My living is made now by making real estate agents famous. Well, at least their websites famous. I probably see hundreds of websites every month. Of these, I see the good, the bad and the ugly. I have the opportunity to be amongst a rare breed of real estate agent. Those that GET IT! Let me be clear.

If you want to be seen as successful, you need to look successful. I’ve always told people that “Whatever you give to people represents who you are”. It’s no different with your marketing. Those agents who are the most successful right now, even in a down  market are those that can work smart. They are the ones that can make their website work for them. Aside from many tools that can be used successfully, there is one common to all successful agents. . . . Drip marketing.

When I speak of “drip marketing”, I’m not talking about the online newsletter or “how to” articles. I’m talking about the “Subscribe to New Listings” or “Get New Listings by Email” campaigns. These are tools used by the agent to allow the buyer to fill in a form detailing exactly what parameters in a home/condo they are looking for, and then (drum roll) mention that a name, number and email will be needed in order to send these new listings from the MLS to the buyer.

When building these forms, PLEASE make sure you do them right. NEVER ask for their name and email first. They don’t know yet what you’re about to give them. Having them fill out the form of their preferences first gets them hooked in the process and actually makes them want to give you their information.

If you’d like to know more information about how to create a “drip marketing” page for “Subcribing to New Listings”, check out the video below for more information.

In our last post, we discussed the three major areas that the new Google Caffeine will be looking for these three important areas are:

1. An important “keyword rich” domain name
2. A “keyword rich” Title (and Titles throughout your site), and
3. Keyword rich content

The easiest and most effective thing that you can do to your website to get noticed by the major search engines is to change your Title, using rich keyword phrases. For example, if you lived in Denver and you wanted to focus on luxury condos, you might want to use the Title “Denver Colorado Luxury Condos”. If you really want to make a powerful statement with Google, add more features such as “Denver Colorado Luxury Condos and Beautiful Estate Living”. So far we’ve used 56 characters and spaces. Keep in mind that Google will only read the first 66 characters and spaces. After that, it’s as if there is nothing there. Yahoo on the other had will read up to 110 characters and spaces, so put your second best information next.

For more information on the power of what you can do with building effective Titles, take a look at the following video:

Many people are starting to wonder “Hey what’s happened to my Google rankings?” Simple. Google has recently (as of June 8th) changed its entire algorithm, or the way that they decide who gets to be on top of their search engine. Google is now faster, more relevant and doesn’t care as much about many of the areas that were important before.

So what are the major changes? Well Google is trying to cut through all the spam and find out which really are the best and most relevant websites for the search being applied. To get to the bottom line of this, Google first looks at your Domain Name. Is it relevant to the search or is it only relevant to you (BarbaraSmith.com for example). A highly keyword rich Domain Name might be MyDenverRealEstate.com or LuxuryCondosInDenver.com. In this case, if I’m looking for “luxury condos in Denver”, Google says WOW, this website’s Domain Name is part of their search. It MUST be relevant.

The second area that Google looks at is the Title of the website (located at the uppermost part of the browser). If you start off the Title as with our previous example of say, Denver Luxury Condos (the words don’t need to be in the same order as the search) then bells and whistles go off for Google. It tells Google that this website is REALLY relevant to the search being made.

Finally, and probably the most changed area is the area of content. If you write about yourself on your Home Page, Google figures that your website is only about yourself. Therefore you must write about what the buyer wants to read about. If your content is laced with information about Denver luxury condos, you are ripe for climbing the Google ladder.

There is MUCH more that Google has changed in its new Google Caffeine, but these 3 steps will get you headed in the right direction. In addition, you can get additional information with this “pocket presentation” about getting a good domain name.

Possibly because we do more real estate SEO than any other company, I am always asked “What is the beginning step in optimizing my website to make it work for me?” The answer is simple. You have to do the research for what the best keyword phrases are for your website. Said a different way, you need to find out what those phrases are that your prospects are typing into the major search engines. By finding this out, you’re half way home.

In researching your best keyword phrases, you’ll want to know two things:

1. What are the keyword phrases that my potential clients are typing into the major search engines, and
2. What specialties do I have such as foreclosure sales, short sales, farms and ranches, etc., that I would want to also include to lead my prospects to me?

This short “Power Presentation” will start you down the right path to give you this information and lead you to a free webinar with rich information in this area.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, International Speaker

Are ‘dual career’ agents hurting you and your business? In Stefan Swanepoel’s publication, Trends Report 2010, he calls the real estate licensee with another job the ‘dual career’ agent. That’s what we used to call the ‘part-timer’. Although ‘dual career’ sounds much more important than ‘part-time’, the result is the same:

Less time to devote to the consumer. The conflict that an agent feels when he has another job is causing the consumer to rate our service lower than ever before.

Dual Careerists Are a Growing Trend

More and more real estate agents are getting second jobs to make ends meet. In fact, the 2009 National Association of Realtors’ Member Profile says that 26% of Realtors stated that real estate was not their only occupation. (I’m sure that many more licensees that aren’t Realtors have other major sources of income). In addition, less than half of all Realtors surveyed reported that real estate was their primary source of household income.

Is the Dual Careerist Doing the Industry More Harm than Good?

Having been an agent, manager and owner a long time, I know how difficult it is at times for an agent to ‘hang in there’, put their heads down, and keep working through tough times. It’s a great temptation, and a relief for many to take that other job just to ‘tide them over’. From the broker’s perspective, too, keeping the agent at least licensed with the brokerage to get that one transaction seems to be better than losing that one transaction.

Several problems accrue, when the agent gets another job:

1. The agent’s mind, energy, and dollars drift away from the needs of the consumer because the agent must focus on another job

2. The agent can’t keep up on the technical, legal, and business developments

3. The consumer demands just can’t be met when the agent is unavailable for large blocks of time

4. The broker must carry a much bigger responsibility for the agent’s transactions

What We Need to Do About This Trend

Managers: Set standards so you are living out that vision you took all that time to write in that business planning course! Do you have agents with you who are not dedicated? Do you have agents who don’t practice in the way your company wants? If so, you are ‘shattering your image’ and greatly hurting your chances to recruit. Fix it while you can.

Agents: Go to your manager and ask why the ‘deadwood’ (a horrible term, but, the consumers have told us to get rid of them and we’re not listening…) is still there. What benefit do they provide you? What benefit do they provide the company?

Short-sided: It May Destroy our Industry

Unfortunately, our industry has spent too much time on the immediate, and not enough time on the long-term. One of the easiest ways to see this is to look at the low producers and part-timers we’ve kept as licensees. Why? Because we think they may sell a home or two before they get discouraged.

There Is Leadership Showing the Way

There is a growing trend to upgrade the industry. Take a look at what industry leaders are doing right now. They are putting standards in place, training and coaching to get people to their standards, and are counseling out those who just aren’t meant—or committed—to a career in real estate.

Support on Putting Standards in Place

For the last year, I’ve done lots of work in helping companies put standards in place. Although it’s challenging, it’s absolutely critical if we are to protect our business models as we like them!

Note: See Four Steps to a Stunning Standards-Based Organization, a webinar I did for the National Association of Realtors’ Learning Library.

What Do You Think?

Do you believe managers should keep anyone who wants to be kept? Let me hear your opinion–and, if you have a solution, let’s share it with our industry!

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is a speaker, coach, and resource provider for  real estate leadership. Author of 6 internationally published books, and 20 production programs, Cross specializes in helping leadership create exceptional organizations, and assisting achieving agents to reach their potential. Contact her at 425-392-6914 or www.carlacross.com.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, International Speaker

Do you know the best motivators for YOU? Even though the market has improved in many areas, real estate professionals are still very challenged about getting their businesses back on track. Or, if you’re new, you’re probably experiencing some ‘negative vibes’ from those seasoned agents in your office. How are you going to motivate yourself to get into the swing of the market to meet your goals?

We’re Not Motivated by What We Think We Were…..

In his new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink lays out a persuasive case, backed by extensive scientific studies, about why the traditional ‘carrot and stick’ motivational methods just don’t work for us today. It’s especially true with real estate professionals. Why? Because we in effect work for ourselves. We have to be self-starters, initiators, and tenacious in our pursuit of our goals. That means we have to be motivated by things other than promises of material things.

Why Money Doesn’t Work as a Motivator

First, as Pink points out, money and/or material things are good short-term motivators. (Read Herzberg’s studies on short and long-term motivation). In fact, just take a look at the number of real estate agents who are motivated to visit an open house when there’s food! But, as Herzberg and others have pointed out, money is a lousy long-term motivator. You know that if you’ve tried motivating your kids with money—or threats (the carrot and stick).

I know. You’re thinking, “If I just had more money, I would be fine.” So, let me ask you, what are you willing to do to get that money? Lead generate more regularly? Make more sales calls? We all know that lead generating is the answer to that money problem. Yet, the vast majority of agents avoid lead generating as if it gave us some chronic disease! So, money is just not an effective long-term motivator.

The Best, Deepest, Strongest Motivators We Can Use to Motivate Ourselves

Pink shows, via extensive studies, that there are three driving motivators which we should put to work today to fire ourselves up, keep those fires lit, and achieve what we want to achieve. They are:

Autonomy

Mastery

Purpose

Questions to Ask Yourself to Fire Yourself Up

About Your Autonomy

Are you in charge of your own business, or are you waiting for someone else to tell you what to do?

Do you expect your manager to make you go to work, or are you self-directed and self-starting?

Are you disciplined in your business, so you can enjoy that autonomy?

Seth Godin, author of Tribes, says about autonomy: The art of the art {of autonomy} is picking your limits. That’s the autonomy I must cherish. The freedom to pick my boundaries.

About your Mastery

Are you working just to get by, or are you consistently working to get better? What do you want to excel at? How does that translate into your business?

About your Purpose

What excites you so much you can’t sleep at night?

Is there a way to translate that to your real estate business?

The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it’s in the arts, sciences, or business. Teresa Amabile, Professor, Harvard University

What motivates you? Do you know? How do you know? What if you’re motivating yourself in the wrong way? (Many managers unwittingly de-motivate with their strategies!)

More about effective motivation today

How to Effectively Motivate

I’m doing a webinar on how to effective motivate yourself and others for the National Association of Realtors’ Learning Library on March 17, at 2 p.m. EST. Click here for more information.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is an international speaker, coach, and resource provider, specializing in real estate business management. More of her resources are tested and recommended by CRS and CRB than any other speaker today. Carla helps companies optimize their ‘people power’–creative, practical strategies to double production and profits to recruit and retain the best.

Many people prefer to either not think about the importance of real estate search engine optimization, or tinker with it on their own. If you are not going to higher a professional to do it for you (like you would encourage your FSBOs to hire you), then there are at least a few traps that you should know about.

These are the 7 deadly seo mistakes that you don’t want to make. To get the full video which is also our video/speaker’s page, you’ll get much more information by clicking there. Here is a short preview of what you’ll get.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, International Speaker

Why waste your time filling in blanks to create goals? Doing that gives you no confidence in whether your plan will work. Instead, read how to make a business plan that gives you confidence in its ability to deliver to you the goals you want—and deserve.

Today, companies are touting that they will “make a business plan” for you. All you have to do is to put some numbers into the software, and, voila, your business comes out the ‘other end’. Sounds so easy. We love to get something for no effort! It reminds me of the story my sister told about one of her jobs in college. She worked for a cardiologist. She put electrodes on patients to prepare for the cardiogram. One day, she was putting electrodes on an elderly gentleman. She had him remove all jewelry, hearing aids, etc. To reduce his anxiety, she said, “Just relax. I’ll do all the rest.” He replied, “Honey, I’ve been waiting all my life for a woman to tell me that!”

Surprise…..he was going to have to wait a little longer. Similarly, expecting software to make you a business plan is an over-simplification of what that it can do for you. Also, it’s a mis-representation of what a business plan is. In this article, I’ll give you one concept that will change the way you think about your business plan. Applying this concept will help you create and execute your business plan with confidence. Following this concept will assure you’ll get the outcomes you want. (You’ll never say again, “Will this work for me?”).

Getting Past the Numbers to a True Executable Business Plan

Why would you want to create a business plan that’s not useful to you as you go about your business every day? I’ve coached hundreds of agents and leadership in creating what I call ‘executable’ business plans. Executable business plans are those that you can

use every day in creating the actions that lead to the results the client wants.

That means your business plan has to go way past just the numbers (goals), and get to ‘where the rubber meets the road’—the daily and weekly actions you will take that directly relate to the results or goals you intend to reach. Too many times, real estate professionals separate the action plans from the bigger picture of the business plan. However, they are all a part of the same busines plan!

A Stunning Concept: Your Systems Make Up Your Business Plan

This concept is from Michael Gerber, the small business guru and author of the famous books, The E-Myth and The E-Myth Revisited. (I highly recommend you read both of these). He says,

“the integration of your systems is your business plan”

What he means by that statement: As you think through how you’re going to act each day, you’re going to create systems and processes, including your operational checklists—so you can follow the plan. These systems put down in black and white how you’ll lead generate, how you’ll work with buyers, how you’ll market to people after the sale, etc.

Creating the systems. Now, you are actually creating the actions you’re prepared to take each day that lead you to your goals. You are going to relate those systems to your goals. For example: Your goal is twenty-four homes sold this year. Your lead generation plan includes contacting three ‘target’ or segregated markets. To contact, you have a system, consisting of a certain number of calls, mailings, etc. over a certain period of time. You have checklists to back these actions, and you have delegated part of this action plan to others.

Armed with these concrete actions—in order—you have created your ‘replicable’ business. You now can either

1. Carry out the systems yourself, or

2. Delegate them to grow your business

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is a real estate leadership coach and speaker, and is president of Carla Cross Seminars, Inc. and Carla Cross Coaching. She’s author of six internationally published books on real estate sales and management, including The Business Planning System for the Real Estate Professional. Carla’s management and sales systems are used by thousands of real estate professionals, and many are endorsed by CRS and CRB. Reach Carla at 425-392-6914 or www.carlacross.com.

Randy Eagar

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr . . . which social media or social media sharing is best? The answer is “Yes”! With the advancements in these services, you can now post a video in your YouTube account and have it automatically post to your Facebook wall, Twitter account, etc. In marketing, you need to be everywhere.  Here’s a short video trailer showing this exciting session that you can get via 45 minute video or from BASB personal training showing some great social media marketing ideas.

Randy Eagar, CRS
President, WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com