A fisherman carries many tools to catch a fish.  The boat, rod, reel, hook, fishing line are usually a one time investment except the fish cares nothing for any of these things.

So what does the fish want?

The juicy worm, small minnow, or the tasty cricket.

Real estate professionals many times try to attract customers online using the boat, rod, reel, hook, fishing line to find out there are no fish biting.   So what can they offer so that online visitors so that they enter their contact information, visit repeatedly and pick up the phone to call them?

Find your bait

Create special reports, blog posts, videos, PowerPoint presentations that are differentiated with specialized knowledge that cannot be found in the marketplace except by individual who creates them.

fisherman fishingA special report is like a really long blog post except it is a PDF document that is only available for download after the online visitor enters in their contact information.  This report can be 7 – 17 pages double-spaced with pictures.  Find the biggest pain in your market, create a catchy headline, and write your report to educate how the customer can overcome that pain.  For example, if there are a large number of short sales in your market I would create a special report titled, “56 Mistakes that Home Buyers Make When Buying a Short Sale” and write detailed verbiage that will assist them (56 is a random number, write as many as you can then add the number to the title).

Blog posts are online articles written about experiences or that answer frequently asked questions.  If more than one person asks the same question chances are others will want to know the answer too.  Videos are better than blog posts because they show you, not just tell how to overcome a challenge or answer a question.  People like PowerPoint presentations on line because they can advance through the slides themselves at their own pace to learn about lists, processes, and specialized knowledge.

The bait is the content that you create and is pushed out via email and social networks.  For example, each blog post automatically creates a link to that specific online article which may contain videos, pictures, PowerPoint, etc.  The link can be automatically pushed out via email, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and other social networks using the power of RSS.  When blog subscribers, friends, and followers click on the link it goes back to the blog which contains the article along with others, access to special reports, and other lead generation options.

In my opinion the blog is the most important tool for online marketing, not Facebook, not Twitter, and not Linkedin.

It is easy to create a social media profile just as easy as it is to go buy a fishing rod, reel, and boat.  Anyone can do it.

Fishing takes work just like a blog takes work to write and post.  If you don’t have good bait no one will bite.  If you don’t have the right bait no one will bite and you might go hungry.

What kind of bait are you fishing with?

What kind of tools have helped you catch the biggest fish?

dougdevitre

Organizations bring in Doug Devitre from St. Louis, Missouri USA when they want to dramatically increase operational performance, create breakthrough value propositions, and serve customers beyond geographical constraints on a minimal budget. For more than a decade he has been setting trends with how organizations engage customers with social media, video marketing, and custom-built software applications. Doug’s book Screen to Screen Selling published by McGraw Hill pioneered the way sales professionals sold homes without being physically present before the COVID-19 pandemic. He is one of a select few who have earned the Certified Speaking Professional Designation from the National Speakers Association and has experience as a REALTOR.

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