Real Estate Internet Marketing Strategy: How to Leads Free Real Estate With Video Marketing

Lead generation is one of the biggest challenges real estate marketing agents face in today's extremely competitive market. While most agents have a website, many don't know how to drive targeted traffic to it. Especially, how to do this all for free. Here is just one of the many things you can do to get potential buyers and sellers to visit your site.

You have probably heard that in October 2006 Google purchased YouTube (www.youtube.com). When an Internet giant like Google makes such a business move, rest assured that it signals a significant future advertising trend.

Short videos are immensely popular on the Internet, but still few people use it to market real estate online. Only few Realtors rely on internet videos as means to drive targeted traffic to their websites.

There are still relatively few real estate videos online.
Most of these videos are not set up properly, and are poorly positioned for search engine placement.

Configured with the right keywords, your video can earn very high rankings in natural search engine results. This translates into lots of free web traffic down the road.

Here is how you can capitalize on this emerging trend. Instead of a traditional virtual tour (posting a number of still images in a slide show), shoot an actual video either with a handy cam, a webcam, or your digital camera's video function. Once you have your video, submit it to search engines. Use a title that accurately describes your video. It is most important that your title contain your preferred keywords. In the Description section, use a keyword rich discussion. In the "Description" section, remember to designate a link to your website! Otherwise, all your directing and producing efforts are in vain, and visitors will not be able to navigate directly to your website.

If you know you are not an inspiring video producer but you still would like to capitalize on the power of video advertising, you can have them made for you for about the same price as you would otherwise pay for a traditional virtual tour. However, traditional virtual tours do not offer the same traffic generation power.

You can check out http://video.realestatemarketingformula.com for a great company that will produce video format virtual tours for you. They will even offer to upload and submit your videos to Google Video, YouTube, Yahoo Video, and Realtor.com. Conclusion Video Real Estate Marketing can significantly contribute to your real estate internet marketing efforts. It can help you drive lots of targeted traffic to your website. But don't forget, you still need to convert this traffic into leads and then convert those leads into clients. If you'd like some help getting started, refer to the website listed below. Happy Lead Generation and Good Luck with real estate internet marketing!

* You may republish this article online if you keep the content exactly as it is and retain the author's information and the active hyperlinks below.

About the Author:

Katalin Cseke is the author of Real Estate Internet marketing Formula, a step-by-step guide for real estate agents about how to generate business online. She is the Owner and CEO of Internet Real Estate Consulting, LLC and has worked for Fortune 500 companies as a marketing communications consultant. She is an active real estate agent, generating all her business online. You can reach the author and find a lot more marketing tips at http://www.RealEstateInternetMarketingFormula.com

Creative Real Estate Marketing Ideas

Real estate marketing is a lot simpler than most Realtors make it out to be. Some equate expensive products and services with quality.

However, effective real estate marketing does not have to be expensive, complicated, or sophisticated. Sometimes, plain, simple, direct and to the point makes lasting impressions that result in increased business opportunities and more income.

One of the most effective real estate marketing ideas involves Expired Listings. If you're newly licensed, new to a community or simply looking for a way to increase your business you should aggressively pursue them.

Expired Listings are plentiful and always easy to find. All you have to do is look at your daily MLS updates.

If you make them a staple of your real estate marketing efforts by pursuing them consistently you should be able to develop a steady stream of prospects and a solid income within 3 - 6 months, depending on your local market conditions.

Still, getting them is easier said than done. However, a good real estate listing system can help set you apart from other Realtors in a relatively short period of time.

Visit http://www.farmingexpiredlistings.com if you need one.

Below are some additional real estate marketing ideas.

1. Bumper stickers. Are you advertising yourself via bumper stickers, yet? If not you're missing out on a simple, cost effective marketing strategy.

So, here’s the deal. It's very simple. Have some bumper stickers printed with your web site address and other business information on it.

Ask your church, sorority, fraternity and/or other groups you belong to to support you by placing them on their cars. Many will be happy to help out, especially since it won't cost them anything to be supportive.

Also, make enough for family, friends and clients who are happy with your services and willing to share how great they think you are.

2. T - Shirts & Jackets. Real estate marketing via T - shirts and jackets is not a new or novel idea, but how many Realtors do you see advertising via this medium. Did you say "none?" That's what I thought.

So, have some t-shirts and jackets made with your web site address and other business information on them. You, your family and friends can wear them almost anywhere. Market your business year round for a one time cost. When it's too cold for t-shirts wear the jacket.

3. Baseball Caps. Here's another great way to get a lot of free advertising.

Have some baseball caps made with your web site address and other real estate business information on them. Heck, you might as well spend a few more bucks and outfit your child's baseball team with them. It makes for great publicity and is also a nice thing to do for kids!

Ask the parents for "quid pro quo" by asking them to place your bumper stickers on their cars.

4. Envelopes, Stationary & Business Cards. These are the mainstay of any real estate marketing campaign, and a must for your marketing campaigns.

Make sure your web site address and other business information is printed on all of your stationary, envelopes and business cards. Leave a few wherever you go. Give them out like candy, as they are doing nobody any good in your pockets.

5. Magnetic Signs. Automobile signs are the "meat and potatoes" of real estate marketing of most serious agents. If you don't already have some get some. No,not the generic ones that your Broker has laying around, but signs with your name, web site address and other business information on them.

Place them on your car doors or roof. Take them off and reattach them in different spots from time to time to avoid fading your paint job.

6. Flyers. Print flyers with your web site address and other business information on them. Keep some with you at all times and hang on bulletin boards or simply lying around to be picked up. It's a great, inexpensive real estate marketing idea that reaches a lot of people fast.

Print out a few hundred at a time and pay your kids to place them on car windshields in grocery store and shopping center parking lots on Saturday mornings.

7. Articles. Another real estate marketing idea is to write articles. Writing articles is a great way to demonstrate your expertise as a real estate professional while plugging your real estate business. It's also an inexpensive way to increase your website ranking.

These real estate marketing ideas, anchored by a good real estate marketing listing system, can help supercharge your business and help you achieve the success you deserve.

So, the sooner you adopt these strategies the sooner you'll be able begin reaping the benefits of them.


About The Author

Lanard Perry is the author of "Farming Expired Listings - A Guide To Your Personal Success." Get a FREE Sample Chapter at http://www.farmingexpiredlistings.com

What Makes A Real Estate Company Successful

What makes a real estate company successful? Over the years I have been contemplating this question and trying to come up with the philosophical answers that will help The Property Shoppe improve even more, so that our Chattanooga real estate clients receive even greater benefits.

Is technology the catalysts that will propel our company to the forefront of customer service? Over the years we have stayed up to date on the latest technologies available that we felt would most benefit our clients but also our real estate agents. One lesson that I believe we have learned from this is even though this technology simplifies our customers overall Chattanooga buying and selling experience, is this what will truly cause our company to stand out above all other real estate agencies in our customers minds? The answer to this intriguing question I feel will not be answered until the general public is exposed to more of this type technology within the real estate industry as a whole. As proprietors of our industry it is our responsibility to educate and inform our consumers.



Will hiring the right real estate agents help our Chattanooga Tennessee Company to become successful? Now I understand that companies are only as good as the people who work for them. I mean let’s face it, real estate sales is a people business. Do we however focus more on the people that we hire, instead of the people that are hiring us? I believe the one thing that I can learn from this challenging question is no matter whom you hire if your customers don’t benefit from those relationships, then your company or business is likely to be unsuccessful.

Does branding and real estate marketing help catapult a company to business success? I am sure we all understand that in order to gain consumers we must brand and market our products and services. I hope the one thing that I have learned over time is that no matter how much money you spend marketing to your consumers or branding your company. None of this matters unless you are capable of handling and servicing that traffic you get from your marketing efforts.

You know The Mad Genius of Real Estate has just realized what will make not only The Property Shoppe in Chattanooga Tennessee but also every real estate company in the country successful. All of these factors above play a role in facilitating a company’s success but the key element to dominating a real estate market is- GOOD OLD FASHION CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! Remember no matter what type of technology you use, no matter what real estate agents you hire and no matter what type of company branding or real estate marketing you perform without treating your customers as you would want to be treated yourself, your company or business will be set on a path of certain failure.

http://www.chattanooga123.com

Real Estate Marketing Reports

How To Build A Web Site Fast

A well designed web site offers an online presence to advertise your services and your listings. It will also provide you opportunities to show your site visitors how good you will take care of them. Also, know that the most effective web sites have customized content that site visitors love, and when visitors like them the search engines do, too!

Prewritten reports can provide excellent real estate web site content at affordable prices, plus they can often be uploaded to your web site in a matter of minutes. Their cost and utilization can’t be beat!

Optimized web content can help you get your real estate web site indexed by search engines faster, but key to that is the uniqueness and quality of your content. Well written, unique content will get you noticed by human visitors and search engine spiders alike, while poorly written content is virtually assured to get you ignored.

When you have a web site, you’re not just trying to reach people who were searching for you -- you’re trying to get people to visit it, read your latest news and offers, preview your listings, and to eventually contact you as a prospect pre-sold on the idea of doing business with you. And one of the best ways of doing this is to have fresh and useful content on it, short articles and reports about the kind of things your customers might be interested in.

When prospects view your content rich site of informative and helpful information they’re more likely to do business with you because of it. While it might not be right away, or as soon as you’d like, they may eventually contact you for assistance. And when they do you’ll know they are serious about doing business with you, and you’ll have your site content to thank for converting yet another looker to a paying customer.

Prewritten Marketing Reports Can Be Effective Because Of The Following Reasons

1. Visitors will come to your web site to learn more about buying, selling and financing real estate.


2. Potential buyers, sellers, renters and investors can use yo
ur web site to notify you about their
real estate interests.

3. Consumers can get answers to frequently asked questions at your real estate web site.

Pre-written Real Estate Marketing Content is readily available and can be used in a variety of ways; as marketing reports, articles, web site content and the like. Above all it offers a way to provide useful information and gain the trust of your readers and site visitors - fast, inexpensive and good!

While most real estate web sites appear to have just a few pages, the more dynamic ones frequently have hundreds of hidden, hard working pages feeding the search engines and directing visitors to them. Prospects find these pages by way of different keyword searches and visit those that appeal to their interests. Therefore, the more pages you have the more visitors you’re likely to get.

Connect with prospects by educating them about the home buying and selling processes. You can educate sellers about the importance of setting re
alistic prices and reasonable terms and conditions to get their properties sold. And with Buyers your goal might be to educate them on things like easements, closing costs, appraisals, contract negotiations, closing costs, etc.

When you’re searching for pre-written Real Estate Marketing Reports be sure to look for similar terms like, Articles, Web Site Content, Marketing Reports, etc. All are, no matter what you call them, efficient ways to get noticed both by consumers and search engines.

The better the quality of your content the more value it adds to your web site, and the more helpful it is to human visitors the better. And of course this all makes sense when you consider that your site visitors are looking for helpful information and search engines are looking for happy, satisfied visitors.

When you’re ready to increase the number of prospects you are working with consider Prewritten Real Estate Marketing Reports and Web Site Content. They’re easy to find, easier to buy and are often times ready for immediate upload to your site.


Sousce: http://www.real-estate-marketing-talk.com/real-estate-web-site-content.html

Real Estate Development Marketing

A Specialist Article For Those Interested In Real Estate Development

From the desk of Colm Dillon ...

Author of

"Residential Development Made Easy"

Hello Colm Dillon here ...

Real Estate Development Marketing!

When do you start?

As soon as you open your 'baby blue eyes' every morning!

"The Easy Part of Property Development is Spending Money" ... "Marketing Is What Gets It Back + A Bit More For Profit."

Anyone can spend money. It takes a good manager to spend it at a predetermined rate in line with a planned 'cash flow.'

So this topic is very important. People think Development Marketing is all about putting an advert in the paper, designing a brochure and following up the agents ... I don't think so folks!!

Marketing starts before you buy the land.

The location of the land impacts on marketing. Is it a desirable address? Is it in a prestigue location? What market sector of the buying public are you aiming for? Does the site have local prominence? Does the land have quality houses around it?

All of these questions impact on your marketing plan, the home designs you select, the costings and untimate sales prices.

So if marketing starts with the land selection, it logically then goes on to the
design stage. Assuming you don't want to just copy something you've seen another developer has done, you need market knowledge.

You need maket knowledge of the exact standard of product you are competing against in the market now. Remember you won't be producing yours for another 12 months or so and you'll want to improve on what is being produced today, so you have a market difference. An 'Edge.'

Marketing is no more than the presentation of your finished product to the
buying public in the most favourable light, highlighting all the benefits
your home has over the competition.

One kind of marketing style that is a failure as far as I am concerned is the one that is based on the "Numbers Comparison." I am sure you've seen the on site project boards.

Our house has 5 of these, and 6 of those ... when that guy's house only
has 4 of these and 3 of those.

The potential buyer will eventually want to know these things, but "Right Now" they want to know "How They Feel" about living in the place, on your Road, in this neighborhood.

Understand this: People SELL for Money ... People BUY with Emotion.

If they don't feel good in your place, it does not matter if you give then 12 of these and 20 of those ... OK?

I have always DEVELOPED and MARKETED on the basis of appealing to the human senses of See - Feel - Touch - Smell & Sound.

I transfer all those into my designs, because I am designing and building for
'Humans Beings' and human beings buy with emotions ... and if I do my work well, I'll make a profit.

So as a buyer, if a house looks good when I drive up to inspect it, I am favouable disposed to buy before I open the garden gate.

When my feet touch the pathway/ entrance foyer and see the lovely landscaping my desire to buy is enhanced.

As I enter the house and feel the ambience of the house envelop me I
respond in a positive way to buy, if I feel emotionally comfortable in the space.

When I smell all the new house smells, it translates into 'fresh' 'clean' 'new' and who doesn't want to buy fresh new things.

When I close the door of the house I enjoy hearing the sound of silence, which is conducive to rest and recuperation after a hard days work.

Think about how you respond to each house you inspect as you go about gaining market knowledge. Do you see, it does not matter how many 'bibs & bobs' the place has ... if they don't feel emotionally comfortable in the place, they won't BUY!

Can you see why this is my number one topic?

So naturally I write about it a great deal in Residential Developmemnt
Made Easy.

So now you have some idea why marketing starts as soon as you open your 'baby blue eyes' every morning ... marketing is a direct reflection of who you are and how you expresss yourself in creating beautiful livable space FOR HUMAN BEINGS.

The 'by-product' happens to be 'money.' And if you do it very well,
it happens to be 'Lots of Money.

Colm Dillon author of "Residential Development Made Easy" the only 'How To' Become a Developer eBook, selling in 38 Countries, has developed $1.2 Billion worth of real estate - read more on his web site: http://realestatedevelopmentcoach.com/realestatedevelopment.html

Real Estate Marketing Slogans

Real Estate Marketing slogans arouses interest in your audience and can be the vehicle that helps establish your "name brand" and invigorate your real estate career.

A good, well crafted slogan can propel your business in quantum leaps, while a poorly considered one can be as effective as none at all. Real estate marketing slogans can work equally well online and offline, but they must be good enough to appeal to mass, targeted audiences.

Consequently, agents work hard and long for the right words to coin the right phrases, for the perfect slogans. After all, their slogans may be powerful or aspiring enough to define their careers.

Realtor Alert! Real estate marketing slogans don't have to be over intellectualized to create huge "brand names." Catchy and clever works every time.

For example, Century 21, ERA, & Coldwell Banker are national and/or regional real estate companies whose corporate names serve as their "real estate marketing slogans". Examples of some gigantic, non-real estate companies are Xerox, IBM, Pepsi and Coke.

Successful Realtors know the importance of using real estate marketing slogans to create "name brands", but when conjuring up a slogan for yourself why not something as simple as your name.

If Mike, Bill and Hillary can pull it off you can, too. Of Course you know who I mean, which epitomizes the power of a name.

Creating A Slogan!

Now, I can go to the yellow pages, write down a bunch of real estate marketing slogans and throw a bunch of them at you to jump start your creative juices, but you can do that yourself.

A more constructive approach in creating your own slogan is to make a list of 10 slogans that reflect who you are, what niche real estate market you want to be known for, and your interests and personality in general.

Use the yellow Real Estate Agents section of your local yellow pages to get ideas, then strive for phrases that uniquely characterize you.

Imagine being the Madonna, or "leave the driving to us" of the real estate industry.

Is it possible? Absolutely, but you'll have to create a slogan first! Then you'll need to use and publicize it every opportunity you get; in your ads, on your business cards, letter head, website, vanity car tag, etc.

Don't expect instant success right out of the gate. It'll take a while, but you'll be amazed at how much you can accomplish in a year or so. And if you have a real estate marketing system that reaches a minimum of 10 prospects a day the numbers can quickly add up in your favor.

10 contacts a day x 20 days a month = 200 contacts a month

200 contacts a month x 12 months a year = 2,400 contacts a year

Without too much effort you can passively market your slogan to a minimum of 2,400 prospects a year.

I wonder what impact having your marketing slogan on your car would have?

No matter where you live, or what market you're in you're missing out on massive amounts of free marketing if you don't have a car tag of some kind advertising the fact that you're a Realtor.

And what about advertising your slogan through the penny, nickel and dime publications? Think cheap advertising, high visibility, and lots of readers of your slogan to drive business opportunities your way.

So, create your own unique, real estate marketing slogan; then publicize it heavily; freely and/or inexpensively, but heavily.

Can you see the impact that this might have on your real estate marketing results? I can!
Lanard Perry is the author of "Farming Expired Listings." Learn how to average 1 or more listings a week. Visit http://www.farmingexpiredlistings.com and http://www.real-estate-marketing-talk.com for more business building ideas.

Real Estate Marketing Strategies: 7 More Law of Attraction Tips

Have you seen the movie The Secret yet? If not, I highly recommend it. It's an inspirational documentary on the Law of Attraction. It"s becoming a real "buzz" in most businesses now.

Why? More and more small business owners and success minded professionals are beginning to discover what most successful real estate agents have known all along. They are beginning to discover the "secret" to success.

What do successful real estate agents know that others don't? After interviewing some of the top producers in the real estate field, one thing stood out over and over and over. The "secret" to their success was their mindset and they were happy to talk about it.

How can the Law of Attraction change your mindset?

There are 7 ways:

Tip 1: The Law of Attraction tells us to dwell in the state of "gratitude"

"How", you might ask, "is feeling grateful going to help me sell homes?" First of all, according to several well-known authors "gratitude opens the way for more good to come into your life." Secondly, have you noticed how an attitude of gratitude put you in a good mood? Gratitude shifts your thinking from problems to what you feel good about, and that brightens your mood. Have you noticed how people are more attracted to you when you are in a better mood?

Here's a tip:

When you get up in the morning focus on what you have and what you are grateful for. It could be that you are healthy enough to get up and do your work. As you go throughout your day keep thinking about what you're grateful for. Watch how more and more people are attracted to you.

Tip 2: Another tip that was mentioned in "the secret" was the process of "visualizing."

Did you know that athletes mentally visualize their performance? The theory is that when you visualize, you materialize. Be sure to make the visualization so real that you can feel what it feels like to have what you want.

Here's a tip:

Before you go into a listing appointment, take a few minutes to visualize yourself with a positive outcome you want. Visualize the owners looking at you and smiling at you as they sign their name to the contract. Feel what you feel in your heart, knowing that they trust and appreciate you. Talk about maximizing your success…

Tip 3: Know what you don't want

Why is it important to know what you don't want? We get what we are focused on. Focus on the lack of something, and that's what we are guaranteed to get. When you make a list of what you don't want in terms of clients, you are using that list to clarify what you do want.

How else are you going to know what you want unless you've experienced what you don't want?

Here's a tip:

Make a list of what you don't want in terms of clients, like you don't want "undecided, unmotivated and uncommitted clients," so scratch out all those qualities on a piece of paper. Flip to the opposite, using your don't want list to discover what you do want. The trick is to "observe your don't want list very briefly and then discard it."

Tip 4: Get clear on what you do want

Here's where we get to the bottom line of the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction tells us to only focus on what we want. Some people need help to break the "want" barrier. These people have been conditioned with self limiting beliefs like "it's selfish to want." Or "it's not okay to ask."

However, according to the Law of Attraction, "wanting is the necessity of life." In the book, "Excuse me, your life is waiting," the author Lyn Grabhorn asks "what are your smallest, your biggest, your oldest, your newest, and your most deeply hidden desires… the ones that are so impossible that you never have so much as whispered them out loud to anyone? We came to learn how to create our desires, fulfill our dreams, and prosper."

Here's a tip:

Keep your focus on what you want. If you are feeling anything less than wonderful, your mind has probably drifted to focusing on what you don't want. When that happens, ask yourself, "so what do I want?"

Tip 5: Get into that feeling state of having what you want

In other words, visualize yourself having what you want, let's say an abundance of "happy, appreciative, ideal clients." Now instead of feeling bad that you don't have those clients yet, act as if you do. Put yourself in the situation where you visualize your ideal clients calling you, your transactions increasing, your bank account going up, and having more time to spend with your family.

The key to having what ever you want is finding a way to feel good about your want, even before it arrives. Use whatever device you want. Feel free to pretend, "act as if", and imagine. Remember, Einstein once said that, "imagination is more important than knowledge."

Let your imagining be from your heart, not just from your head. What does it feel like? Deep down in your heart and in your body to have happy, appreciative clients calling you and want to do business with you?

Do you feel cooler or warmer, do you feel calmer or more excited, and do you feel lighter or heavier? Once you get the hang of it, it will be easy for you to identify the feelings of "having what you want."

Here's a tip:

Take a few minutes every day to relax and visualize yourself having your desires fulfilled. As an added bonus, speak into a recording device and tape yourself, giving yourself a visualization. That way, when you're done, you can't sit back and listen to it over and over and over, creating a positive energy vortex.

Tip 6: Clear your opposing beliefs

As I have been coaching real estate agents for the last 10 years in doubling and tripling their incomes, what I have found is that the Law of Attraction works great when there are no opposing beliefs. It doesn't work at all when opposing beliefs are still in place.

For example, you may have all the talent and skills that you need to be a top producing real estate agent, but you could be stuck in a nonproductive mode because of Self Limiting Beliefs.

Here are some examples of Self limiting beliefs that I run into all the time:

"It's not okay to be pushy" "If I call someone, that means I'm bothering them." "It's not okay to compete" "Other people's needs are more important than my own"

Imagine trying to be successful, while any of these beliefs may be operating at a subconscious level. How do you know whether you have subconscious self limiting beliefs? One surefire way to know is to practice the law of attraction and see whether you get results. No results == The presence of self limiting beliefs (probably on a subconscious level).

These self limiting beliefs are also called "our blind spots." Why do you think Tiger Woods always has a coach? Because he can't see his blind spots, and neither can we.

Here's a tip:

After you have visualized yourself having what you want, and taken time to feel what it feels like, ask yourself what voices in you have any resistance to you having what you want. Usually you'll hear some voices inside that have concerns. They may be afraid, for example, that if you're successful, then you won't have any time for your family. That would indicate a self limiting belief, something like, "in order to succeed, I need to work hard, struggle and stress myself out.

Here's the good news: you are not stuck with your self limiting beliefs. As soon as you recognize that you've got them, you can change them. For example, the one above could be changed to, "I create success using the Law of Attraction, which allows me to attract my ideal clients easily and effortlessly."

Tip 7: Take Inspired Action and Allow it to come to you

What does this mean? Here's the difference between Inspired action and Frantic action: frantic action is the fear-based, and just like it sounds, it is frantic and reactive. Usually you're banging against the problem, and the problem gets worse, which of course makes you more fearful and then you begin attracting what you don't want instead of attracting what you do want. This is a common tendency if you just had a transaction fall through.

However, Inspired action, means action that is guided by your intuition, your heart and your gut feelings. You are more likely to get ideas for inspired action when you are feeling good, that's why it's important to dwell in gratitude. Next, it's important for you to follow your hunches. Trust your hunches, and don't worry about the "how". According to the Law of Attraction, the "how's" are the domain of the universe.

Once you start following your Inspired Action, it"s important to Allow yourself to receive what you have asked for. Notice I said the word "Allow". To allow, you need to suspend your doubt. Choose "Faith" over "fear". Fear is often disguised as doubt and skepticism.

Here"s a tip:

Practice finding ways to feed your "faith." Self honoring statements, like "if they can do it, I can too" are helpful. Take the self limiting beliefs that you noticed and turn them into Empowering beliefs like:

"I can be assertive, without being pushy"

"I have a pleasant approach and people are happy to hear from me"

"I can be co-operative, rather than competitive"

"My needs are as important as anyone else's"

In summary, practicing the Law of Attraction is the fastest, easiest, way to capture a positive mindset. You will be following the top producers before you, who automatically practiced this way of thinking. All you need to do is follow in their footsteps.

Take your focus away from what the media is saying, stop focusing on what you don't want, start focusing on what you do want and take a good look at the possibilities that are available to you now in this market.

Here's what one of my clients had to say,

"I see business potential everywhere. Doors are opening, and I am constantly feeling that anything is possible." It's fascinating to me that I could turn these self limiting beliefs around in such a short time. I see my business prospering and I know that 'I deserve success.'

About the author: for more information on powerful marketing tips and tools, please visit Dr. Maya's website: http://www.90daystomoreclients.com while you are there, get your Free Audio mentoring session and Free Report, "7 simple strategies to more clients in 90 days" or call Dr. Maya at 707 799-5412.

Real Estate Marketing Online - The 5 Laws of Lead Generation

Here's an Internet marketing observation that may shock you. The average real estate website has more than enough traffic to support the real estate agent's business goals -- but he or she is simply not capitalizing on it.

I've worked with many real estate clients who swore they did not have enough website traffic, based on the fact that they were getting very few leads from their website. After analyzing their website logs or analytics program, I would discover that they had steady streams of web traffic, day after day.

In other words, these folks wrongfully assumed that web traffic equals web leads. This is not the case at all. Traffic equals traffic. You don't generate leads until you put an effective lead generation plan in place. See the mathematical equations below.

• False: Web traffic = web leads


• True: Web traffic + lead generation = web leads

I would say website lead generation is the most important aspect of real estate marketing online. After all, you could own three different websites, blog twice a day, and get 2,000 visitors per week. But without a lead generation plan, all that activity and traffic will do you little good.

To illustrate this point further, I've created a few "laws" of online marketing, based on my own experiences over the years. Apply these laws to your online marketing efforts, and you're bound to generate more leads and more business for your efforts.

Online Marketing Law #1 - Traffic is only an opportunity.

My first law of real estate marketing online states that website traffic is only that ... traffic. Until something is imposed upon it, traffic will remain traffic. In order for traffic to be of value, it must be converted into something else. Hence the term, "website conversions."

Let's imagine you have a lemonade stand beside a busy highway. But your stand is located on a narrow shoulder of the road where there's not enough room for cars to pull over. All day long, cars whiz by you at 45 miles per hour, but nobody stops. You have an endless supply of traffic, but your lemonade stand is a failure because nobody stops. The traffic is right there in front of you, but it might as well be a million miles away.

Opportunity only favors those who capitalize on it.

Now let's get back to real estate marketing online. If your website has plenty of traffic but no form of lead generation, then most of your traffic will pass right by ... like those cars passing the lemonade stand.

So before you fall into the typical trap of obsessing over your website traffic levels, ask yourself this: "What am I doing to capitalize on the traffic I already have? How am I actively converting traffic into leads, and leads into clients?"

Online Marketing Law #2 - Value and response are directly proportional.

In the previous "law," we talked about the importance of a lead generation program. But equally important is the value behind that lead generation program. Your website visitors will remain anonymous until you present something useful and valuable in exchange for their action.

Keep in mind that "value" does not have to mean costly. Property listing updates can be very valuable to home shoppers, and many will sign up to get them. But they don't necessarily cost you anything to produce. In this case, value is conveyed through timely information that's beneficial to the audience (home buyers).

That's just one of many ways to add value to your offer. Whatever path you choose, remember this ... response goes up in proportion to the value of your offer. On the contrary, response goes down with a weaker offer.

Online Marketing Law #3 - Attrition is your perpetual enemy.

In your online real estate marketing program, attrition follows you every step of the way. Attrition refers to people who "drop off" along your marketing process, somewhere between first contact and client acquisition.

Usually, there are several attrition points in any real estate marketing process. The good news is, each point of attrition can be improved – that is, you can minimize the number of losses at each step of the marketing path.

Here are some examples of online attrition points, and what you can do to reduce them.

• 
  Attrition Point #1 – A lot of highly-qualified prospective clients may never even find your website or blog. But you can counter this by focusing on online PR and search engine optimization (SEO).


• Attrition Point #2 – Of those people who do find your website, many will leave if they don't find anything of value. But you can counter this by constantly adding useful content and resources to your website.


• Attrition Point #3 – Of those people who (A) find your website and (B) find it useful, some will leave without making contact with you in any way. But you can counter this by using lead-generation techniques on all key pages of your website.

From this brief sample, you can see how attrition shadows all aspects of your online real estate marketing program. On the positive side, you can also see that for every point of attrition, there are things you can do to increase the number of people who continue along in the process.

Online Marketing Law #4 - Successful techniques are not successful for everyone.

A real estate marketing tactic that works wonderfully for somebody else may not work for you. On the other hand, it may work even better for you than it did for the other person.

With any real estate marketing strategy, you have a lot of variables that affect your results. These include the makeup of your audience, the timing, and the way you execute the strategy. You never know what will or won't work for you until you try it. So don't let anyone tell you, "That didn't work for me, so don't waste your time."

There is experimentation, and then there’s speculation. Only the former will reveal the truth.

Online Marketing Law #5 - Technology does not change psychology.

Technically speaking, the Internet is a dynamic, ever-changing environment. But while the way we communicate online may change, the communication itself stays the same.

Regardless of how you talk to people, they are still people -- and they are still motivated by the same things as before. You just have more ways to communicate with them than before. Sure, you have to adjust your message delivery to account for new technologies, but the message itself does not have to change.

Whether you communicate with people through email, a blog, a podcast or an old-fashioned sales letter, the following marketing fundamentals still apply:

• People want what's best for them ... online and off


• People will respond to well-presented offer of value ... online and off


• People will ignore a weak message with no value ... online and off

Technology changes the way marketers communicate with consumers. But it does not change the fundamental psychology that leads consumers to take action.

Conclusion
Remember, website traffic is only website traffic until you act upon it. To get those website visitors to act in some way, you need to create a lead-generation program based on value and incentives. If you'd like some help getting started, refer to the website listed below. Good luck with your online real estate marketing!

* You may republish this article online if you retain the author's byline and the active hyperlinks below.

About the Author
Brandon Cornett is the author of several real estate marketing guides. He also provides a variety of Internet marketing services for real estate companies and individual agents alike. You can reach the author and find a lot more marketing tips at http://www.armingyourfarming.com

The real estate industry is at a historic crossroads.

Depending on what you read (and who you believe) it’s either booming or busting, but the facts are undeniable; housing prices are at all-time highs, thousands of people are pouring into the industry and public interest in real estate is soaring.

The Internet has acted as a huge catalyst to this. New players are springing up daily, some will succeed – but most will fail. The real benefit they bring is challenging traditional ways of thinking and democratizing the information flow for consumers.

As a Real Estate professional, there’s no doubt it’s an exciting time to be part of this business. As a marketer however, I am constantly striving to stay ahead of this rapidly changing market and, to quote an oft-used cliché, “think outside the box.” I believe there’s a real opportunity in all of this for Real Estate companies, brokers and agents to chart a whole new direction in their marketing efforts.

Now is not the time to stick our heads in the sand and hope this all goes away. Rather, we should embrace the change and evolve our methods of communicating with our clients, customers and competition.

I’m hoping this blog can serve as a forum to examine some of the forces of change that are reshaping our industry while, at the same time, highlighting new and innovative ways of reacting and responding to this change.

The Real Estate Marketing Bomb

When Google released its Google Maps API several years ago, it detonated a bomb in the the online Real Estate space that set off a chain-reaction of so-called 'mashup' sites. HousingMaps.com was one of the first sites I can remember seeing that took this idea and ran with it, with a proof of concept site that parsed data from online classifieds juggernaught Craiglist and overlaid on top of Google's visual mapping interface.

MyNewPlace is the latest offering in this vein that brings together a database of over 6 million apartments across the US and allows you to search for your next pad by Zip code and price point, among other variables. CNET News.com reports that their business model is "pay for performance," meaning MyNewPlace likely hopes to receive a finder's fee from landlords looking for tenants. Prospective renters can get a rebate of up to $150 for using the site.

First impressions, the site is clean and well designed and sports the obligatory Web 2.0 'Beta' label. Individual listings are more disappointing however - the data is presented pretty clinically and many listings I viewed lacked photos. Granted, this is a new site but I would have also liked to see more interactive options in place: an area for reviews of the properties or current renter's opinions could make the site far more "sticky" and valuable to a renter. Hopefully, these are features that will come in time.

Property managers looking for a new avenue to advertise their apartments might consider MyNewPlace to supplement their existing advertising efforts, but until the site offers a little better experience, apartment hunters are probably better served elsewhere.