Client of the Month

Nicole Fraley Real Estate Agent - Real Estate Agent Website of the Month

"A Great Long-Lasting Success!"

This month our client of the month features one of Z57's first clients, and we are happy to say, also one of our most successful clients!

7 years ago Nicole Fraley and her husband Ty Fraley decided to move from Oregon to the sunny skies of Boca Raton to become real estate agents. They quickly realized they needed to develop a presence on the internet - and turned to Z57 to help develop this.

Ever since joining they have remained one of Z57's most successful clients - they now generate over 60% of their business as direct result of using Z57's real estate marketing services.

We asked Nicole to reveal how she achieved her great success:

Z57: How did you want to grow your business?

Nicole: We realized we needed a two prong approach to growth. One side focused on our current client base and the other on new lead generation. With a market correction underway it became important that we maximize our greatest resource - our current clients.

Z57: What were challenges existing in your business that you wanted to overcome?

Nicole: A slip in the number of buyers in our market has forced us to get creative in attracting new clients. We have a large influx of foreign and out of state buyers. With our market seeing increasing taxes, skyrocketing property insurance bills, and hurricane fears, a majority of locals are not trading up or down to new homes.

Z57: What specific results have you experienced?

Nicole: Using Z57 services we've seen a huge increase in home search forms on our website being submitted, leading to the addition of another buyers agent; bringing the team to a total of three buyers agents.

We realized that using our drip email campaign coupled with Prospect Connector we could reach our client base for a set fee a month. These are great tools because postal mail is expensive and costs continue to rise, but email is free and this has been a successful way for us to keep traffic coming to our website and keep our clients involved with us. It was these efforts that keep us top of the mind for a columnist for the Boca Magazine which resulted in an article about our family.

To increase new business we added funds to our BuyerLink traffic program and started using Z57's custom landing pages rather than our web site home search form. This allowed us to track results and capture more people before they could click around the website. Using Z57 we designed a search form which really captures a lot of information but does not turn the visitor off. That has increased our conversion rate and our new lead rate as well.

Z57: What role did your Account Manager play in your success?

Nicole: We have been with Z57 for so long it seems we are part of the family there. Our account managers Fumi, Gretchen and Hatim have been awesome, but we can't overlook the design team and tech people. The account managers have always kept us up to date with all the new products offered at Z57. Plus they have challenged us to look at other websites so we could see what things work for other people.

It is a challenge to keep up with how the internet changes and real estate evolves and they have been instrumental in helping us stay successful in this area. They keep us just confused enough that we don't get comfortable in what we are doing. That is a good thing!

Z57: What advice can you give to other Realtors with similar goals or challenges?

Nicole: Develop a plan and figure out what you want and how you will pay for it! A marketing campaign that is great on paper needs to be funded and you will not see success when you start cutting back on your lead generation. Too often agents have a bad run and the first thing to go is their marketing; or even worse their website. This is the worst tactic you can have!

Once you have your plan and budget, figure out how to maximize your marketing dollar. Find things that keep your costs low, or at least consistent. If you can, try to figure out how to maintain a new lead structure while staying in contact with your current clients - Z57 have been a tremendous help there!

Most of all, build relationships with everybody! This will get you all kinds of inroads that you could not possibly pay for. By being honest, doing the right thing and working hard for your clients you will gain a lot of credibility that will come back to you ten fold.