Tag Archive for: real estate marketing

Realtors up your marketing not your spending.

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Market savvy Realtors are not going on vacation until the market improves – they are aggressively marketing their listings and services. The trend of course is to put more marketing dollars into online venues and less towards the old fashioned print ad. This makes sense of course because you can get more value online plus according to NAR Home Buyer and Seller Survey

Eighty-seven percent of home buyers who used the Internet to search for a home purchased through a real estate agent, in contrast with 72 percent of non-Internet users who were more likely to purchase directly from a builder or from an owner they already knew in a private transaction.

While there is no confusion as to where and why Realtors should be focusing their marking efforts on the web, there seems to be much confusion about how to do this.

More than a few of my clients see the initiative as simply duplicating their print materials in PDF format and posting it on their web sites. This, despite the long conversations we share on the benefit of RSS feeds, widgets, SEO and so forth. I realize that while I create much enthusiasm and excitement during these consulting calls, the plan usually falls short of execution. The simple reasons: too much work, too much new stuff to remember, I shut you off when I heard you say “blog…..feed…rss…etc…and the enthusiasm was all your own”.

This is true, I have unbounded enthusiasm for opportunities on the web; The great equalizer that gives Realtors the opportunity to level the playing field. (or any small business playing against the big guys)

OK – so it’s happening again, let’s get back to the reason for this post: A simple way to cover your bases on new technologies:

Listing Syndication, RSS Feeds, Widgets, Mobile access & SMS, Email distribution, Single property websites, Craigslist and Ebay!

vFlyer is the closest thing to a one-stop real estate marketing service that I have seen. It is very easy to create virtual tours, single property sites, printable flyers, and professional content for Craigslist postings. On top of that, vFlyer automatically submits your listings to leading marketplaces such as Zillow, Trulia, Cyberhomes/AOL, Google and more. vFlyer subscriptions are affordable. I understand that most real estate agents sign up for the vFlyer Starter subscription at $12.95/month. That subscription supports up to 10 active listings. vFlyer supplements good online help with email and phone support.

Check out vFlyer

What is RSS and how can Realtors use it.

Lie to Me. Your brochure says you are lying!

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I’ve recently been sucked in to a new TV drama called “Lie to Me”. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about a guy who is supposed to be the world’s leading deception expert. He can read you like a book using your facial expressions and body language. They cut in real footage of well known liars in the act of lying and show you how the facial expression or gesture is exactly the same. Fascinating!

While most people don’t have PHD’s in this field they are intuitive and can detect lies or sense that someone is saying one thing but telling another with their non-verbal language. We call it intuition but an expert will tell you it is not intuition, it’s a scientific fact – the difference is that you and I can’t name what it is or why we know it. We aren’t trained – we just know.

This same concept is true with your marketing materials. Website, brochures, fliers, postcards, newsletters, etc. The personal computer has given everyone the tools to make cool stuff. The problem is that not everyone has the design training or the intuition to use design to effectively support their message. Your brochure copy may be saying you are a waterfront luxury homes specialist while the actual brochure is telling people you are a used car salesman. Or maybe your marketing materials are saying you are lazy, unorganized, downmarket – whatever. The point is your brochure is NOT supporting your message.

An example of this would be a brochure about Home Stageing & Decluttering. This brochure tells us that decluttering will make our home more attractive to buyers. We should agree it’s absolutely a good investment to hire an expert to declutter and showcase our home BUT this brochure is putting doubt in our minds and we are not fully sold. Why? Because the clutter and mess on this brochure is even worse than our most neglected spare room! We don’t have the design degree or training to name it – we’re just not sold.

Consider that having your admininistrative assistant design your marketing pieces may not be in your best interest. Their time could be better spent performing tasks they are proficient with. Designing brochures and ads will likely take them longer than a professional and with sub par results. A more cost effective solution would be to hire a professional to provide you with templates that you can re-use for new brochures, newsletters and so forth. This will cut down costs and give you the added benefit of all marketing materials being professional and consistent.

If you are a die hard DIY person then I would suggest purchasing a professionally designed template or use one that comes with your publishing program which you can modify. There are resources available that will help you improve your layouts by helping you learn to identify what needs improvement and to call out many of the usual amateur pitfalls:

Non-Designer’s Design Book, The (3rd Edition) (Non Designer’s Design Book)
The Non-Designer’s Design and Type Books, Deluxe Edition