A couple reciprocal links, maybe a few blog followers and some intentional page titles and boom! You’re on the first page of Google… yeah, like 10 years ago. Today it’s harder than ever. If you didn’t start 10 years ago you have a lot of catching up to do, but it’s not impossible. Simple maintenance is easy when you get the ball rolling. A blog or two a week, market reports and social media postings every so often keeps the balls in the air and the leads coming in at a steady pace but thats only if you’ve done the legwork and pushed your business for several years.
To get the ball rolling takes a big, BIG push. Most real estate agents and small business owners simply don’t have the time to get that big of ball rolling but once it does, you can keep it going. But how do you get the push started?
Time, time and more time… something very few of us have a lot of. Between open houses, meetings, phone calls, paperwork, household chores, paying bills, buying groceries and taking care of family, there isn’t much left to promote your business. But if you don’t promote the business, you won’t have any and if you don’t have any, you can’t spend more on the marketing and pay your bills and…. it’s a cycle that goes round and round.
Every week I have a list of all the things I have to do for work for the week. Sometimes I’ll put personal things on that list like doctor calls, vet calls, cleaning duties etc.. but every week I have about 40 blog posts or article to write for our clients. If I just looked at that list at the beginning of the week it would be overwhelming so I have assigned each post a day; I tag it with M, T, W, TH, F; (days of the week). Each day has about 8 posts on the list, which is much more manageable. When I’m done with the tasks for the day I don’t look to the next unless I know I won’t have time to do the list the next day. But other than that, I focus one day at a time and by Friday, the list is crossed off and done and I can enjoy the weekend. Of course, things come up, extra work, phone calls etc… but as long as I get the days work done, I can feel accomplished for that day. Tomorrow is another day.
The same can be done for personal marketing. Schedule yourself out a different task every day of the week. Here is a good template on things that should be done to market your business online each week.
Monday: Post a funny quip or motivational meme on Facebook or other social media, respond to anyone that may have “liked” the page over the weekend with a ‘thank you’, respond to any urgent emails if you haven’t done so yet and let your followers know you are alive, ready to work and on top of your game – 20-30 minutes
Tuesday: Write a blog post either on your website or on AR or both, with links to the original source (if you posted on your website first, syndicate to AR with a link back to the post on your website) – make it searchable, title it correctly for search engines and promote it on your social media. 30-60 minutes
Wednesday: Find a couple other people in similar industries outside your marketing area and ask if you could do a blog post on their site with a link to your own. Post a short blog on a real estate website or outside blog with a link to your site – Tumblr, Google +, Reddit, or a longer post on Facebook. Repost your blog from yesterday with a new, catchy phrase to get people to click on it. (Maybe yesterday you just promoted the title, i.e. “Ways to Make Buyers Fall in Love with Your House” – Today, make the phrase “Did you know this one thing will make buyers fall in love with your house?” Post on social media 30 – 90 minutes
Thursday: Post another fun thing on Facebook or your social media of choice. Talk about the weather, ask a question, take a poll, comment on a followers comment. Promote your Tuesday blog post on Pinterest with a catchy and attractive graphic. Promote on Google plus. Thank followers on certain social media for sharing or plusing your posts on Google plus or other social media. 15-30 minutes
Friday: Write a blog post on AR about a local event or activity people can do this weekend. ActiveRain will publish it right away getting it out into the search engines immediately. Promote that activity on all social media. Boost a Facebook post about it for the day with just $5. The blog post doesn’t have to be long, even a couple hundred words talking about the basics of an event in your area. 20-50 minutes.
There is your marketing week. YES, it takes time, but if you do this every week and make time for it, people will notice, the search engine world will notice and people will know who to call when they need your services because you are constantly and consistently in front of them at all turns. I am a list-girl. Schedule things out to cross them off. Yes, I am one of those people that will write a task down after I’ve done it just to cross it off. LOL! Are you ready to kick your marketing into high gear? Do a few weeks of this schedule and see what happens!
Just don’t be like the hare that ran out of steam too fast.