Homes & Money Newsletter (2nd Quarter 2011) (8.5x11)

Homes & Money Newsletter (2nd Quarter 2011) (8.5x11)

Drip-Marketing Campaigns for FSBOs

Be There When They Seek a Professional's Help Do-it-yourselfers will always be a part of our society. But for many people, there comes a time when the frustration of doing it on their own far outweighs the cost of calling in a professional. When an individual who is trying to sell their own home arrives at this conclusion, you want to be the first person they call. This can be achieved by initiating a "drip campaign." To do this, you must have a series of letters, flyers, or handouts that you send consistently to your FSBO targets. Successful drip campaigns are clearly systemized, so the process is easy to follow. There's no guesswork involved, and this can be easily delegated to one of your team members once the system has been set up. Here are a few tips for a successful FSBO drip campaign: Tip 1: Send out tips that will help sellers learn more about how to successfully market their home. By providing this value up front, you show sincere interest in helping them sell their home. Tip 2: Make certain your mail stands out from the other mail they receive. Printed envelopes generally get less attention than envelopes addressed by hand. It's also smart to include brief handwritten notes with each piece you send. Make sure your message is not delivered on a day when the usual junk mail and coupon mailers are distributed. You don't want to be lost in the shuffle. Tip 3: Leverage technology such as databases and personalization software. Database management software simplifies the creation of personalized letters. It's not difficult to find a font that looks like actual handwriting, and conveys a personal touch. These are some of the things I do as part of my campaign to market my services to FSBOs. In many cases, people attempting to sell their own home become frustrated and end up turning to a professional Real Estate Agent. Call me if you are interested in learning more about the co-op marketing opportunities I have to offer! *RESPA laws require Real Estate professionals to pay a proportionate amount of the costs for co-op marketing and distribution. I have negotiated fair rates for printing and distribution with my vendors. (See http://www.hud.gov to access RESPA ruling 24CFR3500.14.)

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

For business owners just getting started, a guide to build brand buzz and boost your bottom line.

BY SUSAN GUNELIUS |

Leveraging the power of content and social media marketing can help elevate your audience and customer base in a dramatic way. But getting started without any previous experience or insight could be challenging.

It's vital that you understand social media marketing fundamentals. From maximizing quality to increasing your online entry points, abiding by these 10 laws will help build a foundation that will serve your customers, your brand and -- perhaps most importantly -- your bottom line.

1. The Law of Listening
Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking. Read your target audience’s online content and join discussions to learn what’s important to them. Only then can you create content and spark conversations that add value rather than clutter to their lives.

2. The Law of Focus
It’s better to specialize than to be a jack-of-all-trades. A highly-focused social media and content marketing strategy intended to build a strong brand has a better chance for success than a broad strategy that attempts to be all things to all people.

3. The Law of Quality
Quality trumps quantity. It’s better to have 1,000 online connections who read, share and talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear after connecting with you the first time.

4. The Law of Patience
Social media and content marketing success doesn’t happen overnight. While it’s possible to catch lightning in a bottle, it’s far more likely that you’ll need to commit to the long haul to achieve results.

5. The Law of Compounding
If you publish amazing, quality content and work to build your online audience of quality followers, they’ll share it with their own audiences on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, their own blogs and more.

This sharing and discussing of your content opens new entry points for search engines like Google to find it in keyword searches. Those entry points could grow to hundreds or thousands of more potential ways for people to find you online.

6. The Law of Influence
Spend time finding the online influencers in your market who have quality audiences and are likely to be interested in your products, services and business. Connect with those people and work to build relationships with them.

If you get on their radar as an authoritative, interesting source of useful information, they might share your content with their own followers, which could put you and your business in front of a huge new audience.

7. The Law of Value
If you spend all your time on the social Web directly promoting your products and services, people will stop listening. You must add value to the conversation. Focus less on conversions and more on creating amazing content and developing relationships with online influencers. In time, those people will become a powerful catalyst for word-of-mouth marketing for your business.

8. The Law of Acknowledgment
You wouldn’t ignore someone who reaches out to you in person so don’t ignore them online. Building relationships is one of the most important parts of social media marketing success, so always acknowledge every person who reaches out to you.

9. The Law of Accessibility
Don’t publish your content and then disappear. Be available to your audience. That means you need to consistently publish content and participate in conversations. Followers online can be fickle and they won’t hesitate to replace you if you disappear for weeks or months.

10. The Law of Reciprocity
You can’t expect others to share your content and talk about you if you don’t do the same for them. So, a portion of the time you spend on social media should be focused on sharing and talking about content published by others.  

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Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius is CEO of KeySplash Creative Inc., an Orlando, Fla.- based marketing communications company. She has authored several books, including Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps, published by Entrepreneur Media. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Leave a Voicemail Directly Without Talking...

Let's face it, we all wish we could just leave a voicemail at times.  Are you pressed for time?  Do you have a client, who will not let you just leave a simple piece of information without chatting for fifteen minutes?  Do you just want to say hello and don't have the time to spare catching up?  Would you like to stay in front of your referral partners and clients, but don't have the time to talk to so many people everyday?  Sly Dial is perfect for you if you answered yes to any of the previous questions.

How do you slydial?  It is as easy as 1-2-3!

1. Dial 267-SLYDIAL (267-759-3425) from any landline or mobile phone.
2. At the voice prompt, enter the U.S. mobile phone number of the person you want to slydial.
3. You will be directly connected to their voicemail. Leave them a voicemail, sit back and relax.

Check it out online:

http://www.slydial.com/index.php

Growing Your Business With Send Out Cards

One of the best things I have done in my business is to incorporate Send Out Cards into my marketing plan.  I love SOC for the following reasons:

1.        It allows you to send custom cards.  This is a great way to congratulate your clients on their new home. You can include a picture of the new house. You can upload any picture you like.

2.       You can send post cards or tri-folds.

3.       You are able to send gifts with your cards.  There are a variety of cool gifts you can include with your card.  This is great for a closing gift.  I send a gift to their work after closing with a picture of their new home on it.

4.       You can plug in the information and forget about it.  It is automated.  Use it to stay in touch with customers (closing anniversaries, birthdays etc).

5.       It is a fraction of the cost of retail cards.

I believe in it so much that I became a representative.  If you would like some more information do not hesitate to give me a call at 810-987-1200.

https://www.sendoutcards.com/bluewaterhomeloans/

The Benefits of Volunteering

Take a look around your neighborhood or your community. Chances are, you'll notice at least a few things that are either overlooked or are in need of a little help. Maybe there's a non-profit organization that needs its lawn mowed or help collecting food for the needy. Perhaps there's a youth camp that needs people to take kids on a hike or children at a child-care center that would love to have an adult read books to them once a week.

That's where volunteering comes in! It only takes one person and a small amount of time to improve not only those issues, but to also improve the lives of the people around you who also care about and need those services. As Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, once said:

"We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily difference we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee."

To help you get started or find other volunteer opportunities, you may want to check out the following resources:

• Serve.gov is an online resource for not only finding volunteer opportunities in your community, but also creating your own. Visit the site at http://www.serve.gov/.
  
  
• VolunteerMatch.org strengthens communities by making it easier for good people and good causes to connect. They offer a variety of online services to support a community of nonprofit, volunteer and business leaders committed to civic engagement. Visit them online at http://www.volunteermatch.org/.
  
  
• Loan forgiveness for public service may also be of interest to you or someone you know. If so, visit the following web pages: http://www.finaid.org/loans/publicservice.phtml and http://www.finaid.org/loans/forgiveness.phtml.

And you don't have to volunteer by yourself. Bring a friend, or even your entire family along. It's the perfect way to teach your kids early on about the importance of helping others and making a difference.

Stay tuned for more Quick Tips coming your way!

The Secret to Dealing With Difficult People: It's About You

I just had to re-post this.  Hopefully, I am duly giving credit below.  Great read.

 

FC Expert Blog

The Secret To Dealing With Difficult People: It's About You

BY FC Expert Blogger Tony SchwartzToday

This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert's views alone.

Each of us has a lens through which we see the world, but we have the power to view the world through other lenses. There are three worth trying on when you default to negative emotions.

Do you have someone at work who consistently triggers you? Doesn't listen? Takes credit for work you've done? Wastes your time with trivial issues? Acts like a know-it-all? Can only talk about himself? Constantly criticizes?
Our core emotional need is to feel valued and valuable. When we don't, it's deeply unsettling, a challenge to our sense of equilibrium, security, and well-being. At the most primal level, it can feel like a threat to our very survival.
This is especially true when the person you're struggling with is your boss. The problem is that being in charge of other people rarely brings out the best in us.
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," Lord Acton said way back in 1887. "There is no worse heresy than the office that sanctifies the holder of it."
The easy default when we feel devalued is to the role of victim, and it's a seductive pull. Blaming others for how we're feeling is a form of self-protection. Whatever is going wrong isn't our fault. By off loading responsibility, we feel better in the short-term.
The problem with being a victim is that you cede the power to influence your circumstances. The painful truth when it comes to the people who trigger you is this: You're not going to change them. The only person you have the possibility of changing is yourself.
Each of us has a default lens through which we see the world. We call it reality, but in fact it's a selective filter. We have the power, to view the world through other lenses. There are three worth trying on when you find yourself defaulting to negative emotions.
The Lens of Realistic Optimism. Using this lens requires asking yourself two simple questions when you feel you're being treated badly or unfairly. The first one is "What are the facts in this situation?" The second is, "What's the story I'm telling myself about those facts?"
Making this distinction allows you to stand outside your experience, rather than simply reacting to it. It also opens the possibility that whatever story you're currently telling yourself isn't necessarily the only way to look at your situation.
Realistic optimism, a term coined by the psychologist Sandra Schneider, means telling yourself the most hopeful and empowering story about a given circumstance without subverting the facts. It's about moving beyond your default reaction to feeling under attack, and exploring whether there is an alternative way of viewing the situation that would ultimately serve you better. Another way of discovering an alternative is to ask yourself "How would I act here at my best?"
The Reverse Lens. This lens requires viewing the world through the lens of the person who triggered you. It doesn't mean sacrificing your own point of view but rather widening your perspective.
It's nearly certain that the person you perceive as difficult views the situation differently than you do. With the reverse lens, you ask yourself, "What is this person feeling, and in what ways does that make sense?" Or put more starkly: "Where's my responsibility in all this?"
Counterintuitively, one of the most powerful ways to reclaim your value, when it feels threatened, is to find a way to appreciate the perspective of the person you feel devalued by. It's called empathy.
Just as you do, others tend to behave better when they feel seen and valued -- especially since insecurity is what usually prompts them to act badly in the first place.
The Long Lens. Sometimes your worst fears about another person turn out to be true. He is someone who bullies you unreasonably and seeing it from his perspective doesn't help. She does invariably take credit for your work.
When your current circumstances are incontrovertibly bad, The long lens provides a way of looking beyond the present to imagine a better future. Begin with this question: "Regardless of how I feel about what's happening right now, how can I grow and learn from this experience?"
How many times has something that felt terrible to you in the moment turned out to be trivial several months later, or actually led you to an important opportunity or a positive new direction?
My last boss fired me. It felt awful at the time, but it also pushed me way out of my comfort zone, which is where it turned out I needed to go.
Looking back, the story I tell myself is that for all his deficiencies, I learned a lot from that boss, and it all serves me well today. I can understand, from his point of view, why he found me difficult as an employee, without feeling devalued. Most important, getting fired prompted me to make a decision -- founding the company I now run -- that has brought me more happiness than any other work I've ever done.

Follow @FastCoLeaders for all of our leadership news, expert bloggers, and book excerpts.

Reprinted with permission from The Energy Project

Tony Schwartz is President and CEO of The Energy Project, a company that helps individuals and organizations fuel energy, engagement, focus, and productivity by harnessing the science of high performance. Tony's most recent book, Be Excellent at Anything: The Four Keys to Transforming the Way We Work and Live, is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Follow him on Twitter @TonySchwartz.