Inman News perennial all-star Real Estate Connect took place January 7-9, 2009 in New York City at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. One of the highlights of the conference was the keynote address of Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of WineLibrary.tv– a fellow with practical insights, energy, humor and charm.
My main takeaways from the conference:
- entertain, inform, inspire
- build your personal brand (this from Gary)
Here are some Notes and Quotes from the Inman News Real Estate Connect sessions I attended:
Who are you writing content for? What things are they looking for? Ask them if you don’t know.
Brokers— ask your agents what clients want.
Don’t forget to write for Google
Test your calls to action. Measure click rates
The key is deployment of data– how do you use data to engage the consumer?
Do a neighborhood video tour with an experienced agent narrating
OnBoardInformatics now has lifestyle based search — find houses near the park with a 20 minute commute time. Interesting.
Every click on your website is a question/quest
Do post click analysis– what do folks do when they are on your site?
Entertain, inform or inspire
Vaynerchuk twittered out a free shipping code and got 1700 orders, more than his billboard, radio and direct mail marketing– so anyone who says twitter has no marketing value is an idiot (that part is my thought)
Think about other revenue streams
Build your personal brand and a community base online
Give out content and give yourself a way for it to be passed on
“The internet is one giant mixer” ~ Gary Vaynerchuk
Use the mobile platform– there are 12 million handsets out there
Mobile has a built in distribution system = instant audience
Mobile use is greatest on weeekends
Mobile modes are Text, Voice, Web, Apps
Mobile use is task oriented– you have to provide info quickly and easily
65% of web browsing is for entertainment
the 4Cs– cut cost, constrict (downsize), consolidate, change
check out 4Q.
The 3 Ws– wine, women and weekends
Check out the Mobile Marketing Association.
Use analytics to combat the hippo = highest paid person’s opinion
A listing with video has a 5x better conversion rate (form fill out)
If you’re going to give agents tools, teach them how to use them
Not all traffic to your site is created equal. Observe behavior on your site.
Where is your traffic coming from?
What days and time of day is your traffic best?
If you have a name on a form– use a public records tool to profile the person
One reason to have a mortgage calculator on your site– the person using it is probably more serious
Ranking high for “your city + real estate” is not a “head” term and will not yield a lot of leads or conversions. You need action terms. (hmm.. would like to see a study on this)
Don’t worry too much about bounce rates except on your landing pages– they should be low. Work to improve your landing page bounce rate– try different landing page designs and calls to action– even a different color button can make a difference
Gary V says invest in .tv domains
I had some more notes but someone spilled beer on them. Dang that Beer with Bloggers.
