Isn't it interesting how many people have opinions on how you should be marketing your Title company online? While there seems to be no shortage of ideas, there does seem to a disconnect between the ideas/opinions, and practical ways to implement what you actually should do (we're not talking about the "nice-to-haves," but rather the "must-do's").
Please don't think this will be another one of those nice-to-have lists of things to do. We wanna give you a cheat sheet, a shortcut, a tactical to-do list that is at minimum "the baseline" to work from... and from that point, can be added to.
However, to begin, here are a few of the most-used marketing buzzwords that we hear floating around the Title Industry... all things we will not urge you to do, yet.
- Social Media, Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Impressions, Influencer Marketing, Community Manager, Marketing Automation, Geotargeting, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), etc., etc., etc.
About a month ago we held a short webinar called "Digital Marketing for Title in 2018 & Beyond" where title companies from around the country learned about 7 basic requirements for being online in 2017/2018. That webinar was a hit, but before we venture further into the fun world of Online Marketing with more webinars, we wanted to outline the 7 things we discussed (and no, there was no sales pitch for CloseSimple, our email/text communication software with the Pizza Tracker for Title) so you can do them too... but follow CloseSimple on Twitter so you can learn about our next webinar.
Here's a quick recap, going from 4 MUST-DO's to 3 SHOULD DO's:
1- Make sure you have a Responsive Site. (This is a Must Do) Need help with this? You can call a web developer, or you can go to Squarespace, Wordpress, WIX or other online-hosted website platforms.
2- Get your Google Places/Business Account setup. (This is a Must Do) This way people can review you on Google. If you have multiple locations, you will probably need to do it per location as well. An example of what that will look like is below.
3- Google Yourself... (This is an EASY, Must Do thing) Are you surprised by any of the results? If so, make changes. Here's a Google search result that will highlight a few things to look for...
This is a Google result for one of our clients, All American Title, out of Blaine Minnesota. As you can see from the results, They have 75 Google Reviews (highlighted in red)- with an average rating of 4.9-Stars! On top of that, they pretty much own the top slots in the Google Search for the terms a client or real estate agent might put in. If there would have been other non-All American related links in the results, we would have urged them to try to create more content to fill those spots as well, and bump the non-related content down. They are doing a very good job.
4- Get Google Analytics (This is a Must Do) This will allow you to see what is actually happening on your responsive website.
5- Create Content that is Google-Searchable (This is a Should Do) For example: Blog Posts, Pages on your responsive site, Videos that you host on YouTube and embed on your site. Another great resource is using some of ALTA's marketing materials from ALTAprints or ALTA's HOP Program (Homebuyer Outreach Program). Here's an example of a video that ALTA did, which you can also embed on your site... how cool would something like this look on your site?...
For more videos that you can use, here's a link to the American Land Title Association Youtube Page. Once you find a video that you think can add value to your audience, simply embed it on your site and you'll be good-to-go!
6- Get on 1 (One) Social Media platform. (This is a Should Do) Don't try to do too many things all at once. Focus on one thing at a time. Go what social media platforms your customers or referral sources are actively engaged.
7- Take it offline. (This is a "Should Do," but if you expect to get ahead of your competition, this should really be a "Must Do.") Make sure you have the systems to support your scaling. Does your operations deserve to be marketed?... and is your business at a place where by adding more leads will actually "help" the business, instead of hurting it with more than you can handle?
Although CloseSimple is not even on this list, please let us know if you had any other questions, or how to get these things setup. We have no skin-in-the-game on if you do or do not use any of these things... beyond knowing that we are helping you win, and WIN, BIG.
Thanks for checking us out and follow CloseSimple on Twitter for more updates!
