HomeActions™ President, Albert Clark, co-hosted a “Coffee Chat” with RETechnology to discuss strategies that will benefit agents as the business of real estate process becomes increasingly virtual.
We’re all trying to figure out what our next normal looks like. The truth is that there are solid business disciplines that have always worked and may even work BETTER as the real estate sales process becomes more virtual.
Albert Clark of HomeActionsjoined me on a Coffee Chat last week to teach us how to support your clients with insightful and unique homeownership information and market data to become THE go-to agent in your neighborhood.
Here are three key takeaways for you:
1. A clean database is the basis for effective marketing
Without a consolidated, up-to-date and, ideally, even segmented database, it is really difficult to succeed at online marketing. Now is the time to look at all of the places you have customer and prospect information and consolidate it into one list on an Excel spreadsheet as a start. Then it can be uploaded into your client relationship management system and into direct marketing and social media solutions.
2. The days of ME, ME, ME advertising are OVER
If your advertising campaigns focus on all the ways that you are amazing and nothing about how you can help your clients, you’re wasting your money. Instead, share your insights about how the market is doing, political issues regarding homeownership, mortgage news, and the best ways to maximize the value of your home. You are not relevant. Period.
3. Consistency is key
You can be the best agent in the world and deliver amazing service during a transaction—but if you don’t stay top of mind, you are not likely to get the referral or the next listing. You need to find disciplined and, ideally, automated ways to contact your sphere at least every two weeks with information that MATTERS to them.
Watch the recording below to learn more:
If you would like to learn more about HomeActions, you can contact Albert Clark at aclark@HomesActions.net.
HomeActions is also working to help agents thrive as the real estate process becomes more virtual. Catch our next webinar session to learn more about the benefits of HomeActions.
HomeActions LLC (HA) and its IndustryNewsletters (IN) division, a lead generation and client relationship platform for real estate agents, accountants, payroll bureaus, lawyers and other professionals, have just rolled out Social Sharing, a new integrated app that lets clients seamlessly post HA and IN articles on the clients’ own LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook accounts.
HA and IN provide a complete newsletter system that lets clients send out fully customizable newsletters to their clients and prospects, and the clients can choose from among thousands of professionally written library articles to add to these newsletters. Now, clients are no longer limited to using these articles in their newsletters. With a push of a button, any HA/IN library article can be scheduled into the clients’ social media platforms. With Social Sharing, clients have complete control over which platforms they use and when.
The simplicity of the system means HA and IN clients that were unsure about how to use social media platforms or concerned about how much time it would take no longer have to worry: Social Sharing does it for them with the HA/IN articles they’ve chosen.
Barry J. Friedman, CEO of HomeActions, LLC
“No professional can ignore social media today — it’s essential for marketing and client contact,” said Barry Friedman, founder and CEO of HA and IN. “With Social Sharing, we’re thrilled with how easy we’ve made it for even small firms to become big players in social media without having to write a single word.”
Social Media — and More — All for Free
Social Sharing is available to all HA and IN clients at no additional charge. HA and IN are also eliminating the cost for other well-established add-ons: its Automated Valuation Model, which helps agents market themselves with data-driven consumer engagement; Neighborhood360, which provides readers with estimated property value based on local data, as well as additional community information; and OnTarget, an email blast tool that allows clients to send up to 20,000 email communications per month to their contacts between regular newsletter launches.
About HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters
HomeActions LLC and its IndustryNewsletters division are digital marketing and lead generation solutions with compelling content and interactive widgets for real estate agents, accounting firms, law firms, payroll bureaus, professional employer organizations, human resources and employee benefits companies, and other service providers.
The HomeActions/IndustryNewsletters platform provides automated prospecting and marketing delivered biweekly via email to a professional’s sphere of influence. The professionally written articles portray a range of professional trusted advisors looking out for readers’ interests. With instant lead access, CRM capabilities and robust predictive metrics, the system has the capability to generate real-time leads and top-of-mind awareness while nurturing relationships that lead to long-term success and more referrals.
HomeActions is a privately held virtual company that employs more than 50 people and is headquartered in Green Cove Springs, Florida. For more information, visit www.industrynewsletters.com and www.homeactions.net.
During an interview with ATTOM™ Data Solutions for their June edition of the Housing News Report, Barry Friedman, CEO at HomeActions, explained the different forms of lead-generating content in real estate marketing. Some content is created to provide information for the reader. While this type of content may not explicitly promote a brand, its intention is to stimulate interest in the brand’s products or services. There is also actionable content designed to trigger a response from a consumer, indicating a warm lead. Paired with an interactive neighborhood data feature called Neighborhood360, actionable, lead-generating content is designed to both help the consumer learn more about a desired area and produce a high-quality lead for a real estate professional.
Barry J. Friedman, CEO of HomeActions, LLC
1. What is your elevator pitch for HomeActions?
HomeActions is a cloud-based platform designed to help agents communicate more effectively with their sphere of influence: their clients, prospects and referral sources. We try to get agents connected to a potential customer as early into the buying cycle as possible, before the customer has decided to buy or sell. And we do that primarily through content marketing.
We provide the content in the newsletters, and we’ve developed unique systems to tell when a client or prospect has put their toe in the water, meaning they are ready for a real estate transaction.
We’ve found that content comes in different forms. There is just information, just designed to provide information, not to elicit a response. Then there is trigger content. We start all trigger articles out with “is this your situation?”. If this is not their situation, they are probably not going to read it. No matter what we say afterward, if someone clicks on that article in my mind it is a warm lead — someone you would want to go in your pipeline.
Another key type of content we use in our newsletters is an interactive article. There is special technology associated with it. What this is about is how do you build your pipeline so that eventually people come out of your pipeline and become clients?
I started a previous company called BizActions which was sold to Thomson Reuters in 2012. From 2012 I really got into HomeActions wanting to build it up. We think we are the largest in the real estate space delivering about 3.5 million newsletters every two weeks on behalf of our 5,000 Realtor clients. We help those clients put together their database. We learned you can’t have content marketing without a database. We de-dupe it and cleanse it to make sure the email addresses are as clean as possible.
2. How is HomeActions utilizing ATTOM Data Solutions?
Our interactive articles are what uses ATTOM data. It’s basically a know-yourneighborhood type of article. Or if you are looking for real estate, check out the neighborhood first. When they click that article, we provide some content about why this information is important. Then we ask for their name and phone number.
We ask “why are you interested in this content?”. You wouldn’t think people would answer that but they do. These are purpose questions, and there are six purpose questions. They check off the ones that apply. When they hit submit, we then go to ATTOM’s servers and grab that property and we deliver a URL to them that gives them all the property and neighborhood information.
We’ve kept certain things in and kept certain things out. We don’t include crime statistics. We used to include AVM (Automated Valuation Model) in there but we took that out and we made AVM a separate article. Some Realtors like the AVM component because if someone is looking for the value of a property that is a heck of lead.
We then deliver that neighborhood data to the client. And they are always happy about. They often check it for several properties. Then we send it over to the Realtor with the reason why they are looking for the information. Mr. Smith is looking to buy a house. That’s a heck of a warm lead.
3. How is the marketplace responding to HomeActions products/services?
Realtors are happy with having that type of local information. I would say that it has gone over well with the Realtors.
We kept on getting more and more interest in this information, and how we managed the information. We figured out a way to take your data and make it work in a lead generation environment.
We just came out with a new feature where you can add advertisements to your newsletter and there is a shared revenue component so you can share the revenue from that. We do all the work. We are sending out about 7 million newsletters every month. Let’s build the template of our newsletter in such a way where we can embed unobtrusive advertising, share the money with the Realtor, and that way we can make money off all these contacts. We already have 100-plus Realtors signed up.
4. Why did HomeActions decide to use ATTOM Data Solutions?
There were a few companies that had the data so it wasn’t like ATTOM was the only one. But I like the way they presented the data, and there was some flexibility so I could add some things and subtract some things. And the people were nice. I didn’t know if I could afford this. I didn’t know if people would like it or not. So we were able to start out with flexible pricing. That worked out really well for me because I could gauge whether my clients were interested or not, and we kept on getting more and more penetration. Then we decided to integrate into our overall product. And that’s when I went back to negotiate a fixed-price contract. And that is working out well.
5. What has been your experience with the data delivery?
We have had no problem. Maybe one little problem where the data was not updated promptly, but we got that fixed quickly.
6. What has been your experience with the data quality?
I’ve had no problem with data delivery or data quality with the exception that ATTOM hasn’t built an API that allows me to send information on Realtors so that when you present the neighborhood data you present it as branded with that Realtor. We haven’t been able to do that in an eloquent way.
7. What has been your experience with customer service?
Customer service has been fine. People have been very nice.
ATTOM Data Solutions is a leading provider of publicly recorded tax, deed, mortgage and foreclosure data along with proprietary neighborhood and parcel-level risk data for more than 155 million U.S. properties.
As published in the June 2018 issue of the Housing News Report Newsletter.
HomeActions LLC (HA) and IndustryNewsletters (IN), which send out newsletters on hundreds of topics, have compiled lists of the topics their 3.6 million readers found most compelling in 2017. The results provide startling insights into what consumers are interested in.
HA is an e-prospecting and client relationship platform for real estate agents, and its IN division serves the accounting, payroll, PEO and legal estate planning markets.
Top 10 Real Estate Articles
The 5 Home Improvements That Give the Best ROI
Must-know Tips for Arranging Your Linen Closet
How to Finish Your Basement Right!
The Ultimate Spring Cleaning Checklist
4 Old-school Kitchen Design Trends That Need Updating
The 4 DIY Bathroom Upgrade Errors
How to Keep Your Home Cleaner
10 Fun Home Technology Gadgets
3 Trends in Kitchen Hardware to Keep an Eye On
4 Common Items That Start Home Fires
“What makes you more comfortable in your home?” asked Barry Friedman, CPA, founder and CEO of HA and IN. “What makes your home more efficient? And most important, what makes your home more valuable? Homeowners have their eye on the bottom line, which is why the ROI story was number one.”
Top 10 Accounting/Finance Articles
Big Changes in Social Security and Retirement Plans for 2018
Who Gets Copies of the Will?
How to Divide Things, Not Families
How Does the Gift Tax Work?
How to Avoid the Big Estate Planning Errors
When It’s Time to Take Money Out of Retirement Plans
New Pension Plan Limitations Announced
How to Leave a House to Heirs
How to Leave Your Indivisible Wealth to Your Heirs
Should You Put Your House in a Trust?
“This list shows people are focused on achieving a financially comfortable future for themselves and their families,” said Friedman. “There’s no surprise that the major changes in 2018 caught everyone’s attention!”
Top 10 Business Payroll Articles
Big Changes in Social Security and Retirement Plans for 2018
Bracket Changes and More From the IRS
Giving Your Employees All the Vacation They Want
Must-have Items for an Employee Handbook
Don’t Ask Job Candidates These Questions!
Being on Time: How to Handle the Unpunctual
Overtime Pay: Up to Speed on the Details
Benefits You May Not Have Thought About
How to Make Annual Reviews Work
Take a Look at the New HSA Plan Limits
“In this low-unemployment era, businesses are looking for ways to attract and retain employees,” said Friedman. “Articles on job interview techniques, effective management, legal responsibilities and employee benefits all did well.”
Top 10 Legal Estate Planning Articles
Nursing Homes: Not the Only Option
Big Changes in Social Security and Retirement Plans for 2018
Adult Communities: The Pros and Cons
Why Nursing Homes Are Not Always Necessary
How to Keep Assets Safe for the Long Term
Setting the Stage for Your Own Funeral
Who Gets Copies of the Will?
The Ins and Outs of a Living Trust
How to Divide Things, Not Families
How Does the Gift Tax Work?
“This list shows an increasing concern for the finances of estate planning, as well as the practical and emotional concerns,” said Friedman. “There are three stories on living arrangements for the elderly, an issue that will only become more important with the aging of Baby Boomers.”
About HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters
HomeActions LLC and its IndustryNewsletters division are digital marketing and lead generation solutions with compelling content and interactive widgets for real estate agents, accounting firms, law firms, payroll bureaus, professional employer organizations, human resources and employee benefits companies, and other service providers.
The HomeActions/IndustryNewsletters platform provides automated prospecting and marketing delivered biweekly via email to a professional’s sphere of influence. The professionally written articles portray a range of professional trusted advisors looking out for readers’ interests. With instant lead access, CRM capabilities and robust predictive metrics, the system has the capability to generate real-time leads and top-of-mind awareness while nurturing relationships that lead to long-term success and more referrals.
HomeActions is a privately held virtual company that employs more than 35 people and is headquartered in Green Cove Springs, Florida. www.industrynewsletters.com and www.homeactions.net.
HomeActions and its IndustryNewsletters division announce Version 3 of their exclusive e-newsletter product, putting it on the cutting edge of the e-newsletter industry. The companies provide professionally written articles and a system that lets a range of professionals send out e-newsletters to clients and prospects. They primarily serve real estate professionals, payroll companies, accounting firms and estate planning attorneys.
With Version 3, the newsletter system becomes even more customizable and user-friendly. Among the improvements:
A more contemporary look for the user interface, and a better design for tablets and smartphones.
A cleaner and more functional client dashboard that shows readership stats at a glance.
A completely revamped image system that lets users choose among three different sizes of images to put into their newsletters.
A smoother, more intuitive system to allow users to add their own content to company-provided content.
The ability to easily remove company-provided content and replace it with an article from extensive article libraries available to users.
The addition of a completely new Web banner library so users can easily find and post banners to make their newsletters even more useful.
And as always, help is just a click away. The system comes with an easy-to-use, automated help feature that lets users follow along step by step as the tool gives interactive answers to questions.
Barry J. Friedman, CEO of HomeActions, LLC
Barry Friedman, CPA, founder and CEO of HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters, said, “Our clients are busy and successful professionals, and they want a system that lets them communicate with their clients with perfect ease while providing sophisticated options — without any hassle. That has always been our goal, and with Version 3 our system is even better than ever.”
About HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters
IndustryNewsletters and HomeActions were founded by Barry Friedman, CPA, who managed many CPA firms for over 25 years and subsequently sold them to American Express. He then created BizActions LLC, which became the largest marketing e-newsletter company for CPA firms and payroll companies, and he sold that to Thomson Reuters in 2012. He has over 15 years’ experience in the email newsletter space.
HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters are virtual companies that employ more than 30 people. Both are headquartered in Green Cove Springs, Florida.
For more information, please visit our websites, HomeActions.net and IndustryNewsletters.com, or contact Richard J. Koreto, chief content officer, at 845-642-4314 or Email.
The Digital Marketing Zscore (DMZ) is included in the latest update of HomeActions e-prospecting system and soon, this data will be automatically delivered to you on a regular basis. Using HomeActions DMZ, agents and management can compare the engagement their HomeActions email newsletters are creating with prospects in their sphere of influence to the results seen by other agents using HomeActions.
“The insight delivered by DMZ is unprecedented in real estate content marketing,” says HomeActions CEO Barry Friedman. “It provides real-time data about the effectiveness of the agent’s e-marketing.”
The DMZ measures:
Active Members
Click Rates
Open Rates
Transaction Readiness Triggers
Survey Responses
“Agents can see how they stack up against other agents in their office and agents in other offices in their brand,” explains HomeActions Senior Vice President of Marketing Lee Sowers. “By knowing the areas where you excel and where you fall down, you can improve your digital marketing. You know where you need to focus to bring yourself up to where other agents are.”
HomeActions members who want to improve their DMZ have access to white papers, webinars and support professionals who can help them adjust their digital marketing plans.
The DMZ gives office managers, regional managers and brand managers a powerful snapshot showing how effectively agents are engaging their sphere of influence. Managers can then offer support to agents who need assistance upgrading their digital marketing strategies to better target their desired customer base.
An estimated 30,000 residents have fled their homes, and the western area wildfires have consumed over 1,000 residences. Many of these homeowners are now trying to piece together their possessions, bit by bit. It is estimated that nine out of 10 consumers who lost their homes did not have a current home inventory of all their possessions and home improvements. HomeActions President Albert Clark commented, “The loss of one’s home is traumatic enough, but now they have to go through the process of filling out insurance papers on what was destroyed, what it cost and where it was all purchased. The stage is set for lots of under-reporting and smaller insurance claims.”
Homeowners outside the disaster areas can learn from this tragedy and construct an entire home inventory of all contents and the physical structure. Homeowners and renters should be prepared for any type of home disaster, flood, fire or burglary.
HomeActions and Agents: Delivering the Message. HomeActions has uncovered the best-in-class (and free) home inventory system provided by the nonprofit Insurance Information Institute (III.org). Agents are promoting the home inventory resource in their biweekly HomeActions e-Newsletter that goes out to all the agents’ past clients, prospects and friends.
About HomeActions
HomeActions provides real estate agents with an end-to-end e-prospecting system. It involves building the agent’s database into a pipeline that is nurtured and protected (exclusive). HomeActions does it all for the agent who lacks the time, the systems and the engaging content. HomeActions currently delivers 4.2 million highly branded newsletters every month.
HomeActions is:
A Business Solutions Provider with the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World.
A Business Benefits Program Member with Century 21 Real Estate.
A Business Advantage Program Member with Coldwell Banker Real Estate.
A Select Services Member with ERA Real Estate. An Approved Supplier with Better Home and Gardens Real Estate.
HomeActions is headquartered in Green Cove Springs, Florida. For more information, please visit our website, www.HomeActions.net, or contact Richard J. Koreto, Chief Content Officer, at 845-642-4314 or through email. You can also contact Albert Clark, HomeActions President, at 570-510-3507 or through email.
SOURCE HomeActions
Copyright (C) 2015 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
HomeActions, an e-prospecting and client relationship service, is pleased to announce a major expansion with the launch of a new division: IndustryNewsletters.com.
IndustryNewsletters will focus on marketing email newsletters for payroll bureaus, PEOs, human resource and employee benefit companies and other service providers — just as HomeActions continues to do for real estate agents.
But that’s not all: IndustryNewsletters is also supplying employee newsletters for any business, but with particular attention to accounting firms and payroll bureaus. The EmployeeNewsletters service is particularly attractive to companies that:
Have between 10 and 500 employees.
Have multiple offices.
Need to align company goals and objectives and communicate them to all employees.
Want to demonstrate the culture of their firm.
Need a robust recruiting tool.
Educate staff on employee-based services.
Don’t have the time or resources to prepare their own employee newsletters.
Just as with HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters, EmployeeNewsletters will contain professionally written articles that are automatically populated in each issue. In addition, clients can also write and add their own articles. Clients don’t need any coding or programming skills to use the service. Indeed, no matter how the clients use the newsletter, all articles are laid out and mailed out automatically with the push of a button. And for those who want to customize their newsletters, the company provides online, in-context help and live customer service support.
Only the Best Content
No matter what kind of companies they run, HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters clients can be sure they’re getting professionally written content. HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters staff and contract writers are experienced in covering payroll, employee benefits, real estate, finance, business strategy, health, technology and more, providing articles that are engaging, accurate and informative.
About HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters
HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters provide real estate agents and other professionals with an end-to-end e-prospecting system. The system involves building the professional’s database into a pipeline that is constantly nurtured. HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters do it all for the professionals who lack the time, the systems and the engaging content to do it themselves.
IndustryNewsletters and HomeActions were founded by Barry Friedman, CPA, who managed many CPA firms for over 25 years and subsequently sold to American Express. He then created BizActions LLC, which became the largest marketing e-newsletter company for CPA firms and payroll companies, and sold that to Thomson Reuters in 2012. He has over 15 years’ experience in the email newsletter space.
HomeActions and IndustryNewsletters is a virtual company that employs more than 30 people. It is headquartered in Green Cove Springs, Florida.
For more information, please visit our websites, HomeActions.net and IndustryNewsletters.com, or contact Richard J. Koreto, Chief Content Officer, at 845-642-4314 or Email.
HomeActions, an e-prospecting and client relationship service, announced it is now delivering timely, relevant news and widgets to 2 million consumers every two weeks.
HomeActions creates, delivers and tracks e-newsletters that are produced on behalf of 5,000 real estate agents. These highly branded and actionable reports include HomeActions’ compelling content but also can deliver agent-specific news such as new listings, open houses and local market reports. HomeActions works with its clients to securely upload all their contacts.
Once the newsletters are sent out, HomeActions provides actionable intelligence for its clients, letting them know which of the articles their readers find most engaging. Email addresses, once entered, become exclusive to the agent entering them.
“I’m thrilled to see us growing so fast,” said HomeActions founder and CEO Barry J. Friedman. “It shows not only that real estate agents are eager for high-quality newsletters to send out, but also that the readers clearly find the information we provide engaging and actionable.”
About HomeActions
HomeActions provides real estate agents with an end-to-end e-prospecting system. It involves building the agent’s database into a pipeline that is nurtured and protected (exclusive). HomeActions does it all for the agent who lacks the time, the systems and the engaging content.
HomeActions:
A Business Solutions Provider with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World
A Business Benefits Program Member with Century 21 Real Estate
A Business Advantage Program Member with Coldwell Banker Real Estate
A Select Services Member with ERA Real Estate and
An Approved Supplier with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate
HomeActions is headquartered in Green Cove Springs, Florida. For more information, please visit our website, www.HomeActions.net, or contact Richard J. Koreto, Chief Content Officer, at 845-642-4314 or Email.
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