As a consultant I am gaining great information that I would like to share with the Active Rain Community. I host lunch and learn sessions with top offices throughout the Southeastern US and engage agents on what is working and what is not. I will continue to share this information if you all feel it is helpful .

Branding:

The most effective agents at branding are utilizing a program I highly recommend which is Connecting Neighbors. www.connectingneighbors.com. Agents are hosting neighborhood photo contests, yard of the month contests, community cookoffs, etc.  The CN product allows agents to give something of value to the community and the residents are responding. When the residents interact with their site the CN product also captures the email address and starts a drip marketing campaign. Great results!

Competitive Tools:

As listing opportunities are getting harder to come by agents have informed me of a great viral marketing product that sets them apart from most competitors. After reviewing the product we decided to represent the company in our sales meetings. The company is Announce My Move - utilize our link if you like the concept to save a few bucks - www.announcemymove.com/sl.

When an agent is competing for a listing - the agent with AMM will show the benefits of viral marketing which a majority of other agents do not have. The closing line is " Mr. Prospect - I will do all of the traditional marketing you would expect from an agent- But I will take your marketing a step further. I will create a webpage specifically for your home and send it to all of your personal or business contacts - however, we will not have access to your contacts - I will create the link and you can simply forward it. You never know who may have an interest or which of your personal contacts know someone who may be in the market. This tool is a great resource to seperate you from your competing agents.

Creative Marketing:

When visiting with an office in Georgia a few weeks ago - I saw a great idea - especially for the South as we love BBQ! The broker had a huge offset smoker/grill that could be reserved for any  local community event. The smoker could feed 100+ people and was provided as a free community service. The smoker was branded with the brokers signage. In order to have free access to the smoker - the broker required a table to be set up at the end of the condiment table with a registration box. The box was for a free dinner at a local restaurant. On his forms there were two questions - Would you like a free CMA on your home and Would you sell your home if we had a buyer? Of course - the contact information had phone and e-mail contact so the office could build their sphere of influence. I thought this was very creative. You can purchase a used smoker from E-Bay. I bet the return and exposure is well worth the investment.

Let me know if this type of information is useful. If there is a specific product you are considering please ask as I probably have heard from my meetings what type of results agents are experiencing.

Thanks,

Brad Howard

Selling Logistics