Blogging Boo-Boos

How often have we talked about the importance of blogging?  By now you should know how important this tool can be for your website and your business.  It can improve your search engine rankings, keep your text current and give your readers a reason to return to your site.  Blogging is definitely a “do” but there are a few “don’ts” you need to guard against, too.  Blogging badly is nearly as bad as not blogging at all. 

Misspellings
How hard is it to hit the spell check button before you post your blog?  Misspelled words make you look lazy at best and ignorant at worst.  Double check your work before it goes live.  People do notice these things.

Poor Grammar
You don’t need to be an English professor to write a successful blog.  You do need to watch the grammar.  Your blog should make you sound like an expert in your field, someone with something important to say.  Poor grammar will distract and confuse your readers.  Have someone in your office proofread your writing if you’re not a language expert.

Irrelevant Content
Your blog has to stay current.  Make sure what you are writing about is relevant to your readers.  If you’re a real estate agent and your blog is about your cat, perhaps you should rethink your subject matter.  It’s OK to go off topic once in a while, but remember who you are writing for and why.

Infrequent Updates
Information gets stale faster than bread left on the kitchen counter.  You must update your blog regularly in order for search engines to appreciate the content changes and to keep your readers engaged.

Excessive Formality
The on-line community or “blogosphere” is an informal group.  Most blogs are written in a conversational tone that mimic your speech patterns.  Formality will go unappreciated.

Extreme Casualness
The informal nature of a blog’s tone is not a license to go totally casual.  Don’t go so far as to use text-talk.  This is still part of your business plan.  Profanity and off-color humor have no place in a professional blog.

Phoning it In
A good blog takes some research and preparation.  Don’t just toss out any old string of words just to post a current update.

Keyword Overload
Search engine optimization is one of the biggest benefits to blogging, but don’t drown your reader in key words.  Readers will see through your efforts to sneak in awkward key phrases and think that you are just pandering to the search engine bots.  Residents of the blogosphere are a pretty savvy bunch.

If you haven’t started your blog yet, what are you waiting for?  If you have, take a second look at it to see if you’ve made any of these common blogging mistakes.  Your readers are waiting for your next update.

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Writing Your Own App

Over a billion iPhone apps have been downloaded.  Each month another 100 million or so are downloaded to iPhones and iPods around the world.  It seems like everyone from the national pizza delivery chains to local small businesses have their own apps out there for consumption. 

Have you thought about creating one for your business yet?  Maybe you should.  There are lots of app writing programs online that can help you put out a custom app for your business or you can have a professional whip one up for you.

If you think this could be a good idea, you have a decision to make.  What would your app do?  Here are a few ideas to get you started thinking.

Update your Blog
Blogging is a great way to keep in touch with your clients and keep them involved in your site.  A blogging app will put your name, ideas and events in front of your clients’ eyes with frequency.  It will help them see you as the expert you are and give them a sense of you as a person.  You can let them know about new properties just listed, price reductions, open house or other news via a blog.  Blogging is a great way to build loyalty and a connection to your home buyers and sellers.

Compare Home Prices
Real estate giant Zillow has apps that compare home prices by zip code.  You could come up with a localized version of this idea, comparing neighborhoods or zones.

Available Home Maps
Your app could show your app users where listed homes are located with integrated maps.  They will be able to find their own way to open houses or just drive by and see the home for themselves.  If your sellers are doing their homework and keeping up the curb appeal, this could really generate some interest in a property.

Feature Photos and Videos
This is another idea to generate interest in a property.  Create an app to show off photos or videos of featured homes.  Mobile marketing is one of the fastest growing trends and this could be a great way to harness the power of mobile devices to the benefit of your business.

There are thousands of other ideas out there.  If technology isn’t really your strong suit, talk to a professional about building something for you.  Think about a few key points.  Does it solve a problem?  Does it fill a particular or unique niche?  Is it interactive?   If you can come up with something that answers one or two of these questions, you could create the hottest new app in your industry.

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Doing Business in the Clouds

It’s really tempting to make a few wisecracks on this topic.  However, just this once I’ll forego the obvious puns and remarks about having your head in the clouds and just talk about cloud apps for your business.  This emerging trend is, despite the name, a weighty topic in most circles. 

Cloud computing is a technical term describing a way of using the Internet or another network to share software, resources and information rather than having it all stored on stand-alone computers.  For example, let’s say you have a large real estate agency that utilizes a particular software application to manage listings.  You could put your software “in the cloud” and your agents can access it from any computer whether at home, the office or in the field.  (Not every program can be run in this type of application, but many have been specifically designed for this type of usage.)

Working in this way has a lot of benefits.  It could reduce your IT costs and the complexity of your systems since most clouds are consumed as a service from a 3rd party.  You don’t have to invest in the all the infrastructure yourself.  Since the data is centralized, it’s easier to manage its security.  With a virtual cloud, it is also easier to recover your data should there be a disaster like a fire on your premises. 

These systems are scalable, which means they can grow as your business grows without becoming ungainly or difficult.  Applications are available on-demand and data can be shared between users with ease.  In other words, your data isn’t stuck on a hard-drive back at the office while you are working an open house.

The name may be the hot new buzz word in tech circles, but you’re probably already using some type of cloud computing applications.  Do you have a web-based e-mail marketing system or a shared calendar application?  These can be elements of clouds. 

Industry giant Google has released many new cloud computing apps over the past year that could benefit your business.  The products offered here can give you a taste of operating within a cloud system without a massive overhaul of your business operations.  You can make small steps and see if it works for your agency.

Some of the options offered by the Google App Marketplace are Google Docs for word processing and sharing documents, Gmail for e-mail services and Google Sites publishing software.  Their marketplace offers both free and fee-paid versions.

Real estate agents are usually out of the office more than they are in it.  Cloud computing might just be the best solution for many of your business practices.

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Calling for Backup

Your business data is the lifeblood of your agency.  Imagine the absolute horror of losing your contacts, your e-mail lists, your spreadsheets and scanned documents in a disaster like a fire or flood or even just a garden-variety hard drive cash or virus attack.  Even a “minor” disaster like a rouge cup of coffee can wreak havoc on your hard drive and your livelihood.  That’s why so many real estate professionals and other business owners are turning to online data backup services.

Fear of disaster isn’t the only reason to use an online backup service.  Many people who need access to their documents or files from multiple locations use this kind of service.  People who work odd hours, are frequently away from their desks or work from both their home and office can benefit from having their data available online instead of tied to a particular computer.  Sound like any real estate agents you know?

Sure, you can pick up a portable hard drive or a few of those little thumb drives, but what happens if you leave the drive at the office?  Or your two year old decides to send that 2 inch thumb drive down the toilet just before a meeting?  Online backup is sounding better every minute, isn’t it?

A quick search engine query will bring up hundreds of different pages offering backup for a few documents or even your entire hard drive.  Prices vary widely and so do the services depending on the provider you choose.  Most allow you to access you data from any computer with an internet connection.  Some offer “cloud computing” type services like the ability to share or send your documents to anyone from any computer.  Charges may be flat fees or a rate for the exact amount of storage you are using at any given time.  Many offer free trial periods so test a few out to see what works best for you.

One of the most popular choices is called Mozy.  This system works well for many busy professionals because it is automated.  You can choose the frequency but the installed software will perform backups on its own and keep your files up to date. 

Dropbox is another easy to use option.  This app puts a folder on your desktop.  You just drag files into the folder and anything added to the folder is synced to your account.  Your documents are also available via their website, which is great when you’re at a computer which doesn’t have the software already installed.  Netbook users like this feature because it doesn’t use up the small amount of memory these devices have.

You may never need to access your data remotely or restore it after a data loss.  But isn’t a few dollars a month worth the security of knowing that if the worst happens, your hard work will be kept safe?

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Blogging and SEO Rankings

The advice on this site has often been to blog, blog and blog.  This may sound like blah, blah, blah to some readers but blogging is a vital part of your search engine optimization and marketing plan.  It’s effective and beyond cheap.  It just takes a little effort.  There are two main reasons to create and update a blog regularly: customer involvement and search engine rankings.

Customer Involvement
Keeping you name in front of your clients is obviously important.  You gain a large part of your business through repeat buyers and sellers and from their referrals.  You can’t let them forget your name in between sales. 

Search Engine Rankings
The other reason to blog is perhaps even more important: your site rankings.  Search engine optimization (SEO) is dependent on things like the use of keywords and phrases, which you can build into your blog, and updated content pages.  If your site goes stale, it will lose rank even if it was previously highly ranked. 

Why do you want or need top rankings?  Well, when was the last time you searched Bing or Google and went to page 137 to find a result?  You picked one of the first two or three “natural” results, didn’t you?  Your potential clients will do exactly the same thing so your agency needs to be one those top results.

How to blog
It’s not that hard to start blogging.  Have your website professional build in an easy to update spot for you on your site and start writing.  Ask him about key words and how to insert them into your blog in a subtle way.

Keep the content professional and relevant to your clients.  Avoid controversy, misspellings and poor grammar in equal measures.  If you feel that your writing skills are not up to the challenge, you can have a professional writer do the heavy lifting and just field ideas to him.

What to blog about?
You may struggle from time to time with topics for your blog, but don’t despair and don’t leave it un-updated.  Here are a few broad topics you can use to ferret out ideas.

Local events
Local and national news stories
Newly listed properties
Advice for your buyers and sellers
Home fashion trends
Landscaping/gardening tips
Changes in the real estate market
Financing tips
Saving for down payments
Home marketing tips

The list could go on endlessly.  Put a few of your ideas together each week and start your blog.  If you do the work and include your key words and phrases, you should see your efforts paying off in your rankings very soon.  Once you begin blogging, you won’t want to stop.

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In order to capitalize on search engine optimization on Google, Yahoo! and other search engine sites, many real estate companies are adding SEO articles to their websites. An SEO article is an article that discusses a certain topic relevant to the business, product or service, using popular keywords throughout the article. The keywords will often show up in Internet searches, making the articles pop up in search results so that more people will click on them and visit the company’s website. For example, if you are a real estate company that is located in New Jersey then you can add a few SEO articles about real estate in New Jersey. Keywords would include “real estate New Jersey” or “New Jersey real estate,” as well as others.

Though it may sound relatively easy to create an SEO article, there are a few important factors to keep in mind. First, in order to have SEO success, you can’t make the articles boring or repetitive and simply sprinkle in as many keywords as popular. Search engine optimization technology is improving everyday, and certain programs have been developed in order to detect articles and websites that overuse keywords, or use the same keywords too many times in order to attract visitors. It’s important to remember that, while they are essential, you can overuse keywords because you will be penalized and dropped further in the search results. SEO articles are strategic marketing tools that are not only used to increase your search visibility, but also offer information as well. There are many outsourcing companies that employ copywriters who are experienced at writing SEO articles for different businesses and companies. They know what keywords to use, as well as how to craft an informative article that will be beneficial to add to your website.

Another thing to remember when using SEO articles is that you want to make the topics diverse. Don’t keep adding articles that are about the same topic over and over again, because visitors will take notice and catch on. The important thing about an SEO article is that you want it to read like a regular article, and not one that is being used for SEO purposes. If you want to capitalize on SEO articles and take your real estate business to the next level, remember the information mentioned above. You can make SEO articles work for you, so that you can increase your customer base as well as your Internet visibility.

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Many real estate companies are using social-networking and blogging sites in order to increase their visibility and reach a wider market. Social-networking websites, such as Facebook and Twitter have never been more popular. And today, most people get their news from blogs instead of daily newspapers. Commenting on blog posts on different websites can help you advertise your services and company without actually having to pay out a single cent. It’s essentially a form a free advertising, if you know how to do it right. The following guide will help you learn how to conquer the blogosphere, so that you can increase your customer base and expand your business.

Avoid the obvious — Bloggers are smart, crafty and creative individuals. They have to be, because a blog post is a short, attention-grabbing blurb that is used to attract readers to a particular website. Therefore, they know when someone is trying to “advertise” on their blog by leaving obvious comment such as, “For the best in real estate, visit www.mywebsite.com.” When you are leaving a comment on a popular blog, always avoid the obvious. First, make a comment that is relevant to the post, but will give you the opportunity to follow up with a link to your website at the same time. For example, if the blog post is about the economy, you could leave a comment such as, “I agree. Today’s economy is tough. My company is always looking for new ways to increase income. Continue the discussion at www.mywebsite.com.” This way, the blogger won’t be apt to delete your comment, because you actually sound interested in the post itself.

Don’t comment more than once — Some companies try to blast a blog with comments and links, hoping that if they do it enough they will get noticed. This is ridiculous. When visitors see the same comment and link over and over again on a blog, they know that the person is seeking free advertising and they will simply ignore it. Overused comments and links are annoying and they will only make you look desperate.

Use correct grammar and spelling — When commenting on a blog, be precise and grammatically correct. A simple misspelling or a misuse of grammar could lessen your credibility, especially if you are trying to attract high-end clients. Readers will take one look at your comment and laugh, rather than click on your link. Like it or not, any comment that includes a link to your website or your business name will directly impact how people perceive you and your company.

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In today’s fast-paced world of technology, everyone wants immediate access to knowledge. That is why more and more companies are adding downloadable eBooks to their websites. An eBook is essentially an electronic “book” that can be downloaded from a website either for free or for a small fee. Normally short and concise, these are often used as an informative tool that coincides with the product or service of the business. For example, a fitness consultant can offer an eBook how on how to lose weight in 30 days, along with its everyday services. You can basically create an eBook on just about anything, and it can be used an excellent marketing tool.

If you are involved in real estate and you are looking to attract investors, it might be useful for you to create an eBook for your website. In the eBook, you can detail all of the benefits that investors would receive by investing in your company. You can also layout your real estate strategy, so that they will know where you plan on investing their money and how you plan on getting them a return on their investment. It’s important to make the eBook short and concise, because most real estate investors don’t have a lot of free time to spend reading through pages and pages of anything.

A good eBook is one that offers quick information about your company, and your product or service. You want to be able to attract real estate investors to your company by providing them with enough information to get them interested. If you have never written an eBook before, you can hire a freelance writer to help you accomplish your goal. A freelance writer will be able to help you create the perfect eBook to coincide with your company. He or she can take your ideas and notes, and transform them into a well-written and educational eBook that prospective investors will enjoy. In today’s business world, you have to do everything you can in order to set yourself apart from the competition. An eBook can give you that extra edge, so that you are one step ahead of everyone else. A real estate investor will be more likely to invest with your company if they know what your investment plans are ahead of time, and will choose you over someone else based on the information you provide in an eBook.

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Rebranding is an extensive marketing strategy in which a company or service changes its entire identity, from the logo and website all the way to the image and name, in order to reach a whole new group of customers as well as maintain the ones it already has. With the proper brand image, companies have the opportunity to set themselves apart from the competition. If you are looking to rebrand your real estate company, these three rebranding strategies will help you achieve your goal effectively and attract new clients.

1. Research
Before you do any kind of rebranding at all, conduct research to find out if you even need to go through the rebranding process. Find out what past clients liked or disliked about your business. Find out exactly what future clients are looking for in a real estate company so that you can develop an appropriate marketing campaign. Every brand needs a new look now and then, but it’s important to know how to correctly develop that new look. After all, you don’t want to turn away clients. You want to attract them. That is why you should properly evaluate the needs and mindset of your consumer base before any rebranding takes place.

2. Hire a rebranding consultant.
No one can give you better rebranding advice than a rebranding consultant. They have the experience and drive to help you create a brand new identity. A consultant will help you develop everything from a new website to a new advertising slogan and everything else in between. They also know how to effectively reach your target audience, so that the rebranding is successful. While rebranding consultants may be expensive, they can be extremely effective. You may have to spend some money upfront, but with a talented rebranding consultant you will make it back in the long run.

3. Make sure everyone in the company is on board.
A rebranding will only be successful if your entire company believes in it. Discuss the possibilities of a rebranding campaign with all of your employees. They can also give you feedback on certain strategies and ideas. When the entire company is on board, the rebranding is credible. If they do not believe in the rebranding itself, no one else will believe it either. This will have an adverse affect on your company as well as your product, as consumers won’t have faith in either one.

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Real estate professionals are becoming more web savvy every day.  Competition for the best listings is fierce and strong Internet marketing can give a realtor a substantial edge.  Using every available on-line resource is especially important because so many buyers shopping from home.  In addition to keeping up with photos some realtors are opting to include videos.

Giving a potential buyer a video is like giving them the house keys.  It lets them see the features in all dimensions, as if they were touring the home.  Video presentation gives the buyer a better sense of the space in a home than a still photograph.  While video can’t replace photos, it can be an excellent addition to a marketing plan.

The problem with adding video to a site is the amount of web resources it demands.  Video can put a strain on your server if you host it yourself.  For this reason, many sites use video hosting services like YouTube.  It’s not all funny cats and skateboard crashes.  Companies are using YouTube for hosting training videos, nonprofits are using it to spotlight fundraising efforts and real estate agents can use it to show houses.  There are a few tips to keep in mind if you chose to incorporate video.

Always professional

As a real estate agent, anything on your site should be exceptionally professional.  This includes video footage and voiceovers.  Using your Blackberry to take some quick shots isn’t acceptable for your still photographs and it won’t work for video.  Use a quality camera and record when there is plenty of light in the home.  You may even want to consider hiring out filming and voice over work to an expert.

Consider the resources

Not every house warrants video footage.  Some houses are better seen in person for a number of reasons from low lighting to a color palette that just doesn’t film well.  In addition, it may not be a listing that will give you a return on your investment.  Some realtors set a limit on which listings get video.  For instance a listing exceeding certain square footage or a certain price point is entitled to the added service.  If you are hiring out your video work or paying for video hosting, think about the amount of resources a video will take.

Clean, clean, clean

If the home will be filmed, be sure it is immaculately clean and staged to perfection.  Any flaws will quite literally be in the spotlight.

Video marketing could be the feature that gets that luxury listing.

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We’ve talked before about what Search Engine Optimization is and why it is important to your real estate business.  Now it’s time to delve a little deeper into the subject.  Let’s think of some ways to improve SEO and drive more traffic to your site.

Just by way of reminder, SEO is the way we get our website to appear at the top of the search engine results pages without buying the space.  Top ranking is important because most web surfers are going to take the time to examine all 4700 pages of results.  They’ll most like choose one of the top 10 ranked sites appearing on the first page of results.  You want them to come to your site first, be very impressed and become your newest client.

This process used by the search engines is complex and they are very tight-lipped about their ranking processes.  There are professionals available to manage this aspect of your site and hiring one would not be ill-advised.  After all, you still want to leave enough hours in the day to show and sell homes.  As an agent you can only spend so much time up to your elbows in your website.  There are some steps you can take yourself to get your site noticed by clients and engines alike.

Keywords

Know your keywords.  Even if you hire a company to do your SEO, you will still need to provide keywords and phrases for them to incorporate.  Your current clients are a great source of information for keywords.  Ask them if they looked on-line for agents (chances are they did) and ask what they typed into their Google toolbar that led them to you.  Find ways to incorporate these terms naturally into your website.  Blogs and FAQ pages are a good place to start weaving these important phrases into your text.

Participate in the Community

It’s always good practice to be an involved member of your community.  In this case, we’re talking about the on-line community.  Have you seen the comments section at the end of someone’s blog or article?  Most have a line for your web address and name as well as the body of the comment.  Every time you post your site’s address, you create something called a backlink to your site.  When someone posts a comment to your site, it creates another backlink from your site to theirs.  Search engines take relevant links into consideration when ranking your page.  It pays to be an active, intelligent participant in on-line discussions.

Put some thought toward your keyword and get active on-line.  With time, you’ll reap the rewards with improved rankings.

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Mobile marketing is new buzzword for the New Year.  Google it and you’ll see thousands of entries.  What is mobile marketing and how can it aid realtors in today’s market?

An extremely simplified definition is that mobile marketing leverages the advertising power of hand-held devices like iPhones and Blackberries to bring a message to a group of people.  It encompasses some of the techniques you are already using, like e-newsletters, search engine optimization and social media, and encourages your target audience to respond via their mobile device.

Here’s a recent example.  After January’s disastrous earthquake devastated Haiti, several aid agencies mounted massive mobile campaigns via the social media outlets Facebook and Twitter.  By simply texting a certain word to a certain number, mobile users could make a donation to a charity and have the amount put on their next phone bill.  User after used re-Tweeted or reposted the message, spreading the word like wildfire among networks.  After just two days, one major international aid charity alone had reportedly brought in over $8 million and the text messages kept coming.  As a realtor, your results won’t be quite this dramatic, but learning about mobile marketing now will give you a leg up on your competition.

Getting Started

It’s important to start learning about mobile platforms now.  Major on-line entities like Google and Yahoo are in development with program to improve the appearance of site on smart phones so the market is poised to explode.  As you are working with more clients born in the age of technology, more of your business will rely on how well you function with technology.

You can make your mobile marketing plan as large or as small as you choose.  Some realtors are getting started with baby steps, like asking clients to “opt in” for text messages on new listings.  You can ask you clients to follow you on Twitter for up-to-date information on showings, open houses and other time sensitive information.  Find a comfortable place to begin and grow from there.

Analyzing Costs

There is always a cost of doing business.  In mobile marketing, you will want to analyze these costs carefully.  If text messaging is not included as an unlimited feature in your plan you’ll have to pay per text.  While this isn’t such an issue if you send one client an updated time for a showing, a message blast to your entire client list can end up being costly.  A meeting with your mobile phone service provider will help you move forward.

If you think a cell phone is only for making calls, it’s time to rethink your position.  Mobile marketing is already more than a buzzword; it’s good business.

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AdSense is among the most hyped programs on-line.  It’s one of Google’s many offspring, a way of making money via your website and advertisements.  If you aren’t a web programmer you may not have a clear idea of what this program does.

The Google AdSense program allows a website owner to place a small piece of programming script (or code) on his site.  He can put it anywhere on the site within certain requirements set by Google.  The chosen spot then displays advertisements.  The code determines what ads the visitor sees.

These ads are not randomly generated but targeted to relate to the website and hopefully of interest to visitors.  Google has “robot” programs visit the site regularly and comb over the pages to see what the site is about.  Using a complex system that Google is reluctant to discuss, these engines examine words on the site, the frequency of their use, the formatting and other factors to determine what ads in their collection will be best to display on that particular site.

Ads displayed are also chosen based on the site visitor.  A person located in Moscow arriving on the site may see an ad written in his native Russian while a Parisian sees it in French.  Over time, AdSense becomes more attuned to the site’s content and more relevant to visitors.

There are two ways to become involved with AdSense.  One is to be an advertiser and the other is to be the hosting website.  Advertisers pay Google for every click of their ad.  For a host website, AdSense records the number of times visitors see the ads and the number of clicks that are generated from it.  The owner gets paid for every click going out from the site.  It’s a way for the site to make money from its traffic; the program is free to join and use.

While this may sound like easy money, it’s not without a few drawbacks.  Most AdSense ads are smaller and less obnoxious than banners but some still blink, flash and are otherwise annoying.  In addition, the site owner does not have any jurisdiction over what ads are displayed.  Advertisers, in turn, do not get to choose what sites where their ads are displayed but have to trust Google for appropriate placement.  Professional sites should be very aware of this fact.  Both parties should use caution and do some research before buying into the hype.

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Your website should be clean and easy to use; that’s a given. It’s tempting to load it up with apps and gadgets when there are so many useful ones on the market. But that usually just leads to a cluttered mess once your potential client begins to navigate your site. Keeping it simple is a good way to manage your site but as the old saying goes, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are some really useful applications and additions that don’t translate to clutter and will help you keep the attention of your potential buyers. One example is the virtual tour.

As the National Association of Realtors survey tells us, the vast majority of buyers use the Internet at some point during their home search process. The figure was last reported as being somewhere in the 80% range for last year but it is certainly growing. If your customers are using the Internet, you should have plenty of materials for them available on-line.

A virtual tour is a type of photography used on-line to give the viewer the perspective of standing in the middle of a space. They are able to “look” up and down, left and right and “see” a room as if they were actually inside it. They can even zoom in on a particular feature. A virtual tour allows them to feel the sense of space and the flow of the room much better than static photos do. It lets them see how the different spaces connect to each other. Static photos just can’t provide the feeling of have walked into the room like a virtual tour can.

As a realtor, you know that highlighting a property’s best features is the key to selling it quickly. A virtual tour is one of the best ways to really put the spotlight on a particular feature. Think about how effective it will be to show your buyers that gourmet kitchen from every angle while they’re sitting at home. Indoor and outdoor spaces can utilize virtual tours. You can walk them past the incredible pool and landscaping as it looked last summer, even if it’s now the dead of winter. It works for commercial properties too. If you have an excellent location, close to public transportation and in a bustling area, show it off to its best advantage with a virtual tour.

Using a virtual tour can mean the difference between watching a great property sit unnoticed for months and watching that same property sell quickly. It’s a great way to unearth that hidden gem in every listing. Even if you’re trying to simplify your site, virtual tours are a feature you should keep.

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High tech tools get all the press. Every new gadget, app and program seems to light up blogs with praise or criticism. They are reviewed, picked apart and made the subject of much conjecture. But high tech tools are not the only way to do business. There are plenty of low tech ways to market your business. Many of them have been proven, over long periods of time, to be effective. If you’ve gone high tech in your business plan over the past few years, think about reincorporating some of the more traditional marketing methods back into your approach.

The hand-written note
There is a certain beauty to a hand written note. In this day of text messages and e-mails, a personal note is a rare gift. A friend recently received a hand written thank you note form someone to whom he had given a small token. It was just a CD pertaining to the man’s favorite field of study, not expensive. But the man took the time to sit down with a pen and a blank note card and write a note of gratitude. My friend was quite moved by this simple act. If you are in the habit of texting “THANX!” or e-mailing all of your correspondence, take a few minutes of your day to write notes. You’ll be surprised at how well a thoughtful and detailed note will be received.

Print Ads
Items like flyers and “just listed” cards count as printed ads just like newspaper classifieds. Make sure yours are as professional and well-presented as they can be. A sloppy take-away flyer at an open house will not inspire respect for you or your business. If you are not a decent graphic artist, hire this work out. Your flyers are what the prospective buyer takes home to remind them of you so make sure the quality is top-notch.

Actual Social Networking
We’re not talking about on-line communities here. We’re talking about your actual community, the place where you live and work. Interact with people face-to-face once in a while. Join a civic club or a volunteer organization. Get out from behind your monitor and meet some of your prospective clients.

Referrals
This is the best way to get new clients. They are more apt to trust you since a friend or co-worker has already had a positive experience in working with you. Encourage your clients to send referrals your way. One local photographer I know offers a special package if the customer is willing to give three prospective names and their contact information in exchange. Give your clients a reason to give you those referrals.

Don’t forget the old-school techniques just because a new app is available. The two schools can work well together.

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