With the new year behind us, many agents are looking to re-evaluate their on-line presence. With Google constantly changing their algorithms and targeted SEO becoming even more of a hot topic, mastering your real estate niche on-line is going to be critical. Here are some things to keep in mind if you want to be in the good books with Google. It doesn’t hurt to follow these if you want to get your niche noticed! These are some of the most accepted strategies amongst the SEO experts! 1) Google is getting smarter and smarter at finding man made quality content on-line. The robotic “spun” content of the past that is recycled over and over will not be effective any more. 2) Brands are good on Google! Google applied for a patent on an algorithm technology to decipher brands. This mean you should be building your OWN brand! 3) Become a certified Google Author. It not only builds credibility, it also helps you rank much much much more than just a standards user. 4) Social signals will be another critical measurement. Who is sharing your content? How popular are you in your social circles? How do your social circles engage with your content? Also, are YOU sharing others content, engaging in others social feeds? 5) Blogging is NOT dead! With the launch of Google Hummingbird, there has been an even greater shift towards engaging, original and relevant content. Blogging is a simple and effective way to provide this content as well as give it your personal flair. (Perfect when building a niche audience!) 6) Some of the big real estate content sites are realizing the value of hyper local marketing and are shifting their attention over. We still have an opportunity to stay ahead of them but it needs to be done before the big guys move in. That is why NOW is the best time to find your niche! So if you are new to your real estate niche or a seasoned vet, make sure you follow these basic guidelines when developing your on-line presence. Ryan Smith – The Niche Agent “Your Niche Is Our Niche” www.TheNicheAgent.com ...
Read MoreWhen I am doing my speaking and training sessions I always get a lot of the same questions and concerns. One thing that always intrigues my students is the importance of finding and mastering their niche in real estate. It’s one of the most misunderstood concepts and underutilized methods for success, but also one of the most successful (when done correctly!). Do you think asking the right questions might help? If you have had questions about focusing on targeted niche market in your real estate business, here are a few questions that may help you dive a little deeper: “Where” Questions Where do you connect with your community? Where are you most credible? Where is there the greatest need coupled with the greatest appreciation for your work? Where do the people who need your work most often have breakdowns that would cause them to hire you? “Who” Questions Who is naturally drawn to you and to your work? Who could you see yourself working with on a regular basis? Who do you think would be an ideal candidate that makes logical sense for you to work with? Who has had struggles that similar to yours that you have overcome? Whose language do you speak? Whose concerns can you reliably anticipate and address? Whom is it easy for you to serve? “Knowing and using your strengths is critical to your success when developing your niche strategy” When you use your strengths in your real estate business, it helps you not only find the right niche market for you, but it also allows you to refine the right market and the best plan of attack for you. We have all heard of the concept of “farming” in real estate… That is no different than mastering your real estate niche. Once you find your market (your farm), you begin to plant seeds. As these seeds start to grow, you watch for and tend to the strongest seeds. You remove the ones that aren’t performing and keep the ones that are. As your “niche garden” grows, you continue to prune until you begin to collect your harvest (Business!) Each seed gives you the opportunity to...
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A micro market?! That sound’s incredibly small right? RIGHT! I can’t get enough business from a micro market right? WRONG! Every year there are thousands and thousands of agents cleaning up by taking over a micro market. Not only is it way more cost effective, but it can also make you the King (or Queen) of your area. You can own it quicker, take a bigger market share, and get way more off shoot business when you learn to master the art of micro marketing. Here are 4 strategies you can start today to take over your micro market: 1. Choose A Geographic Niche. If you are looking to start a geographic niche, it’s helpful if you already have some “ins” with the area. If you live in a specific neighbourhood, condo building, home owners association etc., it can be very advantageous to pursue marketing to the area you already live. A critical thing to look for is the turn over… Just because you live there, doesn’t mean it will be worth pursuing. Industry experts suggest a 10% turn over per year or more. Keep in mind you aren’t going to get 100% of the deals in the area, but if you can aim to eventually own 10-20% of the area, you can do well. Let’s take a neighbourhood of 500 homes as an example. Let’s say there is a 10% turn over in the area, that’s 50 homes a year. If you can get to 20% market share, that’s 10 listings a year for your taking! (Don’t forget that many of these sellers will be buying, and you also have the opportunity to double end the deals. So let’s call it 20 ends in one year from a simple 500 home geographic area! Not to shabby! 2. Focus Your Marketing on Social Media. One way to get into the community for little to no cost is to create a community blog/social media space. You can update it with local events, news and insider information. You may just want to pepper that with your own real estate information if you want to get seen 😉 One agent who has really mastered this is Jeff Thibodeau of Re/Max...
Read MoreI’m sure you have all heard the infamous saying “Jack of all trades and a master of none”? I’m not sure what makes real estate agents think they are sheltered from this age old wisdom. I am forever seeing agents doing this that and the next thing forever in search of the magic pill. The truth is the magic pill is FOCUS! How can you master your game when your attention is spread out on 23 different marketing campaigns, lead generation ideas and the next big thing… The problem is we live in an “instant society” and we want what we want and we want it now. This is extremely true with real estate professionals. They want a website built tomorrow, leads coming in tomorrow night and a contract written in 3 days. The world doesn’t work that way, despite what we all may be hoping. We think because we can open up business quickly that our business is going to be instant. So not true! Now, there is better solution to this but it takes work (Yes… The four letter word…WORK). And that work can be sped up quite quickly when you focus on one target market and master it. Since we live in this instant society, it tends to rub off into our real estate business. We want instant results, so we do marketing that we think will get us instant results. And that is where the major flaw is in our industry. I’m going to share with you a very simple and effective piece of advice I got early in my career. “Pick 2-3 ways to generate business and master them. Its important to cast a smaller net, you will catch more fish” A lot of people get scared when they hear this; they think they are going to miss out on some opportunity by only choosing a select number of ways to get your business. But the only real way to mastery is repetition. You can’t master 17 different lead gen sources! So start by casting a big net in a small pond, don’t cast a little net in a big pond! I promise you, if you master one or two sources of...
Read MoreWell since you are reading this on The Niche Agent blog, I’m sure you can guess that the answer is yes! Of course you need a niche! The first objection people have to whether or not they should choose a niche in their real estate business is that they feel it will limit their business. My first response is that the niche doesn’t have to be your ONLY source of business. (But I can be!) Unless you live in a tiny town with a tiny population, it’s usually a more profitable and easier way to take over your market. And usually ends up costing a lot less money! Once you have selected the niche market you want to target, you can then market exclusively to the demographic of your choice. This frees up more time and resources, but the main thing is it will allow you to position yourself as the expert. And ultimately, that is what we are after when we become a niche marketing agent! How to you actually pick a niche? This is something we will talk about over and over here at The Niche Agent. This can be one of the hardest step for agents. They are afraid of marketing themselves out of business and they don’t know how small is too small when narrowing their focus. That’s one of the reasons we created this project. We want to share with agents how to find that niche and master it! A good way to select a niche is to choose a market you will enjoy working with. (Or already are working with) Part of the success of working with a niche is to actually enjoy it! You are going to be working with these people on a regular basis, so you might as well choose a target audience you will enjoy working with. You may choose something you have in common with such as targeting an organization you belong to, working with a specific age group, targeting people in an industry you were/are part of etc. You may also choose a geographic niche. Targeting a specific neighbourhood, condo complex, waterfront homes etc. can prove to be very effective and a great...
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