Today they are coming from your online social network. And that’s a good thing, because now you can easily extend your reach, using social media tools to touch base with your contacts (and their contacts).

You know that. And you know you need to position yourself now to take advantage. Because social media is not a trend that’s going away.  Maybe you feel a nagging anxiety for not having done enough about this.

That’s understandable. Because it will take some work to dislodge the real estate professionals who get a head start and establish themselves at the top of the search rankings in their local markets.

But the truth is, you’re busy. You just don’t have the time to figure out how to generate more leads through:

•    Search engines
•    Hyper-local marketing
•    Social media
•    Smart phones

So you put it off.  Yet there’s a real urgency to it.

It’s like when you’re driving down the road and the CHECK ENGINE light comes on.

You realize that you have to do something fast, or it’s going to be a disaster. And by ‘something’ I mean, get to a mechanic immediately. Because you wrenching on your engine yourself is not going to end well.  It’s complicated, and better left to someone who really knows what they’re doing.

That’s what online real estate marketing is like.

You sell homes. It’s what you’re good at. But doing it to the best of your ability requires that you generate a steady flow of leads through an effective marketing program. And to be effective, any lead-generation effort must leverage the ongoing revolution in marketing. Did you know that:

• 90 percent of homebuyers start their search on the Internet
• 73 percent of Realtors®said they were not satisfied with the number of leads they receive off the Web
• 20 percent of Google searches are with local intent
• 130 million Americans (40% of the population) are active on Facebook.
• 28 percent of the U.S. mobile market uses smart phones.

What does it all mean? It takes time and expertise to figure it out and chart a path forward. So the questions facing you are:

•    What is your time worth?
•    Where do you get your greatest return on investment?
•    Why aren’t you outsourcing your online marketing to a team of experts?

Your marketing is the vehicle that delivers qualified local leads. And the CHECK ENGINE light is flashing brighter than it ever has before. Are you going to wrench on it yourself? Or get to an online real estate marketing specialist immediately?

We’re here for you. Call us and we’ll get started.

Photo: Robert Couse-Baker, via Creative Commons 2.0.

•   Ninety percent of homebuyers start their home search on the Internet, according to the 2008 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.
•    Seventy-three percent of Realtors® surveyed said they were not satisfied with the amount of leads they received off the Web.

Wait, what?

The vast majority of homebuyers are looking online, yet most agents are not being found as much as they would like? What’s going on here?

Here’s what’s happening: Online reviews, like those at Google, Yelp, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook and other sites are affecting online traffic, and determining who gets local leads.

Think about it. When someone goes to Google or Bing and searches for a Realtor in say, Del Mar, they see a list of seven to 10 Realtors. These Realtors achieved premium positioning by properly registering with the search engine, and accumulating the positive reviews that help them get to the top of the list.

And guess what? There are lots of Realtors in Del Mar, and everywhere else. But almost nobody doing a Google search, whether from their smart phone or on a computer,  is going to click to the second, third, fourth or 10th page of results.

And that’s a big reason why 73 percent of Realtors are not happy with the number of leads they’re getting from the Web.

Because their contact information is buried and no one is finding them!

If you’re a real estate pro and you want to generate more local, qualified leads, there are two things you need to do immediately:
•    Get registered in the right places.
•    Ask your happy clients to post positive reviews about you online.

That’s how you improve your search ranking and generate greater numbers of qualified local leads.

Search is evolving from paid and organic (both costly and very competitive) to the next stage — local. It’s still early in the local search game, which means the time to act is now. Put this off and you may find that you’re too late. Others are staking out their territory (and maybe yours) right now.

Contact us today to start generating more leads through local search.

Photo: Marco Belluci, via Creative Commons 2.0.

More than 80 percent of Realtors® said “very important” according to the 2009 Realtor Technology Survey.

It’s no wonder. The endorsement of a trusted friend is a powerful lever, whether someone is considering a restaurant or a Realtor®. We know this intuitively, and research proves it. 

So two important questions for every real estate professional are:

• How can you increase your referrals?
• How can you make those referrals more visible to qualified prospects?

First, of course, you must deliver service so remarkable that your clients naturally want to tell others about it. If you’re not committed to wowing your clients, then you’re probably better off without reviews.

If you are in fact earning raves, the next step is to make it as easy as possible to engage your raving fans. Here are some things you can do:

• Set up a Review tab on Facebook: Your Facebook friends are connected to others like themselves, and in that respect Facebook widens your circle of influence among just the demographic you want to reach. So yes, it’s great if someone spontaneously leaves a nice review on your wall. But it’s going to quickly get buried, and then go unnoticed. Having your reviews in one place makes them more visible, and it encourages more people to leave them.
• Give more to get more. Get in the habit of leaving reviews for businesses you frequent, and ask for them to return the favor.
• Make your referrals visible. Link to your reviews from your web site. Include them in your collateral. Put your Facebook address on your business card.
• Proactively manage your reviews. Google lets you respond to reviews, which is a great idea. Engaging with people who leave feedback is a good way to learn more about your clients – and you can properly address any negative reviews and turn them into positives for your reputation.

Why is it so critical to cultivate reviews and referrals? A gigantic filtering exercise is now under way. Millions of people are carrying smart phones. They are using them to go to Google, Yelp and Facebook, where they are sharing with the world their experiences, good and bad, with local businesses (they’re doing this from the desktop as well.)

Your customer service is more visible (and under more scrutiny) than ever. The cream is going to rise to the top — but not without some help.

This is about reputation management, and that is something you can’t afford to ignore. Take the right steps now to proactively manage your reviews, and you’ll be ahead of the pack when it comes to generating qualified local leads.

If you’re busy talking to clients and selling homes (as you’d better be) contact us. We can help you put together a review-management program that positions you for future success.

For years now it’s been easy for homebuyers to get information that was once available exclusively through Realtors. Meanwhile, the Internet continues to transform the dynamics of the home-buying process.

One thing hasn’t changed though: Real estate transactions are still based on trust.

In fact, now more than ever, Realtors who can demonstrate their trustworthiness are attracting qualified local leads – especially when the Realtor shows up online, where home buyers are looking.

Fact: A 2008 study from the National Association of Realtors reported that 87 percent of U.S. home buyers used the Internet as an information resource during their home-buying process.

It’s also a true that more of today’s home buyers are accessing the Internet from their smart phones. They are using location-based services like Google Places and Yelp (from the desktop as well as mobile devices) to find trusted real estate professionals who can guide them through the home-buying process.

What does that mean for you, the real estate professional?

In a word: location, location, location.

It matters online as much as in the real world. When people in your neighborhood go online to look for a Realtor, you want them to find you. Therefore, it is critical to establish your online visibility and maintain it over time.

How? Step one is to create search engine and directory submissions (at Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Yelp, etc.). Done properly, these will result in higher search engine rankings in your locale. Monitor your entries on these search engines, and improve your rankings over time to build greater:

•    Trust, through positive reviews and testimonials
•    Relevance, through targeted local exposure
•    Sales, through increased visibility to qualified prospects

Smart Realtors are moving now to solidly establish their online local presence.

Peer-reviewed local listings enhance credibility, even as people grow more jaded by traditional marketing methods. Your reputation is going online, and that’s a good thing.

Now you must proactively manage it going forward.

Need help being more visible to local prospects? Find out how to get on the map!

Chart from Marketing Charts

QR codes are now showing up in lots of places, from business cards to billboards. Why?

The QR graphic is encoded with a URL, text, or other data. Scan the QR code with your smart phone’s camera, and you’re taken directly to a Web site – and whatever content is waiting for you there. It might be a funny video, a valuable coupon or, we would hope, something else delightful.

From the Wikipedia entry on QR codes:

Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context, including both commercial tracking applications and convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users (known as mobile tagging).

Imagine QR codes on everyday objects, so you could hit a “like” button for something you come across walking down the street.

Smarter real estate agents already are using QR codes to instantly connect with home-shoppers in innovative ways. Now any ‘for sale’ sign or piece of marketing collateral can become a paper-saving short-cut to any Web page, including an online MLS listing.

It’s easy to generate your own QR codes here. Try it!

Smarter Company helps real estate professionals generate leads through optimized local search and other marketing innovations. Scan the code with your phone to learn more!

Could this technology be used to create a killer real estate app?

Have you seen Yelp’s Monocle app? It’s insanely cool.

Check it out if you have an Android phone or an iPhone.
Monocle uses your phone’s camera and GPS capability to overlay Yelp reviews on the real-world view you see through your phone’s camera lens.

As you walk down the street, you can point your phone at businesses and see translucent Yelp entries – including the starred Yelp ratings.  It even works when you are miles away – you just point your phone in any direction and you’ll see the Yelp reviews for whatever businesses are out there. Click through and you can read the reviews.

It’s virtual reality that’s actually useful!  And it’s an indication of where we are going with smart phone  connectivity and local search.

Can you imagine how this technology might be applied in real estate? It could be an engaging way to connect with home shoppers. Imagine pulling up to the curb of a home that’s for sale and pointing your smart phone at the house for a quick description of the specs, and link to comps in the area.  Maybe there’s a Make-Me-an-Offer link…

Do you think this technology could help sell homes? Or is an old-fashioned paper flyer more practical?

In any case, if you’re in real estate, it’s time to get out ahead of the technology curve, or risk being left behind. Optimizing your marketing for local search makes you more visible to qualified local leads — and smarter Realtors are taking advantage of that.

Real stories from real people who have done business with you demonstrate the value you provide in ways that self-serving marketing statements just can’t. That’s why third-party reviews at sites like Yelp and Google Places are becoming critically important to your reputation – and ultimately your sales.

It’s about trust, and reviews help build trust.

Reviews also help build traffic, as proven recently by Intuit, provider of QuickBooks, and Bazaarvoice, a company that enables Web-based reviews. ProAdvisors are consultants and trainers certified in QuickBooks, and those with reviews in their profiles are 555% more likely to get click-throughs than their peers without reviews.

What’s more, the rating doesn’t matter as much as the number of reviews. A business showing a four out of possible five-star rating that had 10 reviews attracts more clicks than a five-star rating with only two reviews. This means that volume matters, so it’s time to start generating reviews now.

This is true for real estate professionals as well as other small businesses.

Let us know if you need help claiming your Google Places or Yelp listing, or you need any help at all with your review program.

But it will definitely be texted, tweeted, Googled and photographed in mega-pixel magnificence.

It’s nothing TechCrunch readers haven’t been exposed to over and over. Or that  the millions of people who bought iPhones in the last few years haven’t known all along. But the idea that high-powered handsets are going to change the world is finally real for me.

I started using a Droid X recently, and I get it now. I got it last Friday night, when the MapQuest print out led us astray. I turned to the Droid and asked it how to get us where we were trying to go. We thought we were miles away, but it was a quick u-turn to the Stone Brewery — and we made it just in time for our reservation.

Once there I checked in with FourSquare, and got some valuable tips from previous patrons. I took pictures. I enjoyed myself.  And I have some opinions about the food, service and overall atmosphere that I will be sharing on Yelp.

My experience, in aggregate with the thousands of others who visit Stone this year, is going to become part of a permanent public record that will either be good for Stone’s business, or bad.

A trend will eventually emerge — a majority of people will say they love the place, or that it sucks. And that will have some veracity and real influence in the decison-making process of other prospects and customers. It’s a dynamic that smarter real estate professionals  know they can’t afford to ignore.

Again, this is pretty much old news in some quarters, but the winning Realtors of the future will be those who are the first to master:

• Mobile search that facilitates real-time decision making
• Connecting and engaging on social media platforms
• Really listening to customers, and managing to give them what they say they want

That future is here already. Adapting to it is not rocket science. In fact it’s pretty simple. If you in real estate, it is imperative that you optimize your marketing for the new realities of hand-held search. At the very least, you need to:

• Set up your Google Places page (and do it correctly)
• Have a Facebook presence that generates leads for your business
• Respond to reviews on Google Places, Yelp, etc.
• Control your local presence at Yahoo and Bing, as well as Google

Of course, you have homes to sell, and no time to spend on this stuff. But it’s critical, in this economy, to stay competitive. The future of your business depends upon it.

If you haven’t taken these steps yet, call us today at 858.922.3006, and we’ll get you started.

Yet his invention gave manufacturers the impetus to begin buying advertising space in faraway newspapers. Suddenly, distant parties could communicate instantaneously, and everything radically changed. New markets opened and the Industrial Revolution got under way in earnest.

Is something nearly as monumental happening today?

Suddenly, the newspaper, TV, radio station, Yellow Pages, etc. are no longer necessary for a business to get its message in front of prospective and existing clients and customers. Everyone is a publisher — has been for years now — and the publishing tools just keep getting better.

What this means is that you have to be prepared to meet your clients and prospects online.

While doing this is not rocket science, it can be a time-consuming endeavor. Especially if you’re busy selling homes, and you’re not particularly focused on the latest Internet technologies.

That’s why Smarter Company is here. We’re experts in real estate marketing, and we know the latest social media tools. We’ll help you generate qualified local real estate leads.

Let’s get started!

How do you become more findable to the right people? And then convert those prospects into clients? It’s a science and an art.

Smarter Company provides local search engine optimization services to help you show up in your locale. It’s the smarter way to get in front of prospects and build a sustainable real estate business.

We can also help you integrate your Facebook presence into your marketing effort. Call us today at 858.922.3006 to get started!