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

#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

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.

These days the kitchen seems to be the most talked about room in the house. Also, the room most closely examined by home buyers. However, fixing up your kitchen can be extremely expensive. Columnist Phoebe Chongchua offers guidance on how you can makeover your kitchen without breaking the bank.  http://bit.ly/u228mA

Below is a funny, light-hearted look at the First Thanksgiving story and how marketing could have made it all happen.
Happy Thanksgiving!

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How Advertising Saved Thanksgiving
by Rob Wicker

As the Thanksgiving Story is traditionally told, the Pilgrims in Massachusetts would have starved to death except for the help of the Native-Americans. The Pilgrims were so grateful that they invited the Native-Americans over for a big spread. The Pilgrims planned to have turkey, dressing, squash casserole, yams, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie with Cool Whip. What is interesting, however, is that the Native-Americans initially didn’t want to have lunch with the Pilgrims. 

Why not, you ask yourself? Well the Native-Americans had watched the Pilgrims stumble around for at least a year. They considered the Pilgrims to be a bunch of knuckleheads.  For one thing, there were those clothes. The Pilgrims wore large, steeple-top hats that bumped against tree branches in the woods. Baggy black garments with gaudy white trim. And worst of all, funny square-toed shoes with silver buckles that got caught in the underbrush when the Pilgrims foraged for food. 

In addition, the Pilgrims carried a rifle called a Blunderbuss. Who carries a loaded weapon named “blunder”? 

Finally, the Pilgrims weren’t exactly tops in the Fun Department. Have you seen the pictures? The only thing rarer than a smiling Pilgrim is a laughing Pilgrim. There’s no “Pilgrim Section” in books about American humor. The Pilgrims were a bunch of stiffs. 

In fact, that’s why the Pilgrims really wanted the Native-Americans to come to lunch. They were sick of each other! Think about it, the long boat trip on the Mayflower, nearly starving to death in the New World, nothing to talk about except how hungry they were—and no jokes. The Pilgrims were about ready to point those Blunderbusses at each other. They needed some company. 

But the Native-Americans weren’t having any of it. They politely declined the Pilgrims’ invitation. They told the Pilgrims that they’d be out of town, visiting relatives on Cape Cod.   

This is when the Pilgrims got clever. Sketching is one thing the Pilgrims were good at. It’s how they passed the time crossing the Atlantic. The Pilgrims sketched and colored fat roasted turkeys with all of the trimmings, squash casseroles, and cranberries not from the can. The drawings are so good that Butterball still uses some of them in their ads. The Pilgrims also showed the Native-Americans pictures of at least fifteen desserts, all with Cool Whip. Legend has it that one of the drawings even included a Pilgrim woman exposing a little ankle below her black dress. 

The Pilgrims were basically advertising Thanksgiving! Boy, did they get a response. After seeing these drawings, the Native-Americans announced that their Cape Cod relatives had suddenly come down with whooping cough. The Native-Americans would be in Plymouth that Thursday, and they’d be delighted to come for lunch. 

The rest, as you know, is History.
Happy Thanksgiving!

We all go to networking events. They’re fun, and they can also be a great way to find new prospects. Bestselling author Jeffrey Gitomer offers these 11.5 ways to make more connections at your next networking event. http://bit.ly/nPOmpW