PROGRESS THREAD: RealEstateAutomate.com

[Salinger]

Email Marketing - Virtual Assistants - Real Estate Automate (interesting, this link pulled my title tag from the site)

Here's the site: www.realestateautomate.com

Okay, I'm ready to receive feedback from all the Fastlane members on my new website. Please post or PM with your recommendations, critiques, edits, etc. I have advertising coming out very soon that I hope will bring a flood of traffic, and I want the site to be ready. And I want to fix things now, while the traffic is still low.

This is simply a site reselling affiliate products/services to real estate agents to help them run their businesses more efficiently. At the moment I am promoting only two things - Aweber for automated lead generation and management, and AskSunday for virtual assistants. I plan to add a couple of other affiliate products once I find the right ones. I will also be adding a Real Estate Automate Blog later this week to help bring traffic to the site.

Please check it out and fire away with your responses.
Thanks.

[Salinger]

Bump.
Fifty-two views so far and nobody has anything to say about my site? C'mon guys, I would really like to get your feedback here.
How could I improve it?
What should I add?
What should I remove?
How should I promote it?
I'm fairly new to this, so I could use some suggestions.

[kurtyordy]

You are selling into a market that more and more so, time is less of an issue than money. Due to declining market, agents tend to have more time now to focus on their clients. More and more you will be selling into a need that is not felt.

To cross the bridge, you need to sell to their felt need. The key will be tying automation into the possibility of increased revenue. Create a landing page with stats like "7 out of 10 previous clients will use an agent again if they are kept in touch with". Stuff like that. Sell the money side, not the time side.

All that being said, how are you unique? How will you capture this market better than aweber? What competition are you up against? Please do not take this as bashing or anything, but since you do not have a unique offering, the key will be market position, how do you plan on capturing it?

If from SEO, how many realtors are searching for automation, email campaign, virtual assistants? These will be needed for SEO to work. If from advertising, how will you yell louder than everyone else yelling in the advertising room?

Basically, what is your implementation plan?

[mtnman]

Not much time, but form a quick glance change the layout.

What resolution are you working at? UI needs some help!

Get a tagline that tells me what this does, so my jumbled eyes don't reach for the X.

[Salinger]

Thanks guys!
@Kurtyordy: I've thought about the questions you asked before I started this. There are over 1 million realtors in the US. I want to help the ones that are committed to the business be more productive and reach more prospects with less effort so that when the market recovers (which varies based on loacale) they will be able to handle the increase in volume and ready to capture market share. Of the 1 million, if I can get 0.5% or 5000 to sign up for one or more of the services I will offer, I will be happy.

I am not competing with Aweber, but reselling it. I am presenting it as a tool for realtors. I am developing a series of prospecting emails that they can use or modify with their Aweber account as an added value. If an agent signs up with Aweber because of my site, I will get a referral fee. I am competing with a product called Top Producer. Aweber costs less, and does what it does very well. Top Producer has greater functionality, but costs quite a bit more, and a lot of agents complain about the usability.

I don't want to spend a lot on advertising, but I need to build awareness quickly, so as a test I have taken out a small classified in Realtor Magazine. I am also promoting online.

I have yet to achieve much with SEO, but I'm still working on it. If anyone has recommendations for this, please let me know.

@mtnman: Thanks. I will try to make my tagline more prominent and more compelling.
You say my UI needs help. Could you be more specific?

[phade]

Throw up a quick comparison list on the front (that optionally goes to a larger comparison page) that shows why a realtor should go with aweber over top producer or constant contact, specifically showing them how much money it can KEEP in their pocket.

Sell the Virtual Assistants as "an essential addition to your E-mail Marketing (aweber) campaign" type of thing. Showing how much more time they can spend building relationships with prospective clients, thereby generating more sales and profits, with another broad comparison of how much money they can save outsourcing over hiring an in person assistant.

Tie it all together with the current "hot trends" in the RE market (i.e. Aweber will help you keep your valued clients updated on the latest hot home foreclosures and short sales .. . " etc.)

All this on the front page, as condensed as possible, as many realtors seem to have the attention span of a fly (in my experience.)


**forgot to mention, make wherever they have to click to sign up bolder and brighter as the small box/icon(s) on the side get lost pretty easily (especially when viewed on a larger monitor and resolution)

[kurtyordy]

Thanks guys!
@Kurtyordy: I've thought about the questions you asked before I started this. There are over 1 million realtors in the US. I want to help the ones that are committed to the business be more productive and reach more prospects with less effort so that when the market recovers (which varies based on loacale) they will be able to handle the increase in volume and ready to capture market share. Of the 1 million, if I can get 0.5% or 5000 to sign up for one or more of the services I will offer, I will be happy.

Forgive me, I am not trying to rain on your parade, but this is like me saying that their are roughly 6.5 billion people on earth, and if I can convince .5% to give me $1, I will have 32 million dollars. While this is true, what incentive is their for 32 million people to give me $1? The question is not how many realtors are there. The question is, how many realtors are looking for a email marketing system, or better yet, how many are looking to spend money improve productivity. That number is your potential market, not the 1 million.

I am not competing with Aweber, but reselling it. I am presenting it as a tool for realtors. I am developing a series of prospecting emails that they can use or modify with their Aweber account as an added value. If an agent signs up with Aweber because of my site, I will get a referral fee. I am competing with a product called Top Producer. Aweber costs less, and does what it does very well. Top Producer has greater functionality, but costs quite a bit more, and a lot of agents complain about the usability.

Actually, when it comes to SEO and advertising, you are competing with both. For example right now I am marketing bread makers for Amazon. If you google panasonic bread maker (one of the most searched for) you will probably see amazon in the top five organic, if not number 1 for the results. So even though I am promoting amazon, I am also competing with them. I would like them to reach amazon through my portal. Amazon would like them to reach amazon through their own efforts and not have to pay me. When I google email marketing for realtors, the number 4 result was aweber in the paid ads. So yes you are competing. So to do this you need to find a felt need of the realtors that aweber is not currently targeting, and worm your way in through that front.

I don't want to spend a lot on advertising, but I need to build awareness quickly, so as a test I have taken out a small classified in Realtor Magazine. I am also promoting online.

What fruit are you seeing from the classified ads? Where are advertising online, and how is it converting.


Another thing to help you is to create a page "aweber vs top producer." Do all you can to promote this and get it ranking. This will help you capture the buyers that are already in the market for the service but are trying to decide which one. Create another "top producer review" Tell them why it sucks and why aweber is much better. These should help with your seo.

[kurtyordy]

bump- its been almost a month, what progress have we seen

[valuegiver]

I am going to be brutal.

Study copywriting. Most importantly, understand marketing.