“The better you are at marketing, the easier the sale is on the backend…It’s less about the money than most people think.”
– John Martinez
With more competition in a crowded market, your ability to execute a sale has never been more important. That’s why we’ve brought back the most-listened-to CarrotCast guest of all time, the master of sales psychology, John Martinez.
John has spent years perfecting his sales process, coaching and consulting real estate investors, helping them ensure that they’re closing every closable deal at the highest margins possible.
Listen in and let him walk you through his best scripts, word-for-word!
When others were out drinking on a Friday night, I was putting up signs or creating Craigslist ads.
– Keith Sant
We love Keith not just because he’s an awesome guy, but because he doesn’t have anything to hide. His story proves that if you want something bad enough and you’re willing to put in the work, anything can happen.
Since closing his first wholesale deal two years ago, he’s tried everything under the sun to build a valuable investing business.
Today he shares his entire strategy & marketing mix, everything he’s doing to crush it in such a saturated market.
After this, there are no excuses. Let’s get it!
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
Journey From Day Job to $100k/year | Every Single Step To Closing 8 Deals in One Month w/ Keith Sant of Kind House Buyers
For Keith Sant, Kind House Buyers is more than just the name of his business, it is how he conducts business and his life. I first got to know Keith just a few weeks ago at our most recent CarrotCamp, and right away I was struck by his hunger, drive, and gratitude.
These are the things that have led him to create a very successful wholesaling business in the Pacific Northwest.
Keith believes in treating everyone the same. He talks to his sellers the same way he talks to investors. He grew up not having much, so his sincere gratitude for all he’s achieved shines through when you talk to him about his business.
A while back, Keith heard a podcast I did about CarrotCamp, the benefits, the highlights, and what people could expect to take away from the event. He knew it was something he needed to attend, but he wasn’t making the 100k per year that he needed to qualify… yet.
Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.
Jim Rohn
Instead of feeling defeated, Keith got down to it and closed the deals he needed to. He was able to close eight deals in one month, in a very competitive market nonetheless. Needless to say, Keith made it to the next CarrotCamp, and we were thrilled to have him join us.
In The Beginning
In order to get where he needed to be, Keith knew he had to buckle down and do the work. Before real estate, Keith was working in screenprinting. He never referred to himself as an entrepreneur, but he has always known he wouldn’t be able to work with someone who didn’t value him or his contribution.
Eventually, Keith went back to school. There isn’t a degree for entrepreneurs, so he studied marketing instead. Why? Because he didn’t think he was that great at it, so he figured he should learn.
Real estate was always an interest, but the entry barrier seemed too high. He had a friend in Texas doing flips and wholesaling houses. Keith worked with him for a while, then brought his business to the Pacific Northwest. He worked hard, got his first wholesale deal, and it was on from there. This year he’s looking at doing about 25 deals, with an average profit of $15,800.
Initial Marketing
Bandit Signs
Keith started with bandit signs and a lot of them. To be effective, the signs needed a few key elements.
Keith got an easy to remember, repeating digit phone number
The phone number was HUGE so people could see it
He included his website as it was something people could remember and look-up when they got home
He was strategic in where he put the signs. He didn’t put them in downtown Seattle. He put them on the outskirts of town He put a sign in the middle of nowhere that turned into a 30k deal.
On average, Keith drops 120 signs per month. His rule is to put out 2 signs whenever he goes out.
Having a website up before making his big marketing push was important. People told him he didn’t need a site or that a basic one-page site would do. However, Keith knew that a great site would showcase his message, mission, and sincere intent to help others. His site looks great on mobile devices, catching the attention of all those people who may be interested in his offer as they drive by.
The Craigslist Strategy
Craigslist is still one of the best ways to generate cheap leads. Keith’s strategy included a few key steps.
He had two different versions of his ad. One introduced his company and services, the other was a bit more personal.
He posted in the services section under real estate services, moving services, and other places where his competition wasn’t.
He posted one ad every Friday, with each ad being up for 4 weeks. At any time, Keith would have 4 ads up in one place or another.
Keith set up a separate phone number for Craigslist, helping him to know where the leads were coming from.
Investor Carrot offers a great resource to help you kick off your Craigslist campaign to generate quality, low-cost leads.
All of Keith’s hustle worked. His first check was for $8,900.
Keith’s Marketing Mix Today
Keith’s marketing strategy today still incorporates Craigslist and bandit signs, but he’s added a few other elements to his marketing strategy. Today, Keith’s leads come from a variety of places.
Bandit Signs
Craigslist
Carrot
Ringless Voicemail
Social Media
Facebook Marketplace
Organic Traffic
Paid Ads – PPC
PPC has been instrumental for Keith. He’s been able to close 1 in 10 leads this way. Recently, PPC costs have driven people away from this method of marketing. This has opened the doors for people who want to use PPC to drive more high-quality leads to their websites.
When Keith drove down to Carrot HQ for CarrotCamp, we couldn’t help but notice a truck bed full of bandit signs. “My goal is to put up two every time I leave my house. I’m already out driving around, so why not?”
The Importance of Mindset
Throughout Keith’s journey in real estate, he’s learned that he needs to keep the right mindset. By consistently doing all of the small things each day, Keith was able to build a business that he is proud of. He went to school, he learned the business, and he got to work. He didn’t give up and that is what has led him to the life he’s leading today.
The way he operates his business is simple. He wants to work with people he likes, doing deals that really help everyone. He knows people may take advantage of his kindness, but the way he looks at it is that it’s an inexpensive way to weed out the bad people from his life.
I recently challenged our listeners to do some push-ups each day, doing one more than they had the day before. I’ve watched Keith crush this challenge, putting up his videos and numbers each day. It is this mindset that is helping him to grow his business into something bigger.
Consistency is inspiring. While the flash in the pan is eye-catching, the person who is doing the work day in and day out will ultimately be the bigger inspiration to those around them. They may not have been inspiring others on day one, but when they are doing 150 push-ups in a row, people are going to notice.
Keith giving his presentation at CarrotCamp Fall 2019
Google looks at site speed as a great (or not-so-great) indicator to the user experience. Those experiences heavily impact where your site ranks in Google searches! (Check out the conversion rate chart below!)
Carrot crushed the competition in FreshChalk’s study for page loading speed, scoring 98 out of 100!
Some of the largest website builders create ineffective, slow websites.
If you want to understand how page speed and other tech elements impact your website’s performance, conversion rate, and search ranking, read on!
Fresh Chalk analyzed business websites across dozens of industries, including real estate, and Carrot outperformed ALL other website builders (except Google’s own Google My Biz websites) including Wix, WordPress.com, Placester, Shopify, Hibu, just to name a few.
Carrot’s time to first byte was recorded at 0.189!!!
When we mention Carrot’s tech stack, we’re referring to all the technical components continuously working in the background of Carrot’s high-performance Lead Generation Hub (aka your real estate website).
While these tech elements might seem insignificant to your daily activities, you’d be surprised to know how much weight they carry in regard to your website’s overall performance, especially in lead conversion and SEO ranking.
Page speed, for example, has a huge impact in both of these areas (as you’ll see more of in the interview below). In fact, Google’s core web vitals for page loading speed should be anything under 2.5 seconds as of 2022. Anything over that and your website’s conversion rate will plummet drastically…
As for SEO, Google looks at site speed as a great (or not-so-great) indicator to the user experience. Those experiences heavily impact where your site ranks in Google searches!
Carrot absolutely crushed the competition in FreshChalk’s study for page loading speed, scoring 98 out of 100!
This comes as no surprise either when we look at Carrot’s 2022 SEO and conversion data. Carrot websites have been proven to:
Outclass 92.5% of competitor sites in terms of Mobile Performance Score
Capture >50% of the top 3 Google search results for the keyword phrase “sell my house fast.”
Convert all website traffic at a 44% higher rate than the real estate industry standard (with additional 2X higher rates for organic traffic)
So Yeah… we were pretty darn excited about these results. :-)
To learn more about the research methodology behind this study, and why website page speed is so important, so we interviewed Adam Doppelt, founder of FreshChalk, who conducted the research. Here’s what he had to say.
Q&A with Trevor, CEO at Carrot and Adam Fresh Chalk founder
Q: What made you want to do this research project and how did you choose which 150,000 sites to use in your study?
A: The idea emerged from a discussion with my co-founder Patrick. He crawled roughly 150,000 of the small businesses listed on Fresh Chalk to improve the contact information we display on the site.
We were chatting about his project and came up with the idea… perhaps we should poke through the data and see if there was anything interesting lurking inside.
Q: As you were digging into the data, you found which website builders were the most popular. Was there any correlation between popularity and performance?
A: Market share and website performance don’t seem to be strongly correlated. Some of the largest website builders create ineffective, slow websites.
I think this speaks to the power of marketing. I see this as a challenge and an opportunity. We need to do a better job of making our products fast and educating the world about the benefits of speed.
Q: How important is page speed and time to the first byte when it comes to Google rankings in your study?
A terrible website won’t rank well even if it displays quickly.
Certainly Google itself invests heavily in speed.
There’s also a ton of evidence that improving page speed also benefits conversion rates, retention, and user happiness.
Q: In the study, Carrot popped up on the radar, and while we host far fewer websites than WordPress or Wix, why did you include us in the report? What surprised you about the performance you saw on the Carrot sites in the study? How does Carrot stack up against the other website builders you found in the study?
A: Carrot stood out in my results like a cheetah in a world of slugs. Carrot websites are just plain fast. I had to include them, just to show the world that it’s still possible to build great products that are still fast.
By some measurements, Carrot sites are twice as fast as Squarespace. Consumers notice and convert better.
By the way, I can tell you that Carrot’s median Google PageSpeed score was 98 as measured across 118 Carrot real estate websites.
I didn’t have room for that in the report. Pretty amazing compared to the competition!
Q: How does page speed and time to first-byte impact search results?
A: Speed definitely has an impact. Time to the first byte isn’t itself a ranking factor, though it feeds into Google’s PageSpeed metric.
It’s my opinion that Google uses the PageSpeed number verbatim as the ranking factor. I doubt they built two separate speed ranking systems.
Q: Seeing how the only website builder that beat Carrot was Google’s own websites, can you place a dollar amount or value on the tech stack or speed people are getting when using Carrot?
A: Google My Business sites are fast because they are simple and get to piggyback on all the other infrastructure that Google built for their data centers and search products.
My guess is that it would be nearly impossible for them to speed up those sites without a huge amount of effort!
There is also a ton of research showing that fast websites convert better than slow ones.
For example, in 2017 Google concluded that 53% of mobile visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.
Can you imagine losing half your salesjust because you picked Wix instead of Carrot?
Q: For the future of small business, how important do you feel it will be to focus on performance with their website to stay competitive with others in their market?
A: Users, in general, are intolerant of slow websites. If I remember correctly, one study a couple of years ago showed that users would exit after a few seconds spent waiting for slow websites.
Speedy websites help users feel that the businesses behind those websites are active and in touch with consumer demands.
It’s our responsibility to make sure that websites are fast even when running on pokey cell networks. It’s incredibly important!
Fastest, most up-to-date websites available. The staff is exceptionally knowledgeable, and they just keep on improving. There’s nothing static about them or the sites they create. And, as an extra bonus there is a huge amount of training available!
The (Other) Carrot Difference
Pretty awesome, huh?
At Carrot, we constantly look to improve our platform and websites to give you the best marketing tools to help you attract the right traffic to your Lead Gen Hub (aka your real estate website), convert that traffic into motivated seller and buyer leads, and close more deals than ever before.
Additionally, since we’re smaller than Wix or WordPress, we can dedicate more time to helping our members succeed at business, which is probably why we were placed on the Inc. 5000 list and Entrepreneur 360 list in 2019 — when you care deeply about your customer’s success, awesome stuff happens. :-)
Carrot on Entrepreneur 360 List 2019
And we believe that by helping you build a business that provides you with the entrepreneurial freedom you crave, we will build a business that gives us time for the things that matter most in life.
Am I listening to just throw my stuff on them? Or am I listening to hear where they are? It’s about first trying to honor where someone’s at.
– Joaquin Ortiz
How mindful are we when it comes to the things you are saying? Not just to the people in front of you, but online as well?
We have a very meaningful departure from our usual topics today, and instead, we wanted to focus on a topic that’s becoming more and more prevalent…cyber-bullying.
Carrot’s own Joaquin Ortiz shares his story of a close family member and legendary marathon runner, Dr. Frank Meza, who was recently impacted by cyber-bullying.
Listen in to learn how we can all play our own parts in being more mindful.
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
Mindfulness, Cyber-Bullying, and The Legend of Frank Meza w/ Joaquin Ortiz
At our most recent CarrotCamp, my dear friend and teammate here at Carrot, Joaquin Ortiz shared with me how he and his family have been impacted personally by cyber-bullying. Joaquin is a prime example of one of our core values: Be a Beacon of Positivity and Possibility. He reminds all of us here at Carrot to go within and to shed the light on the positives which are all around us. I was thrilled to be able to sit down with him here on the CarrotCast and I can’t wait to have him on again! Later in the podcast, I will share a BIG call to action that will have a profound effect on you and those around you!
Creating Your Legacy
Joaquin often finds ways to bring the team back to center. Whether he is leading exercises in the morning or sharing with us an inspiring new playlist, helping us to connect is something he is truly amazing at. Joaquin loves to run, just like his uncle Dr. Frank Meza who was a huge inspiration to him. He taught him to aspire to be a greater version of himself.
A few months ago Joaquin’s family was struck by tragedy.
Dr. Frank Meza was an incredible man. His list of accomplishments included becoming a successful doctor, runner, and mentor. He lost his father at a young age and came to America as an immigrant. The cards were stacked against him until he met a group of Latino doctors that made him realize he could be successful too.
Once he found success of his own, he became a mentor to many others who were following in his footsteps. Running was his medicine and meditation. He became quite good at it, but he wasn’t after notoriety, he simply loved running. He began to mentor people in running, getting people more involved in their own health and volunteering his time coaching at Loyola High School.
Over the past few years, Frank was winning medals and breaking records, but that’s not what it was about for him. As he continued to astonish people with his running ability, the accusations began to start. There were running forums investigating his performance, comments and negativity being spread faster than wildfire. At one point, he had news crews crowding his front lawn looking for a story or even a glimpse of him through a window. While Dr. Meza tried his best to shrug it off, he began to worry about the safety of his family.
The kicker was when the LA Times ran a front-page headline calling him a cheater. LA was his hometown and a community he had given so much back to. Instead of being recognized for his accomplishments, his character, and all he had given back, his name was being dragged through the mud.
On July 4th, he started the day like any other. He told his wife he wanted to go for a run as always she encouraged him to do what made him happy. Sadly, Dr. Meza didn’t return home from the run. He instead, drove to his old neighborhood, found a bridge, and made his peace.
Loss Of Humanity
Here’s the deal. I don’t care about the facts, that is not what is important here. What is important is that there was a highly accomplished human being on the other end of these comments, negativity, and eventual hostility. There are no laws to protect people on the internet the way there are in the real world. If a mob of people shows up on your lawn, you can do something. Not so much when the mob is online.
Let’s go back in time 70 years. The things people say online never would have been said between people communicating face to face. Today, the internet is giving people gumption to say things online that would never be said in real life.
Doing Better
Joaquin asks us all to be more mindful of the things we are saying to the people we are with and the people we speak to online. How much are you listening to others without any judgments or assumptions? We can all be guilty of flipping to the negative when we feel attacked or less than. But when you attack others to make yourself feel better, you have no idea what is on the other end or what that person may be going through.
Not only can we be mindful of what we are saying, but we can help to encourage those around us to be more mindful too. We can raise our kids to build people up. Ask them if they would be comfortable having the things they post become headline news? Are the hurtful comments something they really want to be known for? Our words don’t go away in the digital world. Watch your kids and make sure they are incouraging others instead of tearing them down.
Getting Help
If you feel as if you are being bullied, whether online or in real life, it’s important to take action. Many times people don’t feel comfortable opening up about their emotions or how something is making them feel. Don’t hold this stuff in. Find a friend, family member or counselor who can help you get through it.
If you are seeing the bullying taking place around you, do something about it. Flag inappropriate comments, report posts that spread hate and negativity. Keep in mind there are real people who are on the other end of these negative comments.
The biggest takeaway I have for you in this episode is to look around you and ask yourself “How do you inspire others to uplift instead of tear down?”
My Challenge For You
We all have someone we are truly grateful for, but we haven’t stopped to say those words to them. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Say those things today. I want you to report back to us, telling us about who you talked to and what came of it. Send your stories to support@carrot.com and Joaquin will see those emails.
I truly appreciate Joaquin sitting down with us and talking about something so difficult and personal. I want to tell our customers to look out for Joaquin as he is likely someone you will be talking to via email or on your next strategy call!
Mentioned in this episode:
Altamed providing healthcare to disenfranchised individuals in LA County
Taking Off The Armor – Joaquin’s quest to go inward to transform and make your story what you want it to be. CarrotCamp – The ultimate mastermind for real estate investors and agents
We want to hear your thoughts on the podcast! Drop them in the comments section below or hit us up on Facebook or Instagram
Did you know the very first spam email was sent back in 1978?
And it’s been a problem ever since.
Sometimes the culprit is an over-eager marketer, and sometimes the perpetrator is something more nefarious like a phishing scheme.
Either way, spam is an internet-wide issue. One that every business online has to deal with. Back in August of this year, more than 250 million websites – of all kinds – were hit by a massive infestation of pesky overseas spambots.
Some website providers experienced crippling server issues as a result! Thanks to continual innovations, the high-performance tech framework at Carrot had no problem handling the increased traffic load, but, like for those 249,999,999 other sites, our members saw an increase in spam leads.
Sometimes, problems create opportunities, or in this case, they create great new product features!
The first step in squashing this issue was a recommendation that members add a CAPTCHA field to the impacted web forms. This reduced spam dramatically for some folks… but it came with a challenge. Some bots were outsmarting CAPTCHA, and manually adding CAPTCHA to forms was slow and did not align with our mission.
We knew we needed to provide excellent and automated spam filtering while giving YOU, our members, additional controls.
A new approach to filtering and managing spam leads
The new Automated Spam Control System is designed to automatically filter spam from your lead forms and give you the ability to view and edit your spam “inbox”.
Here are a few quick highlights of the new feature.
Key Features
All form submissions that come via a form containing a text area (for example, the “Contact Us” form) will be “scored” and the spam will be filtered out.
Notifications for spam leads are skipped (so they don’t clog up your inbox) and the spam is sorted into a separate view in your lead manager.
Your lead manager now allows you to review all spam leads and move them to your inbox if needed.
What to do next
If you are a Carrot member, log in and visit your leads dashboard. Do a quick check to ensure you don’t have any legitimate leads that were incorrectly filtered as spam. It’s here that you can also familiarize yourself with your new tools!
Also, remember that CAPTCHA is best used on forms that require text fields. We do NOT recommend using CAPTCHA on your main opt-in forms (for example on your home page) because of the impact it can have on your conversion rates.
We would also love your feedback on this new system! Have your spam leads dried up recently? Check out your new spam box and let us know if you have any feedback for us as we continue to improve this new feature.
We are continually dedicated to making Carrot better for each and every one of our members.
If you have questions, please contact our awesome support team!
In the spirit of our Carrot core value of consistent improvement and innovation, we’re excited to share some improvements we have been making to all Carrot member sites!
Carrot sites have beautiful custom fonts available to help differentiate your site and look great. Previously served from Google Fonts, we’ve now simplified the font loading process and moved font files to the Carrot CDN (Content Deliver Network) – reducing lookups, and optimizing delivery.
We’ve also audited all Carrot site themes and improved font weight selection to ensure your sites have great readability across more devices and rely on fewer different weights to load
🎉 Result: An average of about 2 points increase in PageSpeed score, but more importantly, a visible speed improvement in your browser for when the site looks loaded.
Bonus: If speed is your only goal… there is now an option to forgo web fonts all together and just use the default browser fonts.
Embed YouTube Videos w/ No Slow Down!
What’s new?
Better looking YouTube Embeds
Faster page loads with YouTube Videos
No performance hits for adding multiple videos
Video is a great interactive way build credibility. Whether it is an informational video on your home page, or a series of testimonial videos. Unfortunately… loading up a YouTube video can take a lot of resources, and performance (especially on mobile devices) is worse the more videos you add to a webpage.
We’ve solved this issue by implementing deferred loading of video embeds!
Now, rather than loading all YouTube embed assets, scripts, etc. for every video on your page immediately, your Carrot site automatically shows a preview placeholder for videos until the visitor clicks the play button.
Once the play button is hit, the YouTube embed is loaded and starts playing!
🎉 Result: We have seen dramatic load time reduction, for a page with single video this can improve PageSpeed scores by 15+ points (out of 100). Adding multiple videos, this can show an improvement of multiple seconds on your page load and as much as 25 PageSpeed score points!
More Responsive Billing Feedback
We also want to take a moment to share some more behind the scenes updates – we’re hard at work improving the visibility of your billing status for your Carrot membership.
You will now get real-time updates in your account about the status of your credit card expiration or missed payments.
We are also rolling out new systems to ensure that billing related communication comes your way more reliable, should there ever be a problem with your card.
You’ll now also be prompted immediately upon sign-in if your billing has lapsed past the 10-14 days when your account will go temporarily inactive. That way you will have the quickest path to keeping your account current and your Carrot sites live!
How to activate these new updates?
You don’t! We’re already on it for you – that’s the beauty of Carrot 😄
Nothing to install, nothing to update 😎 We’re on it!
Let us know what you think!
Check out your own sites, and reach out to Carrot support if you have any questions – we love hearing from you!
For years, we’ve worked our bottoms off to provide you (our members, the people on our email list, and even those of you who’ve never worked with us) free, valuable, life-changing content.
Every week for the past several years (with maybe a couple exceptions), we’ve published a new blog post and/or CarrotCast episode meant to help you build a bigger business, live a happier life, achieve financial freedom, and escape the horribly monotonous 9-5 grind.
That is our passion: to help you regain time in your life for things that matter most — family, friends, hobbies, etc.
But there’s a problem — while we’ve consistently created content to help you build a business you can be proud of, our website hasn’t done the best job of organizing that content for you.
You can click on the “Blog” tab at the top of our website and you’ll see our latest blog posts and CarrotCast episodes, but it’d take some real work to digest our content in any sort of chronological order… until now. :)
Announcing Carrot University!
We’re launching Carrot University with our SEO 101 Courses!
Carrot University is our (the content creator’s: Brendan, Trevor, and myself) effort to organize our content so that you can easily digest the most important lessons for your business. Want to learn about SEO? Here are 10 lessons to get you started off on the right foot! Want to learn about PPC?
Here are 10 lessons to teach you everything you need to know to get started. Wondering which contracts you need for your real estate investing business? Here are some templates!
Rather than choosing random pieces of content via Google and our blog, you can now go to a single place (Carrot University) and learn about those topics in chronological order — from beginner to advanced to ultra successful.
We wanted to get Carrot University out to you as soon as possible, so we’re launching it with just one module of content: SEO 101 — basically, our beginner’s guide to understanding SEO and how it applies to your real estate website.
BUT…
There’s a lot more to come. ;)
We have plans for content modules about PPC advertising, advanced SEO lessons, personal development, and even nitty-gritty business building best practices. Ultimately, we want Carrot University to serve YOU. We want it to be a place that you go to learn, grow, and challenge yourself.
Our mission at Carrot just got bigger. See why in the video above then listen to why we’re betting $600k in our brand in the podcast below.
Whew! It’s been 5 years since we started Carrot. 5 years! And a lot has happened in those 60 some odd months.
Over that time we’ve helped thousands of real estate investors and agents stand out online, cut through the clutter, and win more leads and deals. In fact, well over 2,000,000 online leads and counting.
Over 3,000 Carrot Bud dolls have been sent out to raving Carrot fans, 1,000+ Carrot t-shirts (the comfiest ever!), 250,000+ CarrotCast downloads, thousands of “doses of awesomeness” have been sent in from Carrot members about their successes since working with us.
But a BIG piece of fully owning Carrot, the brand, has escaped us until now.
Our $600k Bet To Acquire Carrot.com And Go All In On Our Mission
Um, yes… you read that right. That’s no typo.
$600,000 for a domain name. Believe me, if you would have told me 3 years ago we’d be investing that much money into a domain I would have said you’re off your rocker. But today, I feel it’s one of the best investments we could have made to further our future and our mission to impact far more entrepreneurs.
You’ve heard me talk about how important it is today to build a brand and we’ve done a pretty darn good job of it over the years. But one thing that kept bugging us was the brand confusion in the market about our real company name.
Are we Carrot?
Are we OnCarrot?
Are we InvestorCarrot?
Well, we’ve always been Carrot. InvestorCarrot is a product, and AgentCarrot is a product. But a hefty percentage of people still called us OnCarrot as our business name rather than that just being our domain name. So much so that it became a running joke that would make us cringe internally every time we saw it.
The Need To Own Our Brand Became More Important
Many people feel that a brand is simply your company colors and a logo.
But, that’s just the start. We all know companies that have an amazing logo, but you cringe when you hear their name because of the way they run their business. They have a brand, just not the one they want.
A brand is everything that paints the picture of what your company represents to the marketplace.
The Carrot orange is a recognizable sign of our brand.
Our logo was a fun expression of our brand.
The dolls, t-shirts, and way we do business here all feed into building the Carrot brand that tens of thousands of grown to know and love.
But what about your domain name?
Your domain name can also signal how serious you are about your brand, or whether you’re just “dabbling” in your brand.
For us, our domain name was fine. It would have continued to do what it needed to do. But it didn’t further cement our brand. It actually distracted from it and made it harder for people to find us.
We’re Turning The Page To The Next Chapter At Carrot
As we’re making a big bet on our mission, on our brand, on helping tens of thousands more small businesses to stand out online and finally get results… we’re also making a big bet on YOU.
This is only our first big bet.
Throughout the next 24 months, we’re investing heavily into other areas.
We’re making big investments into…
Building our engineering and product teams to innovate our product faster than ever before
Transforming our Customer Success team to take your customer experience to an even higher level
Doubling down on our content efforts to get the most up to date and useful content possible
… and more.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate International Carrot Day (April 4th) than this. And we’re grateful that you’re a part of the journey.
Celebrate International Carrot Day With Us + Win Prizes!
In celebration of our doubling down on our brand and mission, for International Carrot Day we’re doing 2 challenges today and giving away hundreds of dollars in prizes including orange Bose Speakers!
Just click the link below to enter one of our 2 challenges and celebrate with us!
Imagine this: a potential seller in your market frantically searches online for an investor who specializes in buying properties quickly. Suddenly, your website pops up at the top of the search results, showcasing your expertise in navigating the local market for these unique properties.
This, my friends, is the magic of high-intent real estate keywords working their SEO wonders.
Real Estate SEO Bible: The Ultimate SEO Keywords Guide
For real estate investors and agents like you, specializing in niche markets and ranking high in generic searches might not be enough. That’s where high-intent keywords come in – laser-focusing your online presence to attract motivated sellers and buyers actively seeking your specific services.
In this guide, we’ll equip you, the savvy real estate investor or agent, with the knowledge to unlock the power of high-intent keywords. By the end, you’ll be well on your way to dominating your local market’s SEO rankings, attracting a steady stream of qualified leads, and ultimately closing more deals.
Why High-Intent Keywords Are Your Secret Weapon in Real Estate SEO
Not all keywords are created equal. In the competitive world of real estate SEO, high-intent keywords are the golden ticket to attracting qualified leads and boosting your ROI. But what exactly are they, and why should you care?
High-intent keywords are search terms used by people who are closer to making a decision. These keywords go beyond basic informational queries and signal a strong intent to take action. Imagine the difference between someone searching for “what is a condo?” (informational) and “sell my condo fast in [Location]” (high-intent). The latter searcher is a motivated seller actively looking for an agent in your area – your ideal client!
By strategically incorporating high-intent keywords into your SEO strategy, you unlock a treasure trove of benefits:
Increased Conversion Rates: Attract leads who are already pre-qualified and ready to move forward. High-intent keywords connect you with sellers actively seeking to sell their property, maximizing your chances of converting leads into paying clients.
Improved ROI on Marketing Efforts: Forget the scatter-shot approach. High-intent keywords allow you to target your marketing efforts laser-sharp, reaching the most relevant audience primed for your services. This translates to a more efficient use of your marketing budget and a higher return on investment.
Attract Motivated Sellers and Buyers: High-intent keywords act like a magnet for sellers and buyers who are serious about their real estate needs. You’ll be attracting a pool of highly motivated clients eager to discuss their needs, streamlining your lead nurturing process.
In a nutshell, high-intent keywords are the bridge between potential clients and your expertise. They ensure you’re connecting with the right people at the right time, ultimately leading to a thriving real estate business.
Uncovering High-Intent Real Estate Keywords: Your SEO Treasure Map
The path to dominating your local market’s SEO rankings starts with uncovering the golden nuggets of real estate – high-intent keywords. But these gems won’t be found by chance. Let’s delve into the treasure chest of research strategies to identify the keywords that will attract a flood of motivated sellers and buyers to your doorstep.
1. Keyword Research Tools: Your Powerful Pickaxes
Just like Carrot farms wouldn’t head to the fields empty-handed, you shouldn’t embark on your keyword research journey without the right tools. Here are some popular options to consider:
Carrot Keyword Finder (Carrot Members): This powerful tool helps you analyze your website and the competition’s website to find the next keyword to target in your SEO strategy.
Carrot Keyword Explorer
Google Keyword Planner (Free): A great starting point, Keyword Planner allows you to research search volume, competition level, and related keywords for your target terms.
SEMrush & Ahrefs (Paid): Offering more advanced features like keyword difficulty score, competitor keyword analysis, and backlink tracking, these tools provide deeper insights for a more comprehensive strategy.
2. Understanding User Intent: Decoding the Search Motive
Not all searches are created equal. Some users are just browsing for information (informational intent), while others are ready to take action (transactional intent). The key to identifying high-intent keywords lies in understanding user intent.
Here’s a breakdown:
Informational Intent: Keywords like “benefits of buying a condo” or “what to consider when selling a house” indicate the user is in the research phase. While valuable for brand awareness, these keywords might not translate directly into immediate leads.
Transactional Intent: Keywords like “sell my condo fast ” or “ + first-time homebuyer guide with realtor contact” showcase a strong desire to take action. These are the high-intent keywords you should prioritize, as they connect you with motivated leads ready to work with a real estate agent.
3. Local Keyword Targeting: Think Geographically
In the world of real estate, location is everything. For local SEO dominance, incorporating location-specific keywords into your strategy is crucial. Here’s how:
City + Property Type: Target keywords like “ + [niche property type] for sale” or “ + best realtor for selling [niche property type].”
Neighborhood Targeting: Get even more specific by including popular neighborhoods in your market (e.g., “‘s + [neighborhood] + real estate agent”).
4. Competitor Analysis: Spy on the Competition (Ethically!)
There’s no shame in learning from the best (or, in this case, the most successful). Analyzing your competitors’ keyword usage can reveal valuable insights and uncover gaps in your own strategy. Here’s what to watch for:
Top Ranking Websites: Identify the websites ranking high in your local market and analyze their keyword usage. Tools like SEMrush can help you do this.
Common Keywords: See which keywords your competitors are targeting and use this information to identify potentially valuable keywords for your own strategy.
Untapped Opportunities: Look for gaps in your competitors’ keyword strategy – these could be niche terms or long-tail keywords that present an opportunity to stand out.
5. Long-Tail Keywords: Cast a Targeted Net
Don’t underestimate the power of long-tail keywords! These highly specific phrases, like “ + first-time homebuyer guide with realtor contact,” attract targeted leads with a clear intent to buy (or sell) a specific property type. While individual search volume might be lower, long-tail keywords often face less competition and can lead to higher conversion rates.
By combining these research strategies, you’ll be well-equipped to unearth the high-intent keywords that will unlock a treasure trove of qualified leads for your real estate business. Remember, the more you understand your target audience’s search intent and tailor your keyword strategy accordingly, the higher you’ll climb the local SEO rankings and the closer you’ll get to dominating your market.
Putting High-Intent Keywords to Work: Building Your SEO Empire
Unearthing valuable high-intent keywords is just the first step. Now, it’s time to transform them into SEO gold by strategically integrating them into your online presence. Here are the key implementation strategies to supercharge your local market dominance:
Think of your website as fertile ground for SEO growth. To cultivate success, you must plant high-intent keywords throughout your website’s content. Here’s where to focus:
Page Titles & Meta Descriptions: Craft compelling titles and descriptions that incorporate your high-intent keywords naturally. These snippets are like shop windows, enticing potential clients to click through.
Example: Instead of a generic title like “John Smith Real Estate,” try “ + [Niche Property Type] Expert | John Smith Real Estate.”
Headings & Subheadings: Structure your content with clear headings and subheadings that include your high-intent keywords. This improves readability and helps search engines understand your content’s relevance.
Body Content: Don’t just stuff keywords! Weave them naturally throughout your content, ensuring it remains informative and engaging for your audience.
2. Content Marketing: Become a Local Market Authority
High-quality, informative content is the lifeblood of a successful SEO strategy. Creating content targeting your high-intent keywords establishes yourself as a trusted authority in your local market. Here are some content ideas:
Blog Posts: Write engaging blog posts that address common pain points and questions your target audience might have. Use your high-intent keywords throughout the content and consider formats like “ + Real Estate Market Update” or “[Niche Property Type] Selling Guide for .” Carrot does this for you! Learn more about our Automated Content Library.
Market Reports: Offer valuable insights into your local market by creating downloadable reports that showcase your expertise. Integrate high-intent keywords throughout the report and promote it on social media and through email marketing.
Neighborhood Guides: Craft informative guides highlighting specific neighborhoods in your market. This is a great way to target location-specific keywords and showcase your knowledge of the local area.
3. Local Business Listings: Claim Your Local Territory
In the digital world of real estate, claiming your territory starts with local business listings. Here’s what you need to do:
Google My Business: This is your online storefront for local searches. Claim and optimize your Google My Business profile, ensuring your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information is consistent across all platforms. Include relevant high-intent keywords in your profile description.
Other Local Directories: Don’t neglect other local directories relevant to your market. Search for real estate agent listings, business directories, and local chambers of commerce to claim and optimize your profiles, incorporating high-intent keywords where applicable.
4. Backlink Building: Earn Trustworthy Votes
Backlinks are essentially votes of confidence from other websites. The more high-authority websites link back to yours using relevant high-intent keywords as anchor text, the higher your website’s ranking in search results. Here are some strategies:
Guest Blogging: Contribute guest articles to local news websites, real estate blogs, or industry publications. Include high-intent keywords naturally within your content and link back to your website.
Local Business Partnerships: Partner with complementary businesses in your area (e.g., mortgage lenders, home inspectors, contractors) to explore backlink opportunities. Offer to write a blog post for their website in exchange for a backlink with a relevant high-intent keyword.
Community Engagement: Actively participate in online forums and social media groups relevant to your local market. Provide valuable insights and expertise, and include a link back to your website when appropriate.
Now that you’re armed with the knowledge to unlock the power of high-intent keywords, it’s time to take action! Review your website content and local listings, and identify opportunities to integrate your high-intent keywords strategically.
By implementing these strategies, you’ll be well on your way to building a dominant SEO presence in your local market, attracting a steady stream of qualified leads, and ultimately achieving your real estate business goals.
Bonus Section: Common High-Intent Keyword Missteps to Avoid
While high-intent keywords are your key to SEO success, there are a few common pitfalls to steer clear of:
1. Keyword Stuffing: Don’t force high-intent keywords into your content unnaturally. This can create a clunky reading experience and actually harm your SEO ranking. Focus on creating informative and engaging content that integrates keywords seamlessly.
2. Ignoring Search Volume: While high-intent is crucial, consider search volume too. Don’t get so niche that your target keywords have minimal search traffic. Aim for a balance between high intent and reasonable search volume to ensure you reach a relevant audience.
3. Neglecting Long-Tail Keywords: Yes, long-tail keywords might have lower individual search volume, but they often face less competition and can lead to highly qualified leads. Don’t underestimate their power!
4. Forgetting Local SEO: For real estate agents, location is king. Don’t just target generic high-intent keywords. Incorporate location-specific terms like “ + [Niche Property Type]” to attract clients in your local market.
5. Underestimating Content Quality: High-intent keywords are just one piece of the SEO puzzle. Always prioritize creating high-quality, informative content that provides value to your target audience. Search engines favor websites with fresh, valuable content, so prioritize quality over quantity.
By avoiding these common mistakes and implementing the strategies outlined in this guide, you’ll be well on your way to leveraging the power of high-intent keywords to dominate your local market’s SEO rankings and establish yourself as the go-to real estate expert for your niche property type.
Conclusion: Reap the Rewards of High-Intent SEO
The journey to real estate SEO dominance starts with a treasure hunt for high-intent keywords. By strategically integrating these powerful keywords into your online presence, you’ll unlock a wealth of benefits:
Attract Qualified Leads: High-intent keywords connect you with motivated sellers and buyers actively seeking your services, maximizing your chances of converting leads into paying clients.
Boost Local Market Visibility: Targeted keywords ensure your website ranks higher in local searches, making you the go-to expert for [Niche Property Type] real estate in [Location].
Become a Local Authority: Creating informative content rich in high-intent keywords establishes you as a trusted advisor in your market, fostering client confidence and brand loyalty.
Remember, the key to SEO success lies in understanding your target audience’s search intent and tailoring your online presence accordingly. By following the strategies outlined in this guide, you’ll be well on your way to:
Dominating local SEO rankings for your niche market.
Attracting a steady stream of qualified leads eager to discuss their [Niche Property Type] needs.
Ultimately, thriving in the dynamic world of real estate.
Ready to take action and transform your website into a high-intent keyword magnet?
Here’s how you can get started:
Subscribe to our blog for ongoing SEO tips and tricks to stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
Download our free guide: “The Ultimate List of High-Intent Real Estate Keywords” to discover a treasure trove of valuable keywords specifically tailored to your niche market and location.
Don’t wait – unlock the power of high-intent keywords today and watch your real estate business flourish!
