It’s a question I get routinely as I meet with real estate professionals or talk to them over the phone “What’s Inbound Marketing?” Followed closely by “Does It Work?” The funny thing about these questions is they are often times answered by the real estate professional through their actions. That’s because 8 out of 10 times its a real estate agent in another state asking the question. I am a former business development manager for a national title insurance company in Phoenix Arizona.
I spent the last 10 years helping real estate agents grow their business. I left the industry in March 2011 to start an inbound marketing company, based upon the principles I had learned and taught other real estate agents.
Back to the question “Does It Work?”. My answer to this is an emphatic YES! The proof I offered was the agents behavior over the phone. You see, they found me. Online. They went to a search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing looking for real estate marketing information. They were looking for information because they had a need, most likely an immediate need. They typed something along the lines of Inbound Marketing for REALTORS or Real Estate Websites or something like that and they found me.
Inbound Marketing – in a nutshell is, helping your ideal client (consumer) find you online at the very moment in time that they have identified a need for your product or service. Did you get that? At The Exact Moment. In my opinion, Google is the 8th wonder of the world, but I don’t search it for fun. When I ask Google a question I am asking for one of two reasons usually
1) To gather information
2) To solve a problem
Inbound Marketing (if used correctly) is leveraging tools like blogs, vlogs, landing pages and social media tools like facebook, Twitter and YouTube to get “found” by your ideal client. Found meaning, your website. Back in the days, I was a typical title rep. Yes I know it’s hard to believe but I was. I went from office to office with all kinds of goodies {company branded calendar’s, coffee mugs, fly swatters, electric fans, sticky notes, pens, etc} trying to get real estate agents and loan officers to use the title company I worked for, over one of the other 60+ in my market. It was painful. It was painful because every title rep SAYS they are the best, that they have great escrow officers, that they can help a real estate agent or loan officer grow their business. It was very hard to stand out when my competition was saying the exact same things I was.
Enter Inbound Marketing.
Within 2 years of learning the principles of inbound marketing – A great website, unique, dynamic, engaging content and VALUE, I was was writing blog articles, leveraging Facebook fan pages, Twitter and of course YouTube to help my ideal client find me. You want to talk about a “shift”? The same agents that I used to chase around for appointments to tell them about what makes XYZ title “different” were now asking me questions. Now I help my ideal client find me.
How?
I first identify WHO I am talking to. When I say WHO I am talking to I mean, a home buyer, seller, Investor, real estate agent, title rep, title company ya know WHO. Then I carefully craft a message, a keyword rich, engaging, dynamic, value based message for them. The message is different for each customer. Investors like to get right to the point – dollars and cents, home sellers {short sale sellers here in Phoenix} need a message with compassion and understanding – they are looking for HELP. Title reps, well that’s another story.
Then I post my message, and syndicate it to my spokes. Imagine a bike wheel. At the center is my website (MyTitleGuy.net). Coming off the center is my Facebook, Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vimeo, Vidlr, Flickr, StumbleUpon, Digg, and on and on and on. I post content on these “spokes” to drive my ideal client back to my website where I ask them to DO SOMETHING. So, does it work? See below.
Now I help real estate professionals, title companies and title reps in addition to a few other local businesses get “found” online. My 1st rule of sales is to be where the eyeballs are. Yes, there are a lot of them in Facebook, but it’s important to note that facebook is not a search engine and is poor at SEARCH. Facebook is fun but Google is where consumers go when looking for information or help.
When I need something I go to Google. What about you?
Getting “found” online is not an easy task, it takes time. It all starts with a great website. 90% of the real estate agent websites I have seen are absolutely horrible, {template, little or no unique content, no keywords or too general, it’s all about the agent, not indexed, looks horrible etc} Inbound marketing works but you need a properly optimized engaging website to invite your guests to.
If you are a real estate professional looking to get “found” online, check out PRO-Found Marketing. We help professionals get found online. We bring customers to you.
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