Posted by Joseph Erndt on Apr 20, 2017 in Blog, Real Estate Marketing, Southern California SEO Services
Strategic Online Marketing for Generating Real Estate Leads Traditional methods used for generations by Real Estate Agents to find buyer and seller leads are slowly being phased out. Your direct mail post cards are getting lost in the flood of junk mail consumers throw away daily. Cold calling is becoming more and more difficult as people continue to ditch their landlines in favor for cellphone and smart phones. In order to connect with customers you need to market yourself where they are most likely to see it, and that’s online. Over 90% of home buyers and sellers start their search online. That means that if you want to have a chance at capturing these leads, you need a strong, strategic online marketing plan. In this two part series we will go over the basics that will get you set up for success when getting started with online marketing. First, let’s talk about creating your online presence. Your Options for Establishing an Online Presence Content is KING when it comes to online marketing. Attract and draw in viewers by offering free content like blog articles, local news, videos, podcasts, property listings and searches, etc. You’ll need a place to house all this great content though so first you need to build a branded, personalized website. You can register a domain name for just a few dollars and host your website on a popular and easy to use platform like WordPress. You can even use a premade template made just for Real Estate Agents like “Agent Press” and customize it to fit your needs. You can also create branded social media sites that link to your main website like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. You can also create hyper-local micro sites and landing pages targeted to your niche. (More on landing pages and social media later!) Tips for a Successful Website Search engines love videos, and fresh content so make sure you have both! Fresh content can be provided by consistently posting new articles or blog posts to your website. Here is a little secret for you, WordPress allows you to write several blog posts at a time and set them to release at specific dates and times. So write content when you have time and have it automatically parcel it out on your website over a period of time. Make sure your website has an IDX property search and several places for customers to provide you with their name and contact information. Your website should be well written and free of errors, easy to navigate and uncluttered. Feature your best properties with beautiful high resolution images to make your home page more attractive. And above all, make sure there is compelling content that will keep visitors on your site longer and make them want to come back for more! Part Two of our series will cover how to drive traffic to...
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Posted by Joseph Erndt on Apr 17, 2017 in Blog, Real Estate Marketing, Southern California SEO Services
Gain Reputation and Leads by Giving Away Compelling Content To make sure your Real Estate website attracts targeted visitors and to increase your odds of obtaining their contact information, turning them into leads, you’re going to have to give something away for free. You don’t need a fancy marketing survey to tell you that people love getting free stuff! Give the public something compelling, useful and free, and they will keep coming back for more. The simplest thing you can give away on your website is knowledge and advice. Start a blog on your website and create Real Estate related posts with fun and informative topics that are useful to buyers and sellers. You can even have sponsored guest posts by mortgage lenders, inspectors or any other vendor you do business with. If you can’t think of content on your own, there are plenty of good (and cheap) freelance sites out there for you to purchase custom content for your blog or website. Make sure to enrich your blog with social media and bookmarking links that will drive even more traffic to your site. Allowing for an e-mail subscription feature will also give you access to your visitors e-mail address as well. If you have, or can purchase, some great writing skills then you might also consider creating some longer professional reports, guides or e-books that you can give away as well. In order to get this premium content, have users fill out a brief questionnaire and contact information sheet. Now you will have their contact information and a little information about their upcoming buying or selling needs. The reports, guides and e-books don’t have to be particularly long but they should be unique, high quality and error-free. Write about the current market, home staging, negotiations, or current home trends. If your website is hyper-local (devoted to a certain part of town and thereby generating lots of geographically focused leads) then you can also provide property searches and market analysis. For property searches you can allow a user to search once or twice for “free” but then eventually have the site prompt them to “register” in order to continue. For a market analysis or a personalized CMA they will provide you with more information and consent to getting their personalized report via e-mail. These options let you gather a lot of information about the client and gain permission for future contact. Remember, your goal is Gain reputation and Leads and keep people coming back to your website so that your name is top of mind when someone goes to buy or sell a...
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Posted by Joseph Erndt on Apr 15, 2017 in Blog, Real Estate Marketing, Southern California SEO Services
Now that you have a professional and very functional website full of SEO optimizing content, you need visitors. In fact, you’re going to need a ton of visitors (also called “hits”) on your website if you hope to generate a good number of leads using Strategic Online Marketing. If you have been successful in creating and updating website content then your website should start seeing a fair amount of traffic because it will be higher in the search engines people use most, like Google. You can also make your website SEO attractive by having links to other related sites and having those related sites link back to you. A fair amount of traffic is nice, but you want massive traffic, so here’s what we’re going to do: 1) Build social networking profiles on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pintrest, etc. 2) Be active, personable and informative on these social networking sites and find creative ways to link to your website without being overly pushy. 3) If you have the budget, do some pay-per-click advertising or some Facebook ads, both are very reasonably priced and the budget is highly customizable. Convert “Lookers” into “Leads” If your website is getting a ton of hits and you’re still not seeing any real leads coming in, then what you’re lacking is a thing called “conversion.” You need to convert the lookers into actual leads. You need their contact information or some way of reaching them easily. It’s not enough for people to just stop by your website and then leave quickly, you need them to stick around, click a few links and sign up for something that leads to you getting their contact information. Offer high quality content and give it away for free, make sure you make them register to receive the free information (providing you their name, e-mail and maybe even phone number or the answers to some survey questions). You will quickly build a database of leads and e-mail contacts to market to. The longer you can make a user stay on your website, the better. You do that by offering a variety of content that includes pictures and video as well as writing. Give them a reason to come back again and again. You should have several places on your website where conversion can take place. Keep the website attractive, uncluttered and fun! Free Avada WordPress Theme is the ultimate multi-purpose WordPress...
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Posted by YDW on Apr 15, 2016 in Real Estate Marketing
If part of your plans for the year 2016 as a Real Estate Marketer is to be productive, then you need to read this “Realtors Guide for 2016”. Whether you are a beginner or a professional Real Estate Marketer, you need to prepare yourself very well so that 2016 can be a fulfilling year to you. You will agree with me that the real estate industry is growing very rapidly and many people are joining the profession every day. The existing Real Estate Marketers are learning new strategies to improve their marketing, and the new ones are also making every attempt to be successful in the industry. No wonder every Real Estate Marketer’s resolution for the New Year is to be more effective. This guide will cover whatever information you need to be more effective in Real Estate Marketing in 2016. We will begin by focusing attention on local search engine optimization and its role in real estate business. The aim of every business is to rank high in search engine. I am sure you know why businesses invest their time and resources on search engine optimization. The major reason is because search engines, for example Google, Bing, and Yahoo, are the major source of traffic to websites. Not only do they bring huge traffic to your website, they bring targeted visitors who are likely to complete a task. Since you already know the importance of SEO in real estate business, the next thing to know is how to be on track to rank high in search engines. To be honest, ranking high in search engines is not an easy task, especially with numerous real estate websites competing for the first pages. However, with the right techniques, you can beat the crowd and top the search results. This big dream only comes to reality with a lot of dedication and investment. If you are conversant with the search market, you will notice that search engine optimization is a highly sought skill. There are many strategies that can help you rank your Real Estate website high in search engines. Discussed below are the white hat SEO techniques that work. Your website URL This is the beginning of SEO. It will do you a whole lot of good if you are just about to register your domain name. The name you chose for your real estate website is very important. A better name should be specific and not generic. What do I mean by “specific”? For instance, you can include your region name in the URL to make it easy for local searchers to locate your business. For example, I can select “Houstontrustedrealtors.com” instead of “trustedrealtors.com”. Assuming I have a website like this, the region name “Houston” makes it possible for searches in Houston to find my websites easily. Keyword research and competition analysis After your website URL, the next important thing is keyword research and...
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Posted by Joseph Erndt on Aug 22, 2014 in Blog, Real Estate Marketing, Southern California SEO Services
Setting yourself up as a “Local Real Estate Expert” can do wonders for your career. Offer your expertise, advice and opinions to local media. If they publish your content they will give you credit in the byline as a local expert, sometimes even linking right to your website. You can start getting a little media exposure right away by writing a press release or two about your own business and submitting them to local news outlets. If you write an excellent and relevant blog article about the local market then you can try to syndicate that article to local newspapers or websites. With any luck you can get a weekly or monthly article on a hyper-local news outlet or website (like the “Patch” websites who spotlight local business owners and industry experts). Many of these news websites and blogs are hungry for fresh content and would be happy to publish your well-written articles. If your name gets out there in front of the public often enough you could even get contacted by local TV news or radio to give your option on different matters. Consider doing a podcast or newscast using audio or video on your website as well to lend credit to the fact that you could do radio or television work. In order to get interviewed by radio or television reporters you will need to make yourself known to them. Start small with local media and try to get your name known to reporters or radio hosts by following their blogs or social media accounts. Joining your local chamber of commerce will also help you get the introductions you need. When you find someone who will listen, pitch your article idea or an idea for a reoccurring column. Make sure to give at least two weeks lead time on any story if possible and submit press releases to as many places as possible. Once you get a few pieces published you will find it easier and easier to reach the right people and get picked for interviews or articles. Here is a collection of places you can buy bitcoin online right...
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