Flirting

It came to us on a stuffy autumn afternoon after viewing a foreclosure property. I had just gotten off the phone with one of our investor clients and the news was not good. After presenting him with what I though was an offer he could not refuse he proved I was no Don Corleone. Reason: Money tied up in other projects. On the way home, I was fuming like a chimney in a Dickens novel.

Then, the “aha” moment rocked my world. “There had to be someone out there that would love to jump on a deal of that caliber, if they only knew about it.” – I thought. We had a great supply of a precious resource but no “megaphone” to announce it to the world. Later that evening, I posted the first foreclosure deal on our website. Before that moment, our website had been a collection of boring pages full of yawning paragraphs I couldn’t even finish reading. And that night, it turned into a foreclosure mercantile exchange of sorts.

Dating

In the fall of 2006, after having cancelled an ad in the Greensheet that produced an astounding ROI of -50%, we decided to get radical and start an Adwords Campaign with Uncle Google. Sure, our website was beefed up with as much foreclosure supply as my Frontpage could spit out without gagging – but the people were still not coming to the storefront to see all we were cooking up. And just like GM and Chrysler, we just needed a bridge. We named ours “Pay per Click”.

Exactly thirteen hours later, my Blackberry buzzed. It was an email that read “Real Estate Information Request”. The following day, I found myself in a builder’s office helping this couple buy their first home, with my hand placed firmly on my head to keep together a mind that had just been blown. Ever since that campaign was setup and tweaked in ‘06, I have not touched it once. The result: Over 600 leads per year with a 10% conversion rate and an ROI of 2083%. Is it any wonder newspapers are dying? They don’t even make for good toilet paper.

Digression

Now, I know there will be some people out there that will comment on how Adwords and other internet marketing are a complete waste of money and how it hasn’t worked for them. To them I say this: Internet Marketing is like Sex in that if it doesn’t do you any good, you just ain’t doing it right. The fundamentals of internet marketing are those of any marketing. If your campaign is not tying together supply with matching demand, you’re just wasting your time and money. Another way to look at it is this: If you were given the opportunity to sit in front of a real customer wanting to buy a real product or service right at that moment, would you make the same pitch? Is the customer you want to attract and do business with looking for what you’re offering or something in a completely different category? Let me illustrate this for you. Often times, in ads and in their site, real estate agents talk about themselves and their great professionalism, areas of town they cover etc. Which would be okay if real estate consumers were out there searching for agents. Bu they’re not – They’re looking for houses. Therefore if you base your advertising on marketing a supply that’s not in demand, it is destined to fail.

Popping the Question

In the spring on 2007, I stumbled upon an online network called Active Rain where agents blogged about real estate. From cold and factual market reports, to insightful opinion pieces, to eliminating pet odors, to blatant advertising, to personal and business experiences. After doing a little sifting through the noise, I started reading some fascinating people and in the process, learning about bringing back one of my old passions (writing). That aside, I had my doubts about the business value of blogging in real estate. After all, it was supposed to be just a numbers game: Cold call until someone said yes. Prospect till your ears bleed. Harass till they sign on the dotted line.

But it wasn’t me.

After a couple of months of feverish blogging an email came in “Sent via Active Rain”.  Then another. Then another. They wanted me to help them purchase investment properties in Houston. Multiple Ones. They were already sold on our expertise before they made contact. They had been reading my blog for months before making that decision. And I could just be me. Not some pushy, “come-on-down-to-the-car-lot” salesperson. I knew then this was for life.

Marriage

Now, I’m truly starting to put it together around a social media framework. All the previous stages of this story, from producing content consumers are seeking, to getting eyeballs on that content, to developing a base of readers through blogging have prepared me for this. Social media is the bond that makes it all come together and forms the brand that is you. You can do blogging. You can do content. You can do Twitter. You can do Facebook. But all those things are nothing but disconnected elements until you become an online marketer. And that’s not something you do, but rather something you are.