My Projects
45 Portland Neighborhoods in 45 days
Focus focus focus…conversion conversion conversion! As some of you may have picked up from my recent posts and talks, I am becoming militant about conversion! There is so much talk in our RE tech crowd about SM, WordPress, blogging dead or not etc. and I contend that unless there is a direct connection than can be documented and repeated it is not all that useful to our industry.
What does this have to do with 45 Portland neighborhoods? …well an analysis of new how out team produces new clients revealed that a significant portion of our web registrations originate through a Google search that combines a neighborhood name with either “real estate” or “homes for sale”. We built and tested several neighborhood landing pages and a strategy to promote the pages with a series of posts. Now that the prototyping is done and tested it is time to switch to operation mode and get some shit done that makes us money. BAM!
I will be describing the process over the next 45 days showing the example neighborhood page and hopefully some insight on the keys to converting neighborhood content into new appointments and closed transaction.
Portland Neighborhood #1 of 45 – Portland Heights
Portland Heights Real Estate is on the high end for our area. I drive through it every day on the way to work and when our little brokerage really takes off I would love to buy one of the spectacular moderns. The page took about 4 hours to build, I walked the neighborhood for 20 min taking pictures and a video with my iPhone, I used next gen gallery, and embed video served from you tube. The listing are pulled in using our Homequest IDX plug in short code.
Conversion on this page happen when the 3rd listing view is attempted and from request showings.
There are numerous on page details and conversion strategies to discuss, but this is only day one so….see you tomorrow;)
Yes…the Real Estate Blog is Dead!
My opinion is based on several years of running sites for My wife’s team and working with agents at M Realty.
When it comes to generating leads from search, the past, present and future of real estate sites is SEO, not blogging, transparency, authenticity and finding your voice. The way to get clients is to show up where the most concentrated group of most motivated buyers/sellers are hanging out and ask for the business. This is why SEO focused content kills blogging…it is targeted directly at the relevant phrases and lands on pages designed to satisfy needs AND convert into conversation. Directing visitors interested in Portland Real Estate to our site generates appointments with new clients. People searching for Homes for sale in Sellwood neighborhood will register on IDX display of listing in the neighborhood. As I tailor most of my content to support the landing pages for valuable terms am I still a blogger or have I become an SEO focused content writer…is there a difference?
I am defining the Real Estate agent blog as an agent site to publish thoughts and ideas about real estate and possibly other things. A traditional agent blog can have solid impact in the direct support of an agent sphere relationships. It can become a dynamic newsletter of sorts that can be referenced in facebook and can be the content source of actual email newsletter campaign. This site will not (in general) produce quality organic traffic from search engines that will convert into clients at a rate that justifies the effort. Unless the site is used as a support to a more traditional campaign of meeting people IRL and direct marketing its ROI sucks. If you feel it is your calling to write and this is you outlet fantastic…do it because you love it. If you see a blog as a lead generator think twice.
IMO…the future of agent sites that have measurable ROI are hybrid site that use blogging platforms (WordPress) and employ very good on page SEO targeted to terms that convert leading to landing pages that generate registrations of some sort. The “blog” or “dynamic” content serves to supplement the high quality static landing pages that are the primary conversion points of the site. That is not to say the site necessarily must become a cold site with no agent personality coming through.
The future of web generated leads belongs to agents who become very proficient in SEO, understand conversion, and can write for the humans and bots that end up on the landing pages.
Don’t get me wrong I am all for transparency and authenticity. However I would suggest spending significant time and effort on the structure and conversion so your authentic, transparent voice will produce a significant number of transactions not just an opportunity to lead a session at Barcamp. WOW that was a tad snark wasn’t it 
Blogs that work – Information, Search and Passion
Our agents blog. or more accurately they utilize WordPress sites effectively in their practice. We are very connected with our agents activity because we develop & provide the WP sites, design and SEO. There are three primary configurations that are working for our agents, each site configuration has associated “marketing” techniques that work best. All of these can be very productive for the agent if implemented correctly.
Passion Blogs
passion blogs are the most compelling in my opinion, but not necessarily the most productive in terms of transactions. These blogs are extensions of an individuals love and passion and in a real estate context would be niche site such as modernhomes. These are very good at creating a connections with people who are passionate about the same topics. Long term organic search and return visits from subscriber build effectiveness over time.
Information Blogs-
A little less opinion and a little more information. these blogs tend to have a general topic such as Portland Relocation, Portland home auctions or Portland Market news and trends. The basic strategy is to cover the topic in a comprehensive manner with strong emphasis on SEO. These are designed as a resource and to present the agent as an authority. They require systematic content production and attention paid to analytics.
Property Search blogs
Very search centric sites with some neighborhood/condo building and possibly property niches. These sites tend to rely heavily on SEO and possibly PPC marketing campaigns. a good example would be Portland real estate. These are very good for consistent lead generation on high volume sites and staff to follow up. This requires relatively high budget for PPC and/or resources to win top organic placement for most competitive search terms. Only effective with agents that are skilled at following up with information and showing requests.
The keys to success:
1. Assessment of agents - past success, area of genuine interests, personality type, writing ability and desire.
2. Site design – style, look and feel, design elements, color pallets etc.
3. SEO – key word research, on page SEO, agent SEO training.
4. Content production – content plan/road map, blog training, accountability.
5. Traffic generation – social media, sphere marketing, organic SERP, PPC, traditional marketing.
6. Move forward – Consistent effort, keeping in the areas of strength.
The sites are providing a growing number of contacts and leads and something tangible to focus on in growing their business.
iPhone Pano
Click the image to view in Panoramic viewerThis image was take with an iPhone I constructed a panoramic head to rotate the phone precisely. I will be adding a second axis of rotation to capture more vertically.
Setting the Appointment
You have spent the time and effort to build good traffic to your site. People like what you have to say and they are obviously interested in Real estate because they are searching for homes, saving homes and sometimes even requesting showings. Congratulations!! Now the big question…are you doing any business?
If the answer is no or not much, there is a conversion problem. The first step to conversion is identifying motivated people, the second is asking for an appointment Yet many agents I see don’t take this step. Your conditioned knee jerk reaction to someone saying “I am interested in Real Estate” should be great “Would you be open to getting together for a cup of coffee to see if we are a good fit to work together.” Or something to that effect.
Of course many times the prospect does not come right out and say “I am interested in real estate please help me”. However, if you are consistently paying attention to the communication you will see “I am interested” conveyed in many ways. The key is to listen and ask questions this is a skill and some people have it naturally and some of us have to learn it.
Listen for any sign of “I am interested in real estate” then ask “would you be open to getting together to see if we are a good fit.” That’s the simple take away message.
DO NOT follow with. great let me run back to the office and send you tons of crap about me and the market to prove to you that I am a great agent and know what I am talking about…oh and I always put my clients interest first and some shit about my personal mission statements;…oh and here is a picture of me on the top of Everest with my shaman….oh and did you know I am not like all those other agents (who are Idiots) I always call back…oh and the ten thousand other things you could say.
Just meet with them to see if you would be a good fit to work together…then take it form there.
Simple steps to Real Estate Success
If you execute these three items at a high level – you win in real estate. Is is as simple as that. Don’t mistake simple for easy though. Any process that is truly in production mode is simple but that does not mean getting there was easy.
Lead Generation – meeting people
Meet tens or hundreds or thousands or millions of People. Create consistent sustainable engines that are run in production mode. There are many strategies and tactics the key is to find ways that fit with your strengths. If you are working against your strengths and talents it is very difficult to maintain over time. It can be face to face or virtually but you must meet people or your real estate career is dead!
Manage client and prospect relationships
Meeting lots of people results in opportunity to further relationships. Our primary role is to inform and help people through the process of buying or selling homes. It is all about building trusted relationships and providing the appropriate information at the appropriate time. If you can follow up with every conversation while adding value you are headed for transactions.
Facilitating Transactions
This is our actual job as far as the clients are concerned. Be a great advocate for the client and get deals done for them. They will love you and happy customers create opportunity.
The key to big time success
Keep all three items consistently running at a high level at the same time and you have a highly productive real estate practice that earns a very high income. Then if you can enhance what is working and fold in additional modules without disrupting the existing structure you can become a mega agent.
Simple but it requires a broad set of skills, solid planning, help from others, and a strong work ethic. It helps tremendously to be in a supportive environment where poeple understand the process and are qualified and motivated to provide asistance. M
Back to Basics?!
I have heard many agents and brokers claim it is time to get back to basics. Well I guess that depends on what you think “Basics” is. If basics means making contact with a very large number of people and engaging in conversations about real estate then YES!
If ‘Back to Basics” means it’s time to hunker down and get back to what we have always done? Call the 25 people in our sphere and go out to coffee or “Pop” by an ask for referrals. Spend $1,200 mailing postcards to your farm area. Then NO!. The environment has shifted and people are getting their information on new paths. The internet, blogs, twitter, google search, facebook, etc are information conduits. If you are not using these tools and others you are missing the leverage needed to expand your reach.
The market is slow and if your reach is limited to your sphere through traditional channels then now matter how well you work your system the yield will be low. It is simple math. The reality in our market is that there are far fewer transaction available. I just ran the raw number of closes for December from 05-08.
Closed Transactions
12/05 = 1651
12/06 = 1511
12/07 = 1075
12/08 = 529
That is a 68% drop in the number of transactions.
Agents must increase their activity and conversations by several hundred percent, What if you are connected to a real estate market that is dead and no matter how hard you try there are simply no buyers? This is the case right now in the $1,000,000 market in much of Portland. So if your social sphere and referral network is primarily connected to this market segment and you want to earn commissions a dramatic adjustment is needed.
If you don’t quickly learn how to leverage every tool availble to you to dramatically extend your reach you are in big trouble.