Internet Success

Published by: Linda Grissette Real Estate Career Development Linda@Grissette.com RealEstateMarketingHelp.com

Table of Contents Forward……………………………………………………………….…...2 Chapter 1: A Real Estate Website Journey………………….…...….3 Chapter 2: Unique Offerings…………………………………………..6 Chapter 3: Getting People to Stay on Your Website………...…...10 Chapter 4: More on Follow-up Systems……………………..……..11 About Author………………………………………………………….....13

© 2009 - 2010, L.S.G. Enterprises, Inc.

Forward In the mid 1990’s I was looking for something new in a real estate and knew that the internet was where the future of real estate was going to be. So I went to the company that had the first functioning website in the St. Louis area. I learned a lot about websites, but later realized that I was one of the first to experience the frustration of not getting leads from a website. As the years passed, more and more companies and agents got websites, and most of the agents got the same frustrated feeling. Many spend money on a website and continue to do business as they always have, but work to send people to their websites with their business cards and advertizing. What a waste of money. By 2000, I had my own company in Oklahoma and had given up on template websites. I started build-ing my own websites. I also added IDX to the websites and put a form to get contact information be-fore the leads could get to the IDX. I sold a few homes from the internet and got a lot of leads. But I was still frustrated, as I wasn’t getting enough business for the amount of time I spend writing articles to put on my websites to attract the search engines. In 2007 I moved back to the St. Louis area and kept experiencing the same frustration. In fact, due to the increased competition, the number of leads I was getting kept going down. In the summer of 2009, I had an idea that worked. I put my ideas into a new product, “Internet Success Kit”, but didn’t make many sales. But I started getting more leads and more sales from what I was doing. In the spring of 2010, I got a free e-Book, “Get Paid for Who You Are” by David Wood. (NOTE: If you would like to read it, just let me know and I’ll send it to you.) It was similar to what I was doing, but gave me even more ideas. I’m using them on my products website and that is the reason you bought this e-Book! One of the things I learned is that you need to have a passion to help people while you are making money. I’ve always been that way about selling real estate and with my products, but this e-Book is really a passion. I just hate to see people wasting money on websites that aren’t producing leads and sales. I hope this book helps you. Linda

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If you are in real estate, you’ve probably gotten e-mail or phone calls telling your that their website is the best there is….and start selling you on all of their features. You’ve also heard agents tell you how wonderful their websites are. You may have even seen some great looking custom websites. If you start asking about how they perform. You’ll hear lots of talk about how many “hits” a website has gotten (or will get). I gave up getting excited about “hits” years ago! Do you know what a “hit” is? Not only is every visit to a web page a hit, but every object on the page during a singe visit to the page (even if for a few seconds) counts as an additional hit. And then there is a question on who made the “hits”. It could be the search engine “spiders” getting their information. And the unsuspecting website owner or future website owner thinks that “hits” means success! But if all those website “experts” build websites with all those features, that must be the way to go. Over the years, I’ve tried a little of everything on my websites that the “experts” have done: • Free Reports • Articles on all aspects of real estate (over 50 on just one website) • Specialty websites (one for first time home buyers, one for FSBOs, one for Expired Listings) • Listing website • IDX on website • CMA offer • ….and on and on! I’ve tried them all. They all work a little, but not enough! That’s not saying that you don’t need those things, but you need to have a system to get leads and convert them into closings. As I said earlier, I build my own websites. OK, so I didn’t build my IDX website. That’s way too much for my skill levels. That is something that my company requires each of the agents to pay for...and it is one of the best I have seen. My skill level is typing the content, just like I am typing this e-Book. My skill level is adding pictures and other graphics. I even know how to add meta tags, etc. to my websites. But one of the most important thing I have learned is how to make response forms. Once I learned how to do that and put it between my websites and my IDX site, I starting getting leads. OK, what I was really doing was tracking how many people went from my website and the IDX website. And I felt good that I was getting traffic. I didn’t require people to fill in the form because I knew that would run them off. Sometimes I got a blank form, but that’s OK. I was so excited (and still am) when someone goes to the IDX site. But is was still just a statistic, not sales. Frustrating.

Chapter 1: A Real Estate Website Journey

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Here I was, working hard at building websites with good content for visitors and the search engines. I’d added everything that the experts do on a website (except some of the fancy, flashy stuff). Guess what? That’s about the same results agents get with their websites. It may even be more than most agents get. There are some agents who get good results….and sales….but that is not the results the majority of agents with websites get. As time passed, I added more pieces to the puzzle and finally figured out what it takes to get leads and keep them. Yes, I still loose quite a few of them. But my odds are getting more like the odds I used to get when you got all of your leads off of floor duty. And since floor duty doesn’t get as many leads as it used to, this is exactly what I have been wanting from my websites.

Here is the system I’ve put together: Response Forms To have a successful website, you have to be able to add pages with response forms on them. Then when someone clicks on “Submit” on the form, you’ll get an e-mail with what they typed into the form. It’s really something quite simple. But it is very important. A “Contact Me” link will never work A Follow-up System You need a good standard e-mail that you always sent out when you get a new lead. In fact, you need several of them based on how the leads came to you. That’s why you need more than one response form. These should not be automated because you want it to be you contacting them. The “experts” say that you need an auto responder because people will work with the first agent who gets back with them. Based on the response rates of agent, I don’t think you have to worry about that. I think that people know auto-responders when they see them. They like to hear from a person. You also need at least one drip newsletter series. These can be automated. They are to keep your name in front of them until they are finally ready to buy. This leads us to something else you need….. Patience Because of all the information available for home buyers on-line, prospective homebuyers start searching on-line long before buyers in the past started looking. You need to keep in touch with them for a long, long time. I have an e-friend, Lenn Harley, who is an expert at getting and keeping on-line leads. She has a small company in the Washington, DC area who keeps her agents quite happy with the leads she sends them. She told me about someone she had been talking to for 2 years at that time. They were working for the federal government in Europe and would be coming back to Washington in 3 more years. And she knew that they would be buying from her company because of the relationship they already had after 2 years. That’s patience! Another reason for patience is that so many leads today don’t have good enough credit to buy a house today. If you find a way to help them improve their credit score, they will buy a house from you went they can buy a home. Recently I’ve gotten a lot of leads for the next year or so instead of today. Most agents will ignore those buyers. I don’t because I want a steady stream of buyers coming to me with credit that will allow them to buy a home! This leads to another important part of what you need……

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A Good Loan Officer on Your Team You need to build a relationship with a lender that will become a vital part of your system. It took me a while to find the right fit for this. I had one lender who wanted to work with me. He even helped pay to be a sponsor of some Buyer Seminars. But he wasn’t good with the on-line leads. Another one was too busy to contact any of the leads I sent him. Finally I found a loan officer who is a good fit with me. He is always looking for new ideas just as I do. We’ve really become a partnership and I’ve become a good friend with him and his wife. I absolutely know that any leads I send him will never be sent to another agent. Here is what else the lender needs: • A follow-up system of his or her own. • A willingness to keep contacting the leads for as long as it takes. • Know how to give those less than perfect credit leads the information they need to improve their

credit score and know a good source of a credit professional for the one who need it. Now you are ready for what really increased my number of incoming leads….. Unique Offerings I am continually working on new things to offer on CraigsList. Yes, CraigsList. You probably thought it was just for advertising your listings….or furniture you have for sale...or other classified ad needs! Well, these are like classified ads, too. But classified ads you don’t pay for. Classified ads that you can change on a regular basis. Classified ads that don’t require the person to call you. Instead, they click on the link you provide. That link, of course, leads to the page on your website that tells them a little bit more and sells them on the item you are offering. They then have to fill out the response form to get the offering. They are then taken to a confirmation page that thanks them for their order and that you will be sending them the item as soon as possible. Usually I tell them that this is not automated and that a real person will be sending it to them as soon as you are back at your computer. I laughingly think of it as a “poor mans” download system. But I really think it is a system that gives personal contact and keeps me from paying for an expensive service or having to learn something new. It also keeps a prospect from being able to find it on-line and get it without my ever knowing about it. I have a short cut to a MS word file “Craigs List Marketing” on my desktop so it will remind me to do my posts on a regular basis. I have several variations of the post for each “unique offering” so that they look different so Craigs List will let them through. I try to post two or three times per week. When I first started these, I was doing it every day and got a lot of leads. Then the leads stopped. It surprised me until I realized that I had over posted and people were seeing my posts too often. Another idea I’ve had, but actually haven’t tried is to offer your “unique offerings” occasionally on Facebook.

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I’m sure you are thinking about now. OK, what can I use as a unique offering that people will want. I’ll give you a little overview of some of the things that could be used to get you started thinking of ideas of your own. I have my version of some of these available for sale in MS Publisher that you can customize for you and your market area. I’ve bought so many things over the years that I can’t use...and that’s what got me started creating my own stuff. Now that I’m selling my ideas, I will never put them in a format that you can’t use. The ideas with a * after them are ones that I have for sale (at the time I wrote this. There may be more later, who knows!), They can be found on my website, www.RealEstateMarketingHelp.com

Basic Guidelines for Preparing Your Unique Offerings

Whether you write your own “Unique Offerings” or purchase them from me, you need some basic guidelines • Using MS Publisher allows you more flexibility with your set up. That is what I used to create this

e-booklet. • Find a source of some real estate related pictures or graphics to make your offerings more

interesting to read. • Put a copyright of your own on your creation. You don’t want anyone else to copy your publication

and call it theirs. • Once you have your version complete, you need to covert it to .pdf format so you can send it to

your leads. Do not just put it on your website, as you will never know who has received it. If you don’t have a .pdf converter, you can get them for free. Mine is from pdf995.com. Another one I have heard of is Cute pdf, but I don’t have the website. I’m sure there are others.

Unique Offerings to Get Buyer Leads

IDX on your website OK, this isn’t unique, but you can make it unique by how you sell it. Buyers come to websites to see homes for sale….lots of homes for sale. That is exactly what IDX is, but you wouldn’t know that the way many websites promote it. The link needs to be very visible on the site and descriptive. Prospects should go through a response form to get to the IDX, but you need to let them know that it is not required. If it is required, you will loose a lot of people. But by making it optional, you actually get quite a few names. Some of the forms will come to you blank, but that is all right, too. At least you know how many people are going to your IDX.

Chapter 2: The Unique Offerings

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e-Mail Listing Updates This certainly is not unique either. I’m sure every MLS has that function. But many agents don’t even offer it to the people they talk to, let alone promote it on your website. To make it unique, you need to give it your own name. I call it my “Home Finder”. The response form for this needs to request the information you need to set up their search.

“Your Guide to Finding Your Dream Home” e-Booklet * You can call it whatever you want. It’s basically a step by step description of the home buying process in your area. It’s very important for first time home buyers, but also for buyers moving to your area from out of town. I’ve worked in two different markets, so I know that things are done differently in dif-ferent parts of the country.

“Investing Today” e-Booklet * No matter what the market is like in your area, don’t you think that there might be some people who are thinking about getting into investing to take advantage of the low prices.

“Buying Foreclosure Homes” e-Booklet * People like the idea of buying foreclosure homes in this market (see below). The problem is that they don’t understand how it works. Have you ever taken a call from a prospect who says that they saw a vacant house and the neighbors told them that it was foreclosed on and they want to buy it? What happens when you don’t find it in the MLS? They want you to call “the bank” and tell them that they want to buy it….or worse yet, they want you to tell them what “the bank” is so they can call them. I’m sure you could tell me stories of some of the things you have had buyers think about foreclosure homes that is wrong! With this you can actually educate them before they start looking.

FREE Foreclosure List This has been my most successful offering. I received 25 leads in the first month I was offering it. People are searching for foreclosure homes. Once you get their name and what they are looking for, you set them up on your new listing notification service using your MLS’s search terms for foreclosures. In my MLS, I have to set up 3 separate searches. Sometimes their request is so specific, you won’t be able to find any foreclosure homes for then. If that is the case, you can set up a regular search for them. Be sure to tell them why so you won’t loose credibility. When you first hear of this idea, you will probably be thinking, “But I don’t really want to sell foreclosures.” I know that is what other agents I’ve told about this have said to me. I don’t like selling foreclosures either. But I like selling homes. To be able to sell homes, you need to have more leads. After you have been sending them foreclosure homes, they will begin to get to know and trust you. Then you can sell them any home that works for them.

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“Improving Your Credit Score” * This is a one-page item I created after going to a seminar by a credit repair specialist. At the bottom of the page, I put her contact information in case they need more help. If at all possible, find a credit repair specialist you can trust and put their information on your copy. Now I use my loan officer instead of sending them this sheet, but it might help you until you find a loan officer who can help you with credit repair.

On-Line Buyer Seminar For several months I was attempting to do in-person buyer seminars. There was a lot of work for very few leads. I decided to put my seminar on-line. When I promote it, I only give the registration page. Once someone has registered, I give the people the link to the actual seminar. The pages for the seminar are not linked from any of my web pages because I don’t want the search engines to find it. The content is very similar to the “Your Guide to Buying Your Dream Home” e-Booklet. I’ve seen others on-line and the just seem to be a series of “Free Reports” that any one can get to. Mine is about the process. You may even be able to get a loan officer and other affiliates to sponsor you seminar, just like they would sponsor an in-person seminar. That will help you pay for the cost of your website. If they do, you need to include links for e-mail questions to them and send them the registration form as soon as you receive it.

Specialty Buyer Newsletters Besides the newsletter that you use as follow-up contact, you might consider offering a special news-letter series. Here are some ideas I’m currently working on. • A newsletter series just for first time home buyers. • A newsletter series just for investors. • A newsletter series for build-up buyers...of course, would cover buying and selling. • A newsletter series about buying foreclosures For these, you’d cover the same topics as the e-Booklets but worded differently.

Unique Offerings to Get Seller Leads Sellers are much harder to find on-line. I’ll be honest. I have not had much work with it. I have gotten a few leads by using the first idea, but don’t have as much luck with it as I do with the buyer ideas. “Stop Foreclosure NOW” e-Booklet * This is the first really unique offering I came up with. The goal of this is to reach sellers who are having problems early in the foreclosure process. It tells about the process and then the ways to stop foreclosure. Naturally it talks a lot about Short Sales in hopes of them listing their home with you.

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Marketing Your Home Must Have to Sell Staging Your Home to Get It Sold Pricing Your Home to Sell (Note: I have materials that I use on these topics, but have never put them into a format to use as my “unique offerings”. When I do, I will start selling them too.

Specialty Seller Newsletters These would be similar to the specialty buyer newsletters. Some might include: • Selling a home in today’s market. • Factors that effect the sale of your home. • Things to do before you list your home.

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Whether people get to your website through your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts or from your unique offerings, you want them to either stay on your site or come back to your site. This is where the content of your website helps. Some things that will help are:

• Informational Articles about that will be of interest to your prospects

• Your IDX link

• Your e-Mail Listing Updates

• Other of your unique offerings

Many times I have had a lead submit 2 forms in a few minutes. For example, they might request the FREE Foreclosure List and then go to my IDX link. This shows they are staying on my site. I make sure the confirmation pages have links on them. Ideally, you should have a call to action and a response form on every page of your website. Again, I will be honest. I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I had so much content on my websites before I learned this that the idea seems overwhelming.

You also want your leads to get back to your website after the first time, so you should make sure that you have your website on every e-mail that you send to them.

Chapter 3: Getting People to Stay on Your Website

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I felt like I needed to give you some information on what I do with my follow-up system and how you copy it. The only automated part of the follow-up system is having an e-mail informational newsletter drip system. I created my own which has links to articles on my websites, but it is a lot faster to purchase a system. Don’t just use a “fluff” newsletter like you would use for your SOI. You might use that as an additional e-mail, but make sure they get information about buying and selling real estate. Your non-automated follow-up (very personalized) can be set up by saving your letters as “drafts” in Outlook so you can use them over and over again and personalize them as needed. Your contacts should include:

• A welcome e-mail that shows that you understand them, a little bit about how you work with buyers (or sellers) being careful to make it about them and sending them whatever they requested.

• A later e-mail offering your listing update service, if they haven’t done it already.

• Another later e-mail suggesting you get together with them and a loan officer.

• Call them only after you have sent several e-mails to them.

• My loan officer also sends them newsletters and calls them.

• Periodically I send out special e-mail to all of my buyers.

Another follow-up idea is to check to see if your leads are on Facebook. If so, ask them to be your “friends”. If they aren’t there, you can invite them. It’s another great way for them to get to know you and to communicate with them. I’ve even had my leads ask me to be their “friend”.

Keeping track of your leads When I first started getting so many leads, I got myself very confused by them. Just putting them in my contact management system so they would start getting the drip e-mails just wasn’t enough. Here is simple “low tech” method I came up with. When I get the response form by e-mail, I print it out. I glue a follow-up check-list on the print-out so I can track what I do with each one of them. Here’s a sample of what it could look like is to the right. I put these in a notebook and every few days I got though the sheets and take the next action needed.

Chapter 4: More on Follow-up Systems

Date ___ Contact management ______ ___ Welcome e-mail ______ ___ Start Newsletters ______ ___ Update e-mail ______ ___ Updates started ______ ___ Meeting e-mail ______ ___ Call ______ ___ ______ ___ ______ ___ ______ ___ ______ ___ ______ ___ ______

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About the Author, Linda Grissette Linda Grissette grew up in Northeast Oklahoma and attended the University of Oklahoma where she received a BA in Social Work. For the next few years, she was a military wife, living in Newport News, Virginia, Pirmasens, Germany and Manhattan, Kansas. After leaving the military life behind, Linda ended up in St. Charles County where she started her real estate career in 1981. For 10 years, she lived back in her home town of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, so she could take care of her elderly parents. While she was there, she got her broker’s license and opened her own company. She moved back to St. Charles County in 2007 to be nearer her grown children and grandchildren. She is proud to be a Broker/Associate with Prudential Select Properties. In 2003 she authored her first publication, “Real Estate Creativity Series”. She has also developed “Marketing Made Easy” for MS Publisher and Agent Office, “Power Presentations”, as well as many other products. She is the owner of Real Estate Career Development. Many of her products are also sold by RealtyStar, the leading on-line website selling helpful products to real estate professionals. For more information on her products, go to www.RealEstateMarketingHelp.com,

Linda Grissette’s Mission Statement

Linda’s mission to consistently provide innovative products for real estate professionals. She will always make sure that her customers can create their own marketing material that reflect themselves and their real estate market. She also has a passion to help other agents learn more about their chosen profession. She hates to see any agent fail.

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