Thoughts on Real Estate Marketing…

Today Money News reported that home sales aren’t going to rebound “in our lifetime.”

Reading on, it sounds as if these folks wish for a return to the boom years, when prices skyrocketed so fast that people were buying in a panic. And of course we all know how that turned out. I don’t think any thinking individual wants that to happen again.

I wrote about it in this Active Rain post, and I hope you’ll go and share your thoughts.

Scholars through the ages have said it’s important to study history in order to learn from it. The idea is that we shouldn’t keep making the same mistakes over and over. We should look back at cause and effect and make wiser choices as a result.

I think Yale economics professor Robert Shiller should take some history lessons. Then he might be glad to see housing prices appreciating at a slow pace once again.

Through these rough years of the economic meltdown, it felt like the buyer pool was shrinking like a puddle in the hot sun.

Those folks who were selling weren’t going to be able to buy again for a long time.

Well, guess what? A “long time” has now passed. It’s now time to reach out to those former homeowners and help them buy before prices and rates go up.

Even some who lost their homes to foreclosure are now eligible for a new mortgage loan. Better yet, the lenders have eased up a bit on the regulations they put in place right after the crash, so those buyers can once again get into home ownership with a low down payment.

(Thankfully, they haven’t gone back to the “loosy goosy” standards that caused the whole mess, or we’d be headed right back into trouble.)

Remember, your short sale clients are eligible within 2-3 years, and after a foreclosure, the clients you couldn’t help can buy again after 5-7 years.

So that you can reach out and remind them why NOW is the time to get back into home ownership, I’ve written a new letter set. I’m calling it the “Homeowners on the Rebound” set.

This set reminds them of the perils of renting, while reassuring them that with today’s low prices and low interest fixed rates, they won’t be taking the same risks they took before.

Come to Copy by Marte today to get your letters and start turning those former short sale sellers into today’s buyers.

Everyone who uses Active Rain has a few reasons why they love it.

For one thing, it’s fun. We get to read both serious information and pure nonsense, and we get to know people and look forward to hearing what they have to contribute.

For me, it’s educational. Since I write about real estate for agents all over the U.S. and in a few foreign countries, knowing “what’s happening” is important. I find myself fascinated by the differences in real estate practices from place to place, as well as the differences in how different markets are doing right now.

And as the face of real estate changes, it helps me to be able to follow those changes by reading about the challenges agents are facing each day.

But here’s a reason I probably shouldn’t reveal: I’m a little bit lazy, and Active Rain is easy.

As a non-techie, I can go to Active Rain and don’t have figure out how to get where I’m going every time I visit. If I go to Facebook I generally get lost and end up leaving.

What about Twitter? Who can actually converse in 140 characters? Not me. And trying to follow a conversation done in tiny bites is way too time consuming.

And then there’s LinkedIn. I read more and more about how important it is, but it takes way too much clicking around and searching for me. With my Wild Blue connection, I have to wait to get anywhere – and then when I do arrive and find that the article isn’t there, and I have to click and wait yet again… forget it. I’m outa there.

Real Estate Marbles looked like it might be a good place to be, but… Again, it’s too much work.

On Active Rain I can join groups and post to up to 5 each time I write. On Real Estate Marbles I can join groups, but then have to re-post to each of them one at a time. (Unless there’s some instruction I haven’t found yet.) And then, once you post, there’s no one there to reply. Most of my (very few) replies have been advertisements, not comments.

On Active Rain I can follow a conversation – and get an email for each new comment. That’s really useful if you’ve asked a question and are hoping that the original poster (or another visitor) will answer.

Yes, there are those other reasons – we write posts for SEO and to put our services in front of the people who might need them. And Active Rain is a good authority site that helps us all promote our own websites.

But the reasons I choose Active Rain as the place to be are simple:

It’s fun
It’s educational
It’s easy

If you haven’t joined yet, come and get acquainted.

If you haven’t chosen a niche, you should. Then you should promote it on your website and in your real estate agent bio.

But with so much to choose from, how do you do it?

You can begin with what you know.
For instance, a neighborhood or a type of property that you know well.

You can begin with the niche in which you have the most experience.
If the “luck of the draw” has had you working in one particular niche more than another, you can focus on it.

You should begin with the property and people you enjoy most.

When you’re working with the kind of property you like and the kind of people whose company you enjoy, you’ll be more successful.

Why? Because your enjoyment will show, even if you don’t talk about it. Your enthusiasm and your growing knowledge will draw even more clients to you. And those clients, having enjoyed your service, will send you referrals.

What you should NOT do:
You should NOT choose a niche based on price.

Yes, you can make larger commissions selling higher priced properties. But if you don’t enjoy it and don’t know it well, every day will be a struggle. You’ll close fewer transactions while enjoying it less. And your clients will know.

We all give off vibrations. If yours show that you love your work the results will be far different than vibrations that show you’re stressed out – or in over your head.

Let your real estate website and your agent bio reveal and promote your niche – and grow your business in a direction that will bring you joy.

If you have a real estate specialty, or niche, then yes, your real estate agent bio should mention it.

Sometimes real estate agents tell me that they don’t want to advertise their niche – or even have a niche – because they’re afraid that they’ll lose business.

But think about that.

When you go looking for a copywriter to help you promote your real estate business, don’t you look for a real estate copywriter? Most do – because they want someone who is familiar with the real estate profession. You want someone with knowledge of what you do and how you do it.

If you were instead selling newsletters about the stock market, you’d look for a writer who had knowledge about the stock market.

Real estate consumers are no different. When they want to buy any kind of real estate, they want to work with someone who has the knowledge to help them make good decisions. A person who sells farmland and has never lived in a city probably wouldn’t be able to tell them much about gated communities or Homeowner Associations.

A person who routinely deals with first time buyers becomes skilled at helping buyers navigate the loan process. Do you think the agent who deals with high-end cash buyers has the same skills?

Letting people know your specialty will draw more people to you – and they’ll be the people you you enjoy most.

To learn more about effective real estate agent bios – or about me pages – visit me at Copy by Marte.

Or, if you’d like to discuss your bio, write me at marte@copybymarte.com.

Yes, a new real estate agent can have an effective agent bio.

The purpose of a real estate agent bio is to give your website visitors a reason to choose you as their agent, and they’re looking for more than just years of experience or professional designations.

What people are looking for when they choose a real estate agent is someone who has knowledge and skills and will use them to work hard for them.

They’re also looking for someone they feel they can trust.

Just because you don’t have years of experience in helping people buy and sell real estate doesn’t mean you don’t have experience that matters. For instance, your former work might have helped you hone your listening skills or given you the opportunity to know every neighborhood in your city. Perhaps you were a carpenter or a decorator or a teacher.

No matter what you’ve done before, it will help you be a better agent, and when I write a real estate agent bio, I tie those past experiences to benefits for your real estate clients – without stressing your “newness.”

Your agent bio should show readers that you’re a real person – one whose goal is to succeed by helping your clients reach their goals.

When you’re ready for a “better bio” write me: marte@copybymarte.com.

And to learn more about real estate agent bios, visit me at Copy by Marte.

With permission from Bob Bly, the following is reprinted from his April 2 email message:

***Does Facebook marketing fail?***

“Like seven-year old soccer players, we insist on chasing the
ball in a pack. The latest ‘ball’ of course is social media,”
says Ian Percy.*

But, according to Ad Age, a six-week study of Facebook’s Fan
pages showed a mere 0.45% of fans engaged in any way beyond
clicking “Like.” This indicates that Facebook fan bases and
actual engagement aren’t the same thing.

The average engagement for the 10 brands with the largest fan
bases (like Harley Davidson, Nike and Porsche) was 0.36%. The
highest engagement was in the alcohol category and the lowest in
laundry detergent, social platforms and apps.

In other Facebook marketing news, my colleague Brian Croner
reports that “world famous Sun Valley Ski Resort here in Idaho,
invested their entire $950,000 ad budget in Facebook advertising
in 2011 and it bombed. It bombed so bad in fact, they fired
their marketing director. Last year they had more snow than they
knew what to do with and still couldn’t pack the hotels after
using FB exclusively.

“Starting last fall and into 2012, I saw ads running in Ski
magazines and on television. And despite it being a weak
snow year, they had good crowds and full hotels. There’s been
a large score of so called marketing/ad agencies trying to push
FB and other Social Media as a primary and not as a
supplemental media. And it’s sad how many companies have
taken the bait.”

*Source: Jeff Davidson.

Again: “This article appears courtesy of Bob Bly
Direct Response Letter.”

Last night I was reading a book by a well-known author, Mario Puzo (author of The Godfather.)

I was happily reading along when all of a sudden my brain said “What? What did that just say??”

Here was the sentence: “The director was a tall, elegant man whose descendants came to America on the Mayflower.

“OOPS! That’s just not possible. Descendant means “child, offspring, heir.”
Obviously, the word they wanted was ancestors, but somehow that got missed in editing. I’m quite sure that Mr. Puzo knew the difference between those words, so he must have been suffering from a “brain pain” at the moment. And no editor caught it. Or maybe some ambitious editor didn’t know the difference and changed it from ancestors to descendants.

Whatever the reason, it sure did make me stop and look three times.

And it definitely proves that even a famous author, backed by a publisher and a team of editors, can let a mistake slip by and become published.

If so, you aren’t alone.
My own best friend is. Every time she calls me for help with copywriting, she apologizes for needing help. She, like many others, seems to think that since she’s an intelligent person, she should be able to write great copy.

Why? She’s brilliant at accounting, and I’m not at all embarrassed to admit I need her help figuring out debits and credits. I’m also not embarrassed to hire a mechanic for my car or a professional to cut my hair. I didn’t study those things and have no talent for them.

So what?

Unfortunately, too many people who think they “should” be able to write go ahead and do it. They write their own sales letters and ad copy – with results that are often detrimental to their success. A poorly written letter can be worse than no letter at all.

Realtors often have a second problem: time.

In addition to thinking they should be able to write, some people suffer from thinking that they should be able to write a good letter on the first draft, or turn out a winning ad in 15 minutes — and they should be able to do it in between other tasks that have their minds spinning seven different directions.

When they’re running from one appointment to the next and trying to take care of client details in between, that might be all the time they have to devote to the task, but it just doesn’t work that way.

The truth is good copywriting takes time, study, and plenty of thought. And after that it takes proofreading. Depending upon the subject matter, one simple sales letter could take all day to write.

One postcard could take several hours. In fact, sometimes the shortest copy can take the most time, because each word is so important. Copywriters spend a lot of time considering words and their impact and trying to choose exactly the right ones to evoke the desired emotions in their readers.

If you’ve been writing your own copy and not getting the results you want, try finding a good copywriter. Do the job you do best — such as selling homes, staying in touch with people, and tending to all the details involved in a closing — and let a professional write the copy that will bring you more customers.

Quit feeling guilty because you’re not a professional copywriter, web designer, auto mechanic, hairdresser, or accountant. Instead, keep on being the best expert you can be in your own field and be thankful that you don’t have to do everyone else’s job in addition to your own.

By the way, that thankfulness is a good trait to practice!

It’s easy to get stuck.
You know the message you want to convey, but how to give it a lead-in that will keep readers interested long enough to see it?

You probably know that the purpose of the headline or subject line is to get readers to read the first sentence. The purpose of the first sentence is to get them to read the second – and on and on.

But sometimes, a brilliant idea for that first sentence just isn’t there.

Here’s good news:

This morning’s email included a Target Marketing message that should help. It offers up a list of 48 “starters” that have been proven effective in marketing over the past many years. Some come from the pre-internet world of direct marketing, but that’s OK – our methods of communicating have changed, but human nature has not.

Readers STILL want an answer to “what’s in it for me” before they read on.

I personally disagree with a couple of the suggestions on this list. A couple would actually make me delete the message immediately. For instance “We’ve missed you.” My mental response is that I don’t care – I left/unsubscribed/quit buying your products because that’s what I wanted to do.

Notice that this irritant begins with the word “we.”

All of these have been proven to work, but to be on the safe side, I believe you should “choose and use” those that are customer-focused and avoid starting any message with “we” or “I.”

Anyway, if you’ve ever been stuck, take a minute to visit Target Marketing and print off their list of 48 “starters.” It just might come in handy one day.