reuputation

6 Critical Precautions to Protect Yourself from a Bad Online Reputation or Review

reuputationBack in the day—you know, before the internet—it was a lot easier to protect yourself or your company’s reputation. Previously, if someone had a bad experience with you, he or she would tell a few people or those within their close circle and that was about the extent of the impact. Today, people have the potential to tell, what often feels like, the entire world online. Here are some precautions you and your agency can take to protect yourself from a bad online review.

How to Protect Yourself from a Bad Online Review

1. Create an Online Strategy and Social Media Strategy

It’s not just millennials who use the internet to research when considering buying or selling property, more and more individuals are turning to the internet before they begin their real estate journey. This means it’s critical to have an online strategy and to actively manage your online reputation.

You can be proactive in creating a positive reputation and excellent online brand awareness via social media posts, relevant and informative blog posts, and by curating content tailored to your audience. You can also lay the framework for how you’ll respond to poor reviews or negative comments and who will respond, should you receive any. A strategy is crucial to ensure you’re creating the right online reputation.

2. Respond to Negative Feedback and Continue to Post Positive Reviews and Content

If you manage negative feedback well, you can reverse it by being very apologetic and letting the unhappy client know that he or she can get in touch with you to sort things out. If any other potential clients see the negative feedback, they’ll see that you’re professional, respectful, and quick to address concerns.

Once you’ve apologised, continue to post positive content to drown out the negative noise.

3. Request Testimonials from Happy Clients

If a negative review was left and it’s being featured at the top of a review website or in a place where you can’t drown it out with lots of great curated content, seek out testimonials from happy customers. You likely have tons of happy customers and now is the time to start asking for feedback.

You should constantly encourage buyers, sellers, tenants, landlords, and vendors to go online and leave positive feedback about their great experience with you or your agency.

If you’re not quite sure how to professionally request and receive a fabulous testimonial, check out our blog post, “How to Ask a Real Estate Client for a Great Testimonial.”

4. Use Alert Tools and Be Proactive

Utilise Google Alerts or Mention to stay on top of any time your name, agency, or website is mentioned online. These tools will notify you when you’re mentioned and help you proactively respond to good and bad reviews.

Create content around keywords that potential clients are searching for, such as “best {fill in the area} real estate agent,” so that when they search, they discover you. It’s one of the many ways to help the customer find you.

5. Outsource or Enlist Help When Necessary

In addition to social media companies that will either post for you or help with sponsored or boosted posts, there are also companies that assist with online reputation management. These companies will either assist you on a regular basis or once off, in the case of a significant negative event. If you don’t have the necessary resources to properly manage your online reputation or social media platforms, outsourcing to a company that knows what they’re doing can be very beneficial.

6. Focus on Prevention

The age old adage is true: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Do your best to ensure your customers have a positive experience with you and everyone in your agency. While customer service and care can be interpreted differently depending on the people you encounter, you can still work on ensuring that from the receptionist to the admin team to the agent, every customer is getting the best possible service.

 

For more helpful real estate tips and information like this, check out our blog. You can also follow us on Facebook.

At iProperty, we provide leading online property management and real estate software,  responsive websites, and more.

 

online offline

Strike the Right Balance Between Online and Offline Marketing

online offlineWe’ve watched as business, real estate, marketing—and the world, really—has moved online. While you may wonder exactly what modern marketing looks like , and whether or not you should stop all offline marketing efforts, we’re here to tell you that the key is to strike the right balance. Offline marketing is still important and beneficial, so don’t neglect traditional marketing altogether.

Much of our day takes place online and you absolutely have to maximise this space in order to reach the largest audience, but offline marketing should still be a part of your strategic plan in order to obtain the best results and reach each segment of your target audience.

Here are some ways you can combine online and offline marketing in order to reach and grow your audience.

Understand Your Clients

While the younger generation favours the online environment, you will always have individuals who prefer to engage in person or in print. You will have potential clients who prefer to read the newspaper, look to see whose agency is represented on a ‘for sale’ board in their neighbourhood, or keep track of direct mailing advertisements.

Spend some time studying your clients and potential clients. Ask them how they prefer to hear from you, and adjust your methods accordingly.

Active buyers will likely be online first and foremost in order to view the most up-to-date property listings.

Signboards, newspapers, and other print media are still highly effective for a geographical marketing campaign and as a means to attract new clients. Online marketing and content marketing, however, is also highly effective in attracting and nurturing potential clients.

Think Strategically About Your Properties

Think strategically about the properties you have and how certain demographics might desire them. For example, you might have a trendy apartment that appeals to millennials. Consider where these millennials might be on social media (perhaps, Instagram), and share photographs and information there.

You may have a single-story, smaller home that would be perfect for retirees. Think strategically about where this particular audience congregates or reads, and spend more effort marketing via those avenues.

If you have a property that would be a fabulous investment opportunity, perhaps you want to target foreign investors online or local investors in person with a presentation of top investment properties.

When you know your properties and their appeal, and where your target audience is you can strike the right balance between online and offline marketing that really works.

Know Your Staff’s Skill Set

As a real estate agency, it’s imperative that you understand your staff’s skill sets. You may have less experienced agents who are highly knowledgeable about social media and online marketing, and your seasoned agents likely possess a wealth of knowledge, especially about traditional marketing methods. Don’t be afraid to combine this talent.

Encourage your younger agents to help the senior agents set up their social media accounts or help them along with them. Encourage your senior agents to share their knowledge and give pointers to the newer agents. Know which of your agents stand out in these areas and task them with teaching a workshop that helps other agents understand how to utilise both forms of marketing.

Bring Both Together

It’s crucial that as a real estate agency—and even as an agent—you have a website, blog, and social media accounts. You can use your print media campaigns to direct people to your online platforms and drive traffic to your website.

You can also use your website to drive people to any promotional events you are having, and include a call to action to get in touch with you for a free valuation or consultation about purchasing a home. By tailoring your communication and utilising different approaches based on the different segments of your audience and striking a balance between online and offline marketing, you can build a great database and increase leads and enquiries.

Contact iProperty to learn how we can help you with your online mix. We create websites, microsites, apps, and more.

For more helpful real estate tips and information like this, check out our blog. You can also follow us on Facebook.

5 Online Ways to connect

5 Important Ways You Can Connect with Clients Online Beyond Real Estate

Examine the content you’re sharing online. Is it all about real estate? We know that may seem like a silly question, because you are in the real estate industry, but if all you’re sharing is information about buying and selling homes, you may be missing additional opportunities to connect with potential clients.

It’s very likely that the people you connect with online might not quite be ready to buy or sell a property. Your goal, however, is to keep them engaged, so when they are ready, you’re the first person or agency they think of.  Sharing market information, property listings, and tips are great ways to add value to your real estate blog, social media platforms, and clients, because this information helps set you up as an industry expert.

It is important, however, to produce fresh and fun content that is meaningful to an audience not quite ready to begin their real estate agency while tying it into your business goals and objectives. So, how do you do that? Here are five types of content that can help you connect with and engage a larger audience:

1. Creative

Sprinkle in creative photos or posts. Share a picture of a different location you love or a cool front door or landscape image each week and add your logo, website, or social media handle. Add an inspirational or thought-provoking quote. Ask your audience to share pictures of their current view or a picture of something they love about their home using a hashtag you’ve created for the campaign. There are a number of ways you can creatively engage your audience and connect with them.

2. Community

As human beings, we connect through community: local clubs, events, restaurants, and affiliations.  Feature your community in your posts. Interview officials on new projects or share information about new businesses or events in your area. Share a “glimpse from the past” image that shows what your hometown, or a building in your hometown, looked like in a particular year.

Connect with your audience over your community. You can even ask your audience if they have old images of your town and area, and ask them to share the photos with you using a hashtag. You can then share those images on your social media profiles.

3. Giving Back

How you contribute and give back to your community, charities, or people in need says a lot about you. People will be drawn to your efforts to improve your community, or this world, and will be attracted to do business with you because of it.

Many don’t share about their philanthropic efforts because they don’t want to be viewed as exploitive or boastful, but as long as you promote the initiative or organization—as opposed to yourself—you’re doing a great service. By sharing about your efforts, you help promote these charitable organizations, which can get others to donate and help as well. When you share, just make sure you talk about the organization, why you’re helping it, what they do, why you love it, and how others can help, too.

4. Hobbies/Experiences

Talk a little bit—not a lot—about your hobbies and experiences. This will help others connect with you, especially if you have common interests or a common background. Share a funny story or about something incredible that happened to you. Give your audience a glimpse into your personal life, so they feel like they know you, without coming off as narcissistic.

5. Influencers

Share about the people who influence and encourage you.  Feature your mentor or write a post and tag industry leaders or inspirational individuals who you follow. #followfriday is actually a popular social media hashtag on Instagram, where people share about, and tag, their favorite social media profiles and influencers. There is a saying that says, “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” Recognize people for their influence in your life and show your audience that you learn and grow from others and are connected to the world around you.

 

For more helpful real estate tips and information like this, check out our blog. You can also follow us on Facebook.

At iProperty, we provide leading online property management and real estate software,  responsive websites, and more.

Awards

5 Powerful Reasons Why You Should Embrace Business Awards

AwardsBusiness awards, whether industry specific, nationwide, or part of a local initiative, can have a powerful impact on your real estate agency. They’re not just for big businesses or movie stars—recognition is a highly effective way to improve your business, increase brand awareness, and boost morale.

You can enter national real estate competitions or initiatives run by local communities.

Obviously, the main objective to entering these competitions or partaking in the initiative is to win, but even if you don’t win, there are many benefits to entering your agency for business awards. Here are five powerful reasons you should embrace business awards:

  1. Networking Opportunities and Increased Business Awareness

If you enter an award’s competition and you’re nominated as a finalist, the name of your agency will appear in newspapers and on websites, increasing your brand awareness and introducing new people to your business.

When you attend an awards event, you can network and connect with other ambitious industry leaders and share business acumen.

  1. Get the Spotlight on Your Business

You can enter your real estate agency into a variety of categories and spotlight your business for its unique contributions. You might not win real estate agency of the year, but receiving awards in a niche category can still reflect positively and spotlight your business.

The Australian Business Awards alone have category awards for: enterprise, innovation, technology, marketing excellence, brand excellence, service, community contribution, and more. Perhaps, you run a very technologically advanced real estate agency or significantly contribute to your community.

  1. Become More Knowledgeable About Your Business and Industry

A rewards program or awards event can be a very detailed and involved process, invoking long questionnaires and submission forms. You have to supply documented evidence of the remarkable work you’re doing or have done. This involved process allows you to dig deep into your business and industry, which can be a very useful tool for future business planning and strategy development. While you may come to realize that your business has a small likelihood of receiving an award this year, you’ll be in a better prepared and more informed position for next year.

  1. Fresh Content For Your Blog and Marketing Materials

If you win a business award, you’re going to want to spread the word—and spread away! You can share this information on your blog and use your winning status to establish credibility on your marketing materials.

You can also share this information with your subscriber list in your real estate newsletter. You can share any and all media mentions of your win on social platforms and use this content to boost your business reputation. It’ll undoubtedly help drive traffic to your website and increase referrals.

If you don’t win an award, you can still blog about the process or about attending the event, and discuss your goals for next year. You can also talk about the businesses that won and which ones inspired you.

  1. Increased Credibility

A big benefit of winning any award, especially a big one, is the credibility it lends to your business. It’ll give you talking points and allow you to outline the reasons why your business won the award.

While the application process may be time consuming and intensive, business awards can provide significant benefits to your overall business.

 

For more helpful real estate tips and information like this, check out our blog. You can also follow us on Facebook.

At iProperty, we provide leading online property management and real estate software,  responsive websites, and more.

Marketing Trends

7 Digital Marketing Trends You Need to Know About in 2016

Marketing TrendsDigital strategy and online marketing is ever-changing, which is why it’s important for you to keep up with what’s going on—especially within the real estate industry.

Last year, we saw a lot of clean website designs with less elaborate layouts and simple fonts, colours, and formats. In 2016, we can expect to see more minimalist design with an emphasis on interactivity, video content, and user-friendliness.

Here are the top digital marketing trends you need to know about so you stay ahead of the curve:

  1. Mobile Optimisation

Mobile optimisation or mobile-friendliness is the number one trend for digital marketing as more and more users rely on their mobile devices to search for properties and property services.

Responsive design, something iProperty takes very seriously, is going to be crucial for ensuring website images, fonts, and layouts automatically resize across different devices.  As more and more individuals, especially millennials, turn to mobile, it’s important that you ensure your website experience is a positive one for users (or they likely won’t come back).

  1. Microsites Grow in Popularity

More and more agents will turn to microsites or single property websites to promote high-end, luxury properties. Utilising video content, interactive floorplans, and 3D tours these property sites will be differentiators.  Microsites should also link back to your main website or agency website in order to promote brand awareness and drive further leads your way. For agents wanting to expand on their own personal brand and market exposure, Agent microsites are also gaining in popularity.

  1. Interactive Call to Actions

The goal of driving traffic to your website is to convert that traffic to leads. Leading real estate websites will utilise call to actions, such as pop-up subscription boxes, contact forms, live chat windows, or eBook downloads or exclusive content in order to capture email addresses and build relationships.

  1. Customer Experience an Even Bigger Priority

Web designers will continue to focus on creating the ultimate customer experience. From large feature images to minimalist layouts to video content, simplicity will be a driving force in the user experience. Expect to see more infinite scrolling as opposed to multi-page formats and more hidden menus.

  1. Quality Content is King

The focus on your website needs to be on providing quality content. Search engine optimised blogs, that provide valuable content and professionally designed eBooks or informative videos, will help real estate agents become industry leaders and experts in the eyes of their target audience.

  1. Video Content is at the Centre

Video will continue to grow as one of the most popular forms of content. Animated sliders, video backgrounds, and explainer videos will take the place of large blocks of text. These videos will help you take your potential clients on video tours of your services and property listings, and should be front and centre.

  1. The Power of Storytelling

The most effective real estate websites or agent profile websites will integrate storytelling into their brand message. To connect with vendors, buyers, and sellers, profiles should have video tours of your office, feature interviews, client testimonials, and more. Weave ‘story’ throughout every aspect of your website and use it to create a vibrant brand that truly connects with viewers.

 

Hopefully, staying up-to-date on these trends will help you stay ahead of the curve. To learn more about how iProperty can help you create websites that are on-trend, visit our website design page or contact us.

new

Why Video is Important for Every Real Estate Agent

newVideo is quickly becoming one of the most popular internet marketing strategies and a very powerful inbound marketing tool. Leading real estate agents are utilising videos to share virtual tours, property glimpses, client testimonials, and more.

So, why is video so important for a real estate agent? And, how can a real estate agent benefit from utilising video? Here are some of the main benefits:

1. More Views

Videos—hands down—receive more views than pictures, even high quality ones. They grab viewers’ attention and provide interactive information that allows viewers to connect with you.

2. More Shares

Listing videos, and videos in general, get more shares on social media sites than images or website links. Videos are engaging, entertaining, and people love to share them.

3. Build Brand Awareness

Videos help you build your brand and establish your brand voice, which is critical for successfully connecting to potential clients. They’re an excellent marketing tool that allows viewers to meet the person behind the property listings and services. When done right, videos can help you establish brand awareness.

4. They’re Persuasive

Videos not only help you market your listings, but they help you market yourself. They’re persuasive and allow you to showcase your charm, personality, and professionalism. They give insight into who you are and what you have to offer that potential clients can’t fully get by reading text or blog posts alone. Videos help you persuade potential clients to choose you.

5. Create a Strong Online Presence

Videos help you create a strong online presence and generate new leads, which are critical to the success of your business. Clients are more receptive than ever to video content, which allows you to establish yourself as an industry expert who is digitally savvy.

The thought of creating high quality videos might seem overwhelming at first, but there are a number of free and inexpensive video tools that are available to help you succeed.

 

Creating high quality videos can be done from an iPhone or smartphone and a video editing app. With a little practice and a little research, you’ll be on your way to engaging your audience like never before and establishing your online presence. If you don’t even know where to begin with creating video content, you can always enlist the help of a professional, too.

Learn more about how you can establish a greater online presence by checking out our what we do page or by visiting our blog where we feature cutting-edge online marketing information and helpful tips.

Agent Website

5 Reasons to Create Your Own Agent Website

Agent WebsiteThese days, clients expect you to have a website. In fact, your agent website is your personalised storefront and online business card—it’s how people first meet and greet you. A customised real estate agent website or real estate agent blog puts the spotlight on you and your offerings.

Most potential clients will ‘Google’ you and scan through the search results page. If your online reputation doesn’t impress them—or if they don’t find what they’re looking for—chances are they won’t even bother to contact you.

Creating a personalised real estate agent website helps give you a competitive edge.

An expertly designed and user-friendly website that helps increase your leads should include the following:

  • A welcoming profile picture that is up-to-date
  • An about page or bio that includes detailed information about your experience and a glimpse into who you are
  • A regularly updated blog
  • Your latest property listings
  • Success stories and examples
  • Client testimonials
  • Your industry awards, accolades, or achievements
  • A mobile-friendly and user-friendly interface
  • Links to your social media profiles
  • Contact details or a form fill that helps viewers get in touch with you

Now that you know what you should include, let’s take a look at 5 specific reasons why you should create your own real estate agent website.

5 Reasons You Should Create Your Own Real Estate Agent Website

  1. It Differentiates You From the Crowd and Online Clutter

In the real estate industry, it’s common for agents to have out-of-date contact information or out-of-date property listings online. It’s also common for agent details and profiles to be listed among a much larger list of agents on an agency website, which makes it difficult for you to stand out.

Creating your own website shows that you’re digitally savvy (which is important to buyers and sellers) and that you go the extra mile. It helps you stand out and create your own online brand or reputation.

  1. It Boosts Search Engine Results

Creating your own real estate agent website gives you the opportunity to completely optimise your website for search engines and target local search terms. This will help your rankings in Google search results and help leads discover you.

Consistently upload regular content on your website that includes keywords, such as:

  • {Your area} real estate agents
  • Best real estate agents in {your area}
  • {Your area} homes for sale or apartments for sale
  • Average house price in {your area}

It’s good to spend some time on your keyword research to determine what your target audience is searching for. The more you target the keywords they’re using, the more apt they are to discover you and your services.

  1. Strengthen Credibility and Increase Your Expert Status

By blogging and sharing information that your readers find helpful and informative, you strengthen your credibility and increase your expert status. When you share tips for buying and selling a home, market updates, local real estate information, and add value, you cement yourself as an industry leader, which draws people to you and your services.

  1. Build Your Personal Brand

When you create your own website, you also begin to build your personal brand and find your brand voice. Your website is a platform you own, and it’s a place where you convey a unique message.

  1. Additional Advertising Space

Your website is one more place you can advertise properties for sale. If you attract a large audience regularly through blogging, you can highlight this as an additional benefit to sellers. The more people you reach, the more people will see your properties for sale, and the more people that see your properties, the higher the likelihood that your sellers will achieve the best possible selling price.

Creating your own real estate agent website can be done easily and cost-effectively. iDashboard creates professional, user-friendly, and mobile-friendly websites for real estate agents. We also create real estate agent blogs and microsites.  Read more about our websites here or contact us for more information.

Instagram2016

5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Instagram Following in 2016

Instagram2016Why Instagram?

Instagram is an emerging social media platform with over 400 million monthly active users, as of September 2015. With Facebook’s pocketbook now behind it, this highly visual social media platform is gaining traction as a popular visual advertising channel.

Marketers are becoming increasingly interested in Instagram, because studies have shown high brand engagement that is greater than the engagement achieved on both Twitter and Facebook. One factor that has led to high brand engagement is the fact that Instagram users can see posts from every account they follow (if they log in regularly).

Victor Pineiro of Big Spaceship—a digital agency—states, “Organic engagement on Instagram is leaps and bounds above its counterpart on Facebook, on Twitter, on Pinterest, on any of them. The reasons you’ll get the numbers that are so high is that you see every piece of content that you’re subscribed to, and it’s really easy to tap once to ‘like’ something.”

The real estate industry is naturally positioned to capitalise on Instagram as an inbound marketing tool and agents can easily use Instagram to enhance their business. Images of the inside and outside of homes attract buyers, which makes Instagram a great platform to start sharing photos of properties for sale. Sharing high quality images of homes can also attract sellers, too, because they can clearly see you highlight your properties for sale.

So, how do you build a massive Instagram following? Here are 5 easy tips:

5 Easy Tips to Grow a Massive Instagram Following

1 . Post at the Right Time

If you post when users are most active on Instagram, you automatically get more impressions and engagement. Studies vary on when the best time to post on Instagram is, but across the board most agree that engagement on Instagram is higher on Mondays and Thursdays at any time other than 3p.m.-4p.m. Many also state that posts shared at 2a.m. and 5p.m. receive the best engagement, however, Instagram users are known for being engaged fairly steadily throughout the week.

2. Use Hash Tags

Your goal when using Instagram is to engage your current following while growing your following. Posting great photos will help you engage your following and hashtagging photos will help you grow your following by making your photos discoverable by people searching for your hashtag terms.

Hashtags make your content searchable and many social media users search by hashtags. Research popular versions of hashtags and think about what terms a user might search for on Instagram. The hashtag #melbournehomes has over 2,500 posts that showcase the exterior and interior of homes for sale.

Try different keywords that fit your brand, services, and products, and build up your keyword hashtags as you go. Come up with 15-20 popular hashtags to use and revisit your hashtags every few months, because the popular ones will change. Make sure to use branded hashtags, service or product hashtags, and location hashtags. For example, #ipropertyau, #realestatesoftware, and #victoriaaustralia might be hashtags we would use.

3. Cross Promote Your Content

Cross promote your content on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks. Take the photo you just added to Instagram and follow the prompts to include in on Facebook and Twitter. This is likely one of the simplest steps, especially if you have a well-established Facebook or Twitter following. This will help increase new followers and engagement.

4. Interact with Users, Including Your Competitors’ Followers

Interacting and engaging with your users does take time and effort, but social media users love to feel appreciated. Comment and like their photos. If your followers comment on your photos, respond to them.

Other users, who may not follow you, will see your interaction and be more apt to follow you, too!

Find your competitors on social media and take a look at who their followers are. You won’t have to steal their followers, per se, but you can interact with them so they’ll follow you, too. Take a look at who comments on your competitors’ posts and go check out their profiles. Like or comment on any pictures that jump out at you. Most people you engage with on Instagram will click over to your profile and follow you.

5. Run a Promotion

One of the easiest ways to boost your following is to run a promotion and give away a free product or service. People love free stuff. The more worthwhile your prize is, the more people you’ll likely attract.

Set up your promotion, so one of the rules is that people have to follow you in order to be eligible to win. To further expand engagement and gain more followers, create a second rule that requests followers to tag a friend, or five, in the post.

When you run your promotion, don’t forget to cross-promote it on all of your social media platforms.

Hopefully, these tips will help you increase your Instagram following, so more people see your posts and visit your website.

If you want to ensure you’re using Instagram to drive traffic to a user-friendly and professional website, contact us for help. We combine gorgeous design with the latest website technology to create websites, property microsites, blogs for real estate agents, and more.