Real Estate Marketing Drips

2/06/2010-2/28/2010 RealSkillz Freebie Picks- Free Online Reads and Real Estate Marketing Resources for Real Estate Agents and Real Estate Companies

A blog post from DuctTape Marketing with simple tips and how to's on creating good advertising for Facebook.  A few great take aways include:

• Choose the CPC (Cost per Click) Model yields a better ROI.
• Create multiple ad versions and test for effectiveness.
• Use the Facebook Insights Tool to monitor interaction.
• Create your ad sponsoring free content or an event is a more effective way to draw people to your pge than using traditional push marketing ads. 

6 Approaches to Your Company Blog

 

A blog post from ReadWriteWeb for their ReadWriteStart channel (for entrepreuners and first time start-ups).  The post breaks company blogs into 6 different category types.  The Operations category would be relevant to real estate brokers as would elements of the Research category. 

 

 

 

Make sure to check out the diagram in Figure 1.  Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2009.  The diagram anticipates that corporate blogging is two years away from mainstream adoption.

 

Creating a theme for your blog is an important exercise and will keep your efforts on target and your readers loyal and true blue.

 

 

 

Longtail Keywords:  Using Keyword Phrases that Make Sales

 

 

A good article from ClickTalez about creating longtail keyword copy that makes sales rather than emphasizes giving away free information.  There is a time and balance for both in online marketing and if you always advertise free, you are running from push sales.  A balance of push and pull should be in all of your online marketing efforts in order to grow your revenue and not become a philanthropist in the process.

 

Terry explains how to balance out your keywords by defining and giving examples between commercal longtail keywords and informational longtail keywords. She also provides the use and relevance of both.

 

In this post there is a gem in the comments section where a commentor recommends using a free tool for keyword research thats sits alongside your blog editing screen by Wordtracker called SEO blogger. 

 

The tool will help you to define your commercial and informational longtail keywords as you edit your blog post.  Very cool.

 

 

Subscribe to BloggingInTheRain, A Real Estate Marketing Blog

 

 

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Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience servicing 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.

 

 

 

 

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.

• 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.

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. 

Subscribe to BloggingInTheRain, A Real Estate Marketing Blog

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.

An article from Website Magazine on the different ways to strengthen your content in

order to build your contact database.  The article breaks down persuasive content into

three categories:  logical content, credible content, and emotional content and cites general

examples of what type of content satisfies these categories.  After reading the article I would

keep a cheat sheet handy that outlines each category and a brief summary of what it means. 

When you write your blog posts start marking them Logical, Credible, and Emotional.  Keep a

notice of which type of posts you lean more heavily toward.

If most of your posts, for example, lean toward the emotional category and you are blogging

for business, you need to revisit your blogging strategy and mix in more posts under the

categories of logical and credible to draw business.  If none of your blog posts have an

emotional bent, you need to create a strategy to create blog content that has an emotional value

so new readers and subscribers can connect with you.

Balancing your content is a winning real estate marketing strategy.

            Unique Ads get the most attention. The Geiko commercials illustrate this point.

            Present old information/messaging in a new package for a powerful message resonates                      with readers.-Stir up your blog and create remixes of your posts that are classics.

            Read the whole post for all eight elements of contagious ideas.

• Ten Ways to Make Wordpress More Useful

          AN article from Jon Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing on Wordpress Plug-Ins.  While I found 

          that most of these plug-ins made sense, here are four that I think are especially worth a look

          from real estate professionals:

          Wishlist Member- A paid membership site or course site.  Think about training for real estate                       professionals or even course training
        on real estate topics for real estate consumers.
         Sociable- Adds links to social networking sites to consumers can share your content online.
         Related Content- Displays posts that are contextually related to your blog post.
          MoFuse- Creates a mobile friendly version of your blog.

      
       There are many plug-ins for Wordpress so it's nice when a simple blog post can make the cream

       rise to the top.

• YouTube Basics for SEO
  

 

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

 

• Blogging- See my Blogging Tune-Up Website for Details
• Social Networking
• Niche Marketing
• Marketing Strategy
• Branding- See my Branding Sanity Website for Details
• Offline Marketing
• Online Marketing
• Special Events Promotion and Marketing
• Holiday Marketing
• Marketing Campaigns
• Email Marketing (Content and Design)
• Reputation Management

 

If you treat real estate as a business then Real Skillz is a desirable real estate marketing solution. Call #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@realestateskillz.com.

• What's Motivating the Social Relationship Between Consumers and Companies?

A new chart from Marketing Sherpa exploring how consumers interact with companies who use social media.  The report follows Max Connectors (people with more than 500 social connections), Daily Users and All Respondents.  The reason most consumers friend/follow companies is because they want to learn about special sales followed closely by wanting to learn about new products/features/services.

 

Keep this in mind when marketing reduced listings, posting new inventory, and discussing new housing bills.

 

 

An article from Richard Young of BNet that cuts into the stress of the real time web and gives some no nonsense advise on how to deal with it. 

A few stellar tips include,

Set a time to check for messages in the afternoon and use your brain for more important tasks; Turn off any alarms that notify you of email as it comes into your inbox.

Organize your thinking visually.

Break down complex information into sub-groups

Delegate more often.   

• Ten Musts for Marketing to Women on Facebook

This article from Brette Burrow on Mashable discusses how to market to women online.  Women account for over 56 million Facebook users and are the purchasing decision makers in most households.

 

Here is a Summary of the Top 10 Tips:

 

1. Create an emotional connection with your fans.
2. Design a post series that readers can rely on and is useful to them.
3. Share new products/services with your fans and help them take advantage of new offers online.
4. Quit being redundant.  If you repost news to your Fan Page offer additional value.
5. Consider widgets that allow a transaction to occur right from your fan page (For real estate this could be a free home evaluation or access to listings; For mortgage professionals this could be rate quotes or daily rate summaries).
6. Respond to feedback and criticism.
7. Share the positive and address the negative.
8. Let your customers know about supply shortages or website problems.
9. Provide quality information in your Facebook posts and on your Facebook Fan Page.  Stay away from spammy advertising. 
10. Answer questions on your Facebook Fan Page.

 

Women are in the majority when it comes to making financial purchases and decisions.  This is a helpful list to keep in mind as you are creating a

Facebook Fan Page Strategy.  Also check out this summary notes report- "Marketing to Women".

• The Mad Scientist of Cold Calling

• Clear Hyperlinks Increase Conversions
  

A blog post from Todd Follansbee on how not to confuse your visitors with hyperlinks and how to make sure sure your hyperlinks are getting the most mileage.  Take his hyperlink text quiz and make sure to check out the tips under "Make Text Hyperlinks Do More". The first one is discusses "Call to Action". 

"Call to Action" are my three favorite words in marketing. Good marketing does nothing for sales without a clear call to action.

Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience serving real estate professionals.  Real estate marketing services include:

• Blogging- See my Blogging Tune-Up Website for Details
• Social Networking
• Niche Marketing
• Marketing Strategy
• Branding- See my Branding Sanity Website for Details
• Offline Marketing
• Online Marketing
• Special Events Promotion and Marketing
• Holiday Marketing
• Marketing Campaigns
• Email Marketing (Content and Design)
• Reputation Management

If you treat real estate as a business then Real Skillz is a desirable real estate marketing solution. Call #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@realestateskillz.com.

A Simple Twitter Cheat Sheet for Real Estate Professionals to Generate Leads, Brand Your Business, Create Referral Partners, and Manage Your Reputation

Why Twitter? The news is in....Twitter users will now have an added advantage of their conversations appearing on the search engine results pages of Google and Bing.  I have seen the indexing of tweets on Google as well as on Bing firsthand.  Twitter can be used to brand your business, lead generation, to create referral partners, and even retain business through responsive reputation management. If you haven't started adding Twitter into your online marketing, it's time to engage. 


When to Tweet

You can tweet everyday of the week.  Make sure to to tweet on Wednesdays and Thursdays for maximum effect as they are the most active days of tweets and retweets as found by HubSpot's State of the Twittersphere June 2009.




Where to Find Local Peeps on Twitter

First impressions are important for branding and your background page on Twitter is no exception. Your Twitter background is a great opportunity to brand your business.

Here are 7 free applications you can use to customize your background:

1. Twitter Patterns- Abstract twitter patters you can use for free for your Twitter background.
2. Twitbacks- Free customized twitter background with full about section.
3. Twitpaper- Free Twitter themes.
4. Prettytweet- Customize your twitter background.  You can add images, change color and change text.
5. TwitterImage- Free backgrounds grouped in various categories.
6. Freetwitterdesigner-Create custom twitter backgrounds.
7.  Twitrounds- Free Twitter backgrounds.




What to Tweet

7. Twitter Answers- Ask questions and get answers on Twitter.

1. Tweetbeep- Set up alerts that will be sent to your email when your topics/keywords are tweeted.
2. Tweetscan-Do a search for keywords and get results sorted by most recent tweets.
3.  Samepoint- Tracks conversations across the web based on your keywords.  A must use tool for prospecting and marketing.
4. Tweetmeme- Tracks the most popular links on Twitter.
nces.
5.  Monitter- Allows you to monitor multiple keywords in a grid in real time on Twitter.
6.Twitscoop- Robust application for tracking keywords, topics, and conferences.

Best CRM for Twitter-Hootsuite- Manage your contacts by grouping, manage multiple twitter handles (user accounts), keep searches running, synch up with your Wordpress blog, analyze your twitter traffic and so much more. 


These tools are recommended twitter tools to create an effective strategy for lead generation, reputation management and branding for real estate professionals.  Do not use all the tools.  Choose one or two from each list that will get the job done for you.  I have whittled down the Twitter applications from the worldwide web and there are probably a half dozen new Twitter applications born for every one that already exists every week.  Don't concentrate on that.

Concentrate on the tools that will make your Twittering effective and then just do it.  Stop by and make sure to say hi to me while you tweet.


If you enjoyed these tips then sign-up for the weekly Real Skillz Real Estate Marketing Newsletter which has a static Twitter column with Tips to make your twittering efforts effective.  It's delivered to your Inbox every Tuesday.

For All Real Estate Professionals

Sign up for the RealSkillz Real  Estate Marketing Newsletter

For Real Estate Professionals Who Are RealSkillz Clients

If you're a current RealSkillz client look in your inbox for the debut of the RealSkillz Real Estate Marketing newsletter for clients with tips on how to use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and new how to's.  This newsletter is only for clients and will debut on Tuesday, January 12, 2010.

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

• Blogging- See my Blogging Tune-Up Website for Details
• Social Networking
• Niche Marketing
• Marketing Strategy
• Branding- See my Branding Sanity Website for Details
• Offline Marketing
• Online Marketing
• Special Events Promotion and Marketing
• Holiday Marketing
• Marketing Campaigns
• Email Marketing (Content and Design)
• Reputation Management

If you treat real estate as a business then Real Skillz is a desirable real estate marketing solution. Call #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@realestateskillz.com.

Planning for An Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy IS the shift in 2010.  How does your real estate business stack up?

• Stealing Bases Won't Hit It Home Everytime with Social Networking and Blogging
• View Through A Macro Lens:  The Great Eight- A Sample Marketing Strategy that Integrates Offline and Online Marketing
• How to Manage the Time You Spend on Social Media In Three Simple Steps Using Google Docs

Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience serving real estate professionals.  Real estate marketing services include,

• Blogging- See my Blogging Tune-Up Website for Details
• Social Networking
• Niche Marketing
• Marketing Strategy
• Branding- See my Branding Sanity Website for Details
• Offline Marketing
• Online Marketing
• Special Events Promotion and Marketing
• Holiday Marketing
• Marketing Campaigns
• Email Marketing (Content and Design)
• Reputation Management

If you treat real estate as a business then Real Skillz is a desirable real estate marketing solution. Call #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@realestateskillz.com.

1. 2009 Tribalization of Business Study- Deloitte- Study on use of Social Media by businesses.
2. IBM Study- The End of Advertising As We Know It- Social Media Today's summary of the IBM Study- The End of Advertising As We Know It.
3. EBay Generated $400M in business from iPhone App: CEO- How one mobile app. increased EBay's profit margins.
4. Peanut Butter Plan to Feed the Homeless Spreads- Social Networking for a Charitable Cause
5. Google Does Not Use the Keywords Meta Tag In Web Ranking- Confirmation of meta tag non ranking attribute.
6. Committee to Protect Bloggers:  An Interview- Take a look at the CommitteetoProtectbloggers.org and learn about lending your voice to help bloggers around the world.
7. Search Engine Optimization Tips for Commercial Real Estate Professionals- Easy to follow post on some simple SEO tips. Blogged for Commercial r.e. agents, but residential can easily follow these tips also.
8. Mobile WiFi Consumption on the Rise- JWire- "Thirty-eight percent of mobile users employing WiFi in cafés are making purchases via mobile."
9. Location, Location, Location- Twitter Blog- Hyper-local isn't just hype, it's common sense.
10. Ask Miz Ginevra-Using Your Own Domain with Your Blog- You can use domain mapping option on typepad blogging platform and integrate your blog into your website.
11. Lending Tree Casts Consumers as Superheros-The Rebranding of Lending Tree.
12. 10 Worst Countries to Be A Blogger- Persecution of bloggers in some countries exists beyond monetary injury.
13. Linked In Profiles More Accurate than Resumes- (Sad But True)- How thorough is your profile on LinkedIn? May be time for an update.
14. Web Key for Autos-Brandfreak- Consumers want video experience when car shopping and autodealers are responding.
15. Social Media Press Releases- How to use multiple types of press releases for an effective marketing reach.
16. The Answer Factory: Demand Media and the Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell Media Model- Quality vs. Quantity- Speed vs. Durability.....Ways to ponder and think about the current and future use and marketing of online content. Some food for thought.
17. Live from DMA09:  Got Content? Get a Content Strategy- Plan to create and execute a content based strategy this year.  Here are some ideas around content strategy to get the creative juices flowing.
18. Search engines will be able to find documents created and published using Google Apps- If you want more of your internet property to be indexed on Google (branding), just another reason to use Google Docs.
19. U.S. Weekly Breaks the Facebook Advertising Mold- U.S. Weekly takes on State Farm as an official sponsor on its Facebook Fan Page.  Really Smart Marketin

1. Thankfulfor.com- A gratitude journal to list what you are thankful for everyday
2. Daftdoggy.com- Daft Doggy might be a good tool to use to see how your clients are browsing for listings online and how you can help them. I know my mom often shares with me her real estate website searches, where she is searching, what she is finding, and what is lacking.  Why not track the same things for your clients to help give them a better home buying experience.
3. Zoho.com- For the individual professional zoho has apps from doc managers to collaboration and oh yeah, mobile access.
4. Switch Audio Converter Software-If you record a note to yourself on your blackberry, you can use this software to convert it into a MP3. Awesome.Why would you do this? For mobile podcasting I would use Utterli, but if I were on the go and wanted to record a private message for someone to hear or for my online journal- so I didn't want it to show up in a public timeline....ta da....Easy Breezy.
5. Backpackkit.com- Manage your documents, discussions, schedules, checklists in one place and share with your team.
6. Archive.org-If you are looking for old copy or layout that you had on your website but did not save, try searching on the wayback machine.... a trip thru internet time.  I have used this tool for years and it has come in handy for soooo many things.
7. 2D or not 2D that is the bar code question- I would love to see 2D bar codes used in the house hunting process.
8. Dailylit.com- How cool is this? Time Management for reading. Subscribe for free and get installments of books sent to you by email or EVEN BETTER RSS Feed.
9. Picapp.com-  Free images for your blog.
10. Bubbletweet.com- Add video messages to your tweets.
11. Digsby- Manage your social networks, email, and chat.
12. Dropsend-  Send large files from your desktop.
13. Urlfanx.com-This site shows how popular websites are in the blogosphere in Real Time. Awesome. Check out your site, the sites you enjoy visiting, and your competitors.
14. Docstoc-Real Estate peeps I would upload my documents to this site....good PR and has a very visible real estate category on the homepage.
15. Topseos.com- Identifies, categorizes and ranks top seo companies. Great presentation and resource.
16. Metroblogging- City specific blogs worldwide; This could be part of your hyperlocal marketing strategy.
17. Prezi- Online Presentation Tool.

1. B.B. Geeks- Reviews on Blackberry applications, news, and information.
2. 29 Ways to Carry Out Random Acts of Kindness Everyday- A friend sent me this article and even though it's from 2008 acts of kindness have a way of transcending time.
3. AdAge Power150- A Daily Ranking of Marketing Blogs.
4. Chris Harrison- Internet Map- Beautiful internet maps showing how connected we truly are....u know, these might make a nice edition if you are tech savvy in your listing presentations- Sometimes Seeing IS Believing.  Email the creator if you do this for permissions....make sure to give appropriate credits as well.
5. Web For Design Patterns:  Sign-up Forms- An article from 2008 that I shared in 2009. Very relevant if you are strategically planning your website.
6. World's Best Presentation Contest 2009 from Adobe and Slideshare- See what makes up a winning presentation and incorporate the winning elements into your presentations.
7. Guide to Single Serving Websites- Solid article. Real Estate professionals read this and think about your open houses, buyer's seminars, micro-niche markets.
8. Free E-Course-Finding Information in Technology- Excellent Free E-Learning Course- Finding Information in Technology....also reviews Copyright fyi.
9. 29 Ways to Collect Email Addresses for Your Business- A blog post that lists the 29 best ways to collect email addresses. All salespeople know the power is in your list and the strength of those connections. Check out this free list of ideas for ideas on how to capture those email addresses and grow your list.
10. Forbes 21 Top Twitter Tips- 21 Ways you can use Twitter for your business that make sense.
11. Facebook Developer Roadmap- Developer roadmap for Facebook to have a better idea of what changes will happen on Facebook and when those will occur.
12. Landing Page Optimization Silver Bullets-Web Marketing Today- Really nice list of landing page optimization tips, would be nice to see some on Real Estate websites.
13. 100 Ways to Measure Social Media- Awesome no fluff list to measure social media.
14. MarketingTerms.com- Marketing reference guide that helps cut through the lingo.
15. Makeareferralweek.com- Experiment in March of '09 for one week to record how many referrals could be made.  I participated by making two referrals and recording them.  Good idea for a campaign for real estate franchises/brokerages.
16. SCORE Online- Free and valuable online courses for small business owners.

1. Marketshare.hitslink.com- Has your site been checked in different browsers? IE (Internet Explorer) still leads marketshare.
2. 2009 Women and Social Media Study by BlogHer, IVillage and Compass Partners-  This study give you one more reason to blog:) Women trust them more than social networks according to 2009 Women and Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners.
3. The World's Most Valuable Brands.  Who's Most Engaged? Engagement DB Ranking the Top 100 Global Brands- Ranked on the breadth and depth of engagement.
4. 50 Best Websites 2009- Great list to learn about usability and engagement.
5. Facebook: Who You Know; Twitter: What You Know- Study finds video viewed longer when posted to Twitter than posted to Facebook.
6. 52 Percent of Americans use mobile for non-voice activities:  Study- Huge mobile stats here. Ignoring mobile is ignorant.
7. Mobile Internet User Experience is Miserable:  Study- " 59% success rate for users to complete mobile tasks vs. 80% success rate from their pc"= Lots of work to be done here.
8. Consumers More Negative Now About Economy- Why it's important to think about the value of your brand as it directly correlates to the REAL value of your service.
9. More women using social networks preferring Facebook- It's really important to keep on top of these trends and tweak your marketing accordingly.

I am so excited that my business associate and friend, Misty Lackie of GoSmart Solutions has launched this seriously powerful plug-in for Wordpress.  You may be familiar with Misty's Classified Flyer product that syndicates your listings across the worldwide web.

If you have a Wordpress Blog this is a serious upgrade and enhancement, for free, by installation of a simple plug-in.  If you are looking to expand your lead generation efforts (is this a question) downoad this plug-in.

• 15 Online Press Release Distribution Sites

A blog post from Alyssa Gregory, owner of a full time virutal assistance firm, about where to find the best sites to create and distribute your press releases.  Make sure not to miss the comments to this blog post because in them you will pick up some additional resources and tips for sending press releases.

 

Press releases are an important part of marketing and if you haven't already started adding them into your repetoire it's time to begin.  For more on this topic I recommend reading the New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meersman Scott. The information about creating a media room on your website is invaluable.

• The Executive Summary for Marketing Sherpa's 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report 

You can download Marketing Sherpa's Executive Summary on Social Media Marketing for free without filling out a form on their website. 

The summary is worth the read and provides valuable insights to help you plan your social media marketing strategy.  Some significant observations noted in the report include:

• Lack of an effective social media marketing strategy is one of the most significant challenges facing marketers. 
• The human factor will account for nearly 60% of social media marketing expenditures next year including staff salaries for blogging, content development, social monitoring, etc.  

• Don't forget to use some very simple and proven sales techniques on your online sales pages

An article from Nick Usborn on Web Today on simple but proven sales strategies and triggers.  Three important take-aways are: 

•  
  • Can you add a sense of scarcity?
  • Can you offer something free?
  • Can you reduce the perceived risk of taking action?

Review your website and see which of these questions you are answering. 

• Twitter Productivity

Organize

I am a fan of any application that reduces the noise on Twitter and increases the productivity.  About six months ago I swtiched from Tweetdeck to Hootsuite and haven't looked back.  Hootsuite is my CRM for Twitter.