“But Internet leads are useless”

When I hear people say this I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Internet leads are just like other leads – money in the bank if handled properly, useless if not. Here’s a look at how the Top Producers are making their money from the internet:

Email

Yep – that’s it. Just a quick personalized email to followup with a new lead from your website. If you want to make the process even easier, consider the following tools:

• Thunderbird email client
• Quicktext plugin (for canned email templates)

If you want more sophistication then consider using salesforce or another similar CRM.

Telephone

“What’s a telephone?”

This wonderful device allows people to communicate verbally, in real-time, and without email, text message, or Facebook! A simple phone call – even a scripted introduction – works wonders with brand new customers. Consider the following introduction (I’ve heard this one before and still remember the REALTOR’s^™ name – incidentally he’s a multi-millionaire):

“Hi, this is <name> calling to make a quick introduction. I saw you surfing my website and wanted to let you know that if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Have a great day, goodbye!”

Followup

Ever wondered what separates top-producing REALTOR’s^™ from the rest? Yep – it’s followup. Drip-email, direct mail, periodic flyers – all of these are required to eventually convert that Internet lead into money.

Patience

Just because a lead doesn’t convert right away doesn’t mean it’s junk. Using a good Customer Relationship Management system and coordinated followup will convert that lead eventually.

The Survey

We’ve conducted surveys in the past (see New Year’s Resolution for REALTORS®), but none as comprehensive and revealing as this.

We built some “intelligent” software that went through thousands of random listings throughout the MLS® systems we work with and performed a variety of experiments.  Here are the results of our work (in a nutshell):

• Listings surveyed: 13905
• Errors with mapping coordinates (total): 1% (of these, 87% were rural properties)
• Errors with mapping coordinates (rural properties only): 4.2%
• Listings with incorrect contact email addresses (extrapolated): 2%
• REALTORS® responding to our notifications that their information was incorrect: 14%

Keep in mind that this survey is DIFFERENT from prior surveys in that we’ve actually used the information DIRECTLY from the MLS® data that’s advertised to the public.

“I don’t get it – why is that so important?”

This survey took us a long time to complete because we needed to reference sites like REALTOR.com and MLS.ca that use REALTOR® contact information straight from boards and associations.

“Sorry, I still don’t understand why this is such a big deal?”

Because this is the information 90% of consumers will use to contact you!

The Result

The good news is that most information associated with listings is correct. The bad news is that information on 1/50 listings isn’t. The really bad news is that most REALTORS® we tried to tell about this problem didn’t care enough to fix it.

The Action

We’ve put together a 5-minute checklist that every REALTOR® should use after entering a listing into their MLS® system:

1. Check the contact information
   • Go to Realtor.com or MLS.ca (Canada), submit the contact form, and make sure you receive the email
   • Scrutinize the contact information on the listing
   • Ensure your website link is working
   • Make sure the contact information on your website is correct
   • Though we don’t have actual statistics, we did notice that many listings have incorrect information for the brokerage. Checking this information is also extremely important.
2. Check the mapping coordinates
   • Again, go to Realtor.com or MLS.ca (Canada), and make sure your listing appears in the correct location on the map. If it doesn’t, contact your board/association/MLS®.
   • Check the coordinates on your website.

We Need Your Help

We’re going to continue and even expand our testing of listings to deliver more information like this. If you have statistics you’d like us to track drop us a comment or send me an email: sam@realpagemaker.com.

Newspaper Advertising

Newspapers come in many forms:

• neighborhood newspapers
• city/state/national newspapers
• trade newspapers
• industry magazines

Advertising in each of these types of publications can be done in a variety of ways:

• classifieds
• small ads next to relevant, industry-specific content
• mid-size ads – full-page ads
• editorial sections

Is Strong Advertising Possible with Newspapers?

A strong advertisement incorporates all of the following:

• A Strong Headline. It’s been known for years that the most important element of a good advertisement is the headline. It’s such an important “make-or-break” part of the advertisement that copywriters have been known to spend 90% of their time on the headline and 10% on the rest of the article.
• Send out only material on which you are an EXPERT. Sending out too much information on too many subjects is a huge mistake many agents make. If you’re writing about strategic buying in a certain niche market, don’t include mortgage rates, home decorating tips, lifestyle ideas and health stories – these things all detract from the value of your expertise.
• LOOK GOOD. Old and grainy photos, outdated colors, blocks of multicolored text, cluttered design… Wow – some real estate ads are terrible! Sending out ugly or amateur-looking ads will cost lots and actually do damage to a Realtor’s image. Ads should be professionally drafted and look good.
• Include ALL contact information. If you’ve read my other articles you’ll see I’m becoming a broken record… Make sure you’re full name, brokerage, cell phone, office phone, fax, email and website URL are all on your ad.
• Use a good photo. I’m always surprised by the number of old photos Realtors use. If the photo isn’t from the most recent decade, DON’T use it! Get a nice, high-quality, professional photo of yourself to use on all ads.

So – is strong advertising possible with print? Yes, but it’ll cost you. To include all of these things as part of an advertisement takes room, and you can bet that publications will charge for every square inch you use.

What’s Happening in Newspaper Advertising?

Since 2005, newspapers have been losing advertising revenue. In fact, 2009 saw the largest decline in advertising revenue in the history of the industry:

• Employment classified advertising dropped 67.4% to $205.4 million.
• Real estate classified advertising slumped 45.6% to $336.9 million.
• Automotive classified advertising crashed 43.4% to $332.8 million.
• National advertising slipped 25.9% to $1.1 billion.
• Retail advertising stumbled 23.7% to $3.3 billion.
• Other classified advertising slid 16.5% to $587.7 million

2005 – Newspaper industry’s all-time best year with overall advertising revenue $49.4 Billion.

2009 – Newspaper industry overall advertising revenue at $30 Billion (40% decline from 2005).

(source: Newspaper Association of America)

The fact is that newspaper advertising is in decline and that during this period, online advertising has increased by double-digit percentages every year.

Is Newspaper Advertising Competitive?

In short – no. Newspaper advertising was competitive years ago when it was the established medium of choice for information distribution, but since the mid-90s and the advent of the Internet, print advertising has all but completely lost it’s advertising value. Here are the reasons why:

• Advertisers are seeing vastly higher rates of return from internet advertising
• The majority of news and information once offered exclusively on newspapers is now available freely on the internet
• Internet advertising can be highly targeted, whereas print advertising is broadly targeted at best
• Internet advertising is paid on click-through rates, not impressions
• Internet IDX/VOW searching have opened access for the public to almost all MLS systems in the nation – these services cannot be duplicated in print

There are exceptions, though:

• Highly-targeted lifestyle magazines are good sources of business if they are read by people in the niche you’re targeting – this is used by some of our top customers and can be extremely effective.
• Neighborhood newspapers are usually inexpensive and can create branding in your geographical niche.

So What’s the Lesson?

Here’s the surprising thing – in a survey of 30 Realtors we recently conducted, almost 80% reported using some form of newspaper advertising in the last 12 months. When asked if it was effective, 100% reported it was not. So, why are Realtors still using newspaper advertising?

BECAUSE SELLERS KEEP ASKING FOR IT!!!

So – the are really two points to be  taken from this:

• Newspaper advertising is a waste of money unless done very carefully and in the right publications, and
• Most Realtors will save thousands of dollars/year if they learn how to convince their sellers that newspaper advertising WON’T SELL THEIR HOMES FASTER!

Myth 1: Most leads won’t convert

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard this one I would’ve retired years ago! The truth is that everyone in the world needs a place to live, and the vast majority of people you speak to will buy one or more homes during their lifetimes. Check out these statistics about home ownership in the developed world (number of households who own their home):

• Ireland: 83%
• Italy:     78%
• Australia: 69%
• United Kingdom: 69%
• Canada: 67%
• Finland: 67%
• United States: 65%
• Belgium: 65%
• Japan: 60%
• Sweden: 60%
• France: 54%
• Denmark: 53%
• Netherlands: 49%
• Germany: 43%

The only truth to this myth is that most leads won’t convert right away. Top Producers take advantage of this by collecting contact information and staying in touch with a huge number of people and closing multiple deals with them over a period of years and decades. Of course doing this properly isn’t necessarily common-sense, which leads us to myth 2…

Myth 2: Realtors® don’t need a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager)

“Huh? What’s a Customer Relationship Manager?”

A Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) is a type of software that ALL successful Realtors® (and businesses) use to keep track of their Spheres of Influence. A good CRM allows a Realtor® to keep track of (and keep in touch with) thousands of leads and past customers. A Realtor® without a CRM will always be living from deal-to-deal.

One of the most important aspects of a good CRM is often overlooked: retirement nest egg. Imagine the Top Producer in your office standing up at the next Monday-morning-meeting and announcing that he/she is retiring, and selling his/her book of business to the highest bidder… Guess what? He/She will be able to retire 5 years earlier!

Myth 3: Closing deals is an art, not a science

Sure, closing a deal involves a degree of artistic finesse, but improving conversion rates and decreasing conversion times requires strict application of the scientific process.

A quick review (from our junior high science fairs) of the scientific process (source):

1. Define the question
2. Gather information and resources (observe)
3. Form hypothesis
4. Perform experiment and collect data
5. Analyze data
6. Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis

Most Realtors® think they know how to close deals because they manage to do just that from time-to-time. The truth is that regimented trial and error with documentation and analysis is the only way to improve.

Conclusion

The most successful Realtors® I know understand that their professions operate according to the same rules as all other businesses. They take care to keep in touch with people, invest as much time in maintaining a customer base as they do building it, and they look at each process scientifically.

“Wow – that’s ridiculous. But it can’t be many of them can it?”

Our survey revealed that a whopping 30% of Realtors® don’t call leads generated from their websites!!

“What do you mean, not calling? Surely the Realtors® emailed them or did some other type of follow-up??”

This is what we’d thought, but after further questioning we discovered that these leads had simply been forgotten, missed, or just not followed-up with at all.

Why?

In most cases (66%), Realtors® ignored emails coming from their websites. In other cases (20%) Realtors® assumed the customers would not immediately convert. The remaining Realtors® reported a host of other reasons including (but not limited to) untrained/low-quality assistants, not enough time, etc.

Other things to be aware of

In addition to almost a third of Realtors® not calling their leads at all, a further 30% waited upwards of 24 hours before responding to their email/website inquiries! Any current or future top producer knows that even an hour, let alone a full day, can mean the difference between getting business or not.

When a lead was called, what happened?

Of the 70% who reported that they’d called their leads back, the vast majority (over 75%) reported that they’d made one or more sales from those leads during the prior year. Almost 10% reported that they’d made one or more sales within the prior month!

Our conclusion

By our estimates, Realtors® can increase website lead conversion two-fold by making the following two changes:

1. Call or email ALL leads that approach you through your website
2. Make sure your website sends leads directly to your cell phone or mobile device so you can call or email ALL leads immediately

Google has a service called the Local Business Center, which allows you to add and edit a listing for your business so that it’ll appear in some search results and on Google Maps.

Here’s the deal:

You can access this service at: www.google.com/lbc. If you’re in Canada make sure to use the SMS verification process as the phone verification doesn’t seem to work.

This will work best for those who sign up first. Make sure to get on it!!

UPDATE: Similar services provided on Yahoo and Bing:

• Bing Local Business Center (not available in Canada)
• Yahoo Local Listings (some charges may apply)

What is AdWords, in a nutshell? Go to Google and search for something. On the top and right hand side of the page you’ll see some highlighted links to sites relevant to the term you’ve just searched for. These are AdWords advertisements that you can click on. Your click is called a “click-through” – every time you “click-through” a Google AdWord, the owner of that site pays Google anywhere from a few pennies to sometimes tens or hundreds of dollars.

Google AdWords is a great way to drive traffic to your website, and can be extremely cost-effective.

‘Nuff said – on to the meat of the matter:

1. Your Current Online Presence

Before you’re ready to start spending money on Google AdWords advertising, you must be able to answer all the following questions with a resounding “YES.”

• Do you have a website?
• Does your website have a complete, and up-to-date MLS listings catalog for your area?
• Does your website have compelling interactive features (like real-time trending, instant home evaluations)?
• Does your website have lead capture forms for visitors that want more information?
• Does your website have good, regularly updated, and compelling content?
• Do you have a good customer relationship management pipeline?
• Do you have a good website statistical tracker (like Google Analytics)?

If you lack one or more of these, your campaign effectiveness will suffer.

2. Choosing the RIGHT Keywords

Go to Google’s Keyword Tool and type in some keywords and phrases (one word/phrase per line) that are relevant to your target market. Let’s say I’m a Chicago-based agent specializing in downtown condos, I might consider the following:

• Chicago downtown condo
• Chicago downtown real estate
• Chicago Millennium Park real estate
• Chicago river condos
• etc.

Google will give you a list of similar keywords, how many times they’re searched for per month, and a small graphic that indicates how competitive (expensive) that set of keywords is going to be.

Generally, you should choose keywords that you feel will drive the most relevant traffic to your website. The more specific your keywords are, with the highest amount of monthly searches, the more traffic you’ll receive.

3. Avoiding the WRONG Keywords

Be careful when selecting the right keywords: you can burn a lot of cash attracting irrelevant traffic to your website.

Take into account your target market and the words/phrases they may use for search. For example, you might discover a keyword/phrase that gets a lot of traffic, and is relatively cheap – “Great!” you’ll think, but hold on a minute…

Many people may search for “Chicago Millennium Park,” but how many of those people are interested in real estate in that area? Probably only a small portion. The ones that click-through to your website will quickly leave when they discover that your site doesn’t have the information they are looking for.

You’re far better off choosing keywords/phrases with less traffic, but with a higher percentage traffic that is likely to be interested in your services. Remember that paying $5 for 1 high-quality click-through per month is far better than $0.05 for 100 extremely low-quality click-throughs per month.

4. Sign-up and Create an AdWords Campaign

Once you’ve decided on some good keywords click “add” on the right column, sign up for an AdWords account (on the right-hand side of the screen), and follow the prompts.

Google will ask you to enter a daily maximum budget for each of your keywords so that you can control exactly how much you want to spend. Just follow the prompts, set a budget limit and a competitive bid for each keyword, and start the campaign. It’s very simple.

When you are writing the AdWord text, be sure to be specific about the details of your website. If, for example, you specialize in a particular area of type of real estate, include that in the AdWord to maximize the relevance of the click-through traffic.

Make sure you sign up for MORE THAN ONE keyword. This will allow you to compare effectiveness of different keywords.

5. Weekly Studying and Refinement

Once your AdWords campaign is up and running, you’ll start to see click-throughs very quickly. The best way to see them is using your Google Analytics account (which is integrated with AdWords), or through your other statistical traffic tracker (if you have one). From here, you’ll be able to track the relevance of the traffic and the relative performance of each of the keywords you’re working with.

Don’t be afraid to change things up if they aren’t performing, and to increase budgets if they are.

Step 1: Get an “Edge”

Check out this video. This is the owner of GoDaddy (one of the Internet’s most profitable companies) telling you that you need an “edge.” Although an “edge” can be pretty much anything that is useful to your customers, consider these “edges” for “Yee Olde Real Estate Company”:

• Real-Time House-Price Trending for South Chicago
• ONLY 10% Cap-Rate or higher Revenue Properties in Calgary
• Monthly Condo Conversion Opportunities in Vancouver
• This Month’s Best University Area Family House Deals in Edmonton
• The House-Flipper Expert – Exclusively for Flippers
• etc…

Once you’ve got an “edge,” you’ve got a target market, and it’s time for Step 2.

Step 2: Start a Blog to Facilitate QUICK Access to RELEVANT Information

Readers want useful information QUICKLY – You’ve got 1/2 second to get someone’s attention, and that’s it. So, an email needs to be short and sweet, but still allow access to a range of relevant information quickly. Here’s how you do it:

1. Write 1-2 articles per week that are relevant to your “Edge.” This will take some time in the beginning, but as you write more, you’ll find it easier and easier to create great, useful content that your target will want/need to read.
2. Create compelling headlines. Which would get your attention: “Great Revenue Property In Calgary,” or, “12% Cap Rate: Best Deal In East Calgary.”
3. Links to you and your site. People that read the article are interested and should be no more than 1 click away from contacting you, or finding more information. Always have your phone number/email obvious, and have links throughout your site for more information.

A quick note about content: Make sure your content is compelling – I’ve seen blogs that basically have 2 articles: “The Market is going Up,”  and “The Market is Going Down.” How boring is that? Be diligent to keep your articles original and compelling, with information that you yourself find useful and interesting.

Step 3: Get a Mailer Program

RPM Agent comes with a fully integrated drip-email program that allows you to create and manage email campaigns. Other options include Constant Contact, Streamsend, and Tellemonline. Some are more expensive than others, and require duplicating your client lists on multiple servers.

We highly recommend using an integrated service (like ours) to save you a lot of administrivia time.

Step 4: Create a Subscriber List

Everyone you meet that expresses even a remote interest in your “edge” should in your mailing list (with their permission, of course). This includes:

• friends and family
• past customers
• people you meet at weddings
• people that sign up through your website
• etc.

Don’t worry if your list is small to begin with – just be diligent about maintaining and adding to it regularly.

Step 5: Decide on the Campaign Details

Is it monthly, bi-weekly, or what? I recommend starting monthly and then increasing to bi-weekly once you’re in the rhythm of things. If you start too aggressively, you may find yourself rushing out poor content just to keep up with your campaign frequency.

Step 6: Create a Compelling Email

For every mail out, choose the top 3 headlines from your last two weeks (or month, depending on your campaign frequency). Put them in a nicely formatted email with LINKS to the full article on your blog. DON’T FORGET THE LINKS – After all, driving traffic to your website is the whole point. Use the mailer program to personalize the message to your subscribers.

Don’t dress the email up with pictures/backgrounds/etc. as they will be ignored by most of your readers.

Step 7: Click Send and Watch Readership Statistics

Click send. If your website has good statistical trending, you’ll be able to see which articles are read most, which will allow you to further refine your “edge” and to create more focused content to increase readership.

Step 8: Be Consistent

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see results immediately. Like any marketing campaign, consistency is the key. If you don’t start seeing results within 4 months, however, I recommend refining your “edge” and taking a look at the quality of content you’re creating.

“But I need an established client base before I can scale back my marketing…” You’re right! If you scrap your marketing, then you’re guaranteed to fail. The secret is in building your, “established client base,” in an efficient way that doesn’t take away from your marketing or immediate customer service requirements.

“Yeah, that’s obvious.” Yes it is, and I bet you’ve already heard it from your business coach, broker, colleague, top producing friend, husband/wife/son/daughter/mom/dad, high school friend, etc. But what THINGS can you do to ACTUALLY accomplish this?

Use technology

Technology will help you. It will alleviate the time you spend servicing customers, and will allow you to easily keep in contact with your sphere of influence.

To keep in touch with past and present customers, do the following:

• Get a good website
• Include a blog post (make it compelling) at least once-per-week about the market, or updates relevant to your sphere of influence
• Use an email campaign manager to keep in constant contact with your customers (build at least 18 months of campaign messages to begin with)

To service your existing customers, do the following:

• Get a website with map-based MLS® searching, and direct all your buyers there to do searching on their own. Make sure to followup with them every now-and-then via email or phone.
• Ensure your listings are rich with information – feature sheets, photos, virtual tours, maps, etc.

To attract new customers, do the following:

• Get a good website
• Keep it low pressure
• Promote it properly

Use your knowledge

Offering valuable content to your customers is absolutely vital – without it there’s no reason for them to use you over one of your competitors. The great thing is that educating your customers serves two purposes: it ensures you’re fresh in their minds when they decide to enter the market, and it means they’ll be more comfortable during the real estate process and convert more quickly.

“But what should I talk about?” Don’t sell yourself short – your knowledge on how a transaction works, what to look for in a basement, or what to do in the event of encroachment are just some of the things that your customers would find very useful.

Leverage your sphere of influence

They don’t call it a, “sphere of influence,” for nothing. Real estate comes up in casual conversation all the time, and when your friends are talking about it, they should be talking about you as well! Your name will get around, and before you know it your sphere of influence will be growing.

Commit and be consistent!

To make this work, think about a manual water pump – you need to work hard initially to get the water flowing, but once it is you can slow down… But what happens if your stop pumping? You have to start again from scratch.

This is the biggest mistake most Realtors® make is to commit to something more than they can handle. The key is to choose a strategy that is REASONABLE within the constraints of your life. If you’ve only got 10 minutes/day to spend, then be honest with yourself and don’t commit to an hour. Anything that becomes a struggle to do, won’t get done.

1. Empower them to do their own work

Top producers know it – customers who are empowered to do their own work will; it REALLY IS that simple! You can empower your customers by:

• having a Virtual Office Website that allows them to do and save their own MLS® searches
• giving them access to other information about the market such as statistics and trends
• giving them all information about listings so they can narrow down their favorites themselves

2. Make them your sales staff

Happy customers will tell their friends about you; all you need to do is give them great service, then make sure you stay in touch.

• Use an email campaign with your recent website blog entries
• Add them as a friend on Facebook
• Send monthly newsletters

Doing these things will ensure your customers always mention your name when their friends ask, “which Realtor™ should I use?”

3. Use them to recruit listings

If you’re working with lots of buyers, you can use them to recruit more listings. Just go to craigslist.org, or kijiji.com and add your buyer’s needs to their, “wanted,” directories. You’ll have FSBOs inquiring in less time than you think.

Successful companies use their customers to grow their businesses – start thinking like them and you’ll find more commission in your wallet almost immediately.