6 real estate marketing trends that work!

6 Real Estate Marketing Trends that WORK!

In an overly saturated "marketing" business climate, how do you cut through the clutter and get your property in front of the buyer? There are many choices available to market real estate today, so many in fact it can be confusing. We have put together a list of six marketing trends that we have seen be successful in getting more exposure to your property. Although there are tried and true methods that have worked for years, today's marketing climate demands that we stay up with where and how people get their information. The six trends we will look at are: Mobile technology Web marketing Email marketing Social media marketing Flyers in front of house Just listed postcards Number one on our list is MOBILE TECHNOLOGY. Since over 75% of America is receiving information on some type of mobile device, this is our first pick in getting information out to the consumer about your property. For buyer's, it makes it easy to find a home that fits your needs in the location your desire. From Century 21 to Realtor.com to many hundreds of other mobile applications, there are apps tailored to the consumers needs, phone technology, and technology level. A consumer can choose the app that fits their mobile phone brand and technology platform, and that has all the bells and whistles they want to help them in their home search. For example, the Century 21 mobile app for the iPhone is a user friendly and simple application. Just open the app and the GPS will find your location and bring up a list of homes in that area. Or, you can be more specific and choose a city or zip, set your pricing and other criteria, and up pops the properties that fit your search - either in list form or on a map. Other real estate mobile apps to check out are Realtor.com, Trulia.com, and Zillow.com. Many companies are now adding applications that you can use on other Smart Phones other than just the iPhone. Why is mobile technology important and how does it work? Mobile technology simply "feeds" information from the Web to your Smartphone in various programs or applications (apps). For the consumer on the go armed with a smart phone that has a real estate app, it's as easy as pulling up in front of the home you like and with a few clicks on the phone look at photos of the interior and view the price and other important details. If you want to set an appointment to view the home, just click on a button and you can instantly be connected to the agent's phone number, or contact them via email or text. The advantage to the buyer: Immediate access to information The advantage to the seller: Information to the buyer 24/7 Number two on our list is WEB MARKETING. We all know where we go these days for information and help - and looking for a house is no exception. We go online to our favorite websites, or we go to Google or another search engine. Recent estimates say that over 84% of people looking for a home start their search online. So, your property MUST be viewable on the World Wide Web (www) if you want to reach the multitude of homebuyers! Real Estate search engines like Realtor.com and Trulia.com provide INSTANT information to the consumer, helping them make a more informed decision. In today's web marketing you also have what we call "syndication" which means the real estate search engines send out their information to other thrird party websites, increasing exposure and views of the properties. What used to be a simple weekly ad in a newspaper with a limited readership is now a real estate ad that provides information to potential millions of interested viewers 24/7! School, community, and neighborhood specifics - and much more are also included on a listing that is marketed correctly on the Web. Mix that with a REALTOR that understands the market and can act as a guide and a negotiator along the way, and you have a WIN WIN for all parties! The advantage to the buyer: Immediate access to information The advantage to the seller: Greater exposure to more people Number three is EMAIL MARKETING. If you are like 98% of the country, you are using email as a means of communication. Email marketing, just like Web marketing, broadens the potential exposure of your property. A REALTOR with an extensive network of local real estate professionals and sphere of influence (SOI) can reach potentially thousands of interested parties with a simple email "blast" announcing their new listing. It is no secret that email is a preferred method of marketing in today's world. And now with mobile technology bringing our emails to our phones, we can view these anytime, anywhere! The advantage to the buyer: Information delivered from a trusted source even BEFORE it is available anywhere else The advantage to the seller: Greater exposure to more people Number four is SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING. Facebook.com has over 500 millions users and other popular networks like Twitter.com and YouTube.com have hundreds of millions of active participants as well. Through social media, people can "connect" to savvy real estate professionals they trust and like and likewise Realtors can find qualified buyers using their social media networks. The Realtor that employs social media in their real estate marketing can expose your property to potentially thousands of interested prospects. One friend tells another that tells another and before long your property lands in the right buyer's account. It broadens the possiblities, and that's just good marketing! YouTube.com is the #2 search engine in the world next to Google.com. More and more savvy marketers are turning to YouTube to feature videos of properties that give a personal and up-close, realistic view of the house. When the time comes for you to list your home, be sure you ask your Realtor to shoot a video of the home - and if you're game, put on your camera face and join in the fun of making the video. Who knows, your video might go "viral" and get a million views! The advantage to the buyer: An on-demand review of a property from the comfort of their home The advantage to the seller: Greater exposure to more people Going back to tried and true basics, number five is FLYERS IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE. As we can see, marketing that works is marketing that gives INFORMATION on demand, when the consumer wants it. Instead of dialing a number, viewing the info on a smartphone, or emailing the agent for information, when driving around looking for homes (which is a favorite past time for many prospective homebuyers), information available at the property is a no-brainer. A box or tube with flyers that give basic facts about the house like price, number of bedrooms, and a photo of the kitchen, simply works. The advantage to the buyer: Instant gratification by providing key facts about the property when they are there looking The advantage to the seller: Providing key facts that qualifiy your property to interested prospects The last real estate marketing trend on our list is another method that has been used for years and is still successful even in this digital age. Number six is JUST LISTED POSTCARDS that announce to your neighborhood or area that your house is for sale. (Statistics show that most people moved only 12 miles away from their previous home.) When a Realtor expands that distribution to their sphere of influence (SOI), the message reaches even more real state professionals and interested parties who might be looking for what your home offers. The advantage to the buyer: They receive information on a home that is available in their selected neighborhood or area The advantage to the seller: Exposing your property to potential buyers in your direct area So that completes our list of SIX REAL ESTATE MARKETING TRENDS that are proven to provide better exposure of your property when the homebuyer wants it. Contact your CENTURY 21 Judge Fite Realtor today to find out how they plan to market your property to get the best price in the shortest amount of time! CENTURY 21 Judge Fite Company 800-451-8055 or email 411@judgefite.com.

Saleability-Marketing

MARKETING 411: Creating your own saleability

7 ways to create my own saleability or demand

One thing is for certain in today’s business climate, when there is no demand for your services, there is no business. Creating the need then becomes one of the primary focuses for any real estate agent looking for a new listing or buyer, or a loan officer needing to close a refi or mortgage deal. You simply must have a steady influx of leads and prospects. In the old days we were taught that you had to make X number of calls to have X number of appointments to make X number of dollars. Somewhat true today. But thank goodness we now have access to other methods than the telephone and are connected to the entire world through the web and social networking – our sphere has just been enlarged!

Creating a demand for your services requires a steady, clear, concise and consistent marketing plan. People are just not going to wake up one morning with the desire to call you to buy a home. There has to be a need first. Then they have to know about you, and maybe then, they will call you. Here are a few tried and true marketing pointers that if implemented and carried out will help create a demand for your services and keep your phone ringing for business…

1. Know your product(s). Your product is real estate. How can you market yourself if you don’t know what you are selling? What are the key selling points of your farm area, community, or types of homes you are selling? What competitive advantage do you offer that is superior to your competitor’s? Tell “them” something about it. Educate!

2. Target your market. What market are you going after? Who is your customer? Decide SPECIFICALLY who your target audience is, what they look like, how much money they make, where they live, what car they drive, etc. Once you know your audience then you are ready to proceed to the next step.

3. Create your database. Now that you know your product and “who” your market is, how are you going to get your message to them? Build a database of the individuals/businesses that you intend to market to. Have on-hand and access to their names, contact information. Keep this info updated and accurate. Add to it daily.

4. Create your message. Now, what are you going to say? What message are you going to give them? Who are YOU? Get organized with your marketing materials. Create a professional “identity” that will be carried across all marketing lines. Tailor your message to you, your company, and your audience.

5. Establish your budget. Not just your financial budget, but also your time budget and imagination budget. How much money can you spend and how much time can you allocate to your marketing and how much imagination do you have to put into it? Decide, create, implement and stick to it.

6. Market consistently. Go for it! Carry out your marketing plan religiously, and passionately. Don’t expect a return right away. Look at it like you are teaching a class to a remote audience, a passing parade. Keep sending out your message, educating your markets on the importance of your services and creating a demand for what you do. This is how you become “visible” in your market.

7. Diversify! If you are not diversifying your marketing, you are missing business. Don’t get stuck in one form of advertising or marketing. Hit them all!

· Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Bebo, and other social networking sites

· Your website

· Blogging

· Direct Mail

· Telephone

· Email

· One-on-one

· Sponsorships

· Industry Associations

· Presentations

· Seminars

· Master Mind calls

Marketing yourself and creating a demand for your services requires a commitment. Recognize that your goal in marketing is to simply tell people what you are doing in your business. Your growth will be in direct association with your commitment and focus on aggressive marketing strategies.

Happy Selling!

Sandy Wright, Director of Marketing

214-446-2646

SandyWright@judgefite.com

For more on real estate marketing visit the www.sandywright.wordpress.com

Marketing 411: A practical guide on using Twitter and blogging in your real estate marketing

Straight from the Marketing Director, Sandy Wright

With all the options we have to share our information online, it can be a bit confusing on where to start first. In marketing your real estate listings emails and newsletters are great and shouldn't be left out. The many web feeds available to real estate search engines are a plus, but what about the new social networking sites? Did you know that about 200 million people accessed Facebook today? Millions are tweeting on Twitter everyday and YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, following Google. It is time to incorporate social networking as part of your marketing distribution! It isn’t hard, but it will take some time. So set aside a few hours this week to get set up.

To help you get started, here is my simple “How To” on posting your listings online to the top mainstream social networking sites. But take note, you have to have your tools in order FIRST so you can rock and roll with the postings!

How to Post your Listings to the Top Social Networking (SN) Sites -Feeding your Twitter, YouTube and Facebook Content

A: Tools Needed:

1 – A great listing – or if you don’t have a listing yet, an article about your niche area

2 – MLS listing information and MLS number

3 – At least 15 beautiful photos of the listing, interior, exterior and detail

4 – Well written copy for the description, no more than 135 characters

5 – A powerful headline, something with searchable keywords in it

6 – Accounts set up for:

Twitter.com, Facebook.com, Youtube.com, LinkedIn.com, Plaxo.com, Animoto.com, Friendfeed.com, igoogle.com,
myspace.com, blogger.com, wordpress.com, Trulia.com, Addthis.com

7 – A good mail list of your contacts, SOI, clients and their email addresses

B: Feed your listing to the world of SN sites

1 – Upload your listing as usual to MLS using the well written copy for the description and the beautiful 15 photos

2 – Create an out of the box video of your listing using the 15 photos on Animoto.com

3 – Download the video and save it to you harddrive

4 – “Share” the video on Animoto with your social networking sites

5 – Upload the video to your YouTube.com page and be sure to use your well written copy describing the listing, use your headline in the title section of YouTube, “share” and/or invite your database to view the YouTube video

6 – Go to your blog account and post a blog entry of your listing, write about the listing and include details, give community, school and shopping info and a nice description of the property area, add your photos as a gallery

7 – Copy and paste your blog entry into your Trulia.com blog and upload your video, “share” with your other sites and / or email page to friends

8 – Add blog entry as an “article” on linked in, and set up your Linkedin account to “feed” your blog postings directly to your Linkedin home page

9 – Feed Facebook your blog entry using one of the property photos as the thumbnail, be sure to use your catchy headline for your “status” or “what are you doing”

10 – Tweet out on Twitter your catchy headline with a URL to your blog, YouTube or Facebook, add your database to the “find friends” and invite them to join you on Twitter

Remember, that Twitter allows no more than 140 characters, so if you have a long URL to your blog or video, get a shorter one at: www.tinyurl.com.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You can set up your SN sites to feed each other. For example: I can set up my SN sites to feed each other. So one blog posting can be “shared” to Twitter then Twitter will feed Facebook and Plaxo, etc. Also, I can share from my blogger to most all popular SN sites. Here is how I make a posting, in this order:

1. Post complete informational or entertaining article or video to blog
2. Share blog post to Twitter which feeds my Facebook and Plaxo, and all other sites via the “addthis” button on my blog. Some blogs like Trulia will have to be added individually.

I know I can make it sound easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard, it just requires you to have your tools in order and be organized with your information. Oh yea, and it requires a little bit of your focused time. But for the potential exposure, I think it is well worth it!

My motto is this:

The more you communicate with your market, the more you will thrive!