Are you thinking about doing more volunteer work, helping the needy in your community, but not sure where to turn? Here’s a website that identifies both short-term and long-term volunteer opportunities. Go to www.VolunteerMatch.org.

Last month Bernice Ross, a Realtor and one of Inman.com’s best columnists, declared that Micromarketing is the hot real estate marketing trend for 2012. Ms. Ross described micromarketing as “old-fashioned farming with a 21^st Century twist.”

Micromarketing means marketing to an area where the residents’ demographics, lifestyle, and recreational pursuits match your own interests and expertise. Perhaps you target residences around a large recreational lake where people buy second homes or retire. This appeals to you because you are an agent who a. lives on the lake and b. owns a boat and likes to fish.

Ms. Ross uses AustinLakefrontProperties.com as an example of a micromarketing website, as opposed to a more common and generic URL like www.Realtorsname.com. You should also use micromarketing to enhance Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and promote your social media efforts.

Ms. Ross reports that “agents who are having the best luck with this approach have integrated their print marketing efforts with their online marketing efforts.”

If micromarketing intrigues you, consider using Homes & Land’s Integrated Marketing Package. Your Homes & Land Publisher can help you reach a micromarket using direct mail. A Homes & Land ad is also a great place to promote your Facebook page and blog. In addition, we feature QR codes that link to a video promoting your micromarket.

With the Homes & Land package you receive a website that can be branded as a micromarket (e.g., AustinLakeFrontProperties.com). You can also backlink your Homes & Land site to your current website for enhanced SEO.

As usual, Homes & Land is ahead of the marketing curve.

When you are marketing what to most Americans is their biggest financial asset, you need to do it right. Columnist Phoebe Chongchua explains how great photography can help you sell homes. http://bit.ly/wcRTJs

Often there is little time to do your elevator pitch. Seth Godin said the other day that no one has ever bought anything in an elevator: in other words a very short elevator pitch consisting of 2 sentences with hollow buzz words is not going to excite anyone.

Instead, you need to add more specifics to intrigue the prospect to invite you to another occasion where there is more time to discuss your services.

But sometimes, elevator pitches become less effective when you take too much time. You start adding details and providing facts, which takes the energy out of your presentation and requires time to close the deal. There is a dip between the perfect short pitch, and the full-length 25 minute story. Do not get stopped in the middle, it is better to keep it short.

Sample Pitches:

• “I’m a real estate agent concentrating on historic homes like the Betton Hills neighborhood in mid-town.”
• “I help people figure out why exactly their house is not selling, how can they get it sold, and if they like, I will even sell it for them.”
  [from Real Estate Agent Alliance:]

The key is to keep it short, succinct and say something of interest to the prospect.

#5. 7 Steps For Writing Effective Ad Copy
In today’s market, it can be difficult to attract qualified buyers. Print advertising is an effective way to generate leads—if you give buyers the information they are looking for.

#4. What is a QR Code Anyway?
There is a lot of buzz in the real estate industry about QR codes. But what is a QR code and how does it work? And – how should you use them to better connect with prospects?
This short video explains.

#3. Ad Design Challenge: To Starburst Or Not To Starburst
Starbursts are one of those graphic elements included in ads to call attention to specific qualities about a home. They do the job – but they’re overused. Nothing clutters an ad (or screams “used-cars”) more than a page full of starbursts and small photos.
There is another way. Lots of them in fact.

#2. Choose Your Words Wisely
That’s what a study at the University of Guelph in Ontario found from analyzing the wording of more than 20,000 listings. According to the research, a listing’s phrasing affected sales price and the length of time it was on the market.

#1. Coke vs. Pepsi – A Marketing Case Study
The Cola Wars are fierce. Coke, the perennial leader in beverage sales, is still at the top of the class. And Diet Coke just passed Pepsi to take the number two spot. Pepsi has held that number two spot for many years – so what happened?
Pepsi has been closely watched by marketers because of the innovative social media strategy it rolled out at the beginning of 2010.

We look forward to bringing you even more insight and inspiration in 2012.
Happy New Year from Homes & Land!

P.S. The top posts from 2010 are also worth reading.

Homes & Land works hard to make sure you get the best possible response from your marketing. To that end, we’ve created a website devoted to effective advertising and design. Short videos cover topics like How To Write Ad Copy That Works, How to Win Listings, and Effective Branding Techniques. To find out how you can maximize your advertising investment, visit www.HomesAndLand.com/Design

It’s almost the New Year, a time to reflect on how to make our lives more productive. One thing to consider is using a To-Do List that actually yields results. Wall Street Journal columinst Sue Shellenbarger reflects on why some To-Do Lists are ineffecive, and she reviews new software applications that can help you stay on task in 2012.  http://on.wsj.com/tlhicj

I know we’ve all seen the timeless Rudolf cartoon that shows his rise to fame in the North Pole. You remember, he traveled to the Island of Misfit toys with the elf-wannabe-dentist Kirby, and had to escape the abdominal snowman. What you may not know is that while Kirby was studying dentistry, Rudolf was reading up on marketing strategies. After being teased and shunned by all the other reindeer for his unique red glowing nose, Rudolf realized he needed to improve his image in Santa’s Village.

See, village residents are no strangers to the concept of branding – after all, Santa is a Brand Mastermind. So Rudolf started thinking of ways to make his red nose more desirable. He started with placing subtle posters in the break room that said “Red is the New Black” and others that showed fashionable accessories that glowed.

Then Rudolf expanded his message to other areas of the village and updated the images used to start associating himself with these new glowing, red trends. The extra-foggy Christmas Eve was really just a bonus. Santa had already been conditioned that Rudolf was someone he needed on his team.

The rest, as we know is history.

We at Homes & Land hope you have a safe and happy holiday!
See you next year.

1. “Keep your promises.”
2. If you say you’ll show up every day at 8 am, do so. Every day.
3. If you say your service is excellent, make it so.
4. If circumstances or priorities change, well then, invest to change them back. Or tell the truth, and mean it.
5. If traffic might be bad, plan for it.
6. Is there actually unusually heavy call volume? Really?
7. Want a bigger brand? Make bigger promises. And keep them.

Most Realtors understand the value of branding. Consumers see your name/image over and over and they become more comfortable with the idea of working with you. Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt, as the adage states, it breeds something more desirable—security.

But why?

There is an extremely interesting book on the current bestseller list called Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman is a Psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his theories on how human beings make decisions. (At heart, we are not as rational as we’d like to believe, even in money matters.)

In the book, Kahneman states that the relationship between repetition and liking is an important biological fact, and it extends to the animal world too.

For example, to survive in a dangerous environment, animals must react cautiously to new things, because the new thing may be dangerous. As a result, when something new shows up, animals get scared and run away. The prospect of an animal surviving without this trait is not good because sooner or later a predator will arrive.

However, through repetition the fear of the “new” subsides. Repeated exposures to the “new” brings nothing bad, and the animal eventually gets the safe signal. It feels secure.

This is one of the reasons brands like Coke are so powerful. In blind taste tests, consumers don’t have a strong preference for the taste of Coke over other colas, but once a soda is identified as Coke, the preference becomes high. We feel secure with Coke because we’ve been exposed to the soda and its advertisements all of our lives.

What does this mean to you? Realtors help people buy and sell a huge financial asset. The emotion you want to elicit in your prospects and clients is security. Repetition of your name, image and services is one of the best ways to generate this sense of security. We all know agents who have built a strong personal brand, and they are usually top producers.

If you don’t have a strong personal brand, your Homes & Land Publisher is a great resource for helping you build one.