Posts Tagged ‘web marketing’

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 »

Ok, good question. And the answer is, maybe. We still believe that the core of any successful marketing campaign is Marketing Relevance, that meaningful connection between your product and your prospect or customer. So even in the age of blogs and tweets there is no silver bullet as we all have the same marketing channels, but our products have different benefits to different audiences.

We start first with do you know your product and do you know your prospect?  Have you narrowed your messaging down to one single battle cry? If so, lets talk about if there is an opportunity to leverage social media. If not, then the cart is way before the horse and lets talk about your market position and how we create a compelling reason to buy.

Let’s assume that you have the positioning thing covered.  Now, are we clear on the meaning of Social Media and Web 2.0 initiatives?  Here is our brief take on it. The Web 2.0 phenom was predicted years ago and was based on the guiding principal that giving is more powerful than taking. That getting like-minded people together from an offline community and providing an online platform would create an opportunity for an exchange of thoughts and ideas. In the beginning, this was via online forums and community groups and many marketers strayed from the idea of giving up control of their brand on a platform that they can’t always patrol. As communities grew, more people joined. As more people joined, more people contributed.  As more people contributed these community portals took shape.  Before too long, something else happened. Instead of people talking in specific communities, they started speaking on their own, own their own sites or blogs. Now the topics were personally relevant and happened independently of established communities. Now the power was in the hands of the individuals.

Over time, blogs took over content, and communities became social networks. These networks started connecting relationships: past, present and future. The relationships began to blossom and people started connecting again. Sharing community, experiences and thoughts. But not just surface level thoughts like cocktail party chatter but thoughts with unique flavor and personality. Thoughts with personal relevance and intrigue that really connected people through transparency and life stories. And these thoughts have become real time and broadcasted to the world instantly. So now through Twitter and facebook we all know all things about all of our relationships all of the time. It’s like we are our own interactive news channel and the world is our audience. But instead the monologue of traditional media, we now have a dialog.

So, do you need to be using Social Media? The answer is still maybe. Maybe if you have an existing offline community that may want to congregate online. A customer base? A prospect database? A group of like-minded individuals that share a similar interest or affinity? If so, are they online already?  Do they use social networks already? And how? Do they post photos, watch videos and contribute to blogs? Passively participate from the sidelines?  Or still think Twitter is a bird from a Bugs Bunny cartoon?

Interesting question. Our standard answer is “it depends.” Simply because there’s no such thing as a standard Web site. For example, building a Web site is a lot like building a house (of course we had to use a real estate metaphor).  Are you talking basic necessities, four walls and roof?  Or a McMansion to be showcased on the next episode of cribs?  Two-bedroom, one-bath starter?  Or mud rooms and master suites?

Web sites are a complex blend of strategy, content, aesthetic and technology.  And everyone’s needs and desires differ. So to assist in the process we have developed a few basic scenarios, or floorplans, as we like to call them. All of which come with an open source Content Management System, or CMS, that is yours rather than ours.  Nothing proprietary here.
Read the rest of this entry »