marketing: Beta Test Free Trial - Review Builder Builds Google & Yelp! Stars - 02/11/17 08:54 AM
Presell prospective home buyers and sellers with this powerful new review building software.
 
Simple to use, you simply send happy home buyers or sellers a text message asking them to leave you a review. 
 
They view the text message and give you five stars, then they are asked to post to Google, Yelp! or other review site of your choice.
 
Simple, effective, and a profitable way to build your business.  Reviews matter. If you have a Google + My Business page (a REQUIREMNT AT THIS TIME), you are eligible to do a free test of this system, with no obligation. 
 
Easy signup page is here.
Just … (1 comments)

marketing: The Magic Formula For Home Staging Marketing - 03/04/13 04:37 AM
The magic formula for home staging marketing and marketing of any kind is AIDA.
No matter where or how you prospect for new clients, the first step is getting their attention.
Only then can you begin to interest them in your Home Staging Services, build their desire and finally get them to take action and hire you.
How are you going to do that?
Simple, by grabbing your prospective clients eyeballs and making them focus on YOU!
These days most people who start to find a home stager in their community rely on Google. But even if you show up on … (2 comments)

marketing: Search Engine Optimization Basics [SEO] - 08/03/12 01:33 AM
SEO or getting your website to rank in Google is a mysterious topic for many people.If you own your own business, you or your staff are likely getting a call a day or more from India or elsewhere in the US pitching you on SEO services at huge cost.I've put together a free 12 part mini course that covers SEO Basics. It will help you to understand what SEO is, Why it's important and what you can do yourself to get more clients by ranking better in the Search Engines. http://microbusinessspecialist.com/SEO/FreeCourse/index.htm
… (2 comments)

marketing: Home Stagers, Realtors Get Listed on the First Page of Google Today! - 11/04/10 07:03 AM
If you have done any amount of searching online with Google, you have probably run into local listings that show a map with up to 7 businesses featured. This Google Places listing is very underused by Home Stagers in most markets. While more common for Realtors, their are a lot of communities where you can get your business on the front page of Google pretty much by just filling out their form.
In more competitive markets you will need to take additional steps to get in the Google 7 Pack, as I call it.
I have just written a short report … (0 comments)

marketing: Fear of Loss Vs. Hope of Gain - 11/06/09 08:45 AM
Last night was the second session of the League of Extraordinary Minds, and what a great two hours it was. While you as a home stager might not think that the internationally famous panelists that are participating in the program have anything to offer a small business like yours, you would be wrong. I took a ton of notes last night, and got a lot of actionable ideas in the process. One I will share with you today is the understanding that people buy emotionally, and that they are motivated more by fear of loss than by hope of gain. As … (5 comments)

marketing: Home Staging Marketing: Why Market Maker? - 03/18/09 03:49 AM
The Market Maker program is now live and available for Home Stagers interested in getting more business from their existing web pages. I did a survey of home stagers last year. One of the things many expressed disappointment in was how little new business they got from their web pages. Since then, I have held a tele-seminar, and written dozens of articles on how to turn that around. Yet relatively few home stagers have applied the secrets well known and taught in professional internet marketing circles. I recognize the problem in myself. I often know what to do, but doing it … (0 comments)

marketing: Home Staging Marketing on Auto Pilot That Pays For Itself! - 03/17/09 03:27 AM
Market Maker is alive an open for the first 30 Home Stagers that want to transform their web sites into marketing machines. Market Maker will set you up with a proper set of Meta Tags, including Page Title Tags, and effective Site Description and geographically based long tailed keywords. These tweaks will help more people in your local market find your web site. Then, Market Maker will offer your visitors an excerpt from Allegra Dioguardi's new eBook, Styled by Design, a Guide to Home Staging Design Principles. This will get your visitors to raise their hands and identify themselves, and get … (0 comments)

marketing: Winning Over the Null Set - 03/16/09 04:45 AM
Winning Over the Null Set
If you remember the null set from your school days, or as likely from your kid's math homework, you might recall it being used to describe those who did neither A or B but nothing at all.
You put a lot of effort into marketing your home staging services and sometimes get undercut by your competitor, and that hurts.
Marketing is essential in our competitive world, particularly in adverse times. While most people may realize it's important to invest in marketing when times are tough. Do they realize that sometimes the biggest competitor isn't the gal … (0 comments)

marketing: Dangle Something Pretty Before Their Eyes! - 03/15/09 01:20 PM
Dangle Something Pretty Before Their Eyes We all like things that are free and pretty and/or delicious. And if it's something that is also related to what our web visitors are looking for and the product or service we wish to offer, it's very much all the better.
In recent articles we've been looking at what it takes to get people to find your web site. There are a whole host of tricks tweaks and tactics collectively called Search Engine Optimization that can help build traffic to your web site. But once they are there, what are you going to do … (0 comments)

marketing: Home Staging Tip: Chased by a Bear! - 03/12/09 07:20 AM
Chased by a Bear!
There is a story of two people in the woods, being charged by a hungry bear. One stops to tie his shoes, the other scoffs, “you can’t outrun a bear.” “I don’t need to outrun the bear, I just need to outrun you.” His companion replied.
So too, with marketing in a local market. You don’t need to be the best in the nation at marketing, you just need to be better than your local competitors. That may be easier than you think.
With notable exceptions most home stagers spend very little time thinking about their marketing. … (4 comments)

marketing: 3 Reasons People Aren't Buying Your Home Staging Services - 02/20/09 02:20 AM
Last week, internet marketing expert Frank Kern launched a new product that sold for $2,000 each. In less than 24 hours he sold 2,000 units. That's $4,000,000 in one day. Not too shabby. Who would have thought you could sell such an expensive product to so many people so fast in today's economy? How did he do it? Well, that is actually the information Frank was selling. How to sell goods and services on the internet. Part of Frank's success stems from his willingness to share a good deal of valuable information with his prospects before he launches his product, and … (13 comments)

marketing: BillBoards and the Keywords in your Homestaging or Real Estate Web Page - 02/07/09 08:56 AM
Have you ever passed by a blank billboard on a backwater highway with a 1-800 number on it? Or perhaps one saying, “Your message here?” I have, but it’s been a while since the last time. Mostly I suspect, because I seldom venture off the main freeways in my normal travels these days.
In past years, I did a bit more traveling to smaller towns in out-state Minnesota and Wisconsin and I would see a fair number of them. Mostly on roads that used to be the main thoroughfare in the pre-freeway era. I suspect a good many of them still … (1 comments)

marketing: Most Home Stager and Realtor Web Sites StinK! - 01/26/09 07:02 AM
I just published a free report titled, "Why Most Small Business Web Sites Stink."  It builds on a couple posts I have made here on Active Rain and in my other blogs in the past month or so. And while the report is aimed at all small businesses, it applies to home stagers and Realtors as well as anyone.
The report is available for free on either of my two other blogs, http://MicroBusinessSpecialist.com/blog and http://HomeStagingBusinessTips.com/blog 
The report compares the function of a web site to that of a trade show.  By doing so, I try to communicate in non jargon language … (4 comments)

marketing: Ethical Bribes at a Trade Show Help Business Build Web Sites that Work - 01/17/09 07:43 AM
Ethical Bribes at a Trade Show Help Business Build Web Sites that Work
[This is the third of five articles, comparing a trade show to the functions of a small businesses’ web site.]
Vendors at trade shows often use “ethical bribes” such as gifts, drawings, contests, even a chance to putt a golf ball into a miniature green to draw passer-bys to their booth. When I was a kid, you used to be able to get a wooden yard stick at the state fair. Such premiums now cost a buck or more, but in the old days it was a big … (2 comments)

marketing: Free Report on 7 Things You didn't Know to Ask about Web Hosting - 08/03/08 07:58 AM
If you manage your own web sites and/or contemplate doing so in the future, you may be interested in a free report by Bob the Teacher.  I've made a special arrangement with Bob to provide this report on the web site of my upcoming teleseminar.  Bob is a former High School History Teacher who now specializes in teaching people how to effectively use the internet. Unlike many gurus, he knows how to teach in bite sized segments that makes it easy to learn technical material.
I will be hosting a Webcast this Thursday to discuss one of the issues identified in … (4 comments)

marketing: Home Staging = Faster Sales or More Money? - 07/29/08 02:02 AM
In our survey of 186 home staging businesses, Home Stagers were asked their opinion as to whether Staging tended to benefit clients most in terms of having a faster sale, or a higher price.Respondents were not allowed to say both.They were also asked the same question for three different time frames:
their entire career past six months projections for the future The clear majority respondents overwhelmingly felt that the primary benefit was faster sales in all three time frames, but especially so for the past six month time frame.While still predominantly picking faster sales, noticeably more people picked higher prices as … (8 comments)

marketing: Competition For Home Stagers, is it really "Mild." - 07/26/08 03:30 AM
Over half of the 123 Home Staging Professionals who answered my survey question on the "Climate of Competition" in their markets rated it as "Mild, we are all friends." Only one rated it as "Hostile, we are fighting for every advantage"That said, those with 2-4 years experience were the least likely to say competition as Mild. My guess is after a couple of years in business, they were more likely to have run into competition and not necessarily come out ahead in every case.The "Top Dog" category in the survey seemed to share this attitude. Although a few seem to have … (10 comments)