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Automation: The Secret Weapon for Building Top-of-Mind Awareness
By Mercedes Santiago, Marketing Coordinator
When was the last time you reached out to your sphere with relevant content? Hopefully the answer comes quick, because after all, 41% of buyers choose a real estate agent based on a referral (source). Another stat from NAR indicates that two years after a transaction, only 23% of clients you worked with can quickly recall your name. The competition is only getting stronger to win listings, and being “found” just isn’t enough anymore. Luckily, you have technology on your side to keep you actively engaging your sphere while juggling your busy to-do list.
Automation is an agent’s secret weapon to staying in touch with their sphere before, during, and after a transaction. Nurturing your contacts with relevant information and widgets that are hyper-local is what’s in demand today. With MoxiWorks and its partners, you have access to a plethora of tools that will automate your delivery of the right content, to the right people, at the right time. Here are a few ways to keep in touch with your sphere of influence with automation:
Personalized and curated content for your clients
There’s nothing better than walking into your favorite go-to coffee spot, and the barista you see every morning finally remembers your name and order. Why? Because we simply like to be remembered. Your clients are the same. Plus, they didn’t purchase a six-dollar coffee, they invested in one the biggest purchases they’ll make in their life. It’s a big deal.
Envision your client receiving a monthly email from you that includes a market snapshot of their neighborhood, personalized just for them. Not only will you stand out by going the extra mile to keep in touch, you’ve remembered them: their email, name, neighborhood, etc. The best part? These monthly emails can be accomplished all without lifting a finger with the right automation tools. In MoxiEngage, the Neighborhood News feature gives you the ability to do just that.
Deliver content that matters to them
Imagine being able to be a fly on the wall of buyers and sellers so you can deliver content relevant to their needs and dreams. Let’s say each week you send new articles out on different topics ranging from first-time homebuying and investing in real estate to vacation home buying and retirement. Using the power of automation, leverage insights on which email recipients have clicked and read through the article and use that information as a great conversation starter for a topic of interest to them. A great example of this is MoxiWorks’ Partner, HomeActions, and their E-relationship platform.
HomeActions helps agents GET and STAY top of mind through on-demand content and widgets that fuel predictive metrics and other AI tools. Their new AI-Powered Lead Scoring service shows you who in your database is warming up for a transaction.
Integrating social media
We all know that using social media is a great way for people to connect with you. But unless it’s your best friend or a family member, they might not think to follow you! When using Neighborhood News, trigger emails, or any other form of communications with your clients, attach your social media links in it. Now, every time a contact receives an email from you, they’ll be reminded to find your business on their favorite social network. Social media is a place where clients most likely go at least one a day, so being visible on it is key.
Templated email communications
Leveraging pre-formatted content and email blast templates saves you time, automates your workflow, and allows you to reach more of your sphere more often. Tools like HomeActions, for example, will offer up templates in dozens of categories and give you the ability to add in content on just about any topic under the Real Estate sun. Featured listings, holidays, just sold, new listings, open houses… you name it. With templated email communications, you’ll always have a great reason to reach out to your sphere of influence.
Having a great relationship with your clients is obviously important. But the fact of the matter is, they don’t remember you quite like we want to believe. According to NAR’s quick stats, sellers who say they would use the same agent again is 69%, but only 24% actually do when they go to buy or sell a home (source). With automated email marketing, we can stay top of mind with clients and win more listings.
How to Create Content That Makes You Stand Out
By Jessie Trapp, Marketing Coordinator
The secrets out – content marketing works. So well in fact, that virtually everyone seems to have hopped on the content marketing train in some way, shape, or form, meaning the amount of content floating around the online universe is exploding at rates that are tough to keep up with. For instance, within the minute that you spent clicking on the link to this blog and reading the first sentence alone, 350,000 tweets were sent. By the end of today, 95 million new pictures and videos will be posted on Instagram. By the end of this month, 79.7 million new WordPress blog posts will be published. Have I scared you away from ever practicing content marketing? No? Good.
Not to worry, the copious amounts of content out there doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t create content as part of your marketing strategy. What it does mean is that you have to create better content than your competitors, as well as everyone else competing for your audience’s attention. It’s a big task, as making a statement with content marketing isn’t as easy as simply buying a fancy car or showcasing a new hairdo. Read ahead for some quick tips on how to make the most of it!
Keep it relevant. No blog posts, pictures, or adorable puppy videos (yes, even puppy videos) will be effective in creating your desired ROI unless they relevant to the audience you are trying to reach. If you haven’t already, take the time to formulate clear personas of your target audience. What are they interested in? What are their demographics? What kinds of information might they find useful? Find the topic sweet spots that get people engaged and use them to focus your content.
Visuals are key. You want to catch people’s eyes, so keep things visual. To break out some stats here, articles containing images have an average of 94% more views than articles without images. High quality media is key for strong content creation, so be sure to invest in the resources you need to create it. Videos, images, and charts are all strong performers. Keep in mind that 60% of people will watch a video prior to reading an article if it’s available, so better position them front and center to get people hooked and invested in your content.
Make it a conversation. Engaging with your customers is practically marketing 101. They want to get involved, and encouraging them to do so will only help you become a better agent and a much more effective marketer. Incorporating “ask the audience” style posts will make them more likely to comment and engage with you directly. Creating custom hashtags, polls, and hosting contests are great for engagement as well. Here is a list of even more ideas to keep the two-way conversations going strong.
Straight to the point. Don’t you just hate it when you read an entire article, only to find that it fails to actually contain the kind of information you were looking for in the first place? While creative titles can be fun, make sure that they are informative enough that the reader can feel confident that diving into your post will be worth their time. This can also help with your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts which, by the way, are definitely worth brushing up on.
Quality over quantity. Similar to the idea of keeping content relevant, keeping your content quality high is a must when it comes to its effectiveness. Instead of publishing content just for the sake of publishing content, ensure that you are creating content that is meaningful and purposeful, and at a pace that people can keep up with. The ultimate goal is to increase conversion rates, don’t forget it.
Get the timing right. To put it simply – there’s a reason we don’t see popsicle commercials in the winter. Timing plays a key role for every business, as you want your content to always fit your client’s current needs as best as possible. Instead of simply guessing when the time is right to reach out to clients with certain kinds of content, utilize data and insights to get it right.
Make it scannable. The reality of today’s mobile word is that we tend to get the bulk of our information while on the go. This means that it’s important to make content scannable, so readers can quickly get to the information they are looking for. Breaking up your content using lists, bullets, and subheadings will help guide the reader through your content with ease and ensure a positive experience that will keep them coming back.
Knowing how to craft your content will help your audience become further invested in you and make them more likely to convert into customers. Instead of focusing on the amount of content you produce, focus on incorporating aspects like these to make your content the shiny penny that can’t be missed!
