Mar
28
This week´s recommend “Blog of the Week” goes to Real Estate Tomato
Filed Under General Stuff, Blog News, Blog of the Week | Leave a Comment
The Sorted Sites Blog of the Week is awarded to The Real Estate Tomato during the previous week (Friday to Thursday). Jim Cronin runs Real Estate Tomato and we are envious as can be about this blog! It offers great advice and tips for Real Estate Agents to market their Blog. Well done Jim – keep the tomato juice flowing!!!
Blog News Blog of the Week General StuffMar
19
Actual Properties have always had a gift for finding the best investment properties in Tenerife, now they have a gift for potential purchasers, 500 FREE tickets for London’s leading sunshine homes exhibition, A Place In The Sun.
Docklands ExCel centre is the venue on April 25th, 26th and 27th as Channel Four’s must see property programme stages one of it’s ever popular live events. Once tickets go on sale, they will be snapped up fast, but you can jump the queues by logging on to www.actualproperties.com/a-place-in-the-sun.asp .
Actual Properties are the sole representatives for Tenerife and very appropriately, the London Golf Show is taking place in the next hall. Golf properties are hugely popular in Tenerife and Actual Properties have developments at all the main southern golf resorts, Amarilla Golf, Golf del Sur, Adeje Golf , Golf Las Americas and their luxury residencies at the 5 star Abama Golf Resort. As a special bonus to potential investors, Actual Properties have ensured that the 500 FREE tickets will also give FREE admission to the London Golf Show, so you can make a real day of it.
A Place In The Sun is a relaxed showcase for anyone toying with the idea of buying an overseas property, and to help make a real event of the day, there will be music and dance. Keep an eye out for the celebrity guests who are attending the show and Amanda Lamb, presenter of the TV version of A Place In The Sun will be on hand to add a touch of glamour.
The exhibition is from 10 am until 6 pm on the Friday and Saturday, with the slightly earlier closing time of 5.30 pm on the Sunday. Actual Properties would love to meet as many of you as possible, so get along to their stand, say hello and have a chat over a drink and a nibble.
Mar
18
This week´s recommend “Blog of the Week” goes to Horizon Property Group
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The Sorted Sites Blog of the Week is awarded to Horizon News during the previous week (Friday to Thursday). Lorna Eade at Horizon News which is the blog for the Horizon Property Group, gets our Blog of the Week award for outstanding and good value content. If ever Real Estate Agents in the Canary Islands are looking at how to launch or run a blog, then you would be well advised to take a look at Horizon News as a good reference point.
Blog News Blog of the Week General StuffMar
17
Embrace your competition and win the real estate game
Filed Under Online Marketing | Leave a Comment
Have you ever wondered why similar, competing shops tend to gather around each other on the high street or at shopping centres? The fact is that people like choice and will prefer to go wherever they can find it, and this is what pushes up the prices of top commercial real estate property.
But how does this apply to your real estate agency’s online marketing?
Your website may seem to be an isolated presence - you type in www.yourrealestatedomain.com and it shows up in all its splendid glory, alone and unchallenged. But the picture is so very different the moment a potential client runs a Google search and you (hopefully) show up next to several other real estate websites, many of which are trying to woo your very same client.
No matter how high in the search rankings your website is, your prospects are going to be looking at your competitors’ websites too. Once you accept this fact, you can use it to your advantage.
Become part of the online real estate community
The idea here is not the old maxim of ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer,’ but rather to form strategic alliances with other estate agencies so that you work together to help each other’s businesses prosper through the tough times, to the detriment of those other estate agents who choose to brave the storm alone.
Blogging about other estate agents does send traffic away from your website, but it also makes your own website so much more valuable as a resource that people will want to bookmark or subscribe to. Blogs like Off Plan Property Exchange have their own property listings but, because they blog about and link to other developments too, they are able to attract a much bigger audience and regular readership whom to advertise to.
Likewise, posting comments on the blogs of other estate agents in reply to what they are saying will of course help them and the discussion they are trying to create, but it also helps you by getting you noticed and raises awareness about your own estate agency and website.
What goes around comes around, and your linking to other websites will ultimately mean that other websites will link back to you, so it’s a win-win situation. This sort of alliance can be implicit - you do your thing and hope others notice - or else you can directly initiate communication with other real estate marketers through your comments or via e-mail etc. and discuss ways of working together.
Team up with other estate agencies and offer more to your clients
The Internet also makes it very easy for you to work directly with other real estate agencies and match each other’s clients with each other’s property listings on a commission basis - even to the extent of listing other agents’ properties on your website.
Your clients will most probably find the other agents anyway on the Google high street, so in such a case you win by getting your share of the commission, you win by being the one who helped the client find the property in the first place, and you win by turning your website into an even greater source of properties that people will want to come back to. What’s more, you also win when other estate agencies return the favour and send business your way.
Once again, this gives your agency so much more power compared to those who insist on going it alone because, by teaming up with other real estate agencies, you offer a much better service to your clients. Sellers sell their properties faster because you have access to more buyers, and buyers realise that you are serious about finding them the right property and that you have the commitment and connections necessary to achieve that. This can only be good for your business!
In the light of all this, it seems like madness to go it alone with brute force online marketing and be limited by whatever budget you can afford to pump into your real estate advertising. Rather than spending all your money and energy trying to jump above your competitors and be seen, you could be much better off climbing on each other’s shoulders and leaving the stubborn go-it-aloners to fight for the low-hanging fruit while you enjoy the lofty rich pickings waiting to be had.
Online MarketingMar
14
This week´s recommend “Blog of the Week” goes to Secret Tenerife
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Pamela at Secret Tenerife has been awarded our Blog of the Week as we think she is brilliant in showing others how to blog in a simple yet commanding way, we also like her websites new look :).
Blog of the Week General StuffMar
12
Referral business is the best
Filed Under General Stuff, Social Networking | 1 Comment
We recently looked at last year´s statistics on our performance and where our business comes from. Interestingly enough 85% of our business came from referrals, for which we are truly grateful and we would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank a few people who continually refer business to our ourselves.
Thank you to Stephen Eade at Horizon Property Group, Sarah Hill at Actual Properties, Robin Brinkman at Dia Soleado Invest and David Wood at Mouse Move. If we have not mentioned you, please accept our apologies …. but don´t stop referring the business!!
General Stuff real estate referral Social NetworkingMar
10
Blog of the Week
Filed Under Blog of the Week | Leave a Comment
We have decided to set up a “Blog of the Week” spot, which is basically us selecting a blog and giving our seal of approval for that Blog. It can be a blog from one of our clients, a local blog within the Canary Islands or a Real Estate Blog. Follow our selections each week and see what you think of our choice!
Blog News Blog of the WeekMar
6
By the way, we’re among the top 50 real estate marketing bloggers
Filed Under Blog News | Leave a Comment
Back in December, one of our blog’s readers congratulated us on being included by International Listings in their list of the Top 50 Real Estate Marketing Bloggers.
It was terribly close to Christmas, and we were so busy finishing off a good deal of work before the end of the year that we somehow forgot to tell you.
Now you know 
Mar
6
Start a real estate podcast and get personal with your prospective clients
Filed Under Online Marketing | Leave a Comment
Marketing your real estate agency is all about building trust with your audience, and the Internet gives you tons of tools and opportunities to do so. We have already discussed how your real estate blog is one way to give property hunters the chance to get to know you even before they step into your office. Here’s another idea: start a property podcast.
What’s a podcast, and why bother?
Behind the geeky name lies a simple concept - ‘podcast’ comes from ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’ and quite simply means a audio recording (much like a mini radio broadcast) that people can download and listen to on any MP3 player (not just iPods). In other words, you can think of your real estate podcast as a kind of ‘blog post’ that you record instead of type out. This gives you an excellent opportunity connect with your audience in a more direct way, thus building a stronger relationship.
If you have any doubts about the importance of the Internet as a medium, or think that making podcasts would be a waste of time, take a look at the latest addition to the real estate podcast scene: Phil Spencer On the House. If the same Phil Spencer who presents the popular real estate programs Location, Location, Location and Relocation, Relocation on Channel 4 and More 4 thinks it’s a good idea to start his own property podcasts, that’s a sure sign that you should be doing so too!
Creating a real estate podcast is easy
All you need is a microphone connected to your PC and some recording software and you’re set to go. Google ‘how to make a podcast‘ and you’ll find a ton of technical guides on making and publishing your podcast so we won’t go into that, except to say that you can contact us at Sorted Sites if you need any help setting things up. One site we have found good for publishing podcasts is www.freeiq.com.
Still, there are a number of things to keep in mind about when creating your real estate podcast:
- Give out insider real estate knowledge. Give your podcasts real value by offering honest insights into the property market you operate in. This will also foster your image as an expert in your field.
- Choose a topic for each podcast and stick to it. Avoid the temptation to let your thoughts wander all over the place. Choose a topic related to your particular property market and discuss that. For example, you can talk about something that’s in the news, or talk about your own experiences as an estate agent.
- Rope in a colleague, or maybe even a client. Inject variety into your podcasts by having someone else record the podcast with you so you can discuss the topic and offer another opinion on the matters at hand.
- Make your podcasts about your listeners. Your property podcast are not advertising so avoid the temptation to keep promoting your services too often - no one is going to subscribe to anything like that. Having said that, do offer ‘scoop’ information on the best property developments and investments, but always do it with the listeners’ interests in mind.
- Respect your clients’ privacy when giving examples in your property podcasts. In other words, make and examples or anecdotes general to avoid revealing confidential information.
- Find the right length for your real estate podcasts. It’s difficult to specify an optimum length for your podcasts, but anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes should be adequate. In any case, don’t make your podcasts any longer than you need to and avoid going off on a rant.
- Listen to your property podcasts a couple of days later to hear them with a fresh pair of ears so you can better judge how they sound.
Publish your property podcast on YouTube
While podcasts are strictly speaking audio only, there is nothing to stop you adding a still image and converting your property podcast into a video file. This will allow you to upload it to your own YouTube channel as well as offering it as an MP3 download. Better still, you can record the podcast with a video camera or webcam and put a face to your estate agency.
Why YouTube? Simply because it is extremely popular as a medium and is thus a very easy way to find an audience. What’s more, YouTube videos to get indexed very well on Google and other search engines, so be sure to include a good description of each podcast when you upload it.
So, plug in those mics, and get chatting to your prospective customers before you even meet!
Online MarketingMar
5
We are delighted with the results from our new look Property Portal. With a quick and easy navigation it easily brings together prospective clients looking to buy property in Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria with prominent Real Estate Agents throughout the Canary Islands.
Estate Agents can easily network their properties with this portal and other portals such as Canary Property, Think Spain, Freedom4Sale and Kyero. If you have any questions about Property Base or would like further information please contact Phil Evans at phil@propertybase.net or give him a call on 677 806 800.
Online Marketing
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