thought you might be interested in with instructions on how to download my new free guide to help you generate more real estate leads and easily create real estate follow up marketing …

When homeowners go online for help in buying or selling their homes, their first stop is often a search engine.  For the real estate agent in, let’s say, Homewood City who wants to maximize the odds that the searcher who types in “Homewood City real estate” lands on their site, a free new beginner’s guide explains how to snag traffic through blogging.

“The least expensive, most productive method for real estate agents to get relevant traffic from search engines is blogging,” says Kathy Goughenour, author of Blogging 101: A Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Boosting Business and Getting Tons of Leads Online.  “But when I surveyed real estate agents about blogging, I found most didn’t know much about blogging and couldn’t imagine what to blog about.” (more…)

As a real estate agent trying to grow your business through real estate marketing online, you’ve decided that you need to hire a real estate Virtual Assistant. Excellent idea!

One thing you want to be sure that you understand thoroughly is that Virtual Assistants are not employees. The two are very different things.

A Virtual Assistant is not going to be instantly available to you eight hours a day, five days a week, in the way an employee who works exclusively for you would be.

Your relationship is one of client and professional—not employer to employee. Each Virtual Assistant has her or his own business procedures, standards and policies for working with clients and will inform you of these during your interview. Make sure you understand and approve of these policies before hiring the VA.  (more…)

In Part 4 of Real Estate Marketing Online: 5 Ways to Find Qualified Prospects, I suggested you start a blog to pull in more qualified real estate leads.

Here’s my fifth suggestion for improving your real estate marketing online and finding more qualified prospects:

5. Add a Call to Action

What is a Call To Action? It’s a statement at the end of your marketing material that tells your reader exactly what you want them to do.

It’s a crucial part of any marketing material, whether that material is a print piece like a postcard, sales letter or business card or whether it’s a piece for your online real estate marketing like a blog post or a web page. (more…)

In Part 3 of Real Estate Marketing Online: 5 Ways to Find Qualified Prospects, I shared with you a few ideas on how to SEO (search engine optimize) your website.

Today, we’ll talk about another method of finding qualified prospects using real estate marketing online.

4. Start a blog.

A blog is the ideal place for you to post additional information about listings, share stories that highlight your expertise and connect with potential and past clients. (more…)

In Part 2 of Real Estate Marketing Online: 5 Ways to Find Qualified Prospects, I shared with you my second suggestion for improving your real estate marketing online: Figure Out What Works for You.

Here’s my third suggestion for improving your real estate marketing online and finding more qualified prospects:

3. Learn how to SEO Your Website.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a way to increase your site’s rankings on search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo so that you have more people visiting your site.

The sites on page one of search engines receive many more visitors than those on further pages. Here are some stats to prove my point. (more…)

Yesterday, in Real Estate Marketing Online: 5 Ways to Find Qualified Prospects, Part 1, I shared with you my first suggestion for improving your real estate marketing online: targeting a niche market.

Here’s my second suggestion for improving your real estate marketing online and finding more qualified prospects:

2. Figure out what works for you.

How much business are you actually getting from each type of marketing you’re using? If you don’t know the answer to that question, step 1 is to figure that out.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply ask all new leads where they heard about you. Keep a running tally. That’ll give you the information you need to determine what marketing is working and what isn’t. (more…)

Over the next 5 posts, I’ll share with you 5 ways to find qualified prospects using real estate marketing online.

One of the frustrations real estate agents face is finding qualified prospects. No one likes to spend their time and money on people who are not able or not interested in buying or selling a home. Yet, this is what many agents do each day in their quest to close a deal.

You know it doesn’t pay to spend time with someone who isn’t going to buy or list a home with you. So how do you find qualified prospects?

Here’s the first of five ways to find qualified prospects using real estate marketing online:

1. Target a niche marketing.

A marketing strategy designed for everyone isn’t a strategy. It’s a waste of time and money. You need to find your niche in the real estate market and focus your marketing time and money on that market.

No matter what market you choose, you will eliminate a percentage of the real estate market, but you can focus on this market and make it your own. You will know that you are marketing to people who are most interested in your services.

I know right now you’re probably saying to yourself, “I can’t narrow my market by choosing only one niche.” I beg of you to try this method. It’s proven time and again to increase your profit by bringing in more clients, creating loyal clients who come back to you and reducing money spent on marketing that doesn’t work because it’s too broad and too generic.

Exactly how do you determine your target market? First, you examine yourself. Who is your very favorite type of client to work with and what’s the best geographic area for that client to buy and sell in? You need to get as specific as possible. Identify your ideal client and geographic area by answering the following questions: (more…)

What makes real estate marketing online a real plus?

1. Large number of potential buyers: Studies show that over 71% of home buyers in the USA shop for a home and a real estate agent online. Everyday more people are signing up on the Internet. The average age of the home buyer is decreasing, which means today’s homeowners and buyers are basically growing up in the computer age.
2. Online home buyers are better to deal with: In general, online home buyers are more experienced than those who do not use the Internet. They are usually willing to pay more then the normal home buyers. They are said to be long-term clients for real estate agents. (more…)
   
   

   
   
   

One of the best ways to bring in more leads through your real estate marketing online is to blog a minimum of 2 times a week and preferably 3 times a week.

To assist you with this process, I’ll frequently post ideas for real estate blog topics. The topics will be geared to increase your opportunity to convert leads you get from your real estate marketing online.

Today’s idea can best be demonstrated by showing you an example of a real estate blog post on this topic: Sacramento Real Estate Gal’s post about buyers asking a variety of agents to show homes

How many times have you complained that home buyers simply do not remain loyal to you? Stop complaining and start educating. Tell them in your blog why it’s in their best interest to work exclusively with you as their Buyer’s Agent.

Your clients will appreciate it. Visitors to your blog will see you as the ethical, knowledgeable real estate agent you are.

Want more ideas for blog topics that will boost your real estate marketing online? Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll be automatically emailed new ideas as soon as I post them.

To boosting your leads,

Kathy Goughenour

Is your real estate marketing online too complicated? Do you want to streamline your real estate business? Ready to accelerate it? Make it simple.

Complex does not mean better.

Spending days on the “perfect” blog wording may actually hurt it.

By the time you find the perfect domain name, you could have had an entire website built.

As you hammered out the ideal postcard, you could have made 20 calls on expired listings.

Here’s what I know I can do…

• Write (just about anything)
• Give lead generating advice about real estate marketing online
• Speak for instruction or motivation
• Build relationships with clients and peers

That pretty much sums up my real estate marketing online business. Simple.

Outside of that I either outsource it or ignore it. I have no clue about programming or accounting. Everything has to be perfectly clear for me to move on it - and complex isn’t clear.

What about you?

Are you over complicating your real estate business?

Are you spending too much time trying to learn something that has a short lifespan or that someone else could do for you?

Invest most of your time in long-term assets related specifically to money making activities in your real estate business. What attributes and skills are going to serve you and others best over the long-haul?

If you want to take advantage of a short term fad without the uphill battle of education - then outsource it. (more…)