Just about all agents have some sort of business card and brochures to hand out. What will make the difference is being creative on your card. I have a stack of about 200 cards I've received from agents. Most of them look exactly the same. The ones that I remember and keep at the top of the stack are the ones that are unique and have something more valuable to offer than just the contact information.
Market yourself to the media.
You want to be the expert that the local media comes to for quotes and story lines. Introduce yourself to news reporters and magazine writers. You can also speak to groups for free to establish yourself as the expert. If you can get a spot on a radio station, that would create even more exposure for you.
Market yourself on the Internet.
More and more buyers and sellers are looking on the Internet before they make a decision on an agent. The more available and accessible you are online, the more likely you will get a call from one of these prospects. Every agent should have their own website as a starting point. From there, there are many different social networking websites where you can put up your profile and your areas of expertise. Also, Cindy wrote a great post how to use Facebook to brand yourself and expand your business network so you can create more of a presence online.
Keep in touch with a drip e-mail campaign.
You want to remind all your former clients and current prospects that you are still in business with any updates on the local market or new properties for sale. Email marketing is one of the easiest methods to making contact with everyone in your network.
Advertise everywhere.
This is the one suggestion I do not agree with. You don't want to waste good money on advertising that won't lead to any sales. You should have already created a business plan for the type of houses you want to sell and they type of buyers and sellers you want to work with. Once you've done this, you can better focus on specific advertising strategies to put yourself in front of your ideal clients.
What are the other methods that you are using to brand yourself as THE agent in your area?
Prospecting and sales are not the same thing, but they are very correlated.
Prospecting is just weeding out the buyers from the looky loos. You want to be able to identify who actually wants to buy a house and who is just curious.
Myth #2: Prospecting is a numbers game.
You can waste your time chasing the wrong crowd. If you go to a party with 100 attendees and nobody is interested in purchasing a house, you’re not prospecting, your networking. However, if you go to an open house with 10 people, you know those people are looking for a house and are more qualified.
Myth #3: Scripts are for kids.
Very few agents can sell without a script, but they are the minority. Scripts must be personalized to each individual. Top producers in all industries have relied on scripts and learned which ones work for certain people and how best to manage the script.
Myth #4: Prospecting takes time.
It only takes a couple of minutes to determine if someone is serious or not about purchasing a house. You don’t want to waste more time on someone that is either unqualified or just a looky loo.
Myth #5: Close them on the appointment.
What happens when someone says they’ll meet with you next week, but then never shows up? You thought you closed them on an appointment.
Make sure in the first introduction you get their contact information so you can send them some information or additional details about houses in the area. Now you’re turning a new lead into a hot lead.
There are some very simple SEO techniques available for you to improve your search engine ranking. Anyone can put together a quick real estate website or blog, but it won’t matter if no one can find it.
Using these will not in itself allow you reach the top position for your keyword, but they definitely help, and there is no single factor that will enable you to hit the top. A #1 position on Google is attained by a combination of many factors, such as internal and external linking strategies, relevance of your content to the keyword and the overall look and feel of your site. Plus those detailed below.
Google and the other main search engines list web pages, and not entire domains. That means that every single page in your website should be optimized in the same way: each should contain every single one of the SEO techniques listed below.
TITLE TAG
The title tag is contained within the ‘HEAD’ tags of your HTML, before the ‘BODY’ tags. This states the title of the page, and must contain the major keywords of the page. The contents of your title tag do not appear in the text of the page: its purpose is to inform the search engine spiders what the topic of your page is, and what words are important (i.e. your main page keyword). For example, the TITLE tag of a page based on this article would be “SEO Techniques - Improve your Search Engine Ranking”.
DESCRIPTION TAG
The description Meta tag is used by Google, and other search engines, in the search engine listings. I have tested this with them all and Google uses it as is, while Yahoo uses part of it. You should provide a description of what the web page is about, and a simple check of the descriptions in other sites using your keyword on Google will show you how many words you can use to have the whole description included. About 20 words are fine.
KEYWORD TAG
Search engines rarely use the keyword Meta tag: Google ignores it completely. However, it doesn’t hurt, and can help in a small way. Include your brand name and your own name. That way some engines might show your pages if somebody is looking for your name. The other Meta tags have no SEO value, and do not help to improve your search engine ranking whatsoever.
HEADING H TAGS
Heading tags (H1, H2, . . .) are used by Google to determine the importance of the text contained in your headings. Use H1 tags for the main title of your page (you also use it in the TITLE tag, but that isn’t seen by readers, only by the spiders). Put subtitles in H2 tags. You can change the font size of the text within these tags.
WRITING STYLE and CONTENT
Do not write for algorithms (spiders): write for your readers. Always write for humans and you won’t go wrong. If your page content reads well, and has good vocabulary relating to the topic, then it will have a better chance of a higher listing than if you stuffed it full of keywords. I rarely use more than 1.5% - the keyword densities of the terms ‘SEO’, SEO techniques’ and ’search engine ranking’ (the main keywords) of this article are 1.5, 0.87 and 0.87 respectively. Too many keywords is bad SEO, and could result in a poor listing for your page - if it is listed at all.
So there you are: five simple SEO techniques to improve your search engine ranking. It is surprising how many experienced webmasters fail to apply all of these: there is no excuse, and they are failing to get the nuts and bolts properly fitted and tightened on their web pages. Apply these to every page and not only will you improve your SEO, but also your chances of a good search engine ranking.
It’s a numbers game. The more people that you connect with, the more likely you will be able to start a business relationship with. This is true with making connections on your website or blog. But how do you get more people coming to your website or blog? Here are a couple of powerful ways to generate more traffic!
1. Submit your site to as many search engines as you can. The big ones are Google, Yahoo, and MSN but the smaller ones are important too such as AOL, Excite, and Alexa. If your site isn’t indexed in the search engines, then it will be hard for anyone to find you.
2. Content on your website or blog. People go online to find information. You should tailor the content on your website to attract the type of people you want to do business with.
3. Share your link. If you work with vendors or other real estate professionals in your area, trade links with them. The more links you have back to your website, your site will have higher visibility in the search engines.
4. Put your url on all marketing material. If you’re handing out flyers or even if you’ve created coffee cups for prospects, make sure your website url is on there so they know where they can get more information on your services.
5. Participate in online forums and social networking. You can give your knowledge in real estate forums and social networking sites. Remember to always include a link back to your website when you post in online forums or on social networking sites. When others see that you’re the expert in your area, they will be sure to go to you.
Sure, you know that there is going to be negotiation on the price of the home, but if you start your opening bid too high you’re not even going to get people in to see the house.
Mistake #2 — Trying to Sell to “Looky-Loos”
You must qualify your buyers as quickly as possible. How serious are they? You don’t want to spend valuable time and money on people who have no intent to buy.
Mistake #3 — Failing to Market Your Home in Different Ways
Different advertisements appeal to different types of people. You can market all day using flyers, signs, and open houses, but if your not creating exposure for the house via the Internet, email, and your website you’re leaving out a high percentage of potential buyers.
Mistake #4 — Forgetting to “Showcase The Home”
It’s so important to have the house look tidy and clean. There is nothing worse than for a prospective buyer to come into a dirty house. Instead of them thinking about how wonderful everything is, they’re thinking about everything they’re going to have to work on.
Mistake #5 — Not Being Pro-Active at Closing
Deals can still fall through at the closing table. The more you have prepared beforehand, the more likely everything will go through. You don’t want your buyers to be surprised by anything new at the closing table.
The tide is turning in the real estate market and agents can see all the signs of brighter days ahead. The last two years have been tough for agents in most parts of the country, and the ones that have survived are seeing things turning around.
Howard Atkins, chief financial officer of Wells Fargo, was quoted in the American Banker newspaper as saying that lower mortgage rates -- the latest 30-year average dropped below 6 percent again last week -- plus more affordable housing, and banks newly strengthened by capital infusions, should trigger a recovery this year.
So it's important for agents to continue to do what they've always done and sell housing. As with any other industry there are going to be up cycles and down cycles.
Bottom line here: Real estate is -- and always has been - a uniquely localized asset. The healthiest markets today never boomed. They never bust. They just plodded along during the boom years turning out annual gains of three and four percent while California and Florida were out of control at 25 percent a year.
As the real estate market continues to rebound, I hear stories everyday from agents on how much better their business is because they had to go through the down cycle to truly appreciate who they are as a real estate agent.
More positive news for agents across the country as Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors® said,
"Home sales and prices throughout most of the country are poised for improvement in the second half of 2008, and the recovery will vary by market"
"There are many reasons for people to get into the housing market today, and very few reasons not to. With the plentiful supply of homes for sale at affordable prices, interest rates approaching 40-year lows, and the strong track record of housing as a good long-term investment, conditions are ripe for buyers,” he added. “Those are the facts, plain and simple."
This, along with other data suggests that the real estate market is coming back up again and agents should see more people looking to purchase houses and more opportunities to represent buyers and sellers.
I know that the majority of real estate agents have a website to help promote themselves, but few are using it effectively to attract and retain clients.
One of the biggest marketing tools for not only real estate agents, but businesses in every industry, is utilizing a blog. Some agents only use the blog platform as their website, where others use the blog platform for just a section of their website. Either way, it can be the most powerful tool to attract more clients in your local area.
The Real Estate Tomato is the best website for agents looking to use a blog in their marketing. The Real Estate Tomato has a wealth of information and can help any real estate agent learn how to set up a blog and use it for marketing purposes.
So, if you haven't already, set up a blog on your website or put up a blog as a stand alone website and start getting more clients to sell to.
MSN posted a great article today called As housing falls, short sales becoming common that goes into the reasons why short sales are becoming so common and how best to manage a short sale transaction.
Short sales are becoming more common in today’s market:
“Our numbers suggest that 20 percent of completed home sales nationwide are short sales,” said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance. “The number would be larger if it weren’t for the fact that one-third of all attempted short sale deals don’t go through.”
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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