Each day I receive wonderful letters from ASPs® across the nation who share their success stories. I hear of challenges they’ve worked through, and the difference they’ve made in the lives of their customers and of course the Realtors® they assist. They often tell me how they’ve been able to build a successful business, with a clear and better focus once they graduated from the ASP® course. They share pictures and videos, and colorful testimonials full of gratitude by those they’ve served. It’s also extremely gratifying each time I’m notified of an article featuring one of our ASPs® or ASPMs®. As I monitor the Internet I often come across blogs and websites with tips provided by ASPs®.
I’m often asked about creative ways to reach out Realtors® and consumers. Marketing should certainly be an essential task of every day and that’s why we continually offer both strategic and tactical tips at the
Stagedhomes blog. In previous blog posts I’ve covered the vast resources available to you at the Staging University. I’ve also shared with you that our ASP® course, continued extensively in our ASPM® course, features creative marketing ideas.
Today I thought I’d share five tips on how you can get your name in front of Realtors® you want to work with, and consumers who may not know about the services you provide.
1. Publicity through Stagedhomes.com
We love to brag about the wonderful things our ASPs® and ASPMs® do! And, we invite you to share your stories, pictures and videos at the Stagedhomes.com blog, at the
Stagedhomes Facebook fan page, and through our
Stagedhomes Twitter account.
Click here to see how we recently featured a success story by Sharon Soons, ASP® Home Stager® & Professional Organizer of Streamline U. at the
Stagedhomes blog.
2. Publicity at Your Own Blog
Have you found it difficult to get publicity in your local newspaper or through your local television stations? Let me offer a solution: start your own newspaper, television station, or even talk show.
Thanks to today’s available technologies we can create a phenomenal presence online, and build a loyal following of readers, viewers and listeners, without a huge financial investment.
If you’d like to start a blog I suggest you go to wordpress.com where you can set up a blog for free. The setup process is relatively easy – it takes about 15 minutes – and once you’ve registered your new blog you can start adding links, blog posts, pages, and you can even customize the look of your new blog.
Click here to read a Getting Started article at wordpress.com. An alternative is to start blogging at ActiveRain, a network of mainly real estate professionals.
- Want to share case studies and tell your stories about your past Staging projects? Share photos and describe the process you followed as you worked closely with Realtors® to help them sell homes faster.
- Are you engaged with the International Association of Home Staging Professionals? Discuss your involvement at your blog.
- Do you participate, or even organize, events with a local non-profit organization? Bring attention to your events at your blog.
- Would you like to share video of prior projects, have past clients share testimonials, or maybe give a brief video presentation on how you work? Upload a video to youtube.com, for free, and share it at your blog.
Sample blogs:
- Click here to visit the blog of Cynthia and Mack, ASP®, in Seattle, who use wordpress.com as their blog platform.
- Click here to visit the blog by Beverly Carlson, ASP® Realtor in Abilene, TX, at ActiveRain.com.
3. Publicity at Other Blogs
Publicity is also available at the blogs hosted and managed by others. Use search engines to look for blogs in your local area that share stories about your community. Once you’ve found local blogs, reach out to the owners and ask if they’d be interested in featuring your articles about Home Staging®. It benefits them as your articles will be valuable to those who visit the blogs, and it will most definitely be beneficial to you as you’ll reach out to a bigger audience. Just be mindful to keep your articles educational and informative – not promotional.
4. Share Insightful Presentations Online
Do you have colorful presentations you use to showcase your talent to prospective clients? Now you can share it with the world – for free. Consider signing up for a free account at Slideshare.net and upload your presentations. Once uploaded you can easily share links to your presentations through email, at your website, at your blog and at your Facebook page.
Here’s a great example of what a presentation at Slideshare.net looks like.
Click here to see a great presentation the Seattle Chapter of IAHSP created.
5. Reaching Out to Traditional Media Outlets
Finally, I encourage you to form relationships with local media outlets. Contact the real estate editor of your local newspaper when you have a story idea.
Click
here and
here to read two articles featuring ASP® Annette Jordan, owner of Memphis Staging.
As you plan your marketing activities for 2010, make sure to make the most of the many online publicity tools available to you.
Barb
Barb Schwarz
The Creator of Home Staging®
CEO StagedHomes.com Founder/Chairwoman, The International Association of Home Staging Professionals
