REBlogworld was a well-organized and successful event. I enjoyed participating, networking and the learning and sharing of ideas. Kudos to Todd Carpenter and Jason Berman for all their hard work and to all the speakers and attendees for being on the leading edge of the RE.net.
Here's a recap of some of the sessions I attended/participated in at REBlogworld on Friday, September 19, 2008.
Mariana Wagner - From Click to Close. Mariana covered 10 major points of conversion using and expanding on a traditional sales cycle adjusted for
- Find - Potential clients will find you online due to your SEO; Pay Per Clicks/Adwords; adding your blog to directories; joining various online communities and offline marketing strategies
- Click - Increase your click through rate with compelling content; enticing headlines/titles; relevant keywords that the consumer is searching for; long tail posts
- Stick - Powerful calls to action, compelling content, ease of navigation and interior links can help your stickability - having a visitor stay on your site longer
- Inquire -To get visitors to contact you or register for your home search, place properly worded calls to action in key areas on your blog. Use graphical buttons on a prominent area above the fold (front page area visible on the screen). Top 3 ideas: Search Homes for Sale in ____ ; Find Out How Much your Home is Worth in Today's Market; Get our Exclusive Weekly "Best Buy" Homes/Foreclosure List. Put your call to action links in the body of the post when it makes sense or at the end of the blog post.
- Contact - Find and build rapport as soon as possible. Add and offer value through your blog content.
- Appointment - stay in their mind; get permission; use your targeted blog post informative content in your drip email campaigns; create a sense of urgency to take action; remain helpful
- Agreement - Use your blog to subtly promote yourself and address their concerns. Be the expert.
- Contract - Continue to educate through the process.
- Close - Reinforce the process with blog posts. Keep yourself educated.
- Referral - Involve your clients in your blog - record and post testimonials; interview your clients - promote their business or favorite charity for example.
Dan Green of The Mortgage Reports shared some excellent advice on the design and aesthetics of your blog, among them:
- Put your most important info above the fold (the area visible on your screen when you go to a website or blog
- Your contact information must be clearly visible
- Dan uses a triangle format on his blog and in his posts that follows the normal eye pattern of someone visiting the site (the header; a graphic adjacent to a call to action (his "Work with Dan" area)
- Include an email subscription widget - many people still don't understand or use RSS feeds
Dave Smith and Rich Jacobson debated the benefits of Active Rain vs. Wordpress:
- Rich outlined the benefits of Active Rain and some of the newer features like Outside Blogs, changes in Localism.com which will be opening to the public soon to be part of the community
- Loved Dave's comment about every post is a "line in the water" - another opportunity to attract a potential reader, client
- Write about local events and happenings in our community - make sure to use keywords in the title and post. You'll be amazed at how you will come up in the search engines sometimes more prominently then the actual event organizer or site. (Especially when you use the SEO power of Active Rain)
