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Friday, December 20, 2024

website success

    If you find yourself craving a piping hot peppermint mocha, going home and lighting a cozy fire, and wishing you could wear your hoody to a listing presentation, it must be winter.

    Winter this year started on December 21 and lasts until March 20, 2022. Before the winter season ends, there is a lot happening, although local pandemic regulations may restrict some winter events.

    These festivals and other celebrations make welcome blog post topics. Today we take a look at some of what your readers are craving.

    1. Winter blog posts for homebuyers

    “3 must-have tips for buying a [name of town] home this winter”

    Need more ideas?

    • What’s going on in the local market? Is inventory still low? Are prices softening or rising? What are interest rates like? Warn readers that interest rates are expected to rise in 2022, so choosing to buy now is a wise decision. Check out this example Neil Kearney of Boulder Real Estate.
    • Handy with Canva? Head on over there and create an infographic addressing the age-old question of whether to buy now or wait. 
    2. Fishing for sellers?

    “3 must-have tips for selling a [name of town] home this winter”

    Most potential sellers want to know what’s happening with home prices. A market update, such as the one for buyers, mentioned previously, will most likely be quite welcome.

    Few agents do reader-friendly and hyper-local market updates like Kirkland, Washington’s Jim Badgley. Check it out at badgleyhomes.com.

    Don’t forget to add local keywords throughout all blog posts.

    3. Winter events in the community

    Winter events and festivals abound in the US. There’s Wintersköl in Aspen, CO, the amazing Winter Carnival in St. Paul, MN, the Winter Festival in Portland, OR, and more.

    Even non-snowy regions have winter events, like the Borrego Springs Film Festival in San Diego, CA, and Gasparilla Music Festival in Tampa Florida.

    Details about these events are ideal for a hyper-local blog post. Plus, they’re immensely sharable.

    Use various smaller holidays as topics. For instance, January 27th is Chocolate Cake Day. Write a listicle naming all the places in town one can get a great piece of cake.

    Other holidays that are easy to hyper-localize include:

    • National Frozen Yogurt Day (February 6, 2022)
    • National Pizza Day (February 9, 2022)
    • Valentine’s Day (February 14, 2022)
    • National Puppy Day (March 23, 2022. Great opportunity to write about the various pet shelters and rescues in your area).
    • St. Patrick ‘s Day (March 17, 2022. Who has the best corned beef and cabbage?)

    Then, there is the old standby “Best places” in your town to (or nearby):  

    • Take out-of-town guests
    • Sled, ski, etc.
    • Celebrate Valentine’s Day
    • Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day
    • Ice skate
    • Indoor and Mall walking tracks in your town

    There is far from a shortage of hyper-local winter real estate blog topics. Write ‘em up and don’t forget to link to them on social media.

    Discover Move-Up Market Prospects in Your Area and GET THE FIRST 100 FREE!

    5 Reasons To Go After the Move-Up Market Right Now!

    • Two sales in one (they’re selling their current home and buying another larger home.
    • They’ve purchased real estate before and understand the process, making for an easier transaction.
    • They know what they want, so less guesswork on your part.
    • They typically have a nice amount of equity in their home, meaning more money to spend on a new home.
    • They’re excited to enter the marketplace and take advantage of the low mortgage rates and buy bigger.

    To get the first 100 on a Move-Up Market Prospect List Free use PROMO CODE: MOVE100

    CLICK HERE to create your list (From a desktop/laptop computer) with the Demographic Search tool.

    This sale expires on January 15th.

    Watch this video: to learn how to create a Move-Up Market prospect list with the Demographic Search tool and launch a campaign.

    Once You Have Your Move-Up Market List, Launch a Campaign
    FARM, Move-Up Market Campaign shown above, learn more

    Schedule a Move-Up Market Postcard Campaign in Just Minutes!

    Scheduled postcard campaigns not only save you time, they’re sent standard class postage saving you money.

    And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY until each month’s mailing goes out (cancel or change up until the night before mailing).

    CLICK HERE (from a desktop or laptop computer) to get started on your campaign.

    To send a one-time postcard mailing to the Move-Up Market postcard series, CLICK HERE

    PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.

    1. The Free 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 Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

    2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

    The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals.  – Click Here

      Generate more future leads with your neighborhood page

      Did you know that the most powerful lead-generating pages on a real estate agent’s website can and should be the neighborhood or community pages?

      Sadly, for too many agents, they aren’t. Although these pages provide important information to visitors, too many aren’t doing the heavy lifting of luring new visitors to the site. Why?

      Inaccurate understanding of how to set these pages up for lead generation success.

      For instance, one agent website provider offers up a blog post about features to include to create an “Unbelievable Real Estate Neighborhood Page.”

      • Home prices
      • Community description
      • Neighborhood photos and videos
      • Area statistics
      • School rankings
      • Local attractions

      They then show examples of these features “in action.” Of the two agent websites shown, neither showed up within the first FIVE pages of Google results for their neighborhood pages.

      I don’t know about you, but an “unbelievable” neighborhood page should generate leads.

      So, how do you get yours to do that?

      Optimize those neighborhood pages

      Although the pages we viewed on the aforementioned websites are full of valuable information about the various communities, they will never rank unless and until they are SEO optimized.

      Even then there is no guarantee you’ll show up on page one of Google, especially if you work in a major market, such as San Francisco, Chicago or New York.

      Optimizing your pages may, on the other hand, yield huge results for smaller-market agents.

      The Sanitizing Your Home Free Report is available under the Free Report section

      Start with the title

      Your first impulse when creating a title for a neighborhood page is naturally going to be something along the lines of “Homes for Sale in [Name of Neighborhood].”

      But, check this out: There’s an agent in New England who titles all of his neighborhood pages “Realtors Guide to [Name of Neighborhood].”

      We don’t know what led him to make this decision but it might be that he felt the names of the neighborhoods were too competitive to rank well on their own.

      His decision is brilliant, however. We ran a search for “Realtor [Name of Neighborhood] and he ranks on page one of Google for three out of four communities. For the fourth, he ranks in the number one spot on page two of Google results.

      While the volume of searches for this term are most likely quite low, we imagine this agent gets the lion’s share of leads when it is used.

      Tip: If you choose to go the traditional route, avoid using the term “real estate.” It’s not a term that consumers frequently use. In fact, Google ads research shows us that “homes for sale in” receives nearly 9.5 times more impressions than “real estate for sale in.”

      Additionally, the former results in nearly 5 times more clicks than the latter.

      Sprinkle longtail keyword phrases throughout

      Longtail keywords typically include at least 4 words, but often more than that. Some to consider include hyper-local phrases such as:

      • Homes for sale in las vegas with a view
      • View homes for sale in las vegas
      • Oceanfront homes for sale in Waikiki
      • Homes for sale in Hopkins near the blake school

      Work these into your neighborhood descriptions as naturally as possible. For instance:

      “The best neighborhoods that offer ocean-front homes for sale in Waikiki include . . .”

      Tip: If a neighborhood is known locally by a name that’s different than what appears on the map or the official name, don’t be afraid to use it in your long-tail keyword phrases.

      Don’t stuff

      While you want to avoid keyword stuffing, there are areas of a neighborhood page that will give your keywords the most bang for the buck.

      These include:

      • The title of the page
      • The first sentence on the page
      • The URL link
      • Several subheadings
      • Image alt text

      The Sanitizing Your Home content card is available in the Content Card Series under postcards.

      If you don’t have neighborhood pages on your website, it’s time to fix that.

      Send the Sanitizing Your Home content postcard from the Content Card Series to your Sphere and/or Farm to keep them informed of how to stay safe during the coronavirus.

      Need help targeting a specific 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 some free resources we’ve made available to support your success.

      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, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here

       

       

      2. The Free One-Page 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

       

       

      4. 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

       

       

       

      5. 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

       

       

       

      3. The Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT” 

      The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted mailing list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here

      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)!

      © 2024 ProspectsPLUS! | Real Estate Marketing Blog