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The Smart Business Card: A New Concept in Viral Marketing

Business Cards...

Why not take this wonderful tool to the next level? Here are mine: the front promotes me and my Business, the back of my card promotes one of my listings via a picture of the property and the website I've created specifically for that property. My Sellers love them and these business cards have helped me garner even more listings.

Read on for how you can do the same for under $ 40.

Is your picture on your card?

Is your correct e-mail address on your card? Is your address a professional address, reflecting your business or some funky brunettecutie1041@aol.com?

Is your website on your card?

Is your blog site on your card?

Are you using your card to advertise your listings?

Does your card reflect your territory?

If your card is something you pieced together on the spur of the moment on your personal printer that screams out loud and clear: I AM NOT SURE I AM GOING TO STAY IN THIS BUSINESS. I AM AN UNDECIDED AGENT. I HAVE NO MONEY. I HAVE NO FOCUS. I AM A PART TIMER. ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO RISK WORKING WITH ME?

Do yourself a favor: Create the most unique and exciting business cards for yourself! For under $ 40 you can have some awesome cards printed front and back by Vista Print. For zero dollars you can get yourself a professional website for each and every one of your listings through Real Bird. For $ .99 you can buy a .info domain name and tie it to your Real Bird website through Go Daddy. You can then advertise all your listings on the back of your cards, via pictures of the listing and the website address of each listing. I have benefited a great deal from doing that with my cards.

Once you get these babies in your hands distribute them everywhere:

At the local chambers of commerce

When leaving a tip in a restaurant

At various functions, parties, etc.

When showing homes

In doctors' offices

In shops at the counters

On Bulletin Boards

Have them in every one of your listings

Post them on every e-mail you send out

Restaurant lobbies, beauty and nail salons, spas

In every outgoing piece of mail

Give the Sellers a few hundred of them to distribute to friends, family and sphere of influence.

When you sell the home, give a few hundred cards to the new owners, so they can brag about their new home to their friends, relatives and sphere of influence. The website will still be up, the cards will send people to it and voila!... even more leads...

From now on, whenever you give someone your business card, you are also pitching one of your listings. Sellers LOVE that and it will bring you lots of Seller business, I assure you! Who knows, you might even sell the home to someone you give your card to. The Viral Business Card has performed beautifully for me, and I know it will do the same for you!

WATCH YOUR BUSINESS GROW!

Mirela Monte, Your Myrtle Beach Real Estate Connection Join The Optimist Group!

Posted by Myrtle Beach Real Estate by Mirela Monte on 07/11/2008 12:43 PM

Comments (39)

the smart business card a new concept in viral marketing, myrtle beach homes by mirela monte, optimist, marketing strategy

Originally posted at: Myrtle Beach Real Estate by Mirela : The Smart Business Card: A New Concept in Viral Marketing

This post has been included in South Carolina Information Horry County, SC Information
Post is included in group: Marketing 101
Post is included in group: More Referrals: Strategies & Tips on Getting More Referrals
Post is included in group: Realtors®
Post is included in group: The Art Of Marketing You
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39 Comments on The Smart Business Card: A New Concept in Viral Marketing

JUL

2008

GREAT blog matter of staying on current and being fashion forward in our marketing skills no matter what it is the presence, I know over the next several weeks I need "up my game" be fashion forward. Have a great weekend.

I love all this great advice keep it coming...I will definitely do it.

Great information, thank you for sharing. I plan on checking real bird today.

real bird huh, cool thanks

I am a lifetime member of RealBird and I love it. I use their listing widgets and maps on my websites. They post all my listings to Craigs List and many others, all for FREE! Join today. Zoltan is awesome!

Mirela, what a beautiful name! Those are great marketing tips. I really need to do that with my cards. And I never thought to leave my card with the tip, awesome......thank you.

FYI: http://www.realbird.com

Hope you don't mind.........

Chris: Real Bird is the BEST tool I've ever had. Real Bird confers so many unique advantages that it deserves a LONG blog, which I hope to write in the future.

Having a one listing website for each one of my listings and advertising that on the back of my business cards has had a phenomenal response.

I have garnered so many listing because of my cross marketing. Whenever I show properties and leave my business cards behind, the Sellers notice... Guess who they call when the listing expires?

Yes, If you do not advertise yourself then how will others find you? Great blog.

Mirela,

Another Great post, thanks for sharing this great info. I flaged this for a featured post and ask everyone who thinks it should be featured to do the same!

Christopher

Mirela, do you use the clicky feature on real bird? There are so many tools I'm starting to feel overwhelmed!

Katherine: I use clicky on our company's website. I'll have to ask my assistant how we like it.

Christopher: Thank you very much! I hope they make it a feature post, so more agents can read it and hopefully implement it. This has helped me a lot and I would love to see other agents use it.

Susan: Thank you! This is basic stuff made BETTER!

David: Thank you! I need to use more of the advantages Real Bird has available.

Thank you for the compliment on my name! I am Romanian. Both Real Bird owners (Zoltan & Gaby) are also Romanian. So is the Las Vegas dynamo Arina Hanciulescu. Other Romanians in the spotlight (not AR spotlight): Ilie Nastase, Dracula and Nadia Comaneci (tennis ace, Vampire & gymnast).

Less known, but more important: Mircea Eliade (of "The History of Religions" fame) and Constantin Brincusi (famous sculptor). Small country, busy people... I've had several people tell me that they've had Romanian employees and they were the best workers they've ever had.

Mirela- What a great idea! I love marketing ideas and I am always thinking of creative ways to market our listings. This deserves to be featured!

Nestor & Katerina: If I can give back an ounce of what I've received from you, I'll be happy. Thank you for always being such a beacon of light for the rest of us! I appreciate the compliment! Did we get your blog yet?

Betty: Thank you! I hope you do implement this; it will benefit your business greatly.

Carol: Thank you! Please send me the cards after you put them together. Inquiring minds want to know...

Lynn: Thank you very much! In this most trying market, we can't afford to be complacent...

Mirela-What a great post! and thanks for the info on real bird.

Joe

Mirela- I will admit, I have my (personal) logo on my card, not my photo, because I hate looking at photos of myself! (Go to my Website and see my "normal" headshot!).

I am a bit confused about something. The photos of your listings on your business cards- do you redo them everytime you get a new listing? Keep the old listings on them? Order business cards with just listing info on them? Hope I am not being dense (I am fighting a cold or something) but....

Thanks!

PS my graphic is goatnut- what are they trying to say about a goat's nuts??

You just answered a few of my questions that I had left on another blog. But I have left. How many of each listing do you print up on the back of your cards? Do you say - I want 20 cards with this listing, and 20 with this and so on?

Mirela, I love your business card ideas, you are so good at the technology! I've been using Vista Print, they are great, but I haven't done cards with my listings. I am going to get an order together this weekend. Thanks for the tips!

Those are great cards! You're giving out excellent advice. Thanks.

This was a bookmarker post great information and sure appreciated all the links

Carol: I just order 500-1,000 per listing. It's only about $ 40 for 1,000 at VistaPrint and it's part of my advertising for that listing. I give the sellers a couple of hundred cards, so they can distribute them to their friends and acquaintances and brag about their home (viral marketing). The neighbors need some also. Open houses, etc... the cards go by the time you sell the listing and you can give left over cards to the new owners, so they can use them to brag about their new home (viral marketing again).

About your picture: You look quite attractive, so you should have no worries. I used to own a modeling agency. These models were gorgeous, yet none of them ever thought that she was very attractive. Go figure!

As for myself, I've always thought that I was pretty enough to be called "attractive" and intelligent enough to be called "smart", and that works for me. Beauty always shines from WITHIN a person...

June: So glad you found it helpful!

Barbara: Thank you very much! I sincerely appreciate it!

Debbie: As they say in the South: "There is no grass growing under your feet"... Why wait to implement a great idea? Come back here after you get them and share yours with the rest of us, please!

Michelle: 20? NO! 500-1000. It's advertising. The best kind: sellers are proud of their home, so they will distribute the cards to friends and their circle of influence. When you sell the property, give the rest of the cards to your buyers, so they can do the same and brag about their new home. Can you say VIRAL MARKETING? It's the best advertising your dollars can get you!

Joe: Thank you! When you print yours, please come back here and share yours!

I have used Vista print before and have been happy with their products. These are really great ideas.

Steve: Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked them!

The really great thing about Real Bird, is that it links to your blog right here on AR or on Localism, whichever one you prefer. It also ties in to your other listings you create websites for.

The other great feature is that with a simple click you can translate the text into another language. Pretty darn cool, wouldn't you say?

JUL

2008

Mirela - great idea for marketing your listings...I love this idea. I have made business cards specific for a listing and asked the seller to place them in their offices, but I like this better because I don't have much room on my cards to promote my team. You just showed me how. Thanks!

Thanks Mirela for all these wonderful ideas. Sometimes it is the simple things we overlook.

Very creative...I always get a domain for my listings but hadn't thought of making business cards with them. Keep the ideas coming!

JUL

2008

I am so glad you guys agree! This is such an inexpensive and valuable advertising vehicle!

...And until the rest of the Real Estate community catches on: UNIQUE too!

AUG

2008

What a wonderful idea. Thanks for sharing.

Have A Great Day

Thanks for for information, I'm going to set up an account, but what is a info domain name and how does it work?

AUG

2008

Doris: the .info is an information based domain. If you get on www.goDaddy.com and put your cursor on the various domain types, it will explain each one. If you need me to help you tie the new domain name to the website you create, just give me a call; I'll walk you through it.

SEP

2008

That's really funny. Great ideas Mirela. How is the quality of the vista cards?

Mirela: Thanks again for the mention. Plus thanks for David as well. I noticed traffic (and registrations) coming from this post through Clicky web analytics (which is also mentioned in the comments)

-- Zoltan

SEP

2008

I have been using listing business cards though I haven't marketed myself as well on the front nor as beautifully as you have.

DEC

Well, better late than never. I FINALLY got around to making a listing business card- just came in the mail today. I should have looked at yours first, as I like the way it came out better, but I bet my seller will love it!! The people at Vista prints were really nice, but things are slow getting shipped, but than agaion, it is the holidays!

Carol: With Vista print I have always opted for the slow shipping (the cheapest one they have), and I've received everyting back within less than a week after ordering. Are you paying for the faster shipping? Maybe that's what's holding it up...

JAN

Mirela - this is another home run blog! I love your 'box, what box?' marketing attitude. You should write a book!

Excellent, i have been doing two side card and cards that fold and have even more info when need.

thank you.

http://www.westernmontanagrapevine.com

Mirela,

Actually I learned that trick in a Ninja Selling Seminar in Co. One of their top listing agents, Tami Spaulding used that idea. Fabulous idea. Thanks for reminding me. (Hmmm guess I told on myself that I haven't been using it.)

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