Want to know an easy, no-cost way to enhance your real estate marketing program?
Add informative tips to your marketing pieces.
For instance, take a subject you know a lot about (and one that’s relevant to your
audience) and divide it into 12 parts. You’ve just created a tip-of-the-month
postcard series. Now tie it back to a buyer or seller guide, information kit, or some
other free report as a way to prompt that ever-critical first contact from your target
base.
The execution of this approach is simple, but you do need to have some kind of
follow-up piece that your prospects would actually want — a free report of some
kind. Make sure it’s something with a high perceived value in your prospects’ minds
(not something they can just go online and easily find themselves).
The Q&A Version
Here’s another way to add information to your real estate marketing program. Use
your mailers to present a commonly asked question about buying or selling, and
then answer the question thoroughly and helpfully on the reverse side. Then create
an offer to the effect of: “If you found this Q&A helpful, you’ll enjoy my free report,
‘The Top 25 Home-Buying Questions, Answered’ available online at…”
If you follow the Q&A approach, you can make it more believable and “close to
home” by including the questioner’s name and neighborhood. For instance: “Bob
Smith, Mayfield Ranch.” Just be sure you get permission before publishing
someone’s name. Most people won’t mind, but you have to ask.
Your informative tips don’t have to take the form of Q&A though. As long as they
provide helpful information and refer back to a source document.
Best Practices
Make your information unique and hard-to-find, the more so the better. The
problem with a free report on plain old “Home Buying Tips” is that anybody can go
online and get this information — without requesting it from you. But if you offered
“27 Tips for Buying a Home in the ‘Boom Town’ of Austin, Texas,” you’ve just made
your report more exclusive and more current.
Remember — always tie the information back to your buyer / seller guide (or
whatever guide you created for your target audience). Make it easy for them to
obtain it, but make sure you have a way to capture their contact information when
they do. You can have them call you, email you, or visit your website and sign up for
a newsletter … as long as you capture some form of contact information.
Conclusion
Real estate agents often forget about the most valuable asset they have —
information. But by leveraging that information and building it into your client
communications, you can strengthen your real estate marketing program and
increase your response rates.
* Copyright 2006, Brandon Cornett. You may republish this article in its entirety,
provided you leave the byline, author’s note and website hyperlink intact.
About the Author
Brandon Cornett is the author of The Modern Guide to Real Estate Marketing and the founder of ArmingYourFarming.com. Read more articles or sign up for Brandon’s free newsletter by visiting: http://www.ArmingYourFarming.com
Brandon’s Blog
The thirst for new knowledge is a driving force for many intellectual markets these days. Knowledge is big business and you can capitalize on that business by turning your own experiences, training, knowledge, and know-how into a passive-income product that can serve as another stream of income. What kind of product you ask? Well, a book of course. Everyone has at least one book in them and those of us with more experience can have 5, 10, 20, or more.
Why Write a Book?
There is no right answer to this question, simply because it is different for each person. Some people want just the satisfaction of seeing their words in print. Others like the challenge of producing something they created themselves. I see my writing as both personally-satisfying and also serious business. Sure, I like to see my name in print, but when I’m holding a book in my hands, I’m holding a product that I created with my own two hands and my head and I want it to generate cash flow for me.
Words + ideas = $$$
I used to say: words + ideas + paper = $$$, but with the advent of eBooks, the paper factor has been eliminated. Realize that each and every person goes through life with their own unique perspectives and ideas. No two people ever see things exactly the same way. This is what makes your own knowledge and experience a valuable commodity because even though every topic imaginable has already been written about by numerous authors, none of them see the situation as you do and your unique twist to that same issue makes it valuable to others.
What to Write About
You tell me. Most of us go to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. With that much invested time, we should be good at something right? Do you have a passion or a hobby, or maybe a sport that you excel at? Trust me, you have more information inside that brain of yours than you would like to admit. The trick is to put it on paper and in an organized way that people will find appealing.
How to Get Published
My advice is to forget about going with a traditional publisher. Their snotty approach to new authors, coupled with lots of red tape is a headache that you don’t need. Even if you do get a contract with them, the check you’ll get upfront as a newbie author will be next to nothing and it could be a year before you ever see your script in book form. Instead, self-publish your book through a print-on-demand company. Now, you won’t get the respect in the industry that a traditional publishing house can deliver, but for the average Joe out therethey could care less and realize that you can use the shoulders of your previous book to launch your next one. Just make sure your book is high-quality and invest to have it professional edited and designed.
Selling Your Book
Whether you go with a traditional publisher or you self-publish, its up to you to switch from your writer’s cap to your business cap. You are going to have to promote and sell your book, which means people have to know that you wrote a book in the first place and they need to know where they can go to purchase that book. The best option for you to do is to have a website built that either can take orders direct, or send your customers to sites like Amazon.com to purchase your book. Aggressively promote your book by writing articles, letters to editors, getting on the phone, and marketing your book. Remember that it is an investment and it’s up to you to cash in on that investment.
Tristan Loo is the founder of Alternative Conflict Resolution Services, a management consultancy based out of San Diego County, Calfornia. Tristan is a former police officer, conflict expert, professional mediator, and negotiator. Tristan gained his experience by actively engaging conflict out on the streets, honing his knowledge and understanding of conflict during hundreds of dangerous encounters with hostile and violent subjects. Tristan is the author of Street Negotiation–How to Resolve Any Conflict Anytime.
For FREE Conflict Articles and Products, please visit our website at http://www.acrsonline.com or email us directly at info@acrsonline.com
A person or business that might buy from you is called a prospect. But they might just as accurately be called a skeptic. We live in the age of the spam filter. And call-display. We live in what fellow-copywriter Herschell Gordon Lewis calls, “The Age of Skepticism.”
Your sales letters must overcome your reader’s built-in baloney detector. Your prospective customers are on their guard. Here, in no particular order, are some tips on how to prove your trustworthiness on paper.
1. Third-party endorsements
If your product has won an industry award for innovation, say so. If your service was ranked among the top 10 in your industry by a trade publication or other impartial group, mention that. Leverage the positive press you’ve received.
2. Testimonials
If your clients have said kind things about your company, your products or your customer service, cite these accolades in your sales letters, with the client’s permission, of course. Solicit these testimonials often, and file them. Wherever possible, use the testimonials that speak to the concerns and challenges facing each particular prospect that you write to. To increase believability, cite the full name, job title and company (and website if the testimonial appears online) of each person who gives a testimonial.
3. Industry accreditation
If your company is ISO 9000 certified, and if that is of value to your prospects, say so. If you are members of your industry association, or the Better Business Bureau, and if saying so will increase your believability, mention that as well.
4. Longevity
The longer you have been in business, the easier you are to trust. So mention your years in business or the year you were founded, whichever sounds the most impressive and plausible.
5. Industry leadership
Are you the leader in your industry? That’s worth a mention. You can demonstrate leadership in terms of annual sales, breadth of product line, market share, number of employees, number of customers, and number of countries where you have a presence.
Special challenges
If your company is brand new, unknown, or cannot say any of the above things, there are still ways to communicate trustworthiness. Incorporate your business, since having Inc. after your name makes you look established. Get a toll-free number. It says “big business” and “customer service.” Offer a money-back guarantee. Offer “no money up front, pay later” terms. Add the years that your partners have been in business and present that figure as your combined years of experience. Locate your office at a prestigious address in the same neighbourhood where your competitors are known to do business (Madison Avenue, New York, for advertising, Saville Row, London, for men’s suits, and so on).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter and lead generation specialist who helps business owners and marketing managers generate leads, close sales and retain customers using creative direct mail marketing. Learn more about his creative direct mail writing services and sign up for free weekly tips like this at http://www.sharpecopy.com.
© 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the “About the author” message).
Soon, I’ll do a large study on headlines using a list of profitable and unprofitable sites. However, I have been running some split tests and have seen some interesting results in the last week or so. The sample size is small (3 sites), but all three split tests agreed on the following factors:
1. Blue (#000080) is winning over black by a small margin on all three sites. I hadn’t expected that. I use dark blue just because I like it and the large study showed that any dark color was fine as long as it wasn’t red. Green just never appealed to me and I wanted some color in my sales letter, so I’ve been going with that dark blue. Because darkness was important in the large study, I expected black to win over blue. It’s a nice result to see that I’m not doing the 2nd place thing in this case.
2. Serif fonts (Times New Roman in the tests) are winning over sans-serif fonts (Arial in the tests). That makes no sense to me. Everyone knows that headlines should be sans-serif and regular text should be serif; right? That’s just basic typography info. In fact, I think sans-serif fonts were specifically created for headlines. Well; it appears that isn’t the case for sales copy. Times New Roman is winning over Ariel in number of conversions in three different split tests.
3. I’ve been using size 6 fonts for headlines. It’s a fairly large size and it just feels right. Size 7 is just too large. Not so say the split test results. Size 7 has an average of 24% more conversions than size 6 in the split tests I’ve been performing.
I’ll eventually do a real study on a few thousand profitable and unprofitable sites and have a conclusive answer to all three of the above questions.
I thought you might find the results interesting as I did though, so there you go… for what it’s worth.
James D. Brausch focuses on product creation, copywriting and traffic generation on his blog here: www.JamesBrausch.com
“AdSense is Stupid When…”
There are times Google’s heralded ad affiliate program isn’t in
your long term business interest. Oh no I said it!
AdSense isn’t the unstoppable revenue engine for every
eBusiness. Before I am taken out and flogged by the eCommerce
pundits — please let me explain what I mean in my defense.
I make revenues from AdSense at a very high click-through rate.
I experience high click-through rates with AdSense without
resorting to questionable tactics like tricking site users with
photos (the AdSense trick and tip dujour).
So my perspective is from one who has made decent income from
AdSense to fund aspects of his business like advertising
seminars — and outsourcing to his virtual assistants. Yes,
AdSense is a legitimate and significant revenue source. However
evaluate AdSense with some type of balance.
By now you may have heard about people like Joel Comm’s six
figure income with AdSense, or Jason Calacanis of Weblogs being
on his way to generating 1 million dollars in AdSense revenue.
Google’s Ad revenue sharing affiliate program for publishers
certainly seems to be an eSales Nirvana for many webmasters.
But there are obvious and not so obvious times not to use
AdSense ads on your sites. Let’s list - examine - and explain
them below.
~~~~> 1. On Sales or Mini-sites
This is a no-brainer. If you are trying to sell a particular
product that is important to your bottomline, you don’t want
AdSense ads distracting your customers from either joining your
email list, or hindering your site’s online sales process.
However I do see hybrid sites that are mini-sites or full scale
eCommerce sites, with AdSense at the bottom of their pages.
This might not be so bad since only 1% - 15% of your site
visitors will either buy from you or fill out a form.
The thinking with this approach is you might as well make money
from disinterested parties using up your server’s bandwidth.
~~~~~> 2. SEO Business Sites
If your livelihood depends on search engine optimization or
marketing for a living you might want to think twice about
displaying AdSense Ads on your site. I can tell you this from
personal experience. I once was on top of MSN for search engine
marketing in my local area. I concentrated on my local area
because I found people felt more comfortable hiring an eCommerce
consultant locally.
One day my site fails totally out of the MSN index. After
intense study I noticed that I obviously had a filter on my site
from MSN.
I analyzed all the top ranking sites in MSN and noticed the only
difference between me and the other top ranking sites was I had
Google AdSense ads on my site. Someone at MSN felt that my
AdSense ads, and perhaps to a less extent, my book on SEO, was
getting a free ride in the MSN search engine database.
In fact I noticed that there were no sites with AdSense ads for
at least the first 3 pages. Plus the sites with AdSense were
only using 1 ad unit at the bottom of the home page (there were
very few of them in the top 5 pages).
I knew it was strange to not have AdSense ads on the top
Internet marketing sites. This prompted me to scan other
industries where I noticed the same trend.
Many of the leading SEO gurus have sites that have been banned
from the top listings by the search engines. It seems the more
visible you become, the more of a target your sites are to the
search engine auditors.
Some of my sites are still on the top of MSN with AdSense ads
but that doesn’t mean they won’t also be targets in the future.
Let’s face the facts. MSN and Yahoo! have competing ad networks
to Google’s, and this competitive situation is rife for a
potential backlash against SEO sites with AdSense ads.
Many SEOs will point to exceptions to this position. However
you have been warned!
Think about it, how long will MSN and Yahoo! sit back and watch
SEO driven websites use their search indexes to fund Google?
Did you know SEO in MSN and Yahoo(!) — is much easier to
obtain.
Therefore optimized sites are creating an ad sales wealth
transfer from MSN and Yahoo into the pockets of Google! It
won’t be long before Yahoo! and MSN begin to devalue ranking on
AdSense sites in their databases — if not outright ban them.
If you are in the search engine business stay search engine
neutral, or create multiple sites for different search engines.
~~~~~> 3. When AdSense Becomes Your Only Business Model
When you become so myopic in your thinking that you build a
business solely on AdSense revenue — think again my friend.
Why build a business solely on the largess of Google?
I don’t know if your realize it or not, but the sites making the
real big AdSense money usually have a following that doesn’t
depend on the search engines. Internet mavens like Chris
Pirillo or Joel Comm have been on the Internet a while and have
followings for their websites. Therefore they can consistently
make six figures with AdSense.
These content powerhouses are an asset to Google and not the
other way around. But do you think Google is going to sit back
and watch just anybody make big bucks off of their top rankings?
If you do a search on most keywords you will notice many of the
top ranking sites are news sites, .gov sites, or .org sites
these days. The only exception is in industries where these
sites don’t really exist like eCommerce industries (clothing,
shopping, etc.).
No doubt in most industries you will notice a conspicuous
scarity of AdSense sites in the top rankings. In other words
don’t bet your future fortunes on AdSense.
An IPO based on projections of AdSense revenue isn’t in the
future for the average eBusiness. Think of Google AdSense as
supplemental income. Building a business solely on AdSense
revenue isn’t just silly — it’s just plain stupid.
About the Author
Kamau Austin is the publisher of over ten websites. See more of
his eCommerce and Search Engine Commentary can be found at:
www.eInfoNEWs.com and www.SearchEnginePlan.com .
Directories and Traffic
By Clare Lawrence
Submissions to directories can be an effective method to boost your websites ranking.
Google the leading search engine places significant importance to text links that contain key words (also known as anchor text links)
Google places particular importance on links on pages of a redial there.
Provided a directory has suitable categories and sufficient content for Google to classify its theme then it’s probably worth submitting to.
Paid versus free listing?
There are literally 100’s of free directories out there, so you don’t have to pay.
The larger and more popular directories such as Yahoo do charge and dependent on your budget this may be worthwhile, particularly for e-commerce related sites.
Some free directories (my own):-
Allthebizz
Smallerbizz
Best of luck!
About the Author
Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd - A leading UK provider of Domain name registration and Web Hosting services. Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this reference box remains together with a hyperlink to http://www.discountdomainsuk.com Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com
You need information overload.
Every day in every market there are dozens of pieces of information generated on the web. You need to keep yourself abreast of what’s happening in your target market. This will allow you to instantly respond to new information as well as have seemingly innovative ideas about that information.
Think about it this way:
Let’s say your target market is people who use iPodsyou sell iPod accessories. If you stay on top of your market you can be the first place they hear about the latest new gadget or the next announcement from Apple, etc.
And if they hear about it first from you, you become the place they ALWAYS go to for news and info about iPods.
Cha-Ching.
But unless you have a brother-in-law at Apple, how can you be one of the first to get and write about the news?
Simple: Google will tell you.
Google has this cool thing called “Google Alerts” where you give Google a list of keyword phrases and topics you are interested in, and Google tells you via email whenever a piece of info about the topic enters their database.
And Google is always the first to know.
(Well, that’s not always true. My Aunt Carla was the first to hear when Kendra and I were going to have our first baby, but she happened to be at the house when the Doctor called. I was second, then my parents, then her parents and THEN we called Google.)
How do you set up Google Alerts for your keywords and topics? Here’s how:
First, get yourself a Gmail account. If you don’t have one, try asking the next person who emails you from a Gmail account to “invite” you. They probably will. (Unless they really don’t like you, then they might not.)
Then, once you have your handy-dandy Gmail account, go to Google.com
In the upper right hand corner you should see a link that says “Sign In”.
Sign in.
Now that you are logged in, click on the “My Account” link.
Then click on the “Google Alerts” link.
Type in the keyword, keyword phrase or topic you want to stay informed about, choose the type of alert you want to have and how often you wish to be notified, then hit “Create Alert”.
Repeat this process for as many terms as you would like to be notified about.
I have about 100 terms in my “hot list” I use for writing, so I have a filter set up on my Gmail account to archive them until I am ready for them. Then I just type “Google Alert” into the search box and they are all nicely displayed for me.
Then I’m ready to write.
Kevin Bidwell owns http://www.All-In-One-Business.com and has helped 4,953 people start a business from home. Visit now to pick up your own free How to Start a Business from Home guide now.
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One way to make an immediate impact on your free online business opportunity earnings is to hide your affiliate ads.
That may sound like a very strange statement to make when everybody knows that you need people to click through the ads to reach your affiliate site. How can you make money from your free online business affiliate program opportunity if there are no ads to click?
A simple truth online is that people hate being advertised to. You can’t really blame them with ads flying at them from every direction. One cannot even read their email in peace without banner ads flashing all over the place and spammers filling their inboxes with all sorts of offers. That’s the reason why ads will not be effective in any free online business opportunity.
The trick is to avoid using banner ads and instead write content that is closely related to your free online business opportunity and then use an affiliate textual link to direct your traffic there. It is as simple as that. Whatever you do just remember that the less your affiliate link directing traffic to your affiliate site looks, the more effective it will tend to be and the more money it will make for you through your free online business opportunity.
That is how it actually pays to hide your free online business opportunity ads.
Learn more about the best home business opportunity from a blogger who rakes in thousands of dollars… and growing from their home business.
The Marketing Plan section of the business plan demonstrates how a company will penetrate the market with its products and services. The Marketing Plan should include “the four P’s” - Product, Promotions, Price, and Place.
Products and/or Services
The first “P” stands for Product, but includes all products and services that the company offers. This section of the business plan should detail all the features of the products and services, how they work, their unique/proprietary attributes, etc. For products that are patented and/or technical in nature, drawings and backup materials should be presented in the Appendix.
Most growing companies offer certain products and services today but expect to offer more in the future. It is important to mention both current and future products/services here, but to focus primarily on the short-to-intermediate term horizon.
Promotions
Promotions include each of the activities that induce a customer to buy the company’s products and services. Promotional activities could include advertising, public relations (PR), free samples, discounts, direct mail, telemarketing, partnerships, etc.
This section of the business plan discusses which promotions will be used and how they will be used. For instance, if partnerships will be used to secure new customers, the plan must explain which companies are partners, how they will be able to provide new customers, how the partnership will work (from operational/ financial standpoints), etc.
This section must be as specific as possible, particularly as it relates to discussing future promotions. To say that a company is going to generate PR in trade magazines is simply too vague. Rather, the plan must explain the type of article/feature that may be written about the firm and why, which specific trade journals that will be targeted and/or the projected publication dates.
In discussing how the company will promote itself, it is important to discuss how the company will position itself. This positioning statement details the attributes that customers will assign to the company, its products and services. The choice of promotional activities must support this positioning. For example, discounts might not be consistent with a desire to be considered an upscale brand.
Price
This section of the plan should detail the price point(s) at which the company’s products and services will be sold. If the products/ services are sold as bundles, these should be detailed in this section. Rationale for the pricing should be given when applicable (e.g., why the company has chosen an initiation fee plus monthly membership fees versus a one-time lifetime membership fee).
Place
The final “P” refers to “Place” or “Distribution” and explains how a company’s products and/or services will be delivered to customers. This section is crucial because if customers cannot access products and services, they cannot purchase them.
This section is especially critical for high-growth, capital-constrained companies. Attaining profit-effective distribution channels is often the most vexing challenge for these businesses. Examples of distribution methods include retail locations, website, distributors, wholesalers, direct mail catalogs, etc.
Many companies have multiple distribution methods to deliver their products and services to customers and each should be detailed here.
Detailing the “the four P’s” in the marketing plan is critical in proving to investors that your company will be able to efficiently and effectively penetrate its market.
Since its inception, Growthink Business Plans has developed over 200 business plans. Growthink clients have collectively raised over $750 million in financing, launched numerous new product and service lines and gained competitive advantage and market share. Growthink has become the firm of choice for venture capital firms, angel investors, corporations and entrepreneurs in the know. For more information please visit http://www.growthink.com or download our free Business Plan Guide.
