Real Estate Marketing Drips: April 2009

Go Deep.  Inside Out Is the Stuff That Pull Marketing Is About

What is that special sauce that makes you relate to other bloggers and the posts they write?  For me the information has to be good, but the personality is what resonates with me.  If I can read a post and feel like that person could have just as easily been speaking those words to me I am hooked. 

I want to connect with the words and I want to make a connection when I reply by commenting.

It is this special sauce that also intimidates people from blogging.  They are looking for that certain "je ne sais quoi" and because they can't define it and don't feel it, they stumble a bit and give up before they begin.

I don't care if you are a workaholic, or a part time worker- Every single one of us has something to say.  Every one of us has something that lights a fire under our a** and makes us get up and speak up.  It's this essence that bloggers work on capturing in their blog and once you have been able to grab hold of it, it's hard to let go.

It's addictive and it becomes necessary. You will start to wear your own blogging glasses and you will start to notice that the world looks just a little bit different looking through a blogging lens.

You want to grab that special sauce that pulls consumers and peers to your blog.  It all begins and ends with you.  Try to release and realize there will be a bit of vulnerability in the process and that is natural and it's also good.  It means you have learned to go deep.  Realize there's a whole community of bloggers that join you.

Inside out is the stuff that pull marketing is all about.

You're not alone.  Sometimes I smile.  Sometimes I cry.  Sometimes I get really angry and I rant. Damn I get mad.  I always write...I am a blogger.  You can be too.

Conversations Are For Everyone

Go Deep.  Inside Out Is The Stuff That Pull Marketing Is About.

Consumers Come First: The Real Estate Mashup of Misinformation Needs to End

Valentine's Day Reflection:  The Heartbreak of A Short Sale Seller

Fearing the Facts or Facing the Fears of the Economy.  I Say No to the Stimulus Bill

I Am Trying to Become the Change I Seek

What Dreams Lie Within.  This Is Not Your Average Bedtime Story

So there's a few inside out posts from me.  And Now I am jamming, typical when I blog.....BTW Dislike the singer, Love the Song.

So can I ask you to join me?  Got an inside out post or two or three, please throw a link in the comments below.  I love learning from others....and I am always working on taking myself less seriously.

GO DEEP.

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Ever get bogged down in all of the details of online marketing and find yourself getting buried?

Tools, social networks, belly to belly, online marketing- it's all important but whose on first and whose gonna help you get across home plate? Anne Marie Malfi and Rebecca Levinson, great friends and business associates, are starting Accountability Wednesdays as a way to keep ourselves in check. We are moms, we are marketers, we love the real estate industry and we strive to get the job done.

You know how it goes, "If you fail to plan than you plan to fail."

Working on our client's marketing takes a lotof our time and as solopreuners we knew we needed to balance our time to reach new prospects and continue to touch our SOI. It's a tricky thing to market yourself as a solopreuner or even as a broker or team and find enough hours in the day to do so consistently and so each Wednesday of the week we have allotted a couple hours to put aside client work and continue doing the tasks that we put to the side of our desks to build our businesses and keep the brand alive.

We want to open Accountability Wednesdays up to the Active Rain Community. If your game, set aside some time for yourself on Wednesdays for a task that you have been meaning to do to grow your business and post about your experience.

There are many things you can post in the Accountability Wednesday Group,

• A how to post
• An achievement/milestone post that you reached through goal setting and not procrastinating
• A research post,
• An epiphany post
• A marketing post
• A sales post

It's all good and it will all be acknowledged.  We want to grow our businesses consistently and we look to be surrounded by like minded peeps.

We will post every Wednesday and share. We don't expect you to share all your trade secrets but knowing Anne Marie and I we will share more than a few. So join and get ready to dust off your stack of "meaning to do"- get it done- and share your experience.

Accountability Wednesdays means getting it done.  We would love your company in this endeavor.  Please join us.

7 Easy Breezy Ways to Get In The Swing of Push Marketing Your Blog

Results come with effort.

No matter what platform you choose to blog on ActiveRain, an Active Rain Outside Blog, Wordpress, or Typepad, activity, research, and prospects come with effort.  Once you push clients to you than your pull efforts will finish the marketing job. 

Don't overlook the momentum of push marketing just because we are a socially enabled and 2.0 savvy community online. 

Here are 5 Easy Ways to Get In The Swing of Push Marketing Your Blog

1.  Register your blog with blog directories.  There are a sea of blog directories to help you get exposure.  Start with Technorati, Google, Dmoz, and Yahoo.  Then commit to registering your blog to other blog directories, tasking yourself at 2 a day.

2.  Advertise Your blog offline.  Advertise your blog's URL on your business cards, newsletters, car decals, print advertising, home buying seminars, sign posts.

3.  Advertise your blog online. Podcasts, online radioshows, market conditions reports, email signature line, online flyers, and social networks.

Continue Reading 7 Easy Breezy Ways to Get In the Swing of Push Marketing Your Blog...

Stuck in a Rut? The Top 5 Ways to Change Up the Ambiance and Get In the Mood to Blog

The Scenario:  You sit down at your desk ready to crank out another local real estate post.  You may or may not have your topic in front of you but this is the time you have allotted to write and you are bound and determined to crank the words out and then as you begin to type.....

BLANK-----BLANK----You got nothin'.

You are stuck in a blogging rut.  You need to change up the ambiance and get in the mood to blog.

There's no blogger I know who hasn't gotten into this rut before.  Even the best laid plans fall flat sometimes...sometimes they just don't fall at all.  So how do you get the words to disperse among the blank white screen staring before you?  You've gotta find your comfort zone and get in your groove. 

Continue Reading Stuck In A Rut? The Top 5 Ways to Change Up the Ambiance and Get In the Mood to Blog...

The Top 10 Steps to Get The Junk Out of Your Trunk and Rejuvenate Your Business

1. Recycle Your Stuff

Create a library at your office.  Do you have some marketing books that other real estate professionals can use? You may not have time to mentor but everyone has time to donate.  Start a library at your brokerage with CD's, books, and magazines that other real estate professionals can check out. 

Many of these materials may be gathering dust on your bookshelves and in your desk drawers.  These same materials may be costly for some of your colleagues to purchase so while you are saving some space you are giving fellow professionals an opportunity for education.  It's a win-win.

While you're at it, why not repurpose material from some of your best posts and newsletters and create an online library on your website for prospects and past/current clients...current and timeless real estate news and advice included.  It IS a library. 

Checkout can be so easy...all that you require is a simple contact registration before PDF download.

2.  Review Your Business Expenses

There are many alternative solutions to costly marketing tools.  Make a thorough list of everything you are currently paying for on a monthly and annual basis.  Record the ROI you are receiving from these tools- websites, CRM's, email programs, postcard drip, lead generation.  Are these programs working for you?  Do you currently subscribe to services you don't use or don't plan on using in the foreseeable (30 day) future?  Eliminate these programs.  Do you have some tools which aren't suiting your needs?  Take the time to research and find tools that are better suited to your business.

3.   Make A Plan

You can't accurately measure your results without having a business plan in place.  It's never too late to make a plan for your business.  If you already have a business plan it is time to revisit it and assess the results.  If your plan isn't working, time for some tweaking and reassessment.  Markets change, economics change, niches can grow stale if not tended with care.

4.  Back Up Your Work

Everyone will experience the blue screen of death.  Make sure you have a good back up plan for your work.  This is also a good time to check out your website provider's protocol.  Do they have a backup for their servers?  Don't forget your blog.  You invested many hours into creating, editing, proofing and publishing your posts.  Make sure you are backing up a copy of them. 

5.  Shred Your Paper

You can still have paper files but keep a digital copy of your important documents.  Scan legal documents and office records and keep them stored in an online storage system. 

At the very least back up your documents on Google Docs and then you will also be able to access them from any computer.

6.  Make Wise Business Investments

The top priority should be continuing your education and it's not always through the usual suspects.  You can take continuing ed classes offered through your local board associations.  You can attend webinars (many are free) on marketing.  Designate some daily reading time each day to refresh yourself on sales 101, 201, and 301 by reading blog posts, periodicals, books,and newsletters.  Extend your reach beyond the real estate industry and tap into others to rejuvenate your mind and wake up your vitals.

7.  Lighten Your Load with Collaboration

Step away from the television and the negativity.  Collaborate with other like minded individuals for a networking power hour or attend a local meetup , tweetup, social media breakfast, or rebarcamp.  Rejuvenate your spirits by making sleep a priority and exercise a fundamental part of your routine.

8.  Keep Focused

Commit to daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.  Don't get hung up on the exact times you will complete all of your tasks- focus on getting the tasks done.  Post your goals- short and long term, where you can see them everyday.  Write out your daily accomplishments as you achieve them each day for even the most minute task to keep distractions at bay.

9.  Trust Yourself

Everyone has something to offer in this world and in the business of selling real estate xevery dedicated professional has something unique to bring to the table.  Write a list of the qualities and the expertise you bring to the process of home selling, home finding, real estate marketing and real estate closing. Ask past clients for testimonials.  Remind yourself how you bring it each and every transaction.  Become sold on you.

10.  Embrace Free Thinking

There is opportunity in every market if you believe it.  If you believe it you will see it.  Once you start believing you will dream, some of those dreams might seem small and some might be big.  Once you start believing you won't care about what everyone else is doing or not doing...

You will care about what you want to do and what you can do and you will DO IT.

****UPDATE:  If you want a way to keep track of lent books/materials for the Library Idea in Item #1- check out buxfer.com or billmonk.com****

If you enjoyed this post about business, you'll want to read:

• Tough Love Talk~  If Your Business Is Broke It's Time To Fix It
• Tough Love Talk~Are you Taking Advice That Hurts or Heals Your Business? Time For a Check-Up
• A Cure For Time Exhaustion.  The Solution That Business Planning Forgot

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5 Simple Reasons Why This Solopreuner Digs Online Marketing

1. Instant Gratification

I am a mom, so "me first" takes  back seat many times.

When I come online to work my needs get to be front and center.  I can almost always get instant gratification. If I need to research something I can boot up my computer, open my browser, do a Google Search and I am good to go.  Sometimes I can research my topic on Amazon.com and it will let me read the book instantaneously.  Amazon.com ALWAYS has my back and I love reading the reviews from other REAL PEOPLE.  I have bought so many great materials from this simple consumer friendly platform.

2.  Sublime Creation

Oh the things you can think when your mind speaks in marketing ease.  Anything I think would help my clients or myself...anytime I think of it...I can make it online.  I can create video, audio, photobooks, slideshows, wikis, blog posts, pdfs, online surveys, quizzes and websites. 

I can do this at 4 a.m in the morning or at 11 p.m. at night.  If I want to use a tool in a new way, I can search for an application to help me organize/create better and chances are good it already exists. 

The online store of goodies is always open and my dreams are never limited.  I never have to wait on the butcher, the baker, or the candlestick maker.  I don't have to wait for a commitee to form to put a marketing idea on the table to brainstorm and reconnect in 30-60-90 days.  I can begin today if I start my marketing project online. 

I can begin in an instant if I start my marketing project online.

3.  Simple Collaboration

I am at ease knowing that preparation for a seminar, a blog tune-up, or an article I have written will be much smoother thanks to the many collaborative tools I use online.  I can prepare a slideshow as my outline and share it with an engaged prospect.  I can write a standard contract and store the document online for any marketing program I offer.

I can work in real time with a client, partner, or business associate, collaborate, and have a true picture of our meeting of the minds.

4.  Convenient Contact

It's so easy to reach out and touch someone when you work online.  Skype and you are connected by a face and a voice, DM and you are engaging without the clutter of your inbox, Chat on Facebook, GChat or Yahoo Chat and you are communicating despite any noise your environment could hold and at ANY time of day that both you and the other party feel comfortable without waking up anyone in your household.

When you look at Facebook Walls and Twitter Streams, realize that many conversations in a stream can easily be taken to a more private, one on one level using the tools of DM, Chat and Skype or even just a simple phone call.

5.  Fantastic Freedom

Online tools allow me to work on my time, in my space, and reach my community.  When something comes up- a sick day or on a more positive note- a Spring Break I can catch up because my online tools let me.  I can communicate with my prospects and customers, my community, and let them know why I might be absent or what I am up to...my blog provides the perfect platform for me to do this and more.

I have all the control if I manage my time.  I only lose productivity when I allow myself to get lost and the function of tools becomes the functions of toys.

And you know what?  It's okay to play when I know for sure I have gotten my work done.

What I love *best* about marketing online is that online I can begin to connect with people in a meaningful way that defies the boundaries of space and time.  I am a REAL personal and I have exercised the art of conversation and my level of transparency to a level that I am pleased to own as my own.  I continue to do this each and everyday.  

Offline or Online REAL people seek real connections.

What offerings online have provided you with the most value and why?  Please share your online stories by commenting below.

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Inspirational Stories~Springing for an Online Break is Worth Much More than the Eye Can See

This Monday marked the official beginning of Spring Break for schools in Walworth County Wisconsin.  Since two of my three children are school aged this is a significant event for our family. 

We made no plans to go to Florida, Aruba, Jamaica or Zimbabwe for that matter.  Just some good old time with each other during the week with a splash ending coming up on Easter Sunday.  A resort waterpark serves up good fun for this family of four and it is something all of my kids enjoy. 

Waterparks are a godsend for a family with three children aged preschool to preteen and one in between.

It's funny that Spring Break falls right on the second week of April this year.  This is one of the busiest times for me.  April is my month where I know I have to get busy, busy, busy.

• Busy blogging good content.  My blog has been my biggest source of business yet.
• Busy researching and practicing what I teach.  I yearn to learn beyond what is ordinary.  I like to twist it and aim to make it extraordinary.
  
• Busy listening to others through blog commenting, phone conversations, emailing, DM's, Online Chat, face to face and more.
• Busy closing the prospects I can from my pipeline in the winter.  Busy gathering new prospects...it's almost summer, then fall.

This busy blogging working mom is living a Spring Race not a Spring Break.

Let me pause...rewind...now play

Eight years ago I started working online SOLEY because I knew it was the one way I could work from home and earn a living.  WOrking from home was my number one priority.  I had two young children at the time and I wanted to be the one to raise them.  I didn't want to read about them in reports from a daycare center.

I worked night after night and more often that not on the weekend.  My background was in getting real estate transactions from contract to close, not in working the internet.  I always craved marketing and I had a strong repect for the Art of a Salesman. I had to take these curiousities and learn how to market and sell online.  My persistance won out and I was rewarded a position with an online internet marketing company that sold to the real estate industry.

The internet became my drug of choice and the very goal I had first come unto the internet for, to use it as a tool to help me spend more time with my children started to dispate before my eyes.  It was an obsession, an addiction, and I could never know everything.

I was becoming the drugged hamster on the wheel. 

Squeak, squeak, squeak one day I was on my wheel and my daughter Zoe, five years old at the time, came into my office and said, "Mom, are you ever going to stop working?"  She looked up at me with her big hazel eyes and squeak...pause...stop. 

One look at Zoe, a glance around my office, and back at my daughter and I got off my damn wheel.  My daughter's words were the rehab I needed.

Fastfoward Spring Break 2009 it's a crazy time.  I have work to do....lots of work to do, and this is my first Spring as an entrepreuner, man I have work to do.  My biggest goal this week, though, is to spend as much time with my kids as I can. 

The drug of the internet is more intense than ever...the drug of 2.0 is like a hydroponic hybrid.

I have been enjoying Spring Break with my children, working intermitently when I can this week.  I will bust my rump making up for some of my time...but I can never get back this time again with them.  The online networking, excessive twittering, researching of toys tools...it will have to wait.  There are real faces behind every computer screen.

The most relevant and real person that I can be is when I take a break and enjoy being a mom...

To my beautiful clan of three.  They are real faces and they look to me.

Springing for an online break is worth much more than the eye can see.

**  If anyone is nodding their heads and feeling the crunch of balance, whether you are an empty nester or are raising a young family like me...please remember that the more well connected you are with yourself and those that matter the most offline the more connected you can become with like-minded online peeps- KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST.  This is the beauty of building a true community.

I am so glad I got off the computer and reconnected with people offline.  Had I been blogging during my crazed stage eight years ago I would have been a pompous bore**

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If you enjoy inspirational stories, check out these blog posts:

• Inspirational Stories~Tuesday's Tale of Affirmative Action
• Inspirational Stories~Life is a Shared Custody Venture
• Inspirational Stories~My 2009 Resolution:  Practice More, Preach Less, and Take the Easy Way Out

Consider Online Quizzes In Your Marketing Strategy.  Your Inquisitive Nature Can Be A Viral Business Building Favor

Online Marketing requires an inquisitive nature to make sure you are on target and relevant.  It takes an inquiring mind to make sure that you are having two way conversations and engaging readership, prospects, and customers in a web 2.0 world.

How's your natural tendency for Q and A----do you scamper in the other direction or do you gravitate toward engagement?  Q and A is a great link building, viral market campaign strategy that can bring you prospects, readership, and Google Juice if you are willing to put in the time and the effort.

In the Spring 09 Issue of Search Marketing Standard's Article, "What's Your Online Quiz IQ?" Garrett French poses these 6 questions to consider before getting started with Quiz Marketing.  Quiz Marketing takes time to develop and market so these questions are important considerations before you decide whether or not to invest your time (money) in this type of online marketing.

1. What are your goals for online quiz marketing? Are you seeking click-thrus, online brand recognition, or backlinks?
2. How quickly do you want to reach those goals? This is content building and results won't happen overnight.
3. Do you already use content to engage your audience? You have a  jump start on quiz building if the answer is yes and your content is informational and not commercial push marketing.
4. What are the content expectations of your visitors? Your quizzes need to be on par with your content.  If quizzes would be a stretch it would be best not to engage in this type of marketing.
5. How connected are you with your industry's media?  Do you syndicate content currently, have a Contact database you can inform of the quizzes, or have contact with local or national media?
6. Are widgets used in your space?  Do the professionals in your industry put widgets on their blogs and websites?

Is your Curiosity Piqued?  Here's Where You Can Go to Make An Online Quiz

Here are some software sites for online quiz making.

• gotoquiz.com
• articulate quizmaker
• question writer.com
• Proprofs quiz school
• quizzlerpro.com

Keep Your Mind Open to the Possibilities of Marketing Your Brand with Online Quizzes

Consider the viral ways through good WOM(Word-of-MOuth), SEM (Search Engine Marketing), SOI(Sphere of Influence), and SMM (Social Media Marketing) a well laid out quiz could spread.  Topics got you in a conundrum...consider your target market(s) first and then write a list of their needs.  Think about conversations you have had with prospects and customers and questions you have been asked. 

Think about hot topics in real estate- those that are confusing, like the $8000 tax credit and those that have more shelf life- short sale topics, foreclosures, loan modifications.  Now you should have a good list to get you going. 

Quizzes can be fun too as noted in the example from profsblog below.

** Non-competing brokers, you can use quizzing too.  Think about issues involved in retention, think about attracting new recruits**

Here are some online quiz examples

• Real Estate Center- Various Quizzes
• HGTV's Front Door
• Dave Ramsey.com
• Ashland Real Estate Quiz
• Short Sale quiz from blogger Lynn Pineda
• Prawfs Blog
• Laundry 101 Pop Quiz from Blogger Russell Ray
• San Francisco REO and Short Sales Quiz from Blogger Rebecca White

Don't forget to make it a goal that your quiz is easily portable via widget, share with me button, bookmark, etc.Then GO FOR IT!!!!!  Your Inquisitive Nature Can Be A Viral Business Building Favor.

Crush the Box.  Somebody's Gonna Do It and It might as well be you.

**AFTERTHOUGHT 4/4/09- You could also provide quizzes about your community- historical quizzes, fun tourism facts, specific to local hot spots even (like a resort, popular restaurant, movie theatre, or sports themed if there are popular sports in your town- water sports, golfing, etc.).  Remember when you advertise your quiz- promote it offline also). 

Can you imagine how great it would be to have your local quiz on all these local business websites?  Maybe even .org websites**

Consider online quizzes in your marketing strategy.  Your inquisitive nature can be a viral business building favor.

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Don't Get Stuck In A Generational Undercurrent.  The Tides Have Turned.  All Generations Are Online

It's Not a Crapshoot.  All Generations Are Online

Learning how to market with social media and blogging for future generations- "aging' Gen Y home buyers and sellers and their predecessors, Generation Z, is important because they are learning to use the tools and medium of the internet as a matter of course. 

Their lifestyles mandate the use of these tools, just like my generation, Generation X, used cordless phones and became fans of MTV.  That's the way life goes.

As real estate professionals your clients exist in all generations:  retirees, young professionals, families, second home buyers.  If you haven't sunk your teeth into a niche, or your current marketing plan is geared to more than one target market then your efforts need to be more varied to attract these clients.

Will they come if you put out the call to action?  Let's take a pop quiz.  Who Is Online?

All of your Clients Are Online.  Take A Peak

• 93%- 12-17 Year Olds
• 89%- 18-24 Year Olds
• 85%- 25-29 Year Olds
• 87%- 30-34 Year Olds
• 85%- 35-39 Year Olds
• 83%- 40-44 Year Olds
• 80% 45-49 Year Olds
• 78% 50-54 Year Olds
• 71%-55-59 Year Olds
• 62%-60-64 Year Olds

- Source: The Pew Internet and American Life Project Study Survey- December 2008

Balance Your Budget- In With The Old and In With The New

It can be tough when you are budgeting your marketing dollars and are trying to decide how much money you should allocate toward offline traditional venues. Newspaper ads and direct mailings can be expensive endeavors with a meager return, especially if they are inconsistent.

There is a way to win the war of the marketing worlds

• Be Social-Invite your offline contacts online. 
• Be Savvy- Advertise to your current sphere and local market to come to your online venues.
• Be Everywhere- Make your website/blog viral by adding social bookmarking tools, encourage sharing by adding a tell a friend button, add a save as a pdf button on your site to allow visitors to download your most detailed posts.

Bees Buzz and their honey sticks to their hub.  Be a blogging bee.

The Best Directions Are Published Blog Posts from Bloggers

5 blog posts that serve up fine examples of how to market to different generations online

• The Lure of the Philadelphia Real Estate Market To Empty Nesters-

A nice post that describes the different options available to baby boomers/empty nesters in the Philadelphia market. The real estate blogger, Mark Wade, also uses a REAL life client story.

• A Burden of Our Times
  
  This is not a real estate post but I stumbled on it in a blog search because it was filed under real estate.  I decided to include it after reading the post because it paints a nice perspective about saving money and the emotional tug of war on spending vs. saving from the viewpoint of a baby boomer.  It's nice to see how the blogger writes from her experience on the topic of spending/saving speaking for her generation.  There's a lesson here for other bloggers on adding that generational voice into your posts from time to time.

FYI- In my blog searches I found MANY blogs written by consumer baby boomers and so of course the topic of real estate came up time and again.  Good research information (what do my consumers want to know?) for blog post topics can be found right from the mouth of blogging boomer consumers.

• Pittsburgh Is the Most Romantic City for Babyboomers

A post about a study that ranked Pittsburghas the most romantic city for Babyboomers.  The blogger makes a great move and adds links to other posts he has written about studies on Pittsburgh.  If the blogger had purposely written posts with other statistics for the older Generations, this also would have been a great move.

• Awake the Sleeping Giant! Inspiration for Today
  
  This was one of those sort and sweet reflection posts relevant to all generations.  Adding relevance through thoughtful engagement is relevant for all generations...this post I think will hit home more with the older generations though it resonated with me as a Gen X'er.

• The Expert:  Student Housing Outlook Remains Healthy
  
  
  This article is a good example of information that is useful to investors and investors come from many different generations.  Good fodder for blog post thought.

Don't Get Stuck in a generational undercurrent.  The tides have turned.  All Generations Are Online.

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