Your Blog Is Bait - How To Use Blogging To Generate Leads

A comment by a left by reader (we'll call her Angie) inspired this article.

Angie expressed that her blog, although noteworthy (30+ hits a day) on a daily traffic scale, was failing to produce leads. So much so, that after more than a year of regular blogging, she and her partner were losing their zeal as daily contributors to the real estate blogosphere. It seems that she was at the right fishing hole with pole in hand, but not a bite to speak of. Where were all the leads? How could thousands of hits have produced not even a fish tale?

Leads are generated when a visitor feels compelled to contact you requesting either a direct service or access to a service. Blogging is not the service. Blogging is the bait. Blogging is what you use to attract traffic to the platform where you must present your services.

Blogging creates traffic. Traffic does not equal leads.

A quick overview on generating traffic through blogging:

Advertising, Participation and Search Engines are the main vehicles with which you expose the blog's content and value.
In your advertising, you need to create incentive to visit your blog/website. "Sacramento's Most Active Voice In Real Estate" or "Your Home's Value, and Every Reason Why Zillow Has It Wrong" make for nice pitches to come and read your blog. For more on the topic of creating incentive to drive traffic to a website, read this and this.

Your participation helps you get the word out among not only your peers, but it also gives you a fighting chance to generate some relevant readership. Participation is the effort of reading and commenting on other blogs that are writing around similar core topics as your blog.

Your comments (when intelligent) will be read and offer a link back to your blog. 2 Big benefits here:
1. Readership from a friendly and relevant audience.
2. The link back to your site helps the SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
For more on Participation read here.

The search engines seem to handle blog content as something that deserves preferential treatment. Relevant, unique, consistent, linked and pinged content seems to be the formula that starts to attract the search engines to your articles. This topic deserves more than a few lines to fully grasp the idea, so for more, keep reading here and here.

Angie was doing all of this, and it has been working great for her. But still no leads.

A little over 3 months ago I started the Real Estate Tomato with 3 goals in mind.

1. I enjoy writing and wanted an outlet for my creativity.

2. I teach Realtors how to embrace the tools of technology in an effort to better their business. None of the little talks I gave nor the step by step training had been documented. I needed a destination for people to read me, not just hear me.

3. I saw the blog as the next phase in successful internet marketing, and as a self proclaimed internet consultant I felt that if I failed to embrace the blog, I would be left behind.

I figured at best the blog would be a nice tool to educate new clients and leverage the title I use in my email signature: consultant.

3 months later I have found myself in the middle of a great fishing hole. But what to do with all the traffic?
As I followed a formula to generating great traffic for this blog, it became apparent that others would like to know what I have learned. I just had to give them the opportunity to ask me. Up went the form and TomatoBlogs was born. Before the this, some 22,000 visits to the Tomato, and not one potential client contacts me. I give the fishing hole a chance to bite and BAM I get 2 in less than 12 hours. Since then, there has been a steady stream of interest. It is now very clear that there was a 4th reason for getting into blogging: To help others join the community, and embrace this newest tool that will make them more successful.

Angie's site, full of hundreds of articles, all relevant to her industry, was offering no opportunity for readers to feel compelled to contact her. Links to the Local MLS, Home Value Reports, and a Newsletter, all potentially good lead generation opportunities, were left to link back to the homepage. No lead generation form. No reward. No destination. The missing component to generate leads through the blog was simply an online form. A soft barrier if you will. Earn your readership through consistent blogging and participation. Earn your leads by giving them an opportunity to exchange their contact info for your services: Email Newsletter, IDX MLS Search, Detailed Home Value Report, Email Blog Blast, eBook For Home Buyers, eBook For Home Sellers... just offer something.

The 7 Reasons Why Your (Future) Clients Should Care That You Are a Real Estate Blogger

Why Should Your Clients and Potential Clients Care That You Blog?

In the collective discussion that took place on this topic, there was lots of writing on why blogging helps you gain the trust of your audience, and how blogging helps you connect to your potential clients, but pinning down why they should care took some time to uncover.

Paula Henry from IndyRealEstateTalk.com broke through with the concept that a well executed real estate blog gives clients a sense of the agent “beyond the slogan.”

Many real estate agents use slogans such as:
“Knowledge Is Power”
“Service You Deserve. People You Trust”
“Experience Is The Difference”
“Always There For You”
“We Care”
“Your Local Expert”
…and so on.

Without the substance to back up these slogans, they are nothing more than sentences. Your clients and potential clients are in fact looking for an agent that has superior knowledge, rich experience, is trustworthy, offers excellent service, knows the area and cares about them.

It is through blogging that your audience is able to recognize that you are the embodiment of the aspects they are looking for in the agent that will guide them through the most important financial decision of their lives.

Knowledge:

Your ability to cover relevant subjects in well organized and rich articles reflects your knowledge first-hand.
This should matter to them.

Experience:

You deliver inexhaustible content around the topics that are relevant to your audience’s interests and concerns.
This should matter to them.

Care:

The act of regular blogging itself shows your interest, passion, and commitment to your clients’ education and understanding of their needs. In addition, it shows that same commitment to the development of your own education and business.
This should matter to them.

Local Expertise:

Delivering the scoop on local real estate trends – and – reporting on the community, one photo and one article at a time illustrates your roots.
This should matter to them.

Visibility/Accessibility:

The blog that is regularly updated illustrates an environment that is approachable. Dialogue involving the author in the comments illustrates participation and attention.
This should matter to them.

Internet Marketing Savvy:

Chances are, your current and potential clients do not blog. Your management and mastery of your broad online presence is impressive, and is the difference when they are judging your skills to embrace the internet as a marketing tool – the #1 most important tool in 21^st century real estate.
This should matter to them.

If your (potential) clients do blog… well, now you have more in common than you could ever hope for: You’re both crazy.

Trust:

Of course, the above list clearly works towards building your clients’ trust. However, there are other avenues to streamlining that trust through blogging. Our next post will cover it in depth, but here’s a taste based on the banter in the Tomato Forum.
Courage To Expose
Publishing your thoughts online for the world to read and criticize.
The Effort to Demonstrate Reliability & Integrity
Bringing the facts, and boosting your accountability
Transparency of Personality
Your readers ‘get to know you’

Home buyers and sellers have a choice when selecting an agent to represent them during the purchase or sale of their most valuable financial asset. Rather than relying on static branding and ubiquitous online tools, seasoned real estate bloggers are able to illustrate their value to their potential clients through focused daily writing. Once a potential client has uncovered your blog, you have set the stage for winning them over.

Related Must Reads:
How Does Real Estate Blogging Actually Generate Leads?
Why Blogging Makes You A Better Realtor, Part 1
Why Blogging Makes You A Better Realtor, Part 2
Why Blogging Makes You A Better Realtor, Part 3

Tomato Co-Authors

Paula Henry - Indy Real Estate Talk
Cyndee Haydon - Sandbars To Sunsets
Sandi Bauman – Chico Home Search
Karl Burger – Pensalcola Real Estate News
Terry McDonald – Charlotte Communities
Chad Lariscy - The Front Porch View
Daniel Bates - My McClellanville
Mary De Luca - Beltway Ramblings
John Coley - Lake Martin Voice
Joe Peffer - Columbus Homes Blog
Charles Woodall - Dothan Home Search
Daniel Bates - My McClellanville
Eric Ransom - Real Estate Laundry

Follow Us on Twitter and Get Our Daily Real Estate Blog Tips!

Realtor Increases Efficiency And Client Service In The Field With Mobile Phax

Jeffrey Douglass describes himself as “a reformed/recovering manager of a large real estate brokerage and now the owner of X Real Estate in San Diego, California.”

We met Jeffrey on Twitter and turns out he has uncovered some pretty cool uses for Mobile Phax.

As a Realtor, Jeffrey spends a lot of time out in the field, meeting with clients, showing properties and as is necessary in his business a lot of paperwork. Jeffrey has a portable scanner/copier that he takes with him sometimes to client meetings but he’s recently started using Mobile Phax on his iPhone to accomplish many of the tasks he used to do with his portable scanner.

Now, when he’s meeting with a client and they would like to send a counteroffer, or give a check as a good faith deposit, instead of pulling out his portable scanner, taking his laptop out of the bag, booting them both up and scanning the document or check, he just pulls out his iPhone and sends it as a Phax.

The counteroffer or check is sent, and the recipient receives it right away and when he gets back to his desk, his copy is waiting there for him as a PDF.

We like the idea that Realty 2.0 includes Mobile Phax. Our bet is that Mobile Phax is going to be part of a lot of businesses being reinvented over the next few years.

Dropbox as a Business Productivity Tool

Here is a solution for you agents that are keeping files on your computer without a back up solution, or are finding you are running out of storage space, or find you need to access files from home when you have your files on your work computer. You can even have your files available, with different passwords for TCs to access or your assistants. It is a great solution. Read on...

For many small business owners, keeping track of documents and data files across different computers, smartphones and users can be really challenging. Fortunately, there are some great solutions to make that task easier. One solution is called Dropbox. Dropbox is a service that allows you to back-up, share and sync files with other users and across different computers and phones. It works on Mac, Windows and even Linux.

Dropbox looks and acts like a regular folder on your computer. The only difference is that everything you add to that folder is automatically backed up to Dropbox’s cloud and those changes are instantly accessible from your other computers or with other users you have decided to share a file with.

The service offers free accounts with up to 2 GB of online storage space, but plans with more space start at just $9.99 a month or $99 a year. Here are five ways you can use Dropbox to keep your business more organized and your digital life less cluttered.

Keep Your Passwords In Sync – Because Dropbox acts like any other folder, you can use it with password management utilities like 1Password or KeePass. Password managers are great because they let you create safe, difficult to crack passwords but also keep a record of what those logins are. By using Dropbox as the location for your password database, you can access you account information from multiple computers (or your phone), without having to resort to writing things down on post-it notes.

Back-up Important Files – Dropbox backs up every file you save to its folder in the cloud (using Amazon’s S3 data storage technology). Storing important business documents or contact information on your Dropbox account is not only safe (Dropbox uses SSL encryption), but if disaster strikes, you have an off-site backup copy.

Easily Share Folders – One of the best features of Dropbox is that you can easily invite others to join sub-folders within your Dropbox folder. So if you are collecting documents related to a certain project, you can invite other users to that folder and they can access those files, upload their own additions and even make changes. You can do this without having to e-mail files to each person, and files can be accessed from a computer, a smartphone or the web.

Easy Version Control – If you make a change to an existing document inside Dropbox, Dropbox stores the different versions of that file for 30 days. That means you can access past revisions of a document or even a design proof without having to save each file under a different name. If you want to have versions of your documents accessible after 30 days, you can upgrade to Dropbox’s Pack Rat plan that will keep versions on file forever.

Back-up Your Web Browser Bookmarks – One of the more frustrating aspects of working on a number of different computers is that the bookmarks you have on your main machine might not always match those on your laptop or vice versa. Dropbox makes it easy to keep your Firefox profile synchronized across multiple computers. You can follow this guide to get things set up.

Dropbox isn’t the only file synchronization and backup service (Microsoft’s Live Mesh and Drop.io are other options that also work quite well), but it is unique in how it integrates with computers across platforms and how it stores and synchronizes files. You can find more add-ons and tips and tricks on Dropbox’s website.

5 Trends That Will Shape Small Business in 2010

2009 was a pretty wild year in the world of marketing. While social media was building up steam in previous years, it pretty much went mainstream this past year. In fact, many businesses became fatigued from hearing so much about Twitter, Facebook, and social media in general.

As the hype settled and people began to understand how to use and integrate these new platforms, more change was brewing. The evolution that was social media in 2009 set the table for the realization of some significant trends to bubble up into the world of small business in 2010.

The groundwork for some of these trends has been in place for years, but I think we will see small business owners finally start to embrace the following five significant expansions in the New Year.

1) Real time is big time

At some point in 2010, all search results will consist of real-time information, scores, reviews, tweets and all, right there and up to the minute. We’re addicted to up to the minute connection and we want more. It’s kind of like the Meryl Streep line in Postcards from the Edge, “Instant gratification isn't fast enough.”

Most everything we do will be instant. Google Wave wants to introduce real-time collaboration.

An iPhone app called Shazam will tell me the name of the song playing on a coffee shop stereo right now. Oh, and I can buy it on iTunes, right now too.

Another, called Red Laser, will tell me where to get an item from a photo. It will also give me the best price available for the item anywhere, right now, from a bar code scan.

2) Location as plumbing

Imagine standing on a hill overlooking the downtown skyline and pointing the camera on your phone in any direction and getting a full tour of what you are looking at, including restaurant recommendations from friends in your favorite social network.

Walk into a museum, plug in your headphones and point your phone at a painting or sculpture. Then, read about it while a video interview from an expert on the artist loads.

Augmented reality and location aware services have been around for a while. Now that Facebook and Twitter are starting to play with geo-location for tweets and update, enabled by the GPS technology on most every new phone, look out, it’s going to tip.

Location sharing services like Foursquare, Loopt and Google Latitude, are already receiving mainstream media mention. It won’t be long before every rating and review site, such as Yelp! and Insider Pages, build this into the foundation and push coupons and discounts out to you based on location.

Anywhere you go you will be able to locate friends nearby or the location of every Twitter follower in a city you are visiting.

Your location, or that of your customers and prospects, will become another data point in the marketing mix.

3) Filtering gets social

Having access to vast amounts of information in real-time and the stores of data from throughout history are both a good thing and a bit of a curse. While we can now find the answer to just about any query, we are pummeled with so much information that we cannot sift through the good and bad and true and false.

Filtering and aggregating information became a valuable skill in the last few years as tools like RSS readers and search alerts allowed us to subscribe to and collect the information we wanted to read most.

I believe in the coming year another layer of filtering will become just as important as search engine optimization. Look to see search results peppered with recommendations from our social contacts.

When you search for the best attorney in town, a good movie or the best place to get some authentic TexMex, not only will you see the organic search results earned through Google’s algorithm, you’ll also see what your friend Jimmy had to say about such things.

Social search has the ability to eclipse the value of traditional SEO efforts. As more and more information is added to your social graph, I believe recommendations from trusted sources in your networks will carry significantly more impact in some cases than the results that reach the top spots in organic search.

4) Kitchen sink on the cloud

Will desktop applications and computing become a thing of the past? While not completely, 2010 looks like the year that small businesses will truly embrace applications that exist online only.

Entire software suites such as Google Apps and Microsoft Office Live will finally allow document, spreadsheet, database, and presentation software to function as Internet applications at greatly reduced costs and ultimate real time collaboration.

File sharing and storage, including total file backup from tools like Dropbox and Mozy, will become standard in the small business toolbox.

Project, task, scheduling and collaboration of all manners have made a dramatic move to the web with tools like CentralDesktop and Backpack, as remote workers and a global supply chain have dictated. Look for these kinds of tools to be routinely used as client service tools that eliminate the need to drive a few blocks to consult.

Online meeting tools like GoToMeeting, WebEx and even Skype, with video, will continue to allow people to connect in richer ways online.

The sacred cow of the desktop, financial data will finally move online completely as QuickBooks Online. Tools like Freshbooks make it very easy to do bookkeeping online while providing secure access for financial employees and outside accounting resources.

5) Fusion boosts offline

While the entire focus of this article to this point has been about changes online, the mantra for 2010 will be the convergence of online and offline for the greatest leverage.

No matter how wired we get as a society and business, there will always be a need for face to fact trust, building engagement. Now that small businesses have moved more online, the smart play will be to find the best ways to fuse the online and offline activates in ways that make the return on both even greater.

While LinkedIn and Facebook may be great places to find prospects and create awareness, they are not always the best platforms to build relationships deep enough to create a sale.

Using these platforms to create awareness for content that resides on your web site or to drive people to events where they can learn and network in person, will become an essential part of the marketing process.

In addition, using online tools such as Twitter and Biznik to further facilitate existing in person relationships, will become another tool that small businesses will add to their competitive arsenal. Now when a member of your sales team meets a prospect at a Chamber of Commerce function, they may follow them on Twitter and invite them to connect on LinkedIn as a matter of process and as a way to more easily communicate, refer and connect, all apart of the trust building cycle.

Elements of these trends have been brewing for some time and adoption of any trend generally happens over time and almost immeasurably. However, now is the time to analyze the impact these ideas may have on your business this year and into the future.

Image credit: prosto photos

John Jantsch is a marketing and digital technology coach, award winning social media publisher and author of Duct Tape Marketing.

Google Voice

The latest coming from Google. This is a product worth checking out. It even has a web widget interface that will allow you to put a "Call me" button on your website so your clients can click to call. You can program that button with any number you wish. Right now Google Voice is still in Beta and you need to request an invite, but will shortly be launching. Here is a quick video tour. Check it out.

10 Ways to Stop Attracting New Clients & Kill Your Small Business in a Recession

One of the most reasonable approaches to surviving an economic downturn is to slash all unnecessary business expenses.

In their panic to save money, wild-eyed and frothy-mouthed entrepreneurs begin looking suspiciously at their marketing plans. On the surface, advertising cutbacks would seem to be a logical choice.

Why Entrepreneurs Make the Mistake of Cutting Their Marketing Budgets

If you have taken a close look at the magazines that arrive in your mailbox every month, you may have noticed they've been down-sized... and it wasn't the publisher's idea.

Advertisers are running for hills in droves as they pull back and slash their marketing budgets - in many cases by half. The result is formerly burgeoning magazines that are now a shadow of their former selves.

It's a tempting... but very dangerous strategy. Especially when you consider that your company thrives on both client retention and new growth to survive.

To stay out of economic harms way, you need to keep your marketing momentum at full throttle even during a recession. And now is the BEST time since your competitors are hiding from potential customers. Your marketing will really stand out even more!

But, if you think that "hunkering down" through an economic storm is the way for your business to survive a recession...

Here Are the Top 10 Sure-Fire Ways to Kill Your Small Business

1. STOP MARKETING and pretend everybody knows who you are and what you have to sell.

2. STOP MARKETING and fantasize that you have more important worries than promoting your business.

3. STOP MARKETING and make believe your customers won't notice that you discontinued your monthly client newsletter.

4. STOP MARKETING and keep telling yourself that your customers would never abandon you.

5. STOP MARKETING and ignore the potential new clients that would buy your products or services if they were contacted by you.

6. STOP MARKETING and stop thinking about your competitors and the fact they want your customers.

7. STOP MARKETING and keep telling yourself it costs too much to market.

8. STOP MARKETING and disregard the fact that marketing is not a business expense but an investment.

9. STOP MARKETING and make-believe your established customers don't need to be reminded that you appreciate their business.

10. STOP MARKETING and forget that now is the best time to market since all the rest of your competition is cutting back on doing it.

Certainly the choice is yours. You can follow the above practices and drive your business into the ground. It's up to you. But do you really want to bury your business forever?

If the answer is 'no'...

Here Are 3 Reasons Why You Should Relentlessly Market Your Business Today:

* Prove to your clients that you really do value and appreciate them - market to them using a print newsletter.

* Show your customers that you are a successful entrepreneur willing to invest in your relationship with them - send a monthly print newsletter.

* Instill trust, credibility and confidence in you and your company as well as your service or product - publish a customer newsletter.

The Bottom Line

If asked to list their company's most valuable assets, many would include buildings, equipment, inventory and accounts receivables.

Very few would even think to include their customers.

Your clients are the most valuable asset you have. When you use attentive, relationship-building marketing strategies like distributing a print newsletter, you create a bond that will allow you to weather any type of economic environment.
By David Gruttadaurio

What’s So Scary About Marketing Strategy?

Small business owners resist creating marketing strategy like many resist getting their teeth cleaned.

Over the years, I’ve discovered why this is:
An effective marketing strategy requires understanding who you are, choosing to be different than everyone else, and committing to one simple way of doing, acting and creating – to the exclusion of all other ways of doing, acting, and creating. Now, that’s some scary stuff!

The above set of requirements may seem difficult to accomplish, but accomplish them and you will set your business free from the tyranny of making up the idea of the week over and over again. However, that’s the crutch that keeps business owners from ever taking strategy head on. It’s far too easy to just grab another tactic, this week’s twitter, and run with it. If this week’s tactic fails, no harm, no foul, find next week’s thing. (A bit of a dart board strategy approach.)

When you commit to a marketing strategy, you’ve actually got to put your entire authentic self on the line and that scares the hell out of people. What if that fails, how do you recover? Well, it starts with a realistic and practical way of thinking about strategy and a mindset that links your marketing strategy to the culture of your organization – if a marketing strategy is real and true for you, your customers, and your people, to some extent you cannot fail.

My take is that a marketing strategy should scare you a bit, push to you an uncomfortable place, and make you stretch – otherwise is may never truly require you to do anything remarkable to reach it.

Here’s what you need to discover and capitalize on to create your one true marketing strategy.

• What business are we really in? – another way of saying this is – what does your customer really buy when they buy your product or service? – does someone buy insurance because they want an insurance policy? Do they hire a plumber because they’ve always had a hankering for a new P trap? Well, what do they really get from a successful experience with you – it’s probably not what you think.
• Who is our ideal customer? - You’ve undoubtedly read this from me already, but I can’t say it enough – not everyone is your ideal customer, you’ve got to know enough about that perfect customer you are trying to attract, so much so that anyone in your organization could spot who is and who is not that customer. Hint: look long and hard at the make up of customers that are referring business to you – there’s a good chance they hold the key to discovering your ideal customer.
• What do we do that our customer really values? – The answer to this question is the essence of your thrust to differentiate your business from all others in your industry. It’s likely that you have a unique way of doing business, serving the customer, and creating a winning experience, it’s also just as likely you have no idea what that unique value is, but your customers do – go ask them to tell you what your magic is and then let it shine in all your marketing messages, because it’s a pretty good bet your ideal prospect wants that too.

The best news of all is that once you do this, decision making – what new product should we create, what should our direct mail say, how can we use Facebook – gets very, very easy. Simply ask yourself – how would this help us achieve our marketing strategy?

Just remember, safe is boring – bold is where the opportunity resides, bold is how your create something extraordinary – do it now!

5 Reasons Realtors Fail Online

Poor Focus can really equal Online Failure for Realtors

Some of you may already be on the top of the search engine results …

… but wondering why you are not capturing leads from your site; here are 5 reasons you may be failing online. Being on the top of search results does not guarantee you will get quality leads.

1. Your site may be optimized for the wrong targets

To be honest I am not sure why this is so common amongst Realtors, but it is.

It happens because the majority of all real estate professionals have chosen to use templated websites with generic content. Another factor is that others design and optimize their sites for that coveted area of town they want to work, and not for where they are or have a good expectation of making a living.

Let me give you an example: say the agent lives and works in downtown San Diego, but his/her site is on the top of the search engines for the super high end luxurious Rancho Santa Fe Estates. Buyers looking for these large Rancho Santa Fe Estates want to work with a Realtor who is an expert in the area; someone who lives and works in the area. Someone who knows the who’s who of Rancho Santa Fe.

So when they do their homework and realize that the agent lives & works in downtown SD, isn’t a member of any Rancho Santa Fe associations and hasn’t done any business in the area the client moves onto another Realtor site.

Why? Because people want to do business with an expert on the area they are looking to buy or sell. It really is that simple!

Another variation on this problem is when agents try to be the expert on all areas. Some agents claim to be the expert on their entire city, really? Are you really knowledgeable with every home and neighborhood within a 50+ mile radius? I doubt it!

We’ve said it several times on this site, you really need to focus on at least one niche(possibly several using multiple sites). Stick to what you know.

Don’t design your site to be something you are not!

2. Your site may not tell visitors they have arrived in the right place to find what they are looking for.

This is so simple, yet so many people miss the target here also. I doubt I need to do this, but let me give you an example of how this works. Let’s say the buyer goes to Google and types in "Rancho Santa Fe Estates for sale" and then clicks on the a top link that has a meta description that says "Rancho Santa Fe Estates". The buyer is expecting to see info on estates in that specific area, NOT homes in other neighborhoods.

Think about it – put yourself in the buyers shoes. The buyer wants to land on a page that says something like "Explore the finest estates in Rancho Santa Fe right here". Most people spend less than 3 seconds on a page before deciding to stay or click away.

3. Your site has a weak call to action or no call to action at all

Does the consumer know what you want them to do? Don’t follow the herd by forcing your visitors to complete some stupid form to look at properties. Buyers want to look at as many pictures as they can so let them. You have to let go of your desire to control the information, they will get it from your competitor if you don’t give them the info they want. Create loyalty.

Give consumers a reason to give you their contact information: offer them a Special Report, a local area guide, something of value. This should be done on your home and MLS search pages and should be clearly identified to grab the prospects attention.

You should have a client capture form on all pages of your site also, these can be less intrusive, but easily found. There is nothing worse than wasting time trying to figure out to find contact info or how to submit a request to the site owner.

Believe it or not one of the best client capture strategies is to encourage phone calls – so make sure your number is clearly visable on your site. I would rather have just one phone call rather that 20 email leads!

4. You have poor follow up with site visitors

What is your follow up system? Do you have a system that is or can be automated?

It is crazy to spend time & money building a site to generate potential clients only to drop the ball when it comes to follow up. Countless surveys done confirm that consumers expect immediate response to their online inquiries. Not tomorrow or the next day, immediately!

One of the best ways to handle this immediate response is with auto-responders, NOT those generic drip campaigns your old real estate template site came with. Custom auto-responder emails that you have written in response to your prospects question.

5. Your site is too cluttered & confusing

Is your real estate site a one stop shop all mess – everything to everybody? There are some really terrible sites out there, jammed with every link imaginable and no identifable focus. This strategy works for places like Walmart, but not so much for local real estate. Consumers are convenience driven and and don’t want to waste time clicking around your site to find what they want.

Your site doesn’t necessarily need to be pretty, but the site navigation must be intuitive and search engine friendly. Consumers want to see property pictures and video’s that highlight the features and benefits of the home and community.

Focus your site on providing specific info to the consumer looking for property in your niche target and you will see far more results than you ever did with your cluttered and confusing template site.

If you haven’t already, you really must set up a wordpress blog immediately, because blogs encourage you to post new content frequently you are forced to stay focused on providing content that your prospects are interested in.

This is critically important that you get this, stay focused on your future clients, NOT on yourself.

How to leverage social network & media sites to improve your Real Estate Business

“Social media commonly refers to various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, videos and pictures.” Just what is out there, is any of it dangerous, what can you do to interact in the virtual world?

This article is meant for people just like you looking for guidance. We will show you exactly how to put social network/media and Web 2.0 sites to work for you. You will find information and advice as to which pieces apply to your niche. so many social media sites
To use Social Networking effectively ..

.. you should understand that it is a process of connecting, then communicating and finally building a community. You need to connect with other people so you can tell your story.

Remember, don’t get overwhelmed, use what you need. Learn here how to:

* Get found by future clients
* Establish a brand that you can later sell if you choose
* Get your enthusiasts to spread your information virally
* Build increased brand loyalty through an interactive online experience resulting in massive increase in leads
* Convert your customers into advocates
* Convert consumers into new customers

share Social Networking for real estate explained
Step One: Choose Your Core Social Networks carefully.

It is actually easier than you might think. You only need to pick 1 or 2 to begin, otherwise you will get frustrated and quit. Pick the sites that you feel will have the most activity / target consumers in your market. Most people begin with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and Youtube.

If you were only to do one thing our advice is to start with Facebook.

A very clever entrepreneur told me 18 months ago that Facebook would become the "White Pages" of the Internet. Well guess what - his prediction is coming true, 480,000 new users are signing up every day.
Step Two: If you use social networks the way they were meant to be used …

… you will decrease your outbound marketing & advertising expense and increase your income exponentially. But wait, what do I put on my profile? Here are our suggestions: If you meet someone in the offline world, you might ask "Tell me about yourself (or your business") using Social Networks you will accopmlish this with your cleverly crafted bio. This bio will be a desciptive biography of you and your real estate business – the sole purpose of which is to get the conversation going in the right direction.

* Think of online conversation as a web based "water cooler"
* A digital platform to get your message out in words, images, video and more ..
* The conversations do not replace what you might be doing now, if it’s working; it compliments it.
* Online conversations allow you to connect with more people, more often, mow who wouldn’t want that?

Your story. Everyone has a story to tell, so tell it and make it interesting, make it funny, get excited, tell others about something nobody has told us about yet. In other words lighten up! Show the real person behind the words, be authentic and real. Take action right now; go set up your profile on Facebook. Great job! Congratulations on taking the first step in establishing your online brand.
Step Three: Change your message daily on Facebook …

… maybe even 2-3 per day.Peter was telling me the other day that his page said “Peter is looking out his window at the pacific ocean, appreciating the deep blue color” and within an hour of changing it a past client commented on his profile. Peter hadn’t heard from this client in over a year; as it turns out, the client is ready to buy a new property. Way to go Peter!

Identify your influencers and connect with them by inviting them join your network. One of the best ways to establish rapport with your influencers is to comment on their posts and link to their blog. Proceed with a little caution as many people use these sites as primary way of connecting with their real-world family and friends. So no hard sell OK?

However, I have found great success on Facebook by searching for groups that I have an interest in: ie.> San Diego Realtor, San Diego Real Estate, etc… Once you are a member of these groups it is easy to request to be friends with the other group members. At the time of writing this, I invited over 150 San Diego Realtors to be my friend. Within the first 30 minutes I had 24 new friends.
Other Social networking sites to consider:

Twitter on the other hand is really a micro-blogging site. Once you have set up your profile page you can easily follow anyone and reply to their tweets. People love it when you comment or retweet their posts.

Myspace is a little too teen and music band oriented for our tastes, but it may just fit your niche (remember the niche you chose?) so don’t discount it totally.

LinkedIn is geared more toward B2B (business to business) but would be more appropriate to connect with referal sources (out of area real estate agents) and to create your professional team (escow officers, title reps, home inspectors etc).

Stumbleapon and Digg are other examples of social networking, they work on recommendation and "votes" on what consumers found interesting on the web. A great post will get o ton of traffic if it’s faetured on either of these sites.

As these social network sites mature it is becoming much more efficient to update all of them at one. For example; when I update my twitter it automatically updates my Facebook profile. I have been amazed at how many people comment on this.
Conclusion

You might be looking at this medium to establish a new identity or maybe to rejuvinate your brand and thats OK to. You might for instance want to brand yourself as a "green" Realtor, or an expert in one particular neighborhood.

Creating your social network presence is only one part of your “success puzzle”. This alone won’t do much for you. If you want to take real advantage of the traffic you attract on your social networks you need a Web 2.0 internet presence.

What is a Web 2.0 Blog? If people can submit links, content and make comments thus affecting the amount of traffic your content generates it’s most likely Web 2.0. This site is built using wordpress – the only blog/website platform really worth considering.

If this all still seems a bit confusing, don't get frustrated, keep reading and visiting our blog regularly. Eventually it will click, and remember, your marketing department is always available to assist you.

The Road Warrior Presentation

This is the Power Point Presentation that goes with the video below. In it you will find all the websites Shannon mentions along with visual demonstration. I will be personally investigating some, if not all of these items, they seem pretty cutting edge. I urge you all to at least pick one or two and make it a New Years resolution. Don't worry, I'm here for you!

Real Estate Road Warrior

Watch Shannon Williams-King discuss tools and tactics to make your mobile office, more mobile and more productive