The New SOI Marketing + Selling in the Winter Works to an Investor's Advantage + much more...

885,391 daily readers and growing! May 6, 2016 The New SOI Marketing Dear Reader, When I was a new agent, one of the first marketing ideas I tried was “sphere of influence”, or “SOI” marketing. If you are not familiar with the term, it is marketing to your personal network — those people who know you, like you, and would do business with you or would refer business to you. Seems simple enough, right? The experts all say that if you have a SOI of fifty people, you can stay busy doing nothing but referral business from your personal network. Maybe once upon a time that was true, but I don’t know of a single agent who stays busy from just SOI business. In fact, I’ve written an article that explains why that is true. But I do think that your sphere of influence is important and that it is a great source of supplemental business. I think of it as more the icing, not the cake. But I digress. The reason I backed off my aggressive SOI marketing was because the way I was doing it — the way I was taught to do it — was actually hurting my relationships with my friends and family. Sphere of Influence in 2014? I was doing it exactly the way we are all taught: Take your database of contacts (your sphere) and divide them by 22 (the number of work days in an average month). Then, every work day call two or three of them. The call is basically asking about their FORD (not their car). F-O-R-D. Family, Occupation, Recreation, and Dreams. You call them up and small talk about those four areas for 10-15 minutes and then you get around to the “all important” closing statement that goes something like this: “Oh, before I go, who do you know who might be thinking about buying or selling real estate right now?” Hopefully, they give you a lead. Generally they don’t. And, being a new agent, I did it right by the book. Then one day at church I saw one of my SOI out of the corner of my eye, but I had not yet made eye contact with him. He saw me and immediately made a beeline in the opposite direction to avoid having to talk to me. My heart dropped. I was mortified. And I vowed then and there to never again do that phony SOI marketing like I’d been taught. Sure, I still wanted referral business but I didn’t want to be “that guy” — you know, the uncle that just signed up for the latest multi-level marketing scheme and is hitting up everyone he knows to come join his business. I wanted my friends to still like me. So I did very little in the way of SOI marketing for years. If business came, it came. If it didn’t, oh well. No big deal. Then last year when I was developing my Ultimate Website and was testing different parts of the system, when I made an alarming discovery. I realized there was a perfect way to market to my sphere of influence that was not phony, manipulative, cheesy, or time-consuming. In fact I loved it. And it did more in a few months to position me as an expert than all my books, articles, press releases and media appearances combined. So how does it work? Simple, that’s how. My website has three important elements that allow me to be seen as the expert and go-to guy for real estate in my market without my having to make a single phone call or “blow my own horn” in any way. The three elements are 1) my personal blog; 2) my local market statistics; and 3) my social media integration. Let me explain. My Personal Blog. As you know, I’m a writer and syndicated columnist. I’ve authored 11 books and hundreds of articles. I write prolifically. But here is my true confession: For whatever reason, I can never seem to find time to post content to my personal real estate blog. I decided to fix that. I began to syndicate content into my blog automatically through our sister company NewsGeni.us. I never have to write a thing, and yet every week a few new blog posts appear on my behalf. Sure, I look at it. If I don’t like some post, I simply delete it. If I feel particularly inspired, I might even post something of my own. Almost too easy, right? You’re jealous aren’t you? My Local Market Statistics. Once a month, I log into my local MLS and I pull exactly four data points for each of the market tiers that I’ve set up. I find out how many active listings there are for each tier, how many sold in the last quarter, the average sale price, and the average listing price. I enter those four data points into my website and save. Behind the scenes my website makes hundreds of mathematical calculations and generates a very impressive spreadsheet of data that my clients love. It calculates average days on market, absorption rate, list-to-sale ratio, average discount, and price trend for each of the tiers I have set up. Then it displays them in a very user-friendly format on my website. People buying and selling real estate absolutely love it! My Social Media Tie-in. Here is where it gets really powerful, and this is what I discovered by accident. Every month, after I’ve updated the four data points for each tier in my website, I click the Facebook share button on my webpage. When I do, it posts to my personal Facebook Timeline (my FB page) and all my Facebook friends see it in their news feed. No phone calls. No hassle. No manipulation. And some of them share the information on their own timelines as well. And when people who are interested go to view the information, they are captured by my LCM gateway and the leads are sent to me by email and text, and placed into my client manager for follow up. Now I know exactly which of my sphere of influence are actually thinking about buying or selling real estate. Better yet, I haven’t wasted any time with up to an hour a day making cheesy phone calls, I haven’t made my friends think I’m the pushy Realtor® they know, and all the while I have begun to position myself as a true market expert. And it takes a total of 10-15 minutes a month to do! I have my life back, my friends back, and without fail, when I post the market stats, I get half a dozen people who go to my website to view it and I get them as leads. How cool is that?! And the social media function works the same with my blog. About once a week I scroll through the various articles that have been posted on my blog for me and I select one that I particularly like. I then click the Facebook share button and it is posted to my Facebook wall, and just like my local market statistics, I have interested people in my sphere of influence follow the link to my website where they are captured and I’m notified. To me, this is the ultimate way to do sphere of influence marketing. You put great content out there, and those who are interested, come to you. No phony calls, no waste of 20 hours a month, and meanwhile I’m silently building my credibility as the area expert. Sphere of influence marketing just doesn’t get any better than that! Most of you could adopt my innovative approach to sphere of influence marketing and try it for yourself if you have a free afternoon and a little ingenuity to make the necessary "hacks" to your current website (all except the auto-blog, most likely). Or you could save yourself an afternoon and a lot of hassle and get my Ultimate Website -- which will allow you to do everything I describe above. If you have never tried my Ultimate Website, I want you to check it out and give it some serious thought today. Just think, if you started this afternoon and followed my easy advertising formula to post a free ad online tonight, you could literally wake up to new customers in your inbox tomorrow! It sounds crazy, but it's exactly what you're capable of. Get the Ultimate Website Now » or check price and availability in your area. As always, thanks for reading. Matt Jones Broker/President/CEO FavoriteAgent.com Matt Jones is the founder and CEO of FavoriteAgent.com, nationally syndicated columnist, broker, and best selling author. He has been profiled by major media outlets as an innovator and a pioneer in the industry, and CNN's Pulse on America claimed he and his company were "changing the way real estate is done in America."

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Secrets to Multiplying Your Referrals » What systems do you have in place to double your business through referrals with each transaction? Read more »

This is the NewsGeni.us e-Brief, a collection of the best real estate news and advice in one place. To cancel your subscription, follow this link http://www.newsgeni.us/unsub.php?email=dsoldit.blogpost@blogger.com&s=2144.

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Remember This? + Cancer Patient Sues Real Estate Couple for $500k + much more...

885,391 daily readers and growing! May 1, 2016 Remember This? Dear Reader, A few months back I shared an incredible email from one of your fellow readers who had just recently started following my training. At the time, Ben was working at the absolute worst time in one of the worst markets in the whole country. Yet within a month of implementing the advertising formula I've shared here in the past, he had no shortage of customers who wanted to work with him. I've copied Ben's email below as a refresher for those who might not remember it: "Hi Matt, I'm a long time reader, and I just had to send you a short email to say thanks. Earlier this year, I made a commitment to myself (and my wife) that I would get re-focused on my real estate business. I have never been much of a fan of internet leads, but it's overwhelmingly clear to me that the future is here now, and if you don't embrace new technology, you're done! The old school way of doing business with a business card and a phone is over. So I got your Ultimate Website. I placed my first ad like you showed me just over a month ago and will be closing on my first deal in two weeks! WOW -- why didn't I start sooner? I got this client as a text alert from my website, and I called her back immediately. She had already contacted the listing broker before I called her, so my timing was critical. I explained how I could help her and represent her best interests throughout the process, and she felt comfortable with our discussion and how I worked. In addition, she has an elderly mother that will most likely be needing to sell her home soon, and I will be the agent! The best part is, I now have 6 other clients in the pipeline that will be buying houses in the next three months. I've never had a personal website before. I've been in the business for 12 years. I'm over 50, I can barely send a text, and I'm kind of set in my ways. So if I can figure this out, anyone can! Thanks again, Matt." -- Ben G. Ben's email generated such a huge response when I originally shared it that I decided to track Ben down to record an interview with him. I wanted my readers to hear directly from him: What is he doing different to generate so much business? Well, I sat down with him and we recorded what I think is a great interview. The total finished product is about 30 minutes long, and I am able to get answers to just about every question you wanted to ask about Ben's business. The interview starts a little slow, but keep listening: there is some really great content here. My Interview with Ben Gabossi If you read Ben's email or listened to his interview and found yourself imagining how different your practice would be if the same thing happened to you -- three or four new customers per week -- without spending ANY money on advertising, then here's what I want you to do. I don't want you to rush out and buy my Ultimate Website right away but I do want you to take a short 5-part tour to see how simple it is: Take a Tour.   Get the Ultimate Website » As always, thanks for reading. Matt Jones Broker/President/CEO FavoriteAgent.com Matt Jones is the founder and CEO of FavoriteAgent.com, nationally syndicated columnist, broker, and best selling author. He has been profiled by major media outlets as an innovator and a pioneer in the industry, and CNN's Pulse on America claimed he and his company were "changing the way real estate is done in America."

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Agent Charged With Terroristic Threats Misses Court » A Hot Springs realtor facing a terroristic threatening charge had a court date Thursday. Read more » Despite $1.2B Settlement, DOJ Still Pursuing Wells Fargo » Despite recently agreeing to a $1.2 billion settlement with the federal government to resolve claims Read more » Cancer Patient Sues Real Estate Couple for $500k » A Surrey cancer patient who claims a couple of local real estate agents cheated her out of $500,000 Read more » MARKETING Should You Be Posting Your Listings on Social Media? » Social media is a great means of marketing your real estate listings. Unfortunately, not all real estate agents make use of this as part of their marketing strategy. Is it time for you to promote your Read more » 7 Ways Your Body Language Can Get People to Like You » Let your body do the talking Read more » Write an Ad That Sells » Imagine sitting at your kitchen table, having your cup of coffee and you break open your laptop and Read more » How to Host an Open House Like a Pro » Open house is that certain time wherein you are opening your home for viewing. This means that you Read more » Use Virtual Geo- Farming to Generate Business » Geo-farming has long been a core strategy in the real estate professional's wheelhouse. Selecting a Read more »

Create an Instagram Ad That People Like » Getting on the Instagram bandwagon Read more » INVESTING Selling in the Winter Works to an Investor's Advantage » When it comes to buying or selling a home, conventional wisdom dictates that winter is lousy timing. You can't show or see a home at its best when the weather is crummy. Read more » Best Investment of 2016? Global Real Estate » According to Forbes, 2016 will likely have equities flat to negative. There are many factors Read more » How to Start in Real Estate Investing » When brothers Kelly and Chris Edwards bought their first house in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2002, Read more » 3 Things for Investors to Consider With Apartment Complexes » Investing in real state is not a simple investment to make. It requires a lot of money, especially Read more » HOW-TO 5 Lies You've Been Told About Productivity » How being overly productive is counterproductive Read more » 5 Biggest Turnoffs for Homebuyers » If you are on the selling end, there is nothing more important than you need to know than what make Read more »

Home Selling Tips During a Divorce » Next to the possible arrangement for their children, a couple who has decided to live separate lives Read more » Customers-for-life Still Eluding Many Brokerages » One of the most common goals adopted almost universally by real estate brokerages is also the Read more » Make Sense of Online Advertising Metrics » The sheer amount of online marketing campaign data and website analytics is staggering. These Read more » Help Your Buyer Find the Right Compromises » Your home shoppers may have a long wish list, but when it comes to finding a home – particularly Read more »

This is the NewsGeni.us e-Brief, a collection of the best real estate news and advice in one place. To cancel your subscription, follow this link http://www.newsgeni.us/unsub.php?email=dsoldit.blogpost@blogger.com&s=2142.

©2016 NewsGeni.us, 212 Northstone Pl, Fayetteville, NC 28314. All rights reserved.