Your business needs MORE:DIGITAL MARKETING
Mary P. Merritt, Digital Marketing & Experience Design Professional
www.NerdyMind.com
Experience
• Over 10 years of experience in digital marketing
• SEO, PPC, Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, Web Design,
Web Development, User Experience Design, Writing and MORE
• Web Designer for Sierra Trading Post
• Website Business Development Manager for OtterBox
• I live and breathe the web because I am a NERD!
• Focusing on ways you can put some sweat equity and
elbow grease into your business! Dime-priced!
What we will cover today:
• What a good content strategy can do for you
• Different ways you can syndicate your new content
• Blogging, social, your website, article websites
(hubpages.com, squidoo.com, stumbleupon.com, etc.)
• Search Engine Optimization
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing
• Free tools you can use for your business
Yes, you need a website.
• This is your “home” on the web.
• A great place to stage all of your content (you can attach
your blog to your website, or if you build your website in
Wordpress it comes with a ready-to-use blogging function).
• This is where you build your brand.
• A poorly-designed website can really turn someone off (first
impressions do matter on the web).
Your website should…
• Drive the user to a desired behavior (filling out a form,
calling your phone number, sign up for your newsletter, read a
blog, etc.)
• Make these behaviors seem natural…keep it simple
• Be beautiful
• Be consistent with your other collateral like business cards,
letterheads, vehicle wraps, etc.
• Be extremely optimized to the best of your ability
• Have GOOGLE ANALYTICS TRACKING
You should…
• NOT think that if you build it, they will come
• Understand that you have a lot of work to do after your
website is up
• Add content regularly
• Make sure you are running tests regularly to make sure
that your conversion objectives are being met, and those
experiences are always being improved.
Content Strategy:
• What do you have to say? Why should people listen?
• Your content should be compelling and useful.
• Brevity is important, just look at these slides.
• Websites that never get updated won’t win.
• Your people are looking to sell their house and/or RENT
one of your rental properties. What do they need to
know? What should they expect? What is helpful to
them? These questions can help you build your content
strategy.
Example of professional content strategy:
Go blog about it.
• Blogging creates great content for your website and other
web properties like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin and
more.
• This plays into SEO, and we’ll get to that.
• You establish yourself as an expert when you speak
intelligibly about relevant topics.
• Link bait: When your content is so good, that everyone
starts linking to it because it is awesome.
Example of solid blogging strategy:
What tools are out there for blogging?
• WordPress.com
• Posterous.com (recently purchased by Twitter)
• Blogger.com
• Tumblr.com
• TypePad.com
• Blogymate.com
The Power of Recommendations
• Do you have satisfied customers?
• It never hurts to ask for a recommendation. Ask your
customers to give you a recommendation on Linkedin, YELP,
Facebook and more.
• This business is big on referrals.
• If someone who has high social clout posts positively about
your services, you immediately get a positive presence in
their entire network of listeners. This is where
‘amplification’ can occur.
Awesome Real Estate Websites
• Zillow.com
• HotPads.com
• Trulia.com
• BiggerPockets.com
• LoopNet.com (Commercial)
• Hubzu.com
• You can also post your properties in a variety of places like
these to get great exposure…but make sure they only find
really smart, awesome things about you once they start
looking into you more.
Search Engine Optimization
• You always have to start with keyword research!
• This helps you understand what words and phrases are
being searched, and what kind of volume is behind those
terms.
• Google has a ‘free keyword tool’ that is easy to use,
intuitive, and the information is from the largest search engine
in the world.
• There are other paid tools out there, but start with the Google
keyword tool and see how you do.
Search Engine Optimization & Content
• What should you do with your newly-found keywords?
• ‘Pepper’ your content with the keywords
• These keywords should drive some of your content
strategy…
• Is “commercial real estate investment best practices” a
commonly-searched term?
• If so, write an article about real estate best practices
that is helpful, useful and well-researched. More
importantly: ORIGINAL.
• If you copy and paste content from someone else’s
website, Google skips RIGHT over it…leave YOUR digital
footprint
Search Engine Optimization & Social
• Your social posts CAN and WILL get indexed in search
engines.
• Use your keywords in your social posts on Twitter,
Facebook, etc.
• Link to your website as much as possible (naked links).
• When your helpful, resourceful posts get amplified,
more people get exposure to that link. More people click in,
and Google starts liking you more and more.
• Optimize all social profile information.
Search Engine Optimization& Your Website
• Make sure your META information reflects your keyword
research.
• META information is basically hidden content- the user has
minimal exposure to it. Search engines use this
information to understand what your webpage is
about.
• Only optimize for ONE primary keyword and maybe one
secondary keyword PER PAGE (over-optimizing is under-
optimizing).
Search Engine Optimization& Your Website Cont’d
• Most (good) content management systems allow you to
add and edit your own META tags for your website, but
you might need to hire someone to help you.
• Wordpress has a lot of SEO plugins, but we like SEO by
YOAST.
• Blog titles should be optimized, and you should set up
Wordpress so it builds your URLS and META information off the
title of your post using their ‘permalinks’ function.
Search Engine Optimization& Your Website Cont’d
• Your navigation links should be optimized if possible.
• Your URLs should be optimized if possible. A good
example is: www.propertyinvestments.com/real-estate-
investment-best-practices/
• Optimize it all: Search Everything Optimization (the new
SEO).
• Images (alt tags and even image naming and directory
naming)
• Text (page headers are always a best practice)
• Blogs, page content, titles, descriptions, anchor text,
EVERYTHING.
Search Engine Optimization& Your Website Cont’d
• Feel free to create SEO landing pages that are specifically
written for the purpose of ranking well for a high-volume term.
• Always write for PEOPLE, not search engines. Just saying
‘Real Estate Investment’ a million times on your website won’t
work.
• When users come to your site and then stay to read, it builds
your credibility with the search engines (and people too)!
Search Engine Optimization& Your Local Business Listings
• Set up some local business listings in a few directories.
• Google, Bing!, Yahoo and YELP are the ‘big four.’
• Claim and optimize them.
• Sometimes it is just an email confirmation, sometimes
they send you a postcard, sometimes they call you…
but claim your listings.
• Optimize your listing profile with your keywords.
• When someone searches for your services with geo-
targeted keywords, your listing will show up as a result.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing
• It can be complicated to understand, but this can be a very
powerful marketing tool for people in real estate
investment.
• We always suggest that people hire a consultant to
educate you, or you hire someone else to set-up and
manage your account.
• Spends can get out of control fast if you aren’t careful.
• One of the most laser-targeted tactics for creating qualified
traffic for your website’s conversion objective.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing Cont’d
• Make sure you understand your objectives VERY clearly.
• Are you trying to generate good leads on properties?
• Are you trying to find a tenant for one of your rental
properties?
• Make sure you have your GOALS set up in Google
Analytics.
• Optimize the ad’s landing page for conversion – no road
blocks. Simple forms that don’t ask for your entire life story,
your contact information very prominent on the page, and lots
of other components that lead to goal conversion.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing Cont’d
• Try to keep your account very organized.
• Try to keep the keywords in each ad group down to 15
and under.
• Use those keywords in your ad copy.
• Always. Be. Testing.
• Test your landing pages against one another.
• Test your ad copy at all times (run two ads at the same
time for 2-week intervals, see which one has a better CTR—
keep the ad with the better CTR and make a new ad to run
against the ‘winner’).
Pay-Per-Click Marketing Cont’d
• Geo-target your paid search ads with ease.
• Use your keyword research to find out what terms have
good volume behind them with little competition.
• Do some of the keywords and phrases have locations in
them?
• You can also play with your demographics (male/female,
age, etc).
Analyzing Your Efforts
• None of this stuff matters if you don’t measure your
successes and track your failures.
• What works? What doesn’t? How do you know what to do
next?
• GOOGLE ANALYTICS tracking code must be installed on your
site.
• Set up and track your GOALS regularly. You can set up
any action on your website to be tracked by Google.
• This is a free tool, and your most valuable tool with
regard to digital marketing (being able to report and
understand your digital presence).
Analyzing Your Efforts, Cont’d
• You can set up automated reports that are emailed to you
monthly.
• Take the time to find out how people behave on your
website.
• Make goals for yourself! Ten new leads per month? 5 rental
properties leased per month?
• Make sure that you are careful about how you spend
your money. Being analytical about your digital presence can
really pay off (you can find out where you should spend the
most of your time.
Who is doing it right?
• SignatureHouston.com/Investing
• They made a “microsite” that is all about Real Estate
Investment
• Their website is easy to navigate, easy on the eyes, and it
makes it easy for me to get in touch with them.
• They are blogging maniacs! It makes them look very
credible.
• Their website is highly optimized for local search
(Houston).
• They are running solid PPC campaigns in Google and Bing!
Who is doing it right?
• RanchAcreage.com
• They have a beautiful website
• Good positioning, many microsites for different types of
properties in different areas (ThorntonHomes.com and more)
• You know exactly what to do when you get there!
• Their META information is optimized for search
Your business needs MORE:DIGITAL MARKETING
Thank you for your time!
Mary P. Merritt, Digital Marketing & Experience Design Professional
www.NerdyMind.com
970-449-6868
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