3 Easy Steps to Drive Traffic

Topics / Titles/ Blogging

• Be sure when starting your blog post have the main key word that you want to show up for in the  title.
• To get great Search results pick a topic and blog 2 times a week about that topic and then blog for about 3-4 weeks. You will create this compound effect behind you to get you to the top of the search engines and stay there.

Subscribers

Ask for Social media interaction

• Integrating social media is a very easy way to generate traffic and get your branding out to your SOI
• Ask for “likes” in the blog post.
• “like” other peoples comments/ status
• If you are going to choose either your personal or business page on Facebook, go with the one that gets the most traffic and one you are going to consistently check.

We are planning on having a webinar in two weeks for current clients wanting to continue learning more about the system and how to effectively use it.

Take these principles into account and good luck. If you have any more questions feel free to call our site specialist! (800)656-1646

Bryon Danielson
Corporate Trainer
BDanielson@inside-real-estate.com
Office: 801.921.6390 Toll free: : (800)656-1646

Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile

The first LinkedIn marketing strategy we want to discuss is optimizing your profile.  A detailed profile can’t be stressed enough. It’s like an online resume and calling card in-one. It’s important that you thoroughly fill out all of the profile information you can. Use this as a place to highlight your strengths and what services you provide. Also, be sure to include a photograph.  If you have an old picture up, it might be time for a new one to keep things fresh.

Also, when describing yourself, your background, and your services, use keywords and phrases related to your industry that homebuyers and sellers may use.  And include a link to your website.  If you “optimize” your profile well, you could appear in more searches and get more visits to your website for a search engine ranking.  Note: Do not “stuff” too many keywords in there.  You don’t want your profile to look like search engine spam.

Building Connections

In the world of LinkedIn, “connections” are the main currency. Remember, if you’re already part of an agency, you want to make sure you’re connecting with everyone you can there, and then keep building. Connect with clients.  Connect with friends that are on LinkedIn. Remember, having a lot of connections, within your own industry and in general, can help your street cred’; it makes you look like a valuable and trusted source. And what does that mean? More business.

Remember to keep up with the connections you do make, through forums and through their status updates, etc. People in your own industry could prove helpful in giving you the 411 on industry news, especially in your area. And obviously, keeping up with client’s status’ and questions could help get repeat business and better understand your market.

Attracting Leads through Q&As

Many people don’t know much about or don’t effectively use LinkedIn Groups. Joining some select groups homebuyers and sellers may be participating in can be an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy for agents. Your popularity, and therefore your leads, could skyrocket if you make a practice of answering questions in these forums.  If your answer is listed as one of the ‘best answers’ you will get a lot of attention, and basically get free advertising. How do you accomplish this? Well, it seems to be a mixture of two things: 1) Offering truly helpful and informative answers and 2) Making sure your personality comes across. This doesn’t mean having a cocky attitude and showing it, it just means giving a unique spin on things that helps people remember you, making you a resource for future questions they may have.

Don’t underestimate the value of Linked for real estate marketing.  LinkedIn marketing is a valuable way to build your reputation and brand. So, if you’ve already used LinkedIn in the past, dust off those skills and get back to it. If it’s your first time, make the most of this network.

Got more LinkedIn real estate marketing tips?  Add your comment below.  Thanks for sharing.

Strategy #1 – Launch an ad

The great thing about Facebook’s ad program is all the knowledge they have about their users. All those little interest indicators (what people type on their wall, what they share and comment on, etc.) are fed into Facebook’s algorithm. It knows who’s interested in golf, fantasy football, or who holds a secret (not anymore) passion for origami.

Most important for you, it knows who is interested in buying or selling a home–so try launching a Facebook ad targeting a keyword or category that would likely find people who are interested in buying or selling a home. You can do this by targeting your ads by category, like “Real Estate,” which Facebook reports 1,135,580 of its users are interested in, or use keywords to target a narrower group, like “buy a home in Florida.”

Strategy #2 – Identify influencers who are attracting home buyers

With social media, everyone has become a publisher. People who before didn’t have a voice can now drive people in droves to interesting, funny information they write or share (ever searched Youtube for “David at the Dentist”?).

Your goal is to identify popular people on Facebook who are sharing information that a home buyer would care about. Once you have found them, comment on one of their posts, or just “like” their page. Start to interact with them, and you’ll find your name in front of a large audience of potential home buyers.

Strategy #3 – Share content that your audience cares about

This is one of the easiest & least time-consuming ways to find home buyers on Facebook. It’s simple, really. All you have to do is share information that a home buyer or seller cares about. Share your new listings on your Facebook wall. Write a blog post about how to buy a home, ways to renovate your home to increase its value, or how to find the perfect vacation home in Park City.

If you focus on understanding your demographic and creating information they care about, home buyers will come to you. This task is made much easier if you have a website that is integrated with MLS and even allows you to share listings on Facebook with the click of a button. Find a social-ready platform that allows you to be more social, and you’ll find your home buyers.

Any more ideas on how to find home buyers online? Please share them below.

(Image provided by new-fwd.com)

Reason #1 – No blog
Either your website may not have a blog or you may not be posting in it on a regular basis. Studies show that websites with blogs get 60% more traffic–and more organic search traffic! You also build loyalty among website visitors and subscribers (which helps you build your brand reputation).

Reason #2 – No listings
You may not have integrated your MLS listings with your website. Allowing visitors to search (and save) your local listings is a great way to attract people to your site, nurture a lead and get them coming back. This is not only good for improving your visibility–it also encourages visitors to spend more time on your website.

Reason #3 – No social media
You may not have (or may not be posting to) your social media pages. To get started, start posting your favorite homes, stories, and blogs to Facebook and Twitter. If you don’t have time to individually manage your social media, then consider integrating your social media with a website platform–it can save you a lot of time.

Reason #4 – No lead capture
You may not have an effective lead capture and management system. What you need is a website that allows you to capture and manage leads in an easy-to-use console, so no lead is forgotten or left behind. Ask any real estate lead management expert, and they will tell you that the single biggest contributor to reaching a prospective customer is response time–when you reach out quickly to someone looking for a home, you’re more likely to become their agent.

Reason #5 – No SEO (search-engine optimization)
Your flashy new website may not be SEO-friendly, meaning it may be tough for the search engines to find it. What you need is a website that is built with SEO in mind. What does that mean? It means that your website structure and content management system makes it easy to include keywords in prominent places, like URL’s, headers, meta tags, etc. Posting content easily and making good use of the right keywords can mean the difference between few natural search engine visitors and a ton of them.

P.S.–It would also help if your website was part of a nationwide real estate network that is already getting traffic from search engines–if you’re not sure who we’re talking about, give us a call!

Inside Real Estate to Provide New Online Solution to Major Multiple Listing Service

SALT LAKE CITY, February 2, 2012 – Real estate technology firm, Inside Real Estate℠, has announced an agreement with Intermountain Multiple Listing Service (IMLS) to provide their Core3 Online Marketing Platform that includes agent websites, blogging, social media, CRM, and IDX search solutions to its approximately 4,000 agents throughout the Treasure Valley, Idaho area.

“Our offering with Inside Real Estate is evidence of our strong commitment to our agents and their success,” said Greg Manship, IMLS CEO. “It allows us to take advantage of all of the latest technology tools and assist agents and brokerages in getting more business. In this way, Inside Real Estate makes it easy for our agents to stay a step ahead of the industry.”

The new agreement leverages Inside Real Estate’s new Core 3 platform to help IMLS agents grow their business, find more clients, and effectively market themselves online. The platform also includes an integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology, resulting in a simple tool for agents and brokers to easily manage all of their vital marketing activities on their own online dashboard. The new technology automatically integrates with popular social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Blogger.

“The Core3 Platform is the most comprehensive online marketing tool in the industry,” says Inside Real Estate CEO, Joseph Skousen. “This technology allows every agent to be a marketer, by integrating all of the online activities that real estate professionals need to be using these days. There is no match to the power of this tool,” Skousen added.

The National Association of Realtors reports that over eighty-five percent of all real estate transactions now begin online, and many agents using Inside Real Estate tools have seen up to a 300-percent increase in business.  The tools and solutions provided by Inside Real Estate are available to agents, brokerages, and MLS’s in the Real Estate Industry.

To learn more, please visit www.Inside-Real-Estate.com/professionals or www.IntermountainMLS.com. Please direct inquiries to Joseph Skousen at 1-800-656-1646 or info@inside-real-estate.com.

About Inside Real Estate

Inside Real Estate provides integrated technology solutions to help real estate real estate professionals easily manage their online marketing, SEO, and other online tasks—giving agents and brokers more time to manage their businesses. Agents who use Inside Real Estate leverage its SEO power, IDX technologies, and online presence for their own website—boosting their online visibility and helping them connect with customers.

Inside Real Estate is privately held and is headquartered in Provo, UT.

Cool Facebook page? Check. Intriguing blog? Check. Social media gameplan? Check. Well done, you’re using social media and are loving the newfound interaction and visibility with clients—perhaps even with some noticeable results…the only problem? You’re not so sure that there’s any money coming from it.

First, don’t sweat it. There’s some important things for you to consider before you write off your social media. But let’s start with ROI.

Return on Investment (aka “Return on Interaction”)

Before we dive into anything new, I want to you to remind you of this one thing: if you’re currently calculating ROI and you are finding a positive return from your social media (assuming you’re calculating it correctly), that’s great. If you fall into this camp, just check a couple things to be sure your ROI is correct:

1. Use the simple formula:

(Revenue from Marketing Investment-Cost of Marketing Investment)/Cost of Marketing Investment

to ensure you’re not overestimating your profit. Remember, it’s not revenue on investment but return on investment. So if you don’t know how much your marketing revenue is costing you, start there.

2. When calculating your margin, include the relevant variable costs in calculating ROI. The cost of marketing materials, food, giveaways, and employee time should all be included in your investment’s costs (the guy you paid to go run a marketing event isn’t free).

3. If you can, set up Google Analytics and Goal Conversions to track your website’s sources. If you can’t, find someone who can. As people arrive at your website and convert into business (or in Real Estate, leads), you can accurately calculate your return on social media using the formula above (just figure out how much the average lead is worth to you and estimate your revenue like before). Your profit figure will sometimes be lower than your real return because some people will come to your website through social media and then contact you at a later date (and may not even use a Google phone number). If you carefully track how people learned about you as well as your costs, you’ll get a great idea of what is happening with your marketing.

See? No sweat.

Return? What return?

If you read that last section in a trance because your social media ROI is a little rough (non-existent?), this section is for you, too. There are some great tools to use when analyzing your social media, and knowing what they are can make a big difference in your social media implementation. Some analysts are quick to lambaste social media when they see no immediate ROI, claiming it’s a waste of time…so, is it?

Perhaps…but probably not. Let me point out some other metrics to use when evaluating your social media’s profitability:

Metcalf’s Law

You may be familiar with Metcalf’s law: that the square of the number of users (n) in your network is proportionate to the value of your network. Basically, that means that by tracking the number of users in your social media network, you can track current growth and extrapolate future [anticipated] growth more effectively. For example, do you want to estimate how much money could be brought in by tripling the number of people in your social network? Use Metcalf’s law to reliably estimate it. If you want more direction on exactly how to do so, feel free to shoot me an email.

Is it Stagnant Linear Growth or Exponentially Explosive Growth?

Partially due to online network effects, one of the great things about social media is that it has the potential to do some advertising for you. As people begin to talk about your business, it should be noted that your real advertising power comes when the rate of your product being mentioned (e.g. tweeted, liked, etc.) is increasing. Much like a Ponzi scheme grows exponentially as people recruit others (who recruit others…), your marketing can grow exponentially as people talk about your business—except your marketing isn’t destined to crumble and land you in prison. So simply track the increased number of “likes”, etc. and see if the growth is linear or exponential. Any growth is good, but exponential growth means that your social media is growing relative to its past growth—and that’s very good. If you see exponential growth with your social media, definitely stay with it!

Facebook Fool’s Gold

While evaluating your social media, avoid being fooled by false growth. As you write on your Facebook wall, for example, you will typically experience a temporary surge in page views. Now, it may be tempting to simply write more frequently so you can artificially see your numbers climb (and if you continue writing frequently, you will ultimately see either a growth of viewership because people like you, or you will see your viewership fall as people “unlike” you and flee from your bothersome posts). But in the short run, you may see temporary spikes as people check out your new posting habits.

If you want to know whether these spikes may be masking your real growth, simply compare, visually, the base of the viewership spikes to each other. This will tell you if there’s underlying growth in your viewership. By keeping this in mind, you help avoid being fooled by the large spikes on your analytics screen.

What Else?

If you’re tracking your social media figures, using Google Analytics and Goal Conversion, tracking your ROI, extrapolating your growth, and discerning what is real, substantive growth, you should have enough to stay busy. But if you still want more data, there are some websites (e.g. klout.com) that quantify your social media’s influence and progress—they may be worth checking out if you want more data.

But I Use my Social Media for _______.

If you’re using it social media to increase your business’ profitability, the aforementioned tools can be very helpful. However, if you have a strategic reason for using social media (or if you have any other purpose) you may want to determine beforehand which metrics you will use to track your success. It’s easier to leave ineffective projects if you have data to help you, otherwise, you may bog yourself down with fruitless time-wasters.

A Burning Fire or a Flimsy Balloon?

The point of all of this is to understand if your social media is helping drive business to you, or if it’s just acting as a communication gizmo. Your social media can either be like a fire or a balloon—a fire needs attention and work to get started, but only maintenance afterwards to keep it going and be purposeful. A balloon, however, only grows when you’re personally inflating it yourself—and getting blue in the face.

Use the tools that I’ve outlined here to more confidently manage your online presence and get an idea of what’s really happening with your social media. Start today by calculating your return,  setting up analytics, or taking a closer look at the growth on your viewership charts.

Is your social media burning strong or ready to be popped? Now you can go find out!

-Nate McBride, Marketing & Strategy

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Inside Real Estate provides integrated technology solutions to help real estate agents easily manage their website, social media, and other online tasks—giving agents more time to manage their businesses. Agents who use Inside Real Estate leverage its SEO power, IDX technologies, and online presence for their own website—boosting their online visibility and helping them connect with customers. Inside Real Estate is privately held and is headquartered in Provo, UT.

Image courtesy of socialmediacounselor.wordpress.com

Most agents are quick to use websites to stay on top of real estate news, but many agents do not effectively use the internet to reach out to their own [potential] clientele—85% of which report that their first step in their home search was online.

You’re not the first to ask. Real estate agents, marketing analysts, small business owners, and the like have all heard the rhetoric: “Grow your business with social media”; “Social Media: The Next Big Thing”; “Why Social Media is Crucial” and the list goes on…is it all just hype?

As a real estate agent, you are part of an industry that is dominated by relatively small, independent companies—82% to be precise. As an agent, you likely wear many hats and allocate your time among advertising, marketing, updating your listings, managing your office and, oh yeah, buying and selling homes.

Is it worth your time?

So with so much going on, is online advertising and social media really something you can really afford to add to your plate?

Well, you can’t afford not to. Why? Because over 85% of all home searches begin on the internet and 80% of all US consumers are using social media on a monthly basis. Believe it or not, if Facebook was a country, it would be the fourth biggest country in the world! Never before has your online presence been so crucial, and many agents are catching on.

Most agents have already started

83% of agents, for example, report using Facebook for business purposes—but agents quickly taper off in their use of other social networks like Twitter (29%) or a personal blog (22%). If you’re hesitant to use social media (e.g. you know that personal referrals are your number-one source of business), you should know that there are likely many more people looking for you who can’t find you.

Every day, people are using the internet for information, and that information often spreads through social media. As an agent, you transact what will usually be the biggest purchase any of your clients make in their lifetime: their home. They are certainly doing their research, and they’re doing it online. A recent study of homebuyers found that their primary factor for choosing an agent was the agent’s online presence.  If you need more proof of the power of online articles, blogs, etc., well, you yourself happen to be reading an online article right now…and your customers are reading online articles, too.

Finding you on Google

Because of the immense amount of daily searches (there are approximately 2.5 billion online searches per day on Google or about 30,000 searches per second), many industries compete intensely for Google’s advertising space. It may surprise you to learn, however, that you might not be showing up on Google’s organic search results (i.e. in the middle of the screen)—and no, showing up on page 50 doesn’t count.

While most agents are using Facebook, there are other online tools like Twitter and blogs that can help enhance your online presence and power. Use them to your advantage to increase your visibility and interact with clients. If you haven’t started, get going! You might even consider using a platform that combines your social media into a single interface so it’s more manageable (jumping back and forth from website to website every day can get old quickly).

How do you track your return on social media? Do you just hope?

Look for our next blog to learn how to manage and analyze your social media to answer the all-important question: How do I know if I’m getting a return? There is widespread confusion about tracking your ROI on social media, and we will take care of that next week.

-Nate McBride, Marketing & Strategy

———————————————————————————————–

Inside Real Estate provides integrated technology solutions to help real estate agents easily manage their website, social media, and other online tasks—giving agents more time to manage their businesses. Agents who use Inside Real Estate leverage its SEO power, IDX technologies, and online presence for their own website—boosting their online visibility and helping them connect with customers. Inside Real Estate is privately held and is headquartered in Provo, UT.

Image courtesy by wizmarketings.com

Business cards – Be sure to have your website URL and appropriate social media icons.  If you have active accounts, go ahead and add the Facebook logo, twitter logo, Linkedin logo and RSS icon (to show you are a blogger).  Use your business cards as a mini billboard to show people how involved you are in online media.

Mailers – Remember the post we wrote about adding your local real estate market stats to your website? Why not take a screenshot of one of those graphs and put it on a postcard with the message “Home prices are on the rise.  Check out my website for more local updates and information.” It’s easy, and can be very effective.

Signage – Putting your website URL and social media icons on your signage is a must! This shows you are part of the social buzz and demonstrates that you are reaching a broader audience.

Referrals – Most agents agree that a lot of business comes from referrals. Ask your friends, family, and the rest of your SOI to visit your site.  This again builds your credibility as an expert and allows the ‘referral’ to see first-hand your local knowledge and marketing prowess.

This list isn’t meant to be comprehensive, but it can get you started on the right foot.  If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to leave them below. Also, if you have any questions about this article, please feel free to contact us by phone or email. 800-656-1646 or support@inside-real-estate.com

Although I could discuss several other avenues of online marketing such as social media, email campaigns, SEO, etc… I want to drive the topic straight to your real estate website. One of the greatest online and offline resources you have as a real estate agent is a professional real estate website. Now, don’t get fooled into thinking that your website is valuable just because it simply exists, you need to be sure to add value to it. If you are doing it right, you should be referring your Sphere of Influence (clients, friends, family, acquaintances) to your website everyday.

Here are a couple of questions you should be asking yourself:

1. Does my website have local market information?
2. What kind of community data do I have?
3. Do I have any real estate related guides or helpful tips
4. Do I refer people to my website to find out more information about me or current listings?
5. Overall, does my website help establish me as THE local expert?

With 87% of home transactions beginning online, it is essential that you are taking some time each week to establish your online image.  If you can’t answer all of these questions confidently, it’s time to take a look at what you are doing online.  If you need help or want us to evaluate your website, feel free to give us a call at 800-656-1646 x 5329 or email us at support@inside-real-estate.com

Now, let’s be honest.  Noot only is that pretty cool, but it is super easy.  In fact, it took me a whopping 30 seconds to embed that graph into my blog.  So, here are the simple reasons that this is worthwhile for you as an agent:

1. Value to your Clients – This is seriously useful information, and you can bring it to their attention.  This is especially effective, if you make it a habit to post about this information weekly.
2. Something to Talk About – let’s be honest, sometimes it is tough to think of something brilliant to write about.  This makes is much easier, becaus enow you just talk about how this market information affects your clients.
3. Better than Mailers – This is timely, simple, and easy to click to from anywhere.  Much better than spending a bunch of hours and dollars trying to come up with a new mailer this month.

So, to start using this, simply go to your Add New post section through the dashboard and you will notice some new buttons, including market stats, maps, calculators, etc… feel free to use them all, and send an email to support@inside-real-estate.com if you have any questions.

Good Luck!