Tag: marketing

Preparing for Real Estate Success in 2014

At this time of year, everyone’s reflecting on the past 12 months and looking ahead to the next 12 (or just scrambling to get ready for Christmas!). If you’re looking for guidance on preparing for 2014, two articles I’ve read recently offer steps to follow.

Finances

Inman Next contributor ActiveRain suggests poring over your November credit card statement for any unnecessary business spending. I would add be sure to check your unpaid invoices and other sources of expense information, too.

Staffing

Our friend James Dingman encourages his readers to consider hiring support staff and perhaps a buyers’ agent or two and a listing agent. Analyze your workload and workflow to determine what business model would make the most sense for you at this stage. If you need more guidance on this important topic, set an appointment with your coach for next month.

Marketing

This is a broad topic that ActiveRain and James bestow with their attention. ActiveRain suggests attending holiday parties, and you might want to be prepared with a year-end market analysis you can summarize for anyone who asks. Knocking on doors with this information is another suggestion. Longer-term, the company’s blog post says you should re-examine your market niche. Who or what is your ideal target market? James thinks expanding your reach, specifically your targeted neighborhoods, could be a good move. He also advocates “supercharging your marketing” on the Internet, whether it’s on real estate sites like Trulia and Zillow or with pay-per-click, targeted ads on Google and Facebook.

Updating

ActiveRain says this is a good time to take control of your contact management system. Update it with your latest leads and any new contact information so that you can reach out to them next year. Get all of your social media profiles in order (or shut down ones you’re not actively using). Review your website page by page. Do you have inaccurate or expired information posted? What about pages that have not been localized with your office name and location?

If this seems overwhelming, it doesn’t all have to be completed by Dec. 31, just have it on your radar for early 2014.

You can read the full articles on the Set Fee Blog and Inman Next.

Have a prosperous New Year!

New Holiday Promotional Items

Help-U-Sell Welcome Home Cookbook
The updated edition of the Help-U-Sell Welcome Home Cookbook contains 12 new recipes.

How are you staying in touch with your CIs (Centers of Influence) this holiday season? We have worked with Alexander’s Print Advantage to create updated and new promotional pieces for our Help-U-Sell Real Estate franchisees. All items are on Alexander’s site now or will be available within the next few weeks.

    * Cookbooks. The updated Welcome Home cookbook contains 12 new recipes. [Note: The new cookbooks are not on the site yet, but you can still purchase the first edition.]
    * Holiday cards. You can order this year’s holiday cards in quantities as few as 25 and up to 200.
    * Thank-you cards. In addition to the branded note cards already available from Alexander’s, you can now order thank-you cards to express your gratitude for a referral, a testimonial, or simply for being a great client.
    * Calendar magnets. A request at this year’s Success Summit led to the design and creation of magnets with 2014 calendars and customizable contact information. Your CIs will see your office name every day of the year!

What is your favorite or most effective way of staying in touch with your clients and CIs during the holidays?

New Marketing Materials Unveiled at Success Summit 2013

At last week’s Success Summit in Las Vegas, Mike Paholke of Excel Printing and Mailing unveiled new marketing materials, including door hangers.

Melding old school with new technology, two of the three door hanger designs have QR codes that link directly to a lead-capture form on the broker’s website. One is for the free home evaluation, and the other goes to the Market Sketch registration page.

Excel has also introduced refreshed jumbo and standard Just Listed and Just Sold postcards that reflect the new branding. Like the door hangers, two of the three designs have QR codes for lead capture.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate's new marketing materials from Excel Printing and Mailing
Help-U-Sell Real Estate's new marketing materials from Excel Printing and Mailing include door hangers and jumbo postcards.

Alexander’s Print Advantage, our print-on-demand vendor, has created new options for the reverse side of the business cards, along with new handout cards. All of the designs incorporate the refreshed look and feel of the postcards and door hangers.

Brokers and agents can order the new pieces directly from Excel and Alexander’s. Excel is running a special co-op on the door hangers now through Nov. 8. Order before next Friday and save. Additional co-op opportunities will run next year. These are great ways to make the most of your marketing budget.

Let us know if you’ve taken advantage of Excel’s co-ops before. We’d love to hear your feedback!

Live from Success Summit 2013

We’ve just started day two of our annual Success Summit in Las Vegas!

Yesterday, we welcomed brokers and agents from all over the country, including our newest franchisee, who just signed with us at the meeting.

Help-U-Sell Success Summit 2013
Opening session of Help-U-Sell Success Summit 2013

In addition to the opening session, we held three breakout sessions on technology, coaching and marketing; as well as a marketing roundtable session, where our offices shared marketing techniques that work for them. We ended the day with a reception overlooking the Strip.

Success Summit reception
Help-U-Sell Success Summit reception

Today, we have a full day of general and breakout sessions. A special thank-you to Mike Paholke of Excel Printing and Mailing for bringing new marketing materials and showing us how to order them, and to John Powell and Jack Bailey for their coaching sessions.

If you aren’t in attendance and would like to follow the happenings in Las Vegas, search #SuccessSummit13 on Twitter.

Working with FSBOs

According to an article on CNNMoney last week, the number of homeowners selling their properties without a broker or agent has increased over the past year. One of the reasons FSBOs (for sale by owners) cite for going it on their own is to save the large commissions most brokers and agents charge.

Of course, at Help-U-Sell Real Estate, our low set fee can save FSBOs money and time and still be involved in the selling process, which is a compelling offer for some FSBOs. Others can successfully manage the sale of their homes on their own. This is something to keep in mind if you choose to market to FSBOs. The approach we advocate taking is that of a friendly resource, free of charge, unless we find a buyer for the FSBO. We are not trying to list the FSBO’s house.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate's approach to FSBOs
Help-U-Sell Real Estate's approach to FSBOs is as a friendly resource who wants to help the seller, not to land a listing.

To assist the seller, we recommend offering the following items or services of value:
* a suggested listing price
* advice
* showing the seller’s house to buyers
* monthly sales statistics from the MLS
* following up with open house visitors

This approach goes right along with the Help-U-Sell Real Estate founding principle of serving the consumer. Even if the broker or agent never gets the FSBO’s listing, he or she could acquire buyers’ names, be hired to help the FSBO with closing, and gain a new brand advocate.

For more advice and suggested dialogue when working with FSBOs, watch Help-U-Sell University video Module 4: Lesson 1.

How have you reached out to FSBOs successfully in the past? Share your experiences with us.

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