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Are you utilizing your office website (RE/MAX.com) to generate referrals and consumer traffic ?

Are you utilizing your office website to generate referals ?

This past week I received a referral from Tom Waite, a California RE/MAX agent in Orange County, who had a referral for a seller who needed to sell a property in Philadelphia. He called me up, we had a nice discussion (basically a mini interview) and he sent over the referral. I asked him how he found me and he said he did a search on RE/MAX.com for a top producer in Philadelphia !!!

Very cool ! This reminded me how important it is to have your own profile set up and up-to-date on your company website. So simple but easy to forget. Further, it is amazing how many agents do not have their profiles set up or do not even have a picture or a website in their profile ! There have been many times that I have gone to RE/MAX.com to search for a Realtor in a different area to refer a client and I did the same thing - looking only at the profiles of those agents who had websites and photos.

Here is my profile page on RE/MAX - not fancy but informative. I noticed this past week after I received the referral I did not have my updated websites on there including my blog - The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog ! So it only took a few minutes for me to update it. Am not crazy about the photo so maybe will change that later as well !

So whether you are at RE/MAX or a different company, are you utilizing the benefits of your office or corporate website ? If not, I would suggest to make this a priority. Not only are other agents going there to refer clients, but consumers go on to "search for an agent" in an area and I am sure they are looking at the same items.

What are you going to do today to increase your business for tomorrow ?

Much success to all,

Chris and Stephanie Somers - Philadelphia Real Estate

The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

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Posted by Christopher and Stephanie Somers - Realtors - Philadelphia Real Estate on 11/08/2008 07:49 AM

Comments (18)

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referral business, online marketing, remax, remaxcom, web 20, profile pages

Originally posted at: The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog: Are you utilizing your office website (RE/MAX.com) to generate referrals and consumer traffic ?

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18 Comments on Are you utilizing your office website (RE/MAX.com) to generate referrals and consumer traffic ?

NOV

2008

Christopher, Stephanie,

I had not done a search of the RE/MAX site for a while to check my profile. Thanks I seem to be up to date. Here though are some additional stats that I found interesting.

First of all I did a search just for RE/MAX Portland Oregon Agents and found :

698 agents listed
676 listed with email
533 with a picture
438 with a web site
522 with email and a picture
435 with email and a web site
411 with picture and a web site
and only 408 with all three

one of the reasons I stay with Coldwell Banker is due to the great referral network of agents and Coldwell Banker web site searched by consumers, ReMax is probably even better for that

Herb, that is pretty interesting - only 4/7 RE/MAX realtors have all three. I will check the stats in Philadelphia. Glad to see that your profile was up to date ! I feel a little bad that mine was not current to include our blog and our updates site, www.thesomersteam.com , but it was current to the point to receive the referral from Tom in Californina. This is basic marketing and it is amazing to see that agents are not keeping updated with their own company profiles.

James - That is great that a referral network of agents is in place. Also, I have used Active Rain as a referral source too as well. The beauty is that it is reciprocal - these great sites can help us refer a client to a certain agent in a specific area and our sites allow for us to receive referrals from other agents as well. Networking is a beautiful thing : )

Oh geez, I had no idea that you could make a personal profile page on the Re/Max site! Thanks for the info!

Good advice. There are a lot of RE/MAX agents who have not taken the time to properly fill out their profile. There are so many that don't even have a profile picture- BIG MISTAKE!!

Cristal - with all the other things we are doing, it can be easy to forget our own corporate site ! Glad we gave you the reminder : )

Bill - Definitely a big mistake ! It is amazing that a lot of those agents have not taken the time to do it.

Christopher, I am way too late in updating my page, it's funny how time goes....Thanks so much for a great reminder to make it a priority.

Carole, LOL, I hear you... I dont think it is ever too late. I guess you moved on to better things !!! Hope all is well in your world !!!

NOV

2008

Christopher & Stephanie,

Thanks for the post. I must confess the company web site is underutilized. I have a site I deveoped, an outside blog and Activerain. I don't due much with the company issued site. However, it does generate leads. One of the things to improve upon for 2009.

William - Glad we can be of service. I smiled when I realized our profile on RE/MAX was not updated, but we received a referral anyway. Is just another nice way to have your name out there where both consumers can find you and other agents looking to refer business to other areas.

I always read the bio, looking for an agent with photos, email and websites. This month I placed an AZ buyer, an Illinois Seller and the 128 acre listing was by referral of a remax agent in another part of Wisconsin. It pays to have a current Bio page.

Yes we call them 'balloon heads' - the people who still haven't set up a profile and added their picture. We were one of the first to start with it in Northern IL along with Texas I think many years ago and I think it's just great for business. I'm proud to say that I am one of the top in my area, it takes some work - like just filling out your profile! Jeezzzz.

Design Center is fabulous - IF you use it.

Mary - Wow ! That is a great example how important that bio is ! Thanks for sharing that - that is also a lot of referrals too just from remax.com in a relatively short period of time.

Lyn - LOL, yes I know what you mean by the balloon heads. Obviously, the balloon heads do not get as many referrals : ) . Filling out that profile is pretty arduous, LOL !

Great advice christopher and Stephanie. Obviously this has more creedence with large companies but there's always multiple sources one can utilize. This does give independent companies like ourselves a leg down from the competition. Being part of Ar and part of such a giant network can have it's perks.

Castellum - You guys probably do so much business you do not need the corporate support from a RE/MAX, a Prudential... etc. I definitely agree that there aer multiple sources one can utilize though... is amazing how many sites that are out there. Active Rain has become a great and amazing referral source as well.

Christopher & Stephanie-Thanks for the reminder, I will check out my profile to make sure it is up to date.

Joseph - Sounds good ! You are welcome : ) Ours needed a little updating as well !!!

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