While plenty of real estate professionals start a blog with the simple aim of generating more website traffic, many quickly find that the day to day realty of blogging is tougher than they first thought.

Coming up with ideas in the first place can be difficult enough, but what about when your readers decide to take you to task on what you’ve written? How do you confront negative feedback without the conversation degenerating into a mud-slinging match?

For a few tips, let’s take a look at a recent example of negative blog feedback from New Zealand. Market leading portal realestate.co.nz recently unveiled a complete redesign, prompting a swift backlash on the portal’s blog.

realestate.co.nz CEO Alistair Helm did a couple of things right in responding to the criticism in the blog comments:

To begin with, he responded personally to as many commenters as possible, addressing many by name.

Helm also kept his answers polite and comprehensible, even though the situation was, he admitted, “personally disappointing.”

Finally, he thanked each commenter for their contribution, despite that fact that most were critical of the new-look website.

Helm has a major real estate portal’s reputation to consider, so there’s little chance his responses were going to be anything different. That said, there’s no reason real estate agents shouldn’t take the same approach when negative comments pop up on their blogs.

When you think about it, there’s a lot more at stake than winning an argument with a commenter. If you can respond to a negative comment with some forethought and poise, you’re also presenting yourself, and therefore your business, in the best possible light. And that has to be a positive.

[Image: thesituationist.wordpress.com]

You’ve done the deal – sold the house, signed the papers, collected the cash and shaken hands. So what’s next? Goodbye and thanks for coming?

Not so fast. It’s now time to switch into post-sale mode and begin communications that will keep your name present in the minds of both buyers and sellers.

To begin with, you’ll need a good contact management system that allows you to find, sort and manage every person you’ve worked with. This doesn’t need to be overly complex. As long as your system is easy to use and accessible – preferably from your mobile phone or PDA as well as from your office – you’re on the right track.

To create this system, you should record as much information about every potential customer as possible. Name, phone number, address, and email are a given, and as you work more closely with people and find out more about them, notes on birthdays and spouse’s/children’s details are great to have as well.

Ideally, you should get into the habit of filling your contact management system with this information as soon as you have it. If it stays scribbled on the back of a business card, that potentially vital information won’t be useful to anyone.

Once you’ve got as much information on past customers as possible, you’ll have a better chance of sending out your communications at the right time. For example, sending out a Christmas email to every contact in your database is fine, but wouldn’t it be even better to send a modified email to those contacts who don’t celebrate Christmas?

Email newsletters including local news or new listings are similar. If you can target those contacts that are most likely to be interested, i.e those that live in or near the area you’re writing about, or who you think might be looking for the kind of property you’re advertising, you’ll be less likely to lose contacts to the “unsubscribe” button.

Of course, most people who give out their email address are aware that not every email they receive will be written for them. But the power of a well-maintained customer database is that you don’t have to rely on people’s patience for the one email out of ten that’s relevant. In other words, with targeted post-sale communications, you can keep in touch with past customers further into the future.

If you are a busy agent with lots of clients, the thought of gathering statistics for all of your properties might seem daunting. You’d need to find out how many people visited each property and what number of enquiry emails you had, then look at comparable properties and combine it all to make a meaningful report.

This could take some time and may seem tedious, however each of your clients deserves the individual attention and feedback, particularly if they are paying for the advertising. But for the sake of your sanity, it’s best to look to an automated system to do the work for you.

One easy way to gather this information is through your advertising portal. Most of the large players will provide you with the raw statistics on each of the properties you have listed. Some of the more advanced portals will even package this information in a useful report that you can then forward on to your vendors.

If your portal does not provide such a service, you may need to do the grunt work yourself. No doubt you receive reports of some sort from all the different portals you advertise on as well as your own website. You should collate as much of this information as possible so you can provide your customers with a well-rounded picture of how their marketing is tracking.

Vendor reports are also a fantastic tool for you to compare properties and see which portals are producing better results than others, along with which properties are performing better and why. This knowledge is great for advising customers on how to achieve better results from their advertising.

Above all, remember to keep your vendor reports simple and only include the facts. Ultimately, vendor reports should provide a springboard for considered conversation between you and your vendor about what’s best for their listing.

Interested in starting an email marketing campaign? Not quite sure how to go about it? Then the latest free ebook from campaigner.com might be the place to start.

The free ebook covers topics including creating an email marketing strategy, what to say, how to present it, how to build a subscriber list, and how to evaluate your campaign’s effectiveness. Of course, campaigner.com is promoting its own service via the ebook, but there is still plenty of information useful to those who aren’t interested in signing up.

And if you’re looking for more on how to use email in your business, check out these Property Ad Guru articles:

Email Newsletters: Awareness, Loyalty, Leads

Top 10 Tips for Email Etiquette

Top 10 Tips for Email Newsletters

As a real estate agent, you’re probably all too aware that you’re one of many people offering a similar service. Chances are, there are a number of agents working in or near your area with whom you need to compete. So how do you make sure you stand out?

In any marketplace, the idea of the “unique value proposition“, or UVP, is key. UVP might sound like a hazy marketing term, but all it refers to is the thing you do differently to your competitors. Identifying your UVP can help you focus your business and ensure you don’t waste too much energy covering the same bases as everyone else.

In terms of online marketing, your UVP could be the fact that:

- Your website gives people the best information about a certain area;
- Your website is somewhere people can find trustworthy advice about the buying and selling process;
- You’re an active, helpful member of an online social network who strives to help home hunters;
- Your portal listings are the most detailed of any agent in your market, complete with good photos and great copy;
- You send out a well-written, informative email newsletter once a week that people really want to read.

In defining your UVP, infomarketerszone.com points out that you don’t need to limit your thinking to your own industry. “Study successful companies of all types,” they advise. “Seek to understand their unique value proposition. How are they different in the market?”

One last tip: your UVP should be based on something you’re good at, and ideally enjoy doing. You could aim to be your market’s best real estate photographer, but if that’s not where your strength lies, you’re much better off emphasising areas where you know you can deliver.

The word “content” is used so often these days that it’s easy to let it wash over you without thinking about it what it really means. But the fact is, quality content is central to any successful online marketing strategy. In other words, good content can transform your message from general advertising noise into something people really want to find out more about.

So what exactly do we mean by “content”? The short answer is: everything you create. Everything from your company’s “about us” page to the snippets of information you publish on Twitter contributes to the way you are perceived online. Over time, the content you create builds up your brand’s individual personality, which in turn creates understanding and expectation in your audience.

The question is, does that personality engage people? Are you offering potential customers something that will entice them back again and again?

One example of a company that has content production down to a fine art is computer giant Apple. While not everyone is a convert, Apple has such a devoted fan-base that they even have their own consumer-run forum. Their content is clear, simple, and friendly without becoming too informal. It’s also seemingly endless. Everything from how-to video tutorials for their software to information on how their products impact on the environment is available to their customers.

Another aspect of Apple’s marketing strategy to consider is that the company doesn’t currently have a presence on social media. Many would argue that this is because Apple simply doesn’t need to drum up more support, but we would add that the brand often benefits from consumers not knowing what’s happening – its secrecy drives the buzz for upcoming releases to fever pitch.

As we all know, any real estate agency that tried to operate using that strategy would soon have to shut its doors. Agents benefit from being as visible as possible. But don’t make the mistake of thinking anything that puts your brand in front of potential clients is worthwhile. If the content isn’t up to scratch, you could easily be sending leads straight to your competitors.

Think about it: you might have a killer business model, a dedicated team of staff, and all the latest tech tools meant to make your everyday tasks streamlined and simple. But what is it that you’re offering people when they find you online? Is it clear? Does it offer something worthwhile? Is it part of an overall marketing plan? Ask yourself these questions before you publish something online, and you’ll be on your way to establishing a brand that’s recognised, respected, and maybe even enjoyed.

Many estate agencies and individual brokers only dabble in publishing newsletters while others view it as a vital tool in the marketing and advertising mix.

Online newsletters can be an extremely cost effective and successful marketing tool which allow you to:

• Keep your brand in front of the market continuously
• Create and build relationships with prospective customers
• Maintain relationships with current and past customers
• Establish yourself as an authority in property matters
• Entrench yourself and/or your company as part of the local community

Keeping in contact with and engaging all your contacts – (including tenants who become purchasers, who become sellers, who become investors, who provide referrals and repeat business) - is obviously an important activity.

From a prospective customer point of view, newsletters are a great channel for positioning you and your company as a leader in the market. But that doesn’t mean the newsletter should be all about you. The “leadership” position comes from focusing on the needs of customers/prospects and providing information for them that focuses on your particular area of expertise.

Effective newsletters provide relevant information to the target market whether they are sellers, buyers or investors. It’s a good idea to have specific links to hosted articles on your site that allow readers to tune into more information that is most relevant to them.

So what should you include in your newsletters?

Market update
Movement on sale prices
Number of listings on the market
Governmental issues affecting property

Rental properties available

Featured properties of the month

Helpful hints
Things to do when moving house
Preparing your home for sale

Renovation tips

Quick online surveys about your area (with results to be published in next newsletter)
Survey of confidence in the market
Favourite restaurant in town

Community notice board
Highlight any sponsorships/community organisations you are associated with
Community activities

And yes you should beat your own drum a little
Testimonials
Staff profiles
Recent sales/successes
Awards

Building subscribers

You should look at every opportunity to sign people up for the newsletter. Everyone in your area is part of the community and most want to know what is going on – especially when it comes to property.

Take print-outs of your online newsletter to open homes and inspections and offer the opportunity to everyone you meet to sign up to receive it.

Advertise it in your windows, on mail drops and in community advertising/promotions.

Make your “free online newsletter” subscription stand-out on the home page of your website.

Put a link or URL to the subscription page on your online listings and in your general advertising.

Sign up request forms for attendees at any of your investor seminars, tenant or landlord information evenings, and any other functions you may be sponsoring.

If you have banner advertising on any portals, you should allocate one of them to highlighting your newsletter.

Lead generation

Ensure you include the ability to “send to a friend” on your newsletter. Referrals are key.

Look at discussing issues around selling your home and provide the opportunity for people to request further information. It may be a printed booklet such as a “Home Sellers Guide” or a Free Valuation.

Keep including the opportunity to link back to different areas on your website.

How to design and send an online newsletter

Many of the back office or CRM systems now have inbuilt tools to help you design and send html emails. If not, there are a myriad of email marketing programs that can assist at all different levels of sophistication. Your web designer should also be able to assist.

Helpful hints

Ensure there are articles or links to articles in each edition that relate to each of your subscriber segments so they will find at least one article of interest.

Avoid jargon or buzz words – make the content as approachable as possible.

Ensure there are some images or graphs to break up the text – the layout needs to be pleasing to the eye and easily scannable.

Keep each article relatively short and concise and perhaps have a summary in the newsletter with a link to the full article.

Quick idea to generate seller leads

Given that many people look to get rid of unwanted goods in the lead up to selling their property, it might be fruitful to advertise a free “Garage Sale Kit” in your newsletter. It could include signs (with your logo) that sellers can put their address on, a Garage Sale Hints brochure, and balloons. Perhaps you could even have a section on your website advertising garage sales coming up each week.

And finally…

Whatever the specific content, your newsletter should accurately reflect your business’ views and position in the community and be professionally presented and marketed. You should also have some way of measuring the results or effectiveness of your newsletter, otherwise, what’s the point? You should know how many times it is opened, passed on and which articles are read most of all. Over time, these statistics will give you a feel for what sort of content works best for your audience and you will be better able to target your future newsletters.

With all the hype surrounding Twitter over the last 12 months, you could be forgiven for wondering whether Facebook is gradually going out of style. In fact, it might come as a surprise to learn that Facebook is more popular than ever, and businesses are quickly realising that over 100 million monthly visitors in the US alone is a potential audience they can’t afford to ignore.

One of the ways businesses are making Facebook part of their social media marketing plans is in setting up a Facebook Fan Page. The main difference between a Fan Page and a Facebook profile is that people can become your fans without you adding them as a friend. But just like a Facebook profile, a Fan Page is free to create and just as straightforward (propertyadgru.com knows – we set up our own just a few months ago).

As this handy mashable.com guide explains, setting up your Fan Page is as easy as logging in to Facebook and clicking through a few online forms to properly classify and present your business. Then it’s up to you to find fans and create an audience with a specific interest in your business.

Still not convinced a Fan Page would be worthwhile? Then consider the opportunities it presents to gather information direct from your community. Gauging local real estate trends can be as simple as asking your fans for their thoughts. Of course, your fans will probably have some ideas about what they want in a real estate agent, and it will pay to ask for and listen to these opinions.

A Facebook Fan Page is also a great way to promote any other online content you have, from listings to Twitter updates and blog posts. The trick is to give people a reason to become a fan by offering content that will be useful to them. What about including videos that relate to your community, or linking to some interesting news articles about your local area? Even just adding something to make people giggle, or get them thinking, will keep fans coming back for more.

As with any online endeavour, promotion is key to success with a Facebook Fan Page. Make it a habit to mention the page often, send out invitations to selected contacts on a regular basis, and keep content fresh with weekly updates.

Facebook says it now has over 350 million members, so it makes sense to take advantage of something as easy as a Fan Page to give your business that extra push.

There’s no doubt social media has become a mainstay in our online lives. Whether it’s through a Facebook fan page, regular YouTube videos, daily blog posts or hourly tweets, chances are you’re aiming to connect with buyers and sellers online. And that takes time.

As social media use becomes less of a novelty and more part of the everyday, it’s likely those who use social media to boost their business will start asking the question: what return am I getting for all this time spent recording, writing, and updating?

If you’re questioning the amount of time you spend using social media, but can’t see yourself going cold turkey any time soon, here are some ideas for ensuring a sound return-on-investment:

Be clear about your goals. What do you want to achieve? Are you aiming to create social capital – to become a trusted member of an online community? Or do you simply need to generate as many leads as possible? Setting clear goals mean you’re much more likely to use social media to your advantage, rather than just sign in for the sake of it.

Beware mixing business with pleasure. Once you’ve decided what your goals are, make an effort to keep your online activity in line with those goals. Twitter accounts are notorious for mundane updates that are highly unlikely to generate leads or social capital, and a blog or a YouTube account can suffer exactly the same fate. If you love using social media as a personal platform, consider creating new accounts for your “at home” persona that hold separate, non-business content.

Monitor your activity to find what works. It’s definitely worth keeping a record of how many hours you spend blogging, tweeting, and scrolling through other people’s content. At the same time, write down what this achieved and look at how close you came to your goals. If you’re falling short, ask others what worked for them, and what simply wasted their time.

Cut out what doesn’t work. With so many online social networks to choose from, it can be easy to stretch yourself thin as you try to maintain a presence across multiple channels. Once you’ve evaluated what works, you can be confident in your decisions to tweet less often, read more blog posts, or only check Facebook a maximum of twice per day.

Bring it into the “real world”. As often as possible, get in touch with the contacts you’ve made through social media in a concrete way. The popularity of “tweet-ups” amongst Twitter users is a perfect example of how social media should spill over into the real world now and then. As always, it’s the people behind the keyboards that matter.

The partnership has only just been announced, but mashable.com reports that these synchronised status updates are already extremely popular, with the number of users linking their Twitter and LinkedIn accounts rising to 200 per minute at one stage.

In this demonstration video, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman discuss the importance of their social networking tools for business and the potential benefits of the partnership: