Consistent Clients-Real Estate Marketing

What's New in Twitter: Using Twitter Lists

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:29:32 -0600

If you spend as much time on Twitter as I do, you’ve probably heard about the new “Lists” feature that Twitter recently rolled out. Not everyone has the function yet, but they are making it available to more and more people, so if you don’t have it yet, you should see it soon.

However, you may not know how best to utilize this new feature. That’s where today’s Web 2.0 Wrap-up post comes in! NikNik at MyTechOpinion wrote up a great post on How to Make Use of Twitter Lists. She lays out what they’re for, how to start creating them, and lots of different ways to use them. I really like her suggestion of creating a Local List, for local businesses you recommend, and local tweeps to stay in touch with. This makes is so easy to stay relevant to your community – you can quickly and easily find local conversations to join in on, valuable local info to retweet and share to the rest of your network, or just say hi and stay on the radar of local folks.

Check out her entire post for lots of other tips, then why not create a list of your own?

The Mindset Behind Your Marketing Plan

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:31:14 -0600

Having a yearly marketing plan is a really important piece for you to have in place in order to be able to measure and grow your business. But you also need to look at the mindset you have about your business.

Your goals should be big enough to feel challenging (if they don’t, I think you should really go back and write them again), but if, even as you’re writing them, you don’t feel that they’re achievable, you should take a good hard look at the mindset you have about your business.

Are you constantly griping about how the market is limiting you?

Do you secretly feel that your sales skills are lacking compared to others?

Do you believe there is a cap on the level of success you can achieve, or that you don’t deserve a successful, profitable business?

While there are always areas open for improvement, if you have trouble believing in yourself, and believing that you can achieve your goals, then you will have trouble achieving them. If the belief isn’t there that bigger and better things are possible for you in your business, then you won’t have that drive, that desire, to do what it takes to achieve your goals.

As the saying goes, “Whether you believe you can, or you believe you can’t, you’re right.”

Two books that are great for helping you set goals, and work on the mindset that will help you achieve them, are Maximum Achievement and Goals, both by Brian Tracy. If your mindset isn’t right, you’ll never see the results that are possible with a powerful mindset and a powerful marketing plan.

Any Holiday Happenings in your area?

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:58:52 -0600

Looking for something unique for your holiday newsletter?

Why not put together a Community Holiday Events calendar to send to your email list, host on your website, and mail out?

As a Realtor, you’re in the unique position to know about a lot more of the local community events than the average resident. So share that knowledge! Your readers will appreciate it. At the holidays, many people would like to do more activities with friends and family, but are so busy that they simply don’t have the time to go looking for events to attend.

This also gives you a great source of ideas for blog posts through December. As I mentioned in a recent post, blogging about local events is a good way to get found in the search engines, as often, the event host or organizer doesn’t do a very good job of optimizing their webpage for search engines.

In your calendar, you could even let your readers know that they can check your blog regularly for full details on lots of the events from the calendar. Now you’ve created a targeted item for your newsletter, generated a whole bunch of blog post ideas, and increased traffic to your website. Happy Holidays to you!

A Pretty Holiday Gift Idea

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:08:39 -0600

It’s quickly getting close to the time to start sending out holiday cards and gifts. Are you struggling for ideas? Here’s one you can try out.

Think about partnering with a local Home Stager (who also specializes in Home “Redesign” or Redecorating), and offering coupons for a Holiday Home Redesign. This is a great gift, as people get so busy at the holidays, it can be difficult to find the time to decorate their own home, or just want a new look without too much effort on their own part.

By partnering with one particular Stager, you will often be able to get a nice discount for your client base, as the Stager gets exposure to your entire list. And you might be able to work out an even better deal if you purchase a few packages at full price – maybe as a gift for the Buyers or Sellers you’re working with currently. Imagine getting a Holiday Home Redesign right as you were dealing with the stress of buying or selling your home – that would certainly brighten your holidays, wouldn’t it?

Quick Ideas for Leveraging OPC (Other People's Content)

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:54:02 -0600

Need ideas for content for your blog? Haven’t posted for months, and not sure what to write about? Don’t forget that you can easily utilize other people’s content.

Here are a few quick ideas to help you start generating content for your blog, even if you don’t write a bit of it!

Utilize more videos on your blog. YouTube is a great source for videos on staging homes, home repair, and other tips that would be helpful for sellers. Realtor.com offers many great real-estate related videos that you can embed on your site, and there are lots of other sites that have videos that you can share as well. One of my coaching clients does a great job of this on his blog www.rookiehomesellers.com. Once you find a good video, just add a paragraph or two sharing why this particular tip or topic is important.

Read a great article that you think your database should see? Write a short paragraph letting them know your favorite point or tip, give credit to the author, then link back to their article. Go a bit farther, and contact the author. You can often get permission to reprint the entire article on your blog as long as you include their bio information.

Hop over to an article directory like Ezine Articles or GoArticles, and reprint one of those articles. Here, you don’t even need to write up your own short message – just copy and paste the entire article, along with the full bio, onto your site. If you’re using Wordpress or a similar platform, you can even create a second username “Guest Post” so readers understand this isn’t your content, but you’re sharing it as additional content.

If you enjoy listening to podcasts, share a good episode as a link on your blog. Whether it’s from iTunes or BlogTalkRadio or somewhere else, you can usually find the individual episode link. Then it’s just another quick message from you on why they should listen, and you’ve got another blog post.

Obviously, filling your blog only with content from other experts isn’t going to build up your own expert level, but it’s a great way to supplement with your own posts. And more content is always a good thing! Plus, I’ve always noticed that as I view other people’s videos and posts, it often triggers ideas for my own content, thereby giving me two posts!

Priority Challenge!

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:43:30 -0600

Whether you’re swamped with new listings and active buyers looking for their next home, or just trying to scrounge up your next sale, it’s too easy to feel like your day disappears without getting much done. I think not having enough time is one of the biggest challenges for many Realtors, and it’s easy to go into day-to-day survival mode, moving from one crisis or past-due task to the next with no thought of where you really need to be heading.

But as Brian Tracy often says, “This is not for you.”

Here is my challenge to you – for the next 3 days, take 5 minutes every morning to identify the one thing that will help your business move forward. Whether it’s implementing a system that will save you time in the long run, performing a marketing task, or making a phone call that you’ve been putting off. Select the one thing that will have the biggest impact on your business if you implemented it, then go off and do it. Don’t check email first, get involved in office chatter, or start going through your inbox.

By “eating your frog” first thing in the morning, you’ll start to see big changes in your business faster than you thought possible. Just commit to this for the next 3 days. You’ll be amazed at your progress. And I believe you’ll want to continue this Prioritizing process every morning!

How to become your local neighborhood expert online

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:53:29 -0600

Ever wanted to become THE local expert for a particular neighborhood in your area? For those of you in smaller towns, it might be fairly easy to stand out, since there are fewer agents, and it’s easier to target your particular town name (or maybe not!). But it’s awfully difficult to become THE local expert for the entire city of, say, Chicago. There are just too many homes, too many agents and it’s very difficult to stand out. Plus, if you live on the north side, you really may not be an expert on the south side real estate market.

A better solution is to take an area you do know really well, like a neighborhood, subdevelopment, etc. and focus on becoming the expert for anyone buying or selling a home there.

One way to do this is to grab a domain name with your neighborhood keywords in it. This costs all of about $10 from GoDaddy or another domain registrar.

Simply go to www.GoDaddy.com and do a search for a domain using your keyword, along with real estate or home or something similar:

So if I went ahead and grabbed this, I have a domain for homes in the Lakeview neighborhood in Chicago. Can’t get much more keyword rich than that!

The next step is to create a page on your website to hold lots of information on the Lakeview neighborhood – market statistics, average price of homes that have sold, current listings for the area, etc. Since we always want to be capturing leads from our website, make sure you add some kind of optin box. You could offer to send them a monthly update on the area, offer an Item of Value, or whatever your current freebie is.

Finally, you just need to go back to GoDaddy, and forward that domain so it points to the correct page on your website:

Voila! You have a keyword-rich domain name pointing to an info-rich page on your website. From here, there are lots of different ways you could promote this:

If you sponsor any events in your community, use this domain on your promotional materials instead of your usual website.
Create an area for Resources. Then, if you write any articles for your blog on this particular neighborhood, add a paragraph or excerpt of the article with a link pointing back to your original post.
Send out a mailer to neighborhood residents with a really targeted call to action. Example: “Hey Lakeview residents! Ever wanted to know what homes and condo’s in your neighborhood sell for? Check out your new neighborhood real estate resource – www.LakeviewChicagoHomes.com – where you can find out instantly! Plus, lots more real estate resources to keep you informed about all the changes in this crazy housing market we’re in.”

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How to handle your internet leads

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:40:00 -0600

There are mixed feelings in the real estate world for leads that come in off the internet. On one hand, all the statistics show that 80%+ of people start their home search on the internet, so you’ve got a huge market there. On the other, some Realtors® don’t like these leads because they feel they’re “tire-kickers” or are looking too far in the future.

I think internet leads are a great way to ensure ongoing clients for your business, both now and in the future, but they do need to be approached a little differently than your traditional lead.

There are two important steps to take when dealing with internet leads -

1. Make sure you ask lots of good, qualifying questions

Some examples are:

Are you looking for a home or condo?
What price range would you like to stay within?
When are you looking to buy? (very important, so that you’ll know when it’s appropriate to follow up with them)
Have you been to Chicago before? (If they're not local, lets you know whether they’re making the initial trip to get familiar with your area, or will be actively looking for homes)
Are you planning to finance, or pay cash?
Are you working with a Realtor® yet? (If no, another good question to ask is if they’ve submitted their info to other sites and are waiting for a call back. This can give you a better idea of whether they’re shopping around, or are pretty serious buyers)

2. Make sure you put them on a calendar, tickler file, reminder system, etc. to follow up with them soon, even if they aren’t looking for a while yet. This puts you back on their radar if they’ve been talking to other agents by phone. Then you can continue with softer follow-up, like an Item of the Month, newsletter, etc. to stay in front of them. And by all means, follow up with them again around the time they expected to really start looking seriously. Too often, leads are interested, but the Realtor® fails to follow up with them at the time they said they’d be ready.

Internet leads can be time consuming if you let them run you around town with no intention of buying for another year. By using these qualifying questions, and a solid follow-up system, you can be available for them when they’re ready to work with you.

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Try a Gratitude Evaluation

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:40:14 -0600

I know it’s not quite Thanksgiving yet, but can you tell me what you are thankful for?

Sometimes life gets so busy that we forget, but it’s so important to take a minute to stop and appreciate everything you have. And I find that after doing so, I’m always revved up and ready to handle anything that comes my way.

Even if you’ve been going through some tough times in your business or personal life, by stopping and appreciating what you do have, you realize where things have been going right in your life. Sometimes just noticing that is all it takes to get out of a funk and move forward.

So, what happened today that you are grateful for?

Why not take a few minutes and make a phone call or write a short note letting the important people in your life know how much you appreciate them?

And naturally, I’m going to put a marketing spin on this as well! By noticing the things that you are grateful for in your life, it becomes easier to replicate them. Is there a client of yours that you are really grateful for having the chance to work with? Who are they? What are they like? How can you develop a niche based on this ideal client?

Did you partner with/receive help from someone professionally that you are very grateful for? How can you recreate this partnership/help into a mutually beneficial working relationship?

Being grateful gives you the opportunity to be more aware of what you have in your life, and that gives you the opportunity to make changes or improvements! So stop and take a few minutes to really think about everything you are grateful for, and see where it leads you.

Never lose your Blackberry or iPhone contacts

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:37:18 -0600

In the real estate business, our contacts, network and database are the lifeblood of our business. If you use a Blackberry or an iPhone and depend on it to store your contacts, what happens if you lose your phone (or drop it in the pool, or accidentally sit on it, you get the picture) and lose those contacts? There’s a great new service IDriveLite that will back up all your contact data for you onto a secure internet server. Since it does this automatically for you, you can always be secure in the knowledge you’ll never lose your contact list again! Here’s a video that gives you a little more info: So protect yourself now. You’ll kick yourself if you don’t!

Easy SEO for your blog – Blog a Local Event

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:24:46 -0500

Dave Smith over at Real Estate Blog Lab always has great Search Engine Optimization tips (i.e. – how to get found in Google!) that he shares, but I really liked this one: How to Beat a Local Event in Google

His tip here is one that’s really simple – many popular local events are NOT well optimized for search engine results, even though many people are probably trying to find information on them. By simply following a few of the steps Dave lays out, you could quickly rank as well (or better) than the actual site for a local event in your area. “So what?”, you say?

Imagine if Dave’s site comes up first in the search engine listings for the Tuscon Air Show. Tucson is a big city, and this sounds like a pretty popular event. I’m going to guess that there are lots of people out there looking for information on dates, times, etc. If Dave is result number one, a majority of that traffic is going to come through his site. This can help with name exposure, possible leads, and list building (especially if he has a really good freebie on his site that local people might want). If Dave continues to do this, he could quickly raise his overall search engine rankings from traffic, inbound links and search engine results. This means that he could start coming up higher in the search engine listings for his preferred search terms – things like Tucson Real Estate – just from having some really popular targeted blog posts for local events.

That’s the beauty of his sytem! You’re seen as an expert on local happenings in your community, you gain top-of-mind name exposure, and generate leads, all from a simple post on a local event. So check out his post, and get started on your own local event posts!

Oodle Integration with Twitter great for new listings

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:09:04 -0500

This week’s Web 2.0 Wrap-up comes off the Oodle blog. You’re probably familiar with CraigsList, an online classified service where you can post your listings. Oodle is very similar. But they’ve added a very cool feature, that allows you to share your new listings (whether they’re homes, or just household items you need to get rid of!) on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. This is a great way to get additional exposure for new home listings – you never know when a listing might end up being the dream home for someone in your network!

From their site -

Today, Oodle released the first part of our Twitter integration. Now you can post your listing on Oodle and automatically share it with friends on Twitter (as well as your friends on Facebook and MySpace). Listings are tweeted into your Twitter stream where your followers see it immediately.

We are also tweeting all of the listings posted directly into our network onto Oodle’s Twitter account. This will enable users searching on Twitter to have access to hundreds of thousands of fresh, relevant classifieds listings each day. So whether you are looking for a job, rental, house, car — or something else, you will be able to search Twitter using keywords matching your query (e.g. Burlingame Honda Accord) to find relevant, real-time matches.

In both cases, tweets link back to listings tied to online profiles from Oodle, Facebook, MySpace, etc., so you get a better idea of who you are dealing with.

More interesting Twitter-related features coming soon. Stay tuned as classifieds get more social.

I love that last sentence – “Stay tuned as classifieds get more social.” Everything seems to be going social these days, because it’s just such a great way to get additional exposure and extra eyeballs on your listings. And now is the time to take advantage of it, before tools like this become really common and part of the “noise” of social networking. If you develop the reputation and trust from your networking by sharing valuable info regularly, they will continue to interact and connect with you, even when they’re tuning out noise from a lot of the other people that start doing the same thing down the road.

How I'm using my blog to enhance existing relationships

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:42:23 -0500

This blog post is in response to Bob's challenge (great topic choice, Bob!) to find out what people are doing with their blog content to leverage it and enhance existing client and prospect relationships.

I've been blogging for nearly two years now, and have built up a pretty decent size library of real estate marketing related content. But naturally, there's more I can do with it! A few of the ways that I currently utilize the content I've already created are:

1) Every Monday I send an email out to my database with a recap of the previous weeks' blog posts. I know that not everybody remembers to come and visit the blog regularly, and may not have subscribed to the feed, so this is another way to stay top of mind, get helpful marketing tips right to them, and give them a little personal note on what I'm up to. And by using content I've already put on my blog, this weekly "newsletter" is quick and easy to put together.

2) I've done so many posts on Twitter, and how real estate agents can use it in their marketing, that I decided to put the posts together into a short ebook exclusively on Twitter Essentials. It gets this really specific info into the hands of the people that want it, without them having to search through 2 years worth of blog posts to find it. This makes it easier for them to use, without too much more effort on my part to put it together.

I'm thinking of doing something similar on other topics that I've written about frequently. Any topic in particular YOU'D like?

Add TeachStreet local classes to Local Market Explorer

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:52:28 -0500

A couple weeks ago I told you about a new Wordpress plugin, Local Market Explorer, provided by Zillow. Well, as usual, the Geek Estate Blog has more great info on the plugin. They’ve added functionality from TeachStreet, which allows you to show information on local classes on your sidebar.

Here are the search results for Cooking Classes in Chicago.

Talk about great community information to share on your site and become a complete local resource. Now, some people say that as Realtors, we should only blog about real estate information. While I agree that most of your posts should be related to your real estate market, I think that by sharing relevant, helpful community information, you are staying relevant to your community, which is your market. And this is a great way to increase name recognition, as well as giving you more topics to blog about, which means you’ll be blogging more regularly, and this increases your search engine friendliness.

So check out this new addition, and provide great content for your community readers!

Find those missed opportunities for more business

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:48:31 -0500

Since you did your quarterly, Back to School review last month, now is a great time to look for missed opportunities and areas that are ripe with business building potential.

I came across a post at the Sales Lead Association blog that had some statistics that might be really eye-opening for some people.

It is shocking that from 1979 to 2009 several figures remain constant in business annals…

•More than 50% of qualified leads are never worked by sales
•Less than 50% of a sales persons time is spent selling

Numbers like these really bug me, because past leads and clients are such a great source of recurring business. When I hear agents say that business has slowed down, or that the economy has really affected them, I have to suspect that they’ve been depending on new leads for their business. But one way to really light a fire under your business is to take advantage of that Back to School review we did last week, and look hard for areas where follow-up is underdeveloped (or completely missing).

For example, do you have a way to capture leads on your website/blog? If so, great. But how are you tracking and following up on those leads? Do you know where those people are in the sales process? Some leads take longer to develop than others, so if you’re in the practice of only keeping up with the leads that are close in the sales process to buying, you’re setting yourself up for that constant “feast or famine” in your business. If you are always working on and keeping in touch with leads that are at all points, you’re developing a consistent, dependable business. Even in a rough economy.

Worse, do you fall into the group in the second bullet point – finding yourself super busy but in reality spending less than 50% of your time selling? Hire an assistant, now! Whether it’s an onsite admin assistant, or a virtual assistant, put the steps in place to increase your time spent selling. That’s the only way you’ll grow your business. If you’re spending more than 50% of your time on administrative tasks, you’re taking time away from business building activities. Plus, that admin could probably do those tasks much faster than you could. So get help, and get back out there selling!

So take a good hard look at your current follow-up practices. Do you have systems in place to make sure you’re capturing the information you need, and are following up regularly? Is the majority of your time spent selling – showing homes, marketing current for-sale properties, contacting past leads, generating new ones?

Find those missed opportunities for more business

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:43:52 -0500

Since you did your quarterly, Back to School review last week, now is a great time to look for missed opportunities and areas that are ripe with business building potential.

I came across a post at the Sales Lead Association blog that had some statistics that might be really eye-opening for some people.

It is shocking that from 1979 to 2009 several figures remain constant in business annals…

•More than 50% of qualified leads are never worked by sales
•Less than 50% of a sales persons time is spent selling

Easy Marketing Ideas for Halloween

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:48:59 -0500

Holidays are a great time to reconnect with your client base, especially on ones that aren’t traditionally known for gifts. Halloween offers lots of great ways to get your name out, connect with your list and sneak some marketing in. Here are just a few ideas:

Offer free Halloween bags to neighborhood kids. You can purchase custom imprinted Halloween bags fairly inexpensively, and it’s a great way to keep your name in front of families for several weeks (nobody ever wants to throw the Halloween candy away, even when all that is left is the stuff nobody will eat!)

Send out Halloween themed cards to your database – cards aren’t expected until much closer to the Christmas holidays, so this will stand out to recipients

Drop by clients homes or offices with Harvest-themed snacks: pumpkin muffins, banana bread, apple turnovers, etc. Food goes a long way (especially at the office!) and people will remember the gesture

Hold a contest for “Scariest” or “Most Creative” costume, and host at your office. Or, host at a community location, and offer balloons to all attendee’s that have your name, company name, logo, etc. printed on them. For the small investment of a couple prizes, this could be a great way to generate media attention as well!

Your Quarterly Marketing Check-Up

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:56:42 -0500

It’s Back-to-School time, and for some people that brings to mind annual physicals. It’s also a great time to step back and do a check-up on your marketing systems. Last month we talked about creating a Marketing Calendar, and hopefully you started one. If you didn’t (and I’m hoping it was because real estate is picking up in your area and you were SUPER busy!), the fall might be a good time to start one as business slows down a bit.

Since I focus so much on building a referral-based business, here are some of the areas that I take a good hard look at:

Referrals-

Are you asking for referrals from most, if not all, clients?

If yes, how are you doing it?
In person? Through a mailer? By phone? In an email or autoresponder/newsletter?
Are you getting referrals? (whether or not they close with you?)
If you are getting referrals, are they closing with you? Do they seem like appropriate clients? If not, why do you think that is? Can you change how you’re asking in order to improve the type of clients that are referred to you?

If no, what method of asking for referrals can you implement immediately?

Testimonials -

Are you asking for a testimonial from most, if not all, clients?

If yes, how are you doing it?
In person? Through a mailer? By phone? In an email or autoresponder/newsletter?
Are you getting the number of responses you want?
Are you using them anywhere? (on your website, in printed marketing materials, in your email, etc.)
If you aren’t using them anywhere, where can you add them ASAP to get them up?

If no, what method will you start using immediately to get those?
Where will you put them once you have them? (on your website, in printed marketing materials, in your email, etc.)

Website/Blog-

Is the information on your website/blog current and relevant?
Are you getting traffic to your site (hopefully you have some form of analytics, like Google Analytics, installed)
Where is the majority of your traffic coming from?
Is it easy for someone to share your site with a friend? (via email, social bookmarking, or social networking sites?)
Have you closed any sales coming directly from your website?

Make a great connection using vFlyer Voice

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:04:04 -0500

vFlyer was already a really cool service for creating single property listings and property flyers, and getting them distributed out on the web quickly and easily. I know I recommend them to the agents I coach, and have mentioned them several times on this blog as well.

But they’ve come out with another really cool feature – vFlyer Voice! This new service lets you record a voice narration to go along with your vFlyers. This is a great feature, for many reasons:

Lets prospective buyers and other agents hear the excitement in your voice when you’re talking about the property
Expand on certain features that deserve more attention than a single bullet point on a flyer can give them
Fantastic tool for social media, since social media is all about connecting with people, and being able to hear your voice does just that
Lets you record one voice message for the whole slideshow, or individual voice annotations for each photo
Great tool to show your clients you’re using unique marketing techniques that help their property stand out from the crowd

More information from their website -

Welcome to the future of online advertising. Don’t stay silent in the crowded online marketplace. Speak up and give voice to your advertisements with our new innovative vFlyer Voice service. vFlyer Voice allows you to easily record voice narration that will play when people view your Flyers. Adding narration to your listings elevates them from simple slide shows to all-out virtual tours.

Did I mention that vFlyer Voice is incredibly easy to use? How easy, you ask? It’s as simple as answering a phone call. To record your voice messages, simply enter your telephone number in the vFlyer Voice application and our system will call you and enable you to record your narration over the phone. It’s really that easy.

One voice recording for each photo

One voice recording for the entire slideshow

So that’s our weekend Web 2.0 wrap-up for today. Check out vFlyer voice now, and see how many ways you can come up with to use it!

Market Explorer Plugin for Wordpress great for creating local content

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:37:13 -0500

Today’s Web 2.0 Wrap-Up comes from the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog on a great new Wordpress plugin, created by Zillow. I absolutely love Wordpress as a platform for quickly getting either a blog or an entire site up and running fast. It’s designed to share content, which is a must if you want repeat website visitors and good search engine visibility. And it’s very user friendly (if you’ve ever tried updating an html site, you can really appreciate this!).

From FOREM:

Great news for those of you who are building your web sites in Wordpress. Zillow has announced the release of the new Local Market Explorer WP Plugin.

The LME plugin, which was built by Jonathan Mabe and Andrew Mattie, developers with Diverse Solutions, automatically creates rich pages on your blog that incorporate data from Zillow, Education.com, Flickr, Walk Score and Yelp.

You can download the plugin immediately from WordPress plugin directory.

Go ahead and read the rest of their post for some key notes on using the plugin. This may not be for everyone, since the info is currently pulling from larger cities, but if that’s you, try it out. Having targeted local content on your site is a great way to differentiate your site from the many other local real estate sites out there, and gives lots of value to your readers!

47 Fresh Blog Post Ideas for Realtors That Don’t Know What to Write

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:54:08 -0500

Blogging regularly is a fantastic way to get found in the search engines, and establish yourself as a local real estate expert to your clients, new and old. But maybe writing isn’t your thing. You don’t have to be an award winning writer to generate solid, quality content that is valuable to your readers.

There are the usual basics to write about that come from your knowledge about your local real estate market, things like -

Home prices in local market
Local area activity – solds, actives, pendings, etc.
New construction plans in area
Mortgage rate updates
What you should know about home inspections

But there are many topics that you can blog about that will give your readers a broader knowledge about real estate in your area, as well as establishing that you know a LOT about the area. So here we go, 47 additional topics you can blog about today!

Average energy prices for your neighborhood
Things homeowners can do to save on energy costs
Remodeling ideas to instantly increase the value of your home
Resources and tips for hiring contractors and actually having a good experience (too many people have bad experiences with contractors either not showing up, not finishing the job, not doing work they were already paid for, etc. – you can provide a list of tips and resources, such as your local or state contractors association, referral services, or even people you’ve worked with and can vouch for)
Common Scams of building contractors and how to avoid them
Buying a resale home versus a new construction home (or completed spec home)
Reviews on local businesses/vendors of interest to homeowners (for example, call pool vendors and get them to give you details, articles, referrals, and a link to your site, then call homeowners in the area and get reviews on their service)
Should you rent it or flip it?
Tips on knowing whether you’re ready to own a rental property
How to hire a great property management company
Interview three of your best local home inspectors. Come up with a common list of the 25 Most Important Things a Homebuyer should watch out for when buying a home.
From those same three home inspectors, create a list of the 10 Most Common Code Violations found by local inspectors.
How to secure your wireless internet connection (many homeowners become victims of identity theft or other crimes simply because they use an unsecured internet connection – give them the steps to take to protect themselves and possibly get some local ISPs or a computer consultant to provide input)
Getting involved in local charities (write about things you have done, and how residents can get involved in local organizations)
Organizing a neighborhood clean-up day or garage sale
How to plan a neighborhood block party
You could volunteer to coach a local little league or sports team and then post your “coach” photo with all the kids on your website, write a short blurb about how the season is going, and send the photo, article, and url to all the parents along with your business card or brochure. This is a great way to let people see another side of you.
Create a list of local webcam feeds from points of interests such as ski resorts, traffic monitors, etc.
Cost of Living Comparison (for different cities or neighborhoods in your local market). Create a side by side comparison for average price of homes, gas, utilities, etc.
Fire Safety Tips for your home
Avoid Legal Battles when Buying or Selling a Home (a great place to talk about the importance of hiring a professional – You! – and to talk about the protections and responsibilities built in to your state/local real estate contracts)
How does the close of escrow process work? (talk about the general closing process and then things that are specific to your market or state/local laws)
What should I offer for earnest money and down payment when buying a home?
Bargain Hunter’s Guide (Where to eat for under $20, How to find Furniture Bargains, etc.)
25 Things to do in (Your Town) on the Weekend for under $40
Attend local zoning commission meetings, council meetings, school board meetings, etc. and write recaps of the meetings
Learn a little about local historical events, and write a blog post about it on the anniversary date.
Participate in and/or Post photos and a write-up about local marathons, triathlons, fundraisers, etc. (local charity fun runs, breast cancer runs, diabetes walks, fitness challenges, etc.)
Take photos and write a short blurb about the Christmas lights and decorations in your own neighborhood or farm area. Post this on your website and incorporate it in any direct mailings or newsletters.
Cheap Gas Spots (link to sites that show where you readers can buy the cheapest gas in the area where they live or work). Some examples might be your local AAA website, local radio and news media sites, Gas Buddy, and Gas Price Watch.
Moving resource guide (resources for buyers moving in from out of the area, for local moves, and for sellers moving out – all are potential client bases for you)
Weekend getaways at local resorts for residents (often in the off-season, local resorts and attractions have huge discounts)
Top Ten Reasons why Babyboomers should buy their next home in [your town]
What you need to know about buying foreclosures
What you need to know about buying tax liens in the county of [your county]
Tips on buying a second home or vacation home/condo in [your town]
The pros and cons of buying and owing a timeshare
Local school report cards and ratings
Child Care Guide (write a resource guide for parents on locations, costs, and services of local child care, day care,preschool, and after-school facilities)
Local shopping and attractions in the area
Guide to dining out – give info on many restaurants in your area
Hidden gems – share all the great restaurants, shops, service-providers that are your area’s best kept secret
Upcoming sporting events, concerts, shows, etc
What is curb appeal?
Easy tips for attractive landscaping
Do I need to worry about radon?
The importance of safety around swimming pools

7 Parts of an Effective Client Retention Strategy

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:43:17 -0500

Whatever your thoughts on the current economic climate are, it never hurts to check in on your client retention, and see if it’s working as effectively as you like.

I encourage all my coaching clients to work on developing a business that relies strongly on repeat and referral clients. One great way to get started on this is by developing and writing out a client retention strategy – the things you will do in your business to generate repeat business from past clients, and referrals to new clients.

1. Focus on your current clients – sounds very simple, but many people never hear from their real estate agent after the closing. These people have already chosen to work with you once – touch base with them a few weeks after they close to see how they’re doing. Send them a cards or a newsletter.

2. Stay consistent with these clients – Not only should you check in on clients after the closing, but you should stay in touch with them on a fairly regular basis (this doesn’t mean weekly, but just that you will check in with them, mail them, or stop by with a small gift a few times a year).

3. Keep your promise – anything you say you’re going to do for them, do it. Make sure they know they can depend on you to do what you have agreed to. Many people have experienced being told that their agent will send them something, or take care of something, and it never happens. This can be a huge point when they’re referring you to other people – your dependability.

4. Connect with your clients – Get to know them personally. They will appreciate your phone call in 6 months a lot more if they know you are genuinely interested in how they are – whether a difficult situation they were having is better, how their kids are doing, etc. Plus, it makes those consistent check-in’s you should be doing a lot easier, since you’ll know what to ask!

5. Always be learning – Build up your own knowledge so that you are always providing current, in-depth information and service to your client. Let them know through your newsletters or in personal cards when you’ve complete a new training course or certification. Encourage them to ask questions, even ones you can’t answer, so you can find the information for them and be a great resource.

6. Be their local resource – whether it’s for good service providers or fun things to do, share the good things you find in your area. Most people like to base unknown decisions on the recommendation of someone they trust, so let them know they can ask you. And actively refer and share all the good resources you come across.

7. Ask for their repeat and referral business! Make sure they know that it is your intention to provide ongoing service and be their agent for life. Ask for referrals if they are happy with the service you’ve provided them. If you’re not sure they’re happy, ask! Get feedback through surveys, online forms, or a customer service voicemail line.

How to create your own custom marketing calendar

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:31:31 -0500

“If you’re not sure where you’re going, any road will take you there.” Most people have heard that quote as it relates to goal setting. And it’s very true. If you’re not planning out where you’re trying to get to, you could end up anywhere. But unfortunately, this is how many Realtors® approach their marketing. They understand the value, and are willing to budget it as an expense into their business budget, but often don’t really have a plan for where their marketing will take them, besides knowing that they plan to repeat a few newspaper ads that have worked in the past.

One great way to really strategize and plan out your marketing is with a marketing calendar. And while it’s hard to provide a one-size fits all example, I can lay out the steps to help you quickly and easily create one that fits you.

To get started, you should know what your yearly goal is for either commissions or number of sales, and break it down into a monthly figure. So if your goal is to have 25 closings this year, that breaks down to about 2.1 closings per month. If you are doing it by commissions, then figure out what you want your yearly income to be, figure out what your average commission is, then break that down into how many monthly closings you need.

Once you know how many closings you need per month to hit your goal, take a look at your conversion rate lately. If you’re closing on one house for every 2 listing presentations you do, then you need about 4-5 listing presentations per month to hit your 2.1 closing average.

This makes it very easy to keep on top of whether you’re in line to hit your yearly goal, and can see at a glance if you need to step up marketing now, instead of waiting until you realize a few months down the road that you’re not going to make it.

Now to create the actual calendar:

Start by entering all your recurring networking events – things like Chamber of Commerce lunches, networking events, TweetUps, and other groups you may be a part of. As you’re looking at the calendar, is there anything you need to do ahead of time to be ready (order more business cards, prepare a talk, make a handout or flyer available)? If so, add that task to your calendar. Then, add in followup for the event. Whether it’s a card mailed out the next day, or a phone call a week later, enter in the follow up that is appropriate for you/your event and add that to your calendar.

Next, add in any marketing you already have planned – a postcard series to be mailed out, your monthly newsletter, a newspaper ad already scheduled, etc. Is there any preparation needed for that (article to be written, design approval, etc.)? If so, add this task to the calendar as well. But making sure you’ve added all the details that go along with the bigger marketing pieces, you ensure things happen on schedule, and avoid last minute rushing and stress that sometimes accompanies these projects.

Now, take a look at the openings in your calendar. At-a-glance, you should be able to see the days or weeks that you need to fill up with marketing activities. You might look at local activities in your area – can you help organize a neighborhood festival? Mark this on your calendar. Have you wanted to join a Condo board or Neighborhood Association? Do it, and add these meetings to your calendar as well. Add in times to make phone calls to your database, send cards or small gifts to past clients, cold calls/drop-bys, or other marketing pieces. Schedule times to do follow-up for recent listing presentations you’ve made, or showing appointments you’ve had. You can even pencil in social marketing activities like updating and monitoring Facebook & Twitter, writing blog articles, website updates, keyword research or social networking time as appropriate. This way you’ve made time for all the things you know you should be doing, instead of approaching your day-to-day marketing haphazardly.

Once you have your calendar set up, take a look at it as a whole. Is it realistic for helping you hit your goal each month? If not, reevaluate and replace/outsource marketing activities that have a lower Return on Investment for those that will help you hit your goal. If having a strategic marketing plan is pretty new to you, then make some kind of plan, and know you’ll come back each month to reevaluate and see which activities brought in business and which didn’t.

It’s very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of working on your business instead of in it – supporting your clients, dealing with office issues, and generally being a very busy real estate agent! Unfortunately, it’s also easy to suddenly realize that you haven’t done any marketing this month! By taking this quick, proactive approach, you know that you are always filling your sales funnel through a wide variety of marketing activities. If you pledge to sit down at the end of every month (and this should also be scheduled on your calendar!) you can put one of these together in about 15-20 minutes. Then, it’s very easy to knock-out a marketing activity whenever you have a few minutes. Or, if you have an office assistant or virtual assistant, it’s really easy to hand off certain tasks, because they will know exactly what needs to be done, anything that needs doing in preparation, and when it’s scheduled for completion.

How to create your own custom marketing calendar

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:28:16 -0500

Now to create the actual calendar:

Back to School is a great time to get back in touch

Rich Rogala - Real Estate Marketing Coach (Consistent Clients) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:05:01 -0500

If you have kids, you probably know what a crazy time of year Back to School can be. I don’t, but have enough friends and clients with kids to see it! It seems like every school starts on a different day, at a different time. I can’t imagine juggling trying to get kids of different ages where they need to be on time, after they’ve had an entire summer off.

This can be a great time to get back in touch with clients with a small gift that can help them juggle it all. Whether it’s a small gas card so they can fill up for all their running around without having to run into the gas station, or a package of specialty coffee to help them wake up in the morning, little things that save your clients time or help get them moving will be much appreciated!

If you have clients with children that are new to the area, you could also send them a simple photocopy of an area map with the local schools marked on it. Something as simple as this could make their “Back to School” season easier by letting them find the fastest route there.

Remember, client gifts don’t always need to be fancy or expensive – just something to show your past, current and future clients that you’re thinking about them and that you care. It’s a great way to generate consistent clients all year round!

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