marketing Archives - Kim Hughes

November 8, 2016 By Kim Hughes 2 Comments

Blog Tips for Real Estate Agents

As a real estate agent, the importance of blogging fresh content regularly, can’t be stressed enough.

Blogs get picked up by search engines, drive traffic to your website, and eventually result in new leads. When people need information about your community or buying or selling a home, you want to be the one they turn to. Blogging can help establish you as an expert in your community. Provide great content on a regular basis, and your audience will keep coming back for more.

What makes up great content? We at Kim Hughes and Company research the latest trends for our clients, including information on local markets, in order to put together an effective blog strategy that gets results. We find that posting evergreen content that is informative, educational, entertaining or addresses problems and concerns really works to engage our real estate agents’ audiences. A blog article that utilizes keyword stuffing (overuse of keywords throughout the article) and too many links will come off as spam – this should definitely be avoided.

Blog Strategy

While it is important not to go overboard, your blogs should contain a few top keywords, active links, tags, alternative tags (alt tags), and your call-to-action. Include a high quality photo in your content that contains alt tags as well. There are several great royalty-free sites to find photos that can be used commercially.

Your blog should ideally be hosted on your website in order to drive traffic there. Share your blog articles on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. This is a great strategy to boost your blog and website visibility, and to improve your chances of reaching a wider audience through sharing.

Ideas for Blog Content

Here are a few topics that we post that really get results for Kim Hughes and Company clients. Consider posting 2-3 times per week. The important thing is to be consistent. This will help retain a devoted following for your blog and help it achieve a higher search engine rating.

Just listed and just sold properties
Listing price changes
Buyer topics such as first-time buyer information, mortgages, credit reporting
Seller topics such as how to boost value, timing the market, pricing, etc.
Homeowner topics such as renovations, home safety and maintenance
Current real estate market trends and local statistics
Community events and holiday information
Press releases for company changes and awards

Although blogging can be time-consuming and can require some strategizing to maximize its effectiveness, it is a proven strategy for boosting business that shouldn’t be overlooked. Hopefully you have gained a little insight and a few ideas to consider from the information above. Don’t have time to manage blogging? Contact me today for a consultation, and I will be happy to discuss how we can help.

Ready to create the changes that will help you move towards living the life you REALLY want? Now is the time to take control of your personal development by eliminating self-doubt. Give your confidence a boost so you can value the life as well as the business you have dreamed of. Contact Kim Hughes when you are ready to Bring Clarity, Balance, and Confidence to your business. Visit KimHughesCoaching.com for details!

Image courtesy of StartupStockPhotos/Pixabay.com

October 4, 2016 By Kim Hughes Leave a Comment

Fall Marketing Ideas for Your Business

Fall is a busy time of year with school activities, seasonal festivals and holidays. It is a time of fresh starts and new ideas, and business owners can take advantage of plenty of marketing opportunities throughout the season. Here are a few great ideas you can try, to give your business a boost this autumn.

Hold a photo contest. With so many fall activities going on, such as school activities, sports, festivals, and beautiful changing scenery, there are lots of great photo opportunities. Invite your audience to join the contest and award a prize for best photo. Make sure to include a hashtag and encourage everyone to share the details.
Attend local festivals. Do you have Oktoberfest celebrations or fall festivals near you? Get in touch with the event coordinators and find out how you can participate. You may be able to set up a booth or become an event sponsor.
Offer Halloween deals. There are lots of opportunities to come up with catchy taglines centered around Halloween for your promotion. You can also offer online content pertaining to Halloween recipes, costumes, parties and safety to engage your audience.
Holiday promotions. Many of us are already thinking about holiday shopping. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas are just around the corner. Offer online content regarding money saving tips, budgeting, and planning. As the holidays get closer, start promoting deals on your products or services.
Participate in a charity fundraiser or canned-food drive. You can gather the community to serve at a shelter, nursing home, etc. or you can simply offer discounts to customers who bring in items to donate to a local charity.
Hold a customer appreciation event. The Thanksgiving season is naturally a great time to show your customers how thankful you are for them. Partner with the local pumpkin patch and give out pumpkins to your past clients – make sure to take photos. A Thanksgiving pie give-a-way is always a big hit, as are hayrides. Look at your community to see what it has to offer and partner up with a business, your lender, title company, etc. Building relationships is what is all about this fall season.

Try out a few of these ideas to help ramp up business this fall. Being involved in your community this season, whether locally or online, is a great way to get some extra exposure for your brand and gain some new customers.

Image courtesy of Chris Fort/Flickr.com

January 9, 2015 By Kim Hughes Leave a Comment

2015 Housing Market Forecast

In reading today about how the FHA will cut the Insurance Premium and how it will impact the housing industry is worthy of mentioning even though there is not a date set, but The Housing and Urban Development Secretary is saying it should be implemented by the end of the month. Is this going to make an impact on the housing industry and benefit today’s buyers and sellers? Time will tell, but it is something worth watching and making sure you, the real estate agent, stays on top of the latest information so you can discuss this information with your clients.

The reason for this real estate blog is because I wanted to make sure you saw this video from NAR’s REALTOR(R) Magazine, which is worth watching and paying close attention to since it impacts how you will market to real estate clients for 2015. The beginning of the video shares information we all in real estate already know, but stay with the video, it really gets interesting about 3 minutes in.

The information you are getting from this real estate video market forecast for 2015 is information you can use to update your marketing presentations for both buys and sellers, use in your social media, put the video on your website, send an eblast, use in your real estate newsletter. The more your informed of the changes the more trusted you are in your real estate market.

Need help updating your presentations? Or, maybe you need a newsletter, social media strategy, or just need to get a plan in place for your marketing in 2015. If so, then contact Kim Hughes, a professional real estate virtual assistant who understands today’s technology and business practices to get you on target, focused and committed to reaching your goals.

June 20, 2008 By Kim Hughes Leave a Comment

Your Brand is Your Promise

When people mention the word “brand” they usually mean a well-known, well-defined company. That’s why consumers frequently mention names like Target, Rolex, Apple, BMW and others who have done an excellent job in crafting an image and sticking with it. Buyers know what to expect from these companies, and as long as these companies meet that expectation, they will continue to imprint their brand in the minds of their audience. It’s pretty simple really; if you just keep in mind these two principals.

Principal One: Know Your Promise

As amazing as this may seem, most companies don’t really know what it is they are promising their clients. That’s why they have weak brands. They may have mission statements, and can spout off why everyone should use their product or service, but really it’s just a rambling list. Out of fear of losing audience, most companies will try to compete on price, quality and service… and that’s a recipe for disaster. Who wants to buy a watch from the Discount Overnight Rolex store? If you try to go after all three areas you end up muddied in the mind of the consumer who is trying to put you in a box. And in this case… that’s a good thing!

A mental “box” is not that different from a set of mailroom boxes. The customer gets all these incoming “messages” and has to sort them all day. The easier you make it for them to sort your company, and put it in a category, the easier it will be for them to recall it when needed. Try this… think of a fast place to eat. How about the best tasting food? And finally, the place you go if you really want to impress someone? You can probably think of each of these categories rather quickly. And chances are these companies are more than happy to fill that niche without trying to become much more.

Take a moment and write out in two or three sentences (more if you’re feeling inspired) exactly what your brand promises. It will usually fall under three main categories… quality, service or price. But there are nuances. Ben … Jerry’s image contains both a quality message and a social message… one of commitment to the community and environment.

Principal Two: Never Violate Principal One

Once you have firmly established your promise in the minds of consumers, make sure every move you make conforms to that promise. Coke was fine to come out with Diet Coke, Cherry Coke and a host of other flavor variations (brand extension) but they completely missed the mark when they introduced NEW Coke. People believed in Coke, identified with Coke and it was a part of their history. New Coke was seen as a betrayal of the brand itself, a vote of no confidence in their core product. “What’s wrong with the original Coke?” was the immediate question that popped up in most minds.

That’s why it is so important to know what it is, and why it is, that people buy from you and believe in you.

Know your promise and keep your promise. Pretty simple? Yet it will go a long way toward making your company resonate with your customer on a deep and lasting level. And that’s a promise.