5 steps to the perfect 2019

We’re only 50 days away from 2019. This means that the holiday season is quickly approaching and things are about to get busy. Sometime in the next 50 days, you should be planning for 2019. What will your business look like? What are your goals? There is a lot of important information to figure out! Lucky for you we’re here to help. Here are 5 things that you need to be doing to have a great 2019.

1. Know what happened in 2018

It simply isn’t enough to know what is happening today. It is extremely important to take a look at the past 12 months, both in your own business as well as the real estate industry as a whole. Let’s start with the industry.

Take a look at what the typical seller looked like in 2018:

• 55 years old

• Lived in their home for 9 years before selling

• Most common reason for selling was because the home was too small for their needs

• Their new home purchased was within 20 miles of their last home

How does this information come into play for 2019? If the average home seller is 55 and looking for a bigger home, you can use that information to your advantage when marketing new listings! When creating Facebook ads for example, start the age demographic around 55 when promoting a larger home! You can also target your ad language to speak to someone who has lived in a home for a substantial amount of time and is looking to have more space. Use the information to your advantage!  

Now let’s talk about buyers.

Here is a snapshot of the typical buyer in 2018:

• 46 years old

• 63% were married couples

• 33% were first time homebuyers

• 87% purchased their home through an agent

• 55% looked online at properties as the first step in their search

• Buyers need 7.2 years on average to save a 20% downpayment

Again, this information is so useful. As online home searching becomes more and more prevalent, it is important to you as an agent to make sure that your marketing is up to par! When promoting listings on the market, target them to married couples around the 46 year old age range. Be clear in what the home features, and even gear it more towards things that a newly married couple or first time homebuyer would be interested in (perhaps a 2 car garage or open concept floor plan for entertaining).

Now that we’ve covered the real estate industry in 2018, let’s talk more about your specific business.

Before diving into this, do us a favor and download Jared James’ 2019 business plan here. Take a look at page 5. Here you will see a sheet with a breakdown of your 2018. Fill this out and recap your year. Learn where your business came from – it will be important when planning for 2019! This brings us to our next point: knowing your numbers.

Download Jared James 2019 Business Plan Now!

2. Know your numbers and how to reach them

To help with this, Jared James has also created a digital plan for 2019 that you can download here. This plan breaks down your business from the past 12 months and organizes it into sections based on your source of business. For example, how much did you invest in social media and what was the return on that? How much business are you generating from referrals? It then asks you to create goals for 2019. Based on your GCI and stats from you 2018 year, it will determine what needs to happen in 2019. From how many listings you need to close to how many conversations you need to be having per week, this planner is the perfect tool to get on track.  

3.    Commit to change

What will you commit to in 2019? Will it be more social media use? Focusing more on gaining clients through methods other than referrals? While it’s great to know what you should be doing in 2019, the most important part is committing to it.

Commit to your 2019 action plan.

Figure out what your best uses of time are, what you’ve been doing wrong, and what you’ll commit to changing in the New Year. Lucky for you, there is a section for this in Jared’s business plan as well! Get to it!

4.    Plan your perfect day and perfect week

Now that you know how much work you need to be doing to reach your goals for 2019, it’s time to map it out in the “perfect day” and “perfect week.” Are you sensing a trend here? We want you to be organized and efficient with your time! Putting things into a plan holds you accountable and keeps you on track.

Anyways, back to the perfect day and perfect week. Go ahead and click here to download the great day planner, and click here for the great week planner. When planning a “great day,” this form plans out your listing activity, sales activity, revenue and closings. While it allows you to create goals for each day, it also holds you accountable by requesting that you truthfully input the actual amounts for each of the goals you set for the day. By completing this, you can keep track of your daily tasks and accomplish things that align with your overall 2019 goals.

In regards to a “great week”, this is all about time management. Take a look at the weekly planner. While it does mention completing and showing to your coach, that applies to those individuals who are enrolled in Jared’s One on One Coaching program (if you’re curious about this click here). Those of you not enrolled in this can still determine how much time each week you will dedicate to things like follow up, exercise, family time, prospecting and things of the like. By blocking out your time for these things, you can again hold yourself accountable to get tasks completed.  

5. Follow changing trends and know what is happening in the market

While we touched upon what happened in the market during 2018, 2019 could be an entirely different scenario. It is important to stay up to date with things trending in the industry. There are likely going to be changed in the social media area as video continues to make an impact on the market.

Don’t lose track of these things! Be sure to follow us on Instagram at @jarja_media as we post real estate stats and news trends to keep you in the game.

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You have 50 days to plan – take advantage of them! Start practicing time blocking now and figure out how you want to implement it into your 2019 plan.

It’s not too late to make a change and commit to changing your business. Questions about any of this? Comment below and reach out! We’re always happy to help.  

- Alicia, Marketing Assistant

How to Host a "Not so Average" Open House

Are you an agent considering hosting an open house for a property that is on the market? This may seem surprising, but you don’t have to spend a fortune to make the house feel like home. We have some simple but effective tips on how to host an event that will not be forgotten!

1. Come up with a theme

First things first, you need to come up with a theme! Brainstorm annnnnnd ………..GO!

Your goal is to make the visitors feel at home, while still providing an experience that they won’t forget.

A theme is important because it helps establish the atmosphere. Your goal is to make the visitors feel at home, while still providing an experience that they won’t forget. While you can do whatever kind of theme you would like, we suggest that you stick with something that is fun without being too corny. Think about the type of home you are showing… is it Spanish hacienda style—if so, consider serving an assortment of tapas and some fruity sangria. Are you hosting in a Tudor style home? Try serving drinks in goblets for a medieval vibe (without all the beheadings and black plague). If you are hosting in a ranch style home maybe try serving buttermilk biscuits and fried green tomatoes (with ranch dressing of course!). The point is to commit to a theme and really adhere to it; everyone loves a good theme especially when there is free food and drinks. Am I right or am I right?

2. Involve the community

A great way to take your theme and run with it, is to involve community members when hosting your open house. 

Reach out to a local business and see if they want to join, or maybe even contribute to your open house! The local baker, coffee shop, winery, or local cheese shop can solidify that sense of community for your hopeful homebuyers. This little push from the community could be just what you need to spark a memorable dialogue between yourself and the potential buyers.

If you want to have a bit of an artsier event, you could invite a local artist to show some of their pieces. Not only could you do this for relatively cheap, if not for free, but also it adds an air of sophistication and class to any event, while still involving the local community.

3. Make it an experience

Don’t just stand around and let the visitors tour the home on their own.

Who knows more about this home than the owners? Consider talking with the owners and learning the history of the home. Hear their stories of the time they spent there, and share those with the guests of your open house. Don’t just stand around and let the visitors tour the home on their own. Walk with them through the house and have a great story about each room, a story that changed the house into a HOME for the owners. Personal stories like these can help the potential homebuyers to picture themselves in the house, making memories of their own. The most important thing you can do is allowing the potential homebuyers an experience that they will not get at any other open house. It is important to help them see the house as a potential HOME for them and their family.

There you have it! Make sure to have a theme, involve the community, and above all else be sure to provide an experience so that everyone who walks through the door can’t forget your open house! Oh yeah… and have fun! If you enjoy yourself, your guests will too!

- Brittany, Marketing and Customer Support Associate

Keeping up With the Terms

In a world where we work to make everything faster and more efficient, we have also begun to shorten our vocabulary. We use more slang terms and acronyms in our texts, emails, and especially on social media. If you feel like you’ve fallen behind, don’t worry – we’re here to help you keep up. Here are the 10 social media acronyms and hip terms that we think you should know.

1. DM vs. PM

In the world of Twitter, DM’s are “direct messages” that are shared between two users who follow each other. On other platforms, these messages are called PM’s, or “private messages”.

2. GIF

Aside from the controversial topic of how this term is pronounced, GIF stands for “graphic interchange format”. A GIF is an image (usually enticing a laugh) that moves as an animation and is used to add emotion and emphasis to your thoughts.

3. Meme

A meme is a concept, catchphrase, idea, or piece of media that spreads like wildfire across social media channels. The purpose of memes is typically to spread humor from person to person on various subjects by adding texts to comical images. If you are active on social media (which we highly suggest) it is likely that you have seen various memes spread across your social feeds.

4. RT

There is a plethora of information on social media. Twitter for example is a strong platform for things such as news and even just random intellectual thoughts. See something you agree with? Repost that users tweet, or rather “retweet” (RT) it.

5. TBT

Otherwise known as “Throwback Thursday”, people utilize this day to show off their best childhood glamour shots, or the lunch they ate last week. It helps other users relate to you, and encourages them to post a TBT as well!

6. SEO

Is your goal to get more people to your website? “Search engine optimization” is the best way to get there. SEO refers the key words a business chooses to use in their content that will rank them higher in search engines. Take some time to think about keywords you should be using, and get more action on your site!

7. CTA

If you are an active marketer, it is likely that you have a website, or have run some type of advertising campaign in your career. A CTA is a “call to action” that entices people on the web to either purchase your product, click on your ad, or request more information about your services. Popular CTA phrases include “Learn More”, “Sign up Free”, “Get Started”, and more. Do any of these ring a bell? They were likely the phrases that convinced you to sign up for that free 30-day trial of a new program. Start utilizing these CTA’s and start gaining more business!

Popular CTA phrases include “Learn More”, “Sign up Free”, “Get Started”, and more.

8. CPC

Another important term for a marketer is CPC. Defined as the “cost per click”, this term will tell you how much you are spending each time a user clicks on an advertisement that you are running. Whether on Facebook, Google, or other advertising platforms, the cost per click will tell you how relevant your advertisement is to your audience. The lower the cost per click, the more clicks you can receive with your given ad budget. Take a look at this number the next time you are in your Facebook ads manager, to see if you should be making changes to your ads.

9. ROI

Anytime you run an advertisement or purchase something to help grow your business, you are likely hoping to make some sales in return. ROI, or “return on investment” is the monetary value that you gain in relation to the money you spent to make it. In other words, this number will tell you if that investment you made last year really paid off.

10. UGC

People trust people. UGC is “user generated content” – essentially posts, reviews, videos, etc. created by consumers. It has been shown that 70% of people trust images taken from ‘people like them’ over brand created images according to Reevoo. Take this tip and create a contest, or promotional idea and get your consumers involved. Repost their content and see how other consumers relate to it!

70% of people trust images taken from ‘people like them’ over brand created images.

If you felt out of the loop with your social lingo, we hope this cheat sheet helped. Let us know if you learned something, or have another term that you think should be in the top 10. We love hearing from you! Like we said, UGC is important, and we’d love to share yours!

- Alicia, Marketing Assistant 

3 Ways to Dominate Your E-mail Campaigns

If you aren’t utilizing e-mails or e-mail drip campaigns, you’re missing out on a huge marketing opportunity! E-mail is an excellent tool to be using especially because they can be automated- which means you’ll have more time to focus to other areas of business.

Before you start setting up automated e-mails there’s a few things you should and should not be doing that can make or break your e-mail open rates, click through rates, and percentage of people who unsubscribe. Let’s break some things down.

1.  Treat Your First E-mail Like Your First Date

Just like a first date, your first e-mail is potentially the beginning to a beautiful relationship. And first impressions matter!

It is going to be worth spending the extra time to polish the first e-mail your subscribers will read. Make the welcome e-mail: fun, structured, easy to read, and make sure your reader understands what they are getting themselves into- what can they expect moving forward?  Who knows -maybe you’ll get that 2nd date!

2.  Your Subject Lines

This is arguably the most important part to any e-mail you will ever write. Why? It’s the first thing people read when they get an e-mail! Most business owners don’t devote enough energy into writing a good subject line- don’t procrastinate this step!

Here’s the thing- if someone doesn’t make it past your subject line, they never have the chance to make it to the content, offer, etc. that you are providing in the body.

So what kind of advice do we have to offer you?

-Keep it short (10 characters or less have a 58% open rate)
-Drive urgency (use words like Urgent/Important/Limited Time)
-Stay Casual (Emojis are your friend!)

3.  Get Personal

You may be shocked to hear that customers and clients want to hear from you most often by e-mail. What is more shocking is that 80% of consumers also expect those e-mail communications to be personalized according to MarketingSherpa.

80% of consumers also expect those e-mail communications to be personalized

Here is the thing- you don’t need a crazy amount of data to send a personalized email. Their first name, zip code, birthday, and home purchased anniversary date are all enough to get their attention!

Birthday emails are 235% more likely to be opened and also have 300% higher click-through rates than typical promotional e-mails according to Experian white paper. Too bad you can only send those once a year!

Another simple way to stay personalized while using their first name is to use this merge field in the body of your e-mail in addition to the greeting.

Most people tend to read the beginning and end blocks of e-mails, so go ahead and close your e-mail out with their name once last time.

Going back to what I mentioned in the beginning- if you aren’t using e-mail campaigns you’re missing out on a super simple way to keep in touch with your clients! And if you are using e-mail campaigns, you now have 3 new pieces of information to apply to your campaigns! Keep making good impressions so people look forward to seeing your e-mails in their inboxes!

- Michelle, Sales and Marketing Assistant