- Utilize demographically targeted ads on Facebook! Geographically specific as well, this is a great solution for agents to send local or relocating potential clients to their website to sign up for their newsletter...yes there is a cost...but you only pay for actual clicks (if you set it up as CPC (click) rather than CPM (impression). Of course, this would work with any of the other PPC services out there now, but the costs can add up quickly on any if you aren't careful...and Facebook really seems to be able to zone in on the target demographic really well because of all the likes & interests information that people feed it. Here is an article that I wrote about this very topic last week as a guest author over on RealBlogging.com...
- Also utilizing Facebook, create a page (formerly known as "fan pages") about either your geographical area (North San Diego County, CA) or a combo of a certain target market within that set geographical area (golfing communities or retirement communities in North San Diego Country, CA)...and embed a subscription form for your newsletter on that Facebook page. Sure you can send them directly to your website, but you are apt to get greater results if they don't have to do any extra work...we tend to be a fairly lazy species after all! You can learn how to create a page on Facebook here. People will search to find you...you can create a Facebook badge for your page and put it on your website, all your blog posts, etc...so you are constantly promoting it while you are doing all of your other marketing chores.
- Pop-ups!
I still hate them...but they are effective. Utilizing some code or plug-in that will make your website viewers have to sign up so that the annoying pop-up will go away and they can read the content that they came to see...well, it can increase sign-up rates exponentially. But I still hate them. I don't want to mention any by name right now...I am actually going to see if I can get one company to let me review their product in detail for a future post. Some canned real estate websites already have this functionality built in...so check with your provider before laying out additional cash. - Get your fingers typing! Learn the strategies for using good keyword text in all your articles, website copy, blog posts, etc...the more people that find you in the search engines while looking for their own search terms, the better your odds are of converting those visitors into subscribers. Guest blog or comment on people who come up when you type your targeted search terms into Google...that will put your site link (where they can subscribe to your newsletter) on these higher ranking websites and will increase your visibility to your target market! Here is an article that I think is a great starting point for those looking to really focus in on their target market via writing.
- Now that you have done all of the other items above, number 5 is easy. Every single thing that has your brand on it on the internet, from your blog to your website to your social media profile pages to EVERYTHING, should have a subscription form right there embedded into it...or at the very least, along the sidebar! It's not hard, some WYSIWYG editors tend to make it difficult, but if you aren't having any luck getting the forms to just paste in or embedding the code directly into the html...and sometimes you won't...try as a last resort to embed the form into an iframe. Make the forms stand out, not blend in. You don't want to totally distract from your quality cotent, but you don't want them to fade into the background either.
- Bribe them to sign up! Yes, it works...offer them entry into a contest to win Starbucks, a free CMA, a free neighborhood profile, iTunes gift card raffles, chance for lunch with you at a fancy local restaurant, a funny report, a list of funny quotations, a historical report on the area...think outside of the box! (For example...IF I get over 50 female / women / lady real estate agents to subscribe to the weekly newsletter for the National Association of Lady Real Estate Agents via the form below or via the form at the link provided below BY Monday 8/23/2010 at 11:59pm PST, I will do a blog post featuring the first 15 of those ladies with keyword targeted links and a 3 line bio...links to both agent website and AR profile will be included...I will feature this blog post on all my sites and get it as much exposure as possible, creating great inbound links and traffic back to the new subscribers :-) I will post the links to the blog post in the comments section of this post by Wednesday 8/25/2010 at noon PST. This is called thinking out of the box, people!!!
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Below is a prime example of #5...here is a hard to miss, attractive to look at (I know it's large...normally it would be about 1/4 this size, but I was making a point , very easy to use subscription form which I have created for the National Association of Lady Real Estate Agents. The "look" of the form mimics / complements the look of the association's website, so it continues to build brand awareness everywhere that it is used. This is a live form for the NALREA newsletter that is published every Tuesday, so all the lady real estate agents who read this should feel free to go ahead and test it out!
(Should you prefer a more subtle, classier example, you can see the one on the sidebar here.
A few examples within Active Rain of great sign up forms are:
- http://activerain.com/blogsview/685076/the-activerain-suggestion-box
- OK...seriously...I can't find anymore now that I want them...I looked through all the people I would normally have been looking at...even though I can see them in my mind and know they're there...one of them is bright red and on the sidebar...can't think who it belongs too...sorry - I was trying to do an AR shout-around!
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