• Is it worth the time?
• Is there ROI?
• Can you generate leads?
• Doesn’t it take 6 months or even a year until you start to see results?

Well, I’ve been busting my butt along with Katherine Cannon to get her web presence up and moving quick.

We have had two goals in mind.

1. Get found in the Search Engines

2. Convert the traffic on the site into leads

The first step was setting up the platform.

That was my job. I created a wordpress website for her.

Second step was getting the right tools in place.

That was her job. She invested in DSIDXpress, for buyers and is utilizing the tool TrendGraphix, that her brokerage Windermere provides her for market data, for sellers.

Third step was create content like crazy to get found.

That was her job. She started posting real estate blogs, as many as 4 times a day sometimes.

Fourth step was to set up the blog to convert.

That was my job. I created landing pages for the key communities she wanted to focus on like homes for sale in Mukilteo or condos for sale in Bothell. I also made sure there was clear Call to Actions and places for buyers and sellers to easily fill out forms or make phone calls to inquire.

Here is a screen shot from Google Webmaster Tools on how the site is doing:

The budget that Katherine has for the site was and is very minimal, she is making it work with the resources she has. But she is not trying to only use things that are free.

The idx costs.

The optin forms, ESP costs.

Some plugins I installed cost.

And of course her time and my time costs.

So is it working? Are the goals being met?

I would say yes. There is always room for improvement, but its getting found and its converting traffic into leads. Even a possible seller lead filled out the form to learn about market stats data.

The site has not brought a closing yet, but the pipeline of leads is filling up and we’ve only been working about 90 days on this site and already seeing results.

What is your website doing for you?

To get a well designed wordpress website that is designed for conversion and has the right tools, like the IDX that Katherine is using, check out what Virtual Results offers.

Is there an ROI in content creation?

I get asked questions like this often enough, and they are fair questions. What I like to know in return, is “What is the ROI of your current activities?”

Most real estate agents, brokerages are not going to be able to answer that question.

So before you ask me the ROI of inbound marketing, ask yourself if you are getting the return on the effort and investment you are making in other areas of your business.

While you think about that, let me share with you how I’m working with a client to make sure we know if there is ROI or not in what she is doing with her time and money.

Identify Activities

I’ve discovered that most real estate agents, brokerages and small business don’t know the ROI on activities, marketing campaigns and advertising because they really don’t know how to track and measure ROI.

Let me share with you what I’m working on with a real estate coaching client right now and maybe you can look to implement this into your own business.

1. Activity

We have a created a website on wordpress for her real estate business.

Reason

We are trying to get found online using inbound marketing. We know buyers are searching online, so we want to get found online.

2. Activity

Identify the geolocations that she wants to work in and do research to make sure they have high enough turnover to make it worth the effort and expense.

Reason

It doesn’t make sense to go after a Metro Level in your online marketing. I talk about Macro, Metro and Micro markets in this Productivity Nugget: Real Estate Niche Marketing Brings Better Results.

Also need to make sure people actually sell their homes and move. Some neighborhoods and communities just don’t have people moving in and out of. People live there for the long haul. Don’t spend time, energy and money on neighborhoods and areas like this if you want a good ROI.

3. Activity

We went to the google keyword external tool to research keywords

Reason

Instead of guessing what people are searching for, we wanted to know exactly what type of content creation, keyword and SEO strategy we should be using. After a couple hours of research we came up with a top 5 keyword list.

4. Activity

Setting the benchmarks. I then went and looked at some benchmarks that would allow us to measure success.The benchmarks that I’ve identified that we are going to measure against are such things as

• Inbound Links
• Traffic
• Page Rank
• ….And of course
• Appointments
• Closings

Reason

How will we know if we are moving the needle or not?

Sure we could just set some goals, but with out knowing where we are now, we won’t know how far we’ve come.

Without benchmarks you really don’t have ROI. Without benchmarks you only have – Making more money or not.

Why you need benchmarks

Benchmarks identify starting points and how far you moved the needle. You can also identify WHAT ACTIVITIES moved the needle.

We have a number of different activities we are going to do this from:

• SEO
• Social Media
• Blog Guest Posting
• Direct Mail
• Door Knocking
• Content Creation
• etc…..

BUT….

We are doing these one at a time.

Why?

I need to know what activity did what. Its easy to confuse causation with correlation, and really that topic deserves a few blog posts and video to itself, but as a business owner you can’t confuse the two.

You need to slow down and be patient with your implementation so you can identify what activity moved the needle and how far. Don’t confuse my saying be patient with waiting. Implement now. But prioritize what you are going to implement, then implement in stages.

Do you want to work with me on this process for your business?

Setting benchmarks and measuring ROI?

Check out my coaching/consulting

You hear it from everyone.

Real estate blogging aka creating content online is a great form of real estate lead generation.

How to create content, how to find the time, how to get found are all legitimate questions and challenges, but really the first thing you should be looking at is the platform.

WordPress.com as a platform

Many real estate agents pick wordpress.com as their platfrom. Heck, I even suggest it in some trainings and presentations that I do.

WordPress.com is a great place to practice and get in the habit of content creation….BUT….you don’t want to be their very long. Not very long at all. Here is why.

WordPress.com Ads

WordPress.com puts ads on your content.

How did you think they are paying for the servers and space that you are using for free?

The above picture is a screenshot of an ad that I took from a local real estate agents blog here in the Seattle area.

This ad could be your competition. You could be creating content to be found, but then your competition, advertising with google adwords, steals your client away.

Why? Because you want to use a FREE service? You want save a few bucks, but lose a couple prospects, clients and commission checks?

But Darin, I don’t see any ads on my wordpress.com site, so I guess I don’t have to worry about it right?

Wrong. Sign out of your wordpress.com account. Clear your browser history and go look at your site again.

Getting To WordPress.Org

Besides not having to have ads on your professional business site, your site that represents you and is the foundation for your business development online and many times your first impression with a new prospect, there are other things you can do with wordpress.org.

You can:

• Add iframes
• Add IDX
• Embed contact forms
• Add plugins
• …and more

If you are going to take your online presence seriously, doesn’t it make sense to make sure your competition isn’t advertising on it and it actually can convert traffic into appointments for you?

Related Posts/Videos:

• WordPress rumors and myths put to rest!!
• 6 Reasons WordPress is Superior to Your Template Website
• How Real Estate Agents can use WordPress and an IDX Together
• Getting Your Website To Convert
• Real Estate Blogging Is Not A Strategy

If you would like to make the process of getting setup with wordpress.org easy and get an awesome, professional site for your business that gets results check out Websites With Results

When you woke up this morning had your real estate website generated a lead for you?

How about this last week?

Did it generate any leads for you in the last couple weeks? How about the last month?

Lead Generation Online

To have an effective online lead generation strategy, you need to have a website that brings in traffic and converts that traffic into leads.

WordPress websites are a great platform to build that online lead generation strategy around. I know there is a myth and a misunderstanding that wordpress is a “blog” and not a website.  Read: WordPress rumors and myths put to rest!!

Done For You WordPress Websites

Once you are self-hosted in the wordpress platform, it is pretty easy to create content with out having to have a webmaster or someone create the pages and posts for you. You can edit it yourself.

The challenge for most Realtors, is getting self-hosted.

This is why I’m excited to share with you Websites With Results.

I’m working with Jim Marks and Drew Meyers on supplying Realtors a Real Estate WordPress Website that drives traffic and convert leads. If you are looking for WordPress website, I encourage you to take a look at what we are offering.

Oh, by the way….even though the images say $699, I talked Jim and Drew in to making these sites available to Productivity Junkies for $599.

Click the image below to learn more about getting started with your own WordPress website

A great leverage point for this is adding a Facebook Like Box to your website, blog or wordpress site.

I was asked,

“Darin, I “Like” your Facebook Like Box on ProductivityJunkies.com, how do I add a Facebook Like Box to my website?”

In this Productivity Nugget I walk you through how to get the code and how you can add a Like Box to your wordpress site.

There are many reasons why you want to add this to your website/blog.

• Another place to connect
• Extend the conversation
• Provides Social Proof
• Move from “Friend” to more professional/business relationship with a “LIKE”

If you are going to have a Facebook Page, you might as well have an effective one that engages your “LIKERS”. To maximize the opportunity of engagement and connection with that audience, you are going to want to build your audience.

By promoting your page in multiple places, like your own website/blog you increase your chances for this to happen.
For more info on Facebook and Pages:

Getting Started With Facebook

• Facebook: the 24/7 Backyard BBQ
• How To Use Facebook To Build Your Real Estate Sphere of Influence Business
• Facebook For Real Estate – Creating Lists
• Real Estate Social Media – Leave Comments To Engage and Connect
• Facebook Is A Great Contact Management System
• Facebook Fanpages, Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should
• How To Build A Facebook Fanpage
• How To Create An Unique URL On Facebook

Read about all the ways wordpress is superior to your template, static website by clicking here.

Headway Themes

A theme is what your wordpress website will look like. There are hundreds, thousands of designs out there, many are even FREE. So, why would you ever pay money to get a wordpress theme?

Because you get what you pay for!

I use Headway Themes on 100% of my websites for my own businesses.

Some examples:

Socialcruiting.com

BlendIDMarketing.com

ProductivityJunkies.com <- the website you are on right now

The reason I use Headway is that I’m not a coder or software engineer. I’m a productivity and business development coach. Sure, I know more about technology than most, but I can’t make sense of code and 1′s and 0′s. Can you?

In order to get most other wordpress themes to work you have to know some code techniques and be able to hack the CSS files. That is beyond me. I could probably learn how to do it, but who has the time?

That is why I’m so in love with Headway. Headway is literally click, drag and drop. It is the easiest wordpress theme to work with and you can create custom landing pages aka lead conversion pages with it also.

Today Headway is doing  a Cyber Monday deal and offering 30% off the price of the theme.

If you are going to go the Do-IT-Yourself route, Headway is a tool that you should have in the toolbox.

To get the discount or to learn more about Headway Themes CLICK HERE (affiliate link)

Then use the discount code CYBER30 for 30% off today. Today only!

Call me if you have any questions 425-522-2378

I clean up messes.

Real estate agents, Brokers, Small Businesses, get advice from people who kinda know what they are doing…but don’t have the complete understanding.

They don’t understand the individuals strengths, goals and vision.

They don’t know how to create a business development strategy.

The only thing they do know is a little bit more than the person asking them. In this case lets use real estate blogging.

Real Estate Blogging Is Not A Strategy

So this person is getting advice about real estate blogging from someone in their office, a mortgage lender or a title rep and their experience and expertise that qualifies them is because they have 30,000 points on ActiveRain or have ranked on page 1 of google for one keyword phrase.

Just because someone is the smartest person in the room, doesn’t qualify them to help you with your business.

Its like what Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, says about girls from Adams-Friendship, Wisconsin. You might be the hottest girl in Adams-Friendship, but you are still in Adams-Friendship. (Disclosure – My parents now live in Friendship, so I’m not hating…just quoting Ramit.)

So when the person finally realizes that the FREE advice they have been getting is actually costing them quite a lot, they finally contact me. And I have to break the news to the person, “It was close, but to achieve what you want, we have to start all over.”

Real Estate Blogging Is a Tactic

You are not going to save your business or make more money just because you start real estate blogging.

If you don’t know how to lead convert, lead nurture or understand the moment in your business when to ask for an appointment, having a blog won’t help you.

If you don’t know how to interpret and analyze market conditions, having a blog won’t help you.

If you don’t know how to manage your contacts and utilize a client relationship manager, having a blog won’t help you.

Real estate blogging is something that will amplify what you do and who you are. Real estate blogging by itself is not a strategy. It is a part of the whole.

SEO Advice If You Are Real Estate Blogging

SEO is simple and complicated at the same time. So I can’t go into SEO specifics here, but I will tell you, don’t listen to FREE advice about SEO from someone that doesn’t even host their own blogsite.

If someone is using wordpress.com or blogger.com or activerain.com or posterous.com I don’t believe they truly understand the nuances of SEO.

I know as a janitor, I’m not wearing a suit and tie and I may not be sexy, but because I have to clean up messes I can’t wear the fancy suits and shiny shoes.

Maybe if people started calling me first before they got into such a mess, I could put my mop down and put on a tie.

How would you like help showing how to build the business you desire?

Lets talk about your business development strategy

CLICK BELOW TO LEARN MORE

]]> http://productivityjunkies.com/real-estate-coaching/real-estate-blogging-is-not-a-strategy/feed/ 1 http://productivityjunkies.com/real-estate-coaching/getting-your-website-to-convert/ http://productivityjunkies.com/real-estate-coaching/getting-your-website-to-convert/#comments Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:55:29 +0000 darin http://productivityjunkies.com/?p=2416

Website Lead Conversion doesn't have to be magic

Is your real estate website converting leads?

I have been speaking lately and have written a few blog posts about getting your website to convert.

• Did Your Real Estate Agent Website Generate Leads This Week?
• Increase Productivity, Lead Conversion, Website, And Training Event
• Real Estate Lead Generation and Lead Conversion – Productivity Nugget #139
• Internet Marketing Real Estate Lead Funnel
• Real Estate Lead Conversion The Moment W/ Garron Selliken – Productivity Nugget #133
• Lead Conversion – Not Always A Smooth Funnel

Getting Your Real Estate Website Found Using SEO

There is no doubt that SEO aka Search Engine Optimization is important.

Getting found is important.

But its not the only thing.

Getting tons of traffic to your website doesn’t matter if you don’t convert it.

I did a video recently about LCO aka Lead Conversion Optimization and how real estate agents need to put as much energy if not more into getting your website to convert, not just getting found.

Its basically like what I shared in Productivity Nugget #121 Real Estate Lead Generation Is Easy – Lead Conversion Is Hard.

Getting Your Website To Convert

In a real estate coaching session with one of my clients last week we looked at their Google Analytics.

We reviewed where their traffic was coming from and where that traffic was going.

We started to see some trends and I felt there was enough traffic coming in to some specific pages and posts for the website to convert. So we went deeper in to examining how the website was set up for lead conversion optimization.

I noticed that the blog posts and pages didn’t have a call to action for the visitors. My coaching client and I discussed options and agreed she would make one specific change.

That one change helped her website to convert a lead with in hours.

Here is what Carol Farrar a real estate agent selling real estate in North County San Diego had to say about this change.

Darin has guided me through the Word Press basics & progressively into advanced techniques with customizing my website. In fact, I recently made a change to my blog to “test” if I could get better consumer response on a certain landing page. I am so glad that I took Darin’s suggestion because within hours it generated results. I’m thrilled to be working with such a smart & savvy coach like Darin. He is definitely helping me “crush it” this year.

If you want your website to convert more leads

Check out IMPACT Formula

Photo courtesy of FLICKR

A Little History

A blog A.K.A. web log, began in 1990s as a way for people to express themselves online.  Attention seekers could write a journal about their personal lives or about a hobby and attract people who wanted to discuss their lives or hobby further.  Search engines would read these blogs and categorize them based on a genre and or keywords.  So people looking on online for apple pie recipes might come across a pie blog, written by someone across the country.  It wasn’t long before businesses saw how this could change everything.  You could now write good content and attract customers instead of traditional expensive advertising.  If you owned a flower shop, all you had to do was consistently write about flowers and you would get new customers via search engines. Isn’t that cool?! Well, it is, as long as you aren’t being pressured by your peers or boss to write in order to attract new customers.

Who Shouldn’t be Blogging!

I’m not sure how this whole blogging in real estate craze got started.  Regardless of how it got started, if you are a real estate agent, no doubt your broker or company has been pounding blogging down your throat for the last two years or so. Let me start by saying, you don’t need to blog, there are other very effective ways to get business. Blogging is simply a way to attract consumers online.  Blogging consistently is no different then other “freeish” types of lead generation.  Consistently Blogging is basically like consistently doing open houses, calling FSBOs or expireds, calling renters, doing home buyer seminars, geographical farming, calling your sphere of influence, prospecting at your child’s school or sporting events, etc.  Blogging is simply a lead generation tool.  If writing isn’t your strength, if your passion is being face to face with people, if your prefer to consistently do home buyer seminars, then don’t worry about blogging. Your clients probably aren’t going to care if you aren’t a techy blogger and social media “expert”.

Blogging is simply a way to attract consumers online

Who Should be Blogging!

Now, let’s talk about the real estate agents who should be blogging.  The bottom line, is if you have the time and dedication to spend an hour a day consistently for 12 months, then you should be blogging.  If you blog for a month and don’t sell a house and quit, then you are just another statistic.  You need to identify a niche, perhaps a specific city or group of neighborhoods.  Or perhaps you want to blog about REO properties in your town.  The idea is to identify a niche, a group of keywords you can talk about over and over again.  If you just blog about various things with no common theme, you will get nowhere with that.  A woodpecker doesn’t live by pecking a thousand trees one time; it survives by pecking one tree a thousand times! If you have the ability to write or delegate writing, then blogging may be for you.

Blogging Isn’t the Wave of the Future!

I think there will always be clients who find their real estate agent by asking a friend, family member or co-worker for the name of a real estate agent they know.  It feels good to know you are in trusted hands.  Even though most home buyers go online at some point to look at homes or research interest rates, there are still a large number of people who will call a friend of a friend, despite the dozens of emails they are probably getting from real estate agents who have captured their email address.  There will always be that element of face to face contact in real estate sales.  So don’t have a panic attack that blogging and social media are going to take over everything.

What do I Start if I Want to Blog?

Is you feel blogging is for you, congratulations.  Now the work begins…first identify your niche and the 12 or so topics within that niche that will be the focus of your writing for the next several months.  This step is CRITICAL!!  If you consistently write for months, but your blogs have no common theme, Google doesn’t know what to do with you.  However if you consistently write about adult family homes in your town, you will quickly rank for those keywords and you will begin to get traffic.  If you consistently write about VA related topics and how they  might relate to your local area, you will get traffic from people looking up VA related terminology in your area.

BE CONSISTENT!

The next step is to purchase or built a website with blogging at its core.  That is where WordPress comes into play.  If you want to blog, but you don’t know why WordPress is the most powerful blogging tool on the internet, check out my group coaching program to help get you launched.

Using WordPress to Easily Make Your Blogs Eye Catching

The problem with long blog articles or even online news articles is how boring and hard they can be on the eyes and attention span. Personally I get exhausted just looking at a blog entry, when all I see are 5 paragraphs of plain text. Images, large blockquotes, indents, links, highlights, bolds, videos or almost anything else can really help guide the reader and keep their interest sharp.

Many studies have shown that readers have a tendency to “gloss” or “skim” over articles. You can use WordPress’ built in visual editor to easily make the important parts or highlights stand out. That will help those readers who are skimming find the parts you want them to see before they navigate away from the page. The best part is you can easily make those alterations without knowing code. The visual editor in WordPress has dozen of buttons that does all the work for you.

help your reader out by breaking up the page with easy visual editor buttons in WordPress

What are some things I can do to spice things up?

The basic idea when designing the blog article is to visually break up the article; which gives the readers eyes things to focus on so they don’t get bored and click to the next website. As I mentioned before a good blog will have images, large blockquotes, indents, links, highlights, bolds, videos or anything else that can help guide the reader.

Where are all the buttons located?

Please see the screen shot below which will show you where all of these buttons are using the same number label.

1. The Kitchen Sink: The kitchen sink is a button in the WordPress visual editor that opens up all the options in the visual editor for you to use. It’s important to click the button to ensure all of your editing options are available.

2. Images: adding a small thumbnail, like in this blog helps invite the reader to the blog, but also the right image can set the tone or summarize the article before the reader reads anything! WordPress has built in “featured image” link that makes placing an image on your blog only a few clicks away!

3. Large block quotes: Large block quotes are common in newspaper and magazine articles. It’s a good idea to choose something from your blog you want to stand out. A straight forward sentence or powerful statement makes for a good block quote. Simply highlight your and click the blockquote button.

4. Indents: indentation simply provides a grammatical correct way to display your blog, but is also visually appealing when compared to a block of several paragraphs with no indentation. Refrain from using tab; instead use the indent button provided in the visual editor.

5. Links: outgoing links do several things. It makes your blog look and feel alive, gives credit to websites you care about, appeals to search engines, but they can also keep visitors on your website when you link to other articles on your site. Creating a link in WordPress requires no code, but only to know where the link button is.

6. Highlights: increasing the size of your text is important to the reader but also to search engines. Highlighting and increasing text size on certain sentences tells the skimming reader where to skim to. It also sends hints to search engines what is most important about your blog article. Use the “Paragraph” button in WP visual editor.

7. Bold: bolding is similar to highlighting, but should be used to place emphasis on single words; as you don’t want an article in different font size too much. Again it helps keep your reader from losing attention and helps skimmers find important parts of your article before they leave.

8. Video: I shouldn’t have to explain why you should add video periodically to your blogs. Video is fun, grabs your users attention, but it keeps users on your site a lot longer and helps them remember you better. Plus a visitor is more likely to watch a 3 minute video then they are to read every word on a 10 paragraph blog post. Adding video from youtube.com or your computer is easy when using WordPress visual editor.

CLICK ON THE SCREEN SHOT BELOW TO VIEW BUTTON LOCATIONS

There is a lot more to the visual editor in WordPress to help you jazz up your blog posts. Play with the other buttons and see what happens. It’s the best way to learn.

Have any questions?
Still need help?
Feel free to…