Last year’s post, Real Estate Marketing Ideas to Boost Your 2010 Production, has received a lot of attention in the last couple of weeks generating many phone calls and questions. Much has happened in the last year with loads of new marketing tools available and its time for an update. So here goes. This year’s list includes some tried and true favorites, as well as the latest tech and social media ideas.

2011 Real Estate Marketing Ideas

Print Marketing

1. Update business cards/stationery/marketing templates with links to your social networking sites.
2. Add QR Codes to your business cards, property flyers, newsletters and any other print material.
3. Create a neighborhood newsletter for your farm or neighborhood where you live.
4. Create business cards or postcards marketing a service or stealth website.

Listing Coordination and Marketing

1. Add to all your websites.
2. Create virtual/video tour to add to all websites.
3. Syndicate listing with use of Postlets.com (free) or similar software.
4. Enhance listing on Realtor.com with headlines, text descriptions, video, additional photos, call to action promotion.
5. Upload to Craigs List weekly.
6. Tweet with Tweetlister.com
7. Blast email your database.
8. Post on your blog.
9. Add photo album to your Facebook page.
10. Add QR codes to all print material.
11. Post a video on You Tube.

Email Marketing

1. Send high quality email birthday and anniversary cards.
2. Send weekly/monthly email newsletter.
3. Offer free online Webinar for first time buyers, tax credit, short sales, etc.
4. Email local Weekend Events tips.
5. Email local holiday events.
6. Email home maintenance tips.
7. Offer raffle or drawing with other local businesses.
8. Send local interest rate and financing news.
9. Send an invitation to your social networking profiles.
10. Ask for testimonials on your social networks.

Website/Blog

1. Use a keyword search tool and confirm your keywords and metatags are relevant.
2. Offer free IDX home search.
3. Offer free listing alerts.
4. Offer free market analysis.
5. Write about other local businesses on your blog.
6. Comment on other local blogs.
7. Create niche website or blog.
8. Add Facebook Connect to your blog.
9. Create ebook and require name and email to download.
10. Host a contest with local businesses.
11. Post to blog 2-3 times per week using relevant keywords.
12. Add links to your social networks.
13. Create and upload videos for first-time home buyers, selling a home, short sales, avoiding foreclosure.

Sphere of Influence

1. Send something of value monthly.
2. Send hand written birthday and anniversary cards.
3. Hold client appreciation event.
4. Give free pumpkins at Halloween.
5. Give pies at Thanksgiving.
6. Send Santa letters
7. Give a calendar.
8. Hold drawing to get email addresses.
9. Send monthly or quarterly market reports.
10. Call and ask for referrals quarterly.

Social Networking

1. Join Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
2. Comment on 3-5 posts daily with links to your blog or website.
3. Create Facebook page for your business with a custom Welcome page.
4. Add video testimonials to your business page.
5. Comment on local business pages.
6. Update your status daily on your Profile and Business pages.
7. Create a ‘365 Things To Do’ Facebook page with events and activities in your area.
8. Use software such as Ping.fm to post to all social networks at one time.
9. Use Twitterlocal.net to connect with local people.
10. Send birthday wishes to friends.

Networking/Education

1. Sponsor a home buyer workshop.
2. Join a local networking group.
3. Get involved in the Chamber of Commerce.
4. Join Realtor national networks.
5. Support a local charity and sponsor a fund raiser.

Short Sales/Foreclosures

1. Add pages to your website explaining shorts sales and foreclosures.
2. Offer a property search for foreclosures/short sales.
3. Offer free listing alerts for foreclosures/short sales.
4. Offer a free ‘how to avoid foreclosure’ seminar or webinar.
5. Direct mail to owners behind on their payments.
6. Offer free report – how to avoid foreclosure.
7. Offer free report – pros and cons of buying foreclosure.

Contact us today. Let’s put your real estate marketing plan together NOW and make 2011 your best year ever!!

Steve Harney was voted one of real estate’s most influential leaders in 2010 by Inman News. Because of this I wanted to share Steve’s 5 Quick Tips for January 2011:

1. Realize only the GREAT agents are going to make it.

To truly be considered a great agent, we must realize good isn’t good enough any longer. We must commit to excellent service and an exceptional experience for our buyers and sellers. It is not about fancy logos or cute slogans. It is about making sure that anything that can be done to help, is done. That commitment separates us from the pack and enables us to be certain that our current customers will easily recommend us any chance they have.

2. Realize it is the MISSION, not the money.

One of the things that definitely separate ‘good’ agents from ‘great’ agents is the belief that, if we do the right things every day, success is guaranteed. Get up early, get dressed for work and then get to work. We must have faith that by doing so, the money is guaranteed. When we have that type of belief in our business, we concentrate on our mission, not the money. We can rest easily at night because we put in a good day’s work.

3. Know how to communicate points simply and effectively.

Seth Godin put it best: “That what you tell them, they will not believe. That what they tell themselves, they ALWAYS believe.”

The sales process has changed forever. Top achievers realize that it is no longer how well we ‘sell’ our proposition. Instead, it now is about educating the consumer so they can pick the proper option for themselves and their families. If we agree that educating the consumer is the key to success, we must communicate with so much more than words today. Visual depictions (graphs, charts and tables) of the information make it much easier for the consumer to comprehend. Top real estate professionals spend hours on making sure that their four presentations (listing, buyers, price adjustment and presenting the offer) are true learning experiences. They load each presentation with great graphic examples of each and every point they make.

4. Have a ‘talking point’ every day.

People are so thirsty for good, current information on the housing market. If we are the resource of that information, we will be seen as the expert in our market. Visit the KCM Blog (www.KCMblog.com) and read it every day with your morning coffee. Share the posts when appropriate.

5. Build your listing inventory.

The first few months are crucial in determining how you will finish 2011. If you owned a shoe store, you would want it to be well stocked so that every customer could find something that fits. It is no different in real estate. Make sure your real estate ‘store’ is well stocked.

Home staging has been a buzz word in real estate for a number of years now but still is not used by many real estate agents. Does it really work? Would it be a good idea for real estate agents want to spend their own money to stage a home? This is what Realtor Joe Molnar of South Bend Indiana did.

Joe listed a home that had been on the market over a year with two different agents. The original list price was high at $237,900 and was then reduced to $220,000. The house was in good condition but was vacant.

Take a look at how the house showed when it was listed with the first two agents:

Home Before Staging

Joe listed the house for $215,000. He spent $500 for staging and furniture rental for 3 months. When you look at the photos of the house after staging you don’t even realize it is the same house.

Home After Staging

See what I mean? When you compare the before and after photos the difference is remarkable.  Staging and good photos make a BIG difference. Joe thinks his $500 investment will earn him a $6,000 commission this spring.

Would you spend $500 for a $6,000 return?

Another good example of Home Staging is HGTV’s ‘Get It Sold‘ with Sabrina Soto. Sabrina takes a home that has been on the market for awhile and stages it for an Open House. Once again the before and after is amazing!

Real estate success tips from Steve Harney, Keeping Matters Current.com. Good stuff you will want to read!!

1. Stop waiting for the cavalry to arrive. WE ARE THE CAVALRY!

The Fed has stopped purchasing mortgage-backed-securities (MBS) and the Home Buyers’ Tax Credit has expired. What should we do now? The answer is simple. We need to get back to work. Originally the end to the Fed’s purchasing of MBSs was to occur on December 31, 2009 and the Tax Credit was set to expire November 30, 2009. We petitioned the federal government and explained that they couldn’t abandon the housing market in the middle of the winter. We let them know that if they got us to the spring (our normal peak selling season) we would take it from there. They lived up to their end of the bargain. Our time to perform has arrived.

We need to show leadership right now whether we are an owner, a manager or an agent. The best comment I have ever heard on leadership was from Colin Powell:

“A leader must be the person people come to in times of crisis. When they get there, they must never see you hungry, cold, afraid or tired.”

Let’s be strong right now. How do we do this?

2. Start CREATING transactions

During the boom years of 2004-2007, we really were not in the business of creating deals. We were actually in the business of facilitating the transactions. There were even some who said we should actually take on the title “Facilitator”. That was then and this is now.

A recent Gallup poll reported that “Lower but stabilizing home prices combined with continued low mortgage interest rates have persuaded 72% of Americans that now is a ‘good time’ to buy a house.”

What might prevent these people from accomplishing their goals? FEAR!

But let us realize that fear always comes from ignorance. Fear is only the symptom. Ignorance is the disease. We have been trying to make people feel better by trying to hide the reality of the market (treating the symptom) instead of educating them to the market (treating the disease).

Once we can simply and effectively communicate the reality of the market, we can easily point out the opportunities that exist and help these people accomplish their goals. Let’s search out the people mentioned above and help them understand that the move they are considering is not only possible but in the future will be profitable.

And make sure that when these buyers do purchase that they purchase your sellers’ homes. How?

3. List the property at a COMPELLING PRICE

The sale of a home can be a very emotional time for a seller. They often have fond memories of people and events that graced their home over the years. However, when we are setting the price we must realize that emotion should play no part. The value of any item in any industry is determined by two variables: the DEMAND for the item and the SUPPLY of that item.

With the government programs aimed at bolstering prices expiring, we can be very confident that DEMAND will remain stable throughout the year at best. If anything, potentially higher mortgage interest rates could soften demand.

The SUPPLY side of the equation is much clearer. A recent Zillow.com survey shows “8% of homeowners, or about 10 million Americans, are ‘very likely’ to sell if and as local conditions improve.” Obviously, not all 10 million will come to market. But even if only one quarter does that would be 2.5 million additional homes. And recent foreclosure statistics show that between 5 and 7 million homes are eligible for foreclosure. Prices will be impacted severely when this discounted inventory begins to come to market as the year unwinds.

Help your sellers to price their houses properly now to avoid further reductions that will occur later in the year. What should YOU do to prepare for this wave of foreclosures?

4. Become comfortable with DISTRESSED PROPERTIES

More and more families are finding it very difficult if not impossible to keep up with their monthly mortgage payments. It is our duty to help these people in every way we can. We must become better informed as to the programs available to these families in order to assist them as a true real estate professional should. Get certified by taking the short sale/distressed property classes offered by your local and state associations. Then commit a portion of your weekly work schedule to assisting this rapidly growing segment.

The more neighbors we help avoid the nightmare of foreclosure (either through a modification or a short sale) the better off they and our neighborhoods will be. Vacant foreclosures are what drive down values in a community. Modifications and short sales avoid this situation.

Help our neighbors in order to save our neighborhoods.  It is a rather simple concept but it won’t be easy unless you…

5. Develop the HEART OF A TEACHER

Dave Ramsey the writer, radio personality and financial guru said: “When getting help with money, whether it is insurance, real estate or investments you should always look for someone with the heart of a teacher, not the heart of a salesman. If you find someone with the heart of a salesman, run away.”

We must stop trying to sell people and instead educate them to the best options for themselves and their families. Take the time to truly understand WHAT is happening in the current market. Then, go even deeper and discover WHY it is happening. Then, and only then, will you be able to simply and effectively explain it to your customers and clients. Until they truly understand their options, they will be afraid to move forward.

Recently I wrote a post, Adding Your Real Estate Listings To Facebook, which received a lot of attention.  I thought you might want to take a look at the new Vflyer application for Facebook to market your listings.  Of course, you have to have a Vflyer account. If you carry one or two listings, Vflyer is free. For larger inventories, monthly fees can run anywhere from $12.95 to $79.95.

Vflyer has it all over some of the other Facebook listing applications for many reasons:

• Your contact info is prominently displayed at the top of the page
• The listing information displayed is the Internet flyer you created with links to your information
• The application can be installed on both your profile and your fan pages

Here is the Vflyer’s real estate listing application on Leigh Brown’s page, Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate.

Here are instructions for adding the Vflyer application to Facebook.

I also like the Internet flyers you can create with Vflyer. It offers many unique features:

• It contains a slide show and a link to your real estate website on the first page of a multi-page flyer.
• You can include an unlimited amount of links to your other online real estate marketing tools.
• It includes a nice map.
• And offers marketing for your other listings.

Interested in Vflyer, but don’t have the time to fool with it? As your real estate virtual assistant, I’m glad to help. Simply give me a call, 757.271.6047 or send me an email to get started.

My friend and Realtor Margaret Rome, ePro of Baltimore MD is featured in the ‘Masters Series’ of the latest Realtor Magazine. In this video, Margaret her secrets for creating a successful open house:

Congratulations Margaret on your successful career and creative marketing!

Much of your real estate marketing in the last 18 months as probably been directed towards first-time home buyers. The home buyer tax credit is due to expire in just 8 days. The end of free government money will most likely make this segment of the population less motivated to buy real estate. This begs the question, “Who do you focus your real estate marketing on next?”

For the last two years, the Marketing Executive Networking Group has polled its members to learn about the issues on the minds of top marketers. Both surveys included questions about the “most important marketing segment.” Both times Boomers topped the list. Higher than Women or Hispanics/Latinos.

Boomer Project founder/president Matt Thornhill lists 10 reasons to examine the opportunities of targeting boomers in your 2010 marketing plan:

1. You will build your career and legacy on their backs
2. They buy things. Lots of things
3. They try new things
4. They are easy to reach
5. They think they are in the middle of Middle Age
6. They use the Internet
7. They have grandkids
8. They are control freaks
9. They like advertising
10. They are the future

Be sure to read Matt Thornhill’s complete article when considering to include Boomers in your real estate marketing plan.

As you know from previous posts, your real estate virtual assistant is taking a social media with Social Media Magic.  Today I want to share with you how to strategically optimize your LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn is a network of over 55 million professionals who are interested in exchanging information, ideas and opportunities. It is a ‘place to find and be found.’ You can find people who will be helpful in building your business. And you can be found by people needing your real estate services.

Your profile is your online business card. It is the first glimpse of who you are. It is a showcase of your experience and expertise. And it needs to be strategically optimized for people to be able to find you. There are 2 reasons to optimize your profile. One is for the computer and one is for people. Optimization of the computer includes the strategic use of keywords. People don’t search for you by your name but by the services you provide or the company you are affiliated with. You also want people to look at your profile and think, “Wow, this is a person I need to do business with.”

Prior to optimizing my profile, if I searched ‘real estate virtual assistant’, I showed up on page 3 of the results. After optimization, I show up as #2 on the first page. Certainly, a better place to be if I want someone to find me. Let’s look at the elements of a profile and how to best make them work for you.

Read the rest of this entry »