Give them the grand tour
Part 1

Throw out the photo albums and slideshows, your clients are expecting more! Today’s virtual tours can help you exceed those expectations. Join the growing crop of top producers who have embraced virtual tours, welcoming the opportunity to have more dynamic sales presentations. Over the next four weeks, we’ll give you the education necessary to get the most out of virtual tour technology. Read on….

1. Invite Everyone, Everywhere.
Promote your virtual tours everywhere. Make them downloadable on (or accessible from) your Web site and any other Web sites you can. Advertise tours by linking to them in your e-mails and in your listings on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).  Feature the availability of the virtual tour on national Web sites, on direct-mail postcards, property fliers, print advertisements, business cards and envelopes. Entice the client with a photo of the property; add text that encourages them to visit the virtual tour of that property.

When you provide the tour on CD or DVD, cross-market your Web site by including a link to it in the virtual tour. Assign a code number or MLS number to the tour’s file name and then use it in ads and on the disk label so prospects can easily locate the presentation on your Web site.

2. Low Listing Inventory
Short on listings? If so, then turn your recent sales into a showcase for your success by moving their virtual tours from the “Latest Listings” section to the “Sold” section of your Web site. This shows consumers the type of Internet marketing you use to get listings sold quickly.

3. Market Area Tours
Prepare multimedia tours of your market area for out-of-town prospects. Consider a broad overview (basic maps are good) as well as community-by-community tours. Neighborhood scenes and lifestyle photos can be mixed in with individual property pictures. Remember, virtual tour presentations don’t have to be limited to properties for sale — create presentations for each neighborhood or subdivision you serve and add them to your Web site. Brand yourself as the “community expert.”

4. Relocation Kits
Create virtual tours of primary relocation subjects, such as schools, commuting routes, homes at various price levels, hospitals, police and fire facilities, recreation, shopping and seasonal images. Include Internet links to useful community Web sites.

Individual property tours, such as those prepared for recent comparative market analysis (CMA) presentations, can help relocation prospects narrow their choices in preparation for home-finding visits.
Maximize your exposure to prospects by offering community groups and organizations the opportunity to link to your virtual tour from their Web sites.

5. Self-Promotion
Create an “About Us” virtual tour that includes photos and information about yourself, your team, your services, your office and company. Use individual staff photos instead of group photos to avoid expensive updates when personnel changes occur. You can use this tour to introduce yourself to prospective buyers and sellers, of course, but it’s also good for showing out-of-town referral professionals the full lineup of services their customers will receive from your firm. You can even focus these on a particular service you provide, such as a presentation about your Web site or marketing techniques, and use them at listing presentations and open houses.


Tips are courtesy of Dan Gooder Richard. He is a Virginia-based writer and author of “Real Estate Rainmaker® Guide to Online Marketing” and “Real Estate Rainmaker Successful Strategies for Real Estate Marketing” published by John Wiley & Sons.