Today I wanted to talk a bit about how important it is to have all your contact info on your business card, Facebook page, and professional website. Today I wanted to talk about how important it is to have all of your information on your business card, on your Facebook page, and on your website. A lot of times, we travel for events or classes and meet a lot of agents across the country. Unfortunately, we often run into the challenge of finding contact information and it's quite a hassle. That's why I recommend that your business card includes your business address, email address, website, and your mobile phone number. I know many may think it's not professional to have your picture on your business card. As we travel and meet a lot of agents, though, it's a lot easier to remember someone by their face. While you're at it, make sure your profile picture on Facebook is an updated picture of you when you travel. You want people to be able to make that connection. Include the company that you work for in your profile, too. If you have privacy settings that are too guarded, people can't even see who you are when they want to add you as a friend. Make sure you have addresses and contact info that are easy for anyone to find. Finally, make sure your Facebook page and your business website have your address and zip code. It's a challenge to write a handwritten note after we've met and have to go through three different steps to find the city or zip code where you live! These tips are all real things we've experienced that we want to help you improve on. If you need anything at all or you're looking for more professional advice, let me know. Give me a call and we'll talk soon!

When we prepare our new listings for sale, we also like to use them to spice up our marketing. New listings make great backdrops for educational videos, among other things. I am here today at a new listing that has just gone on the market and our videographer has joined me to set up and shoot some video of the home. While I’m here, I wanted to give you a few tips on what you can do with your new listing to help increase the home’s reach online and develop a better online presence. The first thing I am going to do is shoot a quick little walking tour for the home’s Zillow page. If you are an agent who has a Zillow account, you can download their app and shoot the video directly on your phone. It’s a quick little process; the video doesn’t include sound and it’s really easy to do. I have found that by doing this, our listings rank higher when buyers are searching. We don’t really spend any money on Zillow, but this is one strategy that we have found that works. Since this listing we are at today is particularly beautiful, I’m going to shoot some more content. I send out updates to my database twice a month, so this is a good setting to shoot some of those videos. When you combine these two things, it’s a huge plus for your marketing and you don’t have to spend a penny. Facebook Live is an excellent tool. If you decide to make a video tour of the home, don’t just upload it to YouTube and re-post it on Facebook. By uploading the video separately on each site, you will have a larger online reach. Facebook Live is also another excellent tool to use. It has become very popular, and we only see this trend continuing. If you have any questions for us at all, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

My team and I tend to use video frequently when dealing with home buyers and sellers. Though shooting video can seem like a daunting task at first, it does get easier the more you do it. Even if it’s a video that you make off-the-cuff without practicing beforehand, I think it’s better to shoot any kind of video than to simply sit around and put it off, waiting for everything to align perfectly. Today I’d like to share some tips with you on getting started with video so that you’ll know how to best invest your time and energy. Shoot videos related to topics that you can use over and over again. For example, be sure to make at least one video that illustrates your value proposition to potential clients, explaining how your team operates differently from other teams, and how those differences can help buyers and sellers with their specific issues. As your team grows, you may want to tweak these videos so that they cover the ins and outs of the business with less specificity. Another important video you should make is a pre-listing video for sellers. This video should explain what you and your team are going to do to sell your client’s home in the future and direct the seller to review specific documents in advance before you meet with them. The reason this kind of video is so important is because once you have filled the client in on what they should know about you and the process ahead, you can get right down to business and fill out the listing paperwork when you meet with them.   Videos are a great way to leverage your time. I would advise making a pre-listing video that provides information to buyers as well. Discuss the importance of getting pre-approved, how your team works, and then direct their attention to a buyer’s guide. This way, whether this is a warm or cold lead, the client will know that you are a real, knowledgeable person who wants to assist them in their purchase.   After you have these videos made, you can focus on more specific topics related to the home buying or selling process. During these processes, it will be much easier to direct a buyer or seller to a video than to give numerous other clients the same information over and over again. Videos are a great way to leverage your time. If you have any questions about making videos or about real estate in general, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

In this edition of “Your Journey with Jennie,” I’m joined by MAPS Bold Coach Wayne Salmans to answer one question: If you’re a struggling agent, how do you get into action? According to Wayne, the best piece of advice he ever got was from his own coach when he told him, “Everything works if you work it.” It’s something that he tells his own clients to this day. What it means is that because it’s easy in this day and age to get distracted by having a bevy of options on how to conduct business, your best course of action is choosing just one discipline and perfecting it. Whether it’s showing houses or cold calling, choose one thing and nail it. They all work if you work them.Go small to go big.At the end of the day, clarity is power. If you’re constantly working to be everything to everyone, you’ll end up being nobody to everybody. Go small to go big. If you have any other questions about improving your performance in the real estate business, please feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email. I look forward to helping you!

You never know where your best leads are going to come from, and today I’ve got a cool story to share with you that demonstrates that fact.  A few years ago, we posted one of our listings on Craigslist and got a bunch of shoddy responses, but we got a lot of real leads from that post as well. We put those leads into our 33-touch campaign but weren’t sure if anything was going to come of it. Just recently, we found a buyer that was on that campaign, and after receiving our information for more than two years, she was ready to buy. The best part is that she was a cash buyer, and her deal is now set to close in 30 days.  This demonstrates to us the importance of the follow-up. We didn’t have her phone number, but followed up by email and with video in order to stand out from the competition. Our emails ended up standing out to her, and we got a nice commission from a lead that didn’t cost us anything but time to invest in. Our video emails stood out to this buyer. We use Vyral Marketing to do our video follow-up, and it has been working great. Our database has never been stronger. If you have any questions, give us a call or send us an email. We would be glad to answer them!