One question I get all the time from dealers and sales persons of factory-built homes is “how do I sell homes online?” I get the same question from Community Managers, Realtors® and investors. The answer may not be the one you’re looking for.
You see, you DON’T sell homes online. You sell homes in person. You gather leads online. I’m sure many of you suspected this – especially if you’ve TRIED to sell online.
Once you’ve come to the realization that the only goal of your online marketing program is gather leads, the strategy is to build a system that brings those leads to you steadily and efficiently.
In 1931, in some of the worst days of the Great Depression, Allstate Insurance was established with the a plan to sell affordable insurance policies direct to the public using what at that time was a brand new technology – radio advertising.
Using direct marketing via radio helped Allstate grow throughout the worst period for business in our nation’s history. Building on that start, the company grew into one of America’s largest and best-known insurance firms.
Radio brought them the leads and their sales team converted them into paying policies. The technologies may have changed but the lesson applies equally well during these tough times for business.
Whether you’re a manufacturer, community marketer or manager, dealership or salesperson, using the latest technologies to bring in fresh leads is the most efficient way to make sales.
The array of new technologies that can be used to generate leads can be bewildering. There are websites, blogs, social bookmarking, and social networking.
Where do you start?
You start with an old technology – building a database of leads to follow up with. Then, all of the new whiz-bang technologies are used to funnel leads to that database. It’s that simple. The advantage of new technologies is that they can be incredibly efficient at that task.
So the first thing you need is a reliable way of getting the data you need, organizing it in a database and the ability to mass mail that list with offers, listings, and information to convert those leads into sales.
Email is going to be your online sales machine, so set it up right the first time. Use a first-rate service, such as AWeber to handle your email list. AWeber makes it easy for you to send neatly formatted emails at a specific time – a feature that will prove invaluable at some point.
AWeber’s service costs about $19 per month and they have a FREE Test Drive that you can try out by using the box below:
Can You Have More Sales, Too?
Helping over 65,000 businesses like yours raise profits and build customer relationships using AWeber’s opt-in email marketing software for over 10 years.
If you already have a mailing list in Outlook or some other email program that you’d like to transfer to your AWeber account, you can simply import them from a file. AWeber will handle the verification process for you.
If you really feel you need to host the email application and database on your own, I would recommend you use AutoResponse Plus (ARP). ARP resides on your web server and it is easy to upload your current email database to it.
Professional installation of ARP is included. We have used this service for a long time and found it to be the most powerful, reliable and flexible self-hosted email applications available.
You can read more about ARP here, and purchase it if you choose.
Be sure you have the hosting you need.
Regardless of what self-hosted email app you use, be sure you have a powerful enough web server to mail to your list without problems. Some servers limit the number of emails that can be sent per hour. We’ve commonly seen low-cost shared servers whose limits are as low as 200 per hour. At that rate, mailing to a 1,000 subscriber list will take over 5 hours as you need to leave some reserve for the server to handle normal email functions.
Be sure your email server can handle a list the size you plan your list to grow to. OrangeCat World Class Servers range from 750 per hour to unlimited at reasonable cost.
Once you’ve chosen and installed or setup your email list building application, you will need to use the application to generate a form to collect email addresses.
You can place the form on your website, blog or on a special “squeeze” page created for the purpose. We’ll talk more about “squeeze” pages in a future post. But without the form being available for visitors to give you their email information, potential prospects remain merely suspects – and unknown ones at that.
When your form is in place, you can start driving traffic through your “leads funnel” to it. The leads funnel can be a free service, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Craigslist, etc. or you can use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or you can even pay for leads using Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.
Your email list is going to be your online sales machine so be sure to get it set up right. Get help if you need to – it is THAT important!
There is some effort in generating leads online, but the reward is worth the work. Start today.
Bob Stovall began marketing online in 1991. As the World Wide Web blossomed in the mid 1990’s, Bob founded Orange Cat Productions, which over the years has created online marketing strategies for Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike. Bob writes a blog on Online Marketing for Local Businesses at BobStovall.com. Orange Cat Productions is the web developer for MHMarketingSalesManagement.com. You can follow Bob on Twitter, become a Facebook Friend or Fan or Connect on LinkedIn.