My daily morning routine is to browse articles posted by people and organisations which I believe will deliver some valuable insights to real estate agents and their digital marketing campaigns. My top 10 engaged with posts on Facebook for 2014 are listed below. Engagement was measured through a combination of views, clicks and likes on the Online Agents Facebook Page and various other Facebook groups including “Real Estate Rocks” and “The Real Estate Community”

#10 – SEO demystified for real estate agents.

SEO – Why is it important in real estate?

– 90% of homebuyers searched online during their home buying process
– 75% of users never scroll past the first page
– Search is number 1 driver of traffic to websites

#9 – Has your organic reach on Facebook fallen of a cliff?

The article looks into the algorithm of the Facebook news feed and how it has evolved. It includes some fantastic tips on how you can optimize your content for a better result.

#8 – Get Out of the House when shooting property videos. Great advise from Greg Vincent on Real Estate Business #realestatevideo

A great article from my friend Greg Vincent, real estate videos have been hot topic in 2014 and we’ve seen some of the best and worst of what Australian agents have produced. Greg is an expert in this field and is always free in sharing his knowledge to better others.

#7 – Would you buy Google Glass so that you can do this?

One of my personal favorites. US Realtor Ariana Rios presents a home walk through to a digital audience using Google Glass.

#6 – I speak to so many agents who say “Well we tried [Social Media], it just didn’t work for us..HOT TIP! Don’t share Listings.

Content, content, content. How agents wanting to succeed in the digital landscape without curating digital content for their online profile is beyond me. Believe Me. if you don’t YOU WILL LOSE!

#5 – Tweet door to door, hit the email pavement and Hello Facebook Neighbour. 3 ways to digitally door knock your community.

Face to face is vital to a strong relationship with people in your community, however. Do they want you to introduce yourself by knocking on their physical door or knocking at their digital door?

#4 – Can some one please congratulate me on posting this

It was a little experiment that really did work. Mention the word “Congratulations” in a facebook post and it reaches a much bigger audience.

#3 – Thou art so clever Google!

We all use Google to search for well, just about anything and everything. However, not many real estate agents know how to make the most out of some really cool tools that Google offer at no charge at all.

#2 – Private sellers need to understand WHY they should engage with a licensed real estate agent. Here it is..

The Ultimate answer to that seller that is considering selling privately. A Quality agent will get you a quality result.

#1 – Aprox $10K for a $420K Property. But you risk losing a few $ if you are not the successful bidder

Possibly the most controversial post was the new online property auction site bower bid. Selling seats to an auction where the eventual successful bidder walks away with the keys for anywhere around $10K. Check out the video and let me know what you think of this new process. Is it a winner?

When will a real estate video become a standard part of real estate marketing?

– If 1 minute of video is worth 1.8 Million words

– If real estate listings with videos receive 403% more inquiries than those without.

– if 90% of online shoppers say they find video is helpful in making their decisions

– If 80% Of Your Online Visitors Will Watch A Video, While Only 20 Percent Will Actually Read Content In Its Entirety

– Then at what price point will you start using video in each of your listings?

Congratulations, you have just secured your first, second or 100th real estate listing. You had some strong competition from other local agents but you came through and won the trust of your new seller……High Five! You deserve it.

Back to the office, process the listing, arrange photo shoot, property video, write your copy and eventually, load it up to all the websites and wait for the buyers to come flocking through the door at next weekends inspection.

Fast forward 2 weeks, you’ve have a few emails that didn’t eventuate into anything and you had a few groups through the home on Saturday and Sunday, 1 of which was the neighbour from across the road.

How can you get more people contacting you and coming through the inspection? Rewind to the moment you clicked “submit” and uploaded your listing to the web.

Attrition plays a massive role in online advertising, your audience is time poor and at many stages while they browse new listings they will become distracted and move on to the next listing. I write more about attrition through online real estate listings in a previous article but today, I would like you to consider leaving an “Information Gap”

You’ve lured potential buyers to your listing with some great photography, your listing title is unique and descriptive and you have been very detailed in sharing ALL the features of the home. Actually, what you have done is answered every possible question your potential buyer may have and because the answers you provided are your opinion and those of the seller, your buyers may not share that opinion and can be very quick to lose interest and move on.

An information gap is where you make  reference to a possible feature but don’t give away all the answers, leaving the buyers mind open and possibly wanting to find out more.

For example, the en-suite bathroom includes a luxurious spa bath. An information gap could be an image of a closed bathroom door with some text suggesting there is something magnificent behind the door and if the buyer wants to know what it is, they should contact you either by telephone call or an email.  I’m not suggesting you use images of closed doors in your marketing but I think you understand the point I make about an information gap.

Try not to give away all the details about the property you are selling, leave the buyer open to consider that there is something unique and they will need to contact you to find out more.

Who is your Audience in Real Estate?

Buyers? Sellers? Members of your community? Fact is, they all are. And they’re looking for YOU!

Lets clear up one point of contention about online marketing for real estate agents. You do NOT have to invest most of your time on it. In FACT, your focus should be on building real relationships and by that I mean. In everything you do, always be aiming to sit down, face to face with your future clients.

Reality CHECK. It is likely that more than 75% of the people in your community, or from the community you work in spend more than 3 hours per day browsing the internet and more importantly, reading and interacting with their peers on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Are you represented online in your community?

On Facebook you can create groups. On Google you can use maps and Google Places, on Twitter you can create lists. All are tools for you as a real estate professionals to meet, interact and build relationships with the people in your community. Lets not forget about Pinterest where people share images that mean something to them and the new social platform “Vine” where users can share 6 second videos. How much can you communicate in 6 seconds? TRY it NOW. I know you will be amazed.

If  2013 has not started the way you would have hoped for then re-focus now by making a commitment to your self and to the income you want to generate as an agent. All it takes is:

Spend  up to 30 minutes each day creating online real estate content that is targeted to the people living in your community.

Rewind 20 years and the top agents would have the local bus seats covered, you would also see them in the local newspapers and on the t’shirts of the local footy team. A contributor in the community. they would drive potential buyers around the suburbs and walk them through their listings. It’s certainly not like that any more, many agents tell me.

Today, sellers will research the market and local agents online before contacting them for an appraisal. Whilst researching, they will possibly even consider going at it alone with out the guidance and skill of an expert in property. Buyers also are better informed, they have access to information and come armed with statistics and property data.

At which stage of a buyer or sellers research will they find YOU?

Without a solid online presence in real estate, their is a realistic chance that you may not be found at all. So where do you start? Here is my checklist of basic minimum requirements for a successful online presence in real estate.

1. Google

Google is more than likely going to be where your buyers and sellers will also start. Make sure you apply at least the basic SEO strategies to every page on your real estate website. Create a Google account and try out Google+. Google places is also a fantastic free tool to advertise your business and be found for local search queries. You can also set up a Google Places entry for your farming area as a real estate agent.

2. Real Estate Blog

Just having a website these days is not enough for maintaining a strong online presence, incorporating a blog will make your site interactive for visitors but will also demonstrate to search engines that your are producing new content frequently and thus make their visits more frequently and boost you up in the search results. Check this article for some ideas about what to blog about in real estate.

3. Social Media

Social Media is where the communities are, they are platforms visited by billions of people around the globe. By far the most engaging social platform for agents is Facebook. Setting up a community page is easy and attracting an audience can be achieved through other similar networks on Facebook, through your website/blog and through leaflet drops that I know you all love doing. A community page can include a timeline of historic property prices in your local community and is the perfect platform to demonstrate that you are an expert in your field. One word of caution though, people on Social Media Platforms don’t like to be sold to. It’s about sharing your information and establishing rapport.

4. Video

Which agent 20 years ago would have considered producing a professional quality property profile video and then broadcasting it to thousands. Property videos are now within reach of nearly every advertising budget and are definitely more engaging then a slideshow of photos and accompanying text. Youtube is the second biggest search engine in the world so it just makes sense that your profile and product can be found there.

5. Web Portals

There is absolutely no doubt that this is where the buyers hang, real estate portals are home to nearly every property for sale today. Property Portals receive millions of visitors a year. These visitors whether buying, selling, renting or looking for someone to manage their investment are engaged in real estate and your presence here is essential. Here are some tips to increase sales lead generation through real estate portals

Are you the number 1 agent in your community? maybe your just starting out. Regardless of where you are in your career it is now essential that you create a successful online presence.

Marketing is an indispensable part of conducting business. Organizations with a large sum of money allocated to marketing can afford to use different kinds of media. For a self employed professional in the real estate business, considering the immense competition one is up against, real estate blogs come across as an effective and affordable marketing tool. Blogs have a wide reach and only ask for your time and creativity. It is the best place to use your sales and marketing skills. After all, if you are in the real estate business you better be good at it. Let us dig deep into the process you need to undertake in order to improve your business prospects.

1. Post about real estate in different regions
A real estate professional quite obviously needs to keep abreast with every piece of information that has the potential to impact the real estate prices in the region. Let your posts speak your mind on such issues. Talk about property in different regions and the factors that may give the prices a push in the near term. Carve out a space for yourself in the niche real estate blog segment. This will help you immensely in getting more business.

2. Promote your blog
The same strategy works here as in case of blogs in other domains. Place your comments on popular real estate blogs. Be one of the first few people to comment. Make sure that the comment takes the story forward. Build interest around yourself for people to access your blog and turn regular readers. Place the link to your blogs on all your social networking profiles.

3. Project yourself as client friendly
Tough competition in any domain implies that clients are spoilt for choice. Differentiate yourself as a premium service provider with emphasis on getting the best deals for the client. You do get your commission for the purpose but business is all about highlighting what you can do for your clients. People like to employ the services of professionals who present themselves as the ones who have the clients’ best interest on their mind.

4. Display your business acumen
We all like to work with people who come across as experts in their domain. Interesting anecdotes can do the trick for you. Let your success stories be an appropriate representation of the quality of your work. Do not exaggerate so as to avoid making all appear fraud.

5. Give snippets of information on profitable deals
You need not blow your trumpet with exact details as clients seek privacy too but you can still talk about how you clinched a deal for your client. When you specify a geographical location and drop hints on profits made by your clients, others in the region are bound to get interested in seeking your services. Make yourself easily accessible for clients to reach you as and when they want to. Once the clients make the first move, do not allow the opportunity to slip out of your hands.

Good business skills call for conversion of sales leads but before you go about doing that you need to get those leads. Use your real estate blog as a tool to assure people that you can get them the best deals in the shortest duration of time while sparing them any hassles in the process. This will act as a driving factor for your business. Do follow up on your word though.

About the author: Alia Haley is a blogger who also happens to be a tech buff. She is always on a lookout for latest tech stuff and recently purchased a cool ipad docking station. She is also a big fan of the concept of 3d laptop.

I wasn’t a fan of QR (Quick Response) Codes until I began researching real estate video marketing and it was from that moment that I started seeing endless possibility in their function and ability to assist agents filling the gap between their printed and online marketing strategies.

According to Wikipedia, the QR Code was created almost 2 decades ago by Toyota subsidiary, Denso Wave. Its purpose was to track vehicles during the manufacturing process. Today it has evolved to enabling smart phone users, who can simply scan the code using an app to view mobile friendly content including:

• Online Video
• Mobile friendly websites
• Email addresses
• Contact Card Details
• Many more! In fact, here is a list of 101 Uses for QR Codes

In the past, to the consumer public, QR codes were nothing more than an ugly little black and white square, an image that must have a function but not attractive enough for them to feel compelled in exploring what it is and how it works. It’s actually taken a very long time for these 2 dimensional bar codes to grow in popularity to where it is today.

Q. So how can real estate agents successfully use these ugly bland looking images in their marketing?

A. Branded QR Codes for Mobile Friendly Online Real Estate Content!

Yes, brand them with your own corporate colours and logo, make them visually appealing and functional before you print them on your sign boards, flyers, window displays and business cards.

How? There are many online QR Code Generators online. However, this one will actually produce branded QR Codes. Just click the link and play around a little. Below are a few samples I have produced using this code.

Throughout my article I have made mention of “Mobile friendly Content” It is vital to the success of your online campaign that any QR Code you produce links to content that is compatible to being viewed on a smart phone screen.

I do believe that QR Codes will grow in their popularity and being able to brand them will certainly assist businesses, especially in real estate to start using them and embedding them in their marketing strategies.

In a recent article about Where can I broadcast my real estate video,  I made a few reccomendations as to which QR Readers could be used for the different types of smart phones. Check it out.

Have fun playing around with the generator tool. I certainly did.

If you have used Google at all over the past 12 months, you will have noticed a new map appearing in the search results. The reason for this is that Google’s aim is to bring you the most relevant results for what you are searching for, right down to a local, geographic level.

The Google Map, or Google Places results, within Google Search Results are triggered when a user searches using a geographic identifier such as “Melbourne Real Estate Agent” or “Gold Coast Estate Agent”. Google takes that search, and scours it’s Google Places listings for the most relevant and geographically close result.

So now you know how and why it works, but how do you get your Real Estate company at the top of the list, and start getting more phone calls, enquiries and website traffic for these hyper-local consumers?

Now is the time to learn 7 quick tips on how you can use Google Places to attract new local clients to your business:

Use your REAL Business Name

It can be tempting to make strategic adjustments to your business name to include extra keywords. In recent months, Google has really clamped down on this, so ensure you list your real business name, with minimal additional keywords.

• Real business name – “Ray White Real Estate Adelaide”
• Google Places listing name – “Ray White Real Estate Adelaide”
• Don’t use “Ray White Home & Commercial Real Estate Adelaide, SA”

Ensure your business information is spot on

In it’s effort to present the most relevant information to users of it’s search engine, Google is obsessed with accuracy. Within your Google Places listing, ensure the following business information is filled out completely; business  address, Email, fax number, telephone number and website.

Some other things to note:

• Always use a local phone number, and never your 1300 or 1800 number

• Never use a PO Box address or you will have your listing removed

• For your website URL, point this to your contact page which already contains all of the corresponding details in your listing.

Get your business categories right

Google allows you to select up to 5 categories that your business falls under. You can either select the Google suggested categories, or if none are appropriate, you can list your own.

The best strategy here is to choose two of the Google suggested options, even if not exactly right, and then choose the remaining 3 of your own.

The most important thing is to ensure you list all 5.

Make your business description stand out form the crowd

Google gives you 200 characters to explain exactly what your business does. Make sure you include the top relevant keywords and business terms.

Highlighting achievements such as ‘Award Winning’, ‘Top Salesman’, ‘Best Clearance Rate 2010’, will work perfectly.

Use Photos and Videos

With your local listing, Google allows you to add photos and videos to your listing. Insert images such as your logo, a photo of your real estate office, photos of agency partners and awards.

For video, some great options include customer testimonials, or a company promotional video.

By using great imagery and video, you are putting your listing one step ahead of the competition by creating a more interesting listing.

Service area of retail location?

When you are specifying the locations you service, Google allows you to select either an area within a certain distance, or simply outline that your customers need to come to your location.

The one flaw in the Google system is that businesses that select a specific location rather than an area, tend to rank better.

So, choose a specific location.

Get more reviews

Reviews and testimonials are always important both online and offline. Google Places is no different. Google uses reviews of your business as a factor in determining how trustworthy your business is, and where it will rank you in the Google Places listings.

Encourage your previous clients to spend a few minutes leaving a review for your services on your Google Places page, it will help your ranking, and help you convert more of your potential customers online.

Google Places is a great tool for getting more targeted local customers. Typically as they are highly geographically targeted, they tend to also be more relevant users and convert at a much higher rate.

The above points are a great start for your Real Estate business, or any business for that matter, but like anything, it just takes time!

This article was submitted by our guest blogger – James Richardson

James Richardson is director of Optimising an SEO, PPC, Web Development agency based in Melbourne. He has worked in the Online Marketing industry for the past 7 years, and has helped over 500 businesses achieve more success with Google”

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website and/or a webpage in search engines via the natural or un-paid (organic) search results. There are 100’s if not 1000’s of factors that the search engine considers to be relevant data to increase the ranking of a website but above all….Content is King.

Many agents today use Social Media Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to share content. So how can those agents now make the next step and actually generate the content not only to improve their own online profile but also to increase their visibility in the search engines.

One strategy to consider is creating a blog  and using this to post regular and relevent content in the form of articles. Creating a blog is fairly simple. See our recent article, Tools and costs to set up your own real estate blog.

Once your blog has been set up it’s time to start producing some articles here are some ideas that I suggested in a previous article I have created my blog, Now what? – Article Suggestions

• Real Estate in your area – Basic statistics and facts about real estate in your local community.
• General Real Estate – Trends, Markets, Your perception and prediction of the future.
• Your Listings – Let’s face it, you can never give your listings enough publicity. Just make sure that your blog does not become a portal for your listings, readers will lose interest very quickly.
• Local Area – Climate, Lifestyle, Recreation. Let readers know that you are familiar with your community.
• Places of interest – Tourist Attractions, Markets, Historic monuments.
• Local Schools – How many? Primary schools, high schools, colleges, universities.
• Community centres – Churches, Scouting, Day care centres.
• Local Shops – Major stores, specialty stores, restaurants, fast food outlets.
• Local Sporting Clubs – Publish results, fixtures, stories.

So in real estate it’s important to be different, to offer something unique….A purple Cow. So here is something to try. Why not ask your vendor to write a guest article.

Your sellers can provide first hand what it’s like to live in the neighbourhood, their experiences, their favorite places and things to do.  Within no time you can add genuine relevent content to your blog, share it accross your social profiles and include them in your local marketing.

Whether your strategy is Blogging, Social media, Real Estate Video or everything and anything online, Content will always be of paramount importance to the success of your online strategy. Web users do not consume platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. They consume the content that is presented to them via those platforms.
Good luck and please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below