10 Marketing Tips You May Have Missed

Domain Names

Rule Number One (and it’s a biggie)

If people can’t remember your domain name after viewing it for 20 seconds – how are they ever going to visit your site? Consumers will only act on what they can remember. That’s why jingles and tag lines work so well in commercials. They are those annoying songs that get stuck in your head or the phrase that works itself into everyday speech.

Case and point: Where’s the Beef?

If you were alive and watch television during the mid 80’s you know the ad, you know the spokes person, the restaurant and probably said to someone at some point to time – Where’s the beef? Was it an annoying campaign? Sure. Did it work? You remember Wendy’s don’t you? So you have to think of your domain in that sense. It’s a tagline. A jingle. Something catchy that will stick with people.

The good part about domain names is that you can have many domains all pointing to the same website. So you have many chances to try out ideas.

Have a business oriented domain – sanfranciscorealty.com

Have a regional address – joesellsdenver.com

Have something catchy – Iknowhomes.com

They are all valid domain names and would be appropriate for different situations but they all go to the same site.

Rule Number Two

I’m going to revert to an old acronym – KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. That’s because long complicated names are forgettable, can be misspelled and may have to be crunched up in smaller font in your advertising which reduces visibility.

While it may seem like a good idea to have a domain name of joecyzniski.com or even worse joecyzniskisellssanfransiscohomes.com, the fact is that people will not remember, or if they do, they will remember wrong. Try to keep each word to 2 syllables and the total letters under 20.

Avoid hyphens if possible – they confuse people because they don’t remember where they get inserted in the address and try not to do the license plate spelling of words, like joeshms.com.

The reason for this is every time you tell someone your domain name you’ll say “ Joes Homes dot

com and Homes is spelled Hms.” You’ve just made a simple thing complicated.

So, here’s a quick quiz for you –

Where have you been?  

Where you are going?

Where will you be when you get there?

I’m not talking about a family trip or a business convention. I’m talking about your marketing path. Remember, you need to know where you’ve been, where you are and where you are going in order to have any level of success in marketing.

So, where have you been?

In order to determine what you need to work on, you need to decide what it is that you have done in marketing in the past that worked and what didn’t work. Have you had a website in the past, were there any parts of the site that worked really well that you want to do again? Were there parts that are gone and should remain that way?

There are classic ways for selling yourself; all have their pluses and minuses. Let’s start with the most common that has been part of the industry since they invented the printing press. Newspaper ads; those little black and white squares of selling goodness, where you have to cram three paragraphs of selling into a 1x1 news space. It’s hard to do isn’t it? But it’s a necessary evil. Why, because everyone does it and most do it the same way.

What if?

What if you experimented a bit with the newspaper ads? Instead of selling the house – sell your website. Use that space that you would normally take up for a listing with an ad for your business. You will be surprised how many people will take the time and look at your listings. Why? Because people are visual, they want to see color pictures. They want full descriptions. They want a map of where the property is located. If you can provide that solution, they won’t need to look in that paper anymore. The ad can be a fancy block ad with a catch phrase and photos or it can be a few randomly inserted 1x1 column ads with your web address in bold and a line.

Ah grasshopper. One must know the path that you have traveled in order to know the road that you are on. Ok, so this isn’t 1 AM Kung Fu, but there is some truth to the matter. With your marketing plan (you do have a marketing plan written out don’t you?) what have you decided is your path? Have you evenly divided your advertising budget up, putting a little money in each direction? Or do you spend all your money on a single page glossy ad in a homes magazine? How about if you could do some tracking with your ads? Even better – what if it was easy? This is an easy way to see who’s reading what.

Consult a Homes.com MSR to create email addresses at your domain name. You can create up to 5 email addresses with each domain name that Homes.com hosts for you, so go for it. Create 5 unique email addresses for yourself, and now, with those accounts you insert a unique email address for newspaper ads, signs, business cards, flyers, postcards or TV ads. Based upon the response you get can help you determine how effective your marketing is and how to spend money in the future.

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If you are using your Yahoo or AOL email address as your contact address on your website and advertising you are just advertising their company, not yours. Ask the MSR to forward your new and branded email address to your Yahoo, Google, AOL, etc. addresses. That way you can still use your old account, but have your domain and name visible to the public.

Where Will You Be When You Get There?

So what’s your goal? Some just simply want to be successful. Others want to be wealthy, while others may want their own Brokerage. All great goals, but how to get there? I have analogy that I learned years ago in college (and subsequently got wrong on an exam which is why I remember it). Summed up it says: Would you rather hit the target with a shotgun or a rifle? You can stand back 20 feet and shoot a shotgun 10 times at a target and all the little pellets will scatter out and you’ll hit the bull’s-eye a few times out of luck. Now stand back 30 feet with the rifle. Take your time, line up the sites and slowly pull the trigger. You are more likely to hit the bull’s-eye every with practice.

When you sell yourself, would you want to be everything to everybody – hitting every part of the market with the shotgun approach, or would you rather zero in on particular part of the market, hitting the target every time with a rifle? The idea here is know who you are selling to. Know your market and know how to reach them. I’d rather be the agent that is known for selling all the homes in a particular subdivision, then an agent that will sell anything to anybody.

With that in mind, you can make some decisions on how you market yourself. Maybe buy a Billboard with your domain on it or distribute flyers to a particular neighborhood or send postcards to an apartment complex for first time buyers. Decide what direction it is, then customize your website to fit those need.

First Time Home Buyers will be looking for particular information verses what an individual may be looking for in a retirement community. Whether you specialize in senior housing, condos, income properties or other, your Homes.com MSR can help you create that specialized site.

All the Little Things

These are all those things that aren’t big enough to really stand on their own, but when you pile them up, they all add up to be effective marketing.

Update Your Business Cards

Business Cards are probably one of the standards with which you do business, so make sure your website address and email address are on there! For a quick and easy way is to create business cards with one of your featured properties on it is with your Marketing Design Center. Print the cards out on business card stock (spend the money for good card stock) and you will have an updated business card that displays a featured property as well!

Update everyone on your marketing lists

Send out a letter to all past and current clients with your updated website and e-mail address. Make everyone aware of your web presence and show them how you can market their property and have a competitive edge over other agents.

Voice Mail

If you are like most agents, you depend on your voicemail as a way for people to get a hold of you. Think of how many people call and leave a message, now double that number for the people who don’t leave a message. Your website domain should be in your message. Something as simple as “And visit my website www.joeagent.com for all of the latest listings”, will get people visiting your site, even if they don’t leave a message.

Fax Sheets

If you have a standard fax sheet that you use for business, make sure that you add your new email address and web address to the form.

Email Signatures

Another highly visible location is your email signature. At the bottom of every email you send there is probably an automatic signature (if there isn’t ask one of our MSR’s and we can help out with that). You should have you web address at in the signature for individuals to click on.

Sign Riders

Contact your local sign provider and have ‘Riders’ created for your yard signs that have your website address on them. If your Broker allows this, print the signs in the opposite colors (negative print) from what your yard signs are. If your primary colors are white with red print, make the rider red with white print. This will allow the rider to stand out from the rest of the sign and draw notice to it. Your yard sign can become one of your most powerful marketing tools.

Broadcast Emails

Prepare a list of as many other agents in your market to use when you have a new listing that you want to promote quickly and easily. There is no reason to wait letting other agents know about your new listing. Send e-mails instantly to area agents to inform them of the new listing. This is a great item to include in your listing presentation.

Media Ads

Publicize your site in Real Estate magazines or on Television. Remember the important things when advertising - use the "1/3 - 2/3" rule. The top 1/3 of the display ad should publicize your site and a reason for someone to visit – Money Saving Tips, MLS Listings, Free CMA etc…While the bottom half of your ad can be a standard ad, house photo, agent photo, logo etc…

The Marketing Design Center

Within your Homes.com control panel there is a link directing you to the Marketing Design Center. The Design Center is like having printing studio at your finger tips. Using the tool within the Design Center you can create professional looking print items like postcards, flyers, brochures and property cards. All of these can be utilized in your print marketing campaign to gain you exposure and clients.

Consider Alternative Advertising

• Radio Spots or sponsor the news, weather, traffic reports etc…
• Bill Boards
• Moving Van
• Car Banner or Car Wrapper
• ValuPak or other Direct Mail Company

In general, people tend to overlook billboards as a viable means of advertising. Mostly due to cost concerns. Most are surprised to find that billboard advertising can actually be more affordable than some of the standard advertising route.

While all billboard companies rules are different, most will offer you a 2 or 3 billboard deal. They will give you 2 lower visibility billboards and 1 high visibility billboard. Visibility in this sense regards the amount of traffic that a billboard will get in a single day, or week. The key to the placement is to make sure that you are within your target area. Having a billboard on the Interstate isn’t going to do much for your business versus a billboard at a major intersection with a long red light. Drive your coverage area – or better yet, have someone else drive you and spend time looking up for the advertisements. Make notes on surrounding businesses; are there traffic lights that will hold traffic, potential obstructions from any directions? Once you have decided – contact the company responsible for the billboard, most are labeled with the companies information near the base – or often right on the front of the sign.

Prepare a good design, with clear graphics and large text – making sure the key items including Name, Phone and Web Address are easy to read and give your marketing dollars to a different avenue!

The idea of a sign rider is to draw attention to the information that you are wanting to provide with the property. While entries like “Waterfront”, “Must See” and other tag phrases may seem like buzz word advertising, it does little to draw the consumer closer to you as their agent.

The 2 top concepts for sign riders are – a Phone Number to call for recorded information or your website address. And here are some simple rules for each.

If you want people to call, make sure they know that it’s recorded information and available 24 hours a day. One of consumer’s biggest fears is that they will get caught on the phone with an agent and forced into a discussion or negotiation. Using a lead capture phone system is a perfect way to solve that, while providing information. Your website provides a similar solution for the consumer while adding additional benefits. Your site is non-intrusive, available 24hrs a day and can capture lead information, but additionally, it can show a virtual tours, photos, about you and other listings, which a consumer can’t get from a phone call.

Get your sign riders, let them work for you.

Neighborhood impact campaigns are great ways to attract attention to yourself and your business. By focusing one on neighborhood with an intense effort, you will attract a higher percentage of its residents as leads. Some ideas for starting your own Neighborhood Impact Campaign:

• Distribute questionnaires about homeowner satisfaction. Stirring up feelings of dissatisfaction may prompt someone to trade up to a better home.
• Hand out holiday mementos like American flags on the Fourth of July. Add a business card or some neighborhood listing flyers to this package for a memorable impact.
• Introduce yourself. In some areas of the country, this is the best way to earn trust among neighbors.

Your vehicle is probably one of the most integral tools you have in your real estate business. From taking clients to and from properties, to dropping off mailers at the post office, to visiting your newly listed properties, you are in your car more than the average person. Some real estate agents spend most of their working day in their cars. While you are racking up all of those miles on your car, doing what you would be doing anyway, consider using your car for advertising. You probably have a sign prominently posted on your physical office location – why not post a sign on your “second office”?

Types of vehicle advertising include:

• Vinyl Lettering
• Magnetic Signs
• Vinyl Vehicle Wraps

There are those who are successful at marketing themselves, and then there are those who aren't so lucky. Here are some good ways to FAIL MISERABLY at marketing your business and your site:

• Who are you again? Not putting your name and website on every conceivable surface of marketing material is a way to take that important first step…to falling flat on your face in marketing.
• Yawn. Boring. Your website content is the same as every other AgentAdvantage site because you have not changed the pre-canned text that comes with your initial website.
• Mommy, that blinking picture is making me sick! Leave animated .gifs in the 1990’s!
• We’re not ready for your close-up. It’s important for customers to see a face they can trust, but please not one that big.
• Dogs don’t sell real estate. People do. Keep your images focused on you and your business.
• Not using the guest book and our other lead capture forms is a great way to not get any leads! Turn on your guest book and reap the benefits!
• You are the pre-eminent real estate expert, top-producing with that cutting-edge competitive advantage. So is everyone else. Focus on WHY your customers should trust you with the most important transactions of their lives. Don't insult them by just throwing around a buch of buzz words that they've heard from every other agent.
• Keep that old template you've had since 2000. Update your template to avoid looking tacky and outdated.
• Write every other word in a different font and color because you feel like it. Inconsistency in design is probably one of the best ways to distract potential clients. Keep your site clean, consistent, and attractive - and people will want to stay and read.
• Not investing in Search Engine Optimization because you still believe that you get the majority of your leads from the newspaper. Most people get their information from the Internet....you should be there, too.