Real Estate Advertising Tips

As an alternative to IDX solutions, real estate marketing company, RealShout, offers a free WordPress plugin that allows agents and brokers to have searchable real estate listings on their site.

With WordPress being the choice for many real estate bloggers, RealShout has unveiled a new plugin for the publishing platform that will enable real estate professionals to have searchable local listings on their blog or website.

RealShout Real Estate Wordpress Plugin

Up until now, real estate professionals had to purchase expensive IDX solutions in order to display neighboring listings to their visitors

The free searchable listing Real Estate Wordpress plugin can be installed on any WordPress template and functional the same day. Pulling data from the Google Base API, the plugin provides ample data to populate any real estate site. Customization capabilities include colors, location (cities), distance, bedrooms, bath, and price. The plugin enables listings to display in a list with thumbnail pictures, which can be clicked on to view more details, photos, a Google Map, and more.

Setting it apart from many IDX services, the RealShout plugin does not place listings in an iframe, thus allowing them to be indexed by search engines.

“Up until now, real estate professionals had to purchase expensive IDX solutions in order to display neighboring listings to their visitors,” says Misty Lackie, CEO of Go Smart Solutions, LLC, the parent company of RealShout. “We’re offering this plugin for free to allow agents and brokers to have searchable listings on their site without spending hundreds of dollars.”

The plugin is offered for free on the RealShout website or the WordPress Plugin Directory, and is compatible with most WordPress templates.

RealShout.com is a real estate marketing company that guarantees leads for agents, real estate brokers, and mortgage brokers. The company also offers marketing services to MLS’s nationwide.

RealShout is the creation of Go Smart Solutions, LLC, a company that has been providing advertising solutions for professionals and small businesses since 2002. RealShout provides lead generating online real estate advertising for agents and brokers in the industry.

You can view a live site that is running this from Real Estate In Chicago

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

With the recent changes Google implemented that shows tweets directly within the search results, it is more important than ever that you think about what you tweet. Your tweets now have a chance of showing up when someone searches for your brand, name, product, service, etc., and these tweets show up at the very top of search results. This means they will most likely get clicked and viewed before your web pages and other content.  Following are some key points you should consider when tweeting:

Are basic conversations you have on Twitter going to take away from your conversion?

A basic @reply tweet like, “Hey thanks for drinks tonight”, or something similar, may show up in a Google search when potential clients are searching for your brand.  Does your brand, service or product have anything to do with going out for drinks?  If not, what will your clients and customers think? Is this really the first impression you want to leave them with?

Are links you post sending your potential clients AWAY from you?

Now this is a big one, and one that I am trying to evaluate for myself as well.  I post links all the time on Twitter to other resources/websites.  These tweets with links now have the potential to show up in the top of Google when searching for your brand/name.  Think of what could possibly happen if a user, searching for your brand, see’s your tweets at the top of the search results and clicks on the link you tweeted.  You just may lose that client because they now clicked on a link that is associated with your name but actually takes them to a page that has nothing to do with your company.

Are your non-business tweets hurting you?

Again, another one I struggle with, since I tweet both about business related stuff and non-business related stuff.  While the non-business related stuff is always clean and friendly, it is not targeted to my brand and I am pretty sure if a potential client searches Google for my brand and sees these types of tweets at the top of the results, they will be completely confused.

Following is a screen shot of a search on one of our brand names that illustrates some of these concerns.

 

While I have no concerns of my conversation with Kathy and I think she has built a solid Twitter presence for herself, I have to think about how a potential client would respond when seeing this in Google search results for my business.  Will they click Kathy’s name and be taken to her Twitter account?  That would be great for Kathy, but could the potential client misunderstand that Kathy’s Twitter account is the Go Smart account?  Now imagine if a conversation you have with someone who doesn’t have a solid or professional Twitter profile shows up in Google for your brand.  Imagine if the potential client clicks on that person’s name and see’s some not-so-appealing stuff.

Now let’s look at the second example.  Again, a tweet that I have no concerns of and one that actually links to a very valuable blog post.  BUT again, as a business owner, I have to consider how this may confuse a potential client or send them AWAY from our company and services.  A potential client will most likely click on this link and be taken to a page that has nothing to do with Go Smart Solutions or our services.  Can we say “confusion”?

You have to remember that you and I and whoever else is reading this is probably aware of and understand these latest changes, but your everyday person (clients, consumers) are in a completely different world and have no idea about this stuff.  All they know is, all of a sudden, these scrolling results are now sometimes showing at the top of their searches.

See my other posts about similar topics

• Is Real Time Search REALLY a Good Idea?
• Are You Ready For Google Search Changes
• Google Search Sidebar
• Twitter is Important For SEO
• This is for all of those long-tail SEO skeptics
• Have you seen Google’s new search options?

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

In fact, many factors determine whether a rental ad will be successful at attracting renter leads. With so much information and so many choices on the internet, rental marketers need to make sure their ads catch - and hold - the attention of potential renters.

This week, we're highlighting one of our members' ads that received over 40 phone and email leads in one month... 40! For those who like to keep track of the numbers, that's less than a buck a lead (Single-family rental ad = $29.99). Let's breakdown the strong points of this ad that helped to make it a success:

• Photos
• Competitive Rental Rates
• Low Deposit or Incentives
• Widespread Distribution
• Easy to Contact

Read more about each of these 5 rental advertising tips

View My Other Recent Posts

• Twitter is Important For SEO
• I Choose Not To Fail
• Using PPC Advertising To Determine Target Keywords
• How Schools Can Save Money By Using Technology
• This is for all of those long-tail SEO skeptics

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

I am a big proponent on targeting long tail keywords.  Sure a single long tail phrase may bring in less traffic than a single short phrase, but long tail keywords are so much easier to convert.  The screenshot below shows just how powerful long tail SEO is.  This is long tail "organic search" traffic that came into one of our sites for a campaign we did for a client.  As you can see from this screenshot, this campaign drew in 8,424 visits from 8,186 different search phrases in 1 month.  Yes you read that right - 8,186 different search phrases all from long tail. 

Following are a few reasons why I am such a big fan of long tail >> 

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

Funny video from The Daily Show.

"If Timothy Geithner is as bad at handling the economy as he is at picking bathroom tiles, he won't need to sell his house."

Make sure and watch the entire video to see the bathroom.

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

Do you want your Facebook actions to control what ads show up on your friends Facebook wall?  Well that may just happen if you are not aware of the Facebook privacy setting that allows for this.

The Facebook News Feed and Wall setting states:

"Facebook occasionally pairs advertisements with relevant social actions from a user's friends to create Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads make advertisements more interesting and more tailored to you and your friends. These respect all privacy rules. You may opt out of appearing in your friends' Facebook Ads below."

So how can you disable this?

When logged into Facebook navigate to "Settings"

 Choose "News Feed and Wall" from the privacy settings page

 Choose "Facebook Ads" from the News Feed and Wall page and set "Appearance in Facebook Ads" to No one

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

Post your listings to Craigslist, Active Rain, Localism, Outside Blogs, and anywhere else online!

We've just released the Ultimate Ad Customizer which will enable subscribed members to place listings on Craigslist, and all around the web, with ease and style. With 30 new color, layout, and width combinations to choose from, listings are sure to stand out from the crowd.

Posting your ads to ActiveRain, Localism, or other narrow-width sites? No problem! Set the width of your online ad to fit right in. There's really no limit to where you can post your ads online.

Cross Advertising Benefits of Your Ads

In addition to the increased leads and stylish online presence that come with the new Ultimate Ad Customizer, we've also enhanced these ads in another (very cool) way. Now, subscribed members who take advantage of the Ultimate Ad Customizer will benefit from free cross-advertising on those listings!

If you choose the cross advertising option, there will be a section at the bottom of your posted ads featuring each of your other listings with links, short details, and a thumbnail picture. Now that's what we call easy advertising!

Save 20% with promo code ACTIVERAIN

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

Google has expanded on their Universal Search options to include video-specific results.  This is bringing more eyeballs to videos from searches.  Oftentimes videos will even show up in Google's organic results without the need to click the video link.  We recently did a rental video marketing campaign for a client and within days were able to see results.  The video ranked on the first page in Google's video search results and in less than a week the video received over 350 views from the different video portals. 

Are you taking advantage of video marketing for your listings?  If not you are missing out on Google exposure as well as exposure from the video portals. 

How about creating localized videos about your county?  Creating a targeted video optimized around different cities in your county can be another way for you to dominate your local area.

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

Did you know that your ActiveRain blog includes an RSS feed?

Many do not realize the power of RSS feeds and what you can do with them. One of the most powerful things you can do with feeds is easily distribute and share your content on the web. As you probably know, the more places on the web that your content is, the better.

Did you know that you could easily add your ActiveRain feed to FaceBook, FriendFeed, ClassifiedFlyerAds and many other online resources?

Adding your feeds to these resources will instantly distribute your content into these networks. All you need to do is get the URL from the rss link on your blog and input that URL into other online resources that accept feeds.

Okay, so now you know how to get your blog feed. Now let me give you some resources where you can share your feed.

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative