First off, I know that many reading this will not be real estate agents. No problem, take this tip and adapt it or, wait 3 days and I will post an adapted version, your call.
It is a question every blogger asks, “How can I increase the number of people subscribing to my blog?”
The question we should be asking is, “How can I get my niche market to subscribe to my blog?”
I have an answer for those of you who “farm” communities.
The Problem: Most agents farm communities. As a matter of fact 5 of you sent me a recipe for chile rellenos last month. Two of you sent me a package of Columbine seeds to plant in my backyard. I ate them. I’m not a gardener.
STOP sending me stuff I don’t want! If I want a recipe, I will go to the FoodNetwork.com. If I want to plant flowers, I will pick some up at the Home Depot on my drive home. I want up-to-date, relevant information about my neighborhood. I want to know if my home has been hit by the recent downturn. I want to know the final sales price of the home next door. I want information about the neighborhood I live in. Nothing more, nothing less.
So what does all of this have to do with subscribers to your blog? Everything.
The Solution: Release your very own “whitepaper” entitled:
The Impact of the Current Real Estate Downturn on (Insert Community Name Here) in the 2nd Quarter of 2008 – A study by “Insert Your Name”
“A white paper is a report or guide that often addresses problems and how to solve them. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions. They are used in politics and in business. The white papers published by corporations are usually available from their websites.” - Wikipedia
What better time is there than now show off your expertise by creating and giving out your very own whitepaper? Here’s how:
To begin, meet with your local title rep to get stats for the last 6 months: Sales, Prices, Trends, Etc. I spoke to my rep from Land Title, Gavin Higashi, and he said, “This type of information is not difficult to get. I normally sit down with my agents and teach them how to do it so they can pull reports as needed.”
Next compile the data together in an easy to read manner. Example:
o The Average Sale in Q2 vs. Q1 - Is this number up or down, how much?
o # of Homes Sold in Q2 vs. Q1 - Is this number up or down, how much?
o Average Days on Market in Q1 vs. Q2 - Is this number up or down, how much?
If you understand how to create graphs in excel you may want to throw a few of those in there or you can use an graph creator I stumbled upon one day online in the Kids Zone section of NCES.com (seriously, I am not joking!). I inserted one below.
Now that you have the data, compile it together in the order below.
o Why – Why did you put this report together? What has it been built to address?
o What – The stats and the meaning of it all. Is the average sales price going up? Then say, “According to the data we have currently it appears that the average sales price for “insert community name” is going up.
o How – How did you get the data? Who provided it?
o Who – You of course. When you reach the last portion of your whitepaper, be authentic! Give a short bio of you but, most importantly let them know how they can get this in the future. Make sure the reader understands that this is a quarterly (or monthly if you are aggressive) report and that it is available for download on your website/blog atwww.yourblog.com.
Now about those subscribers! Here are a few ideas to increase your subscribers.
1. Go out and knock doors in your farming neighborhood. When you’ve proven that you aren’t there to sell them anything, invite them to go to your blog/site and fill out the “subscribe by email” portion to ensure they get the report the moment it is issued.
2. If you can get their email address, sign them up yourself! Let them know that they will receive an email verifying their interest in the report. Feedburner has this built in with the “subscribe by email” functionality. You will have new targeted subscribers immediately.
3. Hit up the HOA to distribute your whitepaper. If it serves the community and doesn’t smell like an advertisement they may do it.
4. Reference the whitepaper in your next mailer. Let your community know where they can get the most up to date relevant info about the housing trends in their area.
I know a few of you out there are going take this and run with it so, please, let us know how you do! Did I leave any marketing ideas out? Let me know!
Real Estate 2.0 - the Audio Podcast
