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Three Online Marketing Assumptions You Might Be Making and How You Can Correct Them

In the 24/7 world of online marketing that now includes interactive social media and blogging strategies, it is easy to get caught up in new web 2.0 tools and not work on remaining consistent and improving the work that has already been created. Pruning my blog and improving my online marketing presence this week has been an enlightening experience this and I wanted to share my findings and solutions with you.

Here Are Three Online Marketing Assumptions You Might Be Making and How You Can Correct Them

1. Your Online Business Profile Should Be Brief

One common assumption about online business profiles is that less is more. While you shouldn't write an epic biographical novel, your online business profile should include relevant information: Background, Services, Testimonials, and Contact information. Spice up your online business profile by telling readers about YOU, the person, not just the business professional.

It's a good idea to create one basic online business profile in a document processing application (I use Google Docs). Obviously your ActiveRain profile will be different than your Facebook profile which will be different from your profile on Twitter.

If you save one master profile you can pull content from it to create a different profile for each of your social networks.

You want your profile to be tempting enough that prospects either pick up the phone and call you or they email you. Do not make the assumption that prospects will read a paragraph about you and visit your website for more information. You need to capture your prospects attention on the platform in which they found your profile. The content in your business profile should keep visitors intrigued and reading.

Remember, if visitors don't stick who cares about the click.

Almost every single client that has called me from my real estate marketing profile on ActiveRain has picked up the phone because of an emotional trigger related to what I wrote....which would be the softer, more personal side of who I am and what makes me tick. How do I know? I asked the ones who didn't tell me, though many of my prospects and clients have told me this as soon as they had me on the phone.

Know-Like-Trust + Experience and Knowlege= Contact From A Prospect

Here's a resource for further details on how to create an engaging online business profile in 5 simple steps.

2. Your Blog Readers Will Know All the Places You Have A Presence Online

It can seem confusing, based on the concerns from some in the real estate blogging community and social media marketers at large, whether you should "maintain the purity of a blog" by not adding calls to action. Well rest assured you can maintain a quality blog and add a call to action for your blog readers.

Most good marketing has a call to action and the most valuable property of your blog is the post itself.

Both a call to action AND your blog are two great tastes that DO taste great together. The formula you want to write is: Valuable Property + good marketing=Call/Email of a prospect.

A Blogger’S Call To Action

View more presentations from rebeccalevinson.

Do not think for a minute that other marketing professionals do not have a call to action in their blogs. You will find calls to action in the footers and links of blog posts across the blogosphere. Remember that socialize buttons, RSS text links/buttons, email links, website links, and phone numbers are all important calls to action that should be incorporated into your blog posts.

Strategically you will want to vary your calls to action based on the keywords and content of each post. This will be easy if you have an online marketing strategy.

3. Your New Blog Subscribers Will Read Your Older Posts

Most of your new blog subscribers will read from the day they subscribe forward. Sometimes they might dig back a week or two....but further isn't likely UNLESS YOU...

Point readers, new and old, in the direction of your older posts. Many of your blog readers will read other bloggers online and your older blog readers may miss a few of your blog posts as they have other bloggers they follow. Point your readers in the direction of your older posts. When you write a post, link to 2-3 other blog posts you have written in the body of your post (if applicable) or in closing as recommended reading.

Recommend Reading from your Blog Archives

Not only will you be providing your readers with a valuable resource on the same topic as your blog post, BUT if you link wisely, you can also win by increasing the Google Juice to the blog post.

Fresh New Post Content + Recommendations to older related blog posts= Value to your readers new and old

All Good Marketing Intentions Succeed with Action

If you are making some of the aforementioned assumptions in your online marketing now is a good time to start correcting them.

As my good friend Anne Marie Malfie made the point, frequency is a required action for successful online marketing. You must not only go backward and correct the 3 online marketing assumptions you may be making but moving forward you need to implement these ideas into your online marketing strategy and take action frequently.

If you enjoyed this post about online marketing then you should read,

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Posted by Rebecca Levinson, Real Estate Marketing Consultant on 10/16/2009 04:02 PM

Comments (91)

Blogging in the Online Marketing Channel

blogging, real estate marketing, online marketing, blog archives, online business profile, prospects, call to action, real estate blogs

Originally posted at: Real Estate Marketing Drips: Three Online Marketing Assumptions You Might Be Making and How You Can Correct Them

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91 Comments on Three Online Marketing Assumptions You Might Be Making and How You Can Correct Them

OCT

Great information, I need to go back and add links to older posts for lots of my newer posts (and vice versa, actually).

As usual, Rebecca, excellent post with information we can all use to improve our online presence. Thank you again.

OCT

I have to admit one thing I haven't been good at and keep saying I need to do is to point people to past posts. I point them to the one previous, but never any farther. Maybe I should start listening to my audience and give them what they want more than just one article on the subject. I have them, I just need to help them find them.

Todd Clark - www.LivingBeaverton.com

Another good reason to have detailed profiles is the SEO benefits. If you write something of substance over time it will achieve page rank and the links inside the profile will get the benefit.

Sounds like a good plan to revise the blog and to make it more visible and usable for our readers / potential clients. Thanks Rebecca for a great summary!

I've been slowly but surely revising my olfer blods - good iformation - thank you, Karen

Hi Rebecca ~ Good, thought provoking post. I guess I need to go in and revise some of my older posts too and add some links to them.

Hi Rebecca, I am continually amazed at how some tips, that should have been so obvious, were not. Thanks for posting. Bookmarked

All of your internet and blogging efforts should revolve around SEO

Great information. Thank you for the post. I definielty will go & revise my profile. Thanks again.

Thank you for the inspiring post, I am definately going to add your suggestions/ideas to my list of goals. It is always wonderful to learn new SEO tips!

Julia- I am probably halfway there. It takes awhile but is so worth it.

Jane- This was fun to write because I have been doing these things myself. I spruced up my profile, changed my header, and have been working on my blog all week long.

Todd- It's a great reference for both your consumers who read your blog and your fellow professionals.

Bill- Absolutely the SEO benefit is important. My A/R profile shows up within first 1-3 links first page SERP Google for my targeted keywords. I watch it pretty closely.

Svetlana- These blogs getted worked on all too much to not use theem to their fullest potential.

Karen- It is a process but is worth the reward.

Denise- Sounds like a plan, it is definitely worth it.

Daniel- I am glad you find these tips to be useful. I have been using these methods and more to tweak my blog.

Independent Brokers Reality- SEO is important- which in my mind include Great content.

Nikki- I can say from experience it is well worth the effort.

Suzanne- You are so welcome. There are so many things we can all do to leverage our blogs on the internet.

Rebecca - excellent post, I need to spend some time digging through my blog and sprucing it up a bit. I like your suggestion about creating a master profile to work from. When you have so many profiles on sites, it gets easy to skimp on some of them which doesn't help gain new business. Thank you! :)

Great blog post you made some very good points. I look forward to reading the other three blog posts ;-)

I would add that I have seen agents paralized and can't act because they think that if they don't put it together all at once into perfect synergy, then they can't get going. When it comes to action be like Nike, Just do it. The rest will take care of itself.

Rebecca: Very cool post and spot on... I need to groom my older posts. I see the views continue to go up, need to set a time and do the project! Thanks...

I've bookmarked this for future reference.

Thank you!

Patricia /Portsmouth NH

Hi Rebecca~ Great ideas and now I have a lot of work to do, thanks to you! (smile) The leveraging is important.

Thanks for the tips, I agree on all 3 !!!!

Hi Rebecca- Thank you for some very helpful info. There's so much involved with all of the blogs, social media, websites, google juice, etc., that you do one thing and think "ok, done with that" But, as you stated, that's not the case. Thank you for reminding us to keep at it.

I like when you mentionned the fact that you must keep your visitors on your site... I like to use the Google Analytics tool to keep track of how long people spend on my site and what pages they like to visit.

Hi Rebecca -- Exceptional post as always. When I read posts like these that are chocked full of really useful tips and information, it highlights how much more I need to do! :-)

Great tips, Rebecca. I'm astounded that people don't use ALL the space they can to "sell" their value proposition to the consumer. The consumer of tomorrow is looking to "DIS-qualify" potential service providers. The more you can appeal to them, through profile copy, the better the result

Great ips for us to remember. Good reminders. Thank you

Karen, That was very helpful. i am going to go back through my old blogs and perhaps edit them and check out my profile as well.

Thank you. You gave me some ideas. Now I just have to findtime.

I like the idea of linking back to past blogs. I'll keep that in mind for all future blogs. Yes I have a call to action on all my online marketing.

People call you because they identify with you. So tell a little bit about yourself and let them get to know you

Rebecca, as with many things in life it is ALWAYS dangerous to make assumptions and you have some good ones to avoid.

All great tips -- thanks for the info and tips.

Good information-- it is encouraging me to make the move to get my blog going. That is one area that I have been lax in.

Thanks

OCT

great advice and nicely written. my profile is something i struggle with. SUPRISINGLY enough, I'm a poet. I can write poetry for days but I can't get this profile thing down to a science. I will master it though ;-)

Good suggestions, especially about linking back to older posts as I never do that. I'll have to begin now. Thanks for your recommendations.

Thanks for the information. My online marketing needs improvement as that's where the action is, and I want my share.

True, true, true...I just bookmarked your post and added you as an associate. I like the idea to link to previous posts. I usually link to relevant webpages that I own. Finding relevant older posts might be a bit more time consuming but could bring add. value to readers.

Hi and good morning Rebecca, all good stuff. It took me some time to learn good back-linking. Keeping those old posts active that are still relevant for my areas Ann Arbor and Saline.

Rebecca,

Very helpful, and I particular like the idea of referrng to older post by way of reference

Brian

Rebbecca, Thanks for the tips and reminders - one of the obvious I haven't done is uploading my profile into Google docs. I've been getting better about the past post links.

Rebecca, I really enjoy you blogs! They are full of great information and they are easy to read. You have a wonderful writing style. Thanks! I have to go practice my writing skills now. ;-)

Rebecca - thank you for the great suggestions...I'm going to go back and take a better look at my profile thanks to your suggestions. I also just subscribed to your blog - it looks like you have great advice for Realtors doing social networking.

What a well thought out article with great tips and graphics! Thanks

Thanks Rebecca- I have bookmarked so that I can go back and read all of the links. I have work to do!

Where I could definately improve is going back to older posts as Todd also says. I can't keep track of them! Any suggestions? Amazingly enough I have asked Bill for his suggestions on that too! I'm getting old and can't remember what I've written as it's now over 500 posts.

Great information and very helpful thoughts on cleaning up the profile and blog.

Great info. Thank you

Rebecca, Thanks for the ideas. I am new at all this and these pooints are well taken.

Great post, and I learned something. Now I need to go gather the links to my old posts so I can add them to new ones.

I completely agree with you about your profile. Too many people only tell about their professional life - how long in the business, designations, awards. I think that potential clients want to know more than that - they want to know if this is a person they could trust and enjoy working with. They want to know if they have anything in common with that person. In short, who is he/she when not at work.

You don't have to get into details or make long lists of things you do, but references to pets, family, hobbies, or community involvement give people an idea of who you are rather than just what you are.

Rebecca,

I'm a newby and cannot tell you how appreciative I am for this kind of information. There is so much good information here and I'm going to check out some of your other postings.

Many thanks.

Excellent tips and sure to maximize anyone's exposure if they use them properly. Thank you for sharing!

Rebecca...

I don't do assumptions. Assumptions are a great way to screw up everything from marketing onward :)

TLW...ROAR!

Rebecca, I've bookmarked this post so I can go back and read the ones you listed at the end. That's a great tip!

Kevin and Monica- This is a tip I give in my Community Equals Profitablity Seminar that really seems to resonate with people. Also, I just love Google Docs and I find working from a master profile really helps.

Dan-Thank you I hope you enjoy them. Along the same lines of sprucing up online marketing presence.:)

Joe- I think part of the paralysis is not having a plan...then some of it doesn't make sense and some of it, online marketing, just seems daunting.

Rene- You are welcome. I gave myself a kick in the butt and just designated some time to do these things and more knowing the payoff would be big. I already started to see a payoff two days into improvements.

Patricia- Thank you I hope it proves useful to you.

Vickie- I won't lie it is work but there's a great payoff behind it.

Michael- Excellent and thank you for reading.

Kathy- Yes when you have a content driven strategy, a.k.a, blogging you should work it, and work it, and work it again <<<SMILE>>>

Roch- It is important to add as full of an offering as you can and have your readers spend time...then send them to your end game with a call to action. In other words, have a purpose and make it visible.

Chris- Thank you I am always finding more things I can also do....but always also need to be steady with the basics.

Brian- "The consumer of tomorrow is looking to "DIS-qualify" potential service providers." Yes absolutely and the Internet is a perfect venue for consumers to both qualify and disqualify. This is one way that I use the internet, no question.

Jean- Glad you found it useful thank you for reading.

Sybil- Think of how much you have learned from the day you started blogging 'til now and then how much more you will learn. Can you imagine what you can apply to your older posts and how effective that will be for your internet marketing? One Word- VERY.

Prest Realty- Ink it into your marketing time:)

Rebecca you are one of the best writers on Active Rain...

Corrine- Interlinking is important. Glad to hear you have a call to action.

Russ- Very well said and it sounded like a rhyme when I read it in my head.

Gary- Thank you and yes assumptions aren't safe bets.

Bob and Carolin- Thank you glad you enjoyed them.

Paul- Great I am glad to hear it. Blogging is a great part of an online marketing strategy.

Dee- You will get it. I liken blogging to poetry, they both have a certain symmetry. I actually spent some time away from blogging frequently this summer and wrote scores of poetry which helped balance me out and rejuvenate my blogging juices. As far as your profile, I would definitely share your love for poetry on your profile. There are some people, like me, who that would resonate with right away.

Don- You are welcome...happy interlinking.

Dave- If you work it you will have your share....there's an abundance of that online.

Cathy- Definitely an add value to readers and worth the time. Thank you for your readership and association:)

Hi Missy-Yes, I have to go back myself and write some updates to some of my older posts then linking back to them...that is coming.

Brian- Thank you I hope you choose to do so it really makes a difference.

Anthony- Thank you so much for your kind words I appreciate them and you. Happy writing.

Lori- I am glad you are reviewing your profile. I recently reviewed and updated mine. Also thank you for your subscribership:)

Joeann- Thank you for your kind words. I am glad you enjoyed it.

ITexas- Work that is well worth it. For Real.

Lyn- If you are using ActiveRain as your platform, I would do this (and it is a manual task for sure). Open up a page in a word processor (I use google docs, surprise) and then open a tab and open up the statistics section of your ActiveRain account on the my home page. List some categories of post topics on your page in your word processor and start grouping them from the titles of your posts from the statistics page in your a/r account. Include the hyperlinks as easy reference.

You will probably end up creating some categories as you go along in this exercise and it does take awhile but you have a nice master list with direct links when you are done.

Also this exercise serves another post. It will be very eye-opening as to what kind of posts you are writing, how many you write the most of, and if you are in line with your target audience and blogging goals. When I created this list it helped me to refocus my blog posts to be more in line with my target audience as I was starting to get off center of my goal a bit.

Gene and Ben- Thank you for reading. Glad you found these tips to be useful.

Jirius- Glad you found this useful and welcome to the blogosphere.

Marte- Absolutely it is nice for people to have a window into you especially when we are in professions where many others do what we do we need to use what we have to distinguish ourselves from the rest.

Lesslie- Thank you. We were all new to blogging at one point or another. I remember what that was like, what helped and what was confusing. Welcome and blog on.

Mark- Thank you for your kind words and for reading.

TLW- Lol, well said, well said. Anytime I have assumed something I usually end up out of something so I don't do them either, at least, not intentionally.

Kate- Thank you and hope you get some good take aways to implement.

Ralph- Now you have caught me blusin' big time....I'm humbled to be even considered a good writer....it is always something that I am working on and that is working on me. Thank you.

i give you 5 stars for this blog.... thanks you for sharing the info

good stuff...I'm experimenting with my blog, web site, you tube etc...your blog helps!

I may need to go back and take a look at my profiles and see if they're likely to attract people.

thanks for the post, I am in the process of cleaning up what I have an am doing.

OCT

Now this is something I can use...thanks for this.

Thanks for your additional comments regarding how to keep track of older posts. Keeping a master list is a great idea and although a little work to put together, will be an easy way to cross reference in the future. I love learning new tips on Active Rain every day!

2.0 draws new lines around the personal and professional, and prospects expect a human touch in every interaction. This can be daunting, but also refreshing.

Oh, and you just got another subscriber. Atta blogger.

Charlie- Wow thank you...honored with the five stars:)

Verylyn- I am glad and good to hear you are mixing it up.

Christine- Even having a few different pairs of eyes might help for an objective opinion, two, or three.

Greg- Well then I guess I have some company.

Frank- I am glad to hear that.

Ian- Absolutely right on as can be relationships in general:) thanks for your subscription.

Tonda and Steve- Thank you I work off a master list and love it.

Very helpful information. I think a call to action is important but it is only activated if there is a pre-existing need or a needed created as a result of the information provided on the blog post.

This is very timely advice for me since my profile page is long overdue for a makeover. Thanks for sharing this helpful info.

OCT

Mario- Yes calls to action will vary. I would think, there is always a need/goal for more subscribers, so one post might simply just ask for readers to subscribe to your blog.

You are welcome Judy. I hope you click over to this link: How to Create An Engaging Online Business Profile in 5 Simple Steps.

Thanks, Rebecca, for the motivating info. Just one thing . . . I couldn't actually read the slideshow entries. Is it just me? It would be nice to see what they say. (I even tried full screen view).

Hi Deena,

I know they were small and even large screen makes them look small. Let me think on, maybe I will pdf them and put up quick post, the examples are very good. Thank you for the feedback.

OCT

Great post Rebecca. It is important to have relevant info on EACH site that you are located.

This is very true. I have About Me pages for all my sites and I try to call them to action as much as possible. Great article, I wish you the best continued success.

Tim Ryan, Naples FL Real Estate - http://www.naplesguru.com, #1 Naples FL Buyers Agent, #1 Naples Foreclosures info@naplesguru.com