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Upgrading the real estate experience: 3 tech tips from Raj Qsar

Reading time: about 3 mins

This week, we have a guest post from Raj Qsar, principal and owner of The Boutique Real Estate Group in Orange County, CA,  a contributor for Inman News, and one of the Top 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders for 2013. His company is one of the most dominant real estate firms in Orange County. They focus heavily on utilizing technology to provide more complete and convenient service to all of their customers. 

 

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digital advertising for real estate agents

Real estate branding: digital advertising for the big picture

Reading time: about 2 mins

There is no doubt that the way we advertise has evolved over the years. In the “Mad Men” days of advertising, hot shot ad execs pitched print campaigns with compelling copy and creative, all with the sole mission of establishing brand awareness and making consumers purchase. Now, advertisers have adapted to the times.  Although the methods of delivery have changed from magazines and televisions to mobile devices and computers, the classic strategies still apply—developing your brand and connecting to your audience in a way that inspires them to convert. 

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Set & forget real estate marketing explained

Reading time: about 3 mins

We’ve all got 24 hours in a day with which to work, play, and sleep (if we’re lucky!). Anyone working in real estate is, no doubt, acutely aware of the scarcity of time in their day. Between meetings, constant showings, and 24/7 client calls, it’s natural that real estate agents value their time at a premium, and spend it doing what creates the most value for them.

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4 landing page tips to turn page views into home buyers

Reading time: about 4 mins

Have you been trying out different marketing strategies for your real estate business, but are having trouble seeing the fruit of your labor? Have your marketing efforts increased traffic to your website, but do you continue to struggle to convert that traffic to new leads? The problem could be your landing page.

Your landing page is one of the most important factors in determining whether or not a page visitor becomes a lead. Your landing page needs to be a different than your homepage. For each new marketing or ad campaign you run, you should be driving traffic to a correlating page. You could have all the traffic in the world, and it would mean absolutely nothing if your landing page doesn’t inspire them to contact you. You see, traffic does not equal leads. So, what do you do with all that traffic? We’ve got some tips that will help you turn those page views into home buyers!

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Creepy or cool?: retargeting and why it should matter to you

Reading time: about 3 mins

If you’ve been dabbling in internet marketing over the last few years, you’ve no doubt heard the term “retargeting.” You may have heard it called other things as well, such as “remarketing” or “behavioral advertising.” But what does that mean exactly? Retargeting can be defined as “the process of tagging website visitors so you can target them specifically, with ads tailored to their level of interest in your company [or product/service].” If that’s not completely clear, retargeting basically means that when a potential client visits your website or blog or clicks one of your display ads, you “drop a cookie,” and then your ads will follow them around the web. If you’re an online shopper, you probably know what I’m talking about. Have you ever been to Amazon.com looking at kitchen tools, and noticed later on that ads for those same kitchen tools are following you around the web? That is retargeting in a nutshell. But why should it matter to you?

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It’s time to go mobile

Reading time: about 3 mins

It’s now a fact: mobile technology has become an inevitable part of our daily lives. It’s crazy to think that the first smartphone came out only seven years ago, but by of the end of 2013, the amount of mobile devices on earth outnumbered the human population. Now, you not only have to incorporate online marketing into your business strategies, but you also have to think about how mobile-friendly your efforts are.  Think about it: if most of your target audience primarily uses mobile devices, but your website isn’t mobile optimized, potential clients are likely to hit the ‘back’ button and head to a competing agent’s site that they can easily navigate on their phone.

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LinkedIn tips for real estate agents

Reading time: about 4 mins

Over the past few months, we’ve discussed many of the popular social media platforms and how they can be leveraged for the real estate industry. Today, we’ll give the FreeAgent treatement to LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is actually one of my personal favorite social platforms. Not only can you connect and share, but you can also paint yourself as the expert in your field. As opposed to being a place where you share fun or personal things with your friends and family, LinkedIn is the place where you disseminate expert information to past and present colleagues, professionals, and industry gurus.  Additionally, it’s one of the best places to get current and relevant information regarding your field from the top names in the industry! I cannot say enough great things about LinkedIn.

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Real tips for real estate SEO

Reading time: about 4 mins

If you’ve been paying attention to SEO (search engine optimization) over the past few years, you’ve know doubt heard the declarations of “SEO is dead!” What you need to know is that SEO is not dead, but it has changed. SEO is no longer about stuffing your webpage with keywords, or buying backlinks on other websites. If you don’t know what that means—good. Those are old practices that will only get you in trouble with Google, the Internet police. Now, SEO is about the content you’re producing. As Douglas Karr says, “Good SEO requires exceptional content marketing…knowing who your audience is, where they are, how to attract them, and—ultimately—how to convert them.” This doesn’t mean keywords are no longer important. Instead, it means that you have to work hard to seamlessly incorporate top quality keywords into top quality content.

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From the trenches: social media marketing advice from Stone Temple Consulting’s Mark Traphagen

Reading time: about 5 mins

Meet Mark Traphagen

Mark Traphagen is currently the Senior Director of Online Marketing at Stone Temple Consulting, an agency out of Boston. With a social network of over 80,000 people, Mr. Traphagen knows what it takes to get an audience and keep them.  Mark is a contributor to many blogs, including Moz, Maximize Social Business, Search Engine Land, and Bill Gassett’s website, Maximum Exposure Real Estate. Mark is also an in demand speaker at many conferences across the country, including PubCon and SMX. He has taken some time out of his hectic schedule to give us some fantastic tips to pass along to all of you.  

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Related Information

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Advertising words for real estate agents It's not what you say, but how you say it! Use powerful advertising words for real estate marketing and help your listings get the attention they deserve!

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Real Estate Agent Advertising 101

Real estate advertising should always be about maximizing your real estate marketing budget. Advertising is an investment in your business and your brand. That doesn't mean you should empty your bank account, but without advertising, you are losing money. Luckily, we've compiled a real estate advertising guide for new agents, so their businesses will go bang without their dollars going up in smoke.

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Creating Content for Your Real Estate Website

Real estate advertising should always be about maximizing the bang for your buck. Advertising is an investment in your business and your brand. That doesn't mean you should empty your bank account, but without advertising, you are losing money. Luckily, we've compiled a real estate advertising guide for new agents, so their businesses will go bang without their dollars going up in smoke.

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The Best Advertising Words for Real Estate Ads

Creative advertising words for real estate must evoke a feeling. That's what most real estate sales are about: how a house makes a buyer feel. There's a big difference between a dry list of features and descriptive words that evoke mental imagery. Learning to use language that will leverage those feelings is the first step in converting leads to closings.

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