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Sunday, December 22, 2024

Spend Time Here, Not Here

There’s only one you. There are just 24 hours in a day. Put those two together and you have an insanely busy schedule.

And, it’s all too easy to get distracted by the next shiny object.

Social media is shiny. It’s distracting. And, some platforms are completely unnecessary – at least for real estate professionals.

As we head into 2018, and you’re contemplating your business plan, you’ll be prioritizing where to spend your time and money.

Take a hard look at which social media platforms you use and whether or not your time is better spent elsewhere.

Facebook – it’s not free

You may think that marketing your business via social media is a fabulous free way to get your brand in front of people.

If done strategically, it can be.

But, consider this: The majority of agent’s average about three hours a week spent on Facebook, according to a 2016 Inman.com survey.

Sadly, that doesn’t tell the whole story because more than 21 percent spend twice that amount of time – a whopping six hours a week – on the social media giant.

Ask yourself this question:

Is six hours each week better spent chasing after new business on Facebook or reaching out to former clients and those in your sphere?

Both are “free” in terms of money, but the latter isn’t as much of a time stealer and the return on time invested has a better chance of being higher.

Multiply your time spent by the number of social media platforms you’re currently using. While they all have something to offer, they aren’t all worth an agent’s time.

Instagram – A waste of time?

Unless you have an in-house marketing person, don’t feel guilty about not being on Instagram, and don’t listen to the hype saying you should be.

Here’s why.

Most online articles pushing the use of Instagram for businesses point out “In 2016, Instagram grew its daily user count by 100 million users and now has more than 600 million active users.”

What they fail to do is dig deeper. So, let’s do that right now. First, however, let’s take a look at your average homebuyer.

According to the NAR, “the typical home buyer is 44 years old, married, no children at home, and has a median income of $88,500.” Keep these statistics in mind while taking the deep dive into Instagram.

Who’s hanging out on Instagram?
  • 80 percent of Instagram users don’t live in the U.S.
  • Of the users who do live in the U.S., only 28 percent of them are on Instagram, according to Pew Research.
  • The largest demographic of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 29 while only 18 percent are between the ages of 30 and 49 – the most likely buyer pool.
  • The largest demographic earns less than $30k
  • The average Instagram user “misses about 70% of the posts” in their feed, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

Until Instagram begins attracting an older, wealthier demographic, it’s an ineffective use of time. Your time is better spent on other lead-generation strategies.

LinkedIn – A good investment

No, it doesn’t have the largest share of online users (only 29 percent of American adults), but LinkedIn’s demographics are ideal for real estate marketing.

  • 77 percent of users are age 30 and older
  • 50 percent are college graduates
  • 45 percent of LinkedIn users earn more than $75,000 per year and only 21 percent earn less than $30,000.

Again, recall the profile of the average homebuyer and seller and you’ll realize that this is the demographic you should be chasing.

Not only are the demographics ideal on LinkedIn, but Hubspot gathered data from more than 5,000 companies and found “LinkedIn 277% More Effective for Lead Generation than Facebook & Twitter.”

Hubspot’s Rebecca Corliss points out that “because most of the content posted on LinkedIn is of a marketing nature, as opposed to family photos or social ‘chatter,’ there is less clutter…

…so business’ marketing posts are more likely to be noticed on LinkedIn than somewhere else.”

Social media is an ever-evolving resource.

What’s hot this year may die next year.

When choosing where to spend your marketing time, don’t judge a platform by its number of users – that figure is useless for real estate agents.

Do a deep dive, periodically, into the demographics of each to decide when the time is right to jump in.

Related: 3 Tools That Drive More Business

Need help?  Call our team today at 866.405.3638 to put the best marketing tools in place to build your business easily, and cost-effectively.

We had a little fun last week creating a video to share with you just why you should jump into the $10K Realtor Contest! Our Director of Operations Jim Studebaker and Executive Assistant Megan Carver have a message for all of you who have not yet entered.

It’s a great time to be in real estate, and we are so appreciative to be the resource that agents can count on for marketing materials that work. That’s the reason we started this contest. We truly want to give back and make the business of marketing a lot more fun — and effective.

Now, jump in to win! CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN WIN $10,000.

Need help? We’ve got you covered. Reach out to our team at 866.405.3638 today! 

From the Master Marketing Schedule

by Julie Escobar

Build your collateral collection. Choose four or five of your favorite Content Cards, and have 25 of each shipped to you. There are more than sixty to choose from on a wide variety of consumer-friendly information. These panoramic-size postcards are perfect for helping you stand out as a resource that home sellers and buyers can turn to in your market.

Where can you use them?

  • Open houses
  • Add to your pre-listing packages
  • Collateral for buyer or seller workshop
  • Client pop-bys
  • Geo farming hand outs
  • Ask if local offices or car dealerships will let you leave some behind in waiting rooms

For any ship-to-you postcards (other than EDDM), this month use promo code AUG10SH to save 10% off your order, excluding postage.

While you’re on the site – peruse the free reports that are easily downloadable as pdfs for your site and social media content you might like to share!  Find them all here. 

Collateral tools such as free reports and content cards provide great visuals when presenting and as objection handlers. When working with consumers, often you’ll have both analytical customers as well as those who respond to visuals. The content gives you the analytic information you need, and the tangible piece gives you the visual. Both go a long way towards lending authority to you as a sales professional.

Oh — and as a reminder… As long as you’re ordering shipped-to-you material, you might want to get your hands on some Football Schedules with magnetic backs. They are a hot-ticket item this time of year, and right now they are helping us help the kids and families of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital!

From now until September 15th, we will donate 10% of EVERY football series postcard order to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital!  Help us help the kids — and stay top of mind all season long! Click the banner below to get started!st jude fb

 

Good luck this month and happy listing! We’re here if you need us. Call our marketing team at 866.405.3638 if we can assist you in any way! 

Was YOUR Name Drawn?

Wow! Big thanks to all our amazing contestants this past month! We had some terrific entries – and we thank you all so much for sharing your ProspectPLUS.com experiences! If your name wasn’t drawn – no worries! We’re kicking off our newest contest starting today! 

Our $250 winner is Cindy Larussa who shared, “I’ve been using ProspectsPLUS! for about three months now for all my marketing needs. They are always very professional and quick to get my orders out. I’m more than pleased with the work they do for me and I love the ease of their website. I feel their prices are great! I won’t go anywhere else!”

Our $100 winner is Pam Saunders who shared, “ProspectsPLUS! offers not only exceptional service (Ramona is always knowledgeable and helpful), but, the quality and professional content on their products are outstanding… I highly recommend them for all your marketing needs.”

Our $50 winner is Shaunda Howerton who shared,  “I am very pleased with my experience using ProspectsPLUS for the first time. My postcards look great and I found a template that I can call my own! I certainly will use them again and budget them into my marketing expenses for years to come!”

Ready to throw your hat in the ring? This month, we’re changing it up again! First prize for our July contest will be an Amazon Echo Show (A $229 value)! The Echo Show is everything people love about the Amazon Echo – but now features video and images! We will also be giving away two $100 ProspectsPLUS! gift cards. 

Entering is easy!  Leave your review of your ProspectsPLUS.com product or service on our Google+ Page or our Facebook Page today! Our next drawing is August 1st. 

We’d also like to invite you to join us in our goal to raise $30,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®! We are matching every donation this year, dollar-for-dollar! Learn more at blog.prospectsplus.com/st-jude. For the month of July, we will give 10% of every order of the all new Football series of postcards (excluding tax and shipping charges) to help the families and kids at St. Jude!

See this year’s designs here.  Your customers will love them!

Need help? Contact our team at 866.405.3638 today. 

Left in the Year — How Will You Spend Them?

by Julie Escobar

We are more than halfway through the year. Just better than two hundred days left. What you do now will determine what kind of holidays you’ll have. Whether you’ll hit those goals you set in January. Whether you’ll finish strong and kick off the new year with ease. So, what’s it going to be? Let’s take a look at some ways you can get back on track or keep on track:

  1. Review your SMART goals weekly. Create a means to measure where you are in relation to your goal. Use a chart, a checklist, or an integrity partnership to review your progress. When you wait months or an entire year to review – it’s impossible to know whether you are on track or off. Top agents always know their numbers, always have a visual of the goals that they are passionate about and are always re-calibrating their time, tools, training and activities to ensure they achieve the goals they set.
    • Specific
    • Measurable
    • Achievable
    • Relevant 
    • Time bound
  2. Get out of stealth mode. The idea that the business will just come to you in today’s market is false. There is considerable competition so get out from behind the desk or computer and get out into the markets in which you want to build market share. Knock on doors. Meet the neighbors. Leave branded collateral pieces at local professional offices and waiting rooms where possible. (Think doctor’s offices, car dealerships, etc.)  Host events. Ask questions. Sponsor sports teams. Donate the bounce house at the neighborhood event. Show that you are the face of real estate in your area.
  3. Reach out to your sphere. If you’re not touching base with everyone in your sphere at least twice a year, then you are leaving money on the table. We know statistically that one in twelve will result in business or referral every year. But NOT if you don’t stay in touch. Many agents use holiday cards every month with a message on the back to keep connected. Others choose newsletters or content cards as a monthly “touch”. Whatever you choose, be sure you are consistent. It’s one of the best things you can do to build and grow your referral base.
  4. Never neglect your neighborhood farm.  Your competition won’t be and they’ll take market share wherever they can find it.  If you’ve got an area that you want to dominate in, consider our Market Dominator system, or using the Listing Inventory Series to stay in touch every month. Top of mind awareness is crucial in today’s market. Attend every neighborhood function and be sure you are walking your farm with content-rich collateral at least twice per year.
  5. Add at least five people to your marketing list per week.  Always be in networking mode and always look for ways to grow your database and sphere. Committing to adding five people per week means you’ll add 260 to your sphere. To help you put that in context, I used our SOI calculator to show you what that looks like. I entered $200,000 as an annual goal, and an average commission of $6,000 – which told me that to realize that goal I’d need 33 transactions. Using the national stats that 66% of business comes from an agent’s SOI, I calculated that I needed 264 people in my SOI to realize my goal.  You can calculate how many you need here. 
  6. Be consistent. I can’t stress this one enough. One and done marketing has never, ever earned anyone a good living. If you’re not touching base monthly or at least quarterly, you are leaving the door open for your competition to create the top of mind awareness that you could be earning. That’s like handing away future commissions to other agents. To succeed at high levels, you’ve got to stay on top of your marketing game and stay present in your market place. Using smart time management and done-for-you marketing tools can help.

Remember we are here to help. Our company is steeped in real estate experience and we train our marketing team to know exactly what agents just like you need to succeed and excel. We want to help you make the most of the last 200 days of the year — and every day after that as well. Visit www.prospectsplus.com today or call our team at 866.405.3638 to learn more. 

HERE ARE SOME BETTER WAYS TO “SALE” A HOUSE AND CRUSH IT in 2018!

The Free 2018 Real Estate Business Plan

Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan – Click Here

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

ALSO CHECK THESE TOOLS OUT 🙂

Three Click Postcards – Snap, tap, send from your phone

MLS Mailings – Automated Just Listed, Just Sold Postcards

Market Dominator System – Become a neighborhood brand

 

 

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