- Posted by mikel on March 3, 2010
MISSOULA — March 3, 2010 — Today AgentExcel announced the
release of two new entries in their real estate agent website design product line.
The first entry is a free real estate agent web site giving real estate professionals
the opportunity to employ many of the AgentExcel site features such as Google
based maps searches for real estate listings, lead capture, and an easy content
management system that allows for some customizing on website pages. The
second entry removes the few restrictions that remain in the free real estate sites.
At only $19.99 a month it makes a compelling argument for web site affordability.
“The unique distinction of these site is that they are built on a XHTML/CSS
based content management system that allows the sites to be more easily read by
search engine spiders,” said Adaptyne CEO Brandon Smith. “This is a new
opportunity for real estate agents. We are essentially giving them the opportunity
to create a site that is better than many of the sites they currently pay for.”
“According to a recent NAR report, real estate professionals reported that over
80% of their leads came from the internet. This just goes to show that to be
competitive you have to have a website. The main features that are used by
prospective real estate clients are map based searches of what is available in their
market and an easy way to contact the real estate professional when they are ready
to tour the property. Our free sites provide those features. If you want your site
to do more for you and you have room in your budget then you should also
consider some Search Engine Optimization packages as it makes your website
much easier for your prospective real estate clients to find” states Mikel Ochs,
AgentExcel Website Design & SEM Consultant. Demand for the sites in the
beta phase has been brisk and the expectation for the full release is high.
In addition to the these two product releases there are also packages available
for larger offices and brokerages.
Adatpyne and AgentExcel are trademarks of Adaptyne Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.The names of actual companies and
products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
For more information:
Jace Rutherford, 888-311-8882, jace@agentexcel.com
- Posted by Admin on February 20, 2010
New research from the NAR has revealed a vastly different demographic for home buyers that begin their search online. found here
The first bit of good news is that home buyers that start their search online spend twice as much time preparing for their purchase which, arguably, points to the idea that they are more prepared when it comes to making a home buying decision. The second bit of good news is that the median income for online shoppers is higher than tradtional buyers.
Traditional Demographic:
- 51% Married Couples
- 25% Single Females
- Median age: 55
- Length of search: 6 Months
- Median Income: $57,800
Online searchers:
- 61% Married Couples
- 20% Songle Females
- Median Age: 37
- Length of Search: 12 Months
- Median income: $75,500
- Posted by mikel on February 10, 2010
You are going to spend a good amount of money for a decent site so in the end you are
going to want to choose a site that will suit your activity the best. If you want leads
(and if you will follow up with them) then a more functionally relevant website is going
to be best for you. If you really don’t want anything to do with the web and you feel that
you just need your name ‘out there’ somewhere then perhaps a less active site is a better
match for you.
Just remember that in order for a web site to be successful it must be able to excel at:
· Inbound marketing - Draw users to it
· Relevant - Contain information relevant to your clients
· Elicit Action – Your site should compel your visitors to leave their information
· Follow-up – You have to follow-up on the leads that your site generates for you
or you are not getting the full benefit of your site.
The last bit of advice that I will dispense with here is this: Don’t design your website yourself.
So many people get a brand new Mac or jump on WordPress and think that they have found
the key to ‘do it yourself.’ Ask yourself this, are your clients better off selling their own homes
without you? Of course not, and we all know the reasons why. Ergo, you should probably
let a professional build your website – for many of the same reasons. Above all, do not forget
that this site will represent you … and you as a brand.
- Posted by Admin on January 5, 2010
There is no doubt that having a niche in larger markets is of benefit to you. Sure, there are a lot of ways to
distinguish yourself in a larger market, but few quicker than finding a particular niche that you can cater to.
A recent NAR report showed that couples are actually declining as buyers while home sales among singles
are increaasing. Let's look at the numbers:
| |
1999
|
2009
|
Couples
|
68% |
60%
|
Single Men
|
7% |
10%
|
Single Women
|
15% |
21% |
The rise in single women buying homes went up 6%. Maybe a growing trend?
That's the key though, find the trends that mix with your interests and make those your strengths.
- Posted by mikel on November 30, 2009
A common problem among real estate agents and their marketing attempts are that they hear about different marketing strategies from a medley of sources and then they try to implement them all into their overall advertising campaign. As with houses colors are very important , you may have heard that colors Blue & Brown elicits trust & honesty, Red encourages feelings of wealth, luck and confidence, whereas too much blue can encourage feelings that discourage action and Red can create feelings of danger. You may have heard that a good site needs Flash or Java and that you need a blog. What ends up happening is that your message gets lost in the translation; it is like writing a book, one chapter at a time but in a random order. Buyers and Sellers won’t remember agents that are one of the crowd. When you decide on a focused marketing campaign or theme for you, it’s important that you maintain a high level of consistency across the entire campaign. Everything associated with your business should have a common theme or feeling to it sometimes referred to as a brand.. When you look at marketing for IBM, the color blue always features prominently and the same is true for Starbuck’s green theme. Be consistent not only in the look and style of your various real estate marketing materials, but also in your ad message. What is it about you as a real estate professional that you want to emphasize? What is it that you want people to know about you and your offerings? This consistency should be maintained across everything: business cards, letterhead, envelopes, website, email, print and newspaper ads. By being as consistent as possible, you will have a much better chance at establishing your brand in the marketplace. Can you imagine how memorable McDonalds would be if every restaurant had a different color scheme or if certain Nike advertisements lacked the swoosh altogether?
- Posted by Admin on November 16, 2009
Social Networking for Marketing
Social networking is also a great way to attract new customers, but let’s be careful here. No Real Estate Agent has ever gone on Facebook, Twitter or Myspace and created a reproducible method of making money just for signing up. It simply doesn’t happen.
The problem is that it is the ‘personalities’ that make the money on these networks. That is, the people that have branded themselves for the purposes of making money on these networks. As such, I have been reminded many times by real estate SEO guru Tim O’Keefe, from Spiderjuice Technologies, “You can’t reproduce personality.” What they have done, you may not be able to easily reproduce simply due to the fact that you are not them.
Find a social networking medium that works best for you and use it often. For marketing you are more likely to use social networks external to the real estate market than sites such as Real Town or Active Rain. The reason for this is as simple as marketing itself. Where is your audience? They are far more likely to exist on Facebook than on Real Town. If you are new to social networking here is a quick overview of the big three to help you find the best fit for you.
Facebook – Facebook just recently overtook Myspace as the number one social networking site. To put this in perspective look at Alexa’s rankings for the top 100 sites in the United States:
1. Google
2. Yahoo
3. Facebook
4. YouTube (social media networking)
5. Myspace
The power of Facebook is quite apparent. You will pay a fee to list your services in the Yahoo directory, but all you need is time and tenacity to have a distinguishable Facebook presence. The disadvantage of Facebook for marketing is that it is such a closed community. You are really only viewed by the people that add you as friends. Best marketing use: Pay per click ads on Facebook can be extremely cheap. Often you can easily achieve over 100,000 impressions for less than $100 per month in a very selective market. You can also create a Facebook Group or Fan page as a Facebook option for a business.
Myspace – Myspace is the closest to what you think of as a traditional website. The big difference is the interaction between users such as chat functions and the ability to leave messages on each other’s walls. Myspace was the king of social networking until Facebook appeared on the scene. Best marketing use: Youth - Myspace has a much younger demographic that may be better for rentals, etc.
Twitter – Twitter is simply a medium wherein you post a short message (140 characters or less) and everyone that ‘follows’ you gets your message – either on your Twitter page or on your phone depending upon your settings. You can also follow other’s tweets. You may recall the use of Twitter by Iranian nationals showing the aftermath of their recent election.
Twitter was not on our list of the top five web sites in the US. It is actually ranked 13th, but you have to take into consideration the fact that there are many people that use Twitter only via their cell phone or smart phone so the numbers here may be slightly skewed away from Twitter in terms of overall use. Best marketing use: Very SEO friendly. Tweet key phrases loudly and often.
Social Networking Success
There is more to social networking than business. I recently reunited with a group of friends from third grade on Facebook and regularly see posts from cousins, aunts and uncles that I would never hear from normally. I spoke with an old friend on a business matter a few weeks ago and we picked up our conversation like we had in fact seen each other in the six year gap apart, simply because we followed each other’s activity on Facebook.
At first appearance social networking looks like a young man’s game and maybe a little scary to break into, but the single highest demographic entering Facebook for the first time is currently women in their 40’s and 50’s. Until recently my oldest friend on Facebook was 93 years old - until he passed away this spring. You are never too old or inexperienced to jump into the world of social networking! It’s good for your business and it’s good for your relationships.
- Posted by mikel on September 14, 2009
Extend your learning! Increase your knowledge! Build your Business! Through AgentExcel Webinars!
We are pleased to announce that we will be holding a 4-part fall series on Social Media for Real Estate Agents.
Below is information on the first part of the series. Class will be held on 9/22/2009, 11:00AM (PST)
If you are not able to attend, sign up and we will send you a copy of the transcript.
Webinar 1: Get Connected
This webinar will provide you the tools to get connected and to position yourself so that when the
market comes back in full swing you are ready to excel!
- Is it possible to find you on the internet or have you Googled yourself?
- Do you Blog? Should you? What would you say? Who would Listen?
- What does Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Zillow, and craigslist mean to the real estate industry?
- What happens when your clients try to find their own listing on the internet?
- What does a buyer find when they go online searching “homes for sale IN YOUR AREA?”
For more detailed information visit www.agentexcel.com/webinars. See you there!
- Posted by craig on July 24, 2009
by Craig Moore, VP Sales and Marketing,
AgentExcel
On a daily basis, I have clients and students ask me to what search engine tools
do I use or recommend for Real Estate Agents o use. I decided to list them for
you to review.
If you search Google for “SEO Tools”, you will likely find pages filled with
tools like the following: link
popularity checkers, density analyzers for keywords, Keyword suggestion, keyword
verification or saturation. Many of these sites are useless, so I suggest
running away from the website very quickly as these are not worth much in the
real world of search engine marketing anymore.
If you ever have any questions on SEO tools that you might be skeptical on or
that you like, feel free to
email me and ask. I am always
willing to help or learn, that’s what the internet is all about.
I have broken things down to 5 key areas.
1.
Google Tools:
a.
Google Toolbar Bar (see
my post on this)
b.
Google Webmaster
Tools
c.
Google Trends or
Google Hot Trends
d.
Google Zeitgeist
2.
Keyword Tools
a.
Google AdWords Tool
b.
SEO Book
Keyword Tool
c.
Wordtracker
d.
Keyword Spy
3.
Research, Competitive and Link Analysis Tools:
a.
SEO Quake
b.
SpyFu
c.
SEO Digger
4.
Ranking Checker:
a.
Advanced Web Ranking
b.
Google Rankings
5.
Analytics:
a.
Click Tracks
b.
Google Analytics
Let me know if you are getting great results with another tool.
- Posted by craig on June 26, 2009
As the real estate market tightened, agents suddenly got very honest with their clients and told them that spending advertising dollars in glossy monthly magazines was a waste of money. To many sellers (who think real estate agents are over-paid) this was an excuse for not spending money. Both parties are right. What you both want is for the listed property to sell quickly. Your job is to find potential buyers and show the property to them but when 85% of buyers start their search online compared to 0% did those 15 years ago your advertising needs to reflect this. Where do I advertise then? The simple response is “this is 2009 the same old advertising techniques we used in the 70's just are not as effective today”. Here's an example of a typical monthly add in a magazine (Circulation less than 30k) like "Homes & Land": Cost, for a full page ad average $500+; Results, seller sees ad and is happy, but you get few if any calls. Where as a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign might be seen by hundreds of thousands of potential clients and you only pay for the most interested of these. With a print ads, you have no idea how many people saw your advertisement. AgentExcel offers web marketing solutions that are tailored to get results, you might spend 1/3 of the money spent of a print ad but you will reach hundreds of thousands of targeted buyers per month; additionally, you will have access reports of how many people saw your ad and how many people responded (Sellers love to see this). Most listing agents know that their primary job is to market a property to sell for top dollar as quickly as possible but get lost in today’s rapidly changing internet solutions (remember a decade ago when Google was just starting out). We Can Help.
AgentExcel can help you to be more successful by stepping into 21st century and utilizing today’s resources. Contact us today Sales@agentexcel.com
- Posted by craig on June 16, 2009
Google ranks pages based on how important they are to the world. Google accomplishes this with a proprietary and very secret equation. The basic ingredients include content richness, page authority, keyword density, back links, exit links, traffic, and search demand. Outside of Google nobody knows the exact formula, but here at AgentExcel, we have followed and studied Google for years and are as close to experts as possible.
Your PageRank is the end result of all sorts of calculations, but in the end it's a popularity contest. So the higher your PageRank, the higher your chances of being found on Google are.
SO WHATS MY PAGERANK?
STEP 1. To find out your PageRank, you'll need a Google Toolbar. If you have one installed, go to step two.
STEP 2. To check any websites' Google PageRank, simply go to the websites home page, like http://www.agentexcel.com/.
In the middle of the image above, you'll notice the rectagle, it has a nice little green bar. To find out what your numerical value is, simply hold your mouse over the PageRank, and a pop-up note will appear.
STEP 3. Once you know your PageRank, you can find out what that means below.
The Google PageRank runs from 0, the worst, to 10 the best. You'll note that the target below only has 0 - 7, and that's because 8, 9 and 10 are almost impossible to obtain. It will make you feel better about your site if 7 is the highest for a website to get to.
0 - You are NOT listed on Google.
1 - Very poor but you are listed.
2 - Poor. The good news, you are improving.
3 - Average. Most sites are about a 3.
4 - Above Average. You're starting to get warm.
5 - Good. With a 5 you may land on the first page of some search terms, give yourself a high-five.
6 – Great positioning. You'll be able to contend for some top positions.
7 - You're on fire! If you have a seven, you're a top site. Most small and medium size companies should dream of sevens.
*** I'll Tell you what 8, 9 and 10 are, just to be nice.
8 - You must be huge. Like ESPN.com or Coke.com
9 - Your bigger than ESPN, like CNN.com or Yahoo.com
10 - Reserved for the best, I've found 5 - Google.com (of course), Microsoft.com, Macromedia.com, Adobe.com, and whitehouse.gov.
Finally - How you can improve your ranking. Well that's part of what we do here at AgentExcel, and we can help set up a program that will get you to your goal, whether that is improving 1 or 2 points, or getting to a 7. The interesting thing about 8, 9, and 10 is, AgentExcel knows how they got there, and it can be done by smaller companies.
Contact AgentExcel to set up a Google review of your website.