Go Beyond MLS » Internet Marketing

The Basics Again: USP

Matt — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:23:22 +0000

I’d like to kick off what I hope will be a short series on the basics of selling anything at all. Of course this applies to selling real estate but it equally applies to selling cakes, CDs or cars.

I am going to start with USP – Unique Selling Point. Now if you know even 1% of what you need to succeed online this should be like teaching grandmother how to suck eggs. However, we all, even me, need to be reminded of the basics.

What is it about the real estate (or necklaces, watches, computer cases or greeting cards) that you are promoting that no one else offers? Why would Mr Joe Public choose you over the other six or seven thousand people in the country offering the same or similar services?

If you don’t know the answer to this question then your business in in trouble.

Let me illustrate this with a story of real estate in the UK. In a small corner of the UK there are three towns. The area they are in has about 120,000 people in it. One real estate agency that has been doing very well opened a branch less than five miles away in a second of the towns. It did not do very well.

Why?

Well, for starters they did not advertise the business but also they offered the same commission rate as everyone else. They did offer a slightly more comprehensive service than many competitors but without something exciting to cause word of this service to be spread the slightly better service was a well kept secret.

So what did they do?

They dropped the commission rate to make it the lowest in the town, they started to offer not just a better set of reports but a guarantee of specific actions at no cost if the property fails to sell within a time period,. They did not tie people into an exclusive contract and they offered free professional photo shoots. All that in a down turn economy.

What they did was change the USP so no the question is not why would Joe Public use this agency but why would Joe Public want to use any other agency.

When the economy is grey then a USP that is a shade of grey different tot he next guys does not stand out.

What will you offer to make your services stand out?

It does not need to be the lowest price (although if you can afford to compete like that good luck to you). Offer the customer more bang for his or her buck and suddenly you have a reason to be chosen.

Stand out. Go further. Be seen.Similar Posts:

Setting up Facebook Pages for beginners

Matt — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:32:29 +0000

Matt Brown

Before we set off on our voyage of discovery today I want to give you a bit of background as to why I am writing this article. I have found myself of late being adviser to a lot of people setting up facebook pages for lots of different reasons. Rather than repeat what I have to say ten times I am going to try and summarize it. Where possible I am going to use the Go Beyond MLS page as an illustration.

Now I should also point out that I am not a guru at this sort of thing but a really enthusiastic geek. With that in mind let us look at setting up pages.

What is a page?

A page is a blog.

Don’t look at me like that a page is basically a cross between twitter and wordpress. For plugins you have applications and instead of tweets you have posts with attachments.

All the basics of blogging apply to your page. We will talk about this in a moment. First some basics to make sure we have not missed anything.

Making the page

Most of you that read this article will know how to make a page already but for those that don’t this is the quick version.

1. Go to a page (the Go Beyond MLS Page is good).

2. At the bottom of the left hand column you will see a link that says “Create a Page for My Business” (this link leads tot he same page).

3. Click it, fill out the details and there you are a page. It has no fans (not even you) and is ready for customisation.

Getting the basics in place

There are some things that a page needs before you even make yourself a fan of it. These are simple that it is easy to overlook them.

1. Upload a picture. In fact if you got as far as making the page and did not have the perfect logo then you need to stop whatever you are doing and get one. Now.

Your picture is your only branding that you get. Everything else looks exactly as facebook wants it to look.

A good image can be as tall as you like but is limited in width. Take a look at the Lord Matt fan page (and become a fan perhaps). You will see that it has a customised image that fills down the page and adds my character to the page. I also get to make the public speaker and blogger points boldly while getting two pictures of me on the one space.

If you do not have the skills to make such an image then a photograph might do. Just remember whatever you use had better be yours to use.

2. Put something short and snappy in the about box.

Treat this like the most important tweet you will ever send. I like to end with a call to action (suggest to friends).

3. Find something worthwhile to say for all the fields under the info tab.

If the fields on the info tab are very much not what you need and do not fit in the slightest then you are not to late to delete the page and try picking a better category. Make up your mind now because it’s the work of ten minutes to change things with no loss if you change them now.

Okay assuming that you stick with your current settings write that “about” section and make sure you make it good.

You have around 100 to 300 words before people have to click to see more so just like blogging you must capture people’s interest within as few lines as possible and then keep it. If it takes days to get the “about” perfect then that is what it takes.

4. Consider making the about tab the default landing page because your wall is not going to be very interesting to start with.

There are more advanced things you can do like adding new tabs that people land on but for now let us just stick with the info tab.

To make it the default landing page you are going to have to click “Edit Page” which is found just under the image you set a while back. Get in there and make some changes.

5. Consider making the default for the wall both fan and page so that it is as much like a basic facebook profile as possible.

You can do this when looking at the page proper.

Still not ready, whatever you might think

It is still not time to be a fan of your own page. The basics are done (more or less) but now you need to do something so fundamentally simple that you could actually miss it entirely.

You need, and I do mean need, to make one of the best status updates you have ever written. You need this because as soon as you are a fan it is possible people you know might come and visit the page. Becoming the first fan is the first motion that starts the door opening and you do not want to invite people to the party before the catering is planned.

Only then are you free to fan the page.

How to get notifications when someone comments on your page

There are only two ways to get a notification of something getting a comment (that I know of) on a page.

1. You have to like the something in question – press that like button and move on.
2. You have to comment on the something and (I think) not be an admin.

A word of warning to page owners with many posts. If you go “like” made you will spam the hell out of your own wall and devalue it. Also if you are the only one carrying out actions on the page it will look spammy if you went and liked everything. No one likes everything. Don’t do it.

If you can get a friend or two that you trust to co-admin the page with you then you can carve the likes up between you but remember that none of you can comment as you on the page once you are an admin. So you might like to get your closest friends to poke you when there is something to look at.

Honestly though you should be going to your own page most days anyway…

Your page is a blog so write on it

Your facebook page is a blog. So like a blog you need to write on it. Daily.

You want to see regular updates. Links, videos, comments, forum posts (that’s a whole other topic), pictures and all the other stuff that walls can have and it needs to happen organically – a little at a time.

I’ll talk about how you can automate a few tasks at another time and place but before you can understand what tasks can be trusted to a computer you need to understand the tasks. Most of them can only be done by you.

Now that we are one!

Now that you have your first fan (you) it is time to get more. This is how.

1. Add value. Make it worth while to be a fan.
2. Invite all your friends. Twice if need be.
3. Link tot he page on your blog or website.
4. Do not stop with the valuable updates.

Getting fans is a slow and organic process but by removing reasons not to fan your page you help things move along well.

I’ll be talking about this and other topics soon.Similar Posts:

Facebook Marketing: Initial Case Study

Matt — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:35:48 +0000

Go Beyond Facebook

What I am going to do int his first article is simply look at the Facebook fan page for this website and use it to explore Facebook pages in general and what they can do for your blog (regardless of niche).

Vlad tells me that apart from setting up the page he has not actually done very much with it least of all tell anyone about it.

This, for this article’s purposes, is fantastic! It means that we can actively measure what I am about to have said (keep on reading or you might miss it) and watch what happens as we implement the theory. Over the next few months I’ll revisit the topic of Facebook and representing your blog therein reporting on our efforts to go beyond just having a page and to actually getting traffic from it.

As I write there are 3 fans. In three months let us see if we can get over 100.

The page as it is

Go Beyond Facebook Page

As the page stands there is nothing obviously “wrong” with it. The blog posts are being added to the page and there is a graphic that matches the website theme. However, as you can see, there is a lack of variety and this makes the page visually unappealing and repetitive.

In other words we have settles down to making Facebook a very expensive feed reader. That’s fine but it’s not exciting enough to get the average Facebook user to do much by way of interaction.

According to something I was reading (somewhere) the average Facebook user fans two pages a month. That means to see growth in the page’s fan base some work is going to be needed.

Then the page must add value to the user’s day and if that was not enough it must actually be interactive enough to get enough interaction to show up in the news feed of the fans who have added it.

Facebook promotion is no walk in the park. Keep reading for an insight into using pages.

Go beyond what is missing!

The first thing that most people are going to say is missing is the fans. Look for yourself. (When I wrote this there were three of us)

Go Beyond MLS on Facebook

Yet this is not what is missing but a metric that we are heading in the right direction to attract people.

What is missing is the variety of media that can be found on any page in Facebook.

Pictures

This is a tough one for a blog. Many blogs are of non visual topics and yet people are going to want to see that the blog has something of a gallery. Pictures break the page up and give the senses a change of pace.

So what can a blogger show pictures of?

Well for starters there is the writer or writers of the blog. Assuming that your names are known then some images of you serve to help the fan connect with you on a deeper level.

If images of oneself are not enough then there are diagrams. A well thought out diagram illustrating some key point from you recent blogging allows Facebook users to see that they are getting exclusive content.

Product shots – fans in your t-shirts. If you produce a physical product then this is an ideal space to allow fans to show themselves off with their newly purchased product. Mum’s, sisters and close friends might also agree to get the ball rolling.

Status updates

The Facebook page is like your personal Facebook wall and has the opportunity for you to speak with the voice of your blog. Give your fans something to ponder or shout out to a fan that has submitted some particularly interesting comments.

Let the Facebook users know that the page has a life that goes beyond publishing the blog feed.

Videos and links

Any article, youtube video or podcast by someone interesting from in or near your niche could be worth sharing on your page. The concept of linking out, adding value and being the resource for others that drives blogging applies here too.

Furthermore a good resource can be sued to connect with your Facebook friends and promote your page to them in a not-at-all aggressive way. Posts of all forms of link have a SHARE button which will post the link to your page and say “from NameOfYourPage” which gives you a little exposure and, so long as it is interesting, enhances your social capital as an interesting person.

Go Beyond what is expected

One thing that you will find about pages is that they have very little opportunity for energy saving automation, branding or free text. However with a little inventiveness you can get quite a lot out of them.

Take as my first example a little shameless self promotion: My very own fan page.

The image below is a screen shot of that page.

Matt's Facebook Page

You might notice that the left hand side is almost all customized. This is because there is no limit on relative height for your profile image. Use this space to get the most out of the branding and impact space of your page.

In my case I made sure there were images of me that I could use to get an attractive thumbnail which you can see is a picture of a poster of me getting some attention from the lovely ladies (yes it is a genuine fake).

A little planning and you can maximize your impact buy controlling the image dimensions.

Additionally you might notice int his screen shot that there is a visual variety in the posts themselves. This happens to be because I posted a largish number of links recently and have yet to write a new blog post.

Talking of blog posts when-ever I write a blog post I know that my Facebook page (and twitter account) will be updated to. To do this I use NetWorkedBlogs which is a valuable application for Facebook using bloggers. To get the most out of it it is vital to make sure that 80% or more of your blog posts have an image in them that the NEtWorkedBlogs app can use. Keep the images varied and the page “wall” will look interesting.

You can also get added feedback onto your page if the NetWorkedBlogs application posts to other locations (like your personal wall or another page). This is because a like or a comment in any location is a like or a comment on all copies of the post. This too makes your page look interesting.

Going beyond the theory: The game plan

This is the game plan for the page over the next few weeks and months in roughly the order they will be carried out.

1. A taller image.

2. NetWorkedBlogs doing it’s thing.

3. Status updates, links and videos.

4. Invite fans.

Once this minor tweak is fully in place I shall revisit the topic and look at what else can be done to use Facebook to engage with potential readers and promote your blog. The results we are looking for as a result of good promotion of the Facebook page are:

1. More fans

2. More fan interaction

3. Traffic to the blog

Final thoughts

So far we have not looked at methods of getting from three fans to one hundred. However it is vital to get the foundations right or the rest will not stand up too well.

Have you made a fan page yet? What was it like and did many people “fan” it?Similar Posts:

Join Real Estate Group at BlogCatalog

Vlad Zablotskyy — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:59:50 +0000

It was very surprising to find out that there wasn’t a Real Estate group over at one of my favorite online community- BlogCatalog. There are however many real estate blogs listed on BlogCatalog.

Anyway, if you are real estate blogger or a real estate agent who blogs consider joining both BlogCatalog as well as Real Estate Group. Evidently BlogCatalog is removing inactive groups and groups that are three members or less. I will be writing in the future how online communities like BlogCatalog can help you grow your real estate business.

If you are already active BlogCatalog member please comment and leave the link to your blog so I can review and rate it via BlogCatalog’s rating/voting system.Similar Posts:

Networking: Real Estate Forums

Vlad Zablotskyy — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:29:13 +0000

On Saturdays I will be posting much lighter articles and will be sharing what is know as “link love” with other websites and blogs. If you have interesting and real estate related blog e-mail me and I may feature it in one of my Saturday posts.

Today I would like to bring to your attention two different online forums I am a member of:

Real Estate Webmasters Community- I have just recently discovered this forum but I am already very impressed with the amount of great information that can be found there. Whether you have a design questions or need some advise about your pay per click advertising you can find answers to your problem there. Great community and support. Highly recommend for real estate agents and real estate webmasters.
Real Estate Forums- I have joined this community back in 2006. Great place for real estate agents to exchange their experience. While they have few forums that are dedicated to subjects like advertising and search engine optimization, I think this forum is more geared to wards non technical part of real estate profession.

If you are a member of these forums please tell us what is your experience and if you benefited from being a member there.Similar Posts:

Your Website Is Useless If It Has No Visitors: PPC Advertising and Real Estate

Vlad Zablotskyy — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:15:11 +0000

To make sure that this article is not overwhelmingly long, I am making few assumptions. However I do not want you to get intimidated by what I am writing and would hope to hear from you in the comment area if you need me to clarify anything about this article. Here are my assumptions:

You have your own website and not just you profile along with other 100+ real estate agents in your company.
You have at least heard what Pay Per Click (PPC from now on) Advertising is.

As an owner of a real estate website, or any website for that matter, you already know that just by having a website out there does not mean your website will be visited by potential buyers or sellers. Any webmaster will tell you that it takes time to build up your website’s reputation and authority on the internet in order for it to come up on the top in search results across major search engines. Some times it takes weeks or even months to see any decent “traffic” to your website. But in real estate sometimes weeks and months means “unsold listing”. So how do you bring visitors to your website? One of the fastest ways to bring visitors to your website is through PPC advertising. Today there are variety of products and system available to run a successful PPC campaign, and I will write about those in the future posts. Today I will just discuss the advantages and disadvantages of PPC, specifically when it comes to real estate websites.

Disadvantages Of PPC Advertising in Real Estate

One of the biggest disadvantage of running a successful PPC campaign for a real estate website is that real estate website are what is know as e-commerce websites, thus making it more difficult to calculate your ROI (return on investment) . You do not have a shopping chart on your website, even if you do it is unlikely to be used to purchase a piece of lend or a condo. When running a PPC campaign on any given system you should be able to have level a reporting that would show your visitor’s behavior from the moment they enter your website to the time they complete an order and are served a “thank you page”. Knowing how much you paid for that click that brought this buyer to your website and knowing what products were purchased you can very easy calculate your ROI. But as I mentioned already, real estate websites generally do not have shopping charts and even if in the future it will be possible to complete a real estate transaction online, we are not anywhere close to that time. There is a way to calculate ROI even on the websites without a shopping chart but it will be covered in one of my future posts.

When it comes to disadvantages what I have described above real is the only disadvantage when it comes to PPC advertising and real estate website, or any non e-commerce websites for that matter. However I was hesitant to even list it as a disadvantage, because if you know how to confront it- it becomes an advantage.

Advantages Of PPC Advertising in Real Estate

There are numerous advantages of PPC, but I will list only those which I consider to be the most important ones.

PPC is inexpensive. Even if you compare it to that monthly or quarterly mailings you are doing regularly. Presuming your are sending out a newsletter at cost of .49 cents per envelope. $100 will allow you to send out about 204 newsletters. How many of those letters are going to end up int the garbage without even being opened? Now with PCC advertising this kind of loss is virtually eliminated. Once you paid your “postage” (one you have purchased a click) you “newsletter” is opened (your website is looked at by some one).
PPC is much faster. You can create a PPC and almost instantly begin to receive visitors to your website as oppose to regular mail where it takes at least two or three days for the people to act on it, if not longer.
PPC can be very efficient. Some one who receives your monthly newsletter, may be removed by a year or two from buying or selling home. Visitors that come to your website through your PPC campaign are likely to be already considering the purchase or sale of their home.
Last but not least, most PPC providers will allow you to geographically target your potential clients, so that you don’t waste you efforts on some one who is looking for a home in California while your are a New York based real estate agent.

While Pay Per Click advertising can be very successful tool in your hands, you should not abandon other proven methods to grow your business. However if you do not have presence on the Internet or if you are not utilizing your presence on the Internet to the fullest, you may be “leaving money on the table”.

If you have any questions about this post or need advise about your ongoing PPC campaign please do not hesitate to ask them in the comments or e-mail me privately. If do not want to miss future articles about Internet Marketing in Real Estate feel free to subscribe to this blog or simply bookmark this blog and visit often.Similar Posts: