& The General Consensus is: Top Digital Marketing Tools for Real Estate Sales Professionals

Technology has flipped everything completely inside out: the way we communicate, the way we work, the way we market ourselves and even the way we sell. The marketing budget of yesterday dedicated the lion’s share of budget to paper-based marketing – print ads, flyers, promotional campaigns, etc. – but today’s real estate sales professional who is leveraging digital marketing is seeing a shift.

Since so many real estate sales professionals have realized the importance of digital marketing and are doing so much more of it, the digital marketing landscape in real estate has become very competitive. As a real estate sales professional you are like your own business (you), within a business (your brokerage). While your brokerage may market the brand, you are still left with decisions, as far as: where you are going to land your next deal, where you need to advertise to land them, and how much this will cost. This is why it is important to leverage the right combination of free online digital marketing tools and paid ones to ensure that you get the most coverage/exposure for every dollar you spend.

Let’s take a look at some of the top digital marketing tools for real estate sales professionals today:

Real estate specific sites: market listings where other real estate sales professionals will find them.

As a real estate sales professional it is very important to ensure that your property is marketed and visible on the most popular sites where other realtors will go to look for potential properties to show their clients. The most popular digital marketing tools in real estate are listing services that enable you to post and promote your listings. Anytime you have a new listing you will want to ensure that it has been added to the MLS. Also, new innovations like the new mobile app for real estate sales professionals, ViMO, offer real estate sales professionals the ability to post and promote their listings through the app.

Classified sites: classified sites remain one of the most affordable digital marketing tools to market your listing online. Many allow you to post a free ad, but for a premium you may have your ad appear higher in the classified search result. Some examples of these sites that are most well-known are Kijiji and Craigslist. Don’t count out local news sites as they may offer the ability to advertise on their online classifieds as well.

Mobile technology: not only has mobile increased the ease with which we communicate – which is always better for business, it also makes it so much easier to do more on-the-go. This not only helps establish and build better client relationships, it greatly increases your overall brand image!

Social media sites: Facebook remains one of the top sites where real estate sales professionals can reach prospective buyers and sellers. Not only can you post and market your listings, but Facebook PPC now enables you, for a cost per click, to promote your listing in the Timeline Feed of targeted prospects’ walls. This is a very affordable digital marketing tool that gets results.

Email marketing: the birthday cards and reminders of yesterday are now being delivered by many real estate sales professionals electronically. Digital marketing tools like Mail Chimp and Constant Contact make it easy to organize email lists and send out campaigns and reminders.

What do you think are some of the top digital marketing tools of today, not mentioned in this blog? We’d love to hear from you! Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

For more about staying up-to-date with the latest and greatest real estate apps that make digital marketing easy, check out ViMO, your virtual mobile office, at www.myvimo.ca.

Need to Know: Protecting Your Online Reputation

We all know that reputation matters. A bad reputation can absolutely destroy a real estate sales professional’s success. The internet and social media has significantly upped the stakes. Any unhappy customer can, at the click of a mouse, post reviews online about their experience with you. Then, when others search for services that you offer, that negative content can be produced as a result. Would you contact a company to purchase a service who had negative reviews about them posted?

 

This makes protecting your online reputation critical – and really it is not that difficult to do.

Google yourself – Want to find out what people are saying about you? Google yourself, your company, etc. and see what comes up. ‘Like’ positive comments and take negative ones as an opportunity to resolve the customer’s issue openly and transparently.

Control your image – some real estate sales professionals shy away from social media because they are afraid of potential impacts if someone decides to post something negative. When you have more owned social media presences you are in a better position to resolve complaints and also control the message.

Also, part of controlling your online reputation means ensuring that there is a lot of positive content coming up online related to you and what you do. Blogging, getting interviewed or quoted (even in free news sites), etc. are all ways for you to get online publicity. Make sure that when your name is searched these portray the image you want.

Reviews - do you really need a reviews section? As you know, your Google Places, Facebook pages, etc. may have the ability for the public to leave a review. You cannot remove someone’s review – however sites like Facebook offer you with the ability to choose whether or not you will have a review section at all. Some professionals opt to remove review sections where possible to reduce maintenance and avoid possible negative reviews that they can’t remove.

Communication policy - Have a strong communication policy for resolving customer complaints. One thing paying attention to your online reputation can do is heighten your awareness of what your customers’ perception of their experience was with you – good or bad.

At the end of the day if you offer superior services your customers will be happy, right? While you hope so, keeping on top of your online reputation takes little effort but can make a massive difference in terms of being able to leverage positive learnings and mitigate the damages of negative events.

For more about boosting and maintaining a strong online reputation, check out ViMO, your virtual mobile office, by visiting www.myvimo.ca.

Training Time: How to Sign your Electronic Forms in ViMO

Now that electronic real estate forms are here it’s time to learn how to use them. The marketing team at ViMO has released an e-book about everything you need to know about how to prepare and sign electronic documents as well as how to generate, sign and share electronic real estate forms using ViMO. You can download the free e-book here http://myvimo.ca/free-e-book-electronic-documents-in-real-estate/.

Home Staging Tips to Knock Your Open House Out of the Park

A client calls you, they want you to come and see their home about a possible listing. When you arrive at the home it is a terrible mess. Excessive furniture, cluttered, dated décor, perhaps even a musty odor… What do you do? The only thing you can do: tell your client the truth and get staging.

Staging involves cleaning areas, removing furniture, rearranging furniture and maybe even adding some art work. In some cases, this might also involve painting and making small cosmetic changes. A little bit of staging goes a long way and the networks are catching on. Shows and magazines like HGTV http://www.hgtv.com/decorating-basics/15-secrets-to-selling-your-home/pictures/index.html and Canadian Living http://www.canadianliving.com/life/money/top_15_home_staging_tips.php  have all released content on home staging!

Here are some small things that your client can do to prepare their house to sell so that you can knock your open house out of the park:

·        Clear the Clutter – Less is more. Excess furniture and clutter will have to go. If your client is not prepared to purge, consider a portable storage unit like the PackEdge portable storage containers that can sit in the client’s driveway. This can go a really long way.

·        Clean – and we mean really clean! If walls and trims are dirty, they will need a fresh coat of paint. Grout between tiling needs to be cleaned. If painting, focus on neutral colors. Particular emphasis should be placed on the cleanliness of kitchens and bathrooms and if possible you should have fresh bedding in your bedrooms.

·        Furniture Grouping – a unique idea discussed in the HGTV article providing home staging tips is to group furniture along the walls to give the perception that the room is larger.

·        Depersonalizing – the Canadian Living article highlighted the importance of depersonalizing and making the space generic/neutral so that a potential buyer can picture themselves living in your client’s home.

·        Smell Matters - recommend that your client air out their home, use air fresheners and natural elements to make the home smell fresh when prospective buyers come through. You too can do this when showing a home for an open house.

·        Outside – make sure the grass is cut, the driveway and walkway swept and washed, shrubs and plants trimmed. Ensure that there is no garbage or clutter whatsoever outside the house. 

If your client decides to take your advice it may greatly improve the probability that their house will sell sooner and for more money. Properties in poor condition receive the highest volume of low ball offers and can be on the market longer which can negatively impact the home’s salability for a long span of time.

For more about making your open house a smashing success, call ViMO today at 1 855 999 8466 (VIMO).