How Being Honest and Authentic About Your Brand Can Define Your Business

Perception can be a powerful thing. As entrepreneurs, sometimes we see ourselves as honest, while our employees see us as brutally honest. Sometimes we see ourselves as balanced and our peers see us as lazy. The hard truth is that the way we want to be seen is often incongruent with how we're actually seen. It's the same with companies. Sometimes we have an internal understanding of who we are that doesn't match how our customers see us. It all comes down to branding.

A year ago, my team and I had a day-long discussion about our branding, in which we were upfront and honest about what our company is and is not. For twelve hours, we discussed our values, strengths and passions, while highlighting the unique qualities that separate our brand from others. It was a cathartic and much-needed session that allowed us to take a hard look at our customer service, our offerings and, most importantly, our identity within our industry. Over the years, I've learned that these exercises are integral to achieving continued business success because understanding, communicating, re-evaluating and maintaining your company's brand is an active process.

The first step in our branding session was to have a clear vision of who we are and who we want to become. To determine our own brand, we spent a big chunk of time distilling and clarifying our purpose: Why are we in business and what are we trying to accomplish? We gathered feedback and wrote down where we want to be in one, five and 10 years, and then we asked ourselves how we would get there and how we want our brand to be perceived. We concluded this part of the session by hashing out and determining our company's philosophy on everything from selling to marketing. We realized that in order to maintain our success, we must have a transparent and measurable brand.

While highlighting the unique qualities that separate our brand from others. It was a cathartic and much-needed session that allowed us to take a hard look at our customer service, our offerings and, most importantly, our identity within our industry. Over the years, I've learned that these exercises are integral to achieving continued business success because understanding, communicating, re-evaluating and maintaining your company's brand is an active process.

It's the same with companies. Sometimes we have an internal understanding of who we are that doesn't match how our customers see us. It all comes down to branding.

Wholesaling Marketing: Alternatives To Direct Mail

If your direct mail efforts aren't yielding the results you hoped for what alternative options are there for wholesaling marketing that might be more rewarding?

Some real estate wholesalers (especially the newer ones) have been reporting that they haven't been realizing the results they had hoped for from their direct mail efforts. Others are just recognizing that while they are getting leads, their ROI is far from something to brag about. So has direct mail dried up as a viable marketing channel for wholesaling houses again, or is there something these investors are missing? What alternative methods might be good to substitute with?

The first thing to determine is why you are looking into alternatives. If it is a case of not receiving enough inbound marketing leads or not closing enough deals, why is that? Unless you know why the same issues could continue to haunt you in any other lead generation channels you chase after.

Direct mail still works wonders for wholesaling marketing. In fact, some of the most successful real estate investors say that all that is needed to succeed is to churn out enough mailers each month.

So if yours isn't producing the results you hoped for some questions to ask may include:

· Are you sending out enough mailers each month?

· Is the timing of delivery negatively affecting results?

· Are letters being sent to the best prospects?

· Is list quality a factor?

· Is your mail failing to stand out and get noticed?

· Is the message or presentation failing to resonate and connect?

· How can you better convey the benefits of selling to you?

Many direct mail experts and mail houses recommend sending out minimum batches of 5,000 pieces of mail to conduct sufficient tests. This may not work for every newbie, but volume can certainly be a factor.

However, no matter how much mail you can afford to send as part of your wholesaling marketing campaigns testing is key. Fortunately split testing has never been easier for investors. Consider drafting several versions and using different contact names or toll free numbers to differentiate and track results.

Some investors have posed the question of whether buying online real estate leads is a better way to go. However, savvy marketers and investors know that it isn't about replacing one method with another each month. They find success in maintaining a consistent marketing mix.

For those looking for new wholesaling marketing options 5 to think about include:

1. Google AdWords

2. Facebook Ads

3. Craigslist

4. In person networking

5. Content marketing through guest blogging

Alternative Marketing Strategies in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Really Work

When it comes to marketing a commercial property for sale, there are plenty of choices to be made in the promotional process. The generic marketing approach does not work well today, given that there are plenty of listings on the market for sale, or the factors of competition require special decisions and strategies.

Look at all the alternatives to marketing any commercial or industrial property. If you really want to make a sale, match the advertising to the target market, and then get personally involved in the promotion. Every property that is listed exclusively should be marketed 'exclusively'.

Recently I heard an agent talking to a client about a listing that had been on the market for a very long time. There was little enquiry coming in and agent was blaming the market and the price for the current situation. Whilst those factors can be somewhat true, the real facts of the matter are that the agent did not get out into the business and property investor community to push the listing.

We are or should be 'masters' in matching properties to buyers. Every new listing should be carefully promoted. That says not just advertising the listing and hoping for a result.

All the 'alternative' marketing strategies should be looked at when you are preparing for a sale promotion. Choose the right ones based on the target market. Here are some ideas to help you:

1. When you list the property on the internet, create a few different formats of advertising and layout so you can change them weekly over a 6 week campaign. The same property can be re-worked with different descriptions and photographs.

1. Use the keywords in your advertising that match those words used in the market or target segment of buyers.

1. Get some high quality professional photographs prepared for use in your campaign.

1. Have a professional copywriter finish off your adverts before they are submitted to the media.

1. Set up a direct mail campaign to qualified property buyers that exist in your database. When that happens, have a checking process to personally follow up all of the direct mail.

1. Create an email marketing campaign to buyers on your database, given the criteria identified in earlier discussions or property inspections.

1. If the property is matched quite clearly to a market segment such as 'doctors' or 'solicitors' you can start a direct mail and call approach using the local telephone book and your business lists.

1. Door-knock the local businesses to see what they are doing with property today, and if they are looking for a property change over or purchase soon.

1. Every good quality listing will give you plenty of reasons to talk to other property owners and business leaders. Focus on quality and the deals will be easier to put together.

It is easy to dominate your market when you are known as the agent with all the best listings. That strategy is easier to achieve when you work to a marketing plan and adopt alternative marketing strategies.

Marketing Commercial Real Estate Is Not All Created Equally

The main reason that most of the marketing in Commercial Real Estate is not created equally is for the main reason that, in most cases, it's never created in the first place. Commercial Real Estate does have major differences than its younger brother, Residential Real Estate; however, many of the same rules apply when marketing Commercial Real Estate.

1. Photos are worth 1,000 words. We have all heard the same adage, yet most agents just don't care. Here's the deal, "Jack of all trades" should ALWAYS be followed by "Master of NONE." Agents should not snap their own photos of a property. A good photographer should only run $200 to $300, MAX. Furthermore, it leaves more time for the Sales agent to be doing activates that sell the property.

1. Don't hide the bottom line. If the buyer can afford the property, they can afford the property. Bottom line. The price needs to be clear and displayed. There should be no reason to hide the price; if the sales agent has done the legwork to justify the asking price, then let it be know to the world.

1. Add some pizzazz! So many of the marketing pieces that I see are missing "it". I have heard many colleagues claim that Commercial Real Estate is sold on numbers, unlike Residential. While it may be true that the numbers play a big role, sales are still based on emotion. A property trading at a 10 cap might not have the hottest sticks 'n bricks in town, but even ugly properties have someone who wants to buy them. Think of it this way... agents are being paid to market a property and should put the same amount of effort into each transaction. If the agent doesn't have a passion for the property they shouldn't be listing the property.

These 3 points can honestly be summed in one, very simple word... Passion. I see many agents finding reasons why not to do these things, but if the listing agent would put the same amount of effort into doing these 3 steps, as opposed to finding reasons not to, they would sell so much more. It boils down to finding the niche that works for each individual agent and sticking with what they know. Many agents I have met are afraid to turn down a listing. In most cases, turning down one listing outside of the agent's niche will provide more listings in the agent's niche referred by the person the agent turned away.

Presenting Your Project With 3D Floor Plan and 3D Elevations

What is in a presentation?

Whether your client is someone buying a home to live in, or someone buying a home to sell, a presentation that can convey a lot of words on a single look is sure to make them say yes. As an architect, a presentation to the client can make or break you chance to get the project, so you might as well equip your presentation with enough advantages to make it hard to say no to. A presentation usually consists of the following:

• Schemes - schemes are just sketches of the architect before coming up with the final design for the house. It contains the evolution of the design, how it came to be like the final design.

• Floor Plans - these are the top view of the whole space in 2d, you can see the partitions that divide the rooms, and you can see the size of every room and sometimes even the floor finish of every space.

• Elevations - In this stage, the outer look of the house is presented, but in 2D. You will be able to see how the house will look like in front, at the back, and at both sides.

• Perspectives - This is where the real battle comes in, this usually comes as a rendered photorealistic presentation of the whole house with a realistic background where the client can really "see" what the outcome of the house will be.

What can I do to have an edge?

Since both Floor Plans and Elevations are usually done in 2D, to have an edge against other competitors, you can opt to present your plans and elevations in 3D. 3D Floor Plans and 3D Elevations is a big plus when it comes to presenting a project. Would you rather have your client appreciate and understand the project only when the perspective is shown? Of course not, it helps to keep the client's attention all throughout the presentation. If from the beginning of the presentation their attention is acquired and kept, there is a huge chance that they will say yes.

3D Floor Plans and 3D Elevations

3D Floor Plans and 3D Elevations are just like the traditional 2D floor plan and elevation, the only difference is, some of the points are extruded to make it seem alive, and then the rendering comes in, 3D Plans and 3D Elevations are also rendered just like the perspectives. Presenting with 3D materials can really do wonders to your project.

Use Google to Find Real Estate Deals

With Google you can run advertising campaigns on what is called "Google AdWords". If you go to Google and search for anything you'll see that there are listings down the side of the page and a couple at the top. These are paid advertisements. Go to Google and search the words "sell my house" adding your city to the search term first. Ex: "Charlotte Sell My House". Look at the different ads of local realtors and investors selling property. You can also search other keywords and include your city name. Keywords like, foreclosure, Buy my house, sell house fast, etc.

Simply go to Google and set up an account to run your ad and when the user clicks on your link it will take them to your website. If you don't have a website you can get a generic website very cheap but remember that you get what you pay for. If you get a generic website then you'll be very limited in how you can customize it.

The neat thing about Google is that you can set a daily and monthly budget. You can also set it up so that your ads will only show if someone in your area is searching for your particular keywords. If you are in Orlando, FL, you may only want people who live within 50 miles to see your Google ad so if anyone further away searches, your ad won't appear and that'll save you money.

You pay based on cost per click, not if they buy anything or sign up for more information. This is why it's important to make sure you have a website that will capture their information before they leave.

Google AdSense

Google AdSense is another type of Google advertising. Have you ever visited a website and seen the ads down one side that reads; "ads sponsored by Google"? These are AdSense advertisers. You set it up the same way but you specify that you want it to be put on other related websites. You can still select a geographic area so you aren't wasting money.

Google Search

This method of locating properties actually qualifies for 4-5 methods. I'm mentioning it because with Google advertising, it is marketing. There's so much more to Google. You can Google anything. Think about how you could find motivated sellers, where you could market your properties, how you could build your buyers list of investors, how you could build your dream team, find local attorneys, appraisers, rehab contractors, etc. Here are a few samples of searches you could do to find all of these above...

"Free Real Estate Ads," "Free Real Estate Listings," "Sell my house," "Buy My House," "Foreclosure Listings," "Investors Club," "Investor Loans," "Hard Money Loans," "Find contractors," "Find Attorneys," "Find Appraisers," "Find Local Realtors", etc.

You can also add your location in front of any of these searches to localize your search. Remember, you don't have to know how to spell because anything spelled incorrectly, Google will ask you "Did You Mean _______?".

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a FREE service provided by Google that allows you to list certain keywords and when something is posted to the internet, Google will send you an email with a link to the page. I have an alert on my name so anytime someone posts anything about me, I know about it.

Let's look at how you could use this as a real estate investor. What if you set up an alert with your location and keywords you'd use in searching for a property? Here are a couple examples: Charlotte Fixer Upper, Charlotte handyman special, Charlotte foreclosure or Charlotte motivated seller. The list could go on and on.

3 Easy Ways To Get Top Quality Real Estate Blog Content

Having a real estate blog is an effective marketing strategy that helps to increase community visibility, and connects you directly with your prospective and existing clients.

It gives you an efficient lead generation system as well, and allows you to gain authority on the topics you are blogging about.

Done for you blogging is a great way to keep your blog up to date with fresh content so your readers will continue to return to you for more information. However, before diving into this topic, let's explore why you should have a blog in the first place.

Why A Real Estate Blog

Through a blog, real estate agents are able to improve consumer perception and build trust by doing the following:

• Publish high quality, informative posts


• Being consistently perceived as an authority in their marketplace with blogging


• Interacting and engaging in good conversations with readers of their blog


• Letting their personality shine - prospects are searching for background information before talking with agents


• Demonstrating their talents and professional skills

A real estate blog will help you to do all of this.

Done-For-You Real Estate Blog Content

You can purchase high quality, pre-written blog content from a real estate blog content service.

In one example, you can get 20 professionally written blog posts per month on high quality real estate related topics that your clients and referral partners would find interesting. The great news is that you don't have to spend hours upon hours researching and writing the content. Just copy and paste the articles into your blog and schedule them to publish.

The content is "ghost written" meaning you can take full credit as the author as well. You can even spend a few minutes customizing the content for your local market, add local keywords for better search engine placement, and give your personal opinions on the article and how it affects your market and client base.

Automatic Blog Content Channels

Just as it sounds, an automatic content channel system uses custom software to publish high quality, professionally written real estate blog posts directly into your WordPress or Blogger website.

Just like the ghost-written blog content option above, this content automatically shows up in your website each business day and it makes you look like a total real estate expert.

With this option, you don't even have to log in to copy/paste and publish. We just set up the software to publish to your existing blog website and it works automatically.

Automatic blog content channel posting software keeps your blog filled with keyword rich, fresh content to give you that needed boost in search engines as well as staying in front of your sphere-of-influence consistently and professionally.

It is effective, hands-free in nature, reliable, cost-effective and takes off on its own once you set it up.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging helps to increase website traffic. It is an excellent way to get extra web exposure. Plus, the guest bloggers will have an incentive to promote your site with their post on it as well.

One great way to utilize guest bloggers is to ask other industry professionals that you get referral business from to write guest posts about their industry.

For instance, ask the mortgage lending professional of your choice to write a guest post on a current loan program or special market update. They get the chance to show off their market knowledge and you get a high quality blog post for free.

By far, guest blogging saves you time. Having to keep up posting to your blog can be very time consuming and many real estate agents simply do not have the time. Unfortunately, if you are not posting regularly, your blog will crash and burn.

By hiring professional blogging services, you will be provided with a lot of content to maintain blog quality. You also don't have to coordinate the content with your guest writers with a professional service. It's all taken care of for you.

Real estate blogging is definitely something you want to incorporate in your real estate marketing strategy and is a responsive and reliable form of social media. It has shown some excellent results for any business owner and will surely do the same for the real estate agents who know the value and concept of blogging.

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Mikel Erdman is a proven marketing expert in the competitive real estate industry having coached and served thousands of agents and loan officers throughout the USA.

See Mikel's Real Estate Content Marketing Blog for more tips, tools, and strategies to help you get social media marketing results without losing focus or wasting time.

If you're looking for a simple, quick and easy way to boost sales and generate referrals without wasting countless hours online, get your FREE Blogging 101 e-book now:

Imagery and Words in Real Estate Postcards Marketing

A postcard usually meshes images and words printed on a thick paper meant to deliver a message to the audience. These artistic artifacts are made to make the invisible visible and the unnoticed noticed.

If your real estate postcards marketing is in dire need of rehabilitation make sure you know what is wrong first before jumping the gun. The industry is rife with competitors who simply let high-end firms take care of marketing and branding.

When it comes to postcards marketing, these firms often adhere to the following mantra:

There is power in imagery

A real estate postcard that makes use of clear and elaborate images - a breathtaking house sporting a scenic garden view for instance - is particularly effective and appealing. There are two ways to approach images. First, you either say it plainly by presenting a view the way it is (of course, with the added confidence that the property itself possesses a scenic quality visible at plain sight).

Or, you can be more metaphorical about it and put in symbolic images like keys, property silhouettes, property papers and the like. There is a bigger impact if you add a more fantastic twist to the whole image. Say, a gingerbread house or some property that seem as though it came straight out of Hansel and Gretel. For those who prefer the plain view approach, a professional look would do the trick. The agent's image on the postcard counts for a professional look and can even solicit customers' sympathy through a sense of familiarity, if not connection.

There is power in words

Words can leave a deep impression on people. So whatever your profession is or wherever industry you belong to, you need to use enough words to affect change and to give more value to consumers. Using words is alone is not sufficient especially when you are talking about real estate postcards marketing. The effective use of language opens doors that could not have been opened through other ways. Just remember that words are susceptible to misunderstanding so be straight to the point, clear and concise when using them in your postcards.

Also, be informative and speak a language that the general public can understand. Potential clientele are particularly on the lookout for the latest trends in the real estate business. Do not hesitate to show them the extent of your knowledge, but do not drag on.

Real estate is quite a complex and competitive industry. Check your marketing priorities so you can compete with everyone else at arm's length. If your first stretch of marketing is on real estate postcards, then pit your energies at mastering imagery and words first and foremost.

Social Made Simple Increases Effectiveness of Social Media Marketing for Real Estate Agents

I regularly talk with real estate agents about the importance of social media. Many are eager to get started but have three major road blocks standing in their way.

1. They do not know where to obtain articles and other content to post.


2. They do not have time to be active on social media everyday.


3. They do not know how to determine whether or not their marketing efforts are effective.

I've been searching for tools that would help real estate agents better manage their time and effort spent on social media, as well as increase their effectiveness and ROI. After testing a few different tools, the one I'm most impressed with is Social Made Simple. Social Made Simple is an online tool that helps real estate agents, as well as other small business owners, overcome the most common road blocks and create engaging, effective campaigns with minimal time investment.

Easily find content to share with your followers.

In my opinion, the content generator is the coolest feature of Social Made Simple. When you set up your account, you'll be asked to identify which industry you are working in (they have one specifically for real estate.) From then on you are provided with a long list of online articles relevant to your industry. With a few simple button clicks you can find an article, add your own commentary and post it to all your social networks. Of course, if you find an article somewhere else that you want to share you can easily paste the link into the dashboard and publish that as well.

Schedule posts to save time.

Most real estate agents don't have time to log into their social sites every day and make a post. Social Made Simple allows agents to schedule a weeks worth (or more) of posts at one time. You can schedule different posts to your different social media sites, or you can save even more time and schedule the same posts to all your sites. Instead of logging in every day, you can log in 1-2 times a week and get everything done at once.

Determine effectiveness with a weekly report card.

Many real estate agents are afraid that they will spend time on social media marketing and see no results in terms of engagement, brand awareness or lead generation. Social Made Simple has a variety of easy to understand analytics that tell you the effectiveness of your social media presence.

The weekly report card gives you a letter grade based on how many posts you did, how much engagement each post got, and how your posts measure up to others in the industry. This gives you a quick, overall view of how your doing and then you can drill down and see more specific analytics.

The Pitfalls

Of course, every product has it's faults. I found Social Made Simple's Twitter interface to be slightly frustrating. You can view your Twitterfeed within the Social Made Simple platform and see who has started following you. You can't, however, view anyone's profiles. You can retweet in real time, but you cannot easily schedule retweets which is a feature other tools offer. I often schedule my tweets with this tool, but then sign into my actual Twitter account to engage with followers.

Lastly, Social Made Simple is limited in the industries it provides articles for. This is not a problem for real estate agents, but if you work in another industry not found on the dashboard, you may not find this tool to be worth the money.

Here are some additional facts you should know before getting started with Social Made Simple:

• Social Made Simple allows you to post to your Facebook profile, Facebook pages, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ pages and your blog.


• This service costs $19/month or $178/year. However they offer a free 30 day trial for new customers which I highly recommend using before committing to pay.


• If you have no time or interest in managing your own social media, I suggest looking into Social's Concierge Service. With this service, social media experts will optomize your accounts, give one-on-one coaching and post content for you.

The Must-Use Advertising Methods for Your Rental Property

Do you have a rental property that has long been vacant? If yes, then you could be advertising insufficiently? For your property to be noticed by potential tenants, proper advertising is a key element. Here are just some ways in which you can let other people know that your piece of property is up for rent.

Signage

Your property might be a piece of a jewel that many potential tenants are looking for. Some of them might have passed by it several times. Yet, they didn't know it is for rent. A for rent sign might help you do some basic advertising. Do not forget to put up an attractive and readable signage to complement an equally attractive property.

Newspaper and Magazine Ads

Traditional as it may sound, placing advertisement on newspapers and magazines is still an effective way to reach target market. The classified ad sections of these printed materials are usually the first stops of individuals who are looking for a house to rent. With the advent of digital and online technologies, you can also reach potential tenants who are also online readers by placing electronic classified ads on online versions of newspapers and magazines.

Flyers

Utilize the magic of flyers. Spread word about your rental property through direct-to-the-point yet attractively designed flyers. You don't need to seek the services of a printing company just to reproduce your flyers. With the help of simple computer programs like Word or Publisher, you can create your own flyer and have them reproduced through your own printer. When you have enough copies, you can then seek permission from neighborhood establishments to have your flyers distributed. Choose high-traffic spots like coffee shops, restaurants, and laundry shops. The right tenant for your property might just be in one of these places.

Online ad boards

Take the chance to find the right tenant through millions of netizens who enter the cyberspace every minute. You don't have to advertise in sites and boards that charge high fees for there are those that offer services for free. Most of the times, the free sites are more popular among online users and they have more users than those that charge fees.

Social Media

Considering the very high number of social media users, you can grab the advantage of the powerful advertising platform that several websites offer. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, StumbleUpon and other websites operating in similar nature are ideal places to let other people know that you have a property for rent. Imagine the very large number of potential tenants who can see your advertisement. And oh, don't forget to utilize Pinterest as well. Pin pictures of your property as well as nice shots of the rooms and other parts. You'll never know how they can go viral and capture the attention of the right tenant for your property.

By utilizing the following advertisement methods and by putting proper contact details, expect inquiries to flood your hotlines and other contact channels.

Why Are Pictures Important When Marketing A Home?

It can be argued that pictures are more important to the home selling process than ever before because of one simple reason: the internet. The internet has revolutionized the way that houses are being marketed because now prospective home buyers can receive instant information and do comparisons with the click of the mouse. Most home buyers will use the internet as their first resource or use web pages to revisit houses that they are considering after speaking with a real estate agent. Therefore, what sells a house at the onset are good pictures. Pictures are one of the few parts of a web page where you can really showcase your home enabling you to make the details of the house come to life.

How the Photos should be Taken

You do not need to a hire a professional architectural photographer, but you do need a good quality camera. Taking pictures that have a high pixel count will allow prospective buyers to zoom into your photographs to look at specific details and give your rooms a sharper, focused feel. The least thing you want to do is upload pictures that are blurry.

Natural lighting makes for the best pictures so make sure that it is a sunny day when you take the pictures you are going to post online. If you take your pictures on an overcast day you are going to make your house look cold and uninviting. The best time for taking pictures is when it is coming up to the afternoon because the setting sun will give you the largest amount of warm lighting for your pictures.

After you have all of the pictures make sure you edit them so you are only showing your house and nothing else. Pictures with things other than your house are not a good idea and should be avoiding at all cost.

What Pictures Should Be Taken

A good shot of the front of the house that shows the entire house is a great picture to start with because this will probably be the main picture that is shown on most listing sites. You also want to make sure that you have a picture of the rooms and the yard as well. It would also be a good idea to do more than one shot of each room so the people have an idea of the size of each room.

If you are living in a town house or housing association you would also want to take some pictures of the amenities that are offered. If the community has a pool or neighborhood park it would be a good idea to take pictures of it because that will help bring those things to the forefront of people's minds.

Be sure that your home is photo ready before taking any photographs. Photos are supposed to enhance the home buyer's idea of your home and convince buyers that your house is worth seeing in person. Your house needs to be neat and clean, free of clutter, with a contemporary feel in order to attract the largest number of buyers. Staging should be one of your steps in selling a house, and make sure you have staged your home properly before shooting any photographs. Your first impression to the world about your house will be in the form of these pictures, so do everything you can in order to show your home in the best light possible, literally and figuratively.

To Summarize

Photographs are the way that prospective home buyers can experience your house through the 2D screen of technology. And often, a buyer's decision to look at specific home comes from reading the details and scrolling through each picture. The best way to sell a house is to start by showing off your home online through good photographs.