Real Estate Marketing Drips: February 2010

1/24/2010-2/05/2010 RealSkillz Freebie Picks- Free Online Reads and Real Estate Marketing Resources for Real Estate Agents and Real Estate Companies

1/24/2010-2/05/2010 RealSkillz Freebie Picks- Free Online Reads and Real Estate Marketing Resources for Real Estate Agents and Real Estate Companies

 
 
How to Create An Incentive for Visitors To Fan Your Facebook Page 
 
A blog post, day 17 in a series from John Haydon on how to optimize your blog with social media, that concentrates on Facebook Fan Pages.  Haydon's tips are easy to follow and involve creating content for Facebook Fans that visitors
can't see using the static FBML application.
Facebook Business Page Fan Only Content
 
This content should be useful to your Facebook Fans. 
Haydon mentions his own Facebook Fan Video that are not available elsewhere.  I would suggest reminding your fans that
if they have Facebook friends who could use this information then to please recommend they become a Fan of the page
after they have received the special content.
 
is also recommended reading. The tip on thanking fans for joining
is a traditional technique that makes common sense.
 
 
 
How to Recruit a Guest Blogger

An article from Website Magazine on a topic that I see real estate professionals desire to enter into yet many struggle to carry through- adding guest bloggers to the mix.  The article gives solid tips on recruiting guest bloggers includes:

 
  • Offer a link with keyword anchor text at top of post and body of post to guest blogger's website.
  • Give stats on number of blog subscribers and newsletter subscribers.
  • Post bio and photo of guest blogger.
 
I strongly recommend you visit the full article on guest bloggers and check out the bonus section which includes a tool you can use to find a guest blogger.
 
Using guest bloggers can really help to lighten your load and make your blog even more valuable to readers. Creating an Editorial Calendar will further help recruit and retain guest bloggers and generate traffic to your blog.
 
 
 
 
 
10 Free Online Sales Tools for 2010
 
 
An article on BNet from Geoffrey James about online sales tools to help sales professionals.  The entire article is extremely useful and cleverly organized.  The list is broken down into what each tool does, how it helps you sell, if it has any drawbacks,
why it's free (really clever section IMO), the name of the vendor, and where to get it. Very nicely done.
 
Of all ten tools noted in the article I found these three to be especially useful for real estate professionals:
 
  • Xobni- A  plug-in for Microsoft Outlookthat displays a live stream of social information about your contacts inside Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 by pulling information, including photos, from the web, LinkedIn, Facebook, Hoovers, Twitter, and Salesforce.
  • The Ultimate Cold Calling Tool from BNet- Categories of objections that you can click open and use one of the responses in your cold calls. They also have The Ultimate Prospect Qualification Tool.  Nice two-fer for real estate professionals.
  • DemandBase-Desktop widget that lets you know what businesses are visiting your website, what search terms they use to find your site, and which pages they visit.
 
These sales tools should pack some power to your sales calls and marketing efforts to help rev up your effectiveness and seal your deals. 
 

 
 
Email + Social Bookmarking=Instant Rankings
 
An article from Dr. Ralph Wilson of Web Marketing Today that gives really simple steps to a good link strategy using your blog readers and email marketing database.  The article gives good concrete steps to follow and emphasizes that there is no magic formula, these steps involve dedication and hard work.  The article also includes a real life example of a successful campaign and emphasizes the need to ask your readers for a social bookmark by creating a call to action in your email newsletters and website landing pages.
 
These links back to your online newsletter and landing pages will help increase not only your link popularity but get your voice spread virally among your subscribers friends creating additional opportunity to increase your database. 

 

 
 
Integrate SMS and Social Marketing

A post on the MarketingSherpa Blog from Adam Sutton discussing the importance of considering multiple channels to reach customers to grow your database.  The article discusses the fact that social and mobile marketing are effective when they are coupled with email marketing.  As stand alone efforts SMS and social maketing are currently less effective than email marketing. 

 
If you think about the stand alone rule for offline marketing, for example running a mailing campaign like postcards, where you need at least eight impressions before the customer recognizes the brand it makes sense that adding multiple online channels to your marketing campaign would increase the effectiveness. 
 
It also makes sense that while some prospects might not immediately sign up for your SMS, a prompt on a Facebook fan page and an email campaign outlining the value and he WIIFM if they take the action might prompt them to do so. 

 

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************************************************************************************
Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience serving real estate industry professionals. 
 

If you need assistance with online marketing, offline marketing, social networking, or blogging contact Rebecca D. Levinson at #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@bloggingintherain.com.

 

 

The Top Top Three Tips to Become A Blog Originator and Build your Brand Identity Online

The Top Three Tips to Become a Blog Originator and Build Your Brand Identity Online

 

Is blogging dead?  This is the question that seems to resurface every time a micro-blogging platform gains more visibility, new features, and higher traction.  To me it is like a comparison between a quick bite to eat and a great home cooked meal or an elegant dinner with fireside dining. 

Sometimes I need information and conversation that is quick and fast, other times I might want to opine and banter back and forth soaking up the prose along the way and digesting an idea to let it permeate my thought patterns and hopefully create something great as a result.

....Or just be satisfied with a belly full of good conversation among people I respect.

 

What might just be dead, though, is the regurgitation of tired topics.  As bloggers we need to create content that matters to our readers.  As business bloggers we have the tools at our disposal to see what is relevant to our readers and write about new topics and old topics with a brand new bent. 

Blogging for business is about establishing your brand, your presence, and your authority on a topic and owning it in your own unique way.

Blogging for business is one of the greatest tools available for real estate professionals to brand their business online.

 

Here are the Top Three Ways to Become a Blog Originator and Build Your Brand Identity Online

 

Create a theme focused blog

 

Deliver on the real estate goods for your blog readers

Create a theme for your blog and stick to it.  Start tracking categories on your blog so you can be mindful of the topics you are blogging about and if those topics are staying consistent with your blog's theme or if they are starting to run off track.  It's easy to meander on your blog and if you do this consistently you are shooting your brand in your foot and run the risk of losing readership and business in the process.

 

Need help finding a theme?  Use this blogging workbook designed to help real estate professionals decide on a focus for their real estate blogs and create a strategy for blogging and micro-blogging.

 

 




Develop your Blogging Voice

 

The stronger the dialog, the stronger the brand; the weaker the dialog, the weaker the brand.

~ Larry Webber

 

Content is big business online.  How do you create and maintain originality while still remaining a water fountain of information that your readers thirst for and pass on to their friends and family?  The answer is to develop your blogging voice.  You can do this by working on traditional writing exercises that will help tone and strengthen your blogging muscles and allow you to feel more at ease letting your personality seep through your blog prose.  Here are 36 resources to create blog content that blossoms online.

Developing your writing skills will allow your blogging voice to seep through your blog posts and up the emotional value in your real estate blog posts.

 

 



Use and Protect Your Blog's Property Wisely

 

Once you have developed a readership and gained traction in the blogosphere for your nichConsider and Act Wisely on your Branding Options.  Today is a New Day for Your Businesse market make sure to use and protect your blog property wisely.  There are many widgets and applications designed to make blogging easier and at the same time pull your readership to those companies internet property and away from yours.

You will also find that if you make a big impact online by working your blog with dedication there will be other professionals eager to have you open up your blog to their services and products.  Choose your affiliations wisely and keep your reader's needs in mind FIRST before you recommend other professionals products or services whether it be in a blog post or by an ad on your blog. 

Your association by link, blog prose, widget, or ad will be attached to your brand and your name for all to see.

Consider your blog as a primary Internet storefrontto showcase your products, services, and unique selling proposition BEFORE considering outside resources for your readership. 

 

Consider all these components of your blog as branding opportunities,

 

  • Blog Header
  • Call to Action in the Footers
  • Blog Post Headlines
  • Blog prose in each post
  • Outbound links
  • Interlinking
  • Tags
  • Photos
  • Images
  • Blog Margin/Side Bar
  • Groups you join to Promote Blog Posts in a Community
  • Name of Your Blog
  • Blog Post Topics
  • Blog Archives
  • Blog Categories
  • Alt Tags

 

 

Don't miss another opportunity to build your brand identity online through your blog.  Use the top three tips and become a blog originator.

 

Subscribe to Blogging in the Rain, A Real Estate Marketing Blog

 


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*************************************************************************

Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience serving real estate industry professionals.

If you need assistance with online marketing, offline marketing, social networking, or blogging contact Rebecca D. Levinson at #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@bloggingintherain.com.