The Mistakes: 

• They lack a strategy to gain traffic.
• They lack high impact messaging.
• They offer nothing unique as a call to action.
• They have weak content.

1. They lack a strategy to gain traffic.

Websites don’t gain traffic on their own. It is earned.
You can pay for it and you can generate it on your own.
But without a strategy to gain it, your site will fail to produce leads.

The Soluton: The best ways to drive an audience to your site.

• Compelling content. Write (or talk) about what your audience wants to learn about, and they will come. It’s like magic, but if you’re answering the questions that you know your target audience is looking for answers to, they will find you.
• YEO (You Engaging Others). Show honest interest, awareness, and interaction with your target audience. Instead of talking about you, you engage with others to learn about them. This participation is contagious and incredibly welcoming. People will notice, and want to engage more.
• Build a Tribe. Use social media to target and attract like-minded people with your content and YEO efforts. In addition to regular participation, staying on message, and on brand is key.
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization). A managed SEO strategy with a company that cares and understands your business is guaranteed to bring targeted traffic.
• Paid Ads. The data shows that the traffic is there. You can jump right in front of it when you work with a Google Ad company that cares and understands your business
• Employ a Copywriter. Content is king. Work closely with a skilled content creator that cares and understands your business to build your own SEO.

2. They lack high impact messaging.

You have just an instant to communicate a message with your visitor. Don’t blow it.

Use words and imagery that makes them understand that you can help them with their quest.
They want to know: Who are you? Can you help me? How do we begin?

The Soluton: The best ways to to create high impact messaging: 

• Use a Hero image/video that your visitor relates with.
• Use a Logo that is recognizable and memorable.
• Use a Slogan that isn’t made of Styrofoam
• Use a Call-To-Action that they actually want

3. They offer nothing unique as a call to action.

If every other real estate website out there is offering a property search, a home value request, listing alerts, or the like, then that’s your cue to offer something different. You can still have these options on your website, but don’t trot them out like you’re offering something that your visitor is looking for. They’re not.

The Solution: Offer actions that your visitor will truly appreciate. 

A few ideas:

• Get a personal tour from Greenville’s Relocation Expert.
• Take the survey. Which Greenville neighborhood is best for your family?
• “Coming Soon Listings” are your secret weapon for buying in Greenville.
• Skillful Negotiation wins home buying contracts. Learn how we do it.

4. They have weak content. Weak content repels an audience.

Examples of Weak content:

• There is very little content
• It’s outdated content
• It’s canned, and it’s being fed by a 3rd party (like keepingcurrentmatters.com)
• It’s copy/pasted from a 3rd party (like wikipedia)
• It’s not relevant to your visitors’ needs
• It’s a blog that was abandoned

Strong Content is how you attract an audience.
Strong Content is how you build understanding and trust with your audience.
Strong Content makes you look like the expert.

The Solution: Create content that satisfies the following:

Your audience is looking for answers to their questions. Anticipate and answer them.

They are looking for guidance in their real estate journey. They are the HERO, you are the GUIDE.

They are looking for someone they can trust. Educating them builds trust.

They are looking for someone who empathizes with their challenges.

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post Your Website Fails to Generate Leads Because of These 4 Mistakes appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

GC – The formula for successful blogging can be taught by Jim and his team in a short period of time. My initial expectation was that it would take several months to learn how to use the back-end tools and another few months to create compelling content that would get picked up by the search engines. BUT, it turns out that the back-end WordPress tools are very user friendly, and the training had us creating a ton of resourceful posts within a few weeks. It certainly takes discipline and dedication to consistently create new content – but it has been so worth it. The beauty of real estate blogging is that you can work on your content during your down time. You definitely get what you put into it.
4. Why do you feel focusing on a specific niche is the best approach when it comes to content marketing?
GC – Focusing on a specific niche makes you the expert in that category. It magnifies you as a specialized agent and eliminates the competition.
5. What success have you experienced for all your efforts?
GC – In the few months since we started blogging we have already generated leads that have lead to over $20,000 in commissions.
6. Once you went live, how long did it take to start seeing the strategy start to work?
GC – It took about 2 months before we started getting the phone to ring.
7. What was the best thing you learned in your development period.
GC – We learned the creating videos got us quick rankings in google. Videos also got us quick results – people really responded to them.
If you want to see what Greg and Ana have been blogging about, or if you want to learn about New Construction Homes in Southern Dade County, check out their website.
At the time of this interview they had published about 70 posts in 6 months, which works about to about 3 times a week.
They are placing on the front page for a ton of targeted keywords/phrases, and haven’t spent a dime on pay-per-click.
This is success that will stick, even if they slow their pace blogging. They have out-paced their competition, and confirmed their authority in Google.
They own the niche, and Google has rewarded them for their efforts.
If you would like to see results like Greg and Ana, drop us a line, we’ll help you make it happen for you and your niche

The post Attention REALTORS! Blogging Is STILL The Best Way To DOMINATE In The Search Engines appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

How To Improve A Webite’s Ability To Attract & Engage Sellers

Firstly, one needs to put themselves in the shoes of the seller.
♦ What are the most common concerns/questions that you have to address when you are looking to win the business of a potential seller client?
♦ What are the most common challenges that you have to overcome with sellers?
♦ What are the most common services that are expected of you by a seller?
♦ And finally, what are the most common reasons you fail to win the business of a potential seller client?
Address all of the above quickly and easily through your website and you’ll start to win seller business.

Here Are Some Expert Tips On How To Accomplish This Goal:

Represent and Showcase Your Listings in the Most Positive Light.

Dedicated Listing Pages
A well organized, and clean layout for each listing shows that you care and it gives a nice first impression for all your listings.
High Quality and Appropriate Photographs
You don’t want to end up on BadMLSPhotos.com  – If you are not (yet) a good photographer make the investment with a professional. The photos of your listings are so crucial to making a good impression. It seems like this is the most overlooked element of listings, and that is a major failure.
Comprehensive Descriptions
If you want to improve the SEO of your listings, write unique, comprehensive content/descriptions. Copy/pasting the descriptions off the MLS is a mistake. That content is strewn throughout the internet and your site’s listings will not be seen as unique to Google, and therefore ignored.
Homepage Showcase
If you want to attract sellers, you need to prove to them that their home will be seen by all traffic. Getting listings on the homepage can be done with an elegant slideshow, carousel, sidebar list/gallery, or at a minimum in a drop down from the main navbar under Listings.
Effective SEO 
You need to get your listings’ home addresses on the front page results of Google. If you are listing 123 Elm St, San Diego, CA and you are not on the front page for that search phrase, you are doing it wrong.
So how does one out perform Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, Redfin and the rest of the big dogs?
The simple answer: You need to prove to Google that you are the best authority on each dedicated home address.
Using the above: A dedicated listing page, comprehensive content/description, a direct link to the listing from the homepage, and finally, blog about it. All this unique content, with exposure on a highly indexed page (homepage), and multiple links using the listing home address virtually guarantees you a top 3 placement for any standard listing.
Video/Virtual Tours
We cover the importance of video in greater detail below, but this list would be incomplete if we failed to mention that a quality video tour of your listings will impress your potential seller as well as the house shopping buyer.
Single Property Sites
Another effective way to make your listings stand out is to dedicate a stand-alone website and URL (1234ElmStreet.com) for the property.
There are a number of competitive single property websites available, but I think that the best approach would be the following. Design a unique theme dedicated to your listings and publish them as pages on your site: (yoursite.com/1234-elm-street). Then forward the dedicated URL (1234ElmStreet.com) to the custom listing page on your site. This way you are not wasting the SEO value of your listings on single websites, but rather growing your own website’s SEO with unique listing content.

Dedicate Content To Engage Your Seller Traffic.

Blog to the Seller
Some ideas:
Questions From Your Sellers, Answered.
You are expected to have all the answers, show that you do. Strip the identity of your seller and answer it much like you’s see in a Dear Abby column.
Use Active Listings As “Teachable Moments”
Rather than just forcing listing data into your blog, use the listings you have to educate your seller audience on the importance of curb appeal, negotiating, staging, open houses, photography, new paint, elbow grease… And, as a bonus you have yet another link to the actual listing details on your site driving that SEO for the property (see above).
Seller’s Objections
Handle the challenges that you know your future sellers will present before they become a stumbling block. Think: Price reductions, Zillow, comparative values, days on market, commission, waiting on the market, you know the ones…
Success Stories
No one else is going to publish your awesome sauce. Pat yourself on the back by telling a story with a happy ending. Make sure to always link to your testimonials page.
Be Honest About The Market
People appreciate the straight talk. Discuss market conditions honestly presenting the pros and cons as often as possible
The Selling Process
Break it down step by step over many articles.
Listing appointment, contracts, MLS, advertising, the Internet, open house, offers, price changes, days on market, negotiations, contingencies, closing, post closing, moving…
You can always pin another tail on that donkey.
Home Value Improvement Tips
Every seller will want to know what they can do (or avoid) when it comes to getting more for their property.
Maintain A Gallery Of Sold Listings
Keep it simple – you are not trying to sell these listings, but rather your recent activity.
A picture, an address, a price, and the date sold.
Develop A Must Read Sellers Info Page That Includes:
Your Mission Statement
An Outline of Your Listing Marketing Strategy
An Outline of Your Strengths
Lots of Testimonials both Written and Video
Strong Calls To Action That Garner Sellers’ Attention – Hook Them!
Again, you must get into the shoes/head of your seller traffic.
When you know what your audience is looking for, it’s much easier to provide it.
What have they come to find? Answers to their questions? Services for their needs? Examples of your awesomeness?
Some ideas:
If you are going to go the Free CMA/Home Value route, make it super simple.
The more complex the experience the more you scare them away. Consider breaking the process into two simple steps.
Start with requesting the Home Address, and then (after selecting ‘continue’) ask them for contact info. And that’s it – forget all the other details, you can get those once you have made contact.
All-the-while, make sure they know that they can just pick up the phone to initiate the process.
Downloadable eBook
(idea: Collection of best seller advice/blog articles)
Offer something that they can’t just read on every other real estate site.
With a nice graphic, a killer title, and a required email box, you’ll get leads.
Set up an email subscription (feed) to your blog category for sellers (e.g. Home Selling Tips).
Making it clear to sellers that they can subscribe receive to Seller Specific content – free of all the other blog updates.
Video Video Video
A recent study claims that 73% of homeowners say they are more likely to list with a realtor doing video. I assume that they mean doing video of listings.
But, just as bad photography can only hurt the impression you make, a bad video is definitely worse than no video at all.
Either start practicing until you have skills, or hire a professional.
A great way to practice your video skills is video blogging (vlogging), video testimonials/interviews, neighborhood videos, and finally lots of listing walk-throughs. But please, do not publish without considering “is this going to hurt or help me?”

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post How To Use Your Real Estate Website and Blogging To Attract Seller Leads appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

The Cairn

This is the 6th in a series of brief blog articles inspired by Good Earth Tea® quotes.
“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
-Benjamin Franklin 1706 -1790
One of the most common questions we get from new clients is “how long will it take for my site to start to generate leads?”
The worst part about having to answer this question is that it is impossible to give a specific, scientific response to their inquiry. Who knows at what moment your site will start to generate leads?

But the best part about answering their question is the confidence we can reply with by explaining that when you are patient and dedicated, it will happen soon enough, and it will last for as long as you embrace those two qualities.
The silver bullet in online marketing is the consistency with which you participate and create. However it moves more like a lumbering freight train than the argent projectile.
In the meantime, keep hitting publish, pay attention to your traffic statistics, and stay after your target reader. They will find you!

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post How Long Before My Real Estate Blogsite Starts To Generate Leads? appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

“The Goal, as captured by Ray Lussier in 1970

This is the 5th in a series of brief blog articles inspired by Good Earth Tea® quotes.
“A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck.”
-James A Garfield 1831-1881
I played hockey as a boy and I believe the most important take away from the experience was that those who worked hardest had the best luck. Or rather, luck was nothing more than putting yourself in position for fortune more often than the others.
In front of the net you battled, and lived off the discards of the opposing goal keeper. To force a goal from there meant you needed the courage and determination (read: pluck) to stand your ground in order to be in position for the easy put-back.

It’s no stretch to claim that hard work & determination in blogging
will put you in the best position to generate the deserved lead.

The formula is simple, and for our regular readers a dead horse well flogged: 
The more you publish, the more you are spidered by the search engines for your content.
The more you are spidered, the more you appear in the search result pages.
The more you appear the more often you are chosen by those preforming the search.
The more visits to your content, the more you are read.
The more you are read, the more your audience comes to trust you as an expert.
The more you are trusted the more relationships you create.
The more relationships you have the more business you generate from your efforts.

The concept has been approached from many angles over the years
and can be browsed by the Lead Generation category.

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post How Does Real Estate Blogging Put You In A Position To Score The Best Leads? appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Photo by Chris Williamson.

Introducing guest author, and real estate blogging savant, Ardell DellaLoggia:
If you know me, you know that I consider LEAD and DEAL to be “dirty four letter words” that we should all strike from our vocabulary.
If you haven’t already done that, make it your New Year’s Resolution for 2011.
Yesterday was my 5th Anniversary of blogging. On January 14th it will be my 5th Anniversary of writing on Rain City Guide.
In that 14 day period I had already had a call from my first Blog-Client AND he had already made an offer on the property he purchased.
The offer I am talking about negotiating in my first Rain City Guide post, is my first blog client. From then until now, I have never, for one day, not had an active Blog-Client. If you have been blogging for weeks or months or years and don’t know if ANY of your clients were Blog-Clients…you are doing something wrong.

While most Blog-Clients email me, that first one called me on the phone and simply said, “I want to hire you as my Buyer’s Agent”. Stop and think about that for a minute. How many of your clients call to hire you vs. calling you because they want to see a house or because they are “interviewing several agents”?
The most effective use of blogging is it can and should become an Agent Selection Tool, so that your Blog-Clients have already chosen you to represent them before they contact you.
1) Blog-Clients tend to be at the END of the process vs a year before beginning

2) Blog-Clients contact the Agent to hire them, vs to “see a house”
3) Blog-Clients often already know which house they want to buy
While 1/3 of the people who hire me as a result of blogging are Sellers, I can’t really talk about the motivation of Sellers and Buyers at the same time in one blog post. Some of those sellers are staying in the area and buying a home with me in addition to selling their home, so let’s stick with how blogging works for buyers of homes.

Pt 1) Blog-Clients are at the END of the process

The answer as to why is pretty simple. When someone wants to SEE a house, they want someone to Open The Door. When someone wants to BUY a house, they want someone to REPRESENT them in the purchase of a home.

Pt 2) Blog-Clients contact the Agent to hire vs to “see a house”

You may have read the controversial topic of “Should you blog your Listings?” and the answer is NO. There are many reasons why the answer is no, and as I said, it’s a controversial topic. The simple truth is if you want to have people call to HIRE YOU vs SEE A HOUSE, well…pretty simple, don’t blog about houses.  Blogging is not about getting calls to “see a house”. One of my Blog-Clients put it best when he asked me this question: “ARDELL, Why do so many agents use New Technology to do OLD things?”
You need to know that “Being a Blogger” and “Having A Blog” are NOT the same thing. “Be a Blogger” and you will never be in need of a new “Lead”. “Have a Blog” and you may just be adding one more useless “make-work” activity to spend your time on.

Pt 3) Blog-Clients often already know which house they want to buy

Understand that most people who read blogs also have looked at homes ON THE INTERNET.  They already know who they want to hire (you) and they also pretty much already know which house they want to buy. Sometimes that house just sold, and that is why they are calling you to represent them.  They are not only READY to buy, they often just missed out on a home they had been “watching” without “acting upon”.
In the old days the rule was “ask for the business”.  NO MORE!  Once people call to hire you…that old rule is in the trash can. You don’t have to “ask for the business” because they are asking if you might considering taking them on as a client.
The New Rule is ASK about “the house that got away”.  Was there a house they would have bought, in the time they have been looking at property on the internet, that sold before they acted?  Key Question of the Day! What you do with that information is not always the same…and the topic of a different blog post. 🙂
Back to Blog-Client #1. I met him on Thursday, January 12, 2006. We made an offer on the property he bought on Saturday, January 14, 2006. We Opened Escrow on Monday morning January 16, 2006 and he became the owner of the house on February 24, 2006.
Many people think it takes a lot of time from starting to blog to depositing your first $9,000 check in the bank from blogging. For me that was from 1/1/2006 to 2/24/2006.
It’s not about “time”.
I want to thank Jim Cronin for asking me to guest write for The Real Estate Tomato to celebrate my 5th Anniversary of Blogging. My 5th Anniversary Post is a lot more detailed and “mature” than my original posts of Five Years ago, and that’s the side benefit of Being a Blogger. It helps you grow in all the right directions.
__
Thanks Ardell and welcome to the Vine!
Ardell is an exceptionally professional real estate agent in the Greater Seattle, WA area.
Check out her real estate blog here.
If you want to master these techniques alongside a personal trainer, contact us right away to schedule a session.

The post Why “Blog-Clients” Are Better Than “Leads” appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

You Just Need To Stick With It

Ask yourself:

1. What are you trying to accomplish with your online marketing?
2. What is your intended audience looking for?
3. What is your contribution to the internet?

1. What are you trying to accomplish with your online strategy?

Generate business is the main goal, of course.
But, the sound marketing strategy for a real estate agent is to:

• First be found.
• Second be recognized as the Best resource,
• Thirdly as the Trusted agent,
• Finally, be Remembered (saved, favorited, subscribed, and most importantly, contacted.)

A well executed real estate blogsite can help you accomplish the above more effectively than any other single online marketing effort.

The agent’s options for being found online are accomplished in 3 ways:

• Show up in the search engines,
• Deliver one’s content to your online sphere of influence (read: social network),
• Or have others ‘talking’ about you.

No longer a secret, the Search Engine exposure that you get from regular blog writing
is heralded as surprisingly effective, and certainly worth the effort.
Related: All You Ever Needed to Know About Blogging for SEO, But Were Afraid to Say So.
Related: Real Estate Blogging and the Search Engines, the News Source Theory
The trick, however, is to plan out your goals of exposure in the search engines and write to them.  What I mean is, wishful thinking and writing about whatever pops in your head as interesting is not going to help you be found for the terms that lead to generating the Right Audience.  Just because you are blogging, doesn’t mean that you are gaining ground on the success you reach for.
I have written an enormous amount on how to attract the right audience (ideal reader, target reader), and the formula is simple: Determine what is keeping your ideal reader up at night and write about that.  If you write to them, they will come.  This is a promise.
Related: How To Approach Real Estate Blogging And Ensure Your Success, Guaranteed

When it comes to delivering valuable content to your social network,
again the blogsite can’t be beat as an effective resource.
A formula to success (when it comes to doing business within a social network) is to work to fill it (the network)  full of members that appreciate you and the content that you deliver, and to find a voice and frequency that keeps them interested in you and your content.
It can be a challenge to find this harmony, so here are a few suggestions that have helped me in my quest to surround myself with ‘fans’ and deliver content that they appreciate, and most importantly, consume.  (Keep in mind that these are things that I have done, and not to be considered the rule.  The only rule I know in social media marketing is that there are none.)

1. Be yourself.  You’ll attract the audience you deserve.
2. Don’t try to please everyone; you end up pleasing no one.
3. Consider what you enjoy about the professionals you ‘follow’ and consider applying these elements to your effort.
4. Don’t over share.  There are things that we don’t need to know about you.  Curiously. those that you attract when you over share are generally not the Right Audience.
5. Be interested before you try to be interesting.  This is a pay-it-forward approach; if you show an interest, people will in turn, show an interest in you.
6. Fans vs Friends.  When possible, treat them as separate groups.  Your friends care less about your business than they show you at cocktail parties.
7. Don’t be boring (read: inane).  People click on, read, ‘like’, comment on, and share things because their interest has been piqued.

There are exceptions to all of the above, of course.  Again, these are the guidelines that I have used to build and connect with a large social sphere.

How does the blog fit into all of the above?

Easy.  Your blogging effort is always one that is based around connecting with the Right Audience; developing compelling content that rings honest and personal.  Condensing your well organized message (the blog article) into a tasty, snack-sized snippet for Facebook, Twitter and the like, will be a perfect example of delivering the Right Message to the Right Audience.
The trend of status updates and pithy nuggets shared through Twitter and Facebook is certainly a way to get your audience’s attention.  However, the effort comes up short when you consider how little Trust you can build with 140 characters.  This is where the central strategy of the blog comes in as the perfect resource to establish authority, expertise and trust.

The breakthrough to social media marketing success is finding that perfect harmony: the Right Audience receiving the Right Content, where your audience starts to share your message for you.
Understanding the needs of the Right Audience, and delivering to them what they are hungry for inspires them to pass it along.  This has become easier than ever before with Tweets, Retweets, FB Share, Google Buzz, ShareThis and the like.  They consider themselves part of a network, surrounded by others that appreciate the same sort of information that satisfies them.
Learn to feed them, and they will do the rest.
No other online marketing effort is going to satisfy this formula as well as the well maintained, and well leveraged business blog.  It begs to be the center of your online marketing strategy.  Just Tweeting, or posting to Facebook, without the support of the blog will have you coming up short in your goals for success.  The blog represents the mother ship for you to be found and to be seen as the expert you deserve.

2. What is your intended audience is looking for?

1. Listings.

Expect that everyone that you attract to your site has an interest in property currently on the market.

2. Trusted Resource

I’ve been talking with a client that is trying to work out a slogan for her new company blogsite.  “No Bullshit” came to mind, and although it made us all laugh, and was discarded for it’s profanity… it was precisely what we wanted to say.

The real estate blog is your chance to be the answers to the questions that your target audience is asking.
You know what keeps them up at night, whether it be excitement or fear… now give them piece of mind, one post at a time.
Related: The Two Most Important Things To Consider About Your Real Estate Blogsite

3. What contribution do you make to the internet?

When you Google yourself, what do you find?
You are in control (most of the time) as to what appears when people start researching you – take it seriously.
The digital age has us all expecting to find answers on any person, place or thing, so we dig until we do.  Websites, LinkedIn Profiles, Facebook accounts, Twitter streams, blogs, comments left on blogs, forum participation, news pieces, Craigslist ads… all of it appears, and is generally pretty easy to sort through.
I can learn more about you in 5 mins online than you could tell me in that same amount of time.  What am I going to find?
Are you taking the time to set the impression that you hope potential clients receive?
Will they find a whimsical effort of social participation? (read: recklessly maintained Facebook/Twitter profile)
Will they find a very outdated, online brochure of your business? (read: limited template real estate site)
Or, will they see your commitment to your clients and their needs?  Will they find a wealth of authority bundled up in a comprehensive and relevant package?  Will they see your accessibility and willingness to help, education and service?
One of the huge benefits of the well maintained real estate blog is the enormous amount of content that you generate over the years.  This content becomes the authority for which you are known, giving off the impression for which you aim.  Turning this content into bite-sized-status-update-snacks on your various professional profiles will also help maintain this impression the deeper they dig.
The bottom line is that the blog represents the best solution for being found, being seen as the trusted resource, and gives off the impression that you care about your business and people’s experience when working with you.  The rest of your online activity should simply support this effort.
If you want to master these techniques alongside a personal trainer, contact us right away to schedule a session.

The post Why The Real Estate Blogsite Needs To Be The Central Element Of Your Online Marketing Strategy. appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

1. Why Are Your Visitors On Your Website?

What brought them there, and what are they expecting?
Did they do a search on Google and find an article that you wrote?
Did they click from a link in your email signature?
Was it a Tweet? a Facebook status update? a YouTube video?
Did you tell them to go there? Did someone or something else?
You need to consider the reason and the context of every actual and potential visit.
This understanding will help you determine the 2 most important things about your online marketing strategy.
a. Am I reaching my Target Audience?
b. Are my visitors getting the experience that they came for?
The root of all significant Bounce Rates is based on this immediate experience.
If you fail to satisfy your target audience’s need, instantly, then you should consider your site a failure.
Defining your target audience is up to you, but I can help a little with the “experience that they came for”.

There are 2 reasons that most visit a real estate website:

1. Listings. Listings. Listings.
Both buyers and sellers need a place to live.
Make the ability to search for and sign up to receive new listings a huge priority in your navigation and/or clear calls to action.  This is a no-brainer… no excuses.
However, listings are not a unique commodity.  Every real estate site worth a darn has an MLS search feature.
They come for the listings but stay for the content.  Build value beyond the database.
2. Finding A Resource They Can Trust
Looking from the outside in, the real estate industry is one that often suffers a bad rap, but much like the legal industry, it doesn’t eliminate the need to for a capable consultant that buyers and sellers can count on to:
Clearly answer questions
Provide expertise
Offer savvy opinion
And make the whole experience as low stress as possible.
From a website, this can only be achieved with content, content and more content.
The content needs to be incredibly well organized and it needs to be focused on the target audience’s needs.
The same applies for the Calls To Action – You need to make it clear to your audience that you are there to satisfy their needs, and you can only do that if you are connecting with the audience that you are reaching.  More on this later.
I can’t present examples for all potential RE topics that attract an audience, so I’ll just use one.  Take for example a website that is geared to satisfy the needs of someone in need of Short Sale advice and information.

The Short Sale is not your average transaction, and requires a whole different set of skills, knowledge, experience and communication.  (Disclaimer – I have no experience with short sales, I only know what I have heard… but humor me with this example, and apply the lesson to your own niche.)
Upon their landing on the site you want to present solutions to the things that keep Short Sale Buyers and Short Sale Sellers up at night.  Anyone who has been doing short sales knows that there’s a lot of that.  You need to make it as clear as possible that you are there for their needs.
My suggestion would be to create calls to action for something like the following:
For the Buyer:
1. Search Short Sale and foreclosure listings
2. Search all available MLS listings
3. What you need to know before investing in a Short Sale.
For the Seller:
1. We’re here to help; learn about our Short Sale services.
2. Testimonials of successful Short Sales.
3. Do you qualify for a Short Sale?
With those 6 Calls To Action, you can cover the needs of almost all your short sale traffic.  Make them make a decision to dig deeper into your site, whether it be a database of listings, or articles positioning you as the expert on the niche.
From there, it is all about the quality of your content.  Once the organization of connecting effectively to your target audience is tackled, win them over with your knowledge and experience.  The more questions that you are able to answer directly and preemptively the more trust you will build.  Trust leads to contact, and contact leads to relationships.
Bottom Line: Create the experience which provides the best access to the reasons that your visitors are there.  Everything else is tertiary.
More info on the topic:
Giving Away Trade Secrets Is The Secret To A Successful Blog
How Does Blogging Actually Generate Leads?
Why Blogging Makes You A Better Realtor®
The second thing that you need to consider about your web presence is:

2. Are Your Visitors Getting Any Closer To Doing Business With You Because Of Their Experience On Your Website?

Of course if you blow the “Why are visitors on your website?” question, then this one becomes irrelevant.

Nobody is managing a real estate website or writing a real estate blog just for fun, they’re doing it to improve their business.  If it is fun, then that is because it improves their business.
Consider an inbound phone call, an opportunity to gain a client.
How do you handle the situation?
Appear professional
Have an engaging personality
Clearly answer questions
Provide the resources they seek
Gain trust
Close on opportunities
It is the Closing Opportunities that makes the whole thing work for you. In a “selling” situation (e.g., getting someone to agree to make an offer… or accept one) you have to close the deal.  Just providing all the information in a complete and easy-to-understand manner and waiting for the client to make the decision is not going to get the deal done.  When you are connecting on all points, and they trust you, it is your opportunity (read: responsibility) to BRING them to make a decision.  Walk them to the other side of the deal.
Your website can have this power as well.
Create opportunity that makes it clear to the engaged visitor that you are here to WORK WITH and FOR THEM.

Calls-To-Action that specifically explain how you can, will and are already helping them.
(Sticking with the short sale theme)
“I am here to help you with your short sale, contact me NOW.”
“Subscribe NOW to our weekly newsletter educating you on everything you need to know about short sales.”
“Subscribe NOW to receive instant updates of new short sales that hit the market in your criteria”
Everything else is just a shiny object to distract them from following through with you, for the reasons that you connected with them in the first place.
If you want to master these techniques alongside a personal trainer, contact us right away to schedule a session.

The post The 2 Most Important Things To Consider About Your Real Estate Blogsite-Website appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

I believe I have developed TMJ.
For the last month I have had frequent headaches and a persistent clicking in my right ear.  The sensation varies from an annoying pop to a painful snap.  I have been doing light research on the issue since it began, and am now really ready to find remedy.

What does this have to do with Real Estate Blogging?

Other than the fact that I can’t be the only blogger out there suffering from TMJ and any solution I find will be much appreciated, I’m sure… the following post is a documentation of how I used the internet for research, found a potential solution, and yet the source failed to engage me as a reader/subscriber/potential-client.
The mistake: Although I did find useful information on relief of TMJ, it was at the most critical moment that he failed to engage me. This mistake can be applied to any and all business blogging, hence the article.

The search for relief from the pain of TMJ:

I went to Twitter (I’m always there anyhow) and typed “TMJ” in the search.
I also chose twitter because I believe that my TMJ is a result of my extended computer usage, and wanted to find advice from others that may be experiencing this disorder from a similar cause.  Aren’t all Twitter freaks computer over-users?
Right away I found a tweet from @DrFrankKaden that said:

New gentle treatment for headaches, neck pain, vertigo, tinnitus and tmj pain: http://bit.ly/XDV7p

This linked me to a short, somewhat informative YouTube hosted video of Dr. Frank explaining the treatment’s application.  Basically, he’s recommending relieving the pressure on the top 2 verts that connect the skull to the spine.  He conveniently suggests that we visit his website for more on this treatment.
I click the link in the description sidebar on the YouTube video page and land on his homepage: http://kadenchiropractic.com/
Everything up to this point has been executed quite well, from a social media marketing standpoint.
1. Twitter post offering a solution to a challenge I have
2. Short video allowing me to watch/hear from Dr. Kaden on the topic – and a call to action to visit the (all informative) site.
Now, I’m at his homepage…and this is where it all falls apart.
The website is professional and well organized.
The website covers an enormous amount of information on his services, FAQs, wellness, rehab, etc.
The website even has clear call to action to subscribe to a newsletter on 9 general topics.
Where the experience for me goes wrong, however, is that there was nothing specific regarding the reason I was brought there.
There was no call-to-action that spoke to me, given the concerns and challenges I have.
Normally I wouldn’t be so concerned that a website I visited didn’t ‘speak’ to me, specifically (I can’t expect websites that cover general topics to be able to clearly engage every concern under their umbrella, from the homepage) but, in this case, I was led to believe that it would.
Dr. Kaden took the time to attract me because of a very specific concern: TMJ.
He tweeted and he recorded a video on the topic.
I am ready to be engaged.
I’d have signed up to receive more information on TMJ relief, recovery and rehab, had there been such a thing.  There wasn’t.  Not immediately anyhow.  Not satisfied, I used his search site feature, typed in TMJ and found 2 links;  1 dead link, and 1 marketing advertisement of the good doctor (catchy tune and all, using animoto – more props!).  The TMJ ad was actually not bad, and did create a call-to-action to contact the offices for a consultation.  But, I would have never discovered it had I not known to use his site search.
After having done so many things correctly, he missed the final element that makes it all worth it. The clear Call-To-Action that speaks to your inbound traffic.  I know not all of his traffic is suffering TMJ, but the traffic coming from the avenues that he put in place that I found are.  In order to make the most of those efforts, he needs a specific CTA connected to them, even if it means creating a separate landing page (with clear to call-to-action) for that traffic.

The lesson here is clear.

If you are going to take the time to use the tools of social media (or any effective marketing for that matter), in order for it to be worth the effort, you need to engage the traffic you generate.  If you are blogging/updating/tweeting/recording about a topic that is more specific than the umbrella itself, you need to have a call-to-action in place that speaks to the interested.
In the case of Dr. Kaden, I clicked away, and wrote this post.
Back to my search for relief.
(Dr, Kaden, if you are reading: I am sorry for picking on you.  I was just so struck with how effectively you were engaging me just to lose me at the end).

What have I learned from all the searching?

Non Serious TMJ symptoms can be relieved with
– Better desk posture; sit up straight, good lumbar support and monitors located at or above eye-level
– Massage therapy
– Chiropractic Adjustments
– Supported jaw when sleeping on one’s side
– Avoid: chewing gum, grinding teeth
Now to test it out.
If you want to master these techniques alongside a personal trainer, contact us right away to schedule a session.
—
(UPDATE: My symptoms have disappeared thanks to a couple of visits to my friend, and chiropractor Dave Worley and some changes in my desk set up: higher monitors and lumbar support)

The post Simple Marketing Tip: Engage The Audience You Create To Avoid The Headache of Lost Opportunity. appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

-John Buchan

Actually attracting real estate buyers through the act of blogging can be seen as a lot like fishing.  It’s the location of the bait, not the quality of the equipment that hooks the fish.  Knowing what to write about, at the right time, can be as rewarding as a favorite, yet little-known fishing hole.
One species of Ready-To-Act Buyer is the newly or soon to be relocated.
Knowing what questions they have and where they are finding their answers can have you standing waders deep in favorable opportunity.
New-to-towners have a ton of questions that they are using the internet to answer:
Where to stay?
Where to eat?
What activities are there to do?
What to avoid?
…and so on.
To me, the value of a local Real Estate Agent is beyond the ‘offer-to-close’ events. I see the agent as much a community consultant as a transaction consultant.  A well rounded real estate blog is a reflection of this range.
You commonly see RE bloggers detailing the amenities about their different neighborhoods, reviewing a new restaurant in town, or digging up interesting historical facts.
I’ve heard the argument that these kinds of community topic posts are a detraction from gaining the Ready-To-Act Audience that we yearn for.  I couldn’t disagree more.  As necessary as the ‘real estate consulting’ content is, it would be like cooking without seasoning to ignore the value of well aimed, and even whimsical ‘local color’ content.
The challenge with writing effective local color content is that knowing your town doesn’t always equate to knowing what blog topics make a wise investment of your time.
There are several incredibly resourceful, yet mostly untapped websites available when it comes to uncovering the “Right Now” questions of a potentially relocating audience.

1. TripAdvisor.com

This site is actually one of my least favorite travel sites online, but yet it proves to be a fountain of topics for targeted local color articles.
The reason I dislike it is exactly the reason why it is such a great resource for topics.  Every time I start searching on Google to plan a trip, this site is always in the top 10 results.  I normally look to find the Mom and Pop boutique inns, and it is sites like this one that have a strangle hold on the search results, making it difficult to find the places I would prefer to stay.

Because it has such a solid search engine presence, many people looking for answers to their travel questions find themselves relying on it for answers in the well maintained forums.
Take for example a TripAdvisor search for San Diego, CA.
There are an abundance of conversations about things to do, restaurants, night-life, where to stay, attractions, and resources.
TripAdvisor Forum San Diego
Sampling of Recent Topics:
– Snorkeling in La Jolla
– Condo to rent
– Moving to San Diego
– Dinner recommendations
I must make it clear that in any social network structure you can end up wasting valuable time by getting caught up in the social aspect of it.  You must always remember that you are looking to leverage these networks to improve your business, not detract from it.
Look at the exposure you can generate in forums such as TripAdvisor as opportunities to drive traffic to your blog, where readers will recognize that you are committed to their education and appreciate the focus of content you have built for them to enjoy (and respond to).
You are looking to expand the audience that embraces your blog as a resource, not necessarily mingle with them in the forums. The questions that you are answering in these environments are shared by many, and they will see you as the community expert.
Here’s the link for the United States Forums.

2. Google Maps

 
Search your general location at http://maps.google.com.  What you find to the left of your mapped result can yield a few gems for topics that people are most commonly searching when pulling up this same map.
A quick search of San Diego, CA reveals.
San Diego Zoo
San Diego Convention Center
Sea World
Wild Animal Park
Vons
Hotel Circle
Hotel Del Coronado
Legoland
House of Blues
Seaport Village
In addition, you can see user-created maps that reveal other topics of great interest:
Tip: Zoom in to your area, and the sidebar results can change offering more local content in relation to the map.

How can these topics reel in buyers?

It’s about covering all the bases when aiming to attract an audience interested in visiting/moving to your community.
If you are able to uncover and write about topics that are commonly sought out by people using mapping tools for your area, then you can be certain, that with the SEO power of your blog, you will be getting yourself in front of a similar audience, through the search engines.
In the above example, the topics are on the minds of people searching about San Diego.  Rather than guessing what people coming into the area are looking for answers to, now you can start fishing where they school.

3. City-Data: USA Forums by State and City

Similar to the resource that TripAdvisor has proven to be, City-Data has some pretty active forums geared to educate visitors, travelers and relocators around the USA.
Here’s the link to the main directory by state:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/#u-s-forums
Staying with the San Diego Theme, here’s a sampling of recent topics discussed on City-Data:
Single 32yr old professional moving to SD – Neighborhood Q’s
25yr old male wanting to move to SD from NY
Young family in 20’s moving to Imperial Beach. what should we know?
Cost of Living In Paradise
reloc from No VA to San Diego
I couldn’t have made up a better example of topics that should whet the appetite for any real estate agent looking for buyers, and all of these are from the last 48 hours.

4. Local Level Forums on Topix.com

Most of the content in the Topix Forum’s is built around local news stories that are hot now.  And, we all know that the media would rather report about the house on fire as opposed to the one across the street… so fair warning, this content is not always cheery.
That said, we all now know what an amazing impact a timely, local reporting article can have on your traffic count.
Here’s the link to the main directory by state:
http://www.topix.com/forum/state/list
Again, staying with the San Diego Theme, here’s a sampling of recent topics discussed on Topix:
De Anza Cove Residents Denied $48M Relocation Funds
Acting Classes For Kids
Sewage Spill Closes Large Area of Mission Bay

5. Outside.in

With a slogan like this: “Tracking news, views, and conversations in 11,860 towns and neighborhoods” you know you have got to be able to find something relevant and recent.
Outside.in is something of a combination of Topix and City-Data.  There are links and conversations about recent news topics as well as announcements and questions posted by its users.  It has not gained the traction of the above online-communities, but it has the makings of something with great potential.
Explore the USA
Explore San Diego
San Diego Discussions

6. Yahoo! Answers

Yahoo Answers is a beast, for sure.  Millions of users have asked and answered questions for years.  Digging in and finding topics that you can provide consulting for shouldn’t be too difficult.  But again, I warn you: Do not get caught up in the social aspect of participating when you should be aiming to leverage this exposure to build your business.
Travel Topics is similar to TripAdvisor:

General Travel Topic
San Diego Travel Forum
Some of the questions in here are pretty bizarre.  I’ll let you poke around.
For specific real estate topics, Yahoo! Answers is not broken up into local sections like all of the above, however with a few keywords in your search you can narrow topics to your location.
Rentals and Real Estate – General Topic
San Diego Real Estate – narrowed
Miami Real Estate – narrowed
Chicago Real Estate – narrowed
The fun element of this platform for communicating with an audience looking for answers to their real estate needs is that you are ranked based your ability to provide ‘best’ answers.  The more the community sees your responses to their questions as the most helpful, the higher you are held as an expert.

The post 6 Secret Resources for Finding Real Estate Blog Topics That Attract Buyers. appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.