As you already know, Agent Insight is a unique marketing venue for showing off the cities and neighborhoods in your market area. Even one photo or written submission puts an area on the Internet and makes it a viable place for a Google search to find you.

Even though one submission starts the ball rolling, the ultimate goal is to showcase your area to its fullest. Once a potential client arrives on a location page, you want them to see the many features of that subdivision or community. The pages that only show a monument entry sign, for example, leave potential clients wondering what else is there.

Agent Insight has literally thousands of community pages that are very well covered by the agents who have written about a wide variety of subjects and illustrated them with a lot of photos. An excellent example is the Ross Bridge subdivision in Hoover, Alabama. Many agents from several different local RE/MAX offices have posted about Ross Bridge. Their cumulative work has produced a comprehensive look at this beautiful neighborhood and its myriad of amenities. Further, thanks to the combined efforts of these agents, Ross Bridge has a high search engine ranking, displaying on the first page of Google for the keyword search “Ross Bridge subdivision homes for sale.”

The  written insights for Ross Bridge cover many and diverse subjects. Some of the headlines include:

• Ross Bridge Is a Wonderful Blend of Homes, Shops, Offices and Recreational Areas
• New Wiffle Ball Park Coming Soon to The Hamptons in Ross Bridge
• Beautiful New Fire Station in Ross Bridge
• Ross Bridge Is Home of the 4th Longest Golf Course in the World!
• Resort Style Living at Its Best!
• Ross Bridge Hosts Annual Holiday Market

Many photos show the natural beauty of the neighborhood, as well as its amenities and events. Here’s a sampling:

Of course, it’s easy to create a diverse, engaging community page when you are covering a multi-feature, luxurious community such as Ross Bridge. It takes some time and planning, which these contributing agents have done well. However, any neighborhood or subdivision can be shown at its best with submissions presenting streets of well-kept homes, trees and gardens, nearby shopping areas…you know what to do!

Creating pages that give your clients a lot of information about a subdivision, a school district, or a city is an excellent marketing tool. Most important, it helps strengthen SEO for that Agent Insight page, raising the potential of more leads being captured. In fact, the Ross Bridge landing page has received almost 600 website visitors since April 1st! This community page is one of thousands available region-wide, and every landing page has the potential for this type of internet exposure. Take a moment to go back and review the areas you are promoting and decide what needs to be added to make it work best for you.

Written insights by Jeff Easter and Kate Giffin  of RE/MAX Advantage Central; Robin Phillips, RE/MAX Advantage South; Wanda Williams Turner, RE/MAX First Choice; and Patti Schreiner, RE/MAX Southern Homes. Photos by Derek Young and Robin Phillips with RE/MAX Advantage South and Kate Giffin with RE/MAX Advantage Central. All of these offices are in Birmingham, AL.

You’d like your marketing plan to work well and generate the results you want. And wouldn’t you love it if you could just put it on auto pilot and still have it produce for you?

Your Agent Insight posts do exactly that. Of course, you have to take the time to submit your photos and written posts and our savvy contributors do this regularly. But once in place, your Agent Insight submissions work continually to showcase both your market area and you as the professional expert who knows all about it. Each of your posts is a beacon to call a Google-searching public to you.

Agent Insight is easy and fun to do. With just a little effort, you have developed a marketing tool  that can have powerful results. If you haven’t started with Agent Insight yet or if you need a little refresher on how to make good submissions, check out our Getting Started series on on our blog.

There are lots of agents from many states who contribute regularly and are seeing results. Remember, this project works best when lots of your fellow RE/MAX agents participate.  Together you paint a more thorough picture, through words and photos, of your community. In other words, a rising tide lifts all boats.

Here are a few of the excellent submissions that have been arriving from agents this summer, beginning with a post by Alan Schelly, RE/MAX Platinum Group in Sparta, NJ.

Celebrate Independence Day at the Lake
The Fourth of July at Lake Mohawk is a “must do” for anyone who has not experienced this incredible display of fireworks. For many people, this is a tradition not to be missed. Hundreds of boats slowly make their way to the center of the lake. Some tie up together to enjoy the festivities. This flotilla, of sorts, wait for the sun to set and the moment of the first big bang indicating the start of an incredible show. Thousands more will be crowded on to the Boardwalk and scattered throughout Sparta to get a glimpse. The actual show lasts about an hour, but the memories are everlasting. Who knows, you might even fall in love with this very special community! Hope to see you at the lake!

Photos by Jill Hawkins, RE/MAX Heritage, Blue Springs, MO; Jerry Larson, RE/MAX State Line, Leawood, KS; Wyn Motter, RE/MAX Real Estate Partners, Hattiesburg, MS;  Stephen Babbitt, RE/MAX Realty Group, Pittsford, NY

Summertime and the livin’ is easy. Well, not exactly:  not only are real estate sales jumping, but there is a myriad of summer activities on the calendar for the next few months that will make excellent subjects for your Agent Insight submissions.

Think about all of the outdoor venues that would appeal to potential clients moving to your area. Your knowledge about what’s happening in your town will be a selling point when your future clients are deciding which agent they want to hire. Show that you are the market expert in your community with a wide variety of summer postings.

Need some ideas? Here are just a few:

Big Crowd Events
Art fairs
Carnivals
County fairs
Rodeos
Baseball games
Outdoor concerts
Barbeque contests
Hot air balloon festivals

Fourth of July
Parades
Neighborhood celebrations
Downtowns decorated in bunting
Fireworks
Patriotic displays
All things red, white and blue

Summer in the City
Neighborhood and city pools
Golf courses
Gardens and parks
Subdivision monuments surrounded by beautiful landscaping
Walking and biking trails
Yard beautification contest winners
Dog parks
Boardwalks

Summer in the Countryside
Growing crops
Farm animals in the fields
Boating
Water skiing
Beaches
Lakefronts
Fishing derbies
Forests and pathways

Here are four excellent photo submissions from our archives for further inspiration:

Here are a few tips for your photo submissions that apply this summer and all year long:

1. If you only send in photos of flower close-ups, cute dogs and lovely sunsets, potential clients won’t get a good feel for your expertise. All of these things make fine submissions, of course, but choose the best one or two of each instead of populating your page with dozens of the same subject.
2. Captions are key! You have space for about 15 words so provide more than a label under a photo. A caption that says only, “Heart of America Shakespeare Festival” is fine. A much better version is, “Kansas City’s Heart of America Shakespeare Festival has been drawing crowds for over 20 years.”
3. Try to post a few submissions every week instead of many at the same time. Making regular posts will keep your photo at the top of the agent roster.
4. Spread your posts throughout many location pages in subdivisions, cities, counties and school districts. You want your name and photo to appear throughout Agent Insight.

Photos provided by Trina Ward, RE/MAX Champion Land Brokers, Poteau, OK; Coleen DeMoss, RE/MAX Platinum, Fenton, MI; Lyndsie Lace Verret, RE/MAX Plus, Prairieville, LA; Bob Myers, RE/MAX Legacy Realty, Oxford, MS.

A video can be an excellent addition to your insight. It can enhance the story you are telling about a neighborhood or give further details on an upcoming community event. You will also realize some advantage in the fight for top rankings in Google searches when you include videos with your Agent Insight submissions.

Jim Simmons, RE/MAX Greater Princeton in New Jersey, has been including videos with his Agent Insight submissions for years and has realized great results.

“My  posts come up very high in Google rankings,” says Jim, who features videos on both Agent Insight submissions and on his personal website. “I frequently find my videos in the top five slots of a search and very often in first place.”

Jim’s neighborhood videos are typically one to two minutes long and he shoots them himself with his cell phone or a Nikon Point & Shoot camera. He highlights neighborhood amenities with a few captions inserted throughout the videos and each one is accompanied by a catchy MP3 tune he downloaded for free.

“I get responses from the videos all the time,” Jim says. “Just last week a couple called and said they wanted me to sell their house. They said they had found one of my videos when they did a Google search for agents and thought it really showed them that I knew specifically about their area. So, I was their choice to list their home.”

Take a look at one of Jim’s videos, including his short written submission:

Tour of Windsor Haven Townhomes in Princeton Junction
Here’s a one minute tour of Windsor Haven located in Princeton Junction, NJ. One of only five townhouse communities in West Windsor, this one is closest to the train station and many residents here walk to the train. These three-story townhouses have unique floor plans and have been very popular with commuters since they were built in the early 1990’s.

Videos can be simple and easy, but still be very effective. Ray Guest, RE/MAX Platinum in Brighton, MI, narrates his videos as he drives through his featured subdivisions. Ray’s tone is friendly and chatty and he packs plenty of information into each video. He includes one with nearly all of his Agent Insight submissions. Here’s an example:

Deer Park Farm Estates in Fenton
Deer Park Farm Estates is in Tyrone Township close to the intersection of White Lake Road and Denton Hill Road, but its mailing address is Fenton, MI.  It is a small subdivision that was built in four phases and is around Sullivan Lake.  Sullivan Lake is a spring fed, electric motor lake with good fishing and is about 30 or 35 acres. Some homes are lakefront and some are not. In 2015 and early 2016 homes have sold for between $210,000 and $325,000.

Marty Perrea, RE/MAX Results in Kansas City, MO, has produced some beautiful work using a drone and professional videographers. His market area includes some gorgeous lakes, homes, rolling hills and wooded drives that are shown to great advantage in these videos. Marty appears as the narrator and, like Jim Simmons, he has included a musical accompaniment. In addition to subdivisions, Marty has also posted videos about local public schools, Park University and the cities he covers in his businesses. Here’s a good example:

Weatherby Lake from the Air!
Weatherby Lake is a beauty from the ground, but seen from the air it is spectacular. This video was taken with a drone. What a fabulous way to see this wonderful neighborhood! The best of lake living and only a short drive from downtown Kansas City — Weatherby Lake is a Missouri gem.

Don’t be intimidated by the process in creating your own videos. It’s fairly easy and can be fun to do! Every Agent Insight video must be posted on YouTube first, then transferred to our site. YouTube has plenty of information on how to make a post. When you are ready to add one to Agent Insight, click here for instructions. You can also review this article in our blog for specific requirements for posting a video on Agent Insight:   IF A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS, WHAT’S A VIDEO WORTH?,

Clients want a real estate agent they can trust. They want to know the person who will be guiding them through one of the largest purchases of their lives and they won’t find a relationship just by seeing your face in an ad.

Use Agent Insight as a means of introducing yourself to potential customers. Let them get to know you through your posts with first-person vignettes about your experiences, opinions and daily life with which they can identify. Tell them what you know about the things they want to know, too.

Take a look at an excerpt from this submission by Dana Belcher, RE/MAX Advantage in Birmingham, AL.

Residents Love the Downtown Loft District
There is an excited buzz among the businesses and growing contingency of residents who dwell downtown.  This cityscape is making new leaps in revitalizing…Cruise the streets after five and you will see the sidewalks full of joggers, dog walkers, bikers and strollers all busy living a great, convenient lifestyle.  When I have interviewed my past clients who bought downtown, I have heard all of them reflect sentiments like; “best decision I ever made”, “we love it down here”, “I am ready to upgrade to an even larger condo”.  These urbanites love their city.  They frequently are excited to tell me the latest tidbit of news…I am excited for them!

In her short piece, Dana has told her readers that she is well-versed in the real estate available in downtown Birmingham, she knows about the culture of the area, and she has strong relationships with her clients that last beyond the time they purchased their homes. Her first person story creates a connection.

Here’s another excellent example. Brenda D Nebel, RE/MAX Associates in Newton, KS, has written a compelling piece about the community where she lives. It is always easiest to write about your own neighborhood or town and this post gives a lot of insight into Brenda’s knowledge of her community.

Why I Live in Hesston, Population 4,000
When my husband and I moved to Hesston, we thought we would give it five years before we would move again. Well, it has been over 25 years. My husband enjoys working in the same town that he lives in. We have raised our four children here, knowing that they had good schools with top notch teachers, plenty of extra-curricular activities, and wonderful friends. There are lots of walking paths and sidewalks that we enjoy using in the evenings. For a small town with approximately 4,000 people, there are so many extra amenities:   five churches, an arboretum, parks, tennis courts, a grocery store, restaurants, a wellness center, a pharmacy, medical and eye doctors, a college, banks, a public library, a lumber yard, a hardware store, an antique store, a donut shop and other unique stores. We love it here.

Brenda has touched on schools, recreation, stores, restaurants and many of the amenities clients are looking for in a community. Further, she tells her readers that she has been a resident there for 25 years and has a lot of first-hand experience that will help her introduce them to her town.

Fill your Agent Insight posts with what you know. Show clients that you can give them value they can’t get elsewhere. Make your posts and photo captions as personal as you can with a first-person point of view.

“Agent Insight gives RE/MAX agents a competitive edge over everyone else in the business,” says Steve Snook,  Senior Business Development Consultant for the Mid-States Region. “It even gives participating agents an edge over their colleagues in the same office who don’t utilize Agent Insight. This is their on-line billboard.”

Steve has been a huge supporter of Agent Insight since its inception two years ago. From the beginning, he had a vision that the first adapters would blaze the trail and their results with leads would inspire others.

“I hear success stories all the time,” Steve says. “I always have someone telling me about a lead or two that have come via Agent Insight. They are so excited to see their work paying off with this great prospecting tool.”

Conversation leads frequently happen every week for agents who add photos and written submissions regularly and are smart about spreading their posts throughout their market.

“I recently had an agent from Yukon, OK, tell me ‘I finally get it!’ When he Googled a subdivision for a listing presentation, the first item that appeared in the search results was his Agent Insight post,” Steve reports. “That agent has committed himself to increasing his submissions after seeing how effective it can be in bringing potential clients to his page.”

Steve also has found Agent Insight to be a great recruiting tool because it is exclusive to RE/MAX. He tells new agents that posting on Agent Insight is an excellent way to engage in on-line marketing while really getting to know their community. He tells them to show the amenities of their markets’ subdivisions, local businesses, restaurants, schools and all of the other features that would make the town appealing to a prospective client.

“You never know where your next good lead will come from,” he says. “If you promote a restaurant or business on Agent Insight, let the proprietors know and direct them to see the post on your page. When that person knows someone looking for a real estate agent, he will remember your name and just might return the favor.”

Steady, consistent posting is the key to success and Steve encourages everyone to work Agent Insight into their daily schedule. “It only takes a little time and can really be fun to do,” Steve says. “Trying to do a lot at once might be a challenging amount of work, but doing a couple every day or so will build up your collection of posts quickly. Keep in mind that 10, 20 or even 50 posts is just not enough to make a difference. You must have several hundred posts to be really out there where you can be found and noticed.”

“Remember, our competitors don’t have this. As you build a huge library of photos and written posts about your market, you are creating a powerful prospecting tool, an on-line presence and an excellent show-and-tell piece to use during listing presentations.

“Agent Insight is the easiest prospecting tool that there is because you can do it anytime,” Steve says. “Snap your photos and make a few notes during the day, then make submissions at your leisure while you’re home in your pajamas!”

You must have vision to see the long-term impact of Agent Insight. That’s Valerie Bomberger’s approach to many months of planning and work on  the areas she covers in Agent Insight. An agent with RE/MAX Harbor Country in New Buffalo, MI, Valerie has made over 620 written and photo posts and she is seeing results!

“I get inquiries at least once a week off of Agent Insight,” Valerie says. “These are questions from potential clients. Sometimes they aren’t ready to look at properties yet, but I always try to be helpful. One day when they are ready to buy or sell, they will remember.”

Valerie has received questions about homes association dues, caveats and restrictions, and which builders are allowed in different developments, among many other topics. She always tries to answer and follow up, even though she realizes her work may not be a value to her business right away.

“I know that many of these contacts will pay off over time,” she says. “For example, I’m currently working with a client in Holland, MI,  who is looking for an old school building or church that he can convert into a unique home. He found me through the Holland page on Agent Insight where I’d placed a photo about a year ago. At the time, I was the only agent with a post on the Holland page.”

There are many location pages throughout the Agent Insight Southwest Michigan site where Valerie is still the only agent with posts. As a result, she is the only one who appears as the Featured Local Expert for those locations and receives any inquires generated by visitors to the pages. Try a Google search for “Homes for sale in the Eiffel Tower Bluffs in New Buffalo, MI” or “Homes for sale in Wildwood in Stevensville, MI” or “Homes for sale in Burton Heights in Saint Joseph, MI”. These are just a few searches that place Agent Insight at the top of the list and showcase Valerie  as the Featured Local Expert.

“I’m seeing that Agent Insight and I work off of each other,” Valerie says. “My submissions build the Agent Insight pages and that pushes me up in Google searches. This is a long process, so you must have a vision. I started posting about a year ago. One of my goals for 2016 is to track where my business is coming from, so I know how much is resulting from Agent Insight.”

Valerie says she is surprised by how many agents “don’t get it”. She sees a lot of colleagues who try making a few posts, but don’t follow through.

“When I first stumbled across Agent Insight, I saw immediately that it is an excellent prospecting tool and lead generator. My goal is to have at least one post for every subdivision in my market area. This is very helpful to my marketing efforts and the work will bring me value over time,” she says.

Every savvy agent looks constantly for marketing strategies that have real value, but don’t take a lot of precious time from the business of sales. Agent Insight provides a great avenue for exactly that:  it builds your online presence, strengthens the RE/MAX brand, and takes very little time out of your work day.

Two Agent Insight webinars are scheduled in February for those who have not yet participated and for those who want to increase their understanding and skills with this excellent marketing tool.

Getting Started with Agent Insight, Tuesday Feb. 9th from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. CST is an introductory look at its benefits and returns, as well as providing “how to” information for submitting photos, videos, and written submissions. Space is limited so register now!

Taking It to the Next Level, Thursday Feb. 11th from 10:00 to11:00am CST, will enhance your basic knowledge of Agent Insight, including strategies for getting the most out of your submissions in order to enhance your marketing efforts. Register now to save your slot in this valuable webinar!

These webinars are free and only take a quick hour of your time. That’s an investment that can have a big pay off in lead generation. Mark your calendar now, and come prepared to hone your skills and knowledge of Agent Insight. Feel free to sign up for both webinars.  Remember that a Rising Tide Lifts all Boats! The more agents who participate in your market area, the better it is for everyone. We look forward to having you and your office colleagues join us in February.

In the spirit of the season, we are offering a few Agent Insight New Year’s resolutions for your consideration. Whether you are a regular contributor,  you have posted just a few submissions, or you are completely new to the project, it’s time for a fresh look at Agent Insight for 2016.

Remember that this is a marketing effort that works best if many agents participate.  As Michigan agent Ray Guest RE/MAX Platinum, has said, “If we all contributed to Agent insight regularly, we’d put the other real estate companies out of business!”  With that thoughtful premise in mind, take a look at our list:

Resolution #1:
I will post written submissions and photos on a regular basis. Try to submit a few submissions every week for the most impact on Agent Insight roster placement. Fresh material will also help attract search engine attention when a client is looking for properties.

Resolution #2:
I will present a complete and balanced perspective of my market area. That means showing a good mix of street scenes, playgrounds, gardens, and other amenities of a neighborhood. Take advantage of this great venue for showing your clients all aspects of a community.

Resolution #3:
I will write insights in first person whenever possible. Telling your story in first person gives you much more credibility as a person with first-hand knowledge and appreciation of your subject. It also frequently creates a more fun and readable style than a “just-the-facts-ma ‘am” approach. This insight from Alison Burns, RE/MAX Results in Omaha, NE, is an excellent example of an engaging first person piece:

Everything I Wanted in a Neighborhood
We came from a secluded location – right in the middle of farmland.  And while we liked the quiet, sometimes it was a little too quiet.  We were fearful that a neighborhood might have too much noise, too many nosy neighbors, yelling, etc.  And then we found our dream home…  Read more. 

 Resolution #4:
I will take a few seconds to frame my photos and will NEVER shoot them through the windshield of my car. It will only take a few seconds, so please stop your car and step out for a moment to capture the kind of pictures you want. Many thanks to all the agents who sent beautiful photos like these:

Resolution #5:
I will always put something interesting in my photo caption.  While many people frequently just skim over paragraphs, they  will actually read captions (and headlines!). The caption is a great place to include real estate keywords that will get indexed by search engines and drive traffic back to you!

Resolution #6
I will acknowledge that it is easy, fun, and beneficial to contribute to Agent Insight. If you just make a handful of submissions and never return to the website, you will realize little benefit from Agent Insight. Embrace this project in 2016 and increase your online marketing presence.

“I love Agent Insight and the idea behind it!” says Ricki McIntire, RE/MAX Innovations in Kansas City, MO. “This is one of the most exciting things I have seen in 23 years of real estate. Everyone pitches in and we all benefit from an individual perspective AND from a company perspective.  Another awesome tool to keep us ‘Above the Crowd’!”

Photos by Nancy Lovejoy, RE/MAX Real Estate Group, Baton Rouge, LA; Tina Rebimbas Torres, RE/MAX Lifetime Realtors, Union, NJ; Paul Durry, RE/MAX Professionals, Lawton, OK; Mike Griffin, RE/MAX of Hot Springs Village, AR; Iryna Talmachova, RE/MAX Signature Real Estate, Setauket, NY.

Did you know that you can include your Zillow reviews on your Agent Insight profile page? More and more agents are taking advantage of this option which can greatly enhance their professional image (and SEO ranking).  Adding your Zillow reviews is simple to do and takes less than five minutes.

Log onto Agent Insight using your Mainstreet credentials. Click on the Edit Profile Info button and scroll to the bottom of the page. You will see several options that you may choose to add to your Agent Insight profile, such as Facebook and Twitter. Include Zillow Reviews is the last option. Simply enter your Zillow screen name and click on Submit to add your Zillow reviews. If you don’t know your Zillow screen name, follow the instructions at the far right side of the page to get it.

Your reviews will be displayed at the bottom of your profile page, following your Agent Insight submissions.  Also, a row of green stars indicating your Zillow rating will appear under your name, along with the number of reviews that have been posted. Your Zillow rating and reviews will also appear on your agent website if you have installed the Full Page Profile widget. Matt White with RE/MAX Platinum is a Michigan agent who has taken advantage of this option.

There is also  a three-minute video on the Agent Insight blog that explains how to add your Zillow reviews. Many thanks to Dan Troup of RE/MAX of Michigan for producing the video. As Dan suggests, be sure to respond to your reviews, both the positive and negative ones. It will show that you are engaged with your clients and may increase the chance of other consumers choosing to use you as their real estate professional.