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Posts Tagged ‘marketing for real estate professionals’

How To Use Google+ Communities To Build Your Referral Business

Posted on: February 21st, 2013 by Beth Heilman

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As a real estate agent, it is vital that you stay in contact with your clients and potential customers. The Internet has been considered as an amazingly powerful source for looking real professional while also letting your customers get in contact with you easily. In this article, you’re going to learn about the powerful Google+ social network, specifically Google+ Communities, and how it can be used for you to get more clients and develop a better online presence. It is definitely true that using Google+ for real estate agents is very powerful.

This social network is basically where people connect with each other using a Google-like social network. If you have a Gmail account, you automatically have your very own Google+ account which is pretty cool. The truth is that Google+ can be used to build a really good platform for attaining more referrals in terms of getting clients. There are plenty of people who’ve had much success and earned so much just from using social media alone for gaining clients.

How To Use Google+ Communities To Build Your Referral Business

– Create Community

In the G+ platform, you can easily create a community. This community can be for your past clients or it can be for anybody in your area looking for a home. Once you create your own community, you can make updates, so every time you say something in a new post, everybody who is a part of it will get it in their main profile page.

– Invitations

After you have a couple of people whom you know personally to be a part of the community, make sure to get them to invite others. You can even give them an incentive if you’d like to make them invite others, but do not give away a house for a new member to your community. Try not to be that desperate. The best thing to do is to let others know that if they know somebody who can use a home to invite them to the community so that you can help them.

– Open Houses

The best part about these communities is that you can use them to let others know about your future open houses. You can tell people about future discounts that may be available. This is one huge benefit. You can get more and more people to come to your open houses. The best part is that you can schedule how many people will come since people will message you and email already asking you questions, making it that much easier to sell the home.

– Public or private?

This really does depend upon what you want. However, keeping it public will allow for many others to come in easily and join in on your updates. If you do decide to keep it private, it can help on making it seem mysterious, so keeping it private may help cause more people to join.

Be sure to be very alert and to always use respond to requests, emails, and other important questions when you actually get the chance. Don’t forget to use other parts of Google+ like the “circles”. This is where you build a “circle of friends” to promote to, and sometimes it is just as powerful as creating your own community.

Have you started your own Google+ Community? Do you have a Google+ account for your business? Leave your link below and let’s connect!!

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Why You Need a Real Estate Blog

Posted on: January 25th, 2013 by Beth Heilman

RealEstateBlog

Social media and real estate blogs are immensely powerful tools for Realtors. They can help you generate leads and help you grow your business. The power of both tools lies in the exposure and visibility they offer. A real estate blog is useful when you are:

1) Creating brand awareness
2) Marketing yourself and business
3) Connect with potential customers in real time
4) Building customer loyalty
5) Managing your reputation

Property buyers are becoming savvy by the day

Majority of home buyers do not only consult their Real Estate Agents. Most of them seek inspiration from blogs and social media platforms. Research indicates that 90% of home buyers consult online resources and another 50% engage actively in social media. This revelation underscores the immense importance of social media and blogging to find real estate clients. In the next section, we’ll give you some inspiration on building your brand through blogging and social media.

Scared of setting up a blog?

Setting up a real estate blog is not hard as you think. There are many free and easy to use platforms such as Blogger and WordPress. You can start slow, connect with established professionals, and learn into to grow your blog. Most importantly, you need to be really inspired to keep your keep your post up and running. Realtors and agencies that keep an active social media presence reap huge benefits from their blogging and social media engagements.

Want to Build a Professional Image or Monitor Your Reputation?

A real estate blog can help you build a professional image. You can really score highly if you help readers or visitors make important decisions on their investments. If you are consistent and really helpful, clients will trust you and even seek you to do business. Besides building your image online, a real estate blog can help you monitor your reputation as a realtor. Web analytics tools can help you track discussions in social media spaces and most importantly, what readers are saying about you and your services.

What’s Your Entry Point?

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn remains the most common entry point for Real Estate Professionals into real estate community online. A carefully designed and professional fan page not not only appeals to potential customers, but it also increases the momentum of interaction. You can increase your followers by pitching unique ideas, highlighting opportunities, and keeping them up to ate with developments in the real estate market.

Build Your Brand Quickly

Are you are a brand, or are you working to brand yourself? If the answer is yes, then Twitter and LinkedIn can help you develop and maintain a personal branding. Your brand encapsulates your identity, values, and messages or impressions that you create. In real estate, brand is everything. If you’re not a brand, then you are losing out to your competitors. Start blogging an

Convert Social Media Traffic to Web Traffic

Major search engines and even SEO specialists know the power of social media in drawing web traffic. The reason is simple. A consideration percentage of web traffic to real estate sites is drawn from social media spaces and real estate blogs! Homer buyers and trust real estate blogs and social media scene their first ports of call before they consult. So, if you are blog is operational, you can bet a good number of them will follow you from your blog your site.

Final Thoughts:

Unless you exploit the power of social media and blogging, you can never curve a professional image change in the real estate blogging scene. Social media engagement can open up a new world of possibilities. You can get leads to generate more revenue, build your reputation and image, and establish a base of happy and satisfied clients who look up to you as an authoritative figure. Anyway, that’s just one side of it. You need to be motivated to keep your blog up and running. And, that’s where the challenge begins!

Do you have your own blog? If so, do you blog regularly? If not, why not? Let me know below…

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Real Estate Blog: 5 Reasons You Should Have One

Posted on: September 17th, 2012 by Beth Heilman

Real Estate Blog

Can I be blunt a moment? How’s your real estate blog looking? Are you satisfied with the traffic and engagement you’re getting, or does it leave something to be desired?

It’s a tough time to be a realtor now, and you know my passion is helping real estate professionals make great social media connections and boost sales.

And while some real estate peeps understand they need to be on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest (you do understand that, right?), many of them don’t quite get the other part of the equation – the real estate blog!

So maybe you’re not a writer. But before you dismiss the idea of a real estate blog, let me share some information with you that just might have you changing your mind.

Real Estate Blog Site: 5 Reasons You Should Have One Now!

1. It’s In The Numbers
Did you know that businesses that blog have 55% more website traffic than businesses that don’t? And according to some industry research, over 80% of homebuyers research their home buying decisions online. I don’t know about you, but if that’s where people are looking, that’s where I wanna be!

If people are online looking for information about mortgages, neighborhoods, and real estate, a blog is the perfect tool to lead people to you.

2. It Builds Your Credibility
Once upon a time, your company-replicated site was all it took to look like you had a sophisticated business presence online. Not so much today, chica! Today’s savvy home buyer is looking for more value, and a real estate blog is your platform to communicate your professionalism and knowledge to your clients and prospects over time. Every time you post and every time you respond to comments on your posts, you establish yourself as an expert and as a person behind the brand of “you.”

3. It Builds Traffic
This isn’t highway congestion we’re talking about! Traffic to your site is your friend. So how do you attract it?

Online marketing is very rapidly shifting to the world of inbound marketing versus outbound marketing. What is inbound marketing? Quite simply, it’s the way you earn people’s (and search engine’s!) trust by producing quality content that links within your site, out to other sites with related content and receives links from other credible sources related to your niche. The more you blog and engage with readers on your blog, the more traffic you’ll generate from people searching for your particular real estate expertise or area via search engines. And if people are searching for you, well, that’s always a better prospect!

4. It Provides Better Customer Service
You can be the diva of customer service, without having to increase your office hours. Is that amazing, or what? Having a real estate blog gives your customers a place to find you day or night. The simple act of putting a contact form on every page and answering e-mails promptly puts you light years ahead of your competition who might rely on being available only during standard office hours or via cell phone. A real estate blog allows your customers to have access to you – without you having to be tethered to your phone all of the time, giving the perception of great service.

5. It Provides Better Value
More and more in the marketplace, the best way to market to your customers is by providing value to them and being seen as one who provides value. A real estate blog is a place you can provide that value to your clients by providing timely information on topics that matter. Changes coming to the mortgage industry? Put a post on your real estate blog that breaks it down for the average homebuyer. Info on events in the community you work in? Include them in your real estate blog for great location-specific search engine power.

Having a real estate blog is one of the easiest ways to punch up your marketing efforts for a lot less than the cost of traditional marketing.

Stumped for what to write? Next post I’ll offer 3 foolproof tips you won’t want to miss on how to have magnetic headlines for your real estate blog!

Do you have a real estate blog? Leave a link below in the comments!

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Fellow Real Estate People: Your Clients Are Checking You Out Online. Will They Like What They See?

Posted on: January 26th, 2012 by Beth Heilman

Ahhhh, the internet. Whether you love it, hate it or are somewhere in between the fact is, an amazing tool…and it's here to stay. There's not much that you CAN'T find on the internet. Including information about you.

Do you like what it says? A more important question might be, when a new or prospective client does a search on you Will they like what they see?

Now I'm not talking about old photos that an ex-boyfriend took and posted on his Facebook wall (although if there are any of those floating around, you might want to see about getting rid of 'em). What I'm talking about is the impression folks get when they read your bio on your company's website, or Google your name to find out more about you and how you do business.

It's not any breaking news to Real Estate folks that upwards of 93% of people wanting to buy a home do their searching online before they ever contact a Realtor. It shouldn't come as a surprise then that while that same client is checking out that sweet three bedroom colonial on Maple Street you have listed, they're also checking out… you.

Have you taken ownership of your online presence?

If you haven't, it's time you do before someone else does.

Now, I'm not trying to sound ominous, but in today's society it's the negative that gets reported and you know how people like to talk about the least little negative thing. But let's not dwell on that…

Fact is, in today's internet world you can let people not only know what you do, you kick-butt Real Estate pro, you; but by having your own blog and Social Media presence you can let people know who you are as a person. You get to sell you.

In today's market, it's the person who takes the time to build the relationship with their customer and treats them well that makes the sale. Are you doing something everyday to show prospective clients how awesome you are by sharing a more personal side of you?

I hope so. If you're not, I hate to be the one to break it to you,but you're going to be left behind…or at the very least stagnate where
you're at.

Tomorrow's business goes to the one who builds the relationships today.

Claiming your place on Social Media will help build and nurture those relationships. Are you using it to build your business?

I'd love to hear how you're using Social Media to market and grow your business. Leave a comment below and let me know what you're doing. Until then…

To Your Success,
Sonrisas(smiles),

Beth 🙂

Beth Heilman is a 20 year Real Estate veteran and Owner/CEO of Red Leopard Marketing, a company specializing in Social Media Marketing to help Real Estate Professionals attract, engage and keep quality customers. Beth is a 30 year Las Vegas resident, a mother of four great kiddos and a "gramita" to 10 wonderful grandmunchkins. Her philosophy in business and in life is "when you do the right things for the right reasons, you'll always succeed". Do you believe that? You should…

 

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