Gotta love a good alliteration! All kidding aside, this blog post is about taking account of your business homepage to ascertain whether or not it’s time for an update!
One of the best ways to inform your viewers of who you are and what you do is by adding a promo video at the top of your homepage underneath your banner.
The best way to sell your products or services is to present a problem/solution demonstration inside of your spotlight video. For instance, if you’re a pressure washing company, you could display a homeowner who is getting the home ready to list in this hot real estate market, but the driveway looks dirty and the neighbors are judging. Uh-oh.
The owner receives a flyer from your local pressure washing company in the mail and the owner has an immediate ‘aha’ moment. Cut to pressure washing service in action. Next, the owner peeks out the window to a line of buyers outside waiting to present their offers (above asking price, of course!) The homeowner (your prospective client) lives happily ever after!
Like a Good Kindergartener, Compartmentalize Your Wares.
It helps viewers when you compartmentalize each section of your business so they can go straight to the resources they are looking for (and reduces your click through rate in the process!)
Now is the time to channel your inner air traffic controller 🛩 psyche and plan how you’ll drive traffic on your homepage.
Action Steps:
Start with a story. Why should a viewer stay on your page? What’s in it for them?
Compartmentalize your page into at least three sections:
Part One: problem/solution
Part Two: client testimonials
Part Three: CTA – appointment calendar links or order buttons.
Leave the “we’re the best on earth” braggadocio behind! No one cares about us, they only care about how we can make their lives better.
In closing, take some time this week to check the pulse of your page. is it time for a remodel? Even BK and McD know when it’s time to remodel, and look how they’re doing! Go remodel, revamp, and modernize your business page.
Having a Real Estate Portfolio Roadmap Can Help Investors Identify and Visually Communicate Their Vision.
What is a Real Estate Portfolio Roadmap?
A real estate portfolio roadmap (REPF) is a top-down view of your future real estate holdings that you desire to accumulate over the life of your investment career. The roadmap begins as an idea, becomes a plan of action, the steps needed to reach your end goal – the accumulation of real estate – and works as a punch list throughout your journey.
Because of the difficult nature of real estate transactions, namely their many interrelated pieces, the timeframes presented on this type of roadmap are more like aspirational guide posts rather that steadfast directionals or exacting deadlines.
Your REPR is a working, evolving document. It’s goal is to lay the foundation to reverse engineer your investment agenda over the next five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years.
For the novice private investor, a REPR outlines a specific growth path to follow which can help move you towards your end goal faster and with less surprises.
For the investment team, such as a REIT, it moves all stakeholders in the same direction, at the same rhythm, helping them achieve their business objectives with more clarity and synchronicity.
Moreover, using a real estate portfolio roadmap does all of the following:
Provides clarity
Communicates investment impact
Guides the investor (or investment team) along the journey
Creates the initiative to forecast future income & expenses for each investment project (deal)
Assists the project manager in forecasting required resources for specific initiatives
Develop a Real Estate Investment Portfolio Vision.
Ask yourself, “how much money do I want to net in retirement?”
Talk to other investors, bankers, and real estate brokers to learn about income and expenses for any given investment.
Create your investor dream team, which includes an accountant, a lawyer, a banker, and a real estate broker.
Decide on your internal management team. (Are you a solopreneur or an entrepreneur?)
Create Your First Draft Picks – a ‘Bird’s-Eye’ View of Your Real Estate Investment Portfolio Over the Span of Your Career (the roadmap).
The private investor or management team should brainstorm investment options to meet the investment portfolio vision.
Identify specific purchase initiatives, cost estimates, and management (holding) expenses.
Decide on how to best structure each deal, taking into account the availability of investment and working capital, funding, tax implications, legal, government restrictions, and internal level of priority.
Create an Internal Investment Roadmap.
Start with your first purchase objective. Walk through the entire transaction to identify and document all of the potential moving pieces, costs, timing, potential pitfalls, risk reduction strategies, management duties & expenses, and BTCF.
Decide who will be the project manager for the first undertaking (and each project thereafter).
Hire your ‘dream team’ and ask your real estate broker to “shop the market.”
Implement your plan!
Rinse & repeat!
As your portfolio grows, so will your ability to scale up small projects or take on bigger projects. Thus, your roadmap will undoubtedly be edited several times throughout your career.
Remember, not even “…the best laid plans of mice and men” ever happen perfectly. Be flexible. And, above all, enjoy the journey!
In closing, if you want to be (or already are) a real estate investor who has several properties in mind, then you should create a REPR. It will help you to organize, evaluate, prioritize, forecast, track, and communicate your investment initiatives throughout your investment journey.
As a real estate broker, my team and I want to help you understand our markets and identify potential investment opportunities for you. We want to become your ‘go-to’ real estate consultant, “your source for real estate investment solutions!”
In this context, frequency is defined as the number of times you show up and communicate.
For the former, there is a pre-requisite that you know how your audience prefers to communicate about your subject matter. You can research the answer to this query by going to Quora or Reddit to see what questions and answers are shared around your subject matter. (That’s the easiest method.) Alternatively, you could conduct surveys to a random sampling of your audience to determine their communication styles & preferences. With this background research completed, you’ll be able to tune in to their frequency and get your messages across effectively! 📡
As for the latter, the level of frequency in which you need to show up is dependent on the level of noise surrounding your audience. In our Social media age, you will need to show up more often in order to be seen by your audience. Traditionally, the rule of thumb was market to your audience seven times. 7️⃣➕
Today, because of the high quantity of content distribution, you should be showing up about 20 times per prospect. 2️⃣0️⃣➕
You may think that 20 times seems like a lot, because it is a lot, and I may not sit with you well to communicate with one person 20 times on one social media platform. I think the same way too. The good news is that you can mix up those 20 messages over multiple social media platforms so that you don’t come across as desperate or pushy. So let’s say you shop for times on Facebook, four times on Instagram, four times on LinkedIn, four times on YouTube, and four times on Twitter. Now you have made 20 contacts with your audience over 5 channels – not too shabby!
Question: what do I say 20 times?
I’m glad you asked! Use the F.O.R.D. method (family, occupation, recreation, dreams). Spread your communication out so that you communicate four times per day.
Share an activity that you just did or will do together. People know, like, and trust (KLT) other people who are similar to themselves, so you can earn cool points if you happen to be engaging in similar family activities as your audience and their families. 💁♂️🤱💇♀️🤷♂️
We all know that there are good days and bad days at work. Sharing your ups and downs humanize you and makes you more relatable to your audience, just don’t bash anyone from your workplace because you might have a boomerang come back at you. You can vent while being civil. And if you are venting, ask your audience for advice! People love to help other people that are facing similar challenges that they have gone through themselves, it is in our human nature to do so. 🏢 🤫😩😮😬
Write Your Third Post About Recreational Activities.
When was the last time you and your family had a picnic in the park? If you haven’t done this in a while, I recommend that you pack a bag or picnic basket (are those still a thing?), a blanket large enough to provide space for everyone in your family, f&b, and perhaps a good book to read together. Snap a photo and share it! 👨👩👧 📸
Lastly, End Your Posting Day by Talking About Your Dreams (or Your Audiences’ Dreams)!
What are your plans for the future? What plans does your audience have that you can help them achieve? People love to dream about the life they want, but seldom do they write it down and reverse engineer a path to achieve their desires. You can serve them well here.
Q: But When Should I Post?
Let’s follow the KISS method (keep it simple, silly). All of us pretty much start our days between 6 and 10 a.m., so let’s start posting in 4 hour increments (frequency) beginning at 8 a.m.!
8️⃣AM➕1️⃣2️⃣PM➕4️⃣PM➕8️⃣PM
In closing, knowing the frequency at which your audience communicates 🗣👂 and communicating with frequency 🗣✖️4️⃣, using the 🚘 F.O.R.D. Method, across multiple social media channels 🎙 📺 🖥 📲 will provide you with the quality, quantity, and variety sufficient enough to break through the 🚪 barrier of noise (other people’s messages) to get your communications heard by your intended recipients. 👏 🤩 🥰
If you are not already treating your clients like the VIPs that they perceive themselves to be, you’re at risk of losing them as lifetime clients. Many professional entrepreneurs claim to be interested in serving their clients for life, but their actions speak otherwise.
Why You Gotta Be So…Blasé?
Do your clients feel like this after the conclusion of your first business transaction?
Reach Out To Your Past Clients and WOW Them!
It’s time to think outside of the box and differentiate yourself. Send your clients a thank you gift. Not only will this put a smile on their faces, but you’ll stand out from the crowd of other professionals vying for your market share, earn repeat (hopefully lifetime) business, as well as prime your client pump for new referrals.
Stir Things Up With a Surprise!
Do a little creative brainstorming to identify some simple, but effective and meaningful gift ideas. Here are a couple of examples to help you out:
If you work in real estate sales, finance, or title, offer your clients a movie night at home by sending a gift box with a downloadable movie gift card, two bags of popcorn, a package of twizzlers and a box of chocolates.
If you work in law, send your clients a gift certificate for a simple will and advanced directives consultation along with a home fireproof safe.
Create an Opportunity for Your Clients to Win!
Have you considered sponsoring a “client of the month” on your social media channels? A great way to improve your brand image is to select a client of the month who either provided you with the biggest transaction or who sent you the most referral business in the prior month. Sending the winner tickets to a upcoming play with notoriety or to an upscale restaurant will win you major client loyalty! (Be sure to ask the winners to tag you in their social media posts during their “night out on the town! so that your other clients can see it and get inspired to be your next VIP winner!)
“I would like to thank my personal agent [insert your name here]!
In closing, finding ways to honor your clients with elevated experiences AFTER the transaction will help you stay top of mind, win loyalty, earn repeat business, and generate more referrals. While you will take on a bit of costs to implement this brand loyalty program, the ROI can be your very own golden globe of a reward!
Some time ago I had the privilege of speaking with a former director of marketing of a condo conversion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The gentleman had been responsible for driving sales for this project during the pre-recession boom, and back then anything superior to a cardboard box was flying off the market like a SpaceX rocket headed towards the International Space Station in 2020.
I remember seeing lines of buyers waiting to get into a new pre-construction development sales office to buy a condo or single family residence similar to what you may have seen outside of a popular night club or at an Apple store the morning of the release of a new iPhone!
Image courtesy of freestocks.org by Pexels
Even with all of the fast equity buildup hype, developer sales still had lots of competition and I was very curious to know how this marketing pro ran his customer targeting to optimize sales. Here’s the “Aha!” result I got from his answer: market segmentation!
Start With Building Your Buckets: Market Segmentation
Image courtesy of David Waschbüsch of Pexels
The former marketing director told me that he identified 20 types of potential buyers – that’s 20 different client avatars – and created a landing page with copy and graphics that specifically spoke to the wants and needs of each customer segment. Now, I was not a novice about market segmentation. During grad school, I took a feasibility studies class on hotel development and we segmented our prospective hotel guests into three groups: business class, government, and travel/leisure. But this was way beyond that! To identify 20 types of buyers is hyper-focused, granular research (and a lot of work!)
I LOVE IT!
So, the next obvious question should be, “where do I begin?”Fortunately, you’re reading this article and I’m about to guide you through the marketing segmentation forest!
Disclaimer: This segmentation is not intended to redline or dissociate any class of persons, particularly U.S. federally protected classes, from being presented with an opportunity to purchase your goods or services via your marketing efforts. Rather, you should market to all classes using communication skills that speak to each class in a way that resonates with them while accomplishing your marketing objectives (making sales). I would not travel to France and expect the wonderful residents there to speak in English to me. In point of fact, while studying abroad there, I tried to speak the little French I knew at every encounter. C’est mon plaisir!
You can use these 5 marketing segments as “characteristics ofyour client avatars.”
For instance, you can start defining a client avatar as: male, 25-30, 4-year degree, mid-level professional, married with children, $75k-$100k salary, lives in Miami, works from home, wants to home school his children, needs two extra rooms, one for a home office and another for home schooling, drives luxury vehicle, enjoys smooth jazz, fine European wines from Total Wine, follows Jane Monheit, Emilie Claire-Barlow, and Sophie Milman (my personal favorite jazz singers), and enjoys outdoor recreational activities that include hiking and paddle boarding. Websites visited include Pottery Barn, Ashley Home Furniture, Toll Brothers Homes, and Lennar Homes. Favorite clothing includes Nautica and Polo by Ralph Lauren. (Okay, so I’m borrowing my own personal characteristics – you gotta start somewhere!) 🤷🏻♂️
So there you have it, we just defined ONE client avatar; 19 more to go. 😉
After you go through the tedious process of defining your client avatar…🛑 (hold the phone! Isn’t there an easier way to get this task done?! Yes, there is. You need 20 profiles, so target yourself first, then ask 19 people that are different from you in 19 ways, but would still have a need or desire for your product or service, to target (identify) themselves, bada-bing! Get it done smarter, not harder.
Image courtesy of Anthony Shkraba from Pexels
Next, craft your marketing message to each client avatar with the following Q in mind: “How can I satisfy this person’s wants and needs”❓
Your answer should include a curated version of your brand message; the main content is about the features and benefits that your product or service offers, graphics and video that (1) showcases the value and benefits of the product or service in action, (2) includes testimonials that validate your authority and reliability, and (3) includes a call to action, all of which appeals to that one specific client avatar.
Third, find out where they are. each niche client avatar has social media platforms that they prefer to hang out in. Go there.
Fourth, give them what they want. Attract your client avatars by presenting information that either solves a problem or satisfies a desire. Your goal in the initial engagement stage is to drive them to your webpage, so present a compelling call to action that drives traffic to sales or a lead capture page.
In closing, getting hyper-focused on who you are trying to serve will improve your chances of getting higher conversions and the bottom line is the bottom line. 😉
If you haven’t taken the dip in the video marketing waters, now is the time to start – if you like connecting with your community where your future clients exist and you realize that inbound marketing is superior to outbound marketing. 🙀
Okay, so you may be timid about getting in front of the camera, we all are. But, if you turn your attention away from “how you’ll look” and towards “how you will help,” then recording yourself isn’t so bad and is worth a bit of temporary discomfort – being of service often requires some self-sacrifice. 🤨
To help you with your foray into 🎥 recording, I’m giving you a 5-part outline for video content creation that’s applicable to any subject.
1. The Hook.
Start with an attention grabber – this could be an analogy or a question. For example, what if I start my video by stating, “in this video, I’m going to show you how Fozzy the Bear can make you a better writer!” I then show an image of the cute bear and rewrite his name as FOSC, which stands for Focus, Organization, Support, and Convention (which is how the FSA writing test is graded for middle and high school).
Now let’s try a Q: “What are the Pros and Cons of Hiring a Lawyer Who Specializes in Estate Planning and Probate to Draft My Will Versus Going to a General Practitioner?”
As you can see, either hook can draw your audience in with curiosity and open a loop that they will feel compelled to close by watching your video ‘til the end.
2. The Intro.
This is where you’ll give a quick intro to yourself and claim your authority (why they should trust you). You can include your name in writing (a graphic) in the lower third of the screen to identify yourself and your firm.
3. The Bumper
Switch up your video with a mini call to action (CTA) with the following suggestion, “If you get value out of watching this video, hit the like button so others can know.”
4. The Body.
This is where you answer the question or explain the metaphor. Using an outline and sequential order helps your audience follow along each step. Content is critical! Do your hw before making your video.
5. The Conclusion.
This is where you wrap things up with a CTA. For instance, you can ask your audience to book a consult, call your toll-free number, or hit subscribe to learn more.
There you have it, a 5-part outline for making a video. If you have a smartphone, then you’ve got a 2-in-1 high tech camera and video editing studio at the palm of your hands. Now it’s time to take 🎬 “ACTION!”
In today’s noisy world of information, your marketing message needs to be more than just a face in the crowd. To do that, you’ll need to shape your content to reflect what your potential clients want by conducting keyword research and weaving the results into your copywriting. Here’s how.
What Are Your People Searching For?
Image courtesy of: @fotografierende from Pexels
Reflect those words & phrases (KW terms) inside of your content to drive qualified leads, with higher conversion potential, to your landing page while weeding out disinterested traffic (that will cost you money and lead to high bounce rates.)
5 Steps to Conducting Keyword Research!
⌨️ Start with Google Search. Type the topic of interest into the magic search box to see if any autosuggestions surface.
🖥 Select a Keyword research tool. The top apps include: VidIQ, Google AdWords, Keyword Planner, Keyword Researcher Pro, BuzzSumo, and Google Trends (for seasonal keywords).
📝 Create a “seed list.” Brainstorm a group of initial seeds (KWs) to work from. To expand your list, think of some questions your ideal clients would ask, then make a list of words and phrases (KWs) they might use to search for answers.
📑 Refine your results. You want to locate words and phrases that are high in search volume, low in competition, and highly relevant to your business offerings. For instance, if you are a personal injury attorney, common phrases like, “personal injury lawyer” have high search volumes, but they also have a high amount of competition too. 🚩High Volume + High Competition = Low Relevance. 😧 Everyone else is using it, so take “…the road less traveled” and try ranking by using long-tail KWs (phrases with 3 or more words). Be EXTREMELY specific. For example, you could identify your practice area by location: “How can I find a car accident lawyer in Jacksonville Florida” has relevance (car accident = personal injury), “lawyer” is a common KW, and the search phrase is geo-specific! That’s hyper-focused and specific enough to bring a narrowly defined amount of semi-qualified (interest + location) leads. ✅ Lower Search Volume + Less Competition = Higher Ranking! 🏆☺️
🙋🏻♀️ Go SEO. Include your newfound targeted keyword phrases within your content. This is not so “ninja” marketing these days, not since SEO became a stamp of features offered by companies from A to Z. So, how do we do it? By creating videos, blog articles, and any other types of verse or written communication to your target audience that weave these KWs into the fabric of your messages. When you write ad copy with KWs scribed within the message, you’re creating data-driven coding that catalogues your answers to your prospects’ questions, which is what the algorithm digital spiders are searching for within the web.
Image courtesy of Gerd Altman from Pexels
In closing, taking a shotgun approach is like spinning the slot machine 🎰 at a casino and hoping you win clients. Without a targeted audience and a tactical approach to attracting their eyes and ears to your message, you’re essentially 🎲 rolling the dice 🎲with advertising. Instead, take a 🎯 targeted approach! Implement this 5-step KW research model into your marketing and start attracting the right prospects to you. You can thank me later. 👏
Master the Art of Storyselling to Become Entrefluential
Today, I want to talk about using YouTube in a way other than watching your favorite music videos.
Begin With the End(user) in Mind!
Personally, as a real estate broker who is new to YouTube content creation, I began by creating content in mid-2020 for other agents who are new to the business. However, that’s not bringing in revenue and there really wasn’t a marketing plan in place. (Enter John 2.0)
Identify & Craft Content to Your Target Audience.
Target Audience: Newlyweds
Start with identifying the demographics (age, gender, education, marital status, geography, etc.) and psychographics (social media habits, spending habits, etc.) of your ideal clients. Discover what they want, then give them what they want. The goal of communication is PIE (persuade, inform, and entertain.)
Start With a Marketing Plan!
What is Your Target Audience Searching For?
Personally, in 2021, I want to make videos where I talk about real estate in Florida, beginning with Jacksonville. I want to deliver the content in a fun and entertaining way, while being educational and inspirational. I can do this by sharing home buying and selling tips, infusing enthusiasm and humor in the process, and dressing sharp to convey that I still mean business! 👔😉
I see YouTube as a FREE TV channel where we can advertise our companies and build our brand recognition up with a shoestring budget. As a solopreneur or small business owner, your strategy should be to use your YTC (that is, your YouTube channel) to help bolster your website’s SEO.
For example, by posting videos about Jacksonville real estate on a regular basis, prospects are more likely to view my videos, blog posts, or website if they search for the phrase “Jacksonville Real Estate” on Google. Given my topics, I don’t think too many people of the 1.2 billion YT viewers will see my videos in general, but my target audience will! And if I happen to get, say, 5,000 views, then I will feel like my keyword research and topic selections are working. 🥇
Social Media Marketing
We “entrefluencers” think of our YTC as part of a marketing machine, along with Google Ads and other social media channels.
– John W. Tanner, JD|MS
Lead Nurturing.
Brand RAMP and TOMA. If these two marketing terms are new to you, don’t fret. Brand “RAMP” is an acronym for Recognize, Articulate, Memorize, and Prefer. “TOMA” stands for Top of Mind Awareness. Consider publishing new videos on a weekly basis as an excellent way to nurture & incubate your leads (Brand RAMP) inside your sales cycle, while simultaneously allowing you to stay Top-of-Mind with your current client base.
Action! Batch Your YouTube Vids Quarterly.
Batch Your Film Production to Maximize Efficiency
📝 Create a storyboard & script 12 commercials for the next 12 weeks.
🎥 Schedule your video production team to shoot all 12 video commercials in a day.
🖥 Outsource your post-production editing and SFX to save time.
📺 Hand over the content to your social media manager to upload & email your videos weekly (or DIY).
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel!
For scripting ideas, consider what your ideal client is concerned about. Look online for FAQs, see what your competitors are doing, and observe what other top performers are doing in other markets! Lastly, take time to review keywords and topics that are presently trending in your niche and/or market. Use these terms and phrases in your title and thumbnails.
Final Thoughts: KISS
Keep it simple, silly. 🤪 Jump right into the water (topic) 🏊 and get out within 3 to 5 minutes. ⏲ Keep your videos short & sweet! 💛 That’ll keep your prospects and clients wanting more! 🤩
CTA: Don’t forget to hit that like 👍 button and “Subscribe” 🙋🏻♀️ for more awesome sauce! 🤜🤛
