Wordcorp

A Simple 3-Step Plan To Getting A Listing

clarkv — Sat, 30 May 2015 06:03:21 +0000

We all know how easy it is to fall into our routines, and somehow – we find ourselves with little to no listings. The fact is, is, putting together a cohesive plan can be somewhat of a headache – or consuming process.

Try to work in a methodical way, taking one step at a time.

Step 1: Define your goals:

What is good business to you, and what is bad business to you? Who are your potential vendors that are willing to pay and use your services, and not waste much time around this.

Are you looking for:

-The young, mids, or elderly?
-Those looking to move to new areas
-Those going through lifestyle changes – retirement, graduation, moving overseas?

Step 2: Contact those who have been interested in you before:

Reach out to those you have appraised for before, or come into contact by networking, coffees, open homes, etc.

Consider what you can do in a bit of an email out.

Step 3: Explore new marketing opportunities:
You can’t go around in circles exploring what worked well for you 5 years ago, 3 years ago, or even last year. Speak to a real estate PR & branding expert who works in New Zealand or Australia who can talk you through your options like internet promotions, mail outs, newsletters, etc.

Where to go for more help?
If you’re looking to sit down with a team that has been working with NZ and Australian real estate agents then you ought to give Wordcorp a call or an email. Many of the salespeople we have worked with have been able to get listings not long after our consultations, and strategies. You can view examples of our work here or reply to this email for a friendly chat or consultation.

After all, you have to invest some to win some. So talk to those people who know a thing or two about real estate, and not just any odd person claiming to know your industry!

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Kiwi Real Estate Agents Need Personalised Pre-Listing Kits

clarkv — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 02:35:31 +0000

Do you use a pre-listing kit, personalised to you?

One great way to make your real estate meetings more efficient, and more compelling is to send a pre-listing kit before your scheduled meeting. This will allow home sellers to digest a lot of complex information at a pace comfortable to them (in their own time). It also frees up time during the meeting for discussion which you can use to build trusting rapport with the seller.

I have been writing pre-listing kits myself and find these are all great things to include in them:

1) A personalised cover letter.

2) A “communication one-sheet” outlining the best ways for getting in touch with you.

3) An intelligently written page about your experience in real estate. Keep this free of jargon in easy to understand language. Many clients will not know what the industry’s jargon means!

4) A quick marketing piece with focus on your blog or Facebook/LinkedIn page including case studies from previous sales. If you do not have a blog or Facebook for your real estate work, you really must have one set up. And don’t rely on the real estate group’s Facebook. It lacks a personal approach.

4) Quick bios of your team if you have one.

5) Any awards you’ve received.

7) Relevant news pieces concerning your experience, community involvement or charitable causes you have been involved in.

8) Property disclosure form and any terms and conditions.

9) An open form for prospects to write questions they may have about either yourself, your service, or the home selling process.

You can choose to send the pre-listing kit as an actual physical kit, but in many cases one emailed over will do just fine. Having a pre-listing kit makes it clear you are organised and that your prospects can expect to be in the hands of a true professional who has a trusted process for selling their home.

Arthur Parker-Ramani is an experienced real estate writer who produces effective pre-listing kits. These kits explain why you are the home seller’s best choice – allowing you to spend time building rapport during your conversations. To discuss setting one up for you, reach him at arthur@wordcorp.co.nz

Images courtesy of

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What Is Regular Content?

clarkv — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 10:33:38 +0000

Our senior writer here has written content for over 50 different websites across quite a few industries.

But one thing that’s always a question for most businesses is: what do we put our on website?

Most people usually have a home page, a services page, an about page, and a contact page. Perhaps they may also have a portfolio or the like in there as well.

What upsets me is that most people think this is okay. You know, just as okay as putting your name, telephone and email address on your business card. If we just fill in these ‘fields’ or ‘pages’ we will have a website and some customers.

So does this work? Well yes, it shows customers who go to your website that you are probably legitimate, and someone works at your company, and after they pay you some money, they might get a service or product that lasts a while.

My question to you though is – do you realise your competitors are doing the exact same thing?

I think by now you realise the importance of branding, and how the last time you looked at a business card that in a couple words or images portrayed out what made the company special, you gave them your business. Now when it comes to websites, the equivalent is having regular, relevant and interesting content.

What are customers looking for? And what exactly is your website missing?

Customers are hungry for quality content. That means, they are tired of the corporate jib jab. Everyone is. I’m sorry, but no one really cares that your company started 20 years ago selling sporting goods, and following a bankruptcy, today you sell software.

They’d much rather get specific information that is clear and easy to read.

And what about customers who want general information? How to change a tire. How to impress your husband. How to show your girlfriend you care for her. These are all content searches and if you aren’t providing content, you’re missing out.

You need to reframe your business website into a content house. That means you regularly provide new articles and information about current topics that your customers care about.

Here are some ideas to think about:

1) Explaining a complex industry matter in easy to understand language – I saw a good shipping company website in NZ recently break down the difference between FOB and EXW in layman’s terms – this is valuable content to a first time importer. What other terms or concepts can you break down?

2) Giving practical examples of how a product or service can be used . What’s the point in having a website that shows how great your new invention is, if you don’t explain some of its practical uses. How about some customer stories on how people have used your product recently. I was reading the Honda magazine a few months ago which gave some real customer stories on how each type of car was utilised. Apparently their little hatchback, the Honda Jazz, can carry an entire surfing set up. Something I only thought from big station wagons.

3) Provide free advice – Tell people how they can do some things themselves. I saw a New Zealand car rental website stacked with some very good information about what to visit in each town in this country of ours. Breaking things down by price, entertainment value and duration. If customers see you as the authority on something, they will trust you.

My point is this. Make sure your website has content. Content that people care about. This is how people will trust you. And for those of you who are focused on improving their Google search rank, remember that regular content organically causes websites to be higher ranked in Google.

If you do not have regular content, I would urge you to hire a content writer who can get this done for you.

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What You Need To Know About Writing Your Website

clarkv — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 10:31:30 +0000

We’ve noticed that a lot of people rush to working with a good web designer – which is fair enough, but your website isn’t going to be entirely effective if you don’t have an effective content writer behind yet.

Yes. Despite all the bells, whistles and fancy images – people read your website and formulate stories about what to expect from you. I noticed there are some serious matters that people need to consider before the web design process.

1. The target audience

You need to think about who your website is focused at. Do you sell to businesses or individual people? Do your customers already know exactly what to expect from your product or service, or are they probably new to this all?

2. The goal

A website needs to have one or two clear goals. And that isn’t to tell customers about all the many services you have. You want a visitor to take a certain action. For example making a phone call to you, or sending an email enquiry. What is it for your website? Figure that out, and have someone drive all the content in that direction.

3. The content

Have you ever visited a website that just had too much going on? You need to figure out what is important, and what isn’t – or ask someone who knows what they are talking about. Should you show features of a product? Or do you need to show different packages? What does your potential customer want to know right then and there? How is your service going to help them? The better you think about this beforehand, the easier and usually cheaper it is to design & build your website. Content experts who work with a lot of websites are generally more experienced at seeing what is most important as it brings an outside perspective, but they also can’t do it without talking to you.

Once you have these 3 areas clearly laid out by a content writer, web designers can make a website in no time at all really. Or, ask your web designer to bring on board a content writer you can trust. That also saves time wasted on frustrating meetings with revisions. It means clearer end content, and website visitors being driven in one direction to take action – whether that’s buying online, getting a quote, sending you an email, or picking up the phone and calling you.

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3 Things That Go Wrong With Tenders

clarkv — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 10:27:22 +0000

A professional tender writer will tell you that no two tenders are the same, and that’s a great thing. Audiences of tenders often look for different things, and those that put the most effort in understanding the needs of the audience, tend to succeed.

For the benefit of our readers, we are sharing 5 things that easily go wrong with tenders, or constitute what is known as a ‘poor performing scoring tender’.

Having a poor graphical presentation
Many people assume that tenders are just about the writing, and if its done on a half decent Microsoft Word document with a few borders – that is fine. Unfortunately it’s not that easy.

When you write a tender, you need to balance all the written content with figures, financial data, technical information and so forth. Make sure you put a lot of effort into presentation. Most of the people who will read your tender are in some way, motivated by well presented tenders.

Failing to hire a proofreader or editor
This is a common flaw with many companies that try to write tenders ‘in house’ or hiring a tender writing service that does not take their work as seriously as we do! Simply put, the person writing the tender can NEVER be the proofreader, and certainly can’t be the editor. You need 3 different people in a good tender writing process.

Not writing to the audience in a targeted fashion
Whenever you write a tender, or any document – you need to edit it for the audience you are writing to. That is, taking time to understand their RFT document, as well as their company or organizational structure, goals and vision. Only by correctly aligning yourself with these can your company succeed in their bid for a successful tender.

If you are submitting a tender, make sure you have a professional assist you through the process. This is something that will almost pay for itself if you choose the right writer, and introduce new revenue. Talk to us here at Wordcorp if you have any questions about your article or tender writing piece.

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Content Can Get More Sales For Your Business

clarkv — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 10:37:34 +0000

Here are the straight facts: the salespeople that are actively participating and engaging with clients via quality content are all seeing new revenue streams; the salespeople that are actively participating and engaging with clients via their quality content are all gaining more popularity within the news, media and local community; and the salespeople that are actively participating and engaging with clients via their quality content are all positioning themselves as the experts in their market segments.

Don’t Be the Last One to Jump on Board

Don’t wait to be the last person to jump in on the content writing bandwagon … act now, and at a minimum, start to work with a content writer that can get you publicity, so that you can start to build out even more credibility through direct and social media channels. Success from this type of marketing is not going to come over night, this is why you want to start to build up your social sales funnel now, before all the social leads start to get eaten up by the firms that have positioned themselves as experts already.

It’s Different To Just Doing Social Media

You can’t quite rely on just anyone who can use Facebook to do this for you. Simply put, you cannot build a fan base or reputation for your business just by doing a few Facebook posts here and there. You need detailed, long, informative articles pushed through a blog, social media, website, and even LinkedIn; to actually get some return on investment.

In With the New

The old school way of thinking is not going to get your services ahead in the future… you need to use regular content to come across as the expert – now, and forever, and get on board and start to market your services via the various marketing channels made available to you.

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How To Use A Press Release To Promote Your Business

clarkv — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 10:35:20 +0000

Kiwi businesses can raise awareness about what they do, as well as build credibility perceived as from 3rd parties, through using a press release. The good news is – this can happen for you, regardless of your industry or how many years you’ve been in business.A press release is an outline of something new your business has done recently. For example winning an award, offering a new product, and so on. These are then submitted to news websites, and can go as far as being published in say the Herald or stuff.co.nzThis is great for two reasons.Firstly, people viewing those news websites are likely to take an active interest in your business. Since a press release can be quite lengthy, it gives them time to better digest the benefits of what you do.

Secondly, if you haven’t realised already – many people who are considering using your service or buying your product are busy ‘stalking you out’. Yes. They are Googling to see what other people have said about your company. In a world of so many bad reviews and negative press – a press release on a news website can do wonders to speak positively about your brand.

In short – press releases work great for those new to your business, and also those already considering using your business.

The idea for most people is – if a news company perceives this company or person as credible enough to include in the news then surely they can be trusted on some level.

Don’t confuse press releases with advertorials. Advertorials are article spaces you pay a huge amount of money for. And can sometimes come across as ‘over-commercial’ or spammy if not done well.

It is important to understand that not many press releases get published. Newspapers and websites are very aware of people trying to use these as free promotion. This happens when an inexperienced person writes a press release. A professional writer is needed to actually put a news angle on it. Have an experienced writer find a news angle for you.

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