Questions... Do you work in real estate? Do you have an Instagram account? Do you want to MASSIVELY grow your audience & engagement to get more business? Instagram for Real Estate - Generate Organic Leads Instagram = Stay Top-of-Mind My Realtor partners are leveraging Instagram to stay in front of their sphere (past clients, friends, family, prospects, etc.). The best part? They're doing this on auto-pilot. What does this mean? It means that these Realtors are "touching" roughly 800 people EVERYDAY on Instagram on automation. They are staying in front of their followers as well as any specific Instagram account(s) that they want to target! What else is happening? This Instagram automation is driving up their own Instagram engagement and following for their own account, creating "social proof" behind their account and rapidly growing their Instagram account. Instagram = Generate Organic Leads Beyond just staying in front of their real estate "sphere," real estate agents are also leveraging Instagram to engage with their IDEAL AUDIENCE. How do you find & engage with your ideal audience on Instagram...? Target your audience via niche hashtags Find them based on geo-location(s) Research your competitors on Instagram and engage with their audience So much more So... Why am I blogging about Instagram for real estate? ... Because it actually works. Here's an example... This Realtor (above) used my Instagram automation techniques to engage with her ideal audience who fits her hobbies, beliefs and lifestyle... resulting in actual real business... all on auto-pilot. Instagram for YOUR Real Estate Business Are you struggling to get business on Instagram? Do you not have time to engage with 800 people per day? (I certainly don't LOL) Are you ready to put your Instagram account on steroids & grow an audience of ideal followers? > Reach out to me, & I'll help you. Oh BTW... I know how to automate your... Instagram account LinkedIn account YouTube account Facebook account Pinterest account Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Cheers, - Jerad

Some real estate agents are under the impression that “farming a neighborhood” is simply just mailing out flyers and postcards to homes in a neighborhood, but it’s so much more than that! Well, let’s review real quick… “Classic” Farming Strategies & Ideas: · Sending direct mail (i.e. postcards, flyers, coupons, freebies) · Door-knocking (i.e. for an open house, canned food-drive, charity event) · Neighborhood events (i.e. holiday potluck, football party, shred-it event) · Email blasts (i.e. monthly market reports, neighborhood news) · Neighborhood phone calls (i.e. real estate cold calls) Some “New-Age” Farming Strategies & Ideas: · Use the app, Nextdoor, to position yourself as the neighborhood expert · Create a neighborhood Facebook page for your farm & post engaging content · Record and interview local shops, restaurants, and other businesses and post them on you social media platforms · Run targeted Facebook Ads to your neighborhood in order to generate your own leads, stay top-of-mind, and promote local events that you host. I teach a class called, “New-Age Farming,” where I share ideas, resources, and strategies to help real estate agents more effectively farm… thus saving them money and time. Although I’d love to cover EVERYTHING on farming, today I want to focus on 2 important topics: Predictive Analytics Targeted Facebook Advertisements Predictive Analytics Too many agents are wasting A LOT of time & money by focusing on homes that won’t sell anytime soon. If you’re planning to knock on every door or call every phone number in your farm… you’re doing it wrong! At the very least, you should be filtering out… Renters (non-owner occupied) homes Anyone who recently bought a home (i.e. the last 24 to 36 months) Now, let’s talk about predictive analytics! Predictive analytics companies make it easy for agents to target the homes most likely to sell in the next 12 to 24 months. Predictive analytics models study neighborhoods and analyze current and historical facts to make predictions on who is most likely to sell their home soon. Are predictive analytics always accurate? No. Do predictive analytics companies allow you to filter out the homes least likely to sell… thus saving you time and money on your farming efforts? Yep! If you’re planning to farm a neighborhood, I highly recommend investing in a predictive analytics company (it will pay off!). Targeted Facebook Advertisements The two key ingredients to farming a neighborhood are: 1.) Consistent brand reinforcement In order to build and maintain a real estate farm, you need to have your audience thinking about you constantly! 2.) Reaching your audience on as many mediums of communication as possible In order to build and maintain a real estate farm, you need to have your audience thinking about you constantly! Example #1: A senior citizen is more likely to read your direct mail postcard versus a millennial Example #2: A millennial may not call you back on the phone, but they may respond back via text message So… how do you easily focus on these two important farming components? Facebook Ads. I love Facebook advertising because you can set up a “Facebook Ad Funnel” and have it “run on autopilot” for you. What’s the best part about Facebook Ads? You can reach your exact audience & spend $1.00 per day. Don’t believe your neighborhood is on Facebook…? As of March 2018, Facebook has 2.2+ billion monthly active users on its site. With the exception of people older than 65 years old, over half of Americans in every age bracket say that they are on Facebook. Facebook is most popular with millennials Most adults log on Facebook everyday “Facebook Ads Don’t Work” It is far too often that sit down with a real estate agent and they’ll tell me, “Facebook Ads don’t work!” It’s because they’re doing it wrong… and I know how to fix their problem. Come To My Next Class! If you’re curious to learn more about farming, predictive analytics, or Facebook Ads, I encourage you to contact me I’ll invite you to my next class! Jerad Larkin Info@MileHighTitleGuy.com 303.630.9430

Did you know that YouTube is currently the top video research destination for buyers? Crazy, right? Especially considering the fact that I know hundreds on hundreds of real estate agents, and easily less than 5% of them even have a YouTube account created! Video is not the future… it’s the now. Video is already taking over every social platform, and Facebook wants its cut. In fact, Facebook is attempting to compete with YouTube to position itself as the “go-to spot” for people to visit and watch videos. The Launch of Facebook Live In April of 2016, Facebook its Facebook Live platform to all Facebook users. Facebook Live is just what it sounds like… you can literally “go live” on camera to all of your friends and followers. You know what’s cool about Facebook Live? It’s one of the most effective methods to instantly reaching a large majority of your friends instantly… for free. Out of all the content that you post on Facebook, Facebook Live has the greatest reach. Why is this? Because of the Facebook algorithm hierarchy… which looks like this… 1. Written Text – If you write something and post it, this will reach the fewest number of friends. 2. Photos – Your photos that you post will reach a greater number of your audience. 3. Video – Uploading a video to Facebook is a great way to reach a large number of your friends! Pro Tip – Do not copy and paste your YouTube video into your Facebook post. Facebook wants to keep you on Facebook… it doesn’t want to send you to another website. Therefore, the links that you share won’t reach as broad of an audience. 4. Facebook Live – Live video is the top dog right now! Even if only a few people “tune-in” to your live video, Facebook will still reward you because it will place that live video near the top of your friends feeds and they will eventually see it! Is Facebook Live weird? Yep. Is it uncomfortable and scary? I think so… but guess why Facebook loves it? Because the platform forces the user to show-off their true authentic self on live camera… You can’t use a script (because you’re live). There are no “re-do’s” or “re-records.” You might say something that you normally wouldn’t. It’s possible that you’ll make a mistake (or many!). You may even trip, fall, or bump into something while live! (I’ve done it!). Non-professionally produced video content is now considered cool. Viewers are sick and tired of scripted videos that are unauthentic and fake. They want to see the “unedited version” of you because you are putting your vulnerable self out there. Also, with Facebook Live already 2+ years old, it’s still a relatively new concept in a lot of markets. What does this mean for you? “Land-Grab” that Facebook Live market while you still can! 3 Real Estate Facebook Live Ideas: 1. Open Houses – Show off your houses to your audience! Create the opportunity for viewers to ask questions and leave comments. Live open house videos also allow people in other states to see the listing! 2. Strategic Partnerships – This is a highly effective strategy because partnership videos allow you to tap-in to audiences outside of your network! For example, host Facebook Live sessions with: a. Loan Officers b. Home Inspectors c. Home Insurance Experts d. Title Insurance Experts e. Local Business Owners – I love this one! 3. Host a Q&A - Answer Commonly Asked Questions – Most of your existing and potential clients are going to be lost on where to begin when looking to buy or sell a home. Focus on a theme for discussion, and encourage your viewers to ask questions for you to answer. Live Video is here to stay, so you might as well jump on board before everyone else does! Facebook Live Video is the most inexpensive way to instantly reach a large number of your friends and followers… do it!

How to Rank First on Google? Nobody actually knows exactly how search engines decide which websites to choose from their database and share on a SERP. The algorithm is a secret (on purpose) to keep the Internet a "fair place." If Google (and other search engines) shared how they rank results, web geeks would most likely hack and manipulate the system in order to have their websites rank at the top in searches. Even though we don't exactly know the algorithms, we do have a solid understanding on which characteristics can affect how a site ranks — that’s why it's so crucial to have really good SEO! Search Rankings Explained... Google’s algorithm has over 200 characteristics to decide which websites are most relevant for a specific search. Not only does Google go through its index, but also accounts for the popularity and reputation of a website. Websites that receive a small amount of traffic (or no traffic) will rank lower than websites that are popular and constantly being visited. Although the search algorithms are a secret, others agree that the below parameters play an important role in how well a website ranks in searches. These components create the fundamentals of SEO... Domain - Is the search phrase within the domain name of a website? Keyword Frequency - How many times is a search phrase located within the content of a website or as image alt text? Freshness - How often is a website updated? How recent was the last update? Titles and Descriptions - Is the search phrase found in the page titles and descriptions of the website? Quality of Links - How legitimate are the sites that you link from your site? Are they useless or are they helpful? Backlinks - How many others websites link to your site? Bounce Rate - How many visitors click on your website but then immediately leave? A website with a high bounce rate will negatively affect your ranking. Engagement - How many visitors click on the website in the search results and how much time do they average on the website? Social Media - How often are others mentioning the website on Google +, Twitter, Facebook, etc.? Brand Reputation - How often is your website/brand/business mentioned in the news? Applying a combination of these factors will help your SEO. Why do Links Matter? Bottom-line, search engines won't find every website on the Internet. There are over 1 billion websites on the World Wide Web and automated computer spiders do their best to find and index al of them. Yet, take note! - search engines locate websites through following links — if a website isn't linked from other pages on the Internet, bots have a more difficult time finding and indexing a website. To ensure that your own website isn't missed, submit your sitemap to Google. You also should try to get links coming from other websites. These are called “#backlinks” - which can help make sure your website gets found! Find out more about how to get backlinks here. Still have questions? Need help with SEO on your website? Contact me & I'll help. - Jerad info@milehightitleguy.com

A Beginner's Guide to Google A search engine (like Google) is a system created to allow us navigate the never-ending information on the World Wide Web. The most visited search engines in the world are Google, Bing, Yahoo! and Baidu (China’s #1 search engine). Since so many of us are using search engines in everyday lives, these top companies and their algorithms hold an incredible amount of power! You could probably even say that they run the world - and this is why... A search engine can be thought of as the library of the Internet. Beyond just scanning, indexing, and tracking every website in the world, search engines also help people find the most accurate website when we search for a keyword or phrase. This is typically called “Googling” something. Once Googled, we trust the websites provided to us but never really think about how "those answers" were chosen, ya know? Google Sees It Different Search engines see websites very differently than people. Google continually pushes to have systems that try to be more "human-like" but search engines are still just computers, not humans. When I click on a website and it's loaded with awesome images, colors, buttons and fonts, Google is looking behind the curtain to examine the site code. These code pages are known as “documents" — and to most people that code doesn't make any sense. These search engines review the data in order to better understand the purpose of the webpage. The code shows things differently - Google looks at headlines in large (and bold) text or even tiny fonts that share the specifics on a business. Search engines look at which buttons are clickable and which pages on the site are linked together. On the flip-side, Google can't understand and interpret pictures and images like people do. To replace this problem, Google relies on "alt text" to comprehend what's displayed for each image. How does it all Work? Yes, search engines use intricate algorithms that are constantly getting better. Search engines have 3 main tasks - crawling, indexing, and retrieving information. Crawling Google actually sends out automated computer systems known as “bots” or “spiders” to review the 30+ billion web pages on the Internet and make a record of their information. The links within a web page send the bots to their linked locations. This is honestly a never-ending process — not just because new are added daily, but also because the bots constantly come back to previously visited websites to look for new links, content, and other changes. Indexing What do the bots do once they gather information for a search engine? They record it into special databases that store the billions of webpages being reviewed on the World Wide Web. This "index" is kept within massive data centers, where the search engine can briskly find a webpage that needs updating or needs to be retrieved to give an answer to search result. Retrieving Data The 3rd responsibility of a search engine is the one that most of us are already familiar with. When a user types in a query, Google will look into its database of websites and share a list of web pages that are relevant our search. On top of that, Google also ranks its results in order of relevancy. When you search online, the search engine isn't exactly scanning the entire web — instead, Google is looking through its own library, or index, of websites. If your website has awesome SEO, you can trust that Google’s bots will know when your website is a legit result for a search. How can I Rank Higher on Search Results? So you may be wondering by now, what can I do to show up on the first page of Google? Or better yet, at the very top? Well, go check out my 10 tips to improve your SEO presence online. Still have questions? Need help with SEO on your website? Contact me, I'm happy to help. - Jerad info@milehightitleguy.com

How do Search Results Work? The purpose of #SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is to get search engines to share your website near the top of the search engine results page, better known as a #SERP. When you search online, you're browsing through the results for a webpage that has what you're looking for. Although we all see SERPs when browsing, a lot of us don't really understand how the results are displayed. Well, that's why I'm here to help! This blog post will explain the elements of a SERP so that you can improve your SEO! Here we go! When you type in a search phrase (also called a query), the search engine will respond with a bunch of results, organized in a list based on relevancy to that specific query. This page of results is a SERP. SERPs are shown based on a number of different factors. Let's look below at an example SERP and what is means, and then I'll show you how to customize the way your own website shows up in Google. What is a SERP? Paid Results The sites that you see along the right side and on the top of the results page are typically advertisements. It’s a fact — the most ideal real estate space on the page is reserved for people who pay Google to show off their website. These are known as PPC, or pay-per-click ads. For #PPC, businesses will pay search engines for each person who clicks on their specific link(s). Organic Results Underneath the paid results, in the center of the page, you'll see a list of the top 10 #organic search results. #Google has determined that these websites are most likely to provide an answer to the search that you Googled. If you'd like to see additional results, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the right arrow. This arrow will then take you to page 2 of the organic results. You can repeat this process and continually click through thousands, or quite possibly millions, of #search results (if you have the patience!!!). Local Results If you search for a local business, Google will show you an interactive map displaying the location of the top-ranked options for your search. In addition, you'll see a list of the businesses that are shown nearby on the map. Once you click on one of these results, you’ll see the business’s location. Also, you may see a rating for each of the local listings (from 0-5 stars), hours of operation, customer reviews and quite possibly even answers to questions about the business. This data is pulled from Google My Business, where anyone can set up a profile for their own business. Titles & Descriptions for SEO For every website listed on the SERP, it'll show the SEO page title and a short description of what the website has to offer. When building your website, you get to choose what to write for each title and description on every page of your website, which means that you get to decide how they show up on a SERP. The title and description are short texts that summarize the specific content and purpose for each page on your website, (ideally) with several phrases and keywords included — and we'll discuss keywords in another post! Your title can have a maximum of 60 characters and your description can total up to 160 characters long. Tip: Businesses that have a profile as well as reviews in "Google My Business" are most likely to show up in results. As a business owner, it’s definitely worthwhile to create a Google profile. Google is Smart! SERPs vary depending on the specific search phrase that you type out. Google’s objective is to assist people with finding the information they want as fast as possible, and the SERP layout can change to help solve what someone is looking for. For example, if you type into the search bar “my flights” while signed into your Google account, Google will instantly list out any upcoming flights that are listed in your calendar. Type in “Denver Broncos” and Google will show you the scores from their latest match-ups as well as their upcoming games. Results like these are know as “rich snippets” and they're a great example of how Google tries to interpret people's queries and give them instant answers right on the SERP. The best way for your website to be included in a rich snippet is to have it be part of the local results described above. If you can appear in a rich snippet, you have earned what's called a "zero ranking," which means that your webpage is even more noticeable than the top-ranked sites on a SERP. Now you know what SEO is, why it's important, and how search results appear on a SERP! Next I'll show ya how Google decides which sites will show up on a SERP - which is some of the most valuable real estate on the Internet. Have any questions regarding getting found online? Contact me and I'll help ya out... Jerad Larkin info@milehightitleguy.com 303.630.9430

You know you’ve heard it before... people do business with other people who they know, like, and trust. Well guess what? Video can do exactly that! Your videos have the potential to get you in front of your target audience 24/7, constantly keeping you “top of mind” and generating leads. Whether if it’s for your website, social networks, blog, email, or anything else, video will help generate more business. "How Can Video Marketing Help My Real Estate Business?" So, how can you leverage video in your business? You can use video to... Drive traffic to your website Reach out to new leads Nurture existing prospects Share your expertise on a real estate topic Constantly stay in touch with your sphere off influence Generate new leads Attract more repeat and referral business Further brand yourself as the “go-to” professional How Much Is Camera Equipment for Real Estate Videos? Did you know that for less than $1,000 you can buy camera equipment that will produce professional looking videos? Yep, that’s right. A DLSR (digital single lens reflex) or mirrorless ILC (interchangeable lens camera) do exactly that. Don’t believe me? Here’s a quick example… Canon T6i + 18-55mm Lens... $650 Rode Video Microphone... $90 DSLR Tripod... $20 32 GB SD Card... $15 SD Card Reader... $10 1 TB External Hard Drive... $55 Editing Software... FREE! (Apple has iMovie & Windows has Movie Maker) Total Spend = $840 "What Should I Make My Real Estate Videos About? Ok, so if you now know that video will grow your business AND it’s affordable, how can you use video in real estate? Well, simple. Share videos that ADD VALUE for your target market. Put yourself in their shoes. What questions do they have? What information are they looking for? Here are some ideas to get ya started... Make a Video on a Subdivision or Community... Talk about the local schools, businesses, parks, cool restaurants, etc. Create a Video Series... For example, if you’re targeting transplants, do a video series that walks them through the steps on finding an area to live in What Is the Home Buying Process?... Walk the consumer through the process, from searching for neighborhoods to moving into the home What's the Process When Listing a Home?... This is a great opportunity to SELL YOURSELF and share how you do things different from the competition! How Does Financing Work? What’s the Process When Buying a Home?... This is an awesome opportunity for you to convert renters and other confused consumers into potential buyers! Frequently Asked Questions from Clients... What is title insurance? Earnest money? Do I get the keys at closing? Tell Me About {X} City and What Makes It so Special? What Does It Have to Offer?... Location, amenities, distance from airport, lifestyle, things to do, job, transportation, etc. Tell the Consumer About Your Listing... Where is it? Curb appeal, bedrooms, baths, flooring, landscaping, appliances, unique characteristics? My Final Thoughts on Video for Real Estate Overall, that’s just some foundational knowledge to help get you thinking more about video for your real estate business. The ideas (and opportunities) in real estate are HUGE, and it still amazes me how few real estate professionals utilize video. If you have ANY QUESTIONS on video, you can contact me at... Jerad Larkin info@milehightitleguy.com 303.630.9430