Entegral Blog

While businesses of all shapes and sizes can benefit from social media - the real estate industry is uniquely suited to the community-driven platforms that make up this digital space. To ensure you kick off 2020 on the right footing online we take a look at three platforms that will help you gain more eyes on your business and more importantly your listings. Facebook Last year the National Association of Realtors released a study that revealed that a whopping 99% of millennials - and 90% of baby boomers - begin their home search online (as opposed to in-person referrals.) This statistic can be seen in action in the various community groups on Facebook where users regularly ask for referrals for estate agents active in their area or asking for rental properties that might suit their needs. Simply put, if you are not active on Facebook you are missing out on a large slice of the pie. Get a Facebook Business Page Instagram What makes this platform so great for real ...

We will soon launch a brand new initiative to help you grow your real estate agency and attract the right talent. The MyProperty Job Board will launch next week and we are inviting Entegral clients to advertise their vacancies for free. This is a limited offer and opens to the 1st x20 entries so capture as soon as you can . How to claim your free job ad Follow this link and pick the STANDARD PACKAGE , capture your job ad including the company logo and website address. Click on the pay button and once you reach the payment page, you can close the form - our team will pick up the 1st x20 entries and place a free ad for you that is valid for 2 months. https://www.myproperty.co.za/jobs/advertise Should you want to promote it via our social channels and have it featured, you can pick the ENHANCED PACKAGE. This will cost you R299 but will provide some great exposure for your agency on MyProperty's social channels. Once we have a few real estate job vacancies we will then off...

Creating a professional online presence has never been more important and to ensure that we offer the very best to our clients, we continuously work on not just the way your website works but how it is presented to visitors. With that in mind, our designers and developers have made it possible for clients to choose from new themes that adhere to the latest design trends without losing what makes our Flex product unique in its offering. As always all our websites are responsive, hosted on the cloud and backed by our unrivaled tech to produce a 24/7 lead generating machine. Starter Theme Our Starter theme no-frills, no-fuss cost-effective real estate website solution you have been looking for. We have worked tirelessly to create a product that would offer real estate agents the perfect base to get started from in the digital landscape. Our new Starter theme boasts with all the basics you would need to get started and will be available as either the Normal Starter theme or as ...

The word “marketing” conjure up images of complicated strategies and pricey campaigns - however, there is a way you can market your real estate business without spending a dime! We take a look at our top choices in our latest blog post. Video marketing You would be losing out on a large audience if you ignore the proliferation of video over the past few years. Jump on the bandwagon and start engaging in some video marketing. Begin by setting up a YouTube channel. You don’t have to create Hollywood-esque movies – just a simple video blog will do. If you’ve got something useful to say, then say it on video. It also makes for highly shareable, marketable content – put it on your website, push it out on social, and include it in your emails (more about email marketing later) Post to Facebook It goes without saying that social media is one of the most valuable marketing tools out there. And it’s free. This doesn’t mean you should sign up for every platform but rather focus on ...

Having a multitude of lead conversion strategies and systems in place might seem like the right approach to converting leads - however, all your efforts might be moot if there is no accountability. We take a deeper look at how you can make sure accountability is a part of your real estate agency culture. Setting goals You cannot grow a culture of accountability without having a set of clearly defined goals. Lead conversion will fail every single time if agents do not know what they are working towards - are you trying to grow your business in a new area? Launching a new property management division? These plans and corresponding goals for your real estate team will serve as the backbone of your culture of accountability. If you or a member of your team falls short of a goal, it’s much easier to pivot and address problems if you have a strong foundation in place. Increasing productivity with management tools  This is not about policing your agents - after all, micromanag...

Mobile traffic is not new and in years gone by a mobile version of a desktop website would have been enough, however, in the age of smartphones, tablets and an agile society that wants information right now responsive design is the only way forward. You can argue that a mobi-site is suffice for your business but you would be wrong. Not only is responsive design a key element in a strong SEO strategy, it is also a deciding factor for many consumers on whether or not they will make use of your services. Here are the latest statistics that prove that you can no longer wait to switch your site over to a responsive website: As mentioned before - mobile traffic is not new, in fact  Statista has found that it has been ahead since 2015, however with the technology behind smartphones improving turning mobile phones into mini laptops and the increase in mobile traffic, websites that aren’t responsive are losing progressively larger portions of their audience each year. The ...

In a competitive market and jam-packed weekends filled with open houses, is the mid-week open house the new frontier? Do home buyers even care about open houses? It is easy to assume that in the digital age an open house isn’t as relevant as it used to be - however in polls posted by MyProperty , an overwhelming amount respondents argued that even with all advances in digital technology an open house is still relevant. Does this reflect the number of visitors on show days though? The truth of the matter is that with weekends jam-packed with events, errands and other open houses many home buyers opt to only see a few open houses on a day and therefore the chance of them seeing your listing in person dwindles. There are many ways you can ensure you host the perfect show day - whether it is on a Saturday or Sunday - but have you considered hosting an express mid-week show day? The thinking behind this is that buyers who simply don’t have the time over a weekend would prefer ...

You have been in the game for years and people in the areas you operate in know your name - so does it matter if you are still using the branding you had when you started 10 years ago? Two sides of the logo Perception matters and in our visual driven society an outdated logo or branding can hurt your chances of scoring business from the younger generation entering the property market. It is not just clients you might lose - you might be missing out on hiring the next big real estate rockstar because they don’t like the image you project with your outdated branding. However, there is something to be said about staying consistent throughout the years. Take a look at Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Nike as examples. You know exactly how their branding looks because it has stayed consistent throughout the years. So what are you supposed to do? Rebrand or stay the same? Meeting in the middle In most cases you don’t need to rebrand completely - all you really need is to refresh your c...

Voice search is here to stay - because it is easier to speak to a digital assistant than typing - so we take a look at three ways you can gear your real estate website towards voice search. To prove that voice search is the way of the future, take a look at these statistics: Voice labs found that there were a total of 33 million voice-first devices in circulation. In a survey of SEO trends for 2017 and beyond , voice search stood at the third spot. In his keynote, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that one-fifth of the queries on Google are voice searches. REA Group's move into AI with Amazon's Alexa With the increase in the use of digital assistants, optimising for voice search is critical to your SEO success. We take a look at three SEO strategies to help you optimise your website - it is easier than you think! 1. Claim your Google My Business Listing Probably the easiest thing to do is to simply claim your Google My Business listing! The reason why this is im...

Social media is a powerful marketing tool and with these tips and tricks, you will be able to improve your social media engagement this year. Marketing yourself or your agency on social media in 2018 should no longer just be about reaching a large audience, rather about having people reacting to your posts with not just likes but with much more valuable comments and shares. We take a look at how you can improve your social media engagement here. Share valuable content This goes hand-in-hand with our usual advice of writing fresh content for your website, at least once a week. Not only is it good for your search engine optimisation (SEO) it is also good for your social media engagement. These are the five marks your content should hit to make it valuable (and perfect for social media): Is it helpful to your audience? Are you actually solving their real estate problems or answering their property related questions? Is it saving time? Are you ensuring that your readers can ...

Despite the rise of e-commerce, the majority of shopping still happens locally. A study from May 2014 showed that 72% of consumers who searched for local info on a smartphone visited stores within eight kilometres of home - and this year data shows consumers stay even closer. So what does this mean for your marketing efforts? As a real estate agent, we are all trying to become the neighbourhood expert and one of the ways to establish yourself as an expert is by popping up in search results. There are two ways to achieve this - making sure your agency has a Google My Business listing and by ensuring you are providing vital area information on your website . Here we take a look at how to approach hyper-local advertising and here we find out more about the importance of Google My Business. Local agencies must adjust their marketing reach to account for the small radius of their audience. However, that audience might include local residents, commuters who work nearby or out-o...

By now real estate agents realise that social media is an essential part of their successful agency - it attracts new leads, helps you stay informed and is a powerful way to build brand awareness. However, there are still mistakes being made daily that can cost you potential business. We take a look at these mistakes and how to rectify them. Sharing the wrong content While sharing content is one of the quickest and easiest ways to build brand awareness and strengthen client relationships, sharing content that you didn’t write or create can cost you business. Especially if you are sharing content created by your competitors. Content is created and marketed with the sole purpose of attracting and collecting valuable leads. Therefore, if you are pushing other people's content on your prospects and customers, you are actually pushing them towards the competitor. So how do you fix this? By creating content for your real estate website! This doesn’t just have to be articles eit...

Our creative thinking is not just applied to our industry-leading tech to make your responsive real estate website load faster, deliver more accurate results and provide you with a powerful online marketing tool. We also apply it to design better-looking websites to ensure your site doesn’t just work great but also looks great. With that in mind, we have updated and revamped one of the variations of our Elegant theme . The upgrade has enhanced the way the featured properties are displayed on your Flex responsive website - making for an overall better user experience. Current clients with this variation of the theme will now see the change on their website, while new clients will automatically have their featured properties displayed in this format. As always all our Entegral Flex real estate websites are responsive and backed by the cloud and managed by our Office Management System. Take a look at the theme in action by visiting some of the sites already using this variation on t...

The holiday season is upon us and with that comes a well-deserved break, but don’t let your news section go stale in the time you’re away. Write your blogs ahead of time and schedule them to publish on your website. Scheduling your blog Before we cover a few topics to get through the holiday season, we take a look at how you can schedule your posts to be published on your website. It really is as easy as selecting a date and time from your OMS dashboard. Once you have written your post, select the date and time as shown below and hit the save button. That is all you have to do! Real estate blog topics for the holidays End of year recap and an overview of what to expect in the coming year Create a year-in-review broken down by neighbourhood, type of home or other criteria. If you want to get fancy, you might create an infographic or chart for easy sharing as well. You can use our suburb reports to find the data you are looking for! Local lights and events Inclu...

No doubt you’re providing the best service, but how do you ensure a quality experience translates into a positive review online? Getting a customer to take the time to share his or her thoughts can seem challenging, but there are a number of strategies you can utilize to increase the odds that reviews will be posted. Why do I need online reviews? Consumers are increasingly relying on the Internet to obtain information about businesses. Reviews not only serve as a guide to customers but also provide free advertising. Your customers can be valuable references for people they don’t even know, just by posting their experiences on your public profiles. Get followers on social media Having a following on social media speaks wonders for your brand. A strong digital following shows that customers are satisfied with your business and more importantly, they want to continue that relationship. After you’ve worked with someone, you should think about reaching out on social media to thank...

While online tools can serve as an excellent supplement to any real estate agency, they are by no means a replacement for traditional quality service. Here are five key components of good service that will never go out of style: 1. Go the extra mile Unfortunately, many real estate agencies these days do not make customer service a priority. As a result, they end up having mediocre service that leaves clients and customers frustrated. Therefore, if you choose to prioritize good service, you will differentiate yourself from the competition and customers will appreciate you for it. A little extra effort goes a long way, so show your clients that you care, and you will be creating a positive relationship that could last a lifetime. 2. Maintain strong internal communication If you don’t have your act together within the company, it will be immediately obvious to the outside world. So in order to achieve good customer service, start from the inside out. The first step is to organize you...

A study by Redfin asked the question - what is the true benefit of professional quality listing photographs? The answer was that listing a home with professional quality photos not only sell the home faster but for more money. Here are the top mistakes to avoid to ensure you have the best photos of your listing. Don’t be smart Yes, your smartphone has a great camera...but, not for real estate photography. Put the phone back and get an entry-level digital camera. Your listings will thank you. This is an actual listing photo | source Play with the camera or sign-up for a course to ensure you get the most out of your camera. Your business will thank you because you are not investing in yourself but investing in lead conversion. Why lead conversion? Who wouldn’t want to work with an agent that puts that much effort into marketing a home? Tell a story The Entegral Office Management System (OMS) allows you to organise your photos in a specific order - use this to your benefit ...

As we reach the fourth quarter of 2017, it’s time to start thinking about the year ahead and what to expect from SEO in 2018. Here are some of the trends you should be keeping an eye on in order to stay ahead of the curve. Voice search and digital assistants  Voice search technology presents a big opportunity for changing the way we communicate and process information. The rise of digital assistants has presented a growing market that can change the way search queries are performed. According to Google, 1 out of 5 searches already come from voice queries. The rise of voice search brings out the need to focus on more long-tail search keywords and a natural language that matches the user’s conversational tone. As accuracy improves in digital assistants, there will be more people using voice search from their mobile devices, seeking for quick and relevant answers. It becomes important to research the voice user intent will provide more accurate results, helping the algorit...

Not all home buyers are created equally - each has their own set of wants and needs, and if you want your marketing to be effective, you’ll have to know who you are marketing to. Before thinking about embarking on a marketing campaign or strategy, you must understand your target audience. In order to create the most effective campaign, each message must work together with the last and also be tailored to the same target market. Failing to do this could result in valuable capital being wasted with little results. Saying that ‘home buyers’ is your target audience is not wrong, however, you can be assured that trying to market to an audience this broad will only cost you more than generating the leads you want. As a real estate agent or any business owner for that matter, you must fully understand your audience. If you sell homes upwards of R5 million, don’t assume your target is anyone with a net worth of over R20 million. Someone looking to live in a sought-after golf estate wit...

While virtual tours have their place in the industry, in-person show days are still vital for the real estate industry. However, the way show days are presented and done can be enhanced to ensure the entire experience is extraordinary. There are many other real estate professionals ready to take your client the moment you blink, but also a few simple things you can do to ensure that your client clearly sees the difference between you and your competitors. Branded from the start You are already representing your real estate brand with your on show boards, but you can go even further. Branded brochures that visitors can take home with them, create info packets with the brochure, information on the area and other relevant information. You should also consider how you present yourself - after all, you are also your own brand. Dress professionally, have your business card on hand and be ready to answer all the questions your visitors might have. Being prepared is not just good for ...