Your Web Sites’ “Curb Appeal”

Does your web site have “curb appeal”? That is, will it engage visitors long enough for them to slow down, take a look around and maybe even ask to see more? Would you ever tell a seller, “Don’t worry about the overgrown shrubbery, the gutters hanging down or the broken fence. I’m sure it will sell anyway!” No, you wouldn’t. You’d tell them to spend a few dollars and a weekend fixing the place up. And they’d do it, because they want the place to sell.

So, do you want your web site to sell people on your service the way a home buyer might be “sold” on seeing more of a home based on their first impressions? If so, it’s time to re-evaluate your site as it is now. Is it clear, concise and easy to navigate? Does it offer users a reason to stick around, visit more pages and read what you have to say?

A study by a Canadian research group indicated that visitors can make a decision about your web site in as little as 50 milliseconds. So what should your site look like that will convince them to hang around more than 1/20th of a second?

First of all, your text should be dark text on a light background. We almost always prefer black on white. You should consider text size as well. You don’t want it to be kindergarten big, but you don’t want mouse-print either. Ideally, you should have font sizes that are adjustable, allowing the user to increase or decrease font sizes through their browser settings. It’s amazing to us how many real estate web sites have backgrounds that are green or red (or some other inappropriate color) and black or blue, 10 point Times New Roman fonts that are nearly impossible to read.

Another common faux pas is long pages with limitless graphics and links thrown randomly about the page with no consistent layout or form. There are thousands of these types of sites on the web right now. You should consider every link and image and banner and sentence very carefully when constructing a page. Think about how it will impact your end user, who may be a twenty-something looking for their first home or a baby-boomer who’s retiring to your area. What benefit does each item on your home page offer? None? Then don’t put it there! It’s like a flowerbed that’s overgrown with weeds. The junk chokes out the valuable parts of your site and visitors accelerate past your site without a second glance.

The bottom line when creating a web site is to focus on your visitors.

• Who is your site for? You or your clients?
• Does it provide useful information?
• Can they find the information?
• Is the site designed to compliment your core message to your potential clients?
• What will visitors think of you when they visit your site? Will they perceive you as outstanding or below average?

I can’t stress how important these things are. Your web site is an investment. It should bring you a return. How does your site measure up?

Contact Your Realty Geek today for a free evaluation of your current web site and to see how we can make a difference in your bottom line.

Email Marketing for Your Real Estate Business

So you want to begin an email marketing campaign? Excellent. It’s a tried and true way to stay in front of your clients on a regular basis, insuring that you will be the first person they call when they’re ready to buy or sell. But, there are some things you need to know about marketing via email in order to avoid some problems.

First, let’s talk about spam because that’s incredibly important. The CAN-SPAM act was enacted in 2003 and it’s designed to protect consumers but following it can protect you as well. There are  a few requirements of which you should be aware. You can read the details at the FTC’s web site.

• You cannot forge email headers or misrepresent who the email is coming from. If you’re running an honest marketing campaign, though, you don’t want to do that anyway.
• You can’t use a deceptive subject line.
• You have to allow people to opt out of your list.
• You must identify your email as an advertisement and provide a physical mailing address for opt-out.

Those are all pretty easy to follow if you’re running an honest campaign, though. Always remember that you don’t want to leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth and sending unwanted or deceitful email is a great way to do that.

Next, let’s talk about purchasing email lists. You probably shouldn’t do it. For one thing, you never know where those addresses are coming from, if they’re in use currently, if they actually exist or if these people actually opted in to the list that you’re purchasing. You have no way to verify that they live or intend to live in your market, so you really have no way to target them. Your response rate will be dismal and you’ll probably waste a lot of money trying to reach them. In fact, many email marketing services won’t allow you to use a purchased list for these reasons along with the fact that it opens them and you up to potential legal problems and disciplinary action from Internet Service Providers.

So, how do you build your list? You should have a sign up on your web site. You should have a sign up sheet at every open house you hold. You should ask friends and family members to sign up and you should ask current and past clients for permission to keep in touch via email.

Now, how do you go about managing your list and sending email to your subscribers? We recommend using a service such as Emma for this. (NOTE: Your Realty Geek is an Emma agency, authorized to provide email marketing services. Our clients have their Emma accounts built right into their web site admin panels so that they can easily manage their campaigns in the same place they go to manage their web sites.) They really provide everything that you’ll need to manage your campaign quickly and easily.

How do you make your campaign effective? Well, first of all, you have to get creative. Cranking out the same stuff that your competitors are doing (and that every agent in all of history has done) will not keep you on the shrinking radar screens of your target audience. You can keep them posted on featured listings and open houses, but make that a secondary thought. Try to find some interesting, unique information that will be beneficial but that will also draw people to you and encourage them to take action.

For example, have you recently helped an investor find an absolutely killer deal on an investment property? Ask for permission to mention that in your newsletter. Something like:

“This month has been a great month for Joe R. He came to me three weeks ago, ready to buy an investment property that he could rehab and convert into a cash-flow rental property. We began by using my web site, [web address], to search the local MLS and add properties to his favorites list. (Just register on the sight and click the ‘Save Listing’ link next to any property to do this.) Then, we began screening each property against his criteria and pulling comps for the ones that had the closest match. I also scoured foreclosure and REO lists for him and made a few calls to colleagues who have homes listed for sale by distressed home owners. In the end, we were able to help him purchase a property for 73% of it’s market value. He’s busy fixing it up now and will likely have renters in it by the first of next month. Congratulations Joe!”

Include a testimonial from Joe R and then follow up with a standard statement that’s included in every outgoing email that tells the reader how you specialize in finding incredible investment deals. (Obviously, you want to tailor all of this to your own specialties. This is just an example of how to go about doing that.) This email not only tells a great story, provides social proof through testimonials and showcases your talents, but it also drives readers to open up your web site, register and start creating property lists in hopes of capturing that rare gem that will put more money in their pockets every month (or whatever your readers’ goals may be).

In a stagnant or declining market, the only thing that is going to keep you on top is to think: fresh, new, creative. Your Realty Geek can give you the tools, innovation and inspiration to do just that. Pick up the phone and give us a call. You’re an arm’s reach away from rising to the top.

The Importance of Web Strategy in Real Estate

Hi there,

I’m Dave, founder of Your Realty Geek. This is my first post here on the blog and I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about our perspective on creating a web marketing strategy. It’s such an important step that the vast majority of agents take for granted. If you master this, even in its simplest form, you’ll succeed. It doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive, either. You just have to put some thought into it.

I get calls pretty regularly from agents who have web sites but just aren’t getting results. And by results, I mean leads and ultimately closings. The common thread for each of these agents is that there is no established web strategy.

The web is not a Field of Dreams. If you build it, it will sit there until you draw people in. Once they’re on your site, you have to fight to draw them further in or you will lose them within seconds. So there are two challenges that faces real estate agents today:

1. Getting people to your web site
2. Getting people to commit their personal information (name, email, phone number) to you

The first challenge can be met with a consistent marketing plan in place that not only makes it extremely easy for users to access your web site, but gives them a really great reason to do so. You’ll have to attack this front both online and offline. But, it needn’t be a daunting task. Consider first making a list of specific things to do to market yourself and your properties. First try to make a comprehensive list of everything you can think of and find in research on the internet. Then, narrow that list down to the items you below will be most rewarding.

For example, in my experience, a free advertisement on Postaroo.com will garner much less attention than a free ad on craigslist.org. Post with craigslist a few times and with Postaroo a few times. Be sure to include a direct link to your web site! (Do this with HTML code such as <a href=”http://YOURWEBADDRESSHERE” mce_href=”http://YOURWEBADDRESSHERE”>NAME OF YOUR SITE HERE</a>.) Now, monitor your web traffic statistics and looked at the “referrer” section (sometimes called “Came From” or “Referred From”, etc.) to see which links are bringing in more clicks. Then, examine those clicks to see how many pages each visitor views and how long they stay on the site. Doing this will allow you to determine the effectiveness of the medium.

It’s important to keep in mind when creating your list of marketing activities that your time is limited. Choose things that you know you can and WILL do consistently. Then open up your Outlook calendar and fill in dates and times for each activity. For example, you might post a craigslist ad for all of your current listings on Friday afternoon at 3 PM so that your ads get maximum exposure for buyers who will be out on the weekend. Do this consistently, every single Friday, and measure your results. Do you see a definite increase in traffic to your web site? Do you see an increase in inquiries receive through your site? Is there an increase in showings? Can you track one of these ads all the way through to a closing?

As you perform these routines, measure the results each time you do so. Without measurement, you could be banging your head against a wall and never know it. If something isn’t performing, see if you can fine tune your message to attract more people. Maybe you need better photos or more photos. Tweak your campaigns and keep measuring the results. If something consistently underperforms, dump it and replace it with something new. If something consistently brings in new business, focus more energy in that area.

Cheers,
Dave Medlock
www.YourRealtyGeek.com
877-869-9275

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Your Realty Geek specializes in helping real estate professionals develop their web marketing strategies and the tools that power those strategies. We offer single property web sites through singleLister.com and lead capture & management tools, MLS/IDX search, custom web design and traffic monitoring & analysis tools through LeadLive Pro. All of our LeadLive Pro clients receive consulting to help them develop an effective web marketing strategy.

Your Realty Geek at Your Service

Hi there,

Thanks for checking out Your Realty Geek’s blog. We think you’re going to find some pretty interesting information here. We’re all about using the web to market and sell real estate. There are tons of tools out there. Some of them are great, some of them aren’t. We provide some really cool stuff for our clients. Most importantly, though, we help our clients use the internet to grow their businesses.

So, what you’ll find here is that we’re going to focus on providing you with everything that you need: web design, MLS search & lead capture, social networking tools,  search engine optimization and a customized web marketing strategy with the services to help you execute it, measure it, tweak it and profit from it.

If you haven’t already, go to www.YourRealtyGeek.com and fill out the form there. You don’t have to tell us everything, but we’ve chosen our questions carefully to help us know how geeky we’ll need to get when working with you.

In the future, we’ll have our founder, Dave, and his business partner, Dan, posting here with some helpful hints and perspective on real estate marketing for the web. Check back frequently.

Cheers,
Your Realty Geek
www.YourRealtyGeek.com
877-869-9275