Archive for January, 2008

I made a recent post at a forum I frequent called “Get Clients Now” which is an excellent book written by a wonderful lady named C.J. Hayden. Anyway, I sort of got on a personal pity party and complained that I wasn’t making enough sales with my real estate websites. So many times, you get into a support group or forum and you will say or write something and nobody answers. So, I posted a short blurb about how I was a little depressed. I could not believe how many responses that I received!!! Not only did I get a lot of responses but they were great responses! I had so much advice and insights into this business, I couldn’t believe it. well, I had to respond to these folks and I dug up some info about our economy that you may find very interesting. Here is my response:

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I really love you all. Your responses to my weak, lame post about
being depressed almost made me cry. I am sorry that I posted
something that was so chicken-*%$#&! (You fill in the blank.) I think
the reason that it takes me so long to accomplish things in life is because I put
myself on a pity-party. So, I am going to try to approach this from a
military strategic point of view, by attacking the problem and trying
to change the situation instead of letting it change me. So, I really
mean it when I say I deeply appreciate your help.

So, first of all, I would like to respond to several of you that
thought that the real estate market may be flat as well as the rest of
the economy. Here re some very recent statistics.

The source for this information is from “A marketers guide to
discretionary income”, the consumer research center”
www.conference-board.org

In November, retailers posted their greatest gains in 6 months.
Actually in 2007, both retail and wholesale revenues of U.S.
businesses were up versus 2006. Black Friday shoppers turned out in
bigger numbers and spent more than in any prior year!!! Consumer
spending is way up because more American households have more
discretionary income than ever before. From 2002 to 2007
discretionary income increased from 53 million to 73 million.

The average households extra cash this year? 24,335.00. November was
the 51st straight month of job growth. So, despite the hoopla about
all of the mortgage crisis problems and layoffs, Americans are doing
real well. If you don’t believe me, just drive across the Mexican
border in Juarez, and you will see why everyone is leaving there.
That is poverty, big time.(I used to live in El Paso and went to
Juarez a lot!!)

Anyway, Real Estate is starting to show a rebound in certain parts of
the country. I know here in Kentucky, many people from the west coast
are moving here and buying up cheaper real estate than they can get on
the West Coast. Tennessee is also going to b a hot spot. Lots of
beautiful country homes with country side surroundings.

So, I think there is still loads of money to be made selling Real
estate it s just going to move into other areas and sales people are
going to have to market themselves using methods they have been
ignoring for so long.

Anyway, I am going to save the excellent suggestions that you all
posted and I promise to not whine anymore. I just have to put my nose
to te grindstone like I have never done before.

Here is what I did this week:

1. Wrote excellent ad-copy and sent it to a bunch of Lawyers. I
decided to try to get their business as well.

2. Added more to my Website to include a forum: www.expertrealtorweb.com

3. Made 4 blog posts.

4. Posted links to my site.

5. Sent out 40 newsletters.

6. Sent out about 60 emails.

7. Did a little Networking (I gave a copy of my Newsletter to my
banker today)

Anyway, I have been marketing for awhile, but this is my first week of
actually doing the Get Clients Now schedule.

God Bless all of you that responded to me. If I can help you all at
all, please let me know.

God Bless,

Mark

www.expertrealtorweb.com
www.electricbikesnscooters.com
www.ellistrations.com

Re : Real Estate Website Problems

by Mark

In order to really maximize the effectiveness of your real estate website you need to have a few concepts under your belt. First of all, you need to have the concept of clarity in your plans. What I mean by this, is you need to know what you expect your real estate website to do for you at its inception. Do you want people to see just your listings? Do you want to back end real estate courses on investing? Perhaps you would like to make some extra money on Google Adsense.

As I look at loads of real estate websites each day I see plenty of potential for money making and client gathering activities but I do not see very many people doing so. Most of what I see on sites of this nature, especially realtor websites are clones or cookie cutter websites that everyone has. They are usually provided by the real estate company and do nothing more than show your face and then the sites proceed to take you through a series of menus and steps to find listings. Most of the sites I have seen have these options.

Here are many of the problems that I see:

Opening page: A beautiful Flash 5 page that opens with a scenic welcome page. Oh man, it just looks so beautiful! However, totally wrong. Nobody cares to see a page like that and you are making your potential clients wait. Your page needs to open to your index page immediately. Do not make a visitor to your real estate website wait while on a stupid “Welcome” page. Remember, the Internet is worse than channel surfing on TV ! A person surfing the Internet has so many options and always has a mouse clicker that they use liberally! Don’t make them wait for a second.

2. Showing all sorts of properties that the agency wants you to show. I would just show the properties that you are representing. (Unless, they are giving you a percentage of the sales) Have links to pages of your properties that open immediately. Make sure that you have loads of very, very detailed pictures of each property and that the pictures are optimized to load very fast. As I said before, you don’t want anyone to wait.

3. Drop down menus. Don’t use them unless it is absolutely necessary. My dear Lord, I have gone on loads of real estate websites and been driven mad by all of the drop down menus that are there. Just simply list the properties and link them to a page. Keep it simple, for God’s sake! Your potential client does not want to answer a million question like number of rooms, number of bathrooms, basement size, etc. They just want to see the properties listed that YOU are representing. If you make commissions from other people’s properties then list them the same way, just don’t make people go through all of those drop down menus, because they won’t!!

4. Absence of good quality pictures and videos. I know I touched on this awhile ago, but I can’t emphasize this enough! If a person can go to your site get all of the information, pictures and even see a well made video about your business, then you have a great marketing tool that can’t be beaten. However, as I mentioned, you need to make sure that they load quickly and are of the highest quality.

On my next blog post In am going to tell you about a mind blowing idea that will really get your real estate website noticed.

This is a continuation of our previous blog post on the Top 10 Methods of Acquiring Clients. Keep checking back because I will be updating it over the next week.  Our judges have spent many hours selecting which methods work the best ,so please don’t send us letters that tell us we are wrong.  We are always right…..Always… I think…

#4 Public Speaking. If you are good at public speaking you can really gain the attention of quite a few people at once. Of course, this is a barrier to most people because according to polls, people are more afraid of public speaking than of death. I love to speak in front of large crowds so I have never had this problem. One of the keys to over coming this type of problem is doing it as often as you can. The more you do something that you fear the easier it is for you to overcome your fears.

#3 Direct Mail If you do it right, and know how to write good ad copy, then you will get a lot of attention with direct mail pieces. Direct mail offers an excellent way of introducing yourself and if your letter is addressed like a personal letter instead of like a piece of commercial mail, then chances are you will get it read b the receiving party. Yep, you could say that sending out newsletters is a form of this and you would be right,

#2 Referrals Referrals are one of the best ways of making a sale. It takes you out of the cold and puts you directly into the warm zone. If people like you enough to give you someone else’s contact information, then your job of communicating a sale will be so much easier.

#1 Personal Contact Even on the Internet personal contact reigns supreme. Nothing will get you in the door faster than personally contacting someone. Now, if you have used any of the marketing methods above consistently and persistently, then actually calling on someone will be so much easier. People crave personal contact. As I stated in #10 when I was talking about the Internet, it is so easy to just click off of a page and go somewhere else. However, if you are live sitting right in front of a person, then your job will be so much easier because if you are good at sales and presenting yourself, then your chances are the greatest in this zone.

Ok, I thought we would kick off the New Year by giving you the top 10 methods that professional real estate people use to contact new clients. Actually, on this Blog post we may only make through the first 5 or so and then finish up on he next blog posting. Here are the top 10 methods for acquiring clients :

# 10 The Internet. Yep, that’s right, the Internet rates right at the bottom of the top 10 list. The reason: It is much like watching television infomercials with a channel changer in your hand, you an jump off of that site or delete an email very easily. Plus, let us not forget that you can very easily delete an email with a click of a button. Of course, this is not to say that if you utilize a strong off-line strategy and drive people to your site that you can have massive success. But usually, most people don’t use the Internet or email properly, so they get frustrated and tell themselves it won’t work.

# 9 Networking. This method requires you to really work with and stay in contact with people that you know. However, there are online groups, forums, weekly meetings, etc. that if you use them on a consistent basis, will bring in loads of business for you. Again, most real estate professionals do not use this method properly, so the results can be low.

# 8 Advertising. There are so many different factors to consider with advertising. You must determine a budget, where you will advertise, and then you need some ad copy and layout that will help pull business to you. However, as with all of the other methods mentioned in this list, you need to consider what you will do with prospective clients once they call you or respond to your ad.

#7 Promotional Events. trade shows, workshops, or even having an event at your place of business can be a great boost to your business client base. The risk here is usually the cost involved in setting up a booth, handing out brochures and other materials, plus it is difficult to track your success. Utilizing the Internet, you can put on a free Tele-seminar or you can invite a load of people to an online conference using SKYPE or Yahoo chat rooms.

#6 Publicity. Putting together a public relations package and getting the attention of the media can be a daunting task, however, it is a very good way to attract the attention of the people that you will need to do business with. If you can get a local celebrity to push you or your product, then you really will catch people’s attention very quickly.

#5 Writing. I have personally utilized this method quite a bit. Today, with the advent of the Internet, you can have Blog posts for virtually nothing other than the sweat of your brow to write them. You can have forums on the internet for free as well. Also, you can cheaply publish newsleters that are very, very effective marketing tools. Also, you can write for local magazines and promotional newspapers in your area as well as other people’s newsletters.

Stay tuned for the next blog post where we will explore the rest of the top 10 methods of acquiring clients!

You know, the problem with most people is everyone wants to be rich and successful yet nobody really wants to pay the price for success. The reason that nobody wants to pay the price for success is because most people think that the success road is boring and requires a ton of effort. Not so!!!

Before I became an expert in the field of marketing (especially in the field of marketing real estate websites) I had a business and a job that I hated and I was sure the last thing I wanted to do was keep plodding along, doing the same old junk. The reason I had such a dim view of life was because I had no compass or route to take with my business. In other words, I desperately knew what I was supposed to do, I just did not have a clue how to get there.

Well, I found one thing out, and you really need to pay attention to this to understand it. The one thing I was not doing was….Well, actually there were several things but this is the main one…..

You are Not in the Real Estate Business !!!

The main thing that I was doing wrong, was that I thought I was in the website business. I thought being the absolute best at designing websites and learning all of the new technology and all of the rest of it was all I needed to do. So, I invested money into web design books and learned as much as I could.

The problem with this strategy was that yes, I did need to learn how to actually build the sites, but that was not enough. You see, I was not in the Website business as I thought I was. I was in an entirely different business altogether and as soon as I figured out what business I was actually in it changed everything.

I was in the marketing business!!!! I don’t care what type of business you are in; carpentry, real estate, toilet cleaning, etc. Your main function is to be a marketer and as soon as you get through your brain the faster you will accelerate you sales and produce an income worthy of your chosen profession.

I  recently read the book The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas j. Stanley and one of the most revealing insights about the book was the fact that it did not matter which business a millionaire was in, (several of them were actually in the janitoial and garbage business) what mattered was how these people CONDUCTED their businesses.  It was the character and promotion of their businesses that made all of the difference in the world.

In my next posting, I will explore the avenue of how you can exploit various marketing methods and promote your real Estate business.