The New, Tech-Savvy Real Estate Agent

Real estate agents are no longer the single, solitary gatekeepers of real estate information. Technological developments that empower buyers and sellers have forced significant changes on the industry. The agents and brokerages who adapt to this new, technology-rich paradigm will thrive and continue to continue to see success.

Real Estate Technology for Homebuyers and Agents

15 years ago, the real estate market was a different place. If a homebuyer wanted information on a home, an agent would have to dig it out of their files and walk them through the listing.

Now, things have changed. Buyers can find detailed real estate information with a quick search on their smartphones. Large, consumer portals like Zillow opened this door. They provided information and data comparisons for anyone to see, empowering consumers and changing the way real estate transactions happened.

The simple ability to search for homes at their leisure gave homebuyers more freedom and control than they’d previously had. And with that newfound freedom, buyers and sellers developed an expectation for this level of convenience and independence.

Technology has changed for agents and brokers, too. Now that homebuyers do much of the early explorations on their own, modern agents have found other ways to provide value. It involves using technology to connect with potential buyers, automatically nurture their leads, and build effective relationships.

It Starts on The Website

Even individual agents and smaller brokerages can offer the detailed MLS information through their websites to provide the experience that homebuyers expect. An IDX website allows agents to offer:

• A user-friendly property search with multiple search options


• Interactive map searches for those who prefer a visual approach to home discovery


• Property galleries where agents can feature new listings or recent price drops


• Automated systems to feature active listings through the MLS

These tools help agents and brokerages keep potential homebuyers on the website and interacting with the listings. But it can go even further, and you can more easily turn those visitors into valuable leads with proven lead capture features.

These real estate websites can make it easy for potential clients to save listings and searches and then sign up to receive email alerts when new listings match their criteria.

MarketBoost, then, allows agents to keep in touch with all these new contacts by sending automated listings content, starting drip email campaigns, and otherwise making sure they know about new open homes, new listings, prices changes, and other important market reports.

As the agent continues to update the website with the newest, most current information on the area, it will help establish them as the undisputed local expert.

In the modern market, the most successful agents are those who can use these types of website tools to turn real estate information into practical and actionable advice.

Investing in an Edge

As more brokerages start to adapt to this evolving marketplace, they have started investing more of their resources into the technology their agents use throughout the buying and selling process.

This has, in fact, become one way that brokerages are recruiting and retaining more agents. When it’s clear that they will have a range of tools for lead nurturing at their fingertips, they’ll know that they have the support of the brokerage.

Tools like MarketBoost and OmniPress give agents an edge over the competition. They make it easy to capture more leads and get detailed reports on what those potential homebuyers searched for, what they viewed, and what actions they took on your website.

This kind of technology can help save time and money while keeping in touch with all their leads and highlighting their expertise in the local markets.

Full Integration

Many brokerages immediately jumped on the technology bandwagon, but soon found that some of their tools and apps didn’t mesh with others. The most effective tools in this tech-rich market should easily integrate with the systems already in place at the brokerage.

iHomefinder’s solutions were designed to work effectively with a variety of third-party apps, from Top Producer and IXACT Contact to Follow Up Boss and FiveStreet. This way an agent can forward leads from the website to other systems the brokerage is using without any problems.

This kind of integration also gives agents the ability to add their leads’ IDX website activity to the CRM. They can then automatically add the leads in the CRM to the MarketBoost report subscriptions.

Agents will have the ability to manage lead aggregation and routing while automating email and web content for lead nurturing.

Technology and Accessibility

Agents who have fully adapted to the modern real estate market do more than make real estate data available to homebuyers. While real estate information is readily available, the most successful agents are those who can use it to address the concerns of their clients.

Homebuyers are more empowered than ever before. New technologies have opened the world of real estate to them, but not completely. The door may stand open, but it’s the modern real estate agent who will show them in and help them understand the potential of what they’ve discovered.

Technology isn’t just about gathering new leads and correlating data. It’s about finding new ways to become the trusted advisor on the important real estate decisions.

iHomefinder

The New, Tech-Savvy Real Estate Agent

12 Real Estate Blogs Worth a Closer Look

 

There is so much happening in the real estate market that keeping up with the news, updates, trends, wins, and setbacks can seem like a full-time job all on its own. There are a lot of organizations out there that provide a wealth of information on the market – some of it is relevant, some of it is just words on a page without a lot of direct relevance to your own business.

So where do you start?

How can you parse all the information out there and make sure you’re keeping up with the latest developments?

There are many important blogs that provide some quality information, and while we understand that you can’t follow every single blog that proposes to be the most relevant in the industry, you can find a few that consistently provide information that keeps you in the know.

We have taken a look at a lot of the real estate blogs out there and chosen 12 that we think are worth watching. We’ve based this analysis on a number of factors – the most obvious being things like posting consistency, quality of content, and reader engagement, but we’ve also looked at things like how often others link to them and their overall page authority.

We don’t recommend that you start following all these blogs – some of them specialize in parts of the market or places in the country that simply won’t apply to you – but we do recommend finding blogs that provide the most relevant and regular information for your agency.

1. inman

The inman blog is a must-read. It covers everything from technology to marketing for agents and brokerages, and while providing great information for people in the real estate market across the country, it also provides news and happenings in specific areas, like New York, DC, L.A., and more.

2. RISMedia

RISMedia was founded back in 1980 and it is still an important source of news, tips, advice, and more in the real estate industry. Their blog, titled “RISMedia’s house call” is updated daily with a range of useful and interesting content.

3. The Notorious R.O.B.

Rob Hahn started this blog in 2008 and continues to update it with a range of content that matters to brokerages and agents. In it, he talks about everything from politics and regulations to marketing and media. (It is a personal blog, so you’ll get a few unrelated-but-interesting posts, too.)

4. Mansion Global

This blog describes itself as a premier digital destination for the world’s affluent real estate buyers. It focuses on markets in New York, London, Miami, San Francisco, and Sydney. Here you’ll get range, of news and insights on prime international properties.

5. HousingWire.com

This site focuses on remaining an independent resource for news, analysis, and commentary on the mortgage banking markets. HousingWire looks at lending, investments, real estate, and more.

6. The Real Deal

You’ll find a lot of news here that is specific to New York real estate, but there is a lot of great general information here that can help anyone.

7. Brownstoner

For those who specialize in a very specific kind of real estate, Brownstoner looks at a wide range of beautiful brown stone homes and provides specific advice for brownstone buyers, owners, and sellers.

8. Dr.HousingBubble

This site gets a ton of comments on their posts, though that could be because their topics (focused on the SoCal housing bubble) could be said to be designed to illicit a lot of comment. See if this is a conversation you want to get involved with.

9. Commercial Property Executive

If your agency focuses more on commercial properties, this may be a good place for you to stay in the know. Property management, investments, financing, and sustainability are just a few of the topics you’ll see covered here.

10. NBCNEWS.com Real Estate Section

Here you’ll find a simple and direct list of real estate news from around the country. There are also mortgage calculators and simple ways

11. The Zillow Blog

Zillow is one of the largest real estate websites online. Their blog offers tips and advice, market trends, and looks at unique homes and home improvement ideas

12. Eye On Housing

This is the site for the National Association of Home Builders. Here you’ll find a lot of discussion on the housing market (along with statistics) and the relevant economic questions.

 

 

iHomefinder

12 Real Estate Blogs Worth a Closer Look

Best Real Estate Plugin for WordPress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MarketBoost Name One of The Best Real Estate Plugins for WordPress  

Recently, WPExplorer.com, a website that specializes in delivering WordPress news, themes, plugins, tutorials, and more, listed the iHomefinder Optima Express and Market Boost IDX plugin as one of the best real estate plugins available for WordPress.

The website published an article that detailed a selection of “the most impressive and feature-rich plugins that will help you upgrade your real estate website.”
MarketBoost IDX was recognized for the ease in which agents can include property listings, market reports, and MLS data on their WordPress websites.
At iHomefinder, we’re proud to have been included on this list and continue to work on ways to live up to this kind of recognition.

According to WPExplorer, this IDX plugin is “an impressive solution for the serious real estate websites out there.”
They went on to say that it features some “great options that will not only make your life a lot easier but will have a noticeable impact on your business,” and that “for serious projects, it could be just what you need.”

There are several features and tools that WPExplorer listed as part of the reason MarketBoost was chosen for the list.

On top of the listings, market reports, and MLS data, this plugin also has:

• SEO-friendly options that help agents get listed on search engines
• Proven lead capture abilities
• A fully responsive design that allows users to access important information on their computer or on their favorite handheld device
• An interactive map to make searching specific locations much easier
• A simple way for agents to add listing galleries to pages, posts, and sidebars to show off featured properties
• Intuitive property search features
• Multiple lead capture features so agents can follow-through and use everything from email alerts to contact and registration forms

WPExplorer has been covering WordPress news, themes, and plugins for a very long time, and at iHomefinder we’re excited to be included on their list of the best real estate plugins.

iHomefinder

Best Real Estate Plugin for WordPress

Retention Strategies for Real Estate Brokers

Retention Strategies for 2016

 

Retention Strategies for Real Estate Brokers in 2016

The longer a sales agents remain with a brokerage, the less that brokerage has to spend on recruitment and training. Longevity also contributes to higher rates of homebuyer satisfaction, which leads to a higher rate of referrals.

Retaining your agents is a strategy for growth, and it help will build a better environment for mentorship, learning, and better referrals. Finding the right talent that fits well with the company culture can be a huge investment of time and money, which makes retention all the more important. When you do it right, you can keep your top talent and see even better returns.

Retention Starts When You’re Recruiting

You will have a much better shot at keeping your talent when you know what kind of talent you are bringing in. Recruiting sales agents is a careful process that should take some thought, planning, and strategizing. You don’t want to take everyone who submits a resume. You don’t even want to take everyone with a massive track record of sales. You need someone who fits with your company culture, who is looking for opportunities to grow in their profession, and who will take ownership of their role within the brokerage. As you start the recruiting process, focus on those who you know will positively impact your business.

Culture is the Foundation of Retention

Can you define your company culture? If you can’t sum it up in just a few words, then chances are your agents aren’t going to recognize (or relate to) the culture either.

Agents need to feel like they are part of the big picture. They need to see that big picture, too and understand how they fit in. This is your company culture. It maybe be one of education and growth. It could be one of  the regular challenges and friendly competition. It could be a lot of things…

But what it always needs to be is honest and fair. When your agents feel like you’re treating them with respect and that they’re contributing to the success of the brokerage, they’ll be more likely to stick around. Define your culture and then strive to help everyone understand it.

Provide the Tools for Success

You can boost retention by providing the tools that help close business.

As consumers continue to demand more and their expectations continue to rise, brokerages are under continual pressure to lower real estate commissions. This, of course, makes it difficult to hang on to your top performers if they’re not making as much as they expected.

The most effective tradeoff, then, is to provide the tools and technology that will help them close more business. Most of your agents will realize that there is a cost for adding technology to the brokerage, but done right, they will be willing to trade commission split percentage for a system that actually works for them.

Embrace the new opportunities that technology provides. This kind of investment can pay you back in many ways, including all the potential changes in how you charge clients for services and how you compensate agents.

MarketBoost, for example, is specifically designed to attract new leads and increase the amount of engagement with homebuyers. This will allow your agents to easily keep in touch with contacts and provided automated listings content. It will even help them highlight their expertise in the local market.

The franchise or large brokerage that first maximizes the technology currently available, will be a major force in the future of real estate. When you can provide a turnkey and technologically advanced office and marketing environment to agents, retention and production will be much higher.

Ongoing Training and Development

There’s always something to learn. Always something to improve. The minute your top agent thinks he or she has seen and learned it all is the minute they make room for someone else to take their place. The best agents understand this and always look for ways to improve their game.

This means providing programs and processes that help agents identify the areas where they can make the most improvements, and then challenge them to develop their professional abilities.

Training can be one-on-one, mentorship programs, offsite seminars, on-site training specialists, or even just teaming your junior agents with senior staff. All of these are great ways to build a culture of learning.

Just remember, along with the training should be the expectations for agents to improve. Otherwise, you’re just bouncing words off a brick wall. Track their improvements, congratulate them on successes, and question if they understand and are incorporating the new strategies and techniques with each new lead.

Make the Time for Agents

If you don’t take the time to see your people face to face on a regular basis, chances are they won’t take the time to really be dedicated to helping the company grow.

Talk to your people. Do it face to face on a regular basis (which is far more effective than an email or, perish the thought, a text).

At the same time, you’ll know more about your company and what’s happening with it. You’ll have a better sense for how your agents are feeling – their general moods and impressions – and what they need in order to be more successful.

A Strategy for Growth

It is always far more effective to retain the agents who are the most productive than it is to constantly recruit and train new people. While there will always be a need to add new agents to the roster, the ones who can contribute to the long-term future of the brokerage are the ones that will also help attract the best referrals and help create a culture of success.

iHomefinder

Retention Strategies for Real Estate Brokers

Increase Real Estate Leads

Lead Generation Ideas for Real Estate Agents and Brokers

Lead generation is financially necessary for real estate agents and brokers, but producing quality leads has gotten more competitive with the growth of technology. Technology-driven business is the future for most companies, especially as the number of people who rely on their mobile devices and for information and recommendations continues to grow.
So, how can we reach people and get them to act via technology? They already have an inclination to use their latest devices to find information about local restaurants, the weather, and qualified dentists. It shouldn’t be that hard to get them to use that same technology to learn about real estate opportunities and become new leads for you.
Here are just a few ideas to entice people to act on your messages, website, and social media platforms.

Awareness
If a potential client cannot find what they are looking for easily and quickly, you will lose business. Awareness is a critical component of generating good leads, and it should be the central purpose of your website. Potential clients need to be aware that you are on the web, and that you have important information on your site that directly answers their questions and concerns.
Studies have repeatedly shown that more than half of your website visitors will spend a mere 15 seconds looking for quality information before moving on. If your site speed is slow or if your website could use a renovation, you will need to look into a simple, customizable website that will address these problems. A customizable experience like this can provide simple ways to improve business with customers.
More importantly, if they have a good experience on your site, i.e., the information they need is readily available and the website as a whole performed up to the expectation of a tech-savvy generation of homebuyers, then they’ll be more likely to spread the awareness of your website or brokerage.

Action
Each post on your social media platforms, website, and blog should have a call to action of some kind. Your online activities should always be focused on driving traffic to a landing page or offering a simple step to get them to act later. You need to make it easy for them to take the next step, and you need to give them a reason to do it.
Landing pages should vary, depending on the call-to-action in your post. Be sure you offer the potential client a solution for their question¬— this builds trust and clout for your business and gets them to come back to your site. More importantly, this is where you can start to qualify your leads by the actions they are willing to take.

Conversion
Lead generation without conversion will leave your agency or brokerage floundering in a high-tech environment. The people visiting your website want some very specific answers to some very specific questions.
Be the answer for each potential client.
This means doing your research on your local market, housing costs, or even the concerns people have and may want more information on. It could be the prices of the homes in a certain area or even tips on choosing a home. If you provide an unbiased opinion, people will trust you and be willing to work with you.
All the content you create content should lead to a conversion, soft or hard. Entice them to sign up for a newsletter, an info session, or something else to get them interested and interacting with you a little bit more.
Modern home buyers have very specific needs, wants, and expectations. The most important thing we can do in the real estate industry today is work to keep up with those expectations and create an amazing experience. As technology changes, so will your potential clients. If you want to continue to generate leads and find success for your company in this technology-saturated market, you need to work smarter, not harder, to find new ways to grow and adapt.

iHomefinder

Increase Real Estate Leads

Featured Client- Morris Raney Real Estate

Introducing Becky Morris and Morris Raney Real Estate

Becky Morris has a team of 4 agents that comprise the Morris Raney Real Estate team, who all work for Beacham & Company, one of Atlanta’s top Luxury Real Estate Companies. Through the first 10 months of 2015, Becky and her team sold 70 properties valued at over $ 30 million dollars. She attributes much of this to her local knowledge of Atlanta and her ability to work with key buyer types such as those relocating from out of town. Becky has been an agent since 2002 and has managed her own website ever since.

The Evolution of Becky’s Website

A few years ago, she and her team jumped on the WordPress bandwagon. She loved that WordPress offers a customizable site design.

As more and more visitors accessed her site via smartphones and tablets, she knew that she’d need a fully-responsive, mobile site which her current site did not have. Through Google Analytics, Becky could see that site visitors on desktop stayed on her site for over 6 minutes, whereas, on mobile, the experience was under 20 seconds.

In the spring of 2015, Becky began analyzing the IDX market in hopes of upgrading her website. The site needed to be customizable, incorporate a fully responsive design allowing smartphone and tablet users to effectively use her site, and offer an elegant look and feel that helped provide a great first experience. Equally important, she needed to exhibit a trusted look and feel that rivaled the major consumer portals and ultimately drove visitors back to her site again and again. Lastly, although Becky isn’t a technophobe, she is not a programmer. Any IDX package she selected would need to be fairly easy to implement.

Making the move to iHomefinder

After a thorough search, Becky moved forward with iHomefinder’s Optima Express plugin. Optima Express offers considerable flexibility and is compatible with her WordPress website. During implementation, Becky found the setup documentation to be clear, concise and easy to use. In addition, when she called iHomefinder Support, the team was responsive and not only addressed her issues but offered additional tips helping her get up and running fast.

Becky was also able to set up searches by area, price range, school district, and neighborhoods. She quickly implemented over 400 saved searches to the new website in under 2 weeks.

 
Initial Results

While many real estate agent websites focus on the agent, Becky designed her site to focus on the communities she serves in North Atlanta. Her site provides not only real estate information but also includes information on schools, shopping, restaurants, arts festivals, farmers markets and community videos. Buyers and sellers use the site as a resource for gathering information before, during and after a move. The site is especially helpful for relocating buyers.

The level of site customization offered by WordPress, coupled with a responsive experience for site visitors helped propel site session length dramatically. Becky found that the average smartphone session time spiked from under 20 seconds to over 4 minutes. Breaking that down further shows tablet session lengths of over 6 minutes! As expected, this led to an increase in leads from mobile devices. Needless to say, Becky is pleased with the performance of her Optima Express site plugin. In fact, another team member is in the process of migrating to iHomefinder as well.

Find an IDX Real Estate product that works best for your needs starting at $ 39.95.

iHomefinder

Featured Client- Morris Raney Real Estate

6 Items Every Real Estate Website Should Have

Creating a real estate website that offers a good customer experience can do a lot of things for your business. It can instil trust in your clients and potential clients by offering a professional look and feel. It can also help convert leads by offering quality and useful information.

Whether you’re a new realtor in the beginning stages of development, or a seasoned realtor that has had a website for years, there are several things you should keep in mind when developing your site. In the graphic below, we list six elements that every real estate site should have to offer a great customer experience.

iHomefinder

6 Items Every Real Estate Website Should Have

Featured Client- Marin County Real Estate

 

 

Introducing Behzad and Marin County Real Estate

In business since 1994, Behzad knows quite a bit about real estate in upscale Marin County just north of San Francisco.  Behzad runs Marin County Real Estate which is affiliated with Decker Bullock Sotheby’s International.  Like many successful agents, Behzad credits much of his success to his local knowledge of the greater Marin area.  Behzad’s goal is to create an online presence that will serve the needs of buyers and sellers in Marin through an aggressive plan to provide robust, relevant content.

The Evolution of Behazd’s Website

Behzad’s initial website included a basic online presence providing listing information along with contact details.  He quickly concluded that having a presence is not enough as the engaged site visitor requires a richer experience.  He needed to have relevant information on his site that many types of buyers and sellers would find useful.  He needed to include deep-local knowledge that would enable him to compete not only against other agents and brokerages but also the big real estate portals like Zillow, Realtor.com and Redfin.  Behzad also realized that he needed to not only improve overall awareness but create engaging experiences that keep visitors coming back again and again.

Over the past few years, Behzad has witnessed an increase in the number of mobile users accessing his site.  To adapt to this trend, he needs to provide a sound experience for desktop, smart phone and tablet users.

Making the Move to iHomefinder

Prior to making the switch to iHomefinder, Behzad worked with another IDX vendor that offered lead capture services.  He found a several key areas that needed improvement.  First, Behzad required access to the vendor’s backend so he could manage and configure lead settings.  Second, he needed to drive SEO traffic thru both website tags and content creation.  His technology contact at Sotheby’s noted his concerns and mentioned that iHomefinder was the top IDX vendor on the market based on Behzad’s SEO, lead management and mobile requirements.   After looking the major IDX products, Behzad agreed and made the move to iHomefinder.

 

One of the first things Behzad did, was to acquire the domain name, “marin.com”.  Having a domain name that contains targeted keywords is key in driving SEO results.  In addition, ads featuring a specific domain name with an exact match to the product typically perform better than ads featuring a generic alternative.  Also, ad performance with the display URL similar to the ad tend to achieve much higher CTRs than ads without highly relevant URLs.  (Arguably) most important, is the ‘brandability’ of the domain, which in Behzad’s case is memorable, relevant, easy to spell and authoritative.

Driving buyers and sellers to his site via paid ads is a critical component of his overall strategy.  Bahzad developed Facebook and Twitter campaigns to direct traffic to Marin.com at cost-effective rates.  He’s taken this a step further by rolling out visitor competitions on social media that incent visitors to create and post content on his website and his social media accounts as well.   One such campaign offered a Napa giveaway to people who post their personal story about Marin County.  Yet another campaign incented users to post home photos to his social media pages.

As Behzad built-out his website, he had issues with lead capture that were quickly addressed by iHomefinder support.  He wanted users to have a clean search experience that did not require username and email address until user engagement was clear. He called iHomefinder support who quickly resolved his concern leaving users with the search experience he intended.

Closing

 Behzad’s goal is to make relevant information available to visitors interested in residential properties in Marin County.   Simply stated, it’s a content game involving not only listings data, but a variety of relevant content that will engage site visitors keeping them coming back again and again.  With iHomefinder, he’s able to drive more organic traffic, offer a mobile-first, responsive user experience and work with a world-class support team that is ready to help him meet his business objectives.

Behzad understands the task and is up for the challenge!

 

 

iHomefinder

Featured Client- Marin County Real Estate

Twitter For Real Estate Agents

Twitter for Real Estate agents

Twitter is an important platform for sales and brand building in today’s real estate market. More millennials are becoming homeowners and involve social media in almost 90 percent of all purchases.  So, how does twitter use for real estate increase sales and branding?

• Ability to engage with clients in real time


• Post relevant information that would be helpful to your clients/potential clients. People love to be helped and if you create content that helps the person, they will trust you more.


• Create brand awareness and loyalty


• Increase SEO by using keywords, and relevant links


• Understand what others are saying about you


• Inform followers of open houses and other listings

Now with all the things you can do with twitter there are tactics you can use to optimize your use of twitter. Here are just four suggestions:

• Provide links to website, blog or relevant information– therefore providing a user-friendly experience


• Use hashtags on trending topics and so people can find you


• Share relatable, interesting and valuable information for your followers


• Optimize each post with keywords focused on getting audience to act

As you optimize your twitter use you will see an improvement of sales. This process may take some time, but keep at it and listen to what others are saying about you and how you can improve.

iHomefinder

Twitter For Real Estate Agents

Why Real Estate Success Depends on Your Mobile-Friendly Website

Have you opened a website on your cell phone and the only way you could read it was by zooming in and out? According to Google, “Users find this a frustrating experience and are likely to abandon the site.” Meaning you lose potential leads and sales.

When people find your site and leave immediately your website rankings with Google lower, hurting your rapport with Google and potential customers. Thankfully, it can be inexpensive to convert your website to become mobile-friendly. A fully responsive design is the most important function you want to start with when focusing on becoming mobile friendly.

There are many ways to find and implement a fully responsive design to make your website standout. Making your website your own with access to IDX listings from your MLS System, along with ways to capture leads are a few options we offer.

We make it easy for you to succeed in your real estate growth now and in the future with our customizable, fully responsive websites.

Click here for your FREE 30-day trial.

 

iHomefinder

Why Real Estate Success Depends on Your Mobile-Friendly Website

Six ways to brand yourself as a Real Estate Agent

To be successful, there are many things you can do in your real estate market. We recommend doing six things to create your brand and make your mark in the world.

Personalize your website

Having a web presence is imperative for any real estate agent in the world today. Ninety-two percent of buyers use the internet in some way in their home search process and 50 percent of buyers use a mobile website or application in their home search. So what will make them pick you? Creating an interactive website with information potential home buyers want is an important key for success in attracting potential home buyers.

Be interactive on social media

Having a presence in social media is a must, especially if you are marketing to first-time home buyers. Millennials (ages 18-34) are a social generation and get most of their information on social media. In fact, the Deloitte report found that 47 percent of millennials are influenced in their purchases by social media, compared to 19 percent for all other age groups.

Generate leads

With so many potential ways to generate leads, how you can you know what the best bang is for your buck? Trusting professionals who know how to drive traffic to your website can be an effective outsourcing tool for generating leads. Other tools include PPC campaigns, Google AdWords, and Event Tracking tools to monitor site traffic.

Be the answer

Quality content on your social media and website outlets is a must. According to Lee Odden, CEO TopRank Marketing, “Effective digital marketing means being the best answer wherever your customers are looking.” That means learning where your demographics discover, consume and act on information. Ask the question, “What questions do my customers need answered and in what channels in order to buy?” Then inform them in an entertaining and engaging way.

Create a media kit

A media kit can be anything you about your brand that would identify you. A backgrounder, brochure and business card are great tools to start with. A media kit can be used to get a story in the news or as a pass along. Create different ways you can get your brand in the news, it’s free advertising and thousands of eyes can see you and your brand.

Start a blog

Blogging has grown tremendously the past 10 years, but why? People enjoy information that helps them make a decision or find value in an idea or product. If you can provide valuable insight on a specific trend, product, you can gain a loyal following. This does not mean only talking about your products or ideas, but really giving a person a way to make an informed decision. This following can be a great strength for your business and will grow as you make it relatable for others.

 

iHomefinder

Six ways to brand yourself as a Real Estate Agent