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5 Reasons Why Do-it-Yourself Marketing Can Actually Hurt Your Business | Katonah NY Homes

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Entrepreneurs, by nature, are do-it-yourself people. Not a bad thing. While that trait may serve you in many areas there’s one where it actually works against you: Marketing. Here’s five reasons why.

1) You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.

While you might feel savvy after reading a couple marketing books or listening to a savvy marketing guru, it doesn’t compare to working with a qualified team or consultant with great experience and a great record. You simply don’t know what you don’t know, and if you do it yourself, what you don’t know will hurt you. Like having a tag-line that makes no sense, or sends a wrong message. Like pouring money into SEO or your website when the better focus is Content Marketing and improved organic search. Like not realizing you need video. Or having a self-produced video that’s so unprofessional it works against you. The list goes on.

2) A Business Owner Can’t Be Objective.

Passionate business owners tend to be absorbed by their business—an advantage when it comes to DIY marketing, right? Not really. Effective marketing starts with an unbiased perspective. To be successful at marketing, business blemishes must be seen clearly. As a business owner you just don’t have that objectivity. If you read Ken Segall’s book Insanely Simple, about his working with Apple, you’ll read how Steve Jobs was proven wrong time and time again by his more objective and talented outside team who created some of the most iconic and successful marketing ever done.

3) The Best Marketing Isn’t About A System or Formula.

As more small business owners attempt to save money by trying to do their own thing, more self-proclaimed marketing gurus are popping up on the Internet with their “Amazing Profit-Making Marketing” systems. They all sound amazing and they all claim amazing results. They even have amazing testimonials. But every business is different, and a cookie-cutter, systematic approach is not the most effective way to market a business or product. While an “Amazing Profit-Making Marketing System” sounds amazing, the ones making the most money from them are usually the ones getting you to spend money on them.

4) Great Marketing Requires Talent.

Great marketing is part science, part art. Yet, the creative part often gets lost or diminished in this ever-advancing tech world. Focused, creative talent is the ingredient that helps communicate your message and persuade your prospects to buy. It’s not easy to find, but if you do it’ll make a huge difference.

5) DIY  Doesn’t Really Save Money.

Because you’re not spending money on outside resources you might think you’re saving tons of money with a DIY approach. Just remember this…it’s not just what you spend, it’s what you spend and get back on what you spend.

Great marketing will get you back more, and sometimes significantly more, than what you spend. So, how do you get great marketing? You find and hire great marketing people, like Steve Jobs did, like Nike’s Phil Knight did, and like every successful business owner does. And, they didn’t just do it when they were big successful companies with huge marketing budgets. They did it from the very beginning of their companies, only months after they incorporated.

You also have to factor in what your time is worth. It’s not cheap. If you kept track of every minute you spent trying to do it yourself and applied a dollar value to that, you’d be surprised at the expense. Also realize that every expensive minute you spend fumbling with something you don’t do great is taking away valuable time and talent from something you do do great. That’s another expense.

To sum up I’ll end with a simple quote from someone who’s interviewed hundreds of small business owners and knows what it takes to be successful:

“Business success is all about finding the right outside service providers and using them wisely. You can’t do it all yourself.” — Anita Campbell, Founder of Small Business Trends

via smallbiztrends.com

ClosingCorp feeding closing costs to title agents | Katonah NY Real Estate

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Screen shot of Closing.com homepageScreen shot of Closing.com homepage

Agents for title insurance underwriter North American Title Insurance Co. (NATIC) now have free access to a service that provides guaranteed recording fee, transfer tax and filing instruction data for every residential property nationwide.

The service, DART, is offered by La Jolla, Calif.-based ClosingCorp, a closing costs data and technology provider for lenders, real estate professionals and consumers. ClosingCorp recently updated DART, which debuted in December 2011.

The service automatically determines which recording office or tax authority to use for each property by street address and generates the correct recording fees, transfer taxes and filing instructions. DART also calculates buyer and seller splits based on statutory and customary practices for every transfer tax location in the nation, the company said.

“With more than 4,000 recorder offices and tax jurisdictions and more than 80,000 related taxes, fees, customs, rules and regulations, DART gives title agents immediate access to the precise recording fee, transfer tax and recording instruction data that is so crucial for their businesses,” said Emilio Fernandez, president of NATIC, in a statement.

DART is available through NATIC’s internal AgentLink platform, which provides title agents with business tools and underwriting resources, including forms.

NATIC does business in 28 states. The Miami-based company had 0.83 percent market share nationwide in the second quarter, according to the American Land Title Association (ALTA).

via inman.com

The fiscal cliff would cut the deficit by $720 billion in 2013, but even deficit hawks hate it | Katonah Realtor

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If all you wanted to do was to reduce the deficit as quickly as possible, here’s one very simple way to get it done: Go off the fiscal cliff.

Do so would result in about $720 billion in total austerity in 2013, and it would bring down the deficit that year in some of major ways, including $180 billion from income tax hikes, $120 billion in revenue from the payroll tax, $110 billion from the sequester’s automatic spending cuts, and $160 billion from expiring tax breaks and other programs, according to Bank of America’s estimates.

So when businesses and politicians fret about the economic fallout from the fiscal cliff, they’re reacting to the consequences of dramatic deficit-reduction in the short-term. It would save the government hundreds of billions of dollars next year, but would also take away the equivalent 4.6 percent of GDP through tax hikes and spending cuts—a sharp fiscal contraction that economists say would be a drag on growth in a still-tepid economy.

Why, then, do so many in Washington believe that the only way to avoid to the dreadful consequences of deficit reduction is…deficit reduction?

It’s partly because there are some aspects of the fiscal cliff that Democrats and Republicans want to hang onto, albeit in a different form. Nobody wants the big, dumb cuts in the sequester to take effect. But, in theory at least, Republicans do want the $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction contained in the sequester: That’s what they demanded last year, at least, in exchange for raising the debt ceiling in August. And the expectation is that they’ll be pushing for an alternative to the across-the-board sequester that tries to avert the defense cuts while hanging onto the others.

Democrats prefer an alternative that would try to preserve other aspects of the fiscal cliff—namely, the Bush tax cuts expiring on high-income Americans. And leaders like Sen. Chuck Schumer are already trying to frame the looming fight in terms of a trade-off on the deficit: Why not not pay down the deficit instead of giving big tax cuts to wealthy Americans?

Finally, centrist deficit hawks want to use the fiscal cliff as an opportunity to push through their own plan for tax, spending and entitlement overhaul. It would entail much bigger overall deficit reduction, but phased in gradually instead of all at once. Even a “grand bargain” would have about $400 billion in 2013 austerity, as opposed to the $720 billion in the entire fiscal cliff, according to the Bank of America’s estimates. And they’re anticipating that the only way for either side to get what it wants is to sit down and agree to their kind of bargain.

So all of these schools of thought would take Congress in the direction of doing less immediate deficit-reduction, not more.

via washingtonpost.com

NY housing market posts strong third quarter | Katonah NY Real Estate

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The New York state housing market posted its fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year home sales gains in the third quarter. The 3Q statewide median sales price increased by 4.4% and the number of pending sales grew for its fifth consecutive quarter, according to the New York State Association of Realtors.

NYSAR CEO Duncan Mackenzie said year-to-date home sales are up 6.2% and pending sales are up 15% compared to the year-ago period. The year-to-date median sales price of $215,000 is unchanged from a year ago.

“As we enter the final quarter of the year, New York state’s housing market continues to move in a positive direction as closed and pending sales continue to increase compared to a year ago,” he said. “While we have a seasonal market in our state, which tends to slow down in the fall and winter months, we are positioned to exceed the 2011 closed sales total and project that we will do so.”

Click the image below to see the full report.

The state reported 27,203 closed sales in 3Q, up 4.6% from the year-ago period.  The year-to-date closed sales reached 69,144, an increase of 6.2% from the same period last year.

“There are many positives in the 2012 housing market for buyers who are seeking to move into their new home before the end of the year including all-time low mortgage rates, which were driven even lower by the Fed’s recent mortgage purchases,” said MacKenzie. “Sellers also continue to see improvements as they received nearly 95% of their list price in the third quarter, aided by shrinking inventory levels.”

via housingwire.com

Videos That Will Keep You Sane and Entertained During the Election | Katonah Homes for Sale

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It’s no surprise when you take a look at “what’s trending” on YouTube, you see a host of election videos, usually something a candidate said that was either candidacy-killing or somehow awe inspiring.  Everybody has their agenda when it comes to posting these videos.  But you know, the election inspires many creators to come out with videos making fun of both candidates.  Or, maybe I can learn something about the election that I didn’t know before.  Here are a handful of videos that are informative and/or entertaining.

From Epic Rap Battles to CGP Grey: Something For Everyone

Let’s allow CGP Grey to give us a lesson on what happens if the election were to end in an electoral tie:

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Bad Lip Reading recently posted this hilariously ridiculous take on the first Presidential debate, called “Eye of the Sparrow:”

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Alphacat, who has been leveraging Obama and his excellent impersonation of him all year, including my favorite in which he has Obama sing a “99 Problems” cover:

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Let’s go straight back to CGP Grey now, who explains how the Electoral College works:

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Don’t worry, though, Grey explains there’s plenty of problems with that system:

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Epic Rap Battles pitted the two candidates together in their usual, witty style, and teaming with the aforementioned Alphacat:

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How about something real?  Mitt Romney’s funny speech at the Al Smith dinner (with Obama on the dais) was uploaded by several YouTubers and all of them have been watched a few hundred thousand times combined so far:

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You might as well hear the Town Hall debate “songified” by Schmoyoho, or as you’ll be calling it later, “Who’s Gonna Work It Out?”:

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Anyway, hopefully these videos will brighten up your day.  They did mine.

via reelseo.com

Housing Prices and Income Inequality | Katonah NY Homes

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Why is the gap between rich and poor in America yawning ever wider?

The issue is urgent. As my colleague Annie Lowrey writes, there is growing evidence that income inequality impedes economic growth.

And one interesting explanation boils down to the high price of housing.

A recent paper by researchers at Harvard University argues that the prohibitive cost of living in the areas with the greatest economic opportunities has forced low-wage workers to migrate instead to areas with inferior opportunities.

“The best places for low- and high-skilled workers used to be the same places: California, Maryland, New York,” said Peter Ganong, a doctoral student in economics, who wrote the paper with Daniel Shoag, a professor of public policy. “Now low-skilled workers can no longer afford to move to the high-wage places.”

In this account, people aren’t moving to the Sun Belt because they want to live there. They are moving because they can’t afford to live in Boston. And the result isn’t just second-best for them; it also slows the pace of economic growth.

Basically, the economy works best when people can move where their skills are most valued. But for low-skill workers, the high price of housing means the cost of living in those places often exceeds the benefits of working there.

The trends are beautifully illustrated by three time-lapse graphics.

The first shows that average incomes by state converged between 1880 and 1980 as low-skilled workers moved to wealthier states. The second shows the pattern of migration, which has changed significantly over the last 30 years.

The third shows the increase in land-use regulations in rich states.

And here’s the crucial point: It doesn’t have to be this way. High housing prices are the result of public policies that discourage new development. Those policies are generally embraced by the residents of wealthy areas, who benefit, at least in the short term, from restrictions on the supply of new housing. But this paper is one more reason to worry about the long-term economic consequences.

via economix.blogs.nytimes.com

Katonah Real Estate | How to Use Social Media to Close More Deals without Being a Pushy Salesperson

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C’mon folks it’s 2012, the days of being able to close on most sales transactions with the style of a pushy used car salesman, are gone. That window closed over a year ago.How to Use Social Media to Close More Deals without Being a Pushy Salesperson

Not that you can’t still close people, but the residual factor is usually gone when you use this approach. We now have to consider the “Life Time Value” [LTV] of each prospect we come across.

The reason is simply because of social media. Thanks to thought leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, the whole way that we perceive salespeople and marketing tactics, is changing at a rapid pace. Plus now we have a way to stay connected and engaged with our clients/prospects in a seemingly real way. It’s every salesperson’s goal to be the first person your past clients think of when they are ready to buy your product and services again.

Thanks to social media you can make that happen. You just have to be cool about it.

Social is Visual

We are becoming more visually stimulated beings. We want to look at content with infographics. We want to look at facebook posts with pictures.

On a side note: I think it is all Pinterest’s fault. Things that really stand out and are aesthetically pleasing to our eyes are the only things that matter these days. It’s no longer a world were cold hard sales calls full of feature dumping, are the most effective way of marketing.

Matter of fact they are the least effective.

Is Email Effective?

Let’s talk about the variety of ways you can stay in touch with your past, present and future clients. First up, let’s look at email. Email is no longer considered one of the highest influential ways to market. The truth is, that the average email open rate is only 12%. Don’t EVEN allow me to go there on direct mail. Most of it gets thrown away, and only 7% of direct-mailers actually show a positive ROI.

Even traditional media is becoming less and less influential. (unless you’re in politics) Only 16% of all TV and Radio marketing campaigns yield a positive ROI. Now, don’t get me wrong. If you are doing these things, you are good at them and getting above average results, DON’T STOP. Always keep doing what works.

Solve Problems Rather than “Selling”

What these numbers tell us, is that our audience is getting smarter. They’re getting more hip to the same old sales pitches. The marketplace is demanding for someone to listen to them. Someone to give them transparency in marketing. Someone to show them where their pain actually is, and then cure that pain. You need to step into that space, and step out of being an old school pushy salesperson.

You are now responsible for being THE expert consultant, with a much needed solution to their big a$$ problem. It’s at this point when your sphere of influence becomes a buyer from you. It’s at that point that you become a “Closer”, the sales equivalent of a “Made (Wo)Man” It’s that plain and simple.

So you might ask “That’s all fine and cool, but how do I go about doing that?”

My answer to you is simple. “Follow the steps below.”

Step 1: Listen to your audience.

How do you listen to your audience with out physically talking to them? The best way to listen to your audience, without having to pick up phone and have a conversation with them, or without having to really get to know them better is to stalk them online. Take a look at their Facebook page. Take a look at their Twitter, their LinkedIn page, find out the things that they’re saying. Actually read their posts. Look at their pictures and familiarize yourself with their online character. Chances are, what they care about on SM and in life are usually the same.

See if your prospects talk about their family life. See if they are into sports. Look and see how often they post about their business. This gives you instant ammo to start a conversation that they also WANT to have. With a little finesse, you will have them telling you what you need to hear in order to close the deal.

Step 2: Connect and engage with your audience.

We all know that it takes seven touches in order to influence an individual and for them to become familiar with you. We also know that people buy from people they know like and trust. With these things in mind the easiest, fastest, and most influential way to accomplish the seven touches you need, can be done easily via social media.

  • The first touch comes from the prospect seeing your post.
  • The second touch comes from when they like or comment on your post.
  • The third touch comes from you @taggging them in your response comment.
  • The fourth touch is a gimme, everyone likes to see their name written and hear it spoken.
  • The fifth is when almost all SM sites automatically send an email when you mention them, retweet them or whatever.
  • The sixth and seventh are when you keep the conversation going by keeping the comments engaging.

Remember this: Statements end in a period. To really engage your sentences should end in question marks. There’s the six and seven touches that you need accomplish to immediately gain influence and familiarity with your audience. this compels them to buy from you, without you having to jam features and verbally vomit why they should be buying from you.

Let them come to you and say “this is why I’m with you, it’s because of your expertise.”

Step 3: Question the confession

So what does question the confession actually mean? Well first off, that’s my saying. I believe you have to ask the right questions to make a sale. Too often times salespeople try to tell tell tell tell tell tell tell. If I’m constantly just telling you stuff/features, and even if you’re listening, you’re only trying to convince them of something you’re not closing,

A true closer is waiting for the prospect to talk about the bad. Many times we are on sales calls and listening but to only the good things. Who cares about good things? If things were good, you would not be talking. You poke around and ask the hard questions. The ones that make them uncomfortable and realize they need improvement. Then once they tell you what that pain is, you tell them you can make that pain go away. Easy, simple and a lot less words and energy.

The Sales Conversation

One more thing you must know though. There’s a big difference between just a conversation, and a SALES conversation. A conversation is someone that you’re just talking to about your business, and has no inclination of buying your stuff, and is not even remotely interested in your services. A sales conversation is knowing you have someone on the line that has the ability to buy your product. A sales conversation is with someone who can significantly and immediately benefit from what you have. So now with that being clear…

Ask More Questions

So we are having a sales conversation, then what? Turn that conversation over completely to them. You ask short questions, they give long answers. If their answers are short, ask more/better questions. This requires a great deal of patience. In the end, they will have told you what they are good at and if you are good, they will have told you what they are bad at. It’s at that very moment you offer the solution you know will fix the problem. If they show resistance your response is simply “but you did say that you [insert what they said here]” it is at that point they usually say “you’re right, thank you, let’s do this”

Three simple steps you can use to convert social media friends into great customers that you know and like working with. Try it. it is not easy, but it is simple. If you will simply have a little patience and wait for them to tell it, you can SELL IT!

How to Use Social Media to Close More Deals without Being a Pushy Salesperson

Guest Author: Ryan Stewman from Hardcorecloser.com

Want to Learn How to Market Your Business and Brand on Social Networks?

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via jeffbullas.com