Google has taken relevance to a whole new level and for the smart REALTOR this creates a wealth of opportunity for new customers.    In addition to your website, Google now presents every other relevant piece of data possible to the user for a given search term.  For example, when you type in a query such, not only will you get a list of pertinent websites, but you will also be presented with videos, pictures, maps, news, tweets, Facebook updates and more. 

So how do you leverage this new heightened search engine experience?  The simple answer is create content that lives on each of the places from which google draws content.  As an example, for our relationship with the RedX Expired Listing Lead Service, in addition to a search optimized website, we are publishing videos to youtube.  The secret approach being that before we publish a video, we do a search on google for a given term, then select the video with the highest visibility and essentially duplicate the keyword occurance of the description and tags.    You then do the same thing for images and flickr.

To rank high in the social side, simply include tweets that contain your target keyword as well as post on your Facebook wall and the walls of others posts that also include those key phrases.    You then pick the top four blogs returned by the search and comment on the appropriate posts with links back to your website.    Next, jump on the top three forums where your target keyword appears, register, then join the conversation. 

Finally, be sure that you include the description of your business on the local section of google so that a map leading to your offices shows up when somebody searches locally for a REALTOR in your area.

By simply creating additional content that lives on the sources that Google routinely accesses, you can essentially dominate the entire site for a given search term.  This results in more web traffic and significantly more leads and sales.

If you like this post, please re-blog it and share with your colleagues.

I am still doing a lot of work with The RedX Listing Lead generating service and I have found that mobile seems to be the next big thing in attracting new clients.   More to the point, creating a place on your website that is optimized to appear correctly on a smart phone is a great way to capture new leads, especially if those leads are standing in front of one of your listings trying to find out more information.

So how exactly do you go about creating a mobile-optimized landing page?  Actually, there are a number of services out there that will do it inexpensively.   These organizations set up a specific page on your website and insert some code on your home page.  When someone visits your site from the search engine (these sites get indexed by google mobile pretty quickly) then they are send directly to your mobile-optimized landing page.  If this page has a form with an email lead capture on it, you can use it capture leads.

Mobile technology has come far enough that you can now include video (for your smart phone) on those landing pages to create an immediate connection with you prospects and drive them to become clients.  Due to Adobe Flash limitations with Apple, you do need to use YouTube to embed the movies on the page.  However this, along with email lead capture can generate some serious leads for you.

Here is how I would use this technology outside of my RedX lead generation activities:

1.  Create a landing page that details one of your listings that has a lot of foot traffic

2.  Embed the virtual tour of that listing in the page as a YouTube video.  Add an email capture form to the page to capture the lead.

3.  Add the web address to the site to the listing flyer and possibly the sign.

4.  Track your leads and results.

As I mentioned before, this technique is really paying off to help me promote my listing lead generation  relationship with the RedX Real Estate Data Exchange, and I know of a number of top agents who are using this mobile approach platform as a primary source of leads.

For real estate professionals, sources for listing leads and sales prospects is a major business focus.  In fact, for most REALTORS, finding new clients and accessing new lead sources accounts for most of the agent’s time and personal budget.   However, if you compare the top producer real estate agents against the competition, it quickly becomes clear that their major time investment is actually devoted to selling property.    This begets the question, what are the top-producing real estate agents doing that is so significantly different than their competition? 

If you look at these leading sales agents and compare their approach to real estate with their struggling competition, you find that the real estate agents that make the most money rely on technology, systems and a support team to do the heavy prospecting and lead generation.  This frees the lead REALTOR to spend time showing houses, closing listing presentations and growing sales.

By contrast, the majority of REALTORS are single entity offices.  Even when working with a broker, these agents are often left to their own devices to attract new clients, promote their services and ultimately close sales.   Sadly, this lack of resources often manifests itself in a real estate agent whose income is barely above the poverty line.

Fortunately, many of the resources that top producer real estate agents rely upon are available to all agents.  Tools such as the Redex real estate listing and fsbo lead system provide agents with a daily list of new prospective clients.  Additional tools such as mobile applications and even social media websites like Facebook and Twitter can provide a continual stream of new clients.  For many real estate agents, even basic web tools like the Redex Agent Sites can help drive prospects and speed the sales cycle.  All of this technology is available and can provide an immediate impact on the REALTOR’s bottom line.

These tools are available to all real estate agents, and when comparing the monthly fees to the potential profit, the justification for the investment in real estate marketing becomes clear.  The Redex and LandVoice services are inexpensive and provide a continual and unique source of business.    In point of fact, services like Twitter and Facebook which can be great sources for leads are free.

The point is simply that as a REALTOR, a small investment in marketing technology and tools that automate and systematize lead acquisition can make the ultimate difference in the level of success for the real estate agent.

I am doing a lot with marketing automation lately and found a great article on MarketingInteractions on the impact that automating your marketing will have on the future.  I have been using Infusionsoft for my direct marketing and it’s great because you can automate every step of your sales funnel.  Right now I am primarily using it for lead acquisition and drip marketing, but it does have the capacity to do much more. 

Anyway, back to the topic, the concept of automation is not new.  However, thanks to these new technologies, you can literally put your sales funnel on autopilot.  A few years ago, we used to focus on virtual assistants to help schedule showings, follow up on leads and get listing appointments.  While those resources are still valuable, the work of an assistant, virtual or otherwise, can be greatly augmented simply by using an automation system.

Now here’s the catch…. Even with automation, you still need to design your sales funnel.  If you are doing drip marketing, you still need to have someone write the original email, or design the post cards and door hangers.  The advantage of automation is that once you have written or designed that marketing piece, you can deploy it and literally set it and forget it.

I am currently using the Infusionsoft program at our REALTOR RainmakerMastersCircle website and having it has made a world of difference.

If you have read any of my previous posts, you know I am a big fan of twitter.   It truly is the first sales tool in history that will put you immediately in contact with a prospect that needs your service.   I have used it extensively in the past to connect with REALTORS that need lead building services.   

In order to use Twitter effectively, you need to use one of the many ancillary tools that have sprung up around this microblog technology.  Today I found what I expect will be the best Twitter marketing tool around.  The tool is MarketMeTweet and their service allows you to take connecting with prospective clients to a whole new level. 

The MarketMeTweet program allows you to host multiple twitter accounts as well as schedule future tweets.  Okay, so that is not very revolutionary.  However, it also allows you to auto-reply to any keywords that happen to be pertinent to you and your prospect.    In addition, you can use the tool to further the discussion about your services and remain in contact with your active prospects.    If you have clients that are open to it, keeping them posted about possible new listings through Twitter is a great way to further visibility about your services. 

In addition to the above, you can add a feed to any of your MarketMeTweet Twitter accounts.  However, the most impressive feature of the tool is the ability to replace the “posted by” text after any of your tweets with your own brand.  For example, if you are using HootSweet, your tweets all say “posted  by HootSweet.”  Wouldn’t you rather that your posts read something like “posted by REALTOR John Smith?”

I have been doing a lot of work with mobile marketing lately and have found the next great opportunity for REALTORS who have the resources.  In fact, this would be a great service for some enterprising company to provide to our community.  I may talk to my friends at the Real Estate Data Exchange about it.  They may be able to add it to their listing lead and real estate web design services.

Anyway, back to the topic, more and more people are turning to their smart phone to get information about a listing when scouting out neighborhoods.   What many real estate agents are not aware of is that a huge portion of home buyers who  are driving the neighborhoods on the weekend do a web search for a property while standing in front of it.  Instead of dialing for the automated message, many prospective clients are using their phone to search for pictures, listing details and property history for homes that they are interested in.  More importantly they are doing these searches while physically at the property in question.

So here’s the simple idea.  When making an online property page to detail a listing, make that page accessible to mobile phones.  There are a few services out there that automate this process.  Next, on your listing flyers, simple add the web address of the page.  The online version could simply be the basic details on the property and area along with a lot of internal pictures of the property.   

Ideally, we would be able to find a company like singlepropertysites that would be willing to append their service with a mobile feature so that the tool would be easy for the agents.  As I mentioned above, I will send the idea to my friends at the RedX to see if they want to augment their current REALTOR lead service.

Picture a prospective client driving through a neighborhood that they like looking for a new home.  They happen past a house with a sign and immediately pull out their phone.  They don’t dial the listing agent on the sign.  Instead, the go to the website where the home is listed and start looking for pictures of the interior.  If the house looks good, they jump out of the car and start snooping around the yard.  Finally, after spending ten or fifteen minutes at the property, they note the agent’s number and jump back in the car.  Unfortunately, life takes precedence and some time later they buy a different home through a different agent……   The original agent lost the sale and never even heard about it.

According to online experts,  mobile phone search is growing at a rate of 30% per year and within the next five years will be the dominant way data is accessed.  What this means is that as a REALTOR, you have an opportunity to capture more leads and close more business, simply by making a mobile-friendly version of your website with a lead capture feature.

I originally started looking into mobile market as a way to further promote the discount offer of the Real Estate Data Exchange.  However, I have found that this up and coming technology has huge potential for the savvy real estate agent.   Your prospects are now looking online for property, even when they are out and about.  This shift can provide a substantial advantage for agents that are able to take advantage of this developing technology.

With this in mind, what do you need to do to make your lead capture website mobile friendly?  As it turns out, there are a number of companies dedicated to helping online sites go mobile.  On a quick search, the one that appears to be the most compelling is mobify.me.  I am sure that there are many others out there, but this simple site allows you to take features of your site such as your headers, contact information, etc, combine that data with your data feeds ( I am not sure if your IDX has a RSS syndication feature) and spits out a mobile-specific site that captures leads and allows you to connect with your customers.

I have been using the automated lead generation feature of the Infusionsoft marketing automation program to promote the expired listing lead generation service of the real estate data exchange as well as our REALTOR leadership group and I have to tell you that I am extremely impressed. Not only with the technology but also the level of service that Infusionsoft provides. As part of their package, I was originally assigned a business coach to help walk me through their system and to learn the ins and outs of using marketing automation to stay in touch with my prospects. Well, after a number of sessions, I feel that I have mastered enough of their marketing automation system to turn much of my prospecting on autopilot. No small task when you consider the countless ways a prospect needs to be touched in order to encourage them to take action and become an active lead.

However, regardless of my current level of expertise with their system, Infusionsoft has maintained an active and very visible source of support and learning. In fact, I was surprised to learn today that the success coach assigned to my account had been re-assigned. The reason that I was surprised was that that I found out through a personal phone call from my new success coach introducing himself and asking to set up some time when he and I could review my goals and make sure that my current plan and strategy would return the ROI that I was looking for. All that I can say is that for the monthly price of a good auto-responder, I think I have found a friend with Infusionsoft. I am impressed with their service and would recommend it to any of my real estate colleagues. Even to the level that I am looking to promote their service in conjunction with my promotion of the RedX expired listing lead system as a great way to automate your prospecting and lead generation.

I was spending time on Agents Online this afternoon reading through the various real estate industry posts and I found an interesting post regarding farming a neighborhood.  Now personally, I feel that going door to door dropping off flyers or postcards is an extremely expensive marketing method; even if you can hire a neighborhood kid to do the work.    

Instead of using this type of marketing which is relatively ineffective, how about thinking outside of the box?  One idea that may have merit if done correctly is hiring a sign holder, those guys that stand on street corners with a sign in their hand, to stand on at the entrance of a neighborhood.    I can guarantee you will be the only REALTOR in the area doing this, and because it is different, your prospective clients may remember you. 

A more integrated campaign may be to have a sign company create a solid board sign that the guy on the street corner can hold.   Next, have a direct mail company create a postcard introducing you and the sign holder with an invitation to honk and waive as you drive by.  You could then send out a third postcard letting the neighborhood know when you will physically be standing next to the sign guy with an invitation for them to stop, say hello, or to learn about their local market.  Finally, as part of an integrated marketing campaign, you could then drop your neighborhood mail list back into your drip marketing system. 

The overall result of this campaign would likely be that everyone in the neighborhood would remember you.  You would likely have the opportunity to meet a numbers of prospective customers, and when they did receive your drip marketing postcards, mailers, or door hangers, they would very likely remember you. 

As a way to farm an area, thinking outside of the box and trying something off the wall such as street corner promotion may be a good way to introduce yourself to a neighborhood and really establish a presence.

Look for this blog post on the carnival of real estate and in the rainmaker masters circle.  I am going to submit it to both.  Wish me luck.

There has been a lot of talk lately about email marketing being dead.  That is partly true in that people are becoming less and less engaged with the email that they receive.   However, in my estimation, email marketing is not dead, but now requires a much more relevant message in order to engage your prospects and get them to take action.     People still open and respond to email messages from their local REALTOR, as long as those messages are relevant and useful.  It is important to understand this point as it can have a very large impact on your bottom line.

To provide you with an example of an email with limited range that could have been sent by any of us, I will use an example of a drip email sent out by one of my colleagues.  The subject of the email read “Just Reconnecting” and the body reads:

“Dear XXXXX

It’s been a while since we last spoke and I wanted to check in and see if I may be of any further service to you?  My website is a great tool to use for information and you may find it useful. 

Let me know if I can be of any further service.”

As a drip communication, this email may have an acceptable level of effectiveness.  However, there are some minor modifications that can be made to substantially increase its power.  

If my colleague were able to segment the communication using a tool such as Infusionsoft, he would be able to make the communication much more relevant, and subsequently increase the response.  For example instead of sending the generic email to his entire list, he may choose to just drip a message to sales prospects.  Possibly with something an email that read something like:

“Dear XXXX

When we last spoke, you had mentioned that you were planning on selling your home around XXXX of this year.   I know your schedule is very busy, but I would like to briefly speak to you about current market conditions and give you an update on the value of your home. 

Please click the link below to schedule a time when we can speak so that I may update you, or give me a call directly at XXX-XXX-XXXX.”

By using a marketing automation system, you can send out the above email automatically to every listing prospect in your database.  Because of the dynamic data merge functions, each recipient receives a message that feels personal, and if they respond by email, that communication goes directly back to you.  In addition, by using a call scheduling function, you are getting your prospects to immediately commit to a time when they will speak to you. 

By using marketing automation systems to manage your drip marketing, you can overcome the general perception that email marketing is becoming ineffective and will likely increase your response rates well above 20%.  Just remember that in today’s world of drip marketing, your prospects respond best to personal, relevant and timely information.  The rest of the communication is just noise.

There are numerous applications for these automation systems.  As I mentioned previously, my colleague is using a similar tool to maintain communication with his real estate mastermind group.