Jim Lillig's Real Estate Marketing Web Tips

Recently, I wrote a post at my marketing tactics blog on how travel companies can use The FLIP (a small easy to use and transfer files to the Internet video player) to drive User Generated Content (UGC) and use that to get friends and family involved with the travel companies brand.  Here's how agents can close more sales using video online.

I got to thinking about social marketing real for estate agents and how they could easily benefit from having a FLIP player.  How real estate agents can use video is really up to your own personality, but as you shall see, you are not the star of the video, your client and the homes are.

Here's how I see the Flip being used for real estate video marketing.  When you take clients through a home, give them your Flip player and let them shoot some video for themselves.  Encourage them to record the areas they like and can picture themselves and their family in them.  Once the walk through is finished the agent asks for the Flip back, the agent can upload the video very easily to the potential buyer via email or through YouTube or any other social network video sharing site.  They can even put it on their website and send buyers links in email, text messages or Twitters to their site to view it.

The key factor here is that now the potential buyer has personalized what they like and don't like.  This makes a connection for the agent that is missing once the buyer goes home to think and discuss their choices.  Better than a pre-produced walk through video, this is "keeping it real" in real estate agent marketing.

There are several other benefits to this online marketing tip for real estate agents as well.  As buying a house is often a decision that may take into account several immediate family and extended family members' opinions (as well as friends - read: more potential clients), the ability to send to a friend easily (email pass along), as well as being able to send links to the videos can help make the decision for a home that you are showing them.

The Flip makes this all very simple and user friendly.  Once you plug in the attached USB flip out (thus the name) the machine does the rest.  You can't really edit the video all that much with the included software, except shorten the beginning and the end.  It does however record in .avi mode, so if you have a Mac or are handy with the video editing, it is your dream machine. 

If you are so inclined, you may want to add in a simple pre-roll and post-roll branding for yourself.  This can be as simple as a title screen with your name, picture, phone and email information displayed.  If you are really inclined, you can add in a stock intro of yourself speaking directly to the buyers or a custom one highlighting the homes you have looked at in a day or a weekend.  Remember, using this method will help potential buyers sort out a day of multiple home tours or open houses much better, and you can be the cause of it.

Being unique and going that extra mile, can make the difference between making the sale or not making the sale.  When a solution this simple is in your reach, you should at least attempt it.  The worst that could happen is your clients think your are one hooked up agent.

MARKETING TIP FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS:  Using YouTube or any other video file sharing service over the Internet will expose your video to 1000's of people who type in keywords looking for specific video.  Please do not place anything on YouTube that you would not want the world seeing. 

Having said that, if you use YouTube, Viddler or any other service out there (heck, use them all, TubeMogul will upload to 120 of them) you can very tightly target your keywords and description as well as provide a link to the listing on your website or to your page to contact you. 

Make sure you use the town name (and surrounding town names but use the term "area" with the keyword to differentiate that the main town without the "area" is the town the property is actually in), the area's name, the neighborhood name, the zip codes of surrounding towns, state, school district, home attributes (i.e. 2BR and 2 bedroom, fireplace, basement, etc.) and any other deep search keywords in the listing.  The keywords are what the potential buyer will type in, so think like a potential buyer and what they might search on, then use that.  The video now can be searched by anyone looking for those keywords in Google or any other search engine.  Tagging the video is very important.

The key takeaways are:

- you get a piece of reality TV that you had to do very little for that can now be a marketing piece for you, 

- it took very little effort,

- help buyers make better choices and engage them in a new and refreshing way.

As always, I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Jim Lillig

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Think buying ads on one of the web's top properties is complicated?  Up until now it has been.  MSNBC.com, ranked by Alexa the #6 most visited site on the web is allowing local real estate agents, home builders and lending specialists reach local customers through their innovative new program.

For those of you who are new to "display" advertising on the web, this means displaying a banner or button on a webite that you hope someone clicks on.  With AdReady from MSNBC.com, they have already made the creatives, you simply drop in the text, phone, pic (of you or a listing), background color and website address you want to go on there and voila you are done.

MSNBC then displays your ad (in this case a small rectangle) to only visitors to the site that are from the geographic area you want.  So if you are serving the San Diego area, only those people coming to MSNBC's properties from the San Diego zip codes you specify will see your ad.  Totally targeted!

It's cheap too, you can now launch banner campaigns on the news site for as little as $50.  It is fast and easy to create several different size banners as well as customize them through their easy to use interface.  When a potential customer sees your ad, they will definitely believe you are the "big dog" in town for real estate since you are on one of the top sites in the world.

Hope this helps.

Jim Lillig

www.jimlillig.com

As a real estate professional, referrals are your lifeblood.  Without them, all the advertising in the world will not make you successful.  With your LinkedIn profile, you can request Recommendations from the network of friends and business relationships you invite (or are invited to) to join your network.

From your Profile page (once you are logged in) you can click on the Recommendations text link at the bottom of the left hand navigation menu. This will take you to your recommendations page.  On the top right of this page, you will see a Compose Message button with an arrow next to it.  Click on the down arrow to reveal a drop down menu of the following items:
-    Send Message to a Connection
-    Send InMail or Introduction
-    Send Invitation
-    Send Recommendation
-    Request Recommendation
-    Send Job Notification

You will want to click on the “Request Recommendation” link.

First, you will be asked “Choose what you want to be recommended for” and this will list out all the present and past positions you have in your profile.  Select one.

Next, you will be asked “Decide who you’ll ask”.  Click on the Select Connections.  Here you will be presented with all of your connections.  You can select just one, or send to many people in your network all at once.

Finally, you will “Create your message”.  LinkedIn has already placed a message in there to give you some language if you can’t think of anything.  I personally have found that leaving the Subject line of “Can you endorse me?” works very well.  In fact the stock “letter” LinkedIn supplies does a fine job of getting people to respond.

I would however modify your particular request to get more specific if it has been awhile since you spoke to a customer. You might want to remind them how you helped them out with a particular sale or some advice you gave them.  In any case, you want to get them thinking about how you are someone they would recommend.

There is another, even better way for you to ask for endorsementsd that gets you Linked In (literally) for anyone searching for Real Estate Agents in your area.

At the top of your LinkedIn page, you will see 4 links, People | Jobs | Answers | Companies.  Click on the down arrow next to Companies.  Click on the Service Providers link.  Once you get to the next page, you will see a link near the top that says "How Do I Get Listed?".  At the end of that short paragraph there is a text link that reads "» Request a recommendation."  Click on it.

This will allow you to ask for a recommendation through the Service Provider channel.  You may also want to ask your network to endorse you through this method as it will boost your rankings for local searches of Service Providers in your area.

Of course, if you haven’t already asked every past customer, friend, neighbor, broker, mortgage professional and all the other acquaintances you make in this business to join your LinkedIn network, you need to do that now.  Endorsements are like product reviews, which everyone reads when making almost any purchase.  Your services are no different.  Just as an eBay Seller needs to have positive ratings to engender trust, so too do you.

Don’t be afraid to ask for an endorsement.  If you know you did a good job then ask them.  There is no more public place than LinkedIn for professionals to tell their story.  Or better yet, let someone else tell your story.

One last note about LinkedIn.  If you doubt the value this has to your business, try this simple test.  If you already are on the Internet in several places (such as your real estate office’s site, your link on the Realtor’s Assn. site or any other work related site) and you then sign up for a LinkedIn account, in very little time, when you search on your name the LinkedIn listing will come up first.  I have been online for 12 years with varying numbers of business’, I have nearly 3000 links to my name in Google, but still the #1 result in Google isn’t my website, www.jimlillig.com, it is my LinkedIn listing page.

In my first post I covered how to get your profile set up in LinkedIn. Now that you have done the hard work of getting all your localized and areas of specialties keywords packed into your profile, it is time to start connecting, which is the whole reason you do this.

LinkedIn describes Groups as:

Many professionals advance their careers and business goals by counting on industry and professional groups, alumni organizations, industry conferences and corporate alumni groups to help them make vital new business contacts. LinkedIn Groups offers extra features to group-based organizations to help their members stay in touch with one another and discover powerful new business contacts within their groups and beyond. LinkedIn Groups allows event organizers and group organizations to extend their brand’s reach and strengthen the brand with existing users by providing additional value through LinkedIn’s features.

The Groups functionality will allow you to connect with other professionals, but it can also allow you to connect with local business owners, and even homeowners if you position your group(s) right. The Group functionality allows you to broadcast messages to the group. Members of the group have a few options regarding their participation, such as whether or not to display the Groups Logo next to the LinkedIn listing or if other group members can contact you directly (instead of going through your LinkedIn mailbox). As the administrator, you can send out messages to the group as a whole and you approve new members into the group.

A quick search on LinkedIn for “real estate” in the Groups, returns 1,034 groups dedicated to real estate issues, from home builders and tradesmen to agencies. If I then refine the search to “real estate” Chicago, then I get 11 groups. Most of the localized groups are dominated by existing trade associations and groups started to get professionals in the industry to network with one another or post important and timely information to the group regarding the issues that they are concerned with.

To start a group, read here: http://www.linkedin.com/createGroup? You will be asked for a logo as well as a name and description, type of group, a website associated with the group (key thing to have as this is what will drive the traffic) and your email address (kept private except to those you allow to contact you directly). The main thing is to have an excellent name that describes the groups purpose succinctly. The description also must be accurate to bring in the right people that find your group or you invite (and hopefully other members will invite) to your group.

HINT: Make sure to pack your group’s description with keywords/phrases, as this will make you more easily found within LinkedIn. Make sure to use town names, zip codes and of course excellent descriptions of your groups overall goals and benefits.

For real estate professionals there will be two types of groups that will help you get your business’ promoted. The first is for buyers and sellers that you have previously worked with to join. This will allow you to connect in a meaningful way to your past clients and allow them to promote your group’s logo in their profiles. The thinking here is that if friends and associates of your past clients see the group on their friends profile and they may want to joint. It also allows your past clients to be connected to you. So in creating this type of group you can give out real estate investing tips, house staging tips, advice on how to get the most out of the market, etc. The key take away here is to give past clients a reason to promote you and a fast easy way for them to connect with you and you with them even if they are not in the midst of a real estate transaction.

The second type of group you may want to create is a group that is focused on specific market segments in a geographical region. If you are a commercial broker, you may want to start a geographically based group that is dedicated to keeping local business owners abreast of the latest buildings up for sale/lease in their area. You would want to name the group appropriately, such as “Current Chicago Commercial Real Estate Listings”, then weekly blast out a group message on the hottest properties and link them back to your commercial properties page on your site.

Another group you can create for the Commercial side of things, is a geographically based group concerning itself with real estate investors in the market you serve.

HINT: Right now there are almost no groups specifically named Real Estate investors for specific geographic areas, it is practically wide open.

Since investors are rabid information hounds, you can tap into their network by producing weekly blasts that gives them good advice on how to take advantage of the market in your area, what the latest trends and reports are and generally try to drive them to an “Investors” information page on your site to get them to call or connect through email with you. The goal here is to provide information to the group so that when they need your services they know you are the expert.

As you can see, you have to be relevant. LinkedIn will not allow you to search homeowners in your area and connect with them. It does allow you though, another avenue for the people you meet at open houses or other client attracting events to get a better sense of who you are and what you can offer them. So when you are going through your contacts, make sure to search for them on LinkedIn and then request that they join your LinkedIn network. The “I told 2 people and they told 2 people and they told 2 people, and so on” principle is at play here, and can increase the prospect pool you have to call on. Create a group so you can easily connect in a relevant way to those in your prospect pool and over time your network will grow organically.

The next post will be on how to use LinkedIn’s Recommendations feature to get “social proofs” for your services. Recommendations are one of the most powerful ways to generate Word of Mouth advertising as well as excellent content for your website.

If you have questions, feel free to contact me at jim@synergyintermedia.com or visit my blog: www.jimlillig.com for more internet marketing tips.

Social marketing is all the rage, but do you have any idea how to use it for promoting your real estate business?

While it may not be obvious that social networking sites are a valuable resource when it comes to attracting buyers and sellers, but a quick peek under the hood will uncover several ways to use social networks to find contacts that have homes to sell, are relocating or looking to buy.

Here are a few simple steps to get you started on LinkedIn.com, a social network that is the khaki pants of social marketing sites. Almost completely dominated by business professionals, LinkedIn offers a great opportunity for both commercial and residential brokers and agents to find prospective clients. The main thing it is good for is helping people find you when they type in your name.

You give out a lot of cards and send out direct mail and your name is your business, so it pays to make sure people can find you when they search. LinkedIn results score extremely high. Even though I maintain a blog and have hundreds of articles I have written since 1997, the first listing that comes up for my name “Jim Lillig” is my LinkedIn profile.

First thing you need to establish an account. Make sure to fill out your profile using loads of local keyword references regarding the areas you sell in and the markets you service like residential and commercial. So putting text for “Your Professional Headline” such as “Orange County Commercial Real Estate Broker” or “Green Bay Residential Real Estate Agent”. The key is to identify the top keywords end users type in that will get you seen, then put that into your current position title.

Next you will need to fill in the Primary Industry as Real Estate. This will make you very searchable in LinkedIn and also to search engines. Next you will fill in your “Professional Experience and goals”. This is where you can also load in keywords that will help you get searched. Make sure that you use all the city names and regions you are able to sell into and if possible use the zip codes, so if you sell real estate in Chicago, you would do “I am a Chicago residential real estate agent serving the Chicago market (60632,60645, 60601)”. Remember in this section you will want to make the text be in sentence form.

The next field is the “What specialties do you have in your industries of expertise?”. This is where you can really go hog wild with the keywords. Make sure you know what keywords are hot for your area in terms of real estate. If you are not sure, use the Google External Keywords Tool (just paste it into Google and it is the first result) for your area.

TRICK: Do a search in Google for the terms you want people to find you on, and see which sites come up first. Right click on the page to View Source of the page. Examine the meta tag data for “keywords” and “description” as well as title. Use those same keywords in your LinkedIn profile. Use the tool above to ensure that these are high trafficked keywords.

Now you will then spend some time filling out your Current and Past Positions (Job History). Once again, pack this with keywords as well. For sure use the name of your Agency as this will also get searched as well. When I type in the name of my company “Synergy Intermedia” of course my site comes up first, but the next couple of entries are for Naymz (a social network of professionals like LinkedIN) and then my LinkedIn listings. It all counts.

Once you have taken care of the housekeeping, you will want to spend an hour or so uploading your contact list from Outlook or any of your email contact list sources such as Gmail or Yahoo. Once you have your list uploaded then you will want to invite those contacts into your network. YOU MUST DO THIS. Since social networks are all about connecting people.

My next post will cover what you need to do within LinkedIn to find people who may need your services or can spread the word about you.

If you have questions, feel free to contact me at jim@synergyintermedia.com.