Archive for November, 2009
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.
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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 »