Thursday, July 26, 2007

How to Direct Customers to Your Web Site

How to Direct Customers to Your Web Site

by Kim Morlan

1.

List your site with Internet search engines and in legitimate directories.

2.

Link your site to as many complementary sites as you can, but avoid linking only with other real estate agents (as this can cause you to be de-listed by the search engines). Instead, link to contractors, mortgage brokers, home stagers, handymen, and anyone else that you have developed a referral business network with.

3.

Start your own e-mail newsletter or blog. Build the content around the interests of your customers and feature items specifically related to what's happening at your site.

4.

Make sure your Web site address is on all of your company's stationery, forms and business cards. A company vehicle and promotional items such as coffee mugs and pens are also great places to advertise your online venture. Don’t forget to put your site in your voice mail message and email signature too!

5.

Consider purchasing a small banner ad on a popular Web site or placing an advertisement in a blog with high circulation. These venues offer maximum exposure for a small cash outlay.

6.

Invest in your online marketing! Advertise in the search engines through Pay-Per-Click campaigns such as Google Adwords, or save time and use traffic generation programs such as Buyerlink to drive targeted buyers to your site. As your budget permits, hire a respectable SEO company to boost your ranking in the Search Engines to increase your exposure.

Tips:

  • Publishing a quality e-mail newsletter or blog on a regular basis is time-consuming. Be prepared to spend time maintaining your contact database and developing content.

  • Be sure to track visitors to your site. Find out where they heard about your site so that you can evaluate which methods of promoting your site work best.

Warnings:

  • Don't send unsolicited e-mail advertisements, better known as spam. Besides being extremely irritating to the recipients, your Internet service provider can cancel your account if people start filing complaints. Make sure that anyone on your email list has contacted you first.

  • Newsgroups and comment boards aren't the place to post advertisements. These are forums for open discussion, not for unwanted ads. (That said, they can be a great and subtle way to get exposure for your site, so make sure you are linking back to your website when posting comments on other people’s blogs!)

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Win Your Share of Online Consumers

According to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), more homebuyers find their agent on the Internet than in all traditional marketing channels (newspaper ads, direct mail, refrigerator magnets, phone directories, etc.) combined. In fact, the Internet has forever changed the way people buy and sell homes, making “the way it used to be” unlikely to ever be again.

As a group, online consumers have higher incomes, spend more money on their homes, do much of their own research and take up less of your time before initiating a transaction. Another study suggests that most Internet-savvy prospects also prefer to work with Internet-savvy agents. So if you want to capture your share of today’s home buyers and sellers, here’s how to put the power of online marketing to work for you:

1. Create a business Web site that reflects your practice, area, specialties and current listings—including a number of different pictures of each property. Include some photos of yourself and enough personal information to help prospects get to know you, but don’t overload your business site with too much detail about hobbies, pets, celebrations, etc.

2. Keep your site organized so visitors can easily find what they’re looking for. Information that isn’t organized clearly and logically will cause many prospects to quickly lose patience and move on to another agent’s site.

3. Make it easy to reach you by clearly posting your email address, office phone, mobile phone, pager and/or fax number on your site. Include your office address, directions and hours if walk-ins are welcome. And always add your Web address to business cards, emails, signage, newspaper ads, etc.

4. Keep information up-to-date to avoid misleading prospects and missing opportunities to win their business. If an offer is pending, the asking price or other key information has changed, make sure the new information is reflected on your Web site right away.

5. Let your system do the work so you have more time to spend with actual clients. With 74% of homeowners listing with the first agent they talk to, you need to be the first point of contact and then stay in regular touch with prospects until they’re ready to make a move. The most successful agents use a Web-based contact management system to build long-term prospect relationships and automatically send out new listings by email to increase their chances of winning more clients.


Why it pays to market your business online

• 77% of homebuyers consider detailed property information to be “extremely valuable.”
• Baby boomers and seniors are the fastest growing segments of the Internet population.
• As a result of using an Internet site, 72% of buyers drove by and viewed a home
• Buyers who use the internet work with an agent only two weeks on average to purchase their home, compared with six weeks for traditional homebuyers.
• NAR confirms that 70% of homebuyers now use the Internet to shop for homes.
• A 2003 California Real Estate magazine survey noted that the volume of Internet homebuyers jumped 61% in only one year.
• The wealthiest Americans ($100K or higher annual incomes) are the largest group of online users.
• Nearly three out of four people surveyed reported that convenience and being able to research properties before talking to an agent were the top reasons to search for a new home online.

6 Powerful Prospecting Tips

6 Powerful Prospecting Tips
by Philip Jordan


Sales is a contact sport and prospecting for new business is the name of the game!

You will never meet a salesperson that failed because they had too many prospects to talk to. For the majority of salespeople, finding new customers is without a doubt the most difficult and stressful aspect of the profession.

Prospecting should be viewed more as a mindset rather than merely as an activity. It is something you need to be constantly aware of because you never know where your next prospect will be coming from. It really doesn't matter how competent you are or how well you know your product line, if you don't have a qualified prospect in front of you, you don't have a sale.

1. Prospecting for new business is similar to working out. You know it is good for you and it will produce positive results if you do it routinely. Professional salespeople prospect daily. It is important to block-off specific time on your calendar for prospecting activities such as phone calling and emailing. Treat your prospecting time with the same respect as you would any other important appointment, otherwise, there is a tendency that it will slip through the cracks. This is not the time to check your emails, play solitaire on the computer, make a personal phone call or chat with your associates. Stay focused and take your prospecting seriously. Set the tone by closing your office door and have your incoming calls held unless it is a call from a client or a prospect.


2. Be prepared, get organized and take good notes. It is critical to have a computerized contact system to record remarks and suspense future contacts or appointments.


3. Use a script - don't shoot from the hip. There is only one thing worse than listening to a salesperson read a script over the phone and that is to listen to a salesperson without a script. Obviously, it is important to not only have a script but to practice it until it sounds smooth and natural. Set aside time to role-play with an associate over the phone. By taking turns presenting and critiquing you will gain confidence, polish your script and be more effective. When prospecting, avoid the temptation to sell over the phone. Your objective is to gather information and make the appointment.


4. Strike while the iron is hot! When working with a new prospect, it is important to make contact quickly. Prospects are perishable. No matter how interested a prospect may appear, don't wait for them to call you. You are only one of many competing interests for your prospect's time and money.


5. Keep the high ground and avoid the temptation to badmouth your competition. While it is fair to make head-to-head comparisons, you should avoid personal attacks. Attacking your competition makes you look unprofessional and petty. Emphasize the benefits of your product or service by guiding your prospect through a comparison of quality and price. Play to your strengths and not the weakness of your competition. Let your prospect draw their own conclusions from a well-presented comparison.


6. Rejection is a natural aspect of the sales process so don't take it personally. Learn from rejection, use it as a feedback mechanism and look for ways to improve your presentation. Salespeople who take rejection personally lack perseverance and seldom make the sale. Sales is a numbers game pure and simple. As a professional baseball player, if you can average four hits out of ten times at bat you are heading for the Hall of Fame. Research indicates that in sales you can expect your prospect to say no five times before they buy. With this in mind, realize that with every sales rejection you receive, you are one step closer to making the sale!