Real Estate Advertising Tips

Are you using Video Marketing for your Real Estate business?

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:32:08 -0700

Go Smart Solutions has created VidShout to satisfy the need for entrepreneurs, small and mid-sized businesses, and large corporations, the ability to add video to their online advertising efforts and get in front of the growing number of consumers and businesses who are using online videos as a way to research products and services online.

Video Distribution

VidShout offers businesses unparalleled exposure, branding, and lead capture on its self-service video advertising platform

VidShout’s self service platform allows users to create video ads from photos using its online video wizard and syndicate their video ads across multiple online networks. The video distribution provided by VidShout includes over 60 online properties including video networks, online directories, shopping sites, and social networks making it a powerful online advertising platform for businesses.

VidShout members create a profile and upload photos to create a video. Once photos are uploaded users choose to add music or their own voice file in .mp3 format as well as a custom banner for their video page. Users also have the option of uploading their own videos to the Vidshout platform.

Vidshout is a lead generating powerhouse. Each video a user creates using the VidShout platform automatically generates a free landing page that is fully branded and search engine optimized. Once a video is created using the video creation wizard or an existing video is uploaded to the Vidshout Platform users can then create a video landing page.

Landing pages created using the VidShout platform act like mini websites for online video ads. Users can add a description of their online video, their contact information, their logo, and a header. User can then choose their landing page from multiple landing page templates within the VidShout platform. Each landing page includes call to action forms, and links, making it easy for businesses to capture leads from their online video advertising efforts.

The Vidshout platform comes full circle by distributing its users’ videos across over 60 social networks and directories including Youtube, Vimeo, Google Base, PriceGrabber, eBay, Yahoo Shopping, Facebook, Twitter. VidShout has an activity and leads reporting tool that allows users to track opens, clicks, and leads generated to and from their videos.

Vidshout is affordable for every budget with a 20% discount for yearly plans. This cost effective self-service video marketing platform allows users the ability to use one video advertising platform to create lead generating online advertising campaigns that are easy to create, facilitate, manage and track their campaign’s effectiveness and their ROI.

VidShout is part of the Go Smart Solutions, LLC ad service family. It is an online video advertising solution for businesses. Its user-friendly self-service platform allows members to create professional videos and search engine friendly landing pages which are distributed to a host of online directories, video networks, shopping sites, and social networks.

A cost-effective online advertising solution, VidShout also offers a powerful API that enables affiliates, resellers, software developers, or bulk advertisers to interface with its video advertising system. For more information visit www.vidshout.com.

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

Real Estate Broker Marketing
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Create a Real Estate Facebook Page In Minutes

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 18 May 2010 23:25:50 -0700

Facebook Business Page service, FaceItPages.com, offers a do-it-yourself Facebook page creation tool that will allow Real Estate Professionals and other business professionals to easily create search engine friendly Facebook Business Pages. The service offers a gallery of Facebook template design styles that users can customize with their own header, logo, images, video, and more.

Customers can browse through the gallery to find a design that best matches their site, branding, or style. By uploading their own branding, photos, content and video, a user can make the design one-of-a-kind. After the design is saved, FaceItPages.com will provide the design code for users to add to their Facebook Public Profile, Fan page, or Business Page.

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

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Content Is Not King If It Can't Be Found

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:12:37 -0800

So, you have killer content and you have optimized that content for search engines and what users would search. (And by “optimized”, I mean your titles and meta tags are search friendly and you have done your keyword research to determine the best key phrases to target). So now what? Well, the old adage “content is king” doesn’t just work magically on its own. Content is not king unless you distribute and syndicate it. You can have tons of the greatest content in the world, but that won’t get you very far if you are not distributing it.

Following are a few ways to get your content in front of search engines:

Bookmarking
Sitemaps
Google XML site maps
Backlinks
Submit to feed directories

Ways to get in front of users:

Social networks
Post ads on classified sites
Tell people

So, if you have great content, that’s a good start. Remember, though, that your content won’t be “king” unless you distribute it around the web for others to find!

Read full post about content is not king

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

Real Estate Broker Marketing
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Real Estate WordPress Plugin Enables Searchable Listings for Free

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:20:33 -0800

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

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

Real Estate Broker Marketing
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Be Careful What You Tweet From Your Brand

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:18:18 -0800

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

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

All online rental ads are not created equal

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:55:36 -0700

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

View My Other Recent Posts

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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
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This is for all of those long tail SEO skeptics

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:06:05 -0700

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 >>

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

Real Estate Broker Marketing
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Home Crisis Investigation - Very Funny

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:57:56 -0700

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.

www.thedailyshow.com

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 really want to be used in Facebook ads?

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:50:06 -0700

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

Are you in violation of Craigslist Terms and Conditions?

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:02:22 -0700

We recently launched our ultimate ad customizer, which allows you to further customize your Craigslist, blog, website postings (30 new formats, set the width, different colors, etc.). One of the top questions we have been asked is why don’t we have live links on the Craigslist version. The simple answer is because it is against the Craigslist TOU.

Under conduct it clearly states:

7. CONDUCT

You agree not to post, email, or otherwise make available Content:

m) that includes links to commercial services or web sites, except as allowed
in "services";

Posting a listing is not considered "services" and I could be wrong here but I am pretty sure a Real Estate website is considered commercial.

Yes I know MANY others posts links but we respect the Craigslist terms of use and are not going to put our members or ourselves in a position to break them.

Happy posting!

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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
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Customizable Ads for Craigslist, Localism, Outside Blogs

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:33:47 -0700

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

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

Are you advertising with video?

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:48:19 -0700

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
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Do you syndicate your ActiveRain blog?

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:37:10 -0700

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

Are You Tracking Your Online Conversions?

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:53:46 -0700

A conversion is generally defined as an event that results in a transaction. A "transaction" will be defined differently based on your business model and what your end goal is (ie. information, sign up, subscription, payment, etc.). Regardless of how you define your conversions and transactions, it is important to track where they are coming from.

Maybe you blog on multiple blog platforms such as Wordpress and ActiveRain. Are you keeping track of leads you get from those platforms and in addition to how many of those leads are converting? Maybe you post videos to different video platforms or syndicate your listings to multiple directories. Maybe you use Twitter or Facebook or focus heavily on your own website. Are you tracking the leads and conversions you receive from all of these sources?

If not, you may be spending valuable time in places that are not giving you a return on your investment. Sure, maybe some of these resources are free but your time is not free; it is an investment. Maybe it's time to take a closer look at which resources have the highest conversion.

Click here to view and download a spreadsheet to help track your conversions

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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
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Don't Do That!

Real Estate Advertising - Misty Lackie (Go Smart Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:15:40 -0800

I am so tired of being told what not to do.

First of all, let me start off by saying that this is not directed at any one person in particular, just a trend that I’ve seen a lot of lately. I apologize now if this post offends anyone… okay now that that's out of the way, let me get right to the point!

It seems like the trend lately in blog posts is:

How to blog
How not to blog
What to write
What not to write
How to comment
How not to comment
How to promote
How not to promote
How to use Twitter
How not to use Twitter

Wow, where did all of these "experts" and "gurus" come from so fast?

Why should anyone's way be "the way" for everyone? What works for some may not work for others – the workings on the web are not black and white. Your preferred method may not be someone else’s preferred method. What it boils down to is this: you should do what works for you. If you are blogging for business, then do what brings in the most leads. Once you figure that out, then all the advice people give about what to do and what not to do will matter very little because you will know what works for you.

One of the great thing about blogging and web 2.0 is that if someone doesn’t like what you are doing; how you are blogging, what you are tweeting, what message you’re sending, then they can simply ignore you.

I would much rather see posts about "tips" on what you are doing that is actually working for you and specific examples of methods that have brought you leads, rather than the constant "don’t do that" scolding posts with no meat behind them.

If you can show "why" along with "how not to" or the "don't do" then I will be more open to taking the advice. This post is also in no way meant to attack all the wonderful "how to" tips that AR members bring to the table.

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