Jan O'Brien - Real Estate Coach

Steps for Internet and eMarketing Success

A succesful eMarketing strategy must have:

• Compelling reason(s) for prospect to contact you over other agents
• Benefits for prospect
• Specific offers, reports
• Calls to action
• Lead capture ability
• Measuring & Tracking capability

Steps for Internet  & eMarketing Success

1.    Create & Maintain a great “Destination” Website

• Customer-Centric not Agent-Centric - "Image style branding is out"
• People don’t want to be sold, they want to be helped and get information
  • Internet = access, information, instant
  • Offer what the consumer wants
    • Easy & accessible Search for listings (IDX)
    • Photos & virtual tours
    • Reports, local market data
    • Neighborhood, community, school information
    • Foreclosure, short sale, loan modification information
• Compelling content - in addition to the list above, consider
  • Buyer/Seller process & tips
  • Relocation info, guides
  • Testimonials
  • Your niche, target markets, specialties
• A Good domain name (Consider keyword terms vs. your name)

2.    Effective Lead Generation & Lead Capture

• Calls to Action that lead to capturing prospect info

• IDX search – allow access to a point and then a sign-up form
• Property Watch – email alerts – allows the consumer to receive the listing information they want when it becomes available
• Free, compelling reports – consumer completes a contact form to receive the report or offer
• Home Market Valuation

• Offline Marketing Plan

• Energize Your Database to Search for Homes - Import or add your SOI, past client database and send them a VIP welcome letter with a strong Call to Action - "Search over 30,000 Las Vegas Properties for Sale!"
• Add contacts daily – use your website to close prospects for their information and set them up as A VIP on your site for full access
  • Open House prospects; Ad & Sign Calls
• Change Your Voice Mail message to include a CTA to visit your site and Search homes for sale
• Add compelling call to action on everything:

• Business cards
• Letterhead
• Marketing Flyers
• Email signature
• Postcards
• Print advertising
• Car signs
• Yard & Open House sign

• Online Marketing Plan
  
  
  • Direct
    • Build your FREE Profile on (recommended):
      
      • Realtor.com
      • Trulia.com
      • Zillow.com
      • ActiveRain.com
      • LinkedIn.com
      • Facebook.com
        
        And if you are into it...  
      • MySpace.com 
      • YouTube.com – for video tours and consumer videos 
      • Twitter.com – micro-blogging

• Paid Advertising on other websites
  • Realtor.com
    Trulia Pro
    Zillow
    Local online magazine & newspapers
    Your niche market
• Strategic Linking
  • Comment on blogs (you can add a link back to your website)
  • Business vendors, partners

• Search Engines
  
  
  • Optimizing your website and pages for search engines
    • Title tags
    • Keywords & Description
    • Keyword research Tools
  • Write quality content that matches your selected keywords
  • Submit Your site to directories and search engines
  • Consider adding a blog to maximize SEO
  • Pay Per Click – Paid Advertising
    • Google Ad Words

3.    Converting the Lead (From Click to Close)

• Connect
  • Immediate response (less than 20 mins) increases your chances of converting that lead – text and email alerts for leads
  • Initial welcome (VIP) letter
• Cultivate
  • Automated, drip email campaigns
  • CTAs in the email (Search properties now!)
  • Phone calls = qualify, build rapport
• Close
  • Use the visitor search profile information
  • Refine searches – use property watch
  • Close for appointments  
• Build Referrals 
  • Client for life email campaigns – Ask for referral CTA
    • eNewsletters
    • Holiday letters
    • Market condition reports

P.S. - Remember, it's a process!  Set aside time each week to improve your overall website and emarketing solution for your business.  Find the balance bewteen working IN your business and ON Your Business!!

6 Fundamentals of Marketing

Jean Jones of ProspectsPlus  recently gave an excellent presentation to our real estate office on the fundamentals of marketing and how to use the marketing and lead generation materials available from ProspectsPlus.  I encourage you to check out the cost effective and wide variety of marketing materials, personal brochures, postcards and more.  Contact Jean Jones directly for more information at 623-544-1205 or email:jjjjones99@aol.com.

Here are the six fundamentals of marketing Jean shared with our office:

1. Budget.  Every business needs a budget and a method to track your expenses and return on investment.  See my post on the Real Estate Business Plan to download supporting forms and budgets.  A good rule of thumb is to invest 10% of your gross revenue back into your marketing budget.
2. Consistency.  The 3-7-27 law of prospecting states it takes 3 contacts for someone to recognize your name; 7 contacts for them to associate your name with your business; and 27 contacts for them to feel comfortable doing business with you.
3. Work High Priority Activities.  Identify what your high value and priority activities are, schedule them and just do it!  In sales, your key results areas include: Prospecting, Trust & Rapport Building, Identifying Needs, Presenting Persuasively,  Answering Objections, Closing the Sale and Getting Referrals.
4. Specialize. To compete and win, consider being the best in the world at one thing.  What is your target market, niche or specialty?Understand the demographics within the geographic area.
5. Psychographics.  To further target your efforts, you've got to determine not only who buys (or will buy), but what makes them want to buy or sell and with you. Psychographic variables are any attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles.
6. Data-Mine.  A high percentage of properties sell to someone who currently lives within 10 miles and has lived in the area for at least 5 years.  Are you leveraging the power of data-mining through the use of just listed and just sold postcards, door-to-door canvassing, calling, and farming?

Real Estate Farming - How to Increase Your Listing Inventory

In the real estate business, there are several types of "farms."  The geographic farm (prospecting specific neighborhoods or subdivisions) is the most common. Other farms might include:

• Professional (teachers, attorneys, nurses, doctors - maybe from a related previous career)
• Apartments and tenant occupied residential properties
• Out-of-state owners
• Your last name (I could farm all property owners with the last name O'Brien, O'Brian, O'Bryan for example.)
• Cultural group

Real Estate Farming is analogous to agricultural farming.  The "farmer" must analyze the land; prepare and fertilize it; sow the seeds, water, weed and nurture the garden; then harvest the crop when it is ready.  In my experience, farming only works if you are committed to it long term.  Many agents decide to farm without properly analyzing and preparing for it.  They mail something out to a neighborhood only to quit 3 to 4 months later because it didn't produce results quick enough. 

Like all types of prospecting - farming takes perseverance, consistency and adequate contacts to succeed.  If you farm effectively and leverage your success with other prospecting activities you can increase your listing inventory and generate more buyer leads.  The following action steps are part of our real estate coaching  program for essential business systems.

Deciding Where to Farm

• Your farm should be located in the same Zip Code (Min 150 pieces per zip code) to take advantage of the best bulk mail rates.
• 500-750 homes is optimal to start.  Your budget will determine the total number of homes you mail to monthly) .
• Turnover ratio should be a minimum of 12 to 15% (total # of homes in the subdivision divided by the # of closings in one year = turnover %).
• Research MLS to ensure another agent doesn’t have more than 20% market share.  In Las Vegas we don't have protected farm areas, it's just smart to know who, if anyone, is your competition.
• Gather the following statistics for your designated geographic farm:

• Subdivision Name(s)/Number(s)
• Total Number of Homes
• Total Sales in Previous Year
• Turnover Ratio
• Total Sales YTD
• Models and sqft range
• Benefits, ammenities and features of the neighborhood

• Contact your local Title Company for assistance with a farm packet.  You should be able to get detailed reports and your farm in an electronic format.  This will allow you to import the data into your contact management system for mail merging letters, mailing labels or addressing envelopes.
• Use Salestraq Archive feature to get floor plans of all models if available.
• Preview available inventory in the farm.  Get to know the features and benefits of all the models.

What to mail or email:

• Every other month prepare a neighborhood market update - this is the information the homeowner wants to know - the current value of the homes.  Include availables, pending and contingent and recent solds.  You could also include other stats like average days on market, average price per sq ft. 
• On the other months - mail information about your marketing plan.  Why should the homeowner choose you when it's time to sell their home?  You could highlight one or two key reasons that set you apart from the competition every other month.  What is your Unique Value  or Selling Proposition?
• Keep it simple and easy to read.  Use a template for the market update and make sure to brand it with your  photo and other information.  Here's a sample template:   NeighborhoodUpdate.dot

Leveraging for Success.  The following activities will assist you in leveraging your farming success.  The goal is to become the trusted neighborhood expert.

• Use personalized Yard Signs.
• Hold Open Houses in your farm.  Use personalized open house signs.
• Mail Just Listed/Solds every time you take anew listing and sell one in your farm.
• Call Your Farm or Knock 30-50 doors when you list and again when you sell a property.
• Visit the neighborhood, knock doors or door drop your market update.
• Consider  Community Activities
  • Sponsor garage sales
  • Help Establish a neighborhood watch
• Seasonal/Holiday activities or items (flags on 4th of July; pumpkins at Halloween are classics)

Systemize it!

The final step to creating a successful Farming System is to actually schedule the day or week of the month that you are committed to getting the mailers out.  The other key step is to have your template or newsletter set up in advance.  Take the time to design and finalize your mailers for the entire year, then just schedule them on a monthly basis.  If you follow this advice, the only additional task every other month is to put together the current market stats.

Next up:  Taking farming to the next level with Blogs and Social Networks.

More posts for Real Estate Business Systems

7 Action Steps to Creating Your SOI/Past Client Referral System

There are 3 basic reasons why many agents fail to conquer the most important real estate system to implement – your Sphere of Influence (SOI) and Past Client Referral System.

1. They never decide on a contact management or software solution.
2. If they have a solution, they don’t enter the contacts, sort and categorize them.
3. They over-analyze or never decide what to do or send out each month – thus, ultimately doing nothing for months on end.

So, let’s break it down step-by-step, get this critical system in place and generating business and referrals immediately.  The key to implementing this system is to commit to the process and set a deadline to complete each action step, one at a time. 

Action Step 1 - Create your list of past clients and sphere of influence. 

If you have started a list or have it scattered in 2 or 3 places (MLXchange, Outlook, other email program, scraps of paper, transaction folders, etc) get it all together in one place.  Make sure you have all the vital information on your contacts – names, address, emails, phone numbers, IM names or other social networking contact info.  Set a deadline to accomplish this task. 

Try these two tools to help you with creating or adding to your SOI list:

1. DiscoverYourSphere.pdf

2. DoYouKnow.pdf

Action Step 2 - Decide on a contact management /real estate transaction system. 

You can choose a program like Outlook to get started and always upgrade to a more comprehensive, real estate-specific program.  The important thing is to choose something and just get started!  Here are four possible solutions for you to consider:

Microsoft Outlook

• Get the full version of Outlook –  (not Outlook Express which generally comes with your computer).  It is usually bundled with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Publisher, Powerpoint, Access – in various packages)and is available as a stand-alone product for about $110 or Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager ($150).
• Business Contact Manager - Free download/add-on is available at Microsoft for licensed users of Outlook 2003, Small Business or Office Professional editions.

REST – Real Estate Success Tracker  (www.GetRESTnow.com )  ($399 for single user license)

• REST is my personal recommendation.  In my opinion, REST is the best real estate software on the market.  Easy to use, more intuitive, not as complicated as many programs.
• Single and multi-user options available.  You install REST on your desktop/laptop but you can also remotely access from your PDA or another computer.

Top Producer

• There are a variety of extras and add=ons with Top Producer and price points.
• I find many agents have this program and are not using it to its full potential - only the contact management portion.

Research the solutions (there are others out there) and make a decision.  Set a deadline for purchase, installation and familiarization/training.

Action Step 3 - Input all contact information into selected program. 

Set aside a few hours and get this task done!  If you aren’t going to get to this task any time soon - hire someone to get this job done for you.  Computer-savvy people (teenagers, family members, your colleagues’ family members, agents in your office, local high school or community college students) are everywhere – find someone and hire them for this project.   Set a realistic deadline to accomplish this action step.

Action Step 4 - Sort and categorize your database. 

Optimally, complete this step simultaneously with the data entry of Step 3.  I recommend using the technique taught by Brian Buffini to sort your database:

• A+ Multiple transactions or multiple referrals
• A    Referred at least one client
• B     Haven’t referred yet – probably will when you remind them/show them how
• C     You know them/just met them – haven’t sold them a home yet
• D    Delete - Not going to mail to them

You can also group your database by other specific categories or contact types (sellers, buyers, farm, past clients, newsletter, prospects, vendors, B2B, etc).

Action Step 5 - Create an Introduction or Reconnect letter with a deadline to mail out.

• Here is a sample letter: Download ConfessionLetter.doc - Brian Buffini calls it a “confession” letter.

• If you are a New Agent, ask your broker for an endorsement letter from your Broker – company.  The concept here is the SOI member knows that the agent is new and may not have a high level of confidence in their ability or experience yet.   The letter reassures the potential client that not only do you get the agent but a teamof professionals and support staff.

• The letter should outline what the recipient can expect from this point forward; what services you provide; your client appreciation program; local market updates; annual market analysis of their property; business to business resources to name some posibilities.

Bonus Action Step:  Call the people in your database and ask this qualifying and sorting question (Mayor Campaign from Brian Buffini program):

“Oh by the way, if you were buying or selling a home or had a friend or family member who was, am I the Realtor you would refer them to?”

This one extra step will help you immediately sort your database and the major side benefit…you will more than likely generate business either directly or by referral from the activity of all the calls you make.

Action Step 6 - Decide on what you are going to mail or email each month. 

This is the step many agents get stuck on.  They can’t decide on what to send or procrastinate about it or waste time creating their own newsletter or mailout.  Here are some suggestions to get you started.  Just pick one and do it.  You can always modify and refine later.

• Current Market Data.  Most local Title Companies provide excellent market condition reports.  This is the information people are most interested in – what is happening in your local market.  Be the provider of that information!

Where to find - Las Vegas Real Estate Market information:

• Members of GLVAR can access a monthly Consumer Newsletter to email to your SOI, a myriad of graphs and current market data at www.LasVegasRealtor.com
• Nevada Title produces a monthly Market Condition Report with commentary and other excellent market reports and data.  
• www.Salestraq.com - Fast Facts is an e-newsletter about the new and existing home market. $25/month.  Contact Larry Murphy, 702-255-7891, larry@salestraq.com
• www.HomeBuildersResearch.com - Monthly Market overview. $18/month.  Contact Dennis Smith, 702-645-4200, hbr1@cox.net
• UNLV - Center for Business and Research presents the quarterly Las Vegas Housing Market Conditions for $25/year.

• Brian Buffini program www.buffiniandcompany.com/.  I am a huge fan of Brian Buffini, his company and referral system.  Sign up for their Lead Generation system and receive a box in the mail every month that contains an “Item of Value” to mail out to 100 clients; 50 personal note cards and more.  The coaching program is also excellent.  One of my first business and leadership coaches was Mark McHale of Buffini and Company.  His guidance and coaching was instrumental to me as a real estate broker and manager.  Go to a Turning Point Retreat and experience Brian and the system for yourself – you won’t regret it!
• I have put together an Agent Marketing Resource guide to get you started on researching other available options for content. 

  Download agent_marketing_companies.pdf

Action Step 7 – Systemize it! 

This is the final step and a key to the overall success of the system.  It simply means deciding on a day or week of the month that you will actually prepare and send out your monthly mailer or email.  Schedule it.  Place it on a visible calendar and make it happen.  Hire someone to get this task complete for you if you don’t want to do it yourself.

More posts in the  Real Estate Business Systems Series

Making Money with Effective Open Houses

Open Houses...You either love 'em or you hate 'em.  And depending on your attitude as a real estate agent - they either work for you or they don't. 

In my experience, open houses are the single, easiest, most cost effective way to make money in the real estate business.

Let's consider the benefits:

• Marketing exposure for your sellers and your active, saleable listing inventory.  There have been offers written and accepted on the actuall property an agent is holding open!
• Opportunity to meet and work with buyers and sellers and make additional sales.
• The real investment is your time!  Open houses can be the most cost effective prospecting activity if done properly.
• Worst case scenario - if no one shows up - you can catch up on admin tasks, follow-up calls, mailers and other "busy" work at the open house.  Preparation and planning is required! 

Attitude is Everything!
o Know  that the open house is going to be productive
o Plan, Prepare and Know the Property and the Market
o Ask, Believe, Receive!

Selecting the property
o Location (choose a listing that has great traffic; cross streets)
o Condition, price, terms (How does the property show? Is it priced to sell?)
o Your own listings – leverage success through

• Invest in Personalized Yard and Open House Signs
• Hold open houses on listings in your farm areas

o Research office/company listings and coordinate with the listing agent to hold them open
o Vacant vs. Occupied properties
o Open houses work any day of the week!!

Real Estate Agent Tips - Marketing Your Listings Online

There are a ton of online services and tools available to post your listings and gain additional exposure for your sellers, generate new leads, promote your services and even sell some homes! 

I've been compiling a list of these resources since last year. 

Let me know if you have more to add and I'll keep the Online Resource Guide updated and posted.

Download marketing_your_listings_online.pdf

Online Listing Services:

• http://www.vflyer.com/main/Guest.jsp
• http://www.zillow.com/learnmore/WhyUseZillowAgents.htm
• http://www.trulia.com/brokers/
• http://www.wannanetwork.com/
• http://www.propsmart.com/
• http://www.mlsonline.com/
• http://www.intlistings.com/

Classified Ad Sites and Resources:

• http://craigslist.org/
• http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/two-easy-steps-towards-mastering-craiglist/
• http://www.oodle.com/
• http://base.google.com/
• http://google.com/realestatetools
• http://realestate.yahoo.com/
• http://www.vast.com/
• http://www.postlets.com/home.php

THE Key to Real Estate Success...Always be Prospecting!

A majority of your time in this business will be spent prospecting...that is if your goal is to succeed.  ABP (Always be Prospecting) It is the most basic, critical element of success. It is imperative you develop and follow a plan. Build your plan around annual, monthly, weekly and daily prospecting activities. Demand of yourself a weekly minimum number of prospecting contacts. If you are new to the real estate business, 90-95% of your time should be spent asking for business. Do not let pending contracts or any other activity take you out of the business of prospecting every day. Prioritize your prospects, track your results and maintain a simple follow up plan. No other task in the real estate business can be performed until you have a person who is ready, willing, and able to buy or sell.

Regardless of what prospecting method you use, the goal is the same!  The main objective is to establish rapport, put the client at ease, minimize their perception of the threat you represent and always direct your dialogue towards their needs. Your goal is to turn a prospective lead into an appointment with a motivated buyer or seller.

When qualifying a prospect you must ask a lot of questions to help you determine their needs and whether pursuing them is the best use of your time.  Remember:  Questions Attract...Statements Repel. Listen carefully to the answers, take notes and show concern and a willingness to help solve any problems or needs that you uncover.  The answers you receive are not only the client’s needs, but also tell you what methods to use to meet those needs.  These answers will also help you personalize your proposal to secure the client.

You may get objections. Do not be afraid. Objections are a good thing. Objections are simply another form of a question or concern or an indication that you have not totally gained their total rapport. It can simply mean a prospect has not made a decision. Always remember, for every no you are one step closer to a yes. When you have determined that the client is motivated to make a move in the foreseeable future, close.