Thoughts on Marketing…

Copywriting has plenty of rules for you to follow, and maybe even more than one that’s labeled “Rule #1,” but this one is too important to ignore. The rule is: Remember that it isn’t about you. Your marketing, if it’s to be effective, HAS to be about your prospective customers/clients and what they want or [...]

When you write marketing copy, you hope to persuade. But as it turns out, some of the more popular words that marketers choose have the opposite effect – they ANNOY. A recent Active Rain post posed the question: “Which words make you disregard a marketing message?” Here are some of the replies: Paradigm shift hard-worker [...]

One facet of business promotion is to make yourself visible. If everyone who might possibly use your services or buy your merchandise was aware of you and what you have to offer, your revenues would increase. But, a whole lot of people who might love you don’t even know you exist. Unfortunately, “same old, same [...]

A few weeks ago I told you I was working on a new e-book for real estate agents that would help. It’s finished now, and you can read all about it at www.promotemyrealestatecareer.com. In it, you’ll find 107 ways to promote your career, and all but about a dozen of those ways are either completely [...]

Years ago I attended a Realtor’s convention where one of the booth themes was “Don’t be a Secret Agent.” The whole idea was that when you’re in sales you’d better let everyone in your sphere of influence (and beyond) know, or they’ll use someone else and you’ll have hurt feelings and an empty bank account. [...]

You don’t see case studies widely used in real estate marketing, or in any other small business but why not? Wouldn’t case studies lend more credibility than short testimonials? We know testimonials work in every service business. But we also know that they are not always believed. It’s too easy to write a testimonial and [...]

An email just popped into my in-box with the headline “Obama OK’s Lavish Pay.” For some reason, that got me thinking about the word “lavish” and the pictures it paints. It’s an intriguing word. It attracts attention – perhaps because it isn’t over-used. I didn’t read the article yet but I would assume from the [...]

A few minutes ago I read a blog post and wished to respond… but by the time I got through 3 or 4 different pages and THEN found out I needed to be logged in, I said “forget it” and clicked away. Now that blogger may or may not care if people respond and post [...]

Twice today I was reminded of something that makes me go off on a rant every now and then. It’s the way some real estate agents – and other business people – hide from those who just might turn into clients, if given the opportunity. How do they hide? By not including their location in [...]

This evening my neighbor came by for a visit – and couldn’t stop talking about a letter that his wife had received today. The letter was from AARP, scolding her for not responding to their last letter, instructing her to join. He was shocked and offended by the letter, so had taken their order form [...]