There’s always something to howl about.
Surely fifty million Frenchmen can be as wrong as one, but just try getting them to admit it! David Platt makes an interesting argument about why the iPhone will fail, but, even stipulating his entire case, it seems reasonable to suppose that most early-adopters will be stout fans for at least two years — the length of the service contract with AT&T.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
Hilary Shantz, a real estate agent from Oakville, ON asks:
Hi Brian,
You are on the cutting edge of marketing/blogging. Do you think that it is sufficient to have a business blog and forgo having a newsletter, just send people a reminder every time you post a blog which they can go to if they want or if it interests them? I am trying to decide. I have neither and have been in business 2 years.
Signed,
Hilary from Oakville, Ontario, Canada.
Thanks for the kind words, Hilary. I notice from your website that you have a MBA and a background in banking. I’ll speak somewhat academically here and then give you some practical suggestions.
Blogging is a marketing communication. Think of it like writing an article for your hometown paper, Oakville Today. The first time you had an article published, you’d probably call all of your friends, past clients, and family and tell them to run out to the newsstands; that would be fine. If you wrote a weekly column, however, that serial self promotion would become tired quickly.
I said that blogging is a marketing communication but it is a subtle one. It’s call pull marketing as opposed to push marketing. Pull marketing entices the consumer to call you. Think of the movie Glen Garry Glen Ross when you think of push marketing. Be careful to understand that the permission-based e-mail system I use is, indeed, permission-based. Abuse that permission and the consumer takes it away. I think an e-mail every three weeks is often enough to keep you in the consumer’s eye without abusing that permission.
Again, blogging is a marketing communication. Remember the principles of promotion class you had to pass in business school? Blogging falls somewhere between public relations and advertising in the promotional mix. You’ll notice that there are two more very important factors in the promotional mix: personal selling and sales promotion. You want to be certain that you weave those components into your blogging message without sounding like an overt advertisement.
Finally, effective promotion is a multi-media approach. The more “senses” you can use, the more effective your marketing Read more
I’m writing about the Apple iPhone for Friday’s Republic, putting me in an august company of gushing fans. Reviews appeared today from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Newsweek. So far, everyone loves it, with some reservations.
Engadget has a run-down of the caveats turned up so far. Chief beef from all over: No AT&T, no iPhone. You can’t buy the device as a wi-fi enabled pocket-sized Macintosh with a video iPod and a 2MB camera — but without contracting for a cellular phone and data plan. On the plus side, the Applefied monthly plans are robust and reasonably priced.
Biggest unnoticed beef? Perhaps because fish are not aware of the waters they swim in, no one in the enblogged globe seems to have complained that, because the device is activated and synced through iTunes, you cannot use an iPhone if you don’t own a Macintosh or Windows computer. Lachrymose Luddites and Unix eunuchs need not apply.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing
My father manufactures mens’ outerwear — overcoats, raincoats, jackets. He was with Windbreaker and London Fog for many years, but for the last couple of decades he’s been a private-label vendor: He supplies the goods, the designer or department store supplies its label. One year Consumer Reports reviewed mens’ raincoats and my dad took first, fourth and fifth place with the same raincoat. Different labels, different price points, same coat. The winner was sold by J.C. Penny for $99. Second place went to a $900 Aquascutum.
The Bloodhounds made a run at winning that decisively at this week’s Carnival of Real Estate, but judge Mike Simonsen was smart enough to see through us. I entered three times, and Kris Berg and Brian Brady entered from their home weblogs. A small demonstration of the volume at which we can howl, when we want to. These are the entries I know about (there may have been others from other BHB contributors):
Alas, we didn’t win, although all three of us were mentioned in Mike’s post.
Truly, you can’t win ’em all, but we have won the Carnival of Real Estate more than any other weblog:
Meanwhile, Michael Cook has won Read more
That’s the short list, not the short bus.
We are among the nominees for the Inman Innovator Awards — Most Innovative Blog category. These are the other nominees in our category:
Looks like somebody likes bubble blogs…
My own immediate reaction to our nomination is colored by three mental filters: First, I have a fundamental contempt for any sort of beauty contest. Second, I cannot stand the thought of not winning — decisively, by an incontestable margin — any competition I happen to find myself in. But third, I have no confidence that I will win any competition where the results are based on anything other than my own performance. If it’s an objective race, I will win by force of savage will. But I know from bitter experience not to put too much faith in subjective judges.
(I swear there are times that it’s like Fyodor Frolicking Dostoevsky inside my mind…)
Anyway, it doesn’t matter if we win. It doesn’t even matter to me if we get thrown out of the competition for insufficient obsequiousness. All that matters is that we kicked ass this first year of BloodhoundBlog — decisively, incontestably. Whatever the hell “innovation” might be in a real estate weblog, if it’s not us, it’s not worth worrying about…
Technorati Tags: blogging, Inman, Inman Connect, real estate, real estate marketing
…is up at Altos Research Real Estate Insights. Plenty of great reading, including three posts from BloodhoundBlog contributors.
And… The Carnival of Real Estate Investing is up at The Flipping Pad. Michael Cook one with The Real Risk in Real Estate Flipping, one of the five posts he wrote last week that could have taken first prize.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
A couple of great questions from Ronnie Coleman of Gulf Coast Real Estate Services, Inc has prompted my response, and may prompt yours also. Very cool ideas here…
Allen,
A partner and I are hopefully about to launch a real estate blog here in Destin, Florida in the Florida Panhandle. Our market is upscale with about 4 million visitors per year and lots of second and third homes on the coast. My vision and slight slant is to put in play my avocation which is restaurant reviews. I was the restaurant critic here for the newspaper, judged our local wine festivals and have written a small book about our Top 40 Neighborhood Restaurants.
I have two questions — how do you feel about mixing opinioned restaurant reviews (with pictures) with a real estate blog and secondly (and maybe most importantly) should I buy an existing real estate blog template (I’m looking at something from RSS Pieces or should we start it from scratch by ourselves (we have some capability) or hire a local web/blog design firm?
And lastly I notice you have both a website and blog. Because I’m starting anew, I was thinking I would only go with a blog — do you think I need both?
Kindest regards,
Ronnie Coleman
Broker/Owner
Gulf Coast Real Estate Services, Inc.
My Response:
Hello Ronnie.
Excellent to hear from you. I think that your idea of integrating a restaurant review is a fabulous idea from a couple of standpoints. First, if you just started blogging like crazy about restaurants, you’re pretty quickly going to get noticed. But maybe not for what you’d like: real estate.
As I see it, there are a few ways around this. You could target the blog to out of towners who are looking for great places to dine. Featured prominently on the blog landing page would be large ads and hooks that draw people to look at your real estate web site. This has the benefit of adding dual credibility. One is linking to the other. Submit the blog to like minded sites in other cities and become part of a social network of food critics. Again, somewhat restricted real Read more
Zillow blog. Advertise yourself as a lister in the neighborhoods you farm in a venue we know is strongly appealing to sellers. This is so smart it makes my brain ache…
Later: Adopted. Whole-heartedly and with alacrity. I need for you to be shopping for what I’m selling, or else my advertising dollars are wasted. But I need to be selling you what you are actually shopping for, or I am wasting your time. This idea beyond brilliant…
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing, Zillow.com
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
“Brian Brady is that mortgage guy in the suspenders on the internet.”
Good or bad, that’s my brand on the internet. That goofy picture was taken at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on a free Kodak machine. I emailed myself the picture and have been using it for the past two years in all of my online marketing efforts. And while I’m not necessarily the best user of photoshop, I’m a pretty damned good viral marketer.
I met Rudy of Sellsius earlier this year and he said “You’re all over the internet.” I dropped my daughter off at school last month and one of her schoolmate’s parents said “I saw you on Zillow.” My neighbors have told me that they read my articles on MySpace. I organized a coup to take over the Trulia Voices section.
I guest author on BloodhoundBlog, NELA Live, Long Beach Real Estate Home, Sacramento’s Real Estate Voice and maintain an active profile and weblog on the Active Rain Real Estate Network. Lately, I’ve started experimenting on Gather.com.
To the untrained observer, I appear to be on an ego trip. To bloggers, I’m eschewing SEO for a viral marketing approach. I’m not going to wait for a customer to find me on the long tail search. I’m going to insert my goofy little suspenders picture in every imaginable place they might search for real estate related advice.
Does it work?
Well, I’ve received over 1,000 inquiries in the past 12 months from my efforts. Many are from borrowers, so my answer is, “Damn, Skippy, it works!” I’m slowly building up a database of people who have connected with me on the internet. My long-term goal is to have over 10,000 people in my permission-based email marketing database, receiving a newsletter each month. I’m at 1,012 today and I think I’ll be there in about 3-5 years.
Here are five tips to help you build an audience for your budding real estate weblog:
This past week our company had its annual sales rally, for lack of a better term. It consisted of the requisite motivational speaker who was charged with inspiring us to achieve greatness, greatness which apparently can only be realized after purchasing $600 worth of inspirational tapes, a State of the State address by our CEO, and a State of the Union address by our parent company’s CEO.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I generally abhor these things. My mortgage bill, my ongoing desire to eat a periodic meal, and the constant pressure to keep feeding the offspring those iTunes credits are motivation enough for me.
When I do find myself, through happenstance, momentary lack of good judgment, or as a result of being hog-tied and stuffed in a colleague’s trunk, at one of these pep rallies, I always apply the “one thing” rule. If I can leave having gleaned “one thing” that can be of value to me and my business, I feel it was worth the price (rope burns and the imprint of a spare tire on my forehead).
This time, I gleaned two things. Today, I’m Rocky Balboa at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Live and Breathe Your Goal – Check!
Our motivational speaker spent much time reminding us that successful people are the ones that have a goal, are unequivocally committed to that goal, and never, ever stop thinking about how to achieve that goal. Yep, that’s me.
When I am not worried about something, I tend to worry about why I don’t have something to worry about. When I am not thinking about real estate, I am dreaming about it. I had a college English teacher who once said that people who are creative during the day don’t dream. Hogwash!. Last night, for instance, after a rich and full day of Sunday fun which included showing property, sitting an open house, drafting a marketing piece, writing an offer on another house for a client, a half-dozen phone calls made and another dozen or so taken, I worked (“created”) all night. In my sleep, I sold two more homes, Read more
This is the second half of the Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference, including my presentation and the question and answer session. The sun had started to go down, so the light in the room was a little better. Cathleen built the slides you’ll see in the video. I had handed out a bookmark to the people who came, and your very own virtual copy of that is shown above.
The old adage “the early bird gets the worm” points to the advantage of being first to market. But, has anyone ever thought about the early worm, clearly he was not so lucky. Many of the people who are jumping into the foreclosure market now may be the early worms.
Typically, I am the first one to support jumping into a market that has sustained a significant decline in fundamentals and an increase in the foreclosure rate. The problem with today’s market is the lack of an exit strategy for this type of investment. Take Michigan for example, I luckily got out of this market in 2005 during a downturn. While I made a healthy profit, the investors who bought properties during that time are now the same investors in foreclosure.
The difference between the 2005 market and today is simply access to capital. Many foreclosure markets have two types of buyers. The most common buyers in these markets are low-income families looking to move into their first or second home. In the past these buyers were able to secure subprime or other credit neutral financing. With these vehicles gone or very hard to find, these buyers have been taken out of the market.
The other buyers in these markets are investors. Typically, savvier than families, investors like to get in for a bargain. Unfortunately commercial interest rates have been steadily rising and the prospect of moving these properties has been declining. The commercial interest rate directly affects the value potential of the property. Consider an increase in the commercial multifamily interest rate from 6% to 7.5%. On a $100,000 loan, that is about $100 a month payment increase. With rents holding steady in many markets, the investor will probably have to eat this increase.
Two to five years ago investors could simply rent a property out while waiting for a sale. That option has almost been taken away with the increase in interest rates. Additionally, having a renter in the property opened the buyer pool up further to cash flow investors. Now, the only investors left to turn to are the speculators, looking to Read more
To get to the punch line, of course.
Continuing our celebration of BloodhoundBlog’s first birthday, we take up this very serious question:
Who is funnier, Russell Shaw or Kris Berg?
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
This is the first half of the video from the Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference. Jay Thompson is featured here, making his presentation on the marketing power of real estate weblogging. The light in the room was not our friend, so Jay spends much of the film in silhouette.
Looking for the best web presentation possible
As the importance of video becomes increasingly apparent, learning to use this tool will be helpful in the successful marketing of median to upper-end properties.
I have been searching for a way to present video that would be better than the methods we often see in current use.
Apple Quicktime (mov) is a very good format, but its market penetration is not as high as other options like Windows Media Player or Flash.
Windows Media Player (wmv) is a good format… and it is widely used. Windows media can make a very clean video file when using very high bit rates… but the result is a very large file, which we would like to avoid.
Flash is the most widely accepted format right now. The trouble with Flash (in my experience) is that you get a boost in contrast that makes some of the subtle differences in shades difficult, if not impossible, to discern.
So what format should you use?
I have been busy learning some new (new to me, at least) video software over the last few weeks… and I’m almost into overload. While video production is a complicated issue – good web delivery of video doesn’t have to be.
Services like YouTube and WellcomeMat are great for a low-cost approach to hosting your video project… and they both use Flash.
But what if you want to kick the quality up a notch?
Well, then you might want to consider getting your own web hosting account that will give you the kind of space you need to host your videos.
Bringing a new player to the game
A recent entry on the scene is DivX… and it has some great features. The quality is very good; file sizes are small; and many DVD players can play this format.
As a test, I went to stage6.divx.com and downloaded Roger Waters performance of “The Wall” in Berlin. The video streams nicely on broadband, and the quality is very good – even in full screen mode.
I then brought this 699MB file into the TMPGEnc DVD Author to create a DVD of the performance. TMPGEnc created a 4 Gig set Read more
