Who’s looking forward to the Super Bowl this year? How about the commercials? I love football, but I must admit, I look forward to seeing the commercials about as much as the big game. With 100 million people watching and so much on the line for advertisers, the commercials rarely disappoint. Many of the same companies put together brilliant ads year after year. Certain companies are almost expected to have a spot. A great spot. Year after year.
Pepsi has advertised during the Super Bowl for 23 consecutive years, but this year they Read the rest of this entry »
When it comes to presentations and/or teaching, what is your favorite type or method? I’ve set through many a conference, client presentation, seminar, training session and other teaching experiences. Over the years, I’ve been the presenter/teacher lots of times; and one thing I have come to learn is that my least favorite of these experiences is sitting in room filled with people and listening to a monologue about the topic at hand.
So now, I often dread client presentations. Not because I don’t like being a presenter and feel that I am not good at it; on the contrary, I am quite comfortable standing in front of a crowd. What I dread about client presentations is that moment after you’ve presented everything and you’re awaiting their response. Did you nail it? Will the client be able to think as the customer, not as themselves? Do they agree that you know exactly how to take their product to the masses? Read the rest of this entry »
It is inevitable that I end up explaining the evolution of the web several times a week. Whether with clients, prospects, peers, family or friends, the web and social media have hit a point of intersection where advertisers and consumers are now in the same dialog. Even Googling and facebooking are terms my seven year old uses regularly.
In times past, the “mother-in-law test” as I called it (no offense, Grandma C.), was a litmus test to determine how simple an idea was. I would just ask, “Would your mother-in-law get that idea?” If the answer was “No.”, then the concept was either bad or overcomplicated. Well, here is my “mother-in-law test” for the state of marketing on the web today, so tell me if I have passed my own test. Read the rest of this entry »
The sales management paradox in a recession is that projects can simply no longer afford the high costs of on-site sales management by a senior sales leader, and yet now is precisely the time they cannot afford to do without it.
Sales teams are perpetually in either a virtuous circle or a vicious spiral. Success breeds more success, but lack of momentum is also self-reinforcing. Sales teams today are working harder to make fewer sales and in some cases sales momentum is at a snails pace. Add to that shrinking team sizes requiring longer hours to provide 24/7 coverage, drastically reduced earnings and little prospect of a quick bounce-back… and even seasoned real estate sales professionals are questioning their life choices right now. Read the rest of this entry »
Marketing reporting and performance tracking seems like it would be the foundation for any marketing program. But as we talked with clients, prospects, and attendees at many conferences this fall, we find that with all of the marketing options today, many people stand there like a deer in the headlights when asked how they are tracking results.
Not tracking marketing performance is like being on the PGA Tour and not keeping score. You just can’t compete and win without doing it.
Here is a list of six tools for your consideration. Let me preface by saying we define what tools we will use at the beginning of each campaign and these only represent a few that we leverage most often. Also, not everything is easily tracked in one solution, so we often take reports from various formats and pull up our old-school friend, Microsoft Excel, to build custom dashboards based on the client’s specific data views.
Read the rest of this entry »
I have to admit…I’m in love with Wordpress. I could probably be classified as addicted. Anyway, WordPress has been awarded the Overall Best Open Source CMS Award in the 2009 Open Source CMS Awards. Wordpress has been widely recognized as the best blogging tool for a while. Great to see it win this award for its CMS capabilities too.
Check it out: http://wordpress.org/development/2009/11/wordpress-wins-cms-award/
Good thing inbound marketing and social media have no selling season.
As the holiday season approaches, the prime selling season for real estate and many other industries is winding down. Now that your Fall marketing push is coming to a close, it seems natural to take it easy in December and January with your traditional outbound marketing efforts. But what about your inbound marketing efforts? Fewer prospects may be showing up at your sales office during the winter months, but it doesn’t mean they are not doing their homework online. If a prospect visits your Website, you’d better look alive if you want to be on their short list for consideration.
Here are some things you can do to “Winterize” your website and maximize your opportunities online to be in good shape when the selling season rolls back around next Spring. Read the rest of this entry »
Considering a new website for your real estate company? Or any other industry for that matter. Wordpress is an open source application you should definitely check out. Wordpress was originally designed to be a simple blogging tool but it keeps getting better and better. Hundreds of companies are now using Wordpress as a content management system (CMS) to power their entire Website. Some of the awesome benefits of using Wordpress for your blog or as a CMS are its cost (it’s free), ease of use, SEO friendliness, online community support and all the free plugins that allow you to easily customize and add enhancements to your site.
Whether you are a developer of a private community or specialize in general brokerage, there are plenty of great plugins that can really help your Wordpress Website.
Here is a list of 20 plugins we install on many of the sites we design for clients. Try them out and let me know if you have any questions about any of them. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you noticed how many free productivity tools are available online? Do you use any of them? These tools have totally changed how I accomplish day to day tasks and how I use the internet in general. There are hundreds of great tools out there, but here is a list of 10 free tools that will hopefully help you in some way. Check them out and let me know what you think.
1. StumbleUpon.com
You can use SU many different ways, but here is the general idea. You download and install the free SU toolbar and let them know your general interests by completing a quick form. When you click the “Stumble” button, SU randomly sends you to a new site recommended by other folks with similar interests. Read the rest of this entry »
A presentation by Jami Mullikin on social media and how it relates to selling real estate in master planned communities. Please feel free to download it and share it with friends.
Amenity Communities Marketing Summit 10.19.09