ROCK 2019! Plan Your Work. Work Your Plan.

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“A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.” ― Brian Tracy, The Gift of Self-Confidence

POTHOLES TO AVOID

Pothole 1: Bad Analytics Too often real estate professionals fail to analyze and record the source of leads and information in their business. Every client should be qualified as much as possible to find out their original source of contact and which of the tools you have put in place were used to establish contact and maintain through the transaction. It’s not something that can be left to anecdotal methods. When it comes to your IDX website you should set a reasonable goal of what you expect from it. Put in place an analytics program for your website and learn how to best evaluate the information to adjust your strategy. What metrics should you have in place and why? Think of what is reasonable with regard to the performance of your site. Gather the information you need to make an informed decision on what to design and/or change going forward. Tip: Use an incentive of some sort to have your clients provide you with survey data on the methods they used to communicate with you and their satisfaction levels using them.

Pothole 2: Poor Follow Up Real Estate professionals should have a process in place to maintain contact with all clients after a closing in a way that goes beyond drip emails and calendars dropped in the mail. Something that isn’t addressed as much as it should is the evidence that shows that one of the largest sources of missed revenue opportunity comes from the fact that vast majority of residential real estate clients are never contacted again in a meaningful fashion after a closing. Part of your planning should entail making sure that previous clients are receiving useful, quality content in a follow up process. Why? Because statistics also reveal that client will be involved in another transaction in only 5 years.

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Pothole 3: A Dull AxeWe’ve all heard the story about Abraham Lincoln and the amount of time he spent sharpening his axe so he could cut down trees rapidly and with more efficiency. Too many real estate salespeople rely on a very basic continuing education path. These courses are necessary and have their place, however, with the rapid changes in the world of digital marketing and communication, the need to consume as much actionable knowledge as possible is critical. Find a mentor that “gets it” hang on her coattails for the ride and don’t let go! There exists a great deal of free education on the web. Carve out a respectable amount of time each week to attend live and recorded webinars, podcasts, blogs or other sources of inspiration and new ideas. Tip: Bookmark and spend time reading articles on Hubspot.Com and Content Marketing Institute. A wealth of information on the most effective ways to capture and nurture leads can be found at these sites.

Pothole 4: Lack of a Content StrategyAll contemporary business people are content creators. Every Tweet, every listing photograph, blog post, LinkedIn article, listing description and more combine to create content. Like your website, the better job you do of analyzing your success with your content, the better your opportunity to capture and convert more leads. Here’s a tip: Social media doesn’t have to be as time consuming as you might think. One tool that helps manage all of your social media points is called Hootsuite. It’s a cloud-based system that allows you to connect your social media content in a single dashboard. Create a calendar and set a goal to produce social media messages on a consistent schedule.

Pothole 5: No Market Profile Understanding where your local market has been and where it is likely to trend is critical to how you position your business. Taking the time to create and maintain the profile will allow you redirect your marketing efforts if necessary. If it appears that first time millennial home buyers are trending upward for the number of transactions in your farm, then it’s time to develop your best strategy to have top-of-mind awareness. Bank robbers rob banks because that’s where the money is and grabbing millennial prospects will be done through their iPhones, Chromebooks and the devices that they speak at to turn on the lights or turn up the heat. A profile of your market will help you determine where to place emphasis. Knowledge is power and empirical data is at your fingertips.

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MARKET PROFILE OUTLINEShape your strategies and position yourself to build and continually improve authority in your respective market. Here are a few questions to help you get started on your own market profile:

What are the demographics of your “Farm Area”? Tip: Use City-Data.com to find this type of data ________________________________________________________________

Millennials or Boomers? How Do Your Markets Stack Up?_________________________________________________________________ Has Tax Reform Impacted Your Market? _________________________________________________________________ Existing Home Sales. How is supply vs. demand in Your Market? _________________________________________________________________ New Home Sales _________________________________________________________________ Affordability. Have Prices Increased Substantially? _________________________________________________________________ Are There Untapped Niches You Can Take Advantage Of? _________________________________________________________________ Other Local Market Conditions That Impact Your Goals / Planning _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________

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Pothole #6: Lack of EvaluationTake the time to review the business systems and technology you are using to perform the core functions of your business.

Are they producing the desired results?

Did you track the results and if so, how?

Were you consistent?

Did you make changes or tweak things before determining something did not work?

• Compile a list of all the technology you’re Invested In• Use our outline (make multiple copies of page 5 of this document)• Use the test to see if you should add or upgrade LIVE Flexmls IDX home

search to your website

TAKE THE TECH TOOL TEST

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When was the last time I actually used this? How often do I (or my customers) use it?

Realistically, do I have the time or knowledge to manage it myself or the resources to have someone else do it for me?

Do I use all the features or just a few, essential ones?

THE TECH TOOL TEST

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Are there key features I’m not using and should be that would make a difference to how helpful this tool is to me?

Is there a less expensive solution out there that gives me just what I need without non-essential features I do not?

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Does this help me save time or grow my business? How? Can I measure that?

If this tool doesn’t seem to be working for me, is it the tool itself or is it how I’m using it? Do I need to educate myself more to better leverage this tool? (See #3)

Are there other costs associated with switching applications, like set-up fees, time in learning a new application, that I need to take into consideration? (If you don’t know… do some research.)

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Do I have processes in place to track the effectiveness of this tool so I have the data to know if this tool is working for me, and how well? Should I wait until I do before making a decision to cancel or switch apps?

How are other agents using this tool? Could I improve results from this tool by doing some research on best practices and innovative uses from my peers?

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PRODUCT/APP/SERVICE:

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LOOKING BACK Where Did Your Business Come From?

SOURCE # SOURCE #

Referral Repeat Client

Direct Mail FSBO

Expired Your IDX Site

Broker Site Open House

Relocations Social Media

Up Desk Cold Call

Testimonial Portal (Zillow etc.)

YOUR 2018 TRANSACTIONS (add more rows if necessary)

Address Lead Source Buyer/Seller Property Type Price

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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AVERAGE YOUR COMMISSIONS

# Closed Transactions

# Listings

# Sales

# of Listings + Sales

Divide Total Commission by # of Listings + Sales To Arrive At Avg. Commission

SET YOUR 2019 GOALS

Income Goal For 2019

Average Commision from 2018

# of Transactions Needed To Hit Goal % Of Closed Sales That Were Lisitings # of Listings Needed For 2019

# of Buyer Closings Needed

Sales & Income Review AVERAGE YOUR SALES PRICE

# Closed Transactions

Total of All Sales

Divide Closed By Total By Total of Sales To Get Average Transaction Amount

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Develop A Social Media Strategy • Apply your niche to your social media messaging• Don’t post a steady stream of listing announcements• Create lifestyle content around communities & neighborhoods. Lifestyle

content makes for great blog post ideas

• Respond to ALL comments• Always include images with your posts• Try to include video when you can, especially with Facebook• Establish a presence in these primary SM platforms

PinterestFacebookInstagramTwitterLinkedIn

• Invite previous clients into the communication. Testimonials make greatsocial media content

• Keep It Hyperlocal and engage with others in that sphere• Be Consistent and Post on Regular Basis, Google Loves Updated Content• Set up Business Profile Pages in LinkedIn and Facebook• Modify posts to re-purpose across different SM platforms so they are NOT

considered duplicate content by the search engines

ACTION PLANS

Get The Most Out of IDX • Look At Great Examples of IDX Sites

o Wordpress: http://www.gfhomes.com/o Smartframe: https://www.lasorsagroup.com/

• Develop A Landing (squeeze) Page Strategy• Become familiar with the basics of IDX• Learn how you can compete at almost any level with IDX

• Create Saved Searches Around Your Niche• Add Your IDX Links To Your E-Mail Signature• Use SEO Plugins in Wordpress To Improve Listing Rankings• Create A Strategy Around Market Stats (Wordpress)• Create Marketing Messages Around Your Live Data Edge

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• Establish a system for recording all inbound leads whether they are digitalor analog (yard signs etc), Review Monthly

• Analyze Keywords Used To Find Your Content. Adjust Accordingly• Establish Campaigns and Set Goals in Google Analytics

Establish a Hyperlocal Web Strategy • Consumers want to know what YOU know about communities & lifestyle.

You can also engage other local residents and business people to sharetheir stories.

• Shoot 60 second “Why I Love (neighborhood) With Locals• Create Youtube channels for your videos for awesome SEO• Create a Stream of “Why I Love Living In_____” Social Media Content• Write at Least One Hyperlocal Blog post per month, include a saved search

of available properties in the post• Create Hyperlocal Landing Pages with Saved IDX Searches (Squeeze

Pages)• Acquire domains specific To Hyperlocal Areas & direct them to your

squeeze pages.

Conclusion While technology has certainly had an impact on the real estate industry, there are some things that stay constant. It’s still local. It's still about relationships. Buyers and sellers still rely on the guidance and knowledge of professionals to navigate the many moving parts of a transaction. They rely on you to help them become acquainted with new communities and much more. We know how important our products are to your efforts and the team at FBS IDX Solutions takes pride in doing all that we can to help you attract and capture new business along with nurturing the relationships you’ve worked so hard to win. Here’s to your success and exceeding your goals for 2019!

Analytics Strategy • Data is boring, but it’s essential to planning and goals• Track Everything You Can• Review Different Analytics Platforms For Your Web Site

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3199001979624209922