Read the full post to get the full picture of how Yelp has grown by creating an iPhone app.

You may not have thought about trying to get clients to provide a review of you as a real estate agent on sites Yelp, Google and Yahoo, but why not? It gives you more credibility if they’re doing a simple search for real estate agents. It gives you more spots to be found in the search engines. And since these are public review, you can probably take them and use them on your site if you like (haven’t checked into the legality of this, so don’t hold me to it, but if they left you a good review, they’d probably be happy to have you use it on your site, so just ask).

My challenge to you is to find a way to use these stories in your marketing that fits your personality.

**********************************

This is our house. 24 Maple Drive…I love this house. I love that I taught my kids to ride their bikes in the driveway. I love that I slept with them in tents in the backyard. I love that we carved our initials in the tree out front. This house is warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and looks spectacular with Christmas lights. It’s a great house. I never want to move. But the thing I think I like best about this house are the voices I hear when I walk through the door.

This is my favorite quote from the classic movie, Father of the Bride.  This is the kind of thing that new homeowners imagine when they buy any home.  They may not say it out loud, for fear of sounding corny or unrealistic.  But don’t most of us want the fantasy life that George Banks so lovingly describes in this monologue? 

A home is more than just bricks, hardwood flooring and wall to wall carpeting, a patio and a backyard.  It’s the building blocks of people beginning their lives together and making memories.

The home plays a large part of this movie.  It’s where George Banks played basketball with his daughter in the driveway every night, where his little girl stood in her nightgown and socks at the top of the banister right before she slid down it to fall into her father’s arms, and, eventually, it ends up serving as the setting of his no-longer-little-girl’s wedding reception.

People love to hear about sentimental memories being made in the home.  It makes them believe that good old family values are still alive and well.

With that said, are you staying in contact with your home buyers after that monumental closing?  Do you know about the memories that they are making in their new homes?  Are they hosting family game nights, book club meetings, garage band practices, block parties and/or weddings?

Make it a point to stay in contact with them and find out. It would be the perfect feature to post on your website.  You could call it Home-Made Memories.  Have them send you a picture and tell a story. Or if you want to go all out, you can dedicate a whole blog to your happy clients.

To get an idea, take a look at this blog.  It’s about a young couple starting their life in their new home.  You can follow them as they go through the trials and tribulations of fixing up their 53 year-old home and throwing the cutest DIY backyard wedding you’ve ever seen.  There are a ton of other blogs out there like this one.  New homeowners love to talk about their home.  Why not let them use you as their outlet to do it?

People will love to see concrete evidence of happy homeowners that were made possible by you, their trusted advisor, friend and real estate agent.

After all, who doesn’t like to see that sappy home memories can happen in real life too?  Have your Real Estate Virtual Assistant setup a page on your website to dedicate to your Home-Made Memories or have them put together a special blog post for each client’s special memory. 

Your clients will appreciate your extra efforts and they’ll be sure to give out your name and give you their repeat business!

Best wishes!

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing coach, Real Support, real estate marketing tips

If you want to continue generating referrals and building a business that isn’t based on a lot of cold-calling, here’s a great idea to try – generate referrals through speaking engagements!

Here’s a great post from the Duct Tape Marketing blog on 5 Tips to Getting More Leads from Speaking. While you may never have dreamed of becoming a high-paid speaker, or don’t even like the thought of speaking in front of a large group of people, there are lots of different ways you can use public speaking to generate leads.

John has some great tips on ways to get speaking engagements, but in real estate I’m sure there are many others. You could contact your Chamber of Commerce, your local library, a community college, etc. and offer to hold a 1 hour seminar on “Buying and Selling in Our Marketing”. Or, spend an hour or two sharing information on the $8000 tax credit, what a buyer must know, and tips or things to avoid. Partner with a Home Stager, and present info on “Getting the Best Price for Your Home”. Any topic that you frequently get questions on from clients is a great place to start.

If you have a particular area of expertise, you may be able to speak to specialty groups, vendors or other real estate professionals. This is a great way to get known for being the “Go-to Guy (or gal)” for that particular subject.

And the beauty of speaking is that as you’re providing quality information, local people in your community get exposed to your name, your level of expertise, and make that personal connection to you. So even if they aren’t quite ready to buy, or are already working with an agent, they can tell their friends and family about the great seminar you lead, and provide referrals as well.

This works best without any kind of hard sales pitch at the end. Simply showcase your knowledge, and the people that need your expertise will seek you out.

So check out John’s post, and see if you can put together a speaking opportunity for yourself.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, online real estate marketing coach, speaking opportunities to build real estate referrals, how to generate real estate leads

Since I focus so much on building a referral-based business, here are some of the areas that I take a good hard look at:

Referrals-

Are you asking for referrals from most, if not all, clients?

If yes, how are you doing it?
In person? Through a mailer? By phone? In an email or autoresponder/newsletter?
Are you getting referrals? (whether or not they close with you?)
If you are getting referrals, are they closing with you? Do they seem like appropriate clients? If not, why do you think that is? Can you change how you’re asking in order to improve the type of clients that are referred to you?

If no, what method of asking for referrals can you implement immediately?

Testimonials -

Are you asking for a testimonial from most, if not all, clients?

If yes, how are you doing it?
In person? Through a mailer? By phone? In an email or autoresponder/newsletter?
Are you getting the number of responses you want?
Are you using them anywhere? (on your website, in printed marketing materials, in your email, etc.)
If you aren’t using them anywhere, where can you add them ASAP to get them up?

If no, what method will you start using immediately to get those?
Where will you put them once you have them? (on your website, in printed marketing materials, in your email, etc.)

Website/Blog-

Is the information on your website/blog current and relevant?
Are you getting traffic to your site (hopefully you have some form of analytics, like Google Analytics, installed)
Where is the majority of your traffic coming from?
Is it easy for someone to share your site with a friend? (via email, social bookmarking, or social networking sites?)
Have you closed any sales coming directly from your website?

Testimonials are a great tool in generating new business and developing trust. You should be collecting them in some form as regularly as you can. But as we all know, sometimes seeing something makes a much bigger impact than just reading about it.

Why not start collecting quick video testimonials from your satisifed and appreciative clients? While not every client may be appropriate, certain transactions or clients may stand out as great sources of testimonials. Getting a quick clip of a homeowner that was stressed about selling their house, and is now relieved and thankful for your help in getting it sold can be a very strong motivator for someone considering choosing you as an agent. So is seeing the look of joy on the face of someone that just closed on their first home, and hearing their appreciation for how hard you worked to get their closing finalized.

This is especially true if these are people that are known or recognized in your community. So if you’re dealing with someone that is a well-known public figure locally, be sure to at least ask if they’re willing to say a few words about their experience with you.

A few tips about video testimonials to keep in mind:

• Offer a little guidance. While they may be happy to do it, not everyone knows what to say on camera, and the testimonial may seem dull or even forced. So talk to them about it before you whip the camera out. Give some suggestions of things they could mention, like you coming out on a Saturday to help clean out gutters before an Open House, or how you stayed on top of the mortgage broker to make sure everything was ready for a quick closing. Most people will appreciate the ideas, and it takes a bit of the pressure off them.
• Keep it short. Don’t let them ramble for several minutes. Ask them to state their name, and then mention a few of the things they appreciated during the process, or a few of the hurdles that had to be overcome. More than a minute will start to get boring for viewers.
• Get their permission if you’re planning to use the video in your marketing (which you should be!). You can get a stock model release here.

Finally, check out these 8 Easy Steps to Advertise Video Testimonials. They provide lots of helpful tech information on recording, editing and uploading the video once it’s ready.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing tips, real estate video testimonials, online real estate marketing

• Instead of just adding a testimonial here and there to your marketing flyers, consider putting together a booklet of testimonials, and including that when doing a presentation. Sometimes, people’s eyes skim over testimonials without really reading them, but when you separate them out, you are giving people additional material to read about you, and it shows you have enough happy clients to fill a book!
• In the Creating a Quick System to Collect Testimonials post , I talked about using an autoresponder to collect testimonials. You can also use that same autoresponder to deliver them. On each email, setup the call for testimonials, then include a testimonial targeted to their recently completed real estate transaction.
• If you have a client willing to create a quick video testimonial for you, post it on YouTube, then embed it on your site. Now you have a YouTube channel full of testimonials that is very search engine friendly. Check out this great example, done by Ashley Ahlert in Fort Smith, AR.

• I also talked about creating a toll-free testimonial line that prospective clients can call, at their convenience, with no sales pressure, to hear testimonials from happy past clients.
• Finally, wherever you use your testimonials, always remember the basics – they should be authentic and believeable. Include full names, titles, etc. whenever possible.

Don’t have any testimonials yet? Read: Creating a Quick System to Collect Testimonials

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing with testimonials, Ashley Ahlert, YouTube testimonials

The key is to create a system that is quick and easy to implement, both for you and your clients. This way, over time you’ll have a dynamic set of testimonials that can become a core part of your marketing.

As with most forms of marketing, it’s not a bad idea to have several systems in place, to make it as easy as possible for your clients to take the action you want them to. Here are a few ways to systemize your testimonial collection:

• If you send your clients closing gifts, add a quick testimonial form inside the card or attached to the gift. You will catch them at a time when they have a positive feeling about you, and you can also take advantage of peoples’ natural desire to return a favor.
• Create a toll-free hotline that people can call to leave an audio testimonial. Some people feel they’re too busy to sit down and write out a testimonial, but would be happy to make a quick 2 minute call. You use a system like Audio Generator, and provide this number along with your testimonial forms. You can then publish these audios to a “Success Stories” page on your website, or even combine them into a mini-commercial you publish onto another toll-free line for potential clients to call.
• Utilize an autoresponder like Aweber or Constant Contact to keep in contact with clients after they have closed. Offer a mini e-course of daily or weekly tips or information related to their recent real estate transaction. And in each one, add your request for a testimonial. Whether they reply via email, or you provide a link to an online form, you can catch them when they are happy with their recent transaction, and are at their computer, able to quickly respond back.

These are just a few ideas. As you can see, with a system in place to ask for and receive these testimonials, you’ll quickly find you’ve built up a large group that you can use all throughout your marketing. In our next posts, we’ll talk about ways to use these testimonials in creative and effective ways.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate systems, creating a system to collect testimonials, real estate marketing with testimonials

We all know that word of mouth is a great way to sell something – whether it’s a product or a service. This is a big part of the reason I push referrals. A satisfied client is doing your selling for you.

But instead of just letting one person tell one person, you can take advantage of your client’s story, and let it help you sell to everyone you meet. Yes, I’m talking about testimonials.

If you’re in real estate, you need to take advantage of your testimonials to generate trust in what you are offering. Your sales copy can be great. You can hit on all the hot buttons your potential clients have. You can let your blog posts give them an insight into the way you think, what you know, and how you will help them. But if you can combine that with an authentic testimonial from a satisified client on exactly how you helped them, it will make choosing you as their agent simple.

We’ll be talking about ways to collect testimonials and use them in the next few posts. Right now, start thinking about some of the people that have (hopefully) raved about your service to you. They’ll be the people you’ll start with on collecting testimonials.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate testimonials, power of testimonials, marketing with testimonials

Have you experienced the frustration of asking for testimonials and then not receiving them? Chances are it’s not because your client is dissatisfied. More often than not, they are just plain busy dealing with the aftermath of the recent Real Estate transaction

Make giving testimonials easy. Keep notes of what your clients particularly liked or appreciated about your transaction. After the deal closes, write a testimonial for them and ask for approval. You’ll find they’re more than happy to help and you’ve once again made working with you easy.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, Consistent Clients, Client Testimonials, Referrals, Real Estate Marketing

There is another tactic I use to connect with clients. It actually is my clients, or rather, their words.

By including testimonials in your email signature block, you establish satisfaction and increased credibility. Doesn’t it make sense to have someone else talking (or in this case writing) about you and your business?

Why not let testimonials for past and current clients sell your services for you?

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, Consistent Clients, Client Testimonials, Email Signature, Referrals