Have you ever clicked on a link you got in an email that took you to a website? Think Groupon and Living Social! Now, what kind of email campaign system do you have? Watch the video below and check out our new email campaign services we have at Northpoint!
Have you ever blamed your gym membership as the reason for you being out of shape? We all know that it’s not the job of the gym itself to automatically drop 20 pounds off our scale, increase muscle tone, and give us more years of quality life!
We often however blame other things for our lack of business. Maybe we think our company isn’t doing enough for us, our sellers aren’t being reasonable with their pricing, our buyers are making only low-ball offers, the market and economy is the problem, my website isn’t doing it’s job, etc. So here’s a suggestion, FIRE YOUR CAMPAIGN MANAGER!
The vast majority of our business problems can be resolved if we are getting enough listing and buyer appointments, we’re able to convert those appointments, and enough of those listings sell and enough of our buyers buy! But in order to get those appointments, we have to campaign our business! (What I mean by ‘campaign‘ is a business development strategy where we market ourselves and our listings to generate more appointments). But on a scale of 1-10, how good have your campaigns been? What I typically find is that real estate professionals often start a campaign with great enthusiasm, but then get distracted and never finish or continue. Our databases are incomplete, our social media accounts are stagnant, we have stacks of holiday cards from last year still to be written, our business plans are in theory only, etc.
So, what do you do? Fire yourself. In January, re-apply for the job. In the meantime, get some training (not on real estate law), but on campaign management and business development. Watch the video below to get started and let Northpoint Social Media give you a hand.
4 Questions We’re Hearing from Clients & Prospects
Here at Northpoint we’re talking with a lot of small business owners about their 2012 business plans. Many of the things we’re hearing in the field are discussed in Michael Stelzner’s 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report (SMMIR) which was produced earlier this year in April. In this report 3300 social media marketers were surveyed on various aspects of social media marketing. Of this sample set 33% are self-employed and another 30% work for companies of 100 or less (essentially 63% of the 3300 work in small business environments).
Let’s get to the four questions we’re commonly hearing and see how other social media marketers responded.
1) Should I Outsource Social Media?
Many clients are asking themselves what to outsource. As always we’re not suggesting you outsource your personality, but outsourcing certain portions of your social media platform are becoming common. According to the SMMIR, businesses that outsource portions of social media have doubled from 14% to 28% since the 2010 report findings. Interestingly enough it’s not about outsourcing engagement, but about outsourcing the heavy lifting of platform development, content and analytics.
Development & Content Creation are the top two items being Outsourced (Click the image and go to p. 32 for more info)
2) Do I Need to Blog?
Blogging can sometimes be an intimidating activity for people. It requires time and effort, but it can actually be fun if you take a moment to design a plan and stay consistent. Northpoint will write content for you on a regular basis as a way to get you started and help reduce the pressure of posting; at the end of the day it’s important to write your own content though. We’ll teach you how to write your own posts by simply sending an email. According to the report marketer’s focus on blogging is down 6% from the prior year, but it obviously remains a major part of a social media marketer’s arsenal.
75% of Social Media Marketers will increase their Blogging efforts (Click the image and go to p.25 for more info)
3) Do I Need to use Video?
With the invention of YouTube and the smart phone, recording, posting and sharing video has become commonplace (check out these stats). If a photo is worth a thousand words then a video is worth a million; well maybe not, but it’s safe to say video isn’t going anywhere. Here at Northpoint we’re offereing our video services to help get you started. The coolest thing about video is how versatile it has become. Print ads now link to video via Microsoft Tags or QR Codes, websites with just photo have become passé and according to Michael Sletzner’s report social media marketers are implementing more video in the future.
Social Media Marketers are focusing on increasing their video production. (Click the image and go to p.24 for more info)
4) Are Email Campaigns Still Useful?
Email is still a viable way to market to your consumer base. Especially to stay in contact with clients who have used your services in the past or those interested in learning more about your products/services. Howard Chung our VP of Business Development here at Northpoint actually explains ways to incorporate email marketing with your blog in his Practical Social Media class. Many social media marketers are still interested in driving traffic to their blogs with email marketing practices.
Email has not faded away, but is still considered a strong component of social media marketing (Click the image and go to p.34 for more info)
For more statistics and findings from the Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2011 from Michael A. Stelzner check him out on Vimeo.
The very first real estate book I read almost twenty years ago had a great section about leveraging listings. I still remember a very specific phrase from that book, “those who list, last!” So let’s discuss this topic together!
-When you take a listing, consider 3 goals for that listing
Why Should You Use Facebook Lists?
In a previous post we discussed the inescapable debate between Facebook Fan Page vs. Personal Page. We believe we came up with some reasons why a professional might want to narrow their concentration to just their personal Facebook page. The notion of separating business and personal can become difficult considering the fact that we’re managing relationships online in ways we’ve never been able to before. Below we’ll explain the first of two built in Facebook tools to manage your personal page and achieve the sought after personal/business separation you desire.
2 Facebook Tools to Make Your Personal Page Business Ready
Off of your Home link in the upper right hand corner of Facebook, look in the left hand column for your lists.
What is a Facebook List?