marketing – Page 7 – Help-U-Sell® Connect

The Broker-Centric Business Model

In the past few weeks, two opinion articles touting the merits of the smaller, broker-centric business model have appeared on renowned real estate news websites, AGBeat and Inman News. We couldn’t agree with these sentiments more. Help-U-Sell Real Estate’s business model has been broker-centric since the company’s founding in 1976. We believe that it’s the best real estate model because:

The entire staff of one of our most successful offices, Help-U-Sell Direct Savings Real Estate in Waynesboro, Va.

Most importantly for us, however, a broker-centric model enables our offices to offer consumers choices, ultimately saving the consumer money compared to the old-fashioned agent model. That model, while slowly fading away, seems to exist only to support the inefficiencies of that old business model.

If you would like to learn more about our business model, we invite you to visit our Franchise Opportunity Center website.

We also encourage you to read the two articles, if you haven’t already, and leave your comments as to how the broker-centric business model works for you.

March Madness Sale on Marketing Folders

All this month, our on-demand print vendor, Alexander’s Print Advantage, is offering our beautiful, full-color presentation folders at a great discount. Save 10 percent on your order, which can be as few as 25 and as many as 250.

The professional-looking folders are perfect for leave-behinds after listing presentations or other paperwork for your buyers or sellers.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate folder — The Help-U-Sell Real Estate presentation folders are on sale this month.

You can order the folders on Alexander’s dedicated Help-U-Sell website. The promotion ends March 31, 2013.

P.S. Alexander’s also has Easter cards ready for you. You can choose from two different messages. These are great to send out to your past and current clients and your vendors. Order them here.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate Receives Second Franchisee Satisfaction Award

For the second year in a row, Help-U-Sell Real Estate has been named one of the top franchises in the United States by Franchise Business Review. This honor means a lot to us because the judges for these awards are our own franchisees.

Franchise Business Review Awards — Help-U-Sell Real Estate has received a Franchise Business Review award for the second year in a row.

Based on the results of a survey conducted within the past two months, we were ranked 45th in franchisee satisfaction in our size category and in the top 10 in the real estate industry category. Last year, we rated 53rd in our size category.

The awards program, called FBR50, surveyed more than 26,000 franchisees from 350 companies.

Thank you to all of our franchisees who took the time to answer the survey. We love receiving your feedback, both positive and constructive, so that we can continue to improve our system.

We also love welcoming new brokers to the Help-U-Sell family. If you are interested in learning about opening a Help-U-Sell Real Estate franchise, please visit our Franchise Opportunity Center.

New Marketing Materials: Holiday Cards and Postcards

We have been keeping our two print vendors busy so far this year creating new marketing pieces for you.

At the request of members of our marketing focus group, we have designed holiday cards for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Independence Day and Thanksgiving. Each card has at least two different messages from which to choose. You will be able to order these cards from Alexander’s Print Advantage in the next few weeks. A winter holidays card is already available on the site. Twenty-five cards and envelopes are $41.50. We recommend sending these new cards out to your current and past clients as a way to stay top of mind. Consider buying them far ahead of each holiday and addressing the envelopes on a rolling basis to avoid a mad rush and to ensure you remember everyone.

One of the Help-U-Sell Real Estate holiday cards available for use as a marketing tool

Excel Printing & Mailing has created two jumbo postcards to be used as ETMs. The cards are 70 percent customizable. Each option, the Easy Way and the Smart Way, can be ordered in a black color scheme or red color scheme. Excel has put together a co-op on these postcards to be able to offer us an incredibly low rate. Offices need to place their orders by the end of the day on Feb. 27 to take advantage of the co-op. Excel handles the mailing of the postcards, and you can schedule the mailings months in advance. Nearly everything on the postcards can be altered, including images, testimonials, headlines, and contact information.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate jumbo postcard marketing mailer — Franchisees can customize 70 percent of the new jumbo postcards, offered by Excel Printing & Mailing.

The jumbo postcards are priced at $0.27 each, including postage, and there is a one-time $35 setup fee. We suggest ordering enough to last through the spring market.

Which of these will you add to your marketing tools? Also let us know if you have any other requests for marketing materials.

7 Tips to Creating Successful Real Estate Videos

Video has been growing in importance as a marketing tool for the past few years, and 2013 promises to make the medium even more vital especially for real estate marketing. How can you take advantage of this trend?

We’ve compiled seven tips on what to do (and what not to do, especially regarding mobile optimization of videos) to create a successful video.

Avoid tiny text.
Use clear audio.
Put links to your website and related sites, such as your blog or a property listing, in the description.
Include keywords in the description.
Use close-up shots of interesting property features, neighborhood sites or interviewees.
Test the video on mobile devices.
Keep it no longer than 3 or 4 minutes, ideally 1 to 2 minutes.

Matt Kellam of Help-U-Sell Keystone Realty does a great job with the length, audio and keywords. Watch one of his recent videos of a property tour.

Not sure what to film? Try out this suggested content:

Property tours: If possible, record the sellers’ story of the home and focus on unique details of the property.
Neighborhood overviews: Give viewers a feel for the area and speak with local proprietors and residents about why they love the neighborhood.
Tips for buyers and sellers: Answer your most frequently asked questions (one per video).
Market updates: Share the most recent sales figures or give the latest interest rate information. Use graphs or other visuals to help explain the changes.
Client testimonials: Record your happy sellers’ and buyers’ praising you and your staff.

Do you have any other ideas for video content or tips for successful videos? If so, please share them with us.

[Special thanks to Inman News‘ Mobile Marketing Essentials webinar for a few of these tips.]