We are always hearing from agents that the hardest part of blogging is coming up with new things to write about.  Kerry Lucasse, a real estate agent in Atlanta, Georgia provides some great ideas in a recent post that are applicable wherever you live including:  Neighborhood of the Week, Going Green, and Tips for Interviewing a REALTOR.  Check out the link below for more ideas.

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1822337/let-s-get-blogging-101-ideas-for-your-blog

Mobile Marketing (along with Social Media) seems to be one of the buzz terms in the Real Estate industry lately. Because of this interest a number of companies have popped up over the last year that claim to have a Real Estate Mobile Marketing solution. Invariably, many of them  have a similar concept; text in a keyword to a number and get back information on the property via a text message. And that is where most of them stop.

Many of these new companies leave out the essential features, options and controls necessary to help REALTORS generate qualify leads via mobile marketing. We have compiled a list of features (and why they are important) that you should look for in your Real Estate Mobile Marketing solution.

• Instant Notifications- These notify you as soon as an inquiry comes in. The notification should provide both the number of the person inquiring and the basic information about the property.  You should have an option of receiving notifications via text (SMS), email or both.

• Link to Mobile Optimized Website or Virtual Tour- Many services claim to be a complete mobile package.  They include a link to the property’s virtual tour in the text message but they leave it up to the real estate agent to make sure the virtual tour is mobile optimized. By having a mobile optimized virtual tour you ensure that the prospective buyer can get the information they want without having to decipher a web site that shows up poorly on their phone.

• Email Package- Text Messaging by its nature is limited to 160 characters.  While you can pack a lot of information into that 160 characters you can’t get it all in there.  Make sure that your Real Estate Text Message provider has an email option.  This will provide you with a way to capture a leads email address and provide the lead with more information on demand.

• Call Me Now Option- I know, the lead is texting because they don’t want to call.  But, once they have the information they requested and have been able to qualify the home as one they want to see more of they are more likely to want to speak to an agent.  Why not make it easy on them and have the agent call?  It is also a way of qualifying very interested leads.

• Reporting- no program, no matter how inexpensive or simple to use is worthwhile unless it provides reporting. All reporting should include date and time of day, property information, phone number and type of inquiry (text, email package, call me, etc…).  In addition to online reporting a weekly or monthly summary that is automatically emailed to you should be part of the package because, let’s face it, you are busy and the last thing you need to do is log in to yet another web site just to run activity reports.

Before you start using Mobile Marketing for Real Estate make sure your provider has these features.

There is an interesting article on realtor.org about what might happen in the housing market in the next few years.

Below is an excerpt and link to the full article.

Underproduction in the past three years may lead to a housing shortage in future years.

By Lawrence Yun | June 2010

In the current market, the idea of a housing shortage may be hard to accept. There are simply too many For Sale signs and delinquent mortgages threatening to turn into foreclosures to make a housing shortage seem like a serious possibility.

http://www.realtor.org/rmonews_and_commentary/economy/1006_economy_housingshortage

Virtual Tours have become such an integral component of Real Estate Marketing, we thought we would provide a top 5 list of features to look for in your Virtual Tour Service provider and why they are important.

1. Large Photos – Large photos allow viewers to get a better feel for the size and feel of a home.  Small photos, even very good ones, make it hard to see details and look for features a viewer wants.
2. Share Features – There should be a number of sharing features on a virtual tour.  Viewers should be able to share with their friends and use social media sharing links.  This helps spread your message and information out as far and wide as possible.
3. Appointment Scheduler – Allows the viewers to schedule an appointment to see the property.  This is a great way to collect prospect information in an indirect manner while providing an easy path for the viewer to meet you.
4. Contact Me/Information - All of your contact information should be visible on the virtual tour at all times and there should be a contact form that the viewer can fill out to reach you.  An interested buyer is not going to hunt through a number of links to find your information.  They will find another agent if your information isn’t easily accessible.
5. Agent Branding – Every agent has a brand.  They work for an broker, agency, or real estate company.  Each one has a unique brand.  Utilize this brand and piggy back your own branding on top of it.  The more consistent your message and branding the greater opportunity for recognition.

You may have noticed that most of these features are about using media to either get direct contact with a viewer or to share your information with someone the viewer knows.  You don’t know where your next buyer is going to come from and utilizing every opportunity to spread your message as far and wide as possible just makes sense.

Text Messaging is an emerging technology in the Real Estate industry.  REALTORS are using it in many different ways.  We thought we would list 3 ways that REALTORS could use texting to generate leads.

1. Mobile Flyers – Many mobile services (like Digital Home Info) offer a mobile real estate flyer that returns the property and agent information in a text message.  Many of them also offer an instant notification that provides the lead information to the agent.
2. Mobile Virtual Tours - If your virtual tours are mobile optimized include a link to the mobile version at the bottom of mobile flyers and messages that you send to prospects.
3. Text Card – A text message business card.  Puts your information on a prospects phone and provides you with their lead information at the same time.

These are just a few of the many ways that text messaging can be used by REALTORS.  Let us know how you are using text messaging by leaving a comment.

Logo identification is one of the strongest marketing techniques you can use, it identifies your brand and says more in one image than you can convey in an essay.  Many REALTORS® leave out their own logo when developing marketing materials. They make sure to put in the REALTOR® logo, agency logo, and other logos but leave out their own.  This is an excellent opportunity to associate yourself with these well known and respected companies, take advantage of it and build your own branding.

Use lots of whitespace!

• People tend to scan what they are reading so they’ll be turned off by ads, emails and websites with lots of words.

• Instead of wordy copy use catchy headlines, photos, bullet points and lots of whitespace.

• The Marketing Technology Blog has a great article on whitespace here.

Result tracking seems like an obvious thing.  Everyone should know to do it but many don’t.  I meet a lot of REALTORS and many of them can’t say how many leads they are getting from Virtual Tours, Print ads, or other efforts.  They are just spending to market and hoping that something brings in leads.

Depending on the medium there are a number of ways to track lead sources.

• Google Analytics (Web Site)

• Email Open/Click Analytics (Email)

• Some marketing systems (like Digital Home Info) have built in analytics

By tracking where your leads are coming from you will be able to identify what is working and what isn’t.  You’ll also be able to determine where to increase your spending and where to cut back.

Digital Home Info announces another enhancement to it’s Real Estate Marketing system. All of our customers now have the ability to upload a custom flyer for each listing.

We have added an “Add Custom Virtual Tour Flyer” section in the bottom left column of the Listing Editor. Simply choose the file you want to upload and press the “Save Flyer” button. You can change or remove the custom flyer at anytime.

If you choose not to upload a custom flyer we will still provide the default auto-generated pdf with every listing.

Let us know what you think!