We recently went to the Xplodethis Conference – a quick hitting, action packed, content rich event that offered the latest in real estate technology and some of the best speakers in the industry. Here are the notes that will be helpful to you and your business!
MRIS – 12,000 agents have not done a transaction in the last year, 13,000 have done fewer than 3 transactions – basically 40% of agents don’t do the business! If real estate is your business, technology is your platform – you have to get on the technology bandwagon to be successful!
Mobile is where it’s at for the consumer AND agents – have data on demand in your hand! We are still in a people business – technology only helps you communicate. In the next 3-5 years, more searches will be done a mobile device than PC.
Study of consumers:
- Last 10 years – #1 complaint is not enough or lack of communication
- This year – consumers feel they are MORE educated about the product than the agent
Top 5 uses of tablets
36 new tablets will be released this year in this market – top 2 – Ipad2 and Motorola Xoom
- Data on demand
- Real estate searches – Realtor.com has high res. photos
- Planning calendars/Contacts
- Presentations – shows content and value
- Video capability
Top 9 Apps
- Realtor.com – can draw a circle around where your clients want to live
- ReaddleDocs/PDF Expert –iPad – opens PDF files
- Sign my pad – iPad – signature application
- Karl Jeacie’s Mortgage calculator
- Evernote – voice audio now
- Dropbox
- Cam card
- Cam scanner
- Hootsuite – manages all posts to social media
Today’s consumer is multi-media, multi-taskers – find people who would not normally find you
- Watch TV while surfing the we
- Surf magazines and scan QR codes
- On phone and laptop at same time
- 85% of people find your website other than direct search
- Your marketing shouldn’t cost you money, it should make you money
- Check out Agents of Change
Let people know you are Realtor – direct FB, Twitter, Linkedin to your blog where you talk about real estate and incorporate 365 things to do in your area
Use video – neighborhood videos, personal videos of clients about neighborhoods, schools, etc.
Use location – 4square and learn how people are looking to find locations
Use Twitter – use as an educational tool to do your job better – research think tanks, follow experts, get information and share and use in your business. Find answers for people
Blog – neighborhoods, business, and valuable content so you receive leads!!! Work your butt off as it is not a magic pill be consistent, be persistent and don’t quit – don’t be afraid to have an opinion – find a unique place and unique vision.
Google –
- Google.com/Picasa – group resizing, renaming, add to Google maps, collage, add to Facebook, post to Youtube movies
- Google.com/Voice – transcribes voicemail, sends text message and you can call back
- Google.com/Latitude – lets you see where someone is at all times with their permissions
- Google.com/Sync –allows you to sync all mobile devices at one time to calendars
- Goog.gl – URL shortened – similar to tiny URL – creates Analytics and QR codes automatically
- Google.com Maps – you can send maps to their GPS or as an email look at Matt’s video on how to use this feature www.
- Google.com/PowerMeter – monitors the power usage at your home but needs to be compliant with power companies
- Google.com/Add URL – use for adding every post you put on internet
- Google.com/Alerts – monitors information on what you want to follow and helps you monitor your online reputation – yourself, your listings & share with your clients, your company, your competition
- Add where your listing is located – Vienna, Fairfax County, VA – in MRIS to get better mojo in Google
- Google.com/Places – add your business address and you can get analytics from it as well
14% of people trust what you say about 91% believe what others say about you – peer recommendations are so important today – go to rate-an-agent on Google and see what happens.
Sites where agents can be rated – you are being rated so you better check out what people are saying about you
- Homethinking
- Incredibleagents
- Ratemyagent
- Mountainofagents
Need to have a plan to ask to recommend you – please go to www.blah/blah/blah.com and ask to recommend you there…Don’t take my word for it – see what others say!
Solution
- Compete.com – search to see which site is best
- Facefied.com – aggregates all of your reviews so you can put a badge on your email, website, etc. and have people look at and review you
People want sold data from your website
302 million people are considered mobile users – more texts are sent than phone calls being made
Mobile web is growing 8 times faster than traditional web did 10 years ago. Incorporate mobile into your listing presentation and speak about your solution to this for your clients. Lower bounce rates and higher capture rates with mobile website.
Video optimization – video=leads=$ – video houses, your profile, and testimonials. It’s not about what you think – it’s about what they Google! Become a local provider of content that national companies don’t have the capability to provide.
Universal SERPs Results – 84% Informational – 18% Navigational – 8% Buy from me sell with me – do “how to” videos. Do “Town Tours” – restaurants, schools, politicians, shopping centers, new homes, etc. and tag them properly.
Most Googled term is “how to” – how to move, how to fix a plumbing issue, how to anything and
Clients want to see video 6 times to 1 over text.
84% of rankings on Google come from Youtube videos
Keep it short – under 2 minutes, use fluid head tripods – no Blair Witch production, make it slow when panning & tilting, don’t zoom in and out, always be in focus, have external microphones, lighting – use white balance/Iris, Rule of thirds – be off to one side or the other but not in the middle. Rotate male and female voice overs if you are going to do voice overs. Talk about benefits and features not the layout because they can see it in the video. Always use studio lighting to hide shadows. Make videos about what the consumer wants!!!
RPR is for Realtors only and provides tons of content for our clients – gotta see to believe!
Tips for a better website
- Quick to load is important
- Don’t want to have to scroll side to side to see all of the content
- Upper right should be content information – your contact information is preferred here with a form to contact you
- Don’t use stock photos on your site
- Use video or professional photographer
- Work for the client not the commission – don’t use these things (don’t use honest, integrity, etc.)
- Don’t use featured listings
- No one cares what you look like – photos of you shouldn’t highlight site
- Website shouldn’t be built to appease sellers it is used to get new clients
- Consumer wants to search – giant section and easy to find
- Valuation models on site too
- How’s the market?
- Hyper local information on site.
- Use Madlib example on your forms
- Tribusgroup.com/shredder – thanks Eric
QR code on brochure box flyers should drop you into your mobile website
- Have a personal website
- Actively market your website
- Get mobile
- QR codes on fliers
- Get social on your website
Use tools that work best for you – video, digital signatures, and mobile devices are extremely critical today for Realtors to use and understand – don’t forget to USE YOUR OWN BRAIN
iPad is a great tool for agents to learn AND use effectively
Marketing and prospecting in real estate – how we receive information today is different than in the past but people still want to be reached out and touched.
If you are a knucklehead in the office you are probably worse on line
Every form of marketing reaches a specific audience – know who you are trying to reach and why.
AVM’s are strictly a baseline and are still not quite there. Let’s you know if you are in the ballpark but remember they have a huge margin of error. Set expectations of everyone in the process that there is a margin of error.
Use RBIntel to help support your offer or make a better one! The stats go back 5 years…
If I were starting today – where would I begin to build an online presence?
- Make it easy to search for homes
- Create community landing pages
- IFrame search into your listing page
- Need lead capture – don’t have outside links on your site
- Get local – talk about the community
- Create content want to share
- Publish more
- Measure your results
- Do a self-audit of your website
Social Media is relational not transactional
- Provide real time breaking news in their city
- Things to do/events
- Every deal in driving radius of their house
- Automate your updates – maintenance free
- Social commerce – groupon/living social $25 for $1,000 cash back at closing when buying or selling a house with RE/MAX Gateway
- Social discovery – drives social commerce
- Airbnb is the Groupon of 2011 and will create real estate liquidity – your room for rent, your basement for rent, etc.
- Become a media star through automated messages
- Become indispensible resource to your clients
Track your customers, leads, contacts through CRM
Leads are:
- Bogus
- Suspects
- Or real prospects
CARMA – Client Acquisition Relational Management Acquisition
Initially set up as a forecasting tool for Fortune 500 companies to project earnings
Understand CRM
A good CRM system integrates MLS data and transaction data
Intangibles of success in real estate
- Likability – can you control it? Yes!
- Be intentional about your actions – if your actions depended upon someone liking you or not and this determined whether or not you were able to feed your kids do you believe you control your actions
- Perception is reality. There is a perception of you in the marketplace and you can’t control it – craft your message you want others to believe and get the perception to the public.
Reason for success of top 100 companies
- Speed of implementation of systems
- Take action
CRM is a strategy for managing a company’s interactions and engagements with customers, prospects and clients.
Today we are dealing with Social CRM – advocacy, experience, service support, marketing, PR, sales on a relational basis.
Involves technology to create the best type of CRM
- Organize
- Automate
- Synchronize business practices
Success marketing – putting your plan on paper
How many lead sources do you need to be intentional and direct about growing your business – 4 to 6 – these include but are not limited to your sphere, niche market, online, networking, farming, etc. Put them in groups and market to them differently.
What data should you collect – personal profiles, demographics, and conversations. Why? To build the relationship!
What do you send to whom and when. Think about this seriously.
Stop drip campaigns and create or start a two way conversation. Send valuable content, have a call to action, and the human interaction is critical.
Communicate to connect with people, don’t talk at them!
E+R=O
E=Events in your life
R=Response to those events
O=Outcomes
- Events happen to everyone
- It’s not the events that cause you to be or feel the way you do, it’s your choice of response
- There are always at least two responses to every event
How do we learn how to react? Parents influence is the number one way they respond.
Nobody makes do you anything – you choose your response. An example is “he made me so mad” – he didn’t make you mad, you chose to be mad.
Everyone has an emotional checking account – think, is there a different way to respond to events? Our account is full at the beginning of the day and the events we encounter make us write checks for each one we have. Think before you write you check and don’t write a $5 check for a $.50 event.
Don’t let self-help turn into shelf help – use what you learn!
Wrap-up – get yourself a mobile device. By 2012, more people will use mobile devices instead of personal computers. We are in a “freeware” environment but it will become “payware”. Data is king – provide the right tools to get the right information out clients.
In today’s ever changing real estate market, you need to stay ahead of the curve. Get it? Got it? Good!
Now, go sell something!
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