Given the recent addition of Google’s “search plus your world“, which puts more weight on Google+ content in search results, it is even more important than ever to adopt a Google+ presence in your Real Estate marketing strategy.

The following are 6 great ways you can use Google+ in your real estate marketing strategy:

1) Remember the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
If there is one single thing you keep in mind about SEO, it is to always incorporate your target real estate keyword in any online content you produce. Your Google+ profile is no different. Remember to incorporate your keywords in any content you publish on Google+, including your business biography.

2) Make your profile POP!
Even though Google+ is currently being underutilized by Real Estate Agents, the day will come when finding your business profile will be like finding a needle in a haystack. That’s why it is essential that you set your business apart from the masses. Upload an attractive looking profile. Utilize the feature photo section (the 5 photos you can set up to display under your profile headline). Check out how Denver’s Two Top Marketing made their photo strip unique.

3) Utilize The Circles feature
One of the big complaints Real Estate Agents have about Facebook is the lack of an ability to segment followers and make sure they target potential buyers. Google recognized this and developed its Circles feature. This allows you to sort your connections into different groups. Then when you post certain updates you can choose which of your circles see the information. This is a great way to separate your leads, or segment potential buyers by location. Feel free to put a single contact into as many circles as you see fit.

4) Make sure people know about your Google+ page elsewhere on the Internet.
Google+ offers different widgets and buttons that you can easily put onto your website, email signature, or anywhere else you can think of in order to let people know that your business is on Google+.  A simple “Follow us on G+” button will direct them to your profile, or you can add a +1 button (similar to a Facebook “like” button) to all your property sites, blog posts, etc. Make sure you use them!

5) Share relevant and interesting content to engage your audience.
For many Real Estate Agents, writing is not a natural talent. But the good news is you don’t have to be a great writer to engage your audience. If you don’t feel comfortable creating blog content on your own, you can easily write a summary of a blog article you think would interest your target market, and post it to your own blog. Simply give credit to the original author by linking back to their article, or mentioning them in your post. Share your article link on your Google+ profile to drive traffic back to your own site.

6) “Hanging Out” on Google+
A cool little feature that is consistently under-utilized by a majority of all businesses on Google+. It’s a great way to hold live classes, webinars, take live Q&A sessions, show a property tour, etc. Get really creative and stand out from the rest of your competing Agents.

As with any new marketing medium, Google+ will release constant new features and updates in the coming months. Getting your business on board Google+ right now will give you a jump on your competition. Who know, you might even have a little fun!

Post a link to your Google+ profile below for FREE advice on how you can enhance it even further.

Whatever the reasons for lacking a blog, “content marketing” is essential to add to your site to set you apart from your competitors.

The following are 4 reasons you need to incorporate content marketing in your real estate marketing strategy:

1) It builds TRUST
It’s hard for potential home buyers to go an entire day without being bombarded with some type of advertisement to buy a new home. This has caused potential buyers to always have their guard up, wondering, “What’s the catch?” Providing consumers with helpful content shows that you are genuinely interested in helping them, and also allows them to find your content when THEY want it. If you write content based on what you know and what you are good at, the consumers will be able to see that you are a trusted resource instead of some greasy salesperson with malicious intentions.

2) Content Marketing is FREE
Not only is blogging a great real estate marketing technique, it also requires no monetary investment on your part. The only thing it will cost you is the time it takes you to research your desired topic and type it out. What’s better than effective marketing? FREE effective marketing.

3) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Blogging isn’t just a platform for you to get your opinions in front of potnetial buyers, it’s a way to boost your website’s search ranking as well. If you have already begun a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program, incorporate your target keywords into your blog posts at least a few times. Not only does this show the search engines what your article is about, it also helps you keep your content on-topic and relevant for your target market.

4) People like to share good content
By adding social media buttons to your blog posts, you allow people to share your content with their social networks as well. WordPress and many other blogging platforms automatically include these buttons in your blog posts in order to make it as easy as possible for others to share your quality content. A well written blog piece can take on a life of its own after people begin to share it!

When it all comes down to it, the best rule of thumb to remember in your new content marketing is to write about things that people want to hear, and stay focused on your target market. If you are a Real Estate Agent, writing articles on video games will likely fall on deaf ears. Keep the content interesting, unique, and beneficial, and you will see great results for your real estate marketing!

We have compiled the following list of 5 essential FREE apps that real estate professionals need to consider:

1) Zillow
Zillow is a leader in mobile real estate, providing data for all homes in the U.S. on the Zillow network. Making sure your listings are on Zillow will give you a huge advantage, making it easy for buyers to find your listings wherever they are. Buyers can look up rent estimates, home values, homes for sale/rent, and more.

2) Realtor.com Real Estate Search
Realtor.com has a huge amount of listings that are constantly being updated. It has a ton of great features including map search, saved searches and listings synchronized with the website, private ratings and notes, and the ability to share listings with your friends, agent and social network.

3) Trulia
This is another great app for potential buyers to find local homes and apartments for sale or rent. Buyers can also use the Trulia app to search for local real estate professionals and Agents in their area.

4) HotPads
This app is geared towards renters looking for information on apartments, houses for rent, real estate, vacation rentals and hotels.

5) Craigslist
It’s obvious that Craigslist plays a huge part in how people find home and apartments for sale or rent. The app let’s them see all your Craigslist property listings including all your beautiful property images and contact information directly on their mobile device.

What are some of your favorite real estate apps?

While there are a lot of great ideas in the presentation, the following points are some highlights we feel will have the biggest impact on Agents and other Real Estate marketing professionals:

1) Social media budgets will grow.
It will become even harder to compete in the social media sphere. Agents will see the benefit of a targeted social media strategy and will begin to put more time, effort, and money into their own.

2) Content Creation
In the Real Estate industry it is imperative that potential buyers see YOU as the expert. Providing online content such as blog posts and social media updates is a perfect way to share your knowledge of your target market.

3) Making websites mobile and tablet friendly
It is mind blowing how many people use their mobile device to search for information. Potential home buyers are no different. Make sure your websites are optimized to view on smart phones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

4) Facebook will surpass 1 billion users
Facebook is here to stay. If you aren’t already using it to get your name in front of potential buyers, 2012 is the perfect time to start.

Click here to view the entire slideshow.

While the success of both depends on the keywords you choose, there are some things to keep in mind when conducting your research:

Search Volume
In your SEO research, you want to target the keywords with the highest search volume.  With PPC keywords, search volume is not as important.

The reason:
You don’t have to pay each time your website appears in search results via your SEO efforts. You DO have to pay each time someone clicks on your PPC ad.  Therefore it makes sense that you don’t want it to show up in 1,000,000 searches per month. So instead of choosing a broad keyword like “real estate” which has a very high search volume, you would be better off choosing a more targeted set of keywords that have maybe the second or third most traffic.

Keyword Focus
When researching keywords for your SEO campaign, you want to find those with a broad focus, while you want to find more narrow and specific keywords for your PPC campaign.

The reason:
With your SEO efforts, you want keywords that cover many different streams of incoming traffic.  You want your website to appear in front of as many people as possible.  With PPC, you want to target specific keywords that relate to exactly what type of customer you are targeting.  For example, if you specialize in selling condos in Denver and you choose “homes for sale” for your PPC campaign keyword, you will likely end up having to pay for people searching for other types of properties in other locations around the country. Those clicks will be irrelevant because that isn’t your target market. A much more targeted keyword like “townhomes for sale in Denver” will get your name in front of a group who IS looking for your type of properties. Again, cost per click is a huge determining factor.

Motivations
People conduct searches for a whole variety of different reasons.  Your job as a real estate professional is to discover these reasons, and how you can leverage them into maximum profit for your business.  Is someone simply browsing for more information on the mortgage process, or are they looking to refinance their home?  When deciding on PPC campaign keywords, you want to focus on those that will bring in buyers, not browsers.  For example, someone searching for “mortgage” is less likely to become a customer than someone who searches for “how can I refinance my home?”.

While there are certainly many more deciding factors when it comes to keyword research, the items mentioned above are a good starting point.  In the end, it’s NOT a matter of deciding whether to pursue SEO or PPC in your real estate marketing strategy, it’s a matter of effectively using them both in tandem, to maximize your search engine traffic.

In order to help you get a leg up on your competition we have compiled the following list of 4 simple ways you can utilize video in your real estate marketing strategy.

1) Potential buyers love visual aids.

- Property Walkthroughs
Virtual slideshow tours are great and should definitely be used, but why not add a video walkthrough of your property? You can never have enough pictures or videos of the inside and outside of an available property, and potential buyers love having the ability to preview properties from the comfort of their own home. You don’t have to be Steven Spielberg to create a great video walkthrough. While recording the video, tell the viewer some important facts about the home or some interesting features. Incorporating video walkthroughs with slideshows and still pictures will give your potential buyers some great visual aids in helping them make their decision.

- Neighborhood Tours
When buyers are deciding on potential properties, there is no argument that the surrounding neighborhood is a huge determining factor. How can you leverage the neighborhood’s best qualities? That’s right, with video! Drive to some of the local hotspots and take a few shots panning the area. Think about what makes that area unique, and go out and film it. This is especially useful for out of town buyers.

2) Word-of-mouth marketing is FREE.
One of the single most effective means for marketing in real estate is word of mouth. Potential buyers obviously need to build up a level of trust in you in order to help them feel more comfortable in their home buying experience. Contact some of your previous clients and ask them if they’d be willing to record a short 30 – 60 second video on how you helped them through their purchase. Give them 2 or 3 prompted questions, or simply let them ad-lib, whichever you think will portray you the best.

3) Be the expert.
In an industry with such a high amount of competition, it is very important that people view YOU as the expert. A great way to show people that you are the “go-to guy/gal” is to record short webinars. You can talk about anything you want, from home buying tips, to industry events, to addressing common questions… Anything that you think will help potential buyers and sellers.

4) Distribution is key.
Having a wide variety of well-planned real estate videos won’t do you any good unless you can effectively get people to watch them. In a previous article we discussed 8 Quick Tips on Using YouTube to Sell Homes. YouTube is one of the best places to share your videos to potential buyers. You can set up your own YouTube channel that allows you to have all your videos hosted in one place. Be sure to link back to your videos on your other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You can even grab the embed code of your videos and post them directly onto your website.

The ways in which you can utilize videos in your real estate marketing strategy is really only limited to your own creativity. What are some of the most creative uses of real estate video marketing that you have seen?

The following are 3 tips to effectively optimize your page and increase your real estate marketing effectiveness:

1) Content is King
Having keyword-rich, unique content on your site is one of the most important things you can do to increase your search rankings. Google has a free tool to help you figure out specific keywords and phrases that you want to target. Incorporating these keywords into your content will not only give readers a better idea of your purpose, but it will also help Google “read” what your page is about. It is important to make sure that you don’t force the keywords into your content however. You still want to sound natural for your readers.

2) Geographical Keywords
In addition to incorporating industry keywords into your site, you also want to incorporate specific geographical keywords as well. Say you are a Real Estate Agent who serves the Denver area. Make sure you reference “Denver” throughout your content. Be sure to consider the size your target area. For instance, some geographical areas like New York City are going to have much more competition than a city like Denver. So if you are a Real Estate Agent in New York City, perhaps you should focus on using more targeted geographic modifiers such as Manhattan, Brooklyn, or similar refined areas. Again, you can use the free Google Keywords tool to find out how much search volume your keyword has.

3) Don’t Ignore HTML Title and Alt Tags
A website’s HTML serves as a sort of roadmap for search engines indexing your website. They crawl through your HTML and look for specific coding attributes. Two areas in particular to pay special attention to are your <title> and <alt> tags. Title tags are what appear in the top of the visitor’s web browser (on this site you will see “4 Simple Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips for Real Estate Marketing” in the top of your browser). Incorporate the same keywords you used in step #1 into your title tags. Alt tags are used in the images on your real estate website, and are visible when someone hovers their cursor over the image (images also have title tags). Again, you want to incorporate your keywords into your alt tags.

4) Link Building
Another thing that major search engines take into account when indexing your real estate website is the amount of quality incoming links your site has from external websites. A great way to add incoming links is to post your business to Google Places, Yelp, social media sites, blogs, etc. The more credibility the external site has, the higher quality the link will be in the eyes of search engines.

5) Blogs
Blogs are a great way to show potential buyers and sellers that you are the expert in your specific target market. Not only are blogs a great place to showcase your expertise, blog content is a great place to incorporate your desired keywords and also provide your site with an inbound link. Just be sure to not sound too “salesy” in your blog content. Providing your readers with useful information is the best way to keep them coming back for more.

6) Incorporate Keywords in Your URL
Many real estate professionals overlook the importance of having a well thought out URL. This is yet another area where you can incorporate your most important keyword and geographical location. For example, targetareahomesforsale.com (replace “targetarea” with your own geographic keyword) is a great way to use one of the most common phrases potential buyers use when searching for home in their area.

These are just some of the ways you can effectively optimize your website. Following these 6 simple steps will give you a very solid foundation for your real estate marketing and SEO strategy.

Please feel free to comment on how you have effectively optimized your own real estate website!

While they are all excellent tips, we have received a lot of feedback from people wondering how to even set up a YouTube channel in the first place, in order to put the 8 tips into action.

Not to worry! Below is a beginner’s guide to setting up your own YouTube channel to help with your real estate marketing strategy:

1) Head on over to the YouTube homepage and click one of the “Create Account” links located on the top of the page. You will be asked to fill out your information. After submitting your information and confirming your email address, return to the homepage and click the “Sign In” link at the top right of the page and sign in using the account information you just created.

2) After signing in you will be taken to your channel home page. This is where you can control the content you put onto your YouTube channel. To upload your first video, click the “Upload” button on the upper right side. Some good examples of videos to upload are property tours, neighborhood tours, or maybe simply a video introducing yourself.

3) Now simply start interacting with other users by commenting on their videos, or directing your friends and family to your channel. As with all social networks, interaction is the key to successfully growing a following (a.k.a. potential sales!).

Stay tuned for future updates on how to brand your YouTube channel to match the color and design of your other real estate marketing collateral.

Today, things have obviously changed due to the rapid innovation of marketing strategies the Internet has provided. Consumers these days are more likely to use an Internet search instead of a newspaper to find a property, and what they find as a result of that search can make or break you in terms of sales.

The question is, what online channels should you be targeting in order to make sure consumers find YOU and not your competition? The following infographic breaks down the science of the “Social Consumer” and gives brands some insight as to how they should be targeting their potential customers.

If you have trouble viewing the below image, please click here to view the full size.

Did you know that besides being a great place for buyers to find properties, Google also offers a full suite of tools to help real estate professionals reach these potential home buyers?

Some of these tools include:

• AdWords
• Google Places
• Maps
• Google Profile
• YouTube
• Google Sketchup
• Google Apps
• Google Earth

Read the complete list of Google’s tools for real estate professionals and learn about how they can help you maximize your reach.

Are you a Loan Officer or Lender looking to connect with Realtors and FSBOs? Click here to learn how to dominate your LENDING market.

Are you a Real Estate Agent looking to impress sellers and maximize the exposure of your listings to potential buyers? Click here to dominate your LISTING market.