Showing posts with label Real Estate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Real Estate. Show all posts

Monday, September 20, 2010

Using Creativity and PR to Sell my Home

Due to a job relocation, we need to sell our Fort Myers Florida home. After 3 months of letting an agent use traditional marketing methods, I took action on my own.

My husband and I came up with a marketing idea to create dueling top 10 lists of the best features about the home. We thought this would appeal to men and women who tend to look for different things when they buy a home.

I used the PR web advanced release package to distribute a release about the top 10 lists to areas snowbirds come to Florida from: Boston (for Red Sox spring training), Minneapolis (for Twins spring training), Detroit, Chicago and Columbus.

On the day the release went live, more than 30 people viewed our listing on www.realtor.com. That number may seem small to some, but from 0 hits one day to 30 the next was exciting. Those were 30 more people than would have seen the listing otherwise. In addition, the release infiltrated the news feeds on real estate websites worldwide.

I also distributed the release to my Fort Myers media contacts. As a result, an article ran Sunday, September 19, in The Fort Myers News-Press. It appeared on the front page of the real estate section and featured several pictures of the home. The publication of this article also infiltrated the web and populated the news feeds on real estate websites around the globe.

Another tactic I used for this campaign was a blog. I created a blog to tell the stories of the home to help potential buyers see what a lovely, family-oriented home 11471 Persimmon Court is. Check it out: http://11471persimmoncourt.blogspot.com. Each time I write a new blog entry, I post it on Facebook and Twitter.

One exciting aspect of this campaign was that the Florida Association of Realtors wrote an article declaring the dueling top 10 lists a new "marketing tactic" in their newsletter. This was particularly exciting since part of what we were trying to do was create some action, activity and momentum in the real estate world! Perhaps this one little idea will help generate many more!

Two books were instrumental in my inspiration to create this campaign. The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott and A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. If you haven't already read them, get going!

Will keep you posted when the house sells!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Best Marketing Stunt


Best Marketing Stunt. That's what Florida Weekly called the Million Dollar Coupon! Wow! What an unexpected surprise! I'm giddy! How fun! Thank you, Florida Weekly editors! I'm so glad I was a part of it! Check out the rest of Florida Weekly's BEST rankings!

Since we're talking about the Million Dollar Coupon, I am honored to say I have signed a new client for a very touching, exciting campaign to be revealed in the near future! This client is truly a gift -- a result of my hard work on the Million Dollar Coupon campaign. How lucky am I? I look forward to helping this new client, who is on a mission to serve others! Stay tuned for more details!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

David Meerman Scott Writes About The Million Dollar Coupon

Check this out! Marketing and PR guru David Meerman Scott wrote about the Million Dollar Coupon campaign on his blog!

www.webinknow.com!

What an honor! I am so excited!

Many kudos to Rich and Lani for their creative thinking!

Now all we need is a buyer!

Friday, June 5, 2009

The Million Dollar Coupon


The Million Dollar Coupon

Wow! What a rush! Here's the story!

Fort Myers homeowner Rich Ricciani approached me with a "crazy PR idea" to run a coupon for $1 million dollars off the price of his $7 million home. My first thought was, "Hmmm...I'm not exactly a "crazy PR" kind of a woman. But, I honored his call and went to visit him at his home. Wow. I was impressed.

Mr. Ricciani wanted to create "buzz" for the home on the Internet. This was in lieu of simply reducing the price of the home on the MLS -- that alone simply would not have created the awareness of his home being for sale. He thought it was a unique idea that just might work! I agreed, so off we went to coordinate with the Realtor.

I worked on the PR plan while the Realtor placed the ads. The $1 million coupon ad first ran in our local paper on May 31, and will run this Sunday in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe (because Ft. Myers is the home of the Boston Red Sox Spring Training facility -- many of their fans know the area well).

I sent out the release via the PRweb Media Visibility package and took full advantage of all of their SEO tools based on what I learned from reading The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott. I also used www.prmatchpoint.com to compile a list of real estate writers in the south and northeastern U.S. I also personally targeted the big news outlets, such as CNN, Fox, NBC and more.

I added the story to www.digg.com and ireport on CNN. I've been tweeting headlines and continue to search for reporters to cover the story.

In 4 days on PRweb, their statistics say the release has been read more than 1,600 times -- around the globe! Headline impressions are over 88,000!

The story appeared front page in our local paper, The Fort Myers News-Press on May 31. It also aired on one of our local television stations, WINK-TV on June 1.

It is populating around the web in real estate blogs galore! Some people love the marketing tactic of a coupon, some hate it and call it a gimmick. Overall, the idea is being received very well! It has been very exciting and energizing!

Just last night we found it on the AOL news page. The homeowner uses AOL and was VERY excited to see it there! (Thanks, PRweb!)

Here are some links for you to check out:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/million_dollar_coupon/real_estate/prweb2447044.htm

http://realestate.aol.com/home-prices/home-selling-incentives?pg=2

http://www.1210gasparilladr.com/ -- this is the site the Realtor created for the listing

www.themilliondollarcoupn.com -- this is the site for the coupon

Will keep you posted!