Wednesday, 11 January 2017

LEAD GENERATION ON GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK

There are a lot of companies offering Lead Generation solutions that leverage ad networks like Google and Facebook. I thought it would be helpful to provide some insight into how these systems work, and some important tips every real estate agent should know before investing in an online ad campaign.
First it's important to know the basics. How do Online Ad Campaigns work:
First you choose an Ad Platform (The big ones are Facebook and Google, but there are others) Second you develop your Ad and the Call to Action (what is going to get them to click?) Third, you need a Landing Page (something that speeks to the Call to Action). Most people send clicks to the home page of their website, but this can hurt your conversion rate. Ok. So now you have a good idea of the basic needs of an online campaign. AD PLATFORM + AD + LANDING PAGE.
Now it's important to understand the "User Behavior" of different ad platforms too. Not all ad platforms are created equal. The mind set and the user experience of every website is different. Here are the basic differences

OFFRS.COM VOTED BEST PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS PLATFORM FOR REAL ESTATE

offrs.com is proud to announce our continued success in customer service and providing outstanding value to the real estate industry. With over 4,000 agents using our platform, offrs.com reviews continue to be tracked on popular review sites including Google Reviews, Crunchbase and other reputable review websites.
"Our company has always been focused on providing value to our customer", says Rich Swier. "Some of the efforts we are most proud of is our unlimited free online training for all our customers, and our community help center where we respond to questions on a daily basis and share the insights with our customers to help them improve their business.

Thursday, 29 December 2016

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT REAL ESTATE PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS?

If you’re a realtor, you know how much being the first in the door can impact your likelihood of getting a seller listing. Predictive analytics when applied to real estate marketing and utilized correctly can significantly affect how you generate seller leads for real estate.
Four years ago, when Mark Dickson co-founded Offrs.com with Rich Swier, Jr., they realized quickly there was a gap in the real estate industry that didn’t account for the full potential of the digital age. “There was no technology or systems in place to help realtors identify actual seller listings,” says Dickson. After identifying a need, Dickson and Swier assembled a team of Ph.Ds to crunch numbers and create a solution using smart data for real estate to project who will likely sell in a 12-month period.
The premise of their business model is based on Dickson’s previous real estate experience and the use of predictive analytics - a new approach to real estate marketing for seller leads.
So, what exactly is predictive analytics and why should realtors care about this term? Predictive analytics takes past behavior and uses this information to predict what will happen in the future. And when it comes to smart data real estate, it’s a game changer.
According to Swier, using this tool in your marketing strategy allows you “to start with prospects that are more likely to sell than not.” Dickson adds that it’s a way of “being smart with your time and money.” But let’s get into exactly how and why predictive analytics is a proven successful approach to generating seller leads.
Dickson talks about how the realtors use six different touch types (phone, email, text message, digital advertising, handwritten notes, and hosting events) to form relationships. The Offrs.com platform incorporates each of these touch types into a systemic approach to real estate marketing using predictive analytics to determine who realtors should focus their efforts on reaching out to.
Swier makes a good point that 70% of sellers select the first realtor that reaches out to them if they didn’t already have someone in mind or they weren’t referred to someone by word of mouth. Predictive analytics is about knowing who is likely to sell and reaching out to them in a way that appeals to their specific communication style before a fellow realtor does. The other advantage to implementing predictive analytics into your real estate marketing strategy is the ability to scale your business with this model.
“Technology is changing this business,” Dickson mentions in his conversation with Swier. To create a scalable business model, you need to have the right tools, systems, and processes in place. “That’s what Offrs.com and R.O.O.F. bring to the table,” says Dickson.

Tuesday, 27 December 2016

HOW TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL FIRST TOUCH CAMPAIGN

Experienced realtors know better than anyone that first impressions are everything. Finding a way to stand out from the crowd and establish your professional brand from the get-go needs to be an important part of your marketing strategy. Offrs.com reviews several pieces of demographic information found via web searches to give you the most comprehensive portrait of your prospects. So when you go to introduce yourself to a new client, you can do so with confidence, and most importantly, a personal touch.
When it comes to first touch campaigns, most realtors make the mistake of spending their funds on mass outreach. Industry trends show that it’s more a quality over quantity strategy that turns the right prospects into leads and eventually closed sales.
Potential sellers want someone who knows their surrounding area and how to bring out the best in their property to get them a higher sale price. Creating a personalized first touch campaign helps realtors and agents earn trust and establish rapport sooner than sending a mass mailer for the simple sake of getting your name out there.
A successful first touch campaign involves three key factors: the medium, the message, and the follow-up. Choosing an effective medium that caters to the way your individual prospects best receive information is the first step to setting your campaign up for success. The majority of people who get direct mailers that are generic and impersonal throw them directly into the trash. Emails are effective when personalized but also run you the risk of ending up in someone’s Spam folder. Cold calls can be scary but they also show that you have confidence and that you are willing to make the effort to really connect with your prospective seller. Knowing the best way to capture and engage your desired sellers may take some research, but will likely return on your investment by saving you time and money in the long run.
Deciding how to introduce yourself and your services is the next step to finding success with a first touch campaign. Telling your potential clients about your experience is all well and good as long as it comes across as a genuine way for them to get to know you and not just a brag sheet. Thoughtful and helpful messages convey a sense of warmth and humility that appeals to many homeowners, even the ones that are not currently thinking about selling but might be interested in the future. Letting them know you’re the neighborhood expert will go miles further than a corporate branded postcard addressed to “Current Resident.”
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Monday, 26 December 2016

OFFRS.COM ANNOUNCES R.O.O.F. - REAL ESTATE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE

offrs.com, the leader in Smart Data and Marketing for real estate, today announced the launch of their artificial intelligence driven system for real estate brokerages. The official launch event takes place at the historic Ritz Theater in Austin, TX, during the annual Keller Williams Mega Camp. This launch party will also unveil, “Raia,” an artificial intelligence assistant that provides marketing automation for real estate brokerages and agents they serve helping them create the real estate office of the future.
"The genesis of ROOF started with predictive analytics and our ability to marry big data with marketing for real estate agents, but today we are excited to launch the first artificially intelligent real estate assistant for brokers - RAIA. She will help brokerages own the future of Real Estate,” said offrs.com Co-founder, Rich Swier.
Artificial Intelligence has begun to surface in applications in many industries, but this will be the first artificially intelligent assistant for real estate agents and brokers that will help them execute important tasks required to grow their business. RAIA will help increase production, improve marketing and be the primary driver for the real estate office of the future.
“We believe we’re solving an enormous business challenge for brokerages by providing data and metric driven business solutions specifically designed to transform our clients into real estate offices of the future. The bleeding edge of technology is where offrs.com is positioned and the opportunity is here for brokerages, now,” said offrs.com Co-founder, Mark Dickson.
The ROOF program combines predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to help brokerages identify, target and touch prospective sellers. In addition to providing Smart Data and a robust prospecting platform, the ROOF program also provides automated services that create a systematic approach to lead generation. “Imagine having a digital assistant leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance fully automated outreach each and every day for a brokerage. We are not just predicting the future, we will be building the future for our customers. The ROOF program is going to ‘wow’ brokerage owners,” said offrs.com VP National Business Development, Frank Chimento.

Sunday, 25 December 2016

OFFRS.COM LAUNCHES FIRST TEN REAL ESTATE OFFICES OF THE FUTURE

Today offrs.com announced the launch of the first ten Real Estate Offices of the Future (a.k.a. R.O.O.F.). Each R.O.O.F. is provided exclusive access to the offrs.com smart data platform and marketing platform. R.O.O.F. clients also benefit from offrs.com’s patent-pending algorithm that predicts future listings and automates lead generation.
"The primary reason we have so much interest in ROOF is because we have automated lead generation for real estate agents and brokers. We leverage big data, machine learning algorithms and automated prospecting to identify home owners looking to sell. " stated Mark Dickson, CEO of offrs.com.
offrs.com has already deployed a ROOF in multiple major markets including Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., Tampa and Miami. The first Real Estate Offices of the Future include industry leaders from REMAX, Keller Williams, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and members of the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World network.
During the first month of the ROOF program, offrs.com identified more than 1,000 potential listings with a combined market value of over $600,000,000 (and $18,000,000 in gross commission income) for R.O.O.F. clients.
"We see the ROOF program transforming how every real estate office will do lead generation in the future. By combining the power of artificial intelligence and a proven marketing program we will enable our brokerages to be first in line for every listing," claims Rich Swier, Chief Visionary of ROOF.
Search portals like Zillow.com and Realtor.com are the market leaders in buyer lead generation, but until now, no other company has provided a solution for systematically generating seller leads. Currently, 80% of seller leads are created through referrals and existing relationships but recently research has suggested that over 50% of seller leads in the next five years will be driven by predictive analytics and artificial intelligence.

Friday, 23 December 2016

THE REALTOR'S GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL ONLINE ADVERTISING

Raise your hand if you’ve found yourself believing that a failed real estate online advertising campaign means online advertising doesn’t actually work for realtors.
Raise your hand if you’re not marketing or advertising expert.
Now, if you have both hands in the air, please put them back on your device so you can scroll and read the rest of this article, because it was written specifically for you.
Marketing budgets are a point of contention for many real estate professionals, mainly because if a campaign effort fails, the channel used is usually where the blame lands. Higher conversion rates are one metric used to identify the success of a campaign and typically those conversions take place on the landing page.
Ah, but half the battle is getting your landing page to appear in search results by using appropriate keywords or pay-per-click advertising such as Google Ads or sponsored links.
Let’s talk about the first step to effective real estate online advertising, which involves understanding how to take your brand to the property owners you want to target. In this case, you want to reach property owners who are likely to sell in the next year. Keywords in your landing page and online copy for your website will get your page to show up in their search, but once they click on the link and arrive at your site, are the correct tools in place to convert them into a prospect?
One common mistake real estate professionals make include using keywords that are too generic to get their page to show up in more searches. While that approach may get your page to show up in a search result, it may also increase your page’s bounce rate when a visitor isn’t converted into a lead. This typically happens because a) their specific needs vary from your services or b) your call to action for conversion wasn’t clear or present upon their arrival to your site. According to Offrs.com co-founders Mark Dickson and Rich Swier, Jr., many realtors give up on Google rather than tweaking things in their advertising approach.
“Success requires realtors to become comfortable with these marketing channels,” says Dickson. Advertising venues like Google and Facebook allow you to use smart data to create custom audiences for your ads. Smart data is the new direction of real estate online advertising and it gives realtors a competitive edge when trying to obtain prospects outside of their sphere.
Another advantage to using these channels is the concept of multiple impressions. Swier mentions that a discerning prospect won’t likely click on your advertisement the first time they see it. They want to analyze and process before they commit and that’s when you’ll see them convert. This is also the reason why smart data and targeting these specific leads repeatedly is so crucial to a successful campaign and higher conversion rate.
Swier also warns realtors about receiving what he calls “false positives” when using beautiful ads that warrant click but don’t necessarily convert. Ads that are well-designed and pleasing to the eye but may not convey the correct message for converting your target demographic are risky business and may drain your marketing budget while leading you to wonder why you’re getting clicks but no leads.
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