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Saturday, May 4, 2024

Lisa Gray

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Lisa is an accomplished marketer with years of expertise in direct response marketing, digital marketing, data analytics and business development working with both B2C and B2B.

At the risk of sounding cliched, content is even more of a king now than when Sumner Redstone coined the “Content is King” mantra.

Gone are those days when a 100-word post, unartfully packed with keywords and links, ranks anywhere near Google’s first-page search results.

It’s not merely content that is king, it’s quality content. Writing for the reader and not the search engine, with relevant, valuable and shareable content is today’s challenge.

If you struggle with content creation, read on.

Determine a content strategy

Your content strategy is best determined by first figuring out your goal in writing it. Sure, we all hope to generate leads with content, but go deeper than that. Are you looking to close more deals, build a referral base or maybe set yourself apart as a niche expert?

Once you’ve nailed your ultimate goal, you’ll need to figure out your target audience or audiences. Creating personas helps you narrow down your audience and helps you provide more relevant and, thus, valuable content.

Need help? Hubspot.com has available, Make My Persona, as a fun tool to help you build your target audience’s persona.

All of your content must be appropriate and of value to this audience. Kelton Ried at Coppyblogger.com calls this an “audience-first mentality.” He goes on to suggest that “Without a deeper understanding of the needs, hopes, desires, and dreams of your audience, you’re doomed to turn them away.”

You have your goal in mind and you know who to target, so let’s get started creating a content strategy action plan.

Creating content to help you meet your goal

If you’ve taken our advice and you are clear on your target audience’s persona, you’ll find that writing becomes a whole lot easier.

If you specialize in a niche, writing content is even easier. An agent who specializes in military relocation, for instance, has an endless number of topics to write about. The same holds true for condo, ranch, waterfront, and luxury real estate specialists.

Generalists, on the other hand, just need to keep the focus on what type of information is valuable to their target audience. Buyers naturally want to know about mortgage rate changes, how to get a mortgage, the mortgage process broken down into layperson’s terms, information on the area’s neighborhoods and, of course, they want to see listings.

TIP: Ask the pros in other industries to write guest posts. This might include your home inspector, favorite title company representative, and lender. Hang on to these for those days when you’re too busy or too writer-blocked to come up with a post.

Make your content work hard

Content should act as a magnet to draw people to your website and it can’t do that if you don’t promote it. The best place to do that is on social media.

Remember, posting a piece of content to your website isn’t the end of that piece. Push it out on social media.

Since most social media platforms are visually oriented, repurpose your content into quick, easy to read infographics. The most commonly shared post on Facebook, by the way, is an image.

Whatever you post, ensure that it grabs the eye – use Canva.com or a graphics program to create compelling photos.

Create a content schedule

 Ask any SEO specialist how often to post content and you’ll get a ton of different responses.

We think it’s important to come up with a posting schedule that meshes with your business schedule. Sure, you can promise yourself that you’ll write and post content three times a week, but if you don’t have an assistant or you get busy, the posts won’t get written, posted or promoted.

The best time of day to post and promote your content is another hotly contested issue. Many of the big SEO pros we follow to claim that mid-day or lunchtime is ideal.

The name of the game when considering a content schedule is to bite off just enough that you can chew and stick to it. Consistently.

Start by writing some content centered around the Free Report, “How to CHOP $24,000 & 4 Years OFF Your Mortgage”. Order 100 of this Free Report today to have on hand for requests.  

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are 3 free ways we can help you STILL CRUSH IT in 2018!

1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook.

Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here 

2. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan.

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here

2. The Free Online ROI Calculator. 

Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! – Click Here

Also…check out these cool tools 

 Three Click Postcards – Just snap a home photo & create a postcard all from your mobile phone

MLSmailings.com – Automated Just Listed, Just Sold Postcards

Market Dominator System – Become a neighborhood brand

Want to Refer a friend or colleague? Refer them, Here. THEY get a Free $25 Gift Card and YOU become their hero. BTW, you also get a $25 Gift Card too (now that’s what I’m talking about)!

Keeping past customers coming back should be easy…

After all, you don’t need to “sell” them on your service and phone calls to them are warm and friendly. In addition, if you did your job right, they know, like and trust you.

So, why do so many agents fail miserably at retaining past customers? And how are you going to ensure, as you head into the new year, that you keep your past clients present?

Beyond this being a smart question, it is also an important financial decision.

The following are some statistics that explain why you should strive to remain top-of-mind with former customers and some tips to help you do so.

The puzzling facts

Nearly 90 percent of real estate consumers surveyed by NAR say that they would use their agent again and that they would recommend their agent to others.

Yet the same statistics show that, sadly, only 12 percent of consumers actually used an agent that they had worked with in the past. Dive deep into these numbers and you can easily see that real estate consumers want to use the agent they’ve worked with in the past,

Yet curiously, few do.

And, it’s a safe bet that they don’t because they forgot about the agent and went with one referred by a friend, family member or colleague.

A financial reality

“Depending on which study you read, acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one,” claims Amy Gallo at Harvard Business Review.

In fact, there’s a formula you can use to determine just how much chasing after new business costs you each year.

Divide your total marketing and sales costs (what you spend on gas driving buyers around, listing expenses, etc.) by the number of new customers you acquired during the year.

Scary, isn’t it? Those are some expensive customers.

Former customers, on the other hand, are gold mines. “Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%,” according to Frederick F. Reichheld and Phil Schefter of Harvard Business School.

How’s your past customer list looking? If it appears dry and parched, it’s time to try nurturing it.

Customer retention strategies

Remaining top-of-mind with former customers doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor, although the larger and splashier the “touch,” the more memorable you’ll be.

Less expensive ways to keep in touch are the no-brainer methods that tend to fall through the cracks of the busy agent’s schedule.

  • Drip email campaigns
  • Monthly direct mail, of interest to your customers, such as newsletters and market updates
  • Birthday and anniversary postcards
  • “Or offer home maintenance reminders (e.g., changing out smoke detector batteries once a year),” suggests Melissa Dittmann Tracey at realtormag.org.

Face-to-face

Some experts recommend a quarterly face-to-face visit with former customers. Take them to coffee, happy hour or lunch. Or to get the most bang for your customer-retention buck, throw some sort of annual customer appreciation event.

It can be as lavish as the black-tie event Buyer’s Edge agent Steve Israel holds (complete with orchestra and catered food), or as simple as a casual backyard summer barbecue.

You might even consider an event that not only brings your past customers back into your sphere but benefits your favorite non-profit as well.

Kathy Broock Ballard invites customers, past and present, to “The Annual Erin Go Bra(gh) Party” on St. Patrick’s Day. She asks that they bring an item of clothing for the local women’s shelter and in return, lunch and an open bar are theirs to enjoy.

An agent in San Francisco holds a crab feed every year during Dungeness season. He holds it in partnership with a lender and title company to keep expenses to a minimum.

Don’t forget to ask

Whether it’s one-on-one or as part of an event, don’t forget to ask former customers if they know anyone who may be thinking of buying or selling real estate. Focusing your “ask” may bring better results, according to the late Jay Conrad Levinson, father of Guerilla Marketing.

Narrow “the universe of those you ask,” he suggests in the book “Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days.” For instance, instead of asking your weekend golf partner to thumb through his mental database of everyone she knows, ask her who else she plays golf with who may be thinking of buying or selling real estate.

The smaller you make the “universe,” the more likely your customer will be able to come up with a name.

Keeping in touch with the customers you already know and who know you is one of the easier parts of your business. By not periodically reaching out to them, you’re leaving easy money on the table for your competition to grab.

Start sending out a Community Newsletter to your clients each month to remind them of who to turn to for expert guidance when needed.

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are 3 free ways we can help you STILL CRUSH IT in 2018!

1. Become a Listing Legend Free ebook.

Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here 

2. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan.

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here

2. The Free Online ROI Calculator. 

Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! – Click Here

Also…check out these cool tools 

 Three Click Postcards – Just snap a home photo & create a postcard all from your mobile phone

MLSmailings.com – Automated Just Listed, Just Sold Postcards

Market Dominator System – Become a neighborhood brand

Want to Refer a friend or colleague? Refer them, Here. THEY get a Free $25 Gift Card and YOU become their hero. BTW, you also get a $25 Gift Card too (now that’s what I’m talking about)!

How to Prioritize, Delegate & Focus on What Matters

The most common misconception about real estate agents is that what you do is a piece of cake. You set your own work schedule, have plenty of free time and still rake in gobs of money.

In fact, this misconception is what leads many right to the doorstep of the real estate industry.

Sadly, the truth is that there is no “flexible schedule,” especially for the new real estate agent. It’s even rare for many established agents. And, according to a Market Leader study, established agents make up a group known as “the least happy” in the industry.

Sure, as time goes on the schedule may ease – typically to a 10- to 12-hour workday, 7 days a week.

But, it’s the agent who needs to learn flexibility, not the schedule.

Once you get this, and understand how to prioritize, delegate and, most importantly, let go of the small stuff, life in real estate land will be so much better.

As we move into the holidays, clients trail off and your schedule will lighten up. Many agents take advantage of the lull to plan next year’s business. It’s also a good time to plan on — and commit to — balancing the two competing halves of your life.

“Delegation” isn’t a dirty word

According to a NAR statistic, 14 percent of agents use an assistant. The reason for this low number is that many agents tend to tie the timing of the hiring to a certain, albeit elusive, income target. “I’ll hire an assistant when I’m making $75,000 a year,” or something similar.

Or, perhaps by transaction count: “Once you hit 40-50 transactions per year, your production will be capped at that level unless you hire an assistant or someone else to help you manage your business,” claims Bernice Ross at Inman.com.

She does have a point, though – your production will be capped.

The truth is, there’s no chicken or egg thing going on here — most agents’ incomes increase when they hire an assistant.

This makes sense when you understand that your assistant relieves you of the mundane tasks that currently take you away from money-making endeavors. Answering the phones, checking email and making copies of transaction paperwork don’t make you money and they suck time.

The same holds true for writing your own blog posts (hire a writer), telephone prospecting and follow-up calls (hire a licensed assistant), posting to social media (hire a social media manager) and marketing (hire a marketing assistant).

It’s overstated but true that it takes money to make money. Free yourself from the mundane and you’ll free up time that will help you be more productive and maybe even take a day off.

Consider taking on a partner

Ok, so you’re not ready to fork over the bucks it takes to hire help. Have you thought about partnering with another agent? If not, consider this:

“You can take vacations – real vacations – ones where you do not work. In addition, you can take days off and if you’re sick you don’t have to answer the phone. In short, you will experience a higher quality of life,” says  Kelle Sparta, real estate trainer, and coach.

There’s a lot to consider when you’re thinking about taking on a partner or forming a team.

Pick up a copy of “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent,” by Gary Keller for some tips. You’ll also find information on structuring teams and partnerships at Realtor.org.

Tools and systems

Your tools and systems should be working for you, not the other way around

Sure, choosing the right tools and systems for your business is a chore in itself, but technology can help set you free, therefore it’s time well spent.

Automating the more important aspects of your business, such as ongoing branding with your target market, will play a big role in helping you find that balance between your work life and your private life.

Two of our most popular and effective ways to help you automate continuous contact with your target market are,

    1. The Market Dominator –  A 12 x 15 poster size, 2-sided, direct marketing piece that is delivered to your exclusive carrier route on a monthly basis, establishing you as the go-to professional in that neighborhood.
    2. Automated Just Listed/Just Sold Postcards – This done-for-you service integrates with your local MLS then generates postcards for your listings when they are active and sold.

As we move into the slower pace of the season, take the time to create targeted mailing lists and set up an automated campaign to get those marketing materials flowing to the right people.

Schedule “me” time

“You have to make a little time for the things that ignite your joy,” Laura Stack, author and productivity expert in Denver tells WebMD.

And, what better way to “make a little time” than by scheduling it?

Keep a log of your daily activities over the next week or two, paying close attention to those days on which nothing much is going on. Come on – we know you have one of those. By moving the activities of that day to another, or even spreading them out among six days, you can conceivably, actually, blessedly take a day off every week.

Make a commitment to remain unplugged on that day. That means taking no business calls (oh, yes, it will be painful) and no internet. In fact, get out of the house and leave the phone at home.

Guess what? The real estate world will continue to turn without your help for 24 hours.

If a full 24 hours to yourself is unthinkable right now, consider grabbing a smaller block of “me” time. Start with a half hour – get out and walk, workout, watch TV, do the laundry – anything but real estate.

Then, over the course of the next few weeks, expand that block of time by 15 minutes or half an hour.

One Detroit agent we spoke with weaned herself off the 12-hour day by leaving work 30 minutes earlier for a week. The next week she left an hour early and gradually built it up to where she eventually took an entire day off each week.

“Instead of just letting life happen, people who achieve work-life balance make deliberate choices about what they want from life and how they want to spend their time,” claims Harvey Deutschendorf at fastcompany.com.

Commit to achieving a successful balance between your work life and your personal life and put yourself in the happy agent percentage.

Start automating your Just Listed/Just Sold postcards with MLS Mailings today and begin the process of freeing up your time for what matters most.

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are 3 free ways we can help you STILL CRUSH IT in 2018!

1. Become a Listing Legend.

Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

2. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan.

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here

3. The Free Online ROI Calculator. 

Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! – Click Here

Also…check out these cool tools 

 Three Click Postcards – Just snap a home photo & create a postcard all from your mobile phone

MLSmailings.com – Automated Just Listed, Just Sold Postcards

Market Dominator System – Become a neighborhood brand

Want to Refer a friend or colleague? Refer them, Here. THEY get a Free $25 Gift Card and YOU become their hero. BTW, you also get a $25 Gift Card too (now that’s what I’m talking about)!

Create a Real Estate Business Preparedness Plan

Everybody and their uncles have been blamed for the last shifting economy, despite the experts having a pretty good handle on its true causes. That whole subprime mortgage mess kicked it off but it wasn’t the only factor.

What the average American seems to be oblivious to is that recessions, like expansions, are a defining feature of a market economy. In fact, they’re two of the four phases of the “business cycle.”

We’re now in our 113th month of economic expansion, closing in on the record 120 months that occurred after recovery from the “dot-com explosion.”

The “R” word is on many economists’ tongues, and it isn’t a question of if we’ll sink into another recession, but when.

 But it probably won’t blow up the housing market

None of the economists interviewed by The Wall Street Journal said that the housing market will be the cause of the next recession.

This is good news for agents because, with the exception of the last economic downturn, home prices actually increased during the previous five recessions (stretching back 45 years), according to the Federal Reserve.

Be sure to point out this fact to your potential sellers who may be feeling a bit antsy about the future. Remind them that an economic recession doesn’t automatically mean a real estate recession.

Economic downturns do affect consumers in other ways, from dwindling investment portfolios to losing jobs. Spending, especially on big ticket items like real estate, drops.

Is your business ready should this come to pass?

Are you?

 What are the indicators?

Sure, we all know what a recession looks and feels like, but what are the economic indicators that prove we’re in one?

While some economists figure we’re in a recession after two consecutive quarters of down-trending real GDP, the National Bureau of Economic Research begs to differ.

“Rather, a recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.”

Right now, it’s tough to pinpoint any signs of a contraction in the economy. Optimistic retail trade groups see holiday sales rising nearly 5 percent this year.

We’re merrily rolling along with the highest employment rate since the 1960s, a projected Q3 jump in economic growth of 4.1 percent and rising personal incomes.

Lurking in the shadows of all this good economic news, however, are some niggling signs of a coming downturn.

 Get familiar with your numbers

This may seem like “well, duh” advice to most small business owners. Real estate agents, however, are a different breed. Many seem content to wing it, without a plan, without a budget.

If you want to last, especially during a changing market, a plan is a must and it starts with setting up a budget. To do this, you’ll need to get a handle on your production numbers, how much you spend on various aspects of your business and how much you expect to earn.

Dani Vanderboegh Inman.com offers an excellent basic budget primer at Inman.com.

Getting your spending under control – at least enough to where you can consistently set aside money for a “rainy day,” it is imperative to be able to weather an economic downturn and remain in business.

 Fine tune your marketing strategy

What else can you do to market yourself? If you’re not using direct mail, now is the time to put that system into place. If you’ve been putting off setting up a newsletter as part of a drip campaign, get to work on it.

In addition, create at least five different real estate lead generation sources. The more darts you have in your quiver, the better the chances you’ll hit something when it comes time to throw them.

Take some time to clean up your CRM and ensure that it’s working the way you need it to.

An economic downturn doesn’t have to mean the end of your real estate practice. Get busy on your business disaster preparedness plan by socking away money, setting up a budget and fine-tuning your marketing and you’ll be ready to weather anything the economy throws at you.

Start building your influx of new prospects by sending at least 100 monthly Community Newsletters to an area where you want more listings.

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are 2 free ways we can help you STILL CRUSH IT in 2018!

1.  The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan.

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here

2. The Free Online ROI Calculator. 

Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! – Click Here

Also…check out these cool tools 

 Three Click Postcards – Just snap a home photo & create a postcard all from your mobile phone

MLSmailings.com – Automated Just Listed, Just Sold Postcards

Market Dominator System – Become a neighborhood brand

Want to Refer a friend or colleague? Refer them, Here. THEY get a Free $25 Gift Card and YOU become their hero. BTW, you also get a $25 Gift Card too (now that’s what I’m talking about)!

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