Agent Redefined | Online Marketing Plan

This is it, let me know what you think!!!

I don’t care what the website it or what technology I need to have. Wherever the buyers and sellers are online is where I want to be. Don’t hate social media, don’t hate Zillow and Trulia. If buyers and sellers want more pictures, give it to them. If they want video, give it to them. Everything that enhances the viewing of a property online or offline is what being a marketer of real estate is all about.

It’s true, home’s first showing is taking place online first. This is a trend which is unlikely to change. If this is in fact true then what this mean for the Real Estate Agent? It means showing a properly online the correct way with professional visuals like Photos and Video. Plus, the presentation of the property, the information, and the layout online should be professional. Compare it to home staging or de-cluttering a property.

Buyers & Sellers are also expecting real estate agents to be online. They expect their properties to be marketed online. They expect agents to have a complete online marketing plan for marketing the home.

There is no Magic Bullets here.

Online Marketing for Real Estate Agents requires that agents become better marketers. In order to do this an agent needs to either acquire new marketing skills, or to hire out those skills. Bottom line agents must become a better marketer in order to do online marketing.

Online Marketing is not rocket science but it does require some time. There are no quick fixes to do it properly. Each agent, team, and real estate office must decide how it’s going to execute these additional marketing techniques.

Agents just need the skills and training to use technology and the internet to market themselves and their listings online.

Change is the key word for online marketing. You must be willing to change and adapt to the changing world of online marketing.

You need to read this report if you want to understand the how buyers are currently using the internet and technology to search for homes and real estate information. This report can be found on the NAR website, or you can go to my website at http://www.agentredefined.com and in my blog you’ll find an article about it with a link to it.

Here it is: The Online Marketing Plan for Real Estate Agents. Start at the Basic Level and work your way down to Braveheart Level.

These are the main real estate websites within the Top Ten most viewed in the country every month.

When the President Obama wanted to give a talk about home ownership in August 2013 he needed a venue to broadcast his message in a big way. He didn’t choose the NAR for this, he choose Zillow. This gives you some insight to just how big Zillow is to the real estate industry.

I regard these at the standard 4 Social Media Platforms every agent should be engaged on.

Just what the slide says.

This is it. You need to know how to use these sites to market your clients properties online.

Professional Pictures and Video are critical for marketing a property online. Without great visuals what’s the point of marketing a property online? Remember the First showing is taking place online!!!!

Zillow is the #1 most viewed site in the country with just over 35 million hits per month. This is why Zillow is part of the Online Marketing Plan, and why President Obama went used Zillow for a platform on housing issues in August 2013.

Trulia is the 2nd most viewed real estate website in the country. Again it’s a crucial part to your Online Marketing Plan.

Even though Realtor.com has dropped from the #1 spot to the #3 spot. It’s still an important website to market your listings on. IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THIS SITE: If you don’t have a featured listings package with Realtor.com you will not be able to do the following: a. You have no link back to you. Your contact info, your picture, nothing connects you to the listing without a featured listings package. Your listing will be on Realtor.com, but not connected to you. Realtor.com will sell the leads that come in from your listing online without the featured listings package. b. You cannot customize a listing without a featured listings package. This means you cannot add a Video, Headline, or Special Note on the listing.

Here’s an example of my WordPress Website. I create a property page here which hosts the Virtual Tour of the home, plus contact information, property information, and I also place other property listings on the page that are of similar price and features.

I love this part. This is a customer service finish that no other real estate agent does. We provide the actual direct links to every website we have listed the property on. This is also a sort of “check and balance” of your marketing plan for property. Here your ensuring you have done your job 100% when marketing the property online.

Another important piece….. You can pull up data on Zillow and Trulia for FREE which will tell you how many searches were performed the zip code in which your listing is located. Plus, you can view how many times the actual listing was viewed weekly since the listing came online. If you combine this information with your MLS Data which can tell you how many times your listing was delivered and viewed in an MLS back tracking search, then you can provide some powerful data to your client. This can become helpful when requesting a price change on a property.

The general public still likes open houses and both Zillow and Trulia are an important part of marketing open houses to potential buyers. Plus, if you have a featured listings package on Realtor.com then you can market an Open House on there as well.

Side Note: This is the best real estate movie of all time, Glen Gary Glen Ross.

We are more connected than ever but is your message getting through?

I recommend agents treat Facebook as their online database.

Your Connections on the Facebook are part of your database online.

Once you understand how the Facebook works, you can then understand how to make it work for you.

The average Facebook user is exposed to as many as 1,500 posts a day.

But, the Facebook Formula will not show you ALL of the 1500 posts. On Average you’ll see approx 300 of the posts that Facebook thinks you want to see. It does this based on your interaction on Facebook.

The Technique…..

My Simple Facebook Rule: a. 60% of your postings are NON Real Estate related. b. 40% of your postings are Real Estate related. REAL ESTATE RELATED POSTS These posts must be creative and engaging!!!! Easier said than done but look at the examples ahead. Remember to use the rule of “SELL WITHOUT SELLING”.

Facebook is not the Classifieds.

YouTube is your friend and it’s Free….

Take the time to resize your images to fit properly online.

Engagement is key to utilizing YouTube effectively. YouTube wants it.

Here are the 4 types of videos Real Estate Agents should be making.

Find this agents YouTube Channel and watch all of her videos. 1. Go to YouTube and search for “Jessica Riffle Edwards”. 2. Watch the videos. 3. All of her videos have a strong, simple, and short message.

LinkedIn is still important to your Online Marketing Plan.

This is probably the best training product out there for training agents how to use the iPad for Real Estate. It’s not my system, it’s developed by a real estate brokerage in Austin, TX. It’s a great product, I purchased it in early 2013 and very satisfied with it. Goto: www.paperlessagent.com

Your solution for putting your real estate contracts and addendum’s online in the cloud….