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Marketing Strategy

May 29
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5 Things a Realtor® Should Do After Closing

By Marketing Strategy, Realtor Marketing

Finding the home for your buyers is the first step in a long and potentially fruitful, symbiotic relationship. Your new buyers are going to need your guidance and assistance and you have the opportunity to earn referrals for life. According to the National Association of Realtors 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 64% of sellers who used a real estate agent found those agents through a referral by friends or family, and 25% used the agent they previously worked with to buy or sell a home,

What are the top 5 things to do after the sale?

1) 7-day and 30-day follow-ups.

Call your clients to see how they are enjoying their new home and ask if they need anything. You don’t want a nagging problem preventing your clients from referring future business to you.

2) Make a list of special dates.

Make sure every past client is on your personal holiday card list. Consider mailing birthday cards or closing day anniversary cards. Record the move-in date, mortgage renewal date and any birthdays that you feel comfortable requesting.  Stay in touch with clients on a regular basis by phone, email or on special occasions.

3) Welcome them to their new home

On moving day think of taking a lunch and refreshments.  After they have moved in drop by with a gift showing your appreciation for their business. It can range from a plant, to a bottle of wine or anything else that you feel is commensurate with your appreciation for their business. Think outside of the box; hire a company to power wash their patios, hire a lawn cutting company to cut their lawn. The more thought you put into it the longer lasting the impression.

4) Be their go-to real estate resource

Make sure they know they can rely on you for anything real estate.  From market conditions to tradespeople and everything in between. Encourage them to have their friends and neighbours call you too.

5) Host a client appreciation event

It does not have to be a fancy sit-down dinner. You could organize a family picnic and sports day, rent a theatre, invite them on a harbour cruise, an evening snowshoe or a wine tasting at a local restaurant. The important thing is to invest the time to show your appreciation and have clients meet your other clients. This group is your number one source of referrals so treat them accordingly.

Apr 24
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Seven Marketing Habits of Effective Agents

By Marketing Strategy, Prospecting, Realtor Marketing

In November 2014, we wrote a guest blog post for Real Estate Weekly (REW.ca) titled “Marketing For Agents: Seven Marketing Habits of Effective Agents“. The byline was “You should never be too busy for marketing if you want to see success. Incorporate these seven habits into your daily work and you’ll quickly see results.”

As Spring is a time for new growth we thought it would be a good time to reprint this and offer you access to the E-Book in pdf form below.

Habit 1: Start tomorrow today

At the end of each day review your phone calls, emails and personal contacts and make a list of tomorrow’s marketing activities.

Habit 2: Return your phone calls and emails immediately

Your phone is like an ATM. It is what makes you money. When buyers and sellers are looking for a Real Estate Agent, your response time is a benchmark for how the rest of the relationship is going to progress. The faster you can respond, the less chance a prospect will contact a competitor.

Habit 3: Check your social account engagement

Social media can be distracting, so get it out of the way early in the day or late in the evening. Review your accounts and determine if there is any action you need to take.

Habit 4: Plan social posts for the day

Tweeting and posting can consume more time than is necessary if you are reacting throughout the day. In the morning, when you are sharing content on social media or if you read something in the newspaper or online, schedule posts or tweets for different times of the day so it looks like you are active all the time.

Habit 5: Check your website stats

Are you using Google Analytics on your website? If not then you should set up Google Analytics and log in each day to see how your website is doing. You can see visits to listings, the number of visitors and how long they stayed on your website. You can even see if visitors are reading your blog posts.

Habit 6: Write and upload a blog post

According to some studies, blogging gets 67 per cent more leads on a company website than a site without a blog. That is a good enough incentive to make blogging one of your habits.

Habit 7: Never be “too busy” for marketing activities

As a company specializing in Real Estate Agent marketing, we work with dozens of Real Estate Agents developing marketing plans and strategies from note cards, to letter writing and newsletters to blogging – and the number one reason we hear why they cannot execute their marketing is they are “too busy.”

Click here to read the entire article or click here to sign up for our 26 free real estate marketing E-Books.

 

Nov 01
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Featured Snippets in Search

Is Content Important? Check Featured Snippets in Search

By Marketing Strategy, Realtor Marketing, SEO, Website Design

If you don’t believe the Google algorithm has evolved into making content the number one search result criteria then check out “Google’s Featured Snippets in Search”

We had no idea this new feature had been added to Google search until a client called and said he had 7 phone calls in one day about cottages for sale on a specific lake. At the top of the page was a box with an excerpt from the page on his website, a photo excerpted from the page and a link to the page. Right below that is a link to the page again. Try your own search for lake vernon cottages for sale and see for yourself.

We did a little investigation and learned what Google has to say when a user asks a question in Google Search:

“we might show a summary of the answer in a special featured snippet block at the top of the search results page. This featured snippet block includes a summary of the answer, extracted from a webpage, plus a link to the page, the page title and URL.”

“The summary is a snippet extracted programmatically from a webpage. What’s different with a featured snippet is that it is enhanced to draw user attention on the results page. When we recognize that a query asks a question, we programmatically detect pages that answer the user’s question, and display a snippet as a featured snippet in the search results.”

How can I mark my page as a featured snippet?

You can’t. Google programmatically determines that a page contains a likely answer to the user’s question, and displays the result as a featured snippet. The only way to achieve this incredible advantage is to continue to add relevant keyword content in context so your page is the authoritative result for the search terms.

One thing I find interesting is that the page that is featured in the snippet does not have a lot of content which adds to the mystery of Google. Check it out.

Oct 28
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Open House Marketing

By Collateral, Marketing Strategy, Realtor Marketing

There are not many businesses or services other than retail where qualified, motivated buyers are walking in to see you and your product. Professional marketing materials help showcase your listing, but they are also useful to demonstrate to prospective sellers that your marketing stands out among all other Realtors they have met at open houses. We can make you and your brand stand out and become the obvious choice for sellers. Check out some of our services by clicking here.

  1. Open House Detail Package (Everything a buyer needs to know)
  2. Personalized Colouring Pages (to keep kids busy and spread your brand)
  3. Neighbourhood Open House Invitation (Pre-public showing for neighbours only)
  4. Listing Brochure Design (Letter size or 11″x17″ 4 page format )
  5. Listing Maps (Re-usable format)
  6. Open House door hangers

Read More

Sep 08
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13 Scientific Reasons Explaining Why You Crave Infographics

By Collateral, Marketing Strategy, Prospecting

We are big fans of using Infographics to convey information. Whether it is on a website a direct mail piece or a brochure a picture is worth a thousand words every time. We have recently created a Personal Infographic that serves as a brochure. Click here to check it out.

The Visual Capitalist website recently published this great Infographic on why Infographics are so effective and we have to share this with you. It’s long, but worth the scroll. Check out their website for more amazing Infographics.

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Aug 29
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Realtor® Item of Value – Kitchen Scrapers

By Marketing Strategy, Prospecting, Realtor Marketing

The keys to choosing right item of value for clients and prospects are:

  1. Gauge the perception it will make on the recipient
  2. Determine it’s usefulness to the recipient and frequency of use
  3. Determine the longevity or life of the item
  4. Biggest bang for your buck

A well thought item of value will create a positive reaction from the recipient that will reflect well on you. Your name will be further ingrained on their memory. There are hundreds of good ideas out there, but when I ran across this simple Kitchen Scraper it struck me that it meets or exceeds the criteria for an effective item of value. It is branded, can get used daily, should last for years and every time someone uses it you are reflected in a positive light.

Read more about this $2.24 (or less) item of value on the Magnets USA website. They report “Our kitchen scrapers are unlike any other. Specially designed to handle even the toughest of residue, they will get the job done every time. They work so well, don’t be surprised if clients request more for their family and friends.”

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May 27
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Is Social Media Worth the Time Investment for Realtors?

By Marketing Strategy, Social Media

I think this question is one of the most asked by Realtors and one of the hardest to answer, but this report titled Is Social Media Worth the Time Investment by Gill South for Inman News is the most enlightening.

Key Takeaways

  1. Agents are, at times, damaging the reputation of the real estate industry with their haphazard and sometimes alienating social media activity.
  2. More than 35 percent of brokerages are not supporting their agents with their social media strategy.
  3. Agents are criticized for being boastful, too personal, too impersonal and for posting too many listings on social media.
  4. Facebook is the most important social media platform for real estate professionals followed by YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Click here to read the full report or click here for a pdf version.

Here is a sample of the data the report uncovers:

What social media platforms are agents using

How often each week

Apr 24
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Realtor Personal Infographic

By Branding, Marketing Strategy, Realtor Marketing

Do you have a personal brochure you can provide new clients or give out at open houses? If not, think about a Personal Infographic where you convey almost all of the important information about you on a single page.

In addition to having all of your contact information, it allows you to highlight achievements, give a bit of  personal and professional background about yourself and highlight why people should work with you.

Below is a mock-up of my personal Infographic (the Awards and Achievements are examples only), but for only $99.00* we can create a customized Infographic for you.  Complete the form below to get started.

*Limited time offer.

LAYOUT-CS6a

Jan 11
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How To Get a Testimonial From a Client

By Marketing Strategy, Realtor Marketing

I think a testimonial from a client is one of the most valuable tools to market yourself. When a prospect is on your website checking you out and comparing you to your competitor they will always read the About Me and at the very least skim through your testimonials to get a sense of what you are all about.

  1. A client testimonial can say things about you that you cannot say about yourself.
  2. A client testimonial can introduce benefits of working with you.
  3. A client testimonial can introduce a different area or service you offer.
  4. A client testimonial can answer the question “Why should I work with ______”

How do you ask for a testimonial?

My advice is to simply ask in person, by phone or email for a referral. If by phone or in person you can record the testimonial and email it back to them for confirmation. Also determine if you can use their full name or if the prefer initials.

When you receive an email from a client praising you for some aspect of your service such as “great job negotiating the final price. You saved us thousands!” Ask if you can use this as part of their testimonial.

Use a testimonial request system

You can set up a Question and Answer using services like Wufo, Mailchimp or Jotform and email your clients a fill in the blank questionnaire.

You can pay for online services using service like Get Five Stars, or if your are a Realtor check out Homethinking.com, AgentScoreboard.com, RealEstateRatingz.com or IncredibleAgents.com

In our case our Freshbooks online invoicing service has an option to request a review when the invoice has been emailed. Our clients like the professional approach and are more likely to provide a testimonial.

In our online world with the proliferation of Social Media your clients have more options than ever. You need to stand out and the best way to do that is to share glowing testimonials on your website, through your social media and on your print media.

Aug 09
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Home Staging Case Study

Brochure to Sell Home Staging to Increase Selling Price

By Design, Marketing Strategy, Realtor Marketing

Our Realtor clients asked us to create a brochure to demonstrate the value of home staging to increase the selling price of the home. Our clients invested a significant amount into the project which is typical of their marketing strategy so the brochure would be used to market them too. Their client’s home did not show well and many of the “before” photos were too extreme to use so we had to find a subtle way to convey the improvements.

The original listing price was $1,279,000 and the actual selling price was $1,455,000 so we had to convey this in 2 pages. We created a feature sheet for the “before” home with the lower price and on the 2nd side we created a feature sheet for the “after” home with the higher price.

While we cannot disclose the cost of the staging and improvements the difference in price was an incredible $176,000 which reflect a huge return on the seller’s investment.

We could not use the actual “before” and “after” photos for each room so we tried to simply convey the overall improvement and how well the home showed after.

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