As I learn more and more about marketing automation systems and their ability to basically send leads to you on autopilot, I am spending more and more time researching which marketing methods work best in this type of program. 

With this in mind, I read a great article on behavior marketing this morning from Marketing Sherpa, and it has some very pertinent takeaways for real estate professionals that use tools like RedX and Top Producer to attract leads.

The article reviews some of the actual reasons people buy, but also some interesting things you can do to shorten the sales cycle and improve results.  Here are the lessons and how you can use them to attract more listings.

1.  Expectations modify experience:  You can set expectations in your flyers, mailers and listing presentations.  Be sure to present your value proposition, but also help your prospect to understand that the average days on market means something.

 2. People are uncertain of the monetary worth of products and services:  Back to managing expectations; through your communications, add a price tag to the value-added services that you provide.  As an example, if you provide staging advice as part of your service you may want to communicate that you normally charge $50.00 per hour for the service, but you can throw it in for free if your prospect will take action immediately.

 3. People place a greater value on their own items:  AMEN.  We all know this, but you can use it to your advantage.  In your listing presentation or marketing materials, start with the full package and allow your prospect to start removing ala carte items.  Back to the listing presentation example, you may get a higher commission by starting with a statement that for 7% you get the full services including staging, open house, flyers, door hangers, postcards, etc.  Then let them remove any of these items that they don’t want to include in exchange for a commission closer to the customary 6%.  If the research is to be believed, more often than not, a client will prefer to give the higher commission to avoid the pain of having to give up benefits.  By allowing them to customize your offering to meet their needs and avoid the pain of giving up benefits you may end up with a better commission and a loyal client.

 4. Reach customers at the right time:  This is why I am such a fan of the RedX expired listing lead service; because you can capture the expired the moment it comes off listing.   The example that the article provided was a test where they gave customers coupons before entering a store and gave customers coupons after entering a store.  Those that received the coupons before had a much higher purchase rate.  The reason being that the didn’t have a plan before entering the store so they were more open to the coupons.   

5. Back to prospecting expireds through RedX.  Applying these principles to a prospect whose listing has just expired is perfect.  You have the opportunity to leverage their past experience to manage their current expectations, and by differentiating your services and placing value on your bundle, you allow your prospect the opportunity to create a REALTOR experience that completely serves their needs. 

I have been evaluating different marketing automation software programs to literally put prospecting on autopilot. Currently I am in the 15 day free trial of Infusionsoft and have am trying out one of their lead capture and warming campaigns. The idea of the campaign is simply that when a lead comes in, you can warm them up through multiple touches regardless of whether or not you call them right away.

The campaign is completely automated and for REALTORS would do the following through the Infusionsoft system:

1) Lead capture – A prospect lands on a landing page that has a form to fill out in exchange for free comps of their area. I would use one of the RedX’s lead generation templates for this because of my long relationship with them and the fact that I have been promoting their $150 discount for quite a while.

2) When a prospect fills out the form, they are immediately emailed the area report that I promised on the landing page. Because I am using the geo-targeting feature of Google Adsense, the area is reasonably targeted.

Now the fun begins…

3) Regardless of whether or not I have called the prospect yet, the Infusion system sends out a personal introduction by email that looks like it was from me. I include my contact information in the email so the prospect can call, or if they reply to the email, it is sent directly into my regular email account. Included in the email will be a link to an automated ten slide presentation, narrated by me. For Real Estate Agents, this would be an online listing presentation.

4) The next day, another email automatically goes out asking if the prospect has had a chance to view the online presentation. The automated email also asks if the prospect would like to get regular market updates and what form of communication they would prefer: phone, email, or text message.

6) If the prospect has chosen to receive text, I can set the system up to automatically send a text message to the prospect giving them some more information on current market conditions. It may sound tough to do in 160 characters, but it would be the same as a Twitter tweet.

5) When this text goes out, a to-do action is put into my task list with instructions to call this lead today. This is the point where I would make first contact as the prospect already knows who I am.

7) A week later, and postcard is sent out detailing a property that has just been sold by you in the area. This helps to show the prospect that you have a good market presence in their neighborhood.

8) A few weeks later, an email newsletter is emailed to the prospect. Once again, when the email is sent, the Infusionsoft system puts a to-do action to notify you to call the prospect and follow up.

9) I believe the system is set up so that you can also send messages whenever you need to. For example, you would want to send a text or email to your prospect list when another property is sold or when the comps in the area change.

The Infusionsoft system is pretty flexible and does quite a bit. Obviously, having signed up for their 15 day free trial , I am in the funnel that they set up using their system to close prospects like me. Depending on how things pan out, I may be using their system to further promote the RedX, and become affiliated more closely with them.

Two things to discuss this afternoon:  The first is that there are only two days left to take advantage of the Double Discount offer to save $149.99 and 15% from the RedX Real Estate  Listing Lead System.  The promotion ends at the stroke of midnight December 31, so if you haven’t taken a look at their system, now is the time.  Here is the link: http://www.theredx.com/signup/4mysalespromo.html

 

The second order of business is marketing automation systems.  As I mentioned previously, I am researching different marketing automation systems that will essentially automate the prospecting and sales process for real estate professionals.  The system that I am currently looking at is InfusionSoft and it appears pretty robust.  Here is an excerpt from one of their drip marketing emails that they sent me.

 

Sniper Marketing

Imagine having all of your suspects, prospects, and customers in an auditorium. The lights are shining at the podium, where you step to the microphone and ask everyone to stand.

Slowly but surely you whittle away at the crowd by playing duck, duck, goose with questions like, "If you are from Arizona, California, or Nevada, remain standing. If you heard about us through a Google search, remain standing. If you have purchased something in the last six months, remain standing."

Now that you have this highly targeted group of people, you present a sales pitch just to them keying in on their interests and unique interactions with your company. What do you get? A HUGE increase in your response rates!

Obviously, there is a lot to be said for target marketing.  Essentially, marketing automation systems allow you to put prospects into your sales funnel and automatically nurture and warm them into hot leads before you ever need to call them. As a result, your close rate and efficiency go through the roof.

 

As a thank you for all of your support this holiday season, I would like to offer each of you a complimentary copy of my Residential and Retail-Commercial Investment Analysis Software.  This software has been a great asset over the past few years and normally retails for $149.99.   It is now my gift to you. 

 

My friends at the RedX are also in a giving mood and wanted me to remind you all that their double discount special will only be going on for a few more days.  Their Double Discount is an up-front $149.00 discount as well as a  15% discount off of the first three months of service.  Overall, it is about a $185 savings.    Here is the link to their offer:  http://www.theredx.com/signup/4mysalespromo.html

 

Here is the download link to the software:  http://www.freetrainer.com/tem/IPWare.exe

 

Have a very happy holiday season.

 

I have been busy over the past few weeks looking at different marketing automation software program.  As such, I forgot to let everybody know that the Real Estate Data Exchange (RedX) has EXTENDED THEIR DOUBLE HOLIDAY DISCOUT (15% off the first three months along with waiving the $149.00 start up fee) until December 31. 

If you have read my previous posts, you know I hold their listing lead and FSBO products in the highest regard and am happy that they have chosen to maintain a commercial relationship with me.  With that in mind, here is the link to their DOUBLE DISCOUNT PROMOTION:  http://www.theredx.com/signup/4mysalespromo.html

Now, the Real Estate Data Exchange aside, I have been fascinated by the potential application of some of these marketing automation programs for automating all of your lead generation and prospecting activities.  Currently I have narrowed my evaluation down to two programs, InfusionSoft and Active Conversion.  So far, InfusionSoft is in the lead simply because it is more applicable to BtoC marketing (as in Realtor to Client) and has a number of pre-designed forms that eliminate a lot of the design work that would otherwise be required.

So what does a marketing automation software do?  Well, it allows you to create a long term relationship with a prospect or client without having to continually and personally follow up with a client.  To give you an example, say you had a lead capture form on your website.  Without a marketing automation and lead scoring system, you would typically just follow up with a call.  Now, you may still choose to do that, but what if instead, the prospect received a personalized email from you during business hours within 20 minutes of them filling out the form?

Okay, that sounds like an autoresponder.  However, what if your marketing automation system also automatically left a voicemail, sent an SMS text, or mailed out a hard copy of an appropriate market report.  Now, what if you call the prospect and they say they are just keeping tabs on the market?  Well, your automated marketing system can be set up so that once in a while it sends a personal email to “just check in”  periodically invites  your prospect to a seminar, webinar, or video that you are hosting.  Essentially, the marketing automation system allows you to continually market to a prospect and warm them to the point that when you make the call, they are ready to give you the listing.

Take a look at InfusionSoft.  Currently, they seem to be the best value with the most applicable features.  Also, don’t forget to take advantage of the double discount on the listing lead and FSBO lead system from RedX

 

I have been doing a lot of research into marketing automation for our discount offer for the RedX Listing and FSBO lead system and have come across some very useful tools that REALTORS can use to automate and optimize their lead generation.  The system that I am working with is pretty extensive, but its overall cost is a lot higher than most brokers can afford. However, there are some free resources that you can use to duplicate the same process.

 

To back up a step, what is marketing automation?  Essentially, it is completely automating the process of routinely reaching out to your customers to move them down the sales funnel. 

 

To use the discount offer for the RedX lead system as an example, the process that I am planning is that the prospective client lands on the website, agentsonline.org.  From there, the client either clicks directly through to the RedX to take advantage of the special offer, or instead registers to receive more information.  If the latter happens, then the prospect is automatically sent out a thank you email that contains the requested data.  The next day, another email is sent directly from the sales person introducing themselves and asking if the prospect has any questions.  The system automatically puts a notice in the sales person’s calendar to follow up that day with a telephone message.  One week after this initial exchange an email is sent out with a video describing the benefits of the technology.  Two days later, a follow up email is sent out from the sales person.  The process continues at longer and longer intervals until the prospect converts.

 

So that is an example of how a marketing automation system would work, but how do you create one without spending a fortune?  In point of fact, there are a number of technologies available for free, you just need to configure them.  What I would initially recommend would be an email autoresponder system (I use mailchimp.com) and a good calendaring tool.

 

As an example of a low cost marketing automation system, let’s suppose that you are getting fed expired listing leads from the RedX system.  Because you have a full picture of the prospect along with their contact data, you can almost completely automate your prospecting of the client.  A process that you could automate may be as follows:

 

1 Initial phone call – okay, you really can’t automate this.  If they don’t accept a listing appointment, offer to email them a report detailing the ten steps they can take to speed the sales process.

 

2 Email out the report – this is the first autoresponder so all further email communication can be automated.

 

3 Set your autoresponder to send out a personalized follow up email two days later.  Have yourself cc’d on the email so that you know to make the follow up phone call.

 

4 Four days later send an automated newsletter detailing current market conditions.

 

5  Two days later, have the system send another personalized email saying that you were thinking of how to market their home and requesting a follow up meeting.  The call to action is that they call you.

 

6  Have the autoresonder CC you so that you know to follow up the next day.

 

7  Five days later have the autoresponder send out another report listing the top ten ways a homeowner can market their own home.

 

8  Four days later have the autoresponder email a personalized note that includes links to sites that explain how to effectively state a home to sell.

 

9  Start spacing your communications out longer and longer until you eventually put the lead into your newsletter and drip campaign.

 

The above is just an example.  If available, include other media and forms in your communication such as video, white papers, testimonials, stories and other data that is useful to the prospect.  All of the above, with the exception of you making the phone call can be automated to start after that first communication is sent out.  This essentially creates the perception for the customer that you are always thinking about them and there to serve their needs when they are finally ready to re-commit.  Because you can use autoresponders and calendar tools to automate the process, it is scalable to every lead, prospect, and past customer that you have.  Also, because it is automated, once the initial work is done, you simply turn it loose and let is warm your leads for you.

If you have kids, or are under the age of 20, you know what thae OMG acronym stands for.  For those of us who remember learning how to type on Electrolux typewriters, it may be foreign.  For me, I had to look it up.

Regardless, I had the same feeling when my friends over at the RedX (Real Estate Data Exchange) offered an additional 15% off the first three months of their already economical membership, along with continuing to waive the $149.00 start up fee.  Essentially, that offer brings the daily cost of their service to below that of a bottle of water.  Not too bad.

If you are interested, here is the URL that they gave me, or you can use promotion code 14610 if you are signing up over the phone.  http://www.theredx.com/signup/4mysalespromo.html

 

Anyway, that’s not really the reason that I am posting today.  I really wanted to share what I have learned over the past little while on the topic of search engine optimization and getting the internet to really work for you to warm up leads and get them closed. 

What I have learned is that online, if your goal is to get traffic and convert that traffic to listings, there are two features of the online world that you need to be aware of and balance.  These are breadth and depth and what I mean by these terms is as follows:

The bigger your web presence, the better your chances of target clients finding and landing on your website.  Those real estate agents that have depth to their site, or a lot of optimized pages with good content that can easily be found by searching terms that target clients commonly use; and those agents that have depth; i.e. a lot of different micro-sites dedicated to specific search terms have the greatest chance of attracting web traffic from targeted clients and closing more sales.

If you think of the web as a literal highway, then the more billboards you have up as people cruise by, the better your chances of getting their attention and making them a client.  Unfortunately, web advertising is expensive and in many cases too broad to meet the needs of your average REALTOR.  Search engine optimization however, is not nearly as expensive, and if done right, will give you a much more significant return on investment.

How this is done is simply by choosing the list of terms that your ideal client typically uses when searching for a home online.  Then create three dedicated pages on your website for each specific term.  Because the search engines place a high priority on sites that include the search term in the URL, you may want to consider creating micro-sites that have your targeted phrase in the web address.  (A micro-site is simply a small website designed to drive a specific action from the visitors.)  After you have created your search term-dedicated pages, or micro-sites, simply get links back to those pages from as many sources as possible.   Publishing articles is a great way to do this effectively.

Over time, add more content to improve the depth of your site as well as to expand the body of terms that attract search engine traffic. Monitor your web traffic, and if a specific term seems to attract viewers, post more content targeting that keyword to improve your depth and traffic from that term.

The process may be a fair amount of work when you get started, but after you have established your site or sites, you can just sit back and let the leads roll in.

 

If you are blogging to attract real estate leads, which many of us are, you know the value of having your content found on the internet.  I have been working for some time to get the word out about the Real Estate Lead Generation Software provided through RedX and have learned a great deal about search engine optimization in the process.   What I have learned is that if you want to successfully drive leads to your blog, the actual post is only the first step.  The steps following your post will truly determine your level of success in attracting traffic and subsequent real estate leads to your blog.

 

Steps To Attract Real Estate Leads Through Your Blog

 

Let’s face it.  Any time you spend creating a blog is an investment in marketing.  However, your return on investment is determined primarily through how many people read your blog and visit your site.  Fundamentally, the best way to get your blog read is if it shows up on a search engine.  Therefore, getting a high ranking for a given search term is imperative.  So what are the steps necessary to search engine optimize your blog post?

 

Before you even begin writing your post, you should determine what keyword phrase you are targeting.  If you have a topic in mind, spend a few minutes on google to see how competitive the phrase you are focusing on will be.  To see the level of competition, look next to the search box for the search results information.  For example, the competitive information for the term “attract real estate leads” is “Results 1 - 10 of about 4,230,000 for attract real estate leads. (0.55 seconds)”   Because this article is competing with over four million other entries, it is unlikely to rank high on the search term “attract real estate leads.”  Therefore, optimizing it for that term may be relatively futile and I should probably optimize this post to a less competitive phrase such as “listing leads for realtors”, or even “GRAR” which only has one million competitors. 

 

After you have chosen your search phrase, write your post to include that phrase one to three percent of the time.  Be sure to include the phrase as part of your header tags <h1> as well as your subhead <h2>.  Back to our example, the phrase Attract Real Estate Leads is in the <h2> tag of this article.

 

Now Start Your Real Estate Search Engine Optimization

 

Here is what I do to promote these posts as well as the RedX discount page.

*  Ping your entry using a pinging tool to multiple sites.  I use pingler.com

 

*  Use an article rewriting tool to create multiple unique versions of your article.  Unique versions are needed so that each syndicated site that posts your article is counted as a unique back link to your real estate blog.  I now use Magic Article Rewriter as my tool of choice. 

 

* Submit your unique article to as many article directories as possible.  I use two tools concurrently for this.  The first is UniqueArticleWizard, the second is Magic Article Submitter.  Both tools allow you to syndicate your article across the web over time which gradually increases your links and your search engine rank.  Their actual sales pages are pretty cheezy, but the tools work great.

 

*  Bookmark the post to StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicous, and the rest of the bookmarking sites.  If you are using a Wordpress, Orlywire has an interesting tool that allows you to automatically bookmark your post to your accounts.

 

* If you haven’t submitted your RSS feed to the multiple feed readers, then now is the time to do so.

 

* Update the post on your facebook, MySpace, ActiveRain and Broker Agent Social pages.

 

All of the above sounds like a lot of work, and it does take about an hour to complete all of the steps.  However, where you may attract one or two real estate leads from the post alone, you can now expects a few hundred more people to find you from your search engine optimization activities.

 

This is an update to my previous post where I described my experiment where I used the automatic article directory submission system, Unique Article Wizard to make a single article unique and to submit it to over 600 directories. 

If you read the previous post, what I had done as part of the experiment is to take the actual post and write two additional versions with similar syntax so that the Unique Article Wizard system would be able to randomize the paragraphs to make each article unique.  I then submitted my three articles to the Unique Article Wizard system and measured the backlinks to our site that offers the discount on RedX REALTOR leads page.  Because I used a pen name as part of the experiment, I included the unique word xyssion in the post so that it could be easily searched.  As in the previous post, xyssion did not have any data associated with it on google when I published the first article.

Okay with that background, here are the results of the experiment.  Within four days of publishing the article the term xyssion returned 16 entries on google that backlinked to our Agents Online and Lockbox websites.  As of today, a search for the term on google returned 87 entries (60 on bing), all of which are links provided back from syndication of that one article.  The actual number of links is much greater, but these are the sites that have been actively indexed and rank at an acceptable level.

 From an SEO standpoint, the article and subsequent publication of it took about two hours.  Eighty-seven active backlinks from two hours worth of work sure beats the thirty hours I spent submitting MLSNI.com to various directories to get fifty active links, so I think this experiment can be classified as a success. Now I’m looking for a tool to speed up that manual process of directory submission.  I’ll let you know if I find a good one.

 

I have been doing a bit of article marketing lately to promote the RedX FSBO and Real Estate Lead service and have found two very effective tools to attract numerous backlinks without a lot of work.  The first tool takes your article, walks you through a process to create multiple unique versions of each paragraph, the automatically submits a hundreds of unique versions to over six hundred directories.  The service is the Unique Article Wizard, and I found it by reading about various backlink shortcuts on a few different internet marketing forums. 

 

The service came highly rated, and I have been using it for a short time.  So far I have published two articles with the identifier “randy xyllion” and one containing the word “xyssion.”  In the past two days, I have 106 indexed links from google for the xyllion articles and 16 links from bing back to the xyssion.  Overall, not bad for drafting three articles about internet marketing and sending them out to the world.   

 

The other tool that I have recently had success with in building backlinks to increase the search engine position of my agents online website is a service called the LinkJuicer.  Okay, not a great name, but an interesting service.  If you recall how a link circle used to work with multiple participants sharing links back to other member’s websites, this service will be very familiar.  Essentially, the LinkJuicer  is the social network equivalent of a link circle.  The beauty of the service however is that backlinks to your site grow slowly and naturally over time as the system places your link into the social accounts of other participants and places links to their site from yours.  Because the system limits the addition of only three sites per day and includes fifteen of the popular online social networks, your backlinks grow slowly and reliable which the search engines just love.