It’s 2016 – the age of technology, and now what many are calling the age of Snapchat marketing. Today there are so many gadgets, techniques, and social media platforms used to connect with your prospective clients, that you’re left wondering which ones are best for your industry. Oh, and how you can “connect” without spending eight hours a day online. Want in on the secret of quick, easy-to-use social media marketing? Snapchat.

By now you’re already actively promoting your business on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. While those are consistent platforms to build your brand, there is a relatively new platform with over 100 million daily users that, as a real estate professional, you should be integrating into your marketing. We call it Snapchat. Using this application to connect with clients and prospects is incredibly easy and fast-paced. It’s time you give it a try. Here’s how:

Snapchat is an extremely simple way of sending photos and videos directly. But here’s the catch – after the recipient has viewed the photo or video, it disappears forever. Not to worry though, Snapchat has a feature called, ‘Stories’ where you can compile an unlimited amount of photos and videos throughout the day. With this feature, your audience can view your posts as a whole, like a slideshow or video compilation. ‘Stories’ are live on your account for 24 hours.

At first, you may wonder how is a platform that erases images valuable to your marketing program? Let’s say you are working with a new millennial client who frequently uses Snapchat. You easily add them to your contact list, and send photos and videos directly of a potential home that you think they might be interested in. The app notifies the user to take a look at the video you’ve sent them, and you will also have a visual indication if they’ve seen what you sent. And, because Snapchat has a fantastic built-in communication system, your client can follow-up with a message, photo, or video as well. Easy, right?

Now think about it this way – When you send a “snap” to followers who know that what you’ve shared will only be live for 10 seconds, you will have their undivided attention for the full 10 seconds that your image or video is displayed on their screen. This results in higher retention from your audience when compared to them scrolling through a homepage feed. This also results in a higher response rate due to the urgency stemmed from disappearance.

The ‘Stories’ section of Snapchat can be useful to you as well. You can showcase an open house, any community events, or even create short market updates. With the ‘Stories’ side of Snapchat, you can see who’s watched the entire compilation, and you can even download your entire ‘Story’ as one large pre-edited movie file, and upload it to your other social media platforms. Remember, social media works in collaboration, sharing a video from platform to platform will get more attention towards your posts and your business.

Every client is going to be different, but as time goes on we are seeing that more people want their home buying process to be easier and more accessible. That’s why Snapchat marketing is an easy and fun way to communicate directly with your clients, and all it takes is 10 seconds .

Questions? Give us a call at (614) 785-1111 and in the meantime subscribe to our our youtube channel for more inspiration and real estate marketing videos.

Here it is, our top marketing memes of the month, chosen by the team at Discover Pubs.

Memes generate a good laugh, but they can also allow us to walk a day in each other’s shoes and experience the good and bad of our daily professions. As for marketing professionals, from the moment we sit down to our computers to the point that we think it’s time to leave, but can’t see the time through our strained eyes – we are creating and sending content through emails, social media, blogs and everything-in-between.

For the next few minutes give your eyes some relief, or hop into a set of your marketing friend’s shoes and enjoy our 21 favorite marketing memes of the month.

#1

Or do they?

#2

But, they want to grow their following?

#3

campaign + strategy = results

BOOM.

#4

It looks a little like this.

#5

And, this.

#6

Oh yeah, and this.

#7

The essence of email marketing, and when it finally comes along …

100? More like …

#8

consider us the online version of Oprah. And please, feel free to click through.

#9

And, it wasn’t even incentivized.

#10

After creating the pop-up form for lead information.

#11

What we’d like to happen after sending “please fill out the form below,”

#12

what actually happens.

#13 

When you get those leads, keep ’em clean, aka semi-annual CRM verification.

#14

So, when you send links to your leads – this happens.

#15

Only to be followed up by this.

#16

Then, this – because anything will go viral, right?

#17

We can dream (but, please refer to #1, #2, #3).

#18

Level 10 accuracy (aka: please share this post).

#19

But then, after tomorrow, it finally happens …

#20

time to celebrate.

#21

And, keep it classy.

Are you ever face to face in a Wild West standoff with your competition? Of course not, but it probably feels that way sometimes. We know it’s important to continually work to get a leg up. One powerful and often overlooked way to do this is through making staging a part of your process (not just a tool to use under certain circumstances).

How to Leverage the Power of Staging when Facing Competition

According to an the 2015 NAR Profile of Home Staging (link) study, 71% of agents report an increase in price due to staging (19% weren’t sure and only 10% said there was no impact). About half of the agents reporting an increase reported a 6-20% improvement, mostly in the 6-10% range. Your client is almost certain to benefit from staging, and this can be powerful leverage in a competitive situation.

Surprisingly, a little time and money go a long way. According to NAR, the median cost of staging a home was about $675 in 2015, and the homeowners do most of the work. Your main job is to instruct them on the best-practices, and motivate them to stage with the highly-likely price increase on their home.

This is what we recommend:

1. Tell your client what to wash, paint, and fix, and what furniture, décor, and “stuff” to remove.  Recommend professionals they can hire to help, if they don’t want to do it themselves.
2. Tell them the best way to position all of the furniture and décor that make the cut.
3. Bring in some furniture (if the client’s material won’t show well). Keep a few key pieces of pre-purchased furniture on hand and enlist the help of the homeowner to do the physical work of bringing it in and positioning it. Other than the initial cost of these pieces, you aren’t spending money or working here, just coordinating efforts to get it in the house.
4. Polish off the staging. You should have several accent pieces in your arsenal, pieces that are neutral enough to work almost anywhere (vases, throw pillows, art, several sheer curtain panels, and a fireplace screen, for example). Bring the stuff over and assist the homeowners with ways to arrange it. 
5. Communicate in your marketing how you stage every home as part of your process. Share before and after staging photos in print and online. Share success stories of great feedback you get from walk-throughs on a beautifully staged home. Talk about how quickly you sell a staged home, price increases and how many offers you get.

If you have any concerns about your design savvy, we recommend you go through a two-three day home staging course. The expertise you gain will help you become a better stager, and you can showcase any designation you earn in your marketing. NAR reports that only 34% of agents stage all of their listings, so you’ll really stand out!

As always, feel free to contact us with any questions at (614)785-1111, and visit our website for more information on additional marketing.

Follow-up can mean the difference between fleeting and lasting relationships

In business, as with life, building relationships with care, understanding and respect can yield immeasurable benefits. Follow-up is an integral part of relationship building. It’s the shout-out, the “what’s up,” the “I’m here for you” that helps reassure both prospective and current clients that you are thinking of them.

Terry L. Green, president of BizEase Support Solutions, points out: “Follow-up involves all aspects of your business, from following up with prospective new clients, to making sure you are set on a path to success once you land them. That’s why you should make sure you have follow-up procedures in place and that they become part of your routine.”

There are numerous opportunities to follow up, and you should seize them all:

• After a networking event, stay connected with the people who made a difference to you. They likely will make a difference to your business. Use of online social media is a given; it is the most efficient method of sharing your experiences, photos and business tips. However, there is no substitute for a handwritten note to thank an individual for his or her time and attention, and to say that you look forward to meeting again.
• When contacted by potential clients for more information, send it right away. Then call or e-mail to see if they need anything else. Also, send a thank-you-for-contacting-me note … written … by hand.
• After landing a client, send a personalized welcome kit. In addition to information on your business policies and procedures, you might want to include a list of frequently asked questions (for the client who thought he asked everything but realized he hadn’t). The kit also should contain a gift and note … again, handwritten.

Your mother was right to stand over you while you wrote thank-you notes for the gifts you had received. Taking the time to put your appreciation in writing tells your clients that you are willing to put in the extra effort to show them you care.

Remember that follow-up is a process as well as a practice.

• Respond promptly. Your chance of speaking with a decision maker increases if your response time decreases. Common wisdom seems to suggest a standard of responding the same day or hour you receive an inquiry. However, studies show that responding within five minutes of receipt of the inquiry increases ninefold the chance of turning the prospect into a convert. Do it now; later might be way too late.
• Follow up every single lead. Log them as soon as they arrive and assign them for immediate follow-up. Don’t expect the magic to happen with a single email. It can take as many as 13 touches to get from initial contacts and intermediaries to the person who makes the decision to buy.
• Measure your process and track your progress. This is where an automated follow-up platform comes in handy. According to Annuitas, a demand generation strategy firm, businesses that use automated marketing experience a 451 percent increase in qualified leads. Leads can be scored and messaging targeted by providing prospects with customized content based on their behaviors and implied preferences. How many leads do you get in a week? How long does it take to respond? How many of them become qualified prospects or customers? What works well for you? What doesn’t? Modify any aspect of your process that needs it, and then check your progress again in a few months.
• Keep your mailing list updated. Your client information should be current and reflect any major changes, such as a geographical move, job change or marital status. Automation helps here by clearing your database of those who haven’t been responding to emails, as well as duplicates and outdated information. Oh … and you might want to know whether or not that person is still alive. One can only imagine how annoying it must be to keep getting mail for somebody who has been dead for more than a decade.

Follow-up is a valuable tool, not only for tracking the progress of your business, but also for learning more about your clients and increasing their familiarity and comfort with you. Those who enjoy a solid relationship with you are apt to send you referrals, vouch for your credibility and strengthen your reputation.

So before you congratulate yourself on another client qualified or deal closed, you would be well served to remember that these folks are crucial to the survival and growth of your business. Before you order a celebratory cake, send them a thoughtful and diligent follow-up.

Discover Publications can help you make those connections (on which you must follow up). Give us a call at (877) 872-3080.

Have you heard of Visual Content Strategy, or multi-platform content sharing? 

Let us explain this integrative strategy and how to implement it in your marketing next month.   

The point of visual content strategy is to gain as much traction and interaction with one piece of content as possible once it has been published to the web. Not only will you be creating a greater number of opportunities to build consumer relationships and amplifying your online reach, you will be allowing your brand the opportunity to gain followers, build SEO and generate a memorable UI/UX for prospects. Implementing this strategy means taking a well-written, informative article or content that your company has created, and sharing it on several platforms. AKA: your company blog, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter… you name it.

The first action of this strategy will be optimally (using keywords as the SEO anchor) posting your article on your company blog; this is where the other posts will direct the audience when clicked through from your various social media portals.

Once that has been completed, we’ll move on to the next step of the visual content strategy where the name of the game is brand engagement and awareness. What we want to do here is deliver your information to a greater number of prospects, and enable interaction through shares, “likes,” comments, and hash tags when plausible. Remember that it is important to pre-determine your message so that it correlates correctly with each media platform, but no matter what social media you use, the post should link directly to the hosting page of your article.

Let’s Recap –

You’ve written an excellent content article that is a shareable, likeable success. In order to amplify the reach of this content, it is first published on the company blog, complete with high-quality keywords, images, etc. Your posts on LinkedIn are different from Facebook, and your Facebook posts are different from Twitter, but they all relate to the topic of this specific content strategy, link to the hosting blog page and include a few of the keywords you’ve determined from the original post. What was once a blog-only article has now been integrated on four differing platforms, reaching a greater number of the hundred of millions of worldwide web users. And, because you’ve used keywords and links, the more interaction and shares your post receives the higher the chances of locking in a greater SEO value.

Visual content strategy – Get integrating! 

Shelby Nicholson | shelby.nicholson@discoverpubs.com