“But, I have a ‘radio face’” is a response I get when I bring this up to a lot of agents.  I’ve got to be honest – some of them really do.  Not to worry.  This problems with insecurity is easily solved whith a screen recording software, like Jing.  Simply prepare a Power Point slideshow and record your screen as you read the slides and be sure to ad lib so you don’t put your viewer to sleep.

“But my voice sounds like a Smurf’s voice.”  I’ve got a solution for that as well.  If you have a “not for radio” voice or are kind of monotone, like I am, then you can actually hire someone to read your script and record your video for you.  Check out www.fiverr.com and search for someone to read your script for $5.00.  They’ll email the video back to you when they are done, and you are ready to upload the video to YouTube.  Problem solved!

Be yourself!  Yes, it is ok to have a script and read it.  Actually it can be very helpful because it will keep you on track and prevent you from rambling.  There is one major problem with reading from a script – The Robot.  The robot is that person inside all of us who detaches from the outside world and shows no emotion, enthusiasm, or passion.  Be careful not to lose those things when you are reading your script.  Loosen up and have fun with video.  I think some of my best videos are the ones where I’m just talking to the camera like it is my best friend who just asked me a question.

Try these tips to get your feet wet with video.  After you get going with video the next step is to get that video to move up in Google to page 1 and get more sales.  We’ll talk a little more about those things tomorrow.

In the meantime, if you have a video marketing success story, please share it with us below.

Let’s get right into it!

1. Purpose Your Page.  Each page of your website should have one clear purpose.  I’m not saying that you cannot have secondary purposes on your page, just be careful that the reader knows what the particular page is about.  Don’t let your opt-in boxes, e-book offers, resources, etc. get in the way of the primary purpose of that page either.

2. Clean Up Your Page’s Layout.  Visitors to your site want to find the information they are looking for in just a few seconds.  If they don’t then they will bounce!  Concentrate on your page’s information into one easily noticed spot on the page so visitors don’t have to search the page to find it.

3.  Match Each Page’s Title to The Purpose of That Page.  This should go without saying, but a web page’s title should tell visitors what to expect on that page.  If you have an “About Me” page, then don’t use that page to feature your new e-book or your new listing.  You can make separate pages for those things if you choose to.

Take 30 minutes over the weekend to make the above changes to your real estate website if you need to. Once you do this, then you should see your website’s bounce rate start to drop and hopefully see your sales start to increase because you’ve created a site where visitors spend their time.

If you have any other suggestions or ways to lower the bounce rate of a website, then please share those ideas below.  Your input is greatly appreciated.

There are many ways to improve your bounce rate both on page and off page.  We are going to talk about both in this 2 part blog.  Today we are going to tackle your off page bounce factors.

1.  Examine Where Your Traffic is Coming From - Go to Google Analytics and look to see what keywords are generating visitors to your site.  If you find some that are unrelated to real estate, then get rid of them.  For example, one of my top keywords for my blog is Moby Dick because I wrote a blog post that mentioned Moby Dick and Google picked up that word and was referring visitors to my site who were looking for information on Moby Dick.  Well, since my website is not about Moby, then people were bouncing off to the next site to find the information.  Sure, I loved the traffic, but I’d rather have quality traffic than I would uninterested traffic.

2.  Try to Add Your SEO Backlinks to Real Estate Related Websites – I know this is not always going to happen, because you should backlink your site every time you add a comment on someone’s blog and you are not always going to read real estate blogs.  By backlinking on related sites, you are ensuring that others who come to your site from the back link are looking for information related to that backlinked site.

Make these simple corrections to your backlinking strategy and your keywords today.  It will only take you a few minutes.  Tomorrow, we will talk about “on page” corrections to lower your bounce rate.  See you then!

1. Split Tests – Split test your broadcast messages and your opt-in forms.  As you know your opt-in forms are the source for new prospects.  Testing those forms will help to save you money on advertising costs or will help increase the number of leads you get from your website.  Split testing your messages allows you to spot trends that will help you to increase your opens (and sales).

2. Make Targeted Lists – Don’t send out blanket messages to all of your subscribers thinking all of them are interested in the same message.  Break your subcribers down into groups, such as 1st time homebuyer propects, past clients, move down prospects, etc.  Tailor your messages specifically for each of those groups.

3. Plant Your Garden – Don’t try to sell a listing in every email you send.  Instead educate your readers with market trend charts, a guest article from your mortgage partner, etc.  If you plant the seeds of knowledge in your prospects’ minds you will reap the rewards of more sales in the future.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Break Up – If someone has been months without opening a single message you have sent… Dump him!  Every available space for an email address in your email management program is costing you money and is precious real estate.  Fill that deadbeat’s spot with someone who cares about your message.

Try these 4 things to see if you get more sales and leads from your email marketing campaign.  If you have any other ideas that are working well for you then please leave those below so we can all share in your successes.

1. Ask your buyers to go online and pin their dream home inside and out.  This would be a great way to set expectations before you actually go out and look at homes.  If your clients are looking for that nice new kitchen and there is no such thing in their price range then it may be a good idea to let them know upfront by pinning some actual kitchen pictures of listings in their price range.

2. Feature your customers by pinning them.  No, not WWE style!  People love to see themselves, and buyers love to see themselves in front (or inside) of their new house.  If you create a board on Pinterest for them they will share it with their friends and family as well.  Each time they share it, they are passing your name and face around to others and sharing your brand.

3. Have your sellers present their own listings on Pinterest.  Perhaps they can show their before and after photos of their master bath renovation that was completed a couple of years ago.  Allowing sellers to do this makes them feel they are adding some value, after all no one knows the house better than they do.  A word of caution, though… Ask them if they want to prepare this board.  Do not tell them to do it.  You never want this to come up in a discussion later about how they “did your job for you” by taking 30 minutes to make a board in Pinterest for their home.

4. Of course, the obvious idea is to just post your listings with links to each property’s individual listing website.  You could let each property have its own board or you can put every listing on one board by featuring the exterior of the properties.  Idea within an idea – why not give each property its own board and use that board to feature pictures of local eateries, nearby theaters, yogurt shops, parks, and other entertaining things to do along with the distance from each location you post.  This would be extremely powerful for out of towners or that chic downtown loft or condo.

I know what you are thinking… “Come on!  Another social network to learn and use?”  Well, these media are here to stay.  I believe that the agents who do not learn them and use them will begin to lose business to those agents who do.  If you want to learn more about these platforms or if you just need some help managing it all, then feel free to call or email me.  I am happy to help you anytime.

If you are using Pinterest already, please leave a comment and let me know how you like it.  If you are not, then please share why you aren’t using it yet.  I look forward to reading your comments.

Edit Post ‹ Andy Gagliano — WordPress

1. Cut the Bull – Yes, I’ve already mentioned the style that gets more opens for me, so I wanted to go ahead and get this one out of the way.

2. Use Numbers – If you notice I use numbers in a great deal of my blog titles.  I do this because it lets people know what to expect and numbers get reads.

3. Use Famous Names – Last week, I wrote a blog post about Twitter that mentioned Charlie Sheen. I could have easily titled that blog “Twitter Lessons Taught by Charlie Sheen” and probably gotten just as many blog opens.

4. Shock and Awe – No, not too extreme, but having a surprising headline can increase opens but you have to make sure your content fits the headlines or you’ll lose readers.

5. Ask Questions – Ask a question that many people can relate to and give the answer in your post.  How about, “How Can I Save $200 Per Year on my Homeowner’s Insurance?”

6. Scare Me – If you can cause concern with readers in your headlines then they will click to read the post for more information to calm those fears.  Example – “The One Mistake Home Sellers Make that Costs Thousands”

7. Mix It Up – Don’t overuse one style.  Mix and match.  Use 2 or 3 of these tips within the same headline.

Keep these ideas in mind when writing your next blog title, but be sure you pay attention to which style headlines get better open rates.  That information helps you to improve your writing skills.  Since I’m always looking for some great headlines for my blog posts, please share your headline writing tip with me below.

I keep hearing rumors that Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. In the spirit of the holiday created by Hallmark (of course, I’m kidding!) here are 4 ways to fall in love with Twitter:

1. Follow carefully – If you can’t stand someone you are folowing, then unfollow them (as long as it is not me). If you don’t like the people you are interacting with, then you won’t use Twitter. So dump them!

2. Don’t be all business – Tweet something funny your child said, tweet about a great meal you had at a new restaurant. Ask for a movie recommendation. In other words, show your followers you are human.

3. Follow agents in other cities – It is cool to spy on competitors, but it is cooler to follow some real estate marketing geniuses in other cities. Pay attention to what they tweet, when they tweet, etc. Copy their patterns, but not their material.

4. Stick with it – Don’t quit Twitter after a month or two because you don’t have thousands of followers, retweets, and DM’s. Chances are you didn’t develop all of the friendships you have today overnight, but you did it over time. Online relationships take more time to develop than face to face relationships, so don’t give up!
Twitter’s open ended platform can present many challenges for beginners because it is so misunderstood, but if you follow these tips above you’ll get more enjoyment (and leads) from it.

Tweak #1 – Add Your URL’s in the Description Area.  In the past you had to be a partner to put your URL links to the right of the video, but not anymore.  With the new changes, you can add as many links as you like and your social media links as well.  This is a big move in the social network direction and a little more SEO juice to boot.

Tweak #2 – Ads from Showing Your Videos.  You can keep others’ ads from showing on your featured video player by checking the box that says, “Prevent ads from showing my videos on this page.”  To do this, click on the edit button above the video.  This is the most important because of Tweak #3.

Tweak #3 – Add Overlays to Your Videos.  Overlays are a little known feature that allow you to feature your listing or yourself on a banner at the bottom of your video.  Remember you’ve got to stop the ads first (Tweak #2).

Tweak #4 – Pin Your Subscribers to Prioritize Your Home Page.  By doing this, you can spy on your competitors to see if their strategies and habits are working. You can see when they post, how often they post, and what they are posting.  See what they are doing that is successful and copy them.

Now that you know about these 4 Tweaks, go on YouTube and “pimp” your profile.  After you make the above tweaks, please come back here and share your success stories with us.  I love to hear about other successes.

Write a Strong Title – I’ve experimented A LOT with titles. I’ve tried funny titles, short titles that make the reader curious, and titles that cut through the bull and tell the reader what the post is about. Hands down, the winner is the titles that cut through the bull. I believe the reason is simple – time is at a premium and readers don’t want to read something they are not interested in. Tell them what the article is about and you will get better read rates.

Be Clear and Concise – Try to keep your real estate blog post to 400 – 500 words. I have found the most opened and commented posts are the ones that share tips, how to’s, secrets, benefits, lists, etc that people can really use.

Go From Point A to Point B – Have a clear message you want to deliver to your reader. Beginning your blog with a question, followed by a short story and then the answer to the question you asked is a good format to follow. Don’t get stuck in a rut though. Mix your format up a little bit.

Be Credible – I know I’ve stopped reading many bloggers’ work because they lost credibility with me somehow. Be you, and check your facts before you post something. It is ok if others disagree with an opinion of yours, in fact it can be good because it will drive interaction. But don’t say anything that can be proven to be untrue.

Comment on Comments – This is VERY important, and you know why. You wouldn’t ignore someone who spoke directly to you while in an almost empty elevator would you? Not commenting or interacting with others is the same thing.

I hope you’ve gained some useful info from today’s post. If you have any other tips about blogging you would like to share, please do so below in the comment section. I look forward to meeting and interacting with you there.

1. Blog Posts – Tweet the title to your most recent blog and a link to the post.  If you use a feed service like HootSuite or have a plugin for your WordPress site, you can set this up once and you will tweet automatically every time you post a blog.  It doesn’t get any easier than that!

2. @Replies – By responding to others’ posts and conversations, you are showing them that you care about what they are tweeting.  This is the ideal way to begin interaction with others.  Simply enter the @ sign and their twitter handle and type your message.

3. Ask Questions – You’ll be amazed at the responses you’ll get if you just ask a simple question.

4. Tweet Photos – You know what they say… “A picture is worth a hundred forty characters.”  Tweet a pic of your happy sellers or buyers from your closing yesterday, a picture of your most recent listing, etc.

5. Accomplishments – Tweet about your most recent closing, your new listing, your salesperson of the month award or any other personal achievement.  Do it in a way where you don’t come across as bragging for optimum results.

6. Industry News – Tweet a positive real estate headline for the day.  This news is easily found by setting up a Google Alert for national or local real estate news.  Those news articles will be emailed to you daily.  Pick the headline you like (the most positive headline) and tweet it.

We often make Twitter more difficult than it really has to be by drawing a blank regarding what we should tweet.  The main thing to remember with Twitter is that it is important to be active and social.  You must interact with others when they DM or @reply you in order to be successful with this platform. 

If you have another awesome tweet idea for real estate agents, then DM me @mortgagehuntr.  I look forward to reading what you have to say and interacting with you in Twitterland.