If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve been hearing about various mobile trends in integrated marketing. And maybe you’ve entertained the idea of how a mobile app could help your business. If you haven’t figured out whether you can afford to build one, or how to go about it, this brief overview will give you a few places to start. First determine how an app would benefit your customers. For example, the hair-cutting franchise Great Clips launched an app that allows customers to see estimated wait times in their area, and easily make an appointment without calling. Consequently, stylists also save time by not having to interrupt haircuts to answer the phone so often. Below are a few sites that can easily and cost-effectively help you build your own mobile app. Most of these, plus others, can be found in the book “Go Mobile: Location-Based Marketing, Apps, Mobile Optimized Ad Campaigns, 2D Codes and Other Mobile Strategies to Grow Your Business” by Jeanne Hopkins and Jamie Turner. Yapp This free service focuses on the tech novice who wants an app for a specific event, like a conference or wedding. It includes directions, news, updates, and photo-sharing features. Yapp is limited in its functionality, but requires little-to-no technical know-how. MyAppBuilder Authors are turning books into apps. Bands are turning albums into apps. If you’ve got the content, the MyAppBuilder team will create an app for you for $29/month. No tech experience necessary. They’ll also upload it to the app store for you. AppMakr This web-based editor is designed to let you quickly create your own iPhone app. The basic tool is free. Advanced features are available for a $79/month fee. AppMakr works on the iOS, Android and Windows operating systems. Mippin The Mippin platform lets you create apps for Android, iOS and Windows, and offers app designs for individuals, small businesses, media owners and products. Native apps can cost as much as $999/year. GENWI A cloud-based mobile Content Management System (mCMS) that helps you create live-content apps with no programming and “zero total cost of ownership.” Apps can include monetization options, such as ads, coupons, and subscriptions. A three-month trial is free. Pricing then depends on app features. Transaction Coordinator
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… even Bill Gates! We saw the headlines on the Seattle blog and the CNET News Blog that the Microsoft chairman admitted to checking out the value of his mansion on Zillow at a recent conference. He also admitted that the Zestimate was too low (even at $134 million). That’s not too surprising, as the Zestimate takes comparable sales into consideration, and there really is nothing like the Gates residence anywhere in the U.S. Unique features include:
We know Bill didn’t go to Zillow to set a Make Me Move price — although, wouldn’t THAT be interesting — but he came to see how technology is mashing up with real estate. So, we say to Bill as we say to everyone: Zillow is a starting point and that starting point becomes more precise with the more data we have to crunch. So, if you feel your home’s value is not spot-on, you can do something about it: Claim your home, edit the home facts and create your own estimate using My Estimator. Real estate is part art and part science. And if you have heated toilet seats and they don’t know it, you can go ahead and add that value to your home details page to get closer to what you think your home is worth. Give it a whirl and let us know what you think. Heated toilet seats? Check… Retractable garage roof? Check… Tunnel to next door neighbor’s wine cellar? Check… Transaction CoordinatorWhat are the best real estate lead generation options today? Where and how can real estate agents, investors and other related industry professionals generate more leads for buying, selling and renting properties? What are some of the little known benefits, and pitfalls of common real estate lead generation channels today? Here are 12 ways for real estate investors and Realtors to bring in more leads: Direct Mail Some popular real estate gurus have said that direct mail is the fastest and easiest way to generate new leads. It can still be very effective. In fact, as others have turned to online marketing, direct mail may have become even more effective and profitable. However, direct mail success does rely on volume and testing to hone messaging and delivery. Cold Calling Cold calling on a large scale, such as using call centers, might face many challenges with regulations today, but it has still been proven to generate an effective hourly income of hundreds of dollars for Realtors. Simply picking up the phone can be one of the fastest ways to generate real estate business. It is also one of the lowest cost ways to generate leads, and can help professionals stay on top of their sales game. Door Knocking Many fantastic real estate deals and listings can be uncovered by simply driving neighborhoods and knocking on doors. There are obvious obstacles in doing this, but when it comes to getting the jump on competitors, it can be hard to beat. Email Marketing Google may have made reaching consumers via their inboxes more challenging, but email can still be one of the best ways to reach both the masses, and highly targeted contacts. Email lists may be rented from data companies versus buying them. Subsequently, real estate investors and agents can take control of their own email real estate and build their own lists. Buying Internet Leads Buying internet leads has been popular for a variety of real estate and mortgage companies since before the last housing boom. These individuals experienced somewhat of a bubble, but have now been improved with enhanced data and targeting tools. There are various types of these leads ranging from ‘aged’ leads, to live exclusive leads, and non-exclusive leads. Make sure you do your homework and understand exactly what you are getting, as well as the difference in these types of consumers, in order to maximize ROI. Buying Lead Lists Lead lists have been a staple of the real estate industry for many years. An almost endless array of filters can be used to laser target the best prospects with these lists. However, newer individuals and real estate companies need to recognize that they may not legally be allowed to have, or market to some of these lists depending on how the data was generated. Watch for junk, and be sure lists aren’t being fluffed out with bogus names. Real Estate Blogging Real estate blogging remains one of the most powerful and profitable forms of lead generation, but also one of the most underestimated. A regular blog can ensure real estate pros and companies are not held ransom by other platforms, and can go on helping to generate leads for years after posts are written. A blog can be used to draw regular internet leads, feed email list building, and fuel social media efforts. Social Media While this medium changes constantly, social media platforms can still be a fantastic way to generate leads in real estate. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and even Pinterest are all great options. There are many debates over calls to action, the amount of engagement which is right, and how much should be invested off-site, versus on a real estate company’s own websites, but with the right funnel strategy, it can be fast, affordable and enjoyable. Signage & Outdoor Real Estate Advertising Even the simplest yard and ‘bandit’ signs can be incredibly affordable ways to generate real estate leads. With the right message, these and other outdoor advertising solutions can be used to generate a steady stream of local leads. New technology can make this even better. Call capture, QR codes, interactive augmented reality signs, text messaging options, and even links to virtual tours can be used to boost outdoor advertising performance. PPC Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can be one of the best methods of predictably and consistently driving in real estate leads on demand. PPC solutions, like Google Adwords, offer the ability to drive in leads on command. This can be tweaked to be hyper local, or reach global buyers, investors and homeowners right where they are now. With a little strategy and education, real estate marketers can significantly drive down PPC costs. With a large enough budget, they can even dominate, and starve out the competition by buying every lead for a given keyword. Aside from the big platforms, more affordable online leads may be gleaned from purchasing image, text and banner ads on other websites directly. Print Advertising Don’t forget print. Beyond the traditional line up of real estate mags, consider other industry magazines that will reach the same prime prospects, and even leveraging online magazines. Referrals and Affiliate Marketing Personal referrals can be both a compliment, and the most valuable form of lead generation. Savvy real estate CEOs are taking this to a whole new level by using technology to scale and organize referrals on a national and global scale. Transaction CoordinatorWhat are the best real estate blog strategies for those investing? More importantly, do real estate professionals even need blogs or websites anymore? If they do, is the best blog theme still real estate, or something entirely different? Blogging continues to be a hot topic. In fact, blog industry experts and some of those with the most popular blogging platforms on the planet have already predicted that this median is only just getting started. We haven’t even begun to realize its hidden potential. At the same time, there are many new real estate agents, investors and related business owners contemplating the best strategy for setting up a blog. However, more than a few are wondering why they aren’t seeing the magnificent results that they hoped for. There is no question that many are suffering the consequences of their own mediocrity. As the U.S. real estate market heats up, there will be a lot more real estate agents getting licensed, more brokerages being launched, real estate teams being formed and investors setting up businesses. Subsequently, each of these new entities will require a means of standing out from the crowd that they were so eager to become a part of. With hundreds, if not thousands, of choices of online destinations for consumers to get their real estate education and tap into resources, there is a need to give them a reason to choose yours. Some sensationalists have recently posed that real estate agents should be focusing more on apps and social, as to not get lost in the sea of choices made available to consumers. There may be some wisdom in this, but few will want to take the risk of going without a real estate website and especially a blog. Even before most consumers or other parties will even consider doing business with a Realtor or real estate investment firm, they are going to try and look up their website online. Neglecting to even provide a website is a huge red flag. A simple website, whether it is one or five pages, is far better than nothing. Short and sweet, but attractive, might be better than expansive and ugly. In other words, it is important to provide consumers with some form of online presence. A blog is far more valuable than a website. It is a living real estate lead generation machine, with a potential ROI from each blog post that could far exceed what most real estate players can fathom. Of course, this doesn’t mean that sticking to stale blogging practices is what is best for your business. You might need a core focused real estate blog that deviates from tradition. For those looking for an outside the box alternative, consider taking an alternate approach or launching a unique blog on a new angle. Some ideas might include focusing more on providing neighborhood information. Inman News and other real estate platforms have been talking incessantly about neighborhood experts. So why not incorporate some real keyword rich, SEO juiced neighborhood blogs that cover everything someone could want to know about moving and living in the area? Other ideas might include architecture, interior design and home improvement themes. Regardless of what you right about, make it original and relevant to your particular profession as possible. Looking at innovative blog strategies may be just what your company needs to gain traction and establish a loyal base of consumers. Transaction CoordinatorYou might know your SEO from your SEM, but do you know how your website ranks against competitors? Although the only metrics that really matter are your own company’s brand equity and sales, it’s a helpful integrated marketing activity to suss out the competition online and know how you stack up. Fortunately, with the abundance of free and low-cost tools available, you can benchmark your website against the competition and create a plan for improvement. Work with the Numbers First, fire up your favorite search engine and type in a relevant service or product. Where does your site appear in comparison to the competition? This ranking measures nonpaid, also called organic, relevancy and is one of the most-important indicators of the performance of your website. Sites that rank higher receive more online traffic and feature more relevant content for users. Second, does your site carry authority? To find out, you’ll need to measure the off-site optimization of it. This refers to the factors that have an effect on your site, such as backlinks. These are links on other websites pointing back to your website. Backlinkwatch and Open Site Explorer are two free online tools that give you visibility into the backlink ranking of your site or competitive sites. Third, look holistically at all of your online marketing efforts. One popular way is to run your website through Marketing Grader to get a report card of how your website and online marketing is performing. Then, run a competitive URL through the online checklist to determine its strengths and weaknesses. media junction also offers a free online competitor analysis that rates your website against three competitor properties. “Once you run the analysis, put together an action list of what areas you can improve and what you can do differently than your competitors,” advises Jessica Meher, a marketing manager at HubSpot and founder of clickify, an inbound marketing and web design agency. By staying ahead of your competition and comparing important site performance metrics against key competitors, you can find out which strategies are working and refine future integrated marketing activities. Transaction CoordinatorBecause web design and the technologies that underpin it are moving so rapidly, they’ve received a lot of media coverage, including our post about the benefits of Responsive Web Design (RWD). As a result of all the ink, many integrated marketers have made improving their web sites Job One for this year. If a rebuild or refresh is on your radar, don’t get too far without first brushing up on emerging trends in these vital areas: Content
Layout
Technology
Transaction CoordinatorIs keyword research a strategic function or a tactical one? The late Ron Jones, president/CEO of Symetri Internet Marketing and author of Keyword Intelligence: Keyword Research for Search Social and Beyond believed that it is not only strategic, but also foundational to all marketing channels you will use. According to Jones, the first thing to consider in developing a keyword strategy is what you want to accomplish when you reach your target audience. Do you just want to generate an impression for branding purposes or do you want to invite them to your place where you get them to make a purchase? Here are three types of strategies to consider:
Identifying this up front will help you put your keyword research in the right perspective. As you refine and pick your top keywords, you can sort them accordingly based on which strategy you’re targeting. Transaction CoordinatorSocial media wasn’t around during the Cold War, of course. But the term “social listening” does conjure the image of marketers in ushankas, huddled around a Twitter feed, like half-frozen Siberian spies parsing transmissions for intel. Social listening is really just a subset of a larger discipline called “brand monitoring” by big companies and their big expensive agencies. They eavesdrop on the Twittersphere and other online sources, mining traffic for comments about their companies, products and leaders. Not Just for Big Brands The good news is that most small businesses can implement some form of brand monitoring or social listening. But to succeed, you’ll need a purpose, a plan and some patience—and a Twitter account to serve as your company’s listening outpost. So Why Listen? Central to any integrated marketing initiative is being crystal clear about why you’re doing it. A very good AdAge.com article, summarized below, cites three important but very different strategic reasons for social listening:
Be Patient and Persistent Planning and implementing a social listening program can take many months and man-hours. Ditto for the other critical piece of the social listening puzzle: learning to mine and interpret results. But with patience and the right approach, social listening can yield many new competitive advantages, including: deeper customer insights and connections, a more authoritative market presence, and the confidence to guide your brand’s social marketing narrative. And what red-blooded Western marketer wouldn’t say “da” to that? Transaction CoordinatorFinnair Ads Use New “Swipeable Gallery” to Allure Tablet-toting TravelersGoogle’s new swipeable tablet ad formats use special templates that make it easy for advertisers to easily deploy highly interactive videos and ad galleries across mobile (and other) platforms. Formats are aimed at helping companies better engage (and sell to) today’s skyrocketing number of tablet users, 65% of whom Google says spend at least one hour per day using the devices. The Chongqing Connection In its recent foray into swipeable tablet advertising, boutique Nordic airline, Finnair, sought to entice travelers with its new Chongqing, China route launch. Their challenge was promoting a virtually unknown destination, to highly particular customers, on a limited marketing budget. The upside for Finnair? Chongqing is actually a very desirable destination, and Finnair is the first to operate non-stop flights between that city and Europe. Campaign Goals Knowing its prospects well, Finnair’s first goal was to create a highly visual, educational and interactive user experience. It also sought to drive visitors to check fares and/or purchase tickets on the company website, and register for a special contest. Solution & Results Finnair chose Google’s swipeable gallery to tempt prospective passengers with a compelling range of browseable Chongqing imagery, including: modern cityscapes, ancient architecture and sculptures, sumptuous local cuisine and stunning nature photos. Results revealed that:
Finnair marketing manager, Emmi Teräs’s conclusion about advertising on tablets? “No other tool enables you to engage with targeted users with so much ‘wow’ factor…” What You Can Take Away
Learn how to get a swipeable tablet campaign off the ground by reading Google’s complete Finnair case study. Virtual Transaction CoordinatorAfter a year or two of hearing the biz-tech media trumpet consumers’ shift to the mobile internet, marketers are taking a closer look at responsive web design (RWD), the emerging technology that promises every user a simpler, more satisfying experience. It Really Is What’s Next RWD sites are specially designed and coded so that when a visitor’s device type is detected—smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop—they serve up content that’s appropriately sized for that specific screen size. This is exactly what visitors want. Benefits for you, the website owner, include:
Think Mobile First More and more companies are recognizing the growth of mobile and its effect on the buying habits of consumers. Website viewers want instant access to information. So website design requires that files and graphic images are kept small to ensure all website pages load fast. It’s best to design your mobile website first and then the desktop version. Get Set To Vet When interviewing prospective web designers, before enlisting their services, consider the following:
Jump In Now The media reports are true: mobile has tremendous momentum. And soon, says CNET, a third of Internet search traffic will come from smartphones and tablets. Amidst this explosive growth one enduring tenet will hold true: respond to the market’s needs and the market will respond to you. Having a responsive website might just be the place to start. Transaction CoordinatorIf your marketing has lost its luster and response rates have fallen flat, try wooing audiences back with a targeted pURL campaign. Online Street Address URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, which is most easily thought of as the “street address” for information on the internet for websites and links. For example, http://www.tconpoint.com/transaction-coordinator is the URL for this integrated real estate marketing blog. “P” is for Personal A pURL is a web page or site that has been personalized to a singular individual, using demographic or other “variable” data you’ve collected (or purchased) about them. Variable data can include age, education level, income, family size, or similar information. Seamless Integration pURL marketing combines data-driven direct mail with targeted electronic mail. Messages drive recipients to a personalized “landing” page that’s been painstakingly designed to “convert” visitors by eliciting a specific action, such as clicking, buying or downloading something, or filling out a form. Why pURLs Shine Marketers who use pURLs often swear by them, because of benefits that can include:
The Wisdom of pURLs Follow these time-tested guidelines for ensuring pURL marketing success:
With the aid of an experienced list management and personalization partner, pURLs can provide meaningful, long-lasting, one-to-one connections. Transaction CoordinatorIn an age of e-this and social-that, it’s easy to forget that many businesses still rely on traditional printed materials to market their products and services. True, websites have become today’s de-facto marketing medium. And flashy new pad-style computers can invigorate even the most pedestrian sales presentation. But in the trenches, today’s sales pros still use brochures, sell sheets, direct mail and other key marketing and sales support materials to land, close and nurture new accounts. Of course, those who routinely use printed materials continually seek ways to create and produce them better, faster and more efficiently—which may explain why companies large and small are leveraging the benefits of online storefronts. Web to Print An online storefront (aka Web to Print) is a browser-based Web application that links digital, print-ready versions of company marketing collateral to a pre-determined print-production and delivery environment. Typically, your team (or your printer’s) will design and upload material templates, which can then be accessed, edited and output on-demand by authorized users to a nearby printing facility. The technology even allows for personalized variable output. Coming into its Own…Again When online storefronts came onto the scene a few years ago, print buyers and marketers were all atwitter, knowing that it was the all-in-one printing-marketing-personalization solution they’d been waiting for. And, more recently enthusiasm has spiked, largely because more and more vendors and businesses are clearer on the technology’s considerable upside, which includes:
An experienced print-service provider can help you tailor a customized, cost-effective online storefront for a range of printed/integrated marketing materials, such as:
Have you ever used an online storefront for your business? Virtual Transaction Coordinator“Color provokes a psychic vibration. It hides a power, still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body.” — Russian painter and art theorist, Wassily Kandinsky In a previous post we (dutifully) acknowledged that on the web, content (actually, good, relevant content) is king, and wondered aloud if his highness could spare some love for another key element of the user experience, color. We summarized a semantic color meaning-and-context framework from Usabilla founder and CEO, Paul Veugen, and promised to share, at a later date, Veugen’s top color-use best practices for maximizing web success. That date has now arrived. Applying the Power of Color Here’s how we’ve paraphrased Veugen’s best practices for using color on the web:
Can calculated color use really provoke ‘psychic vibrations’? Maybe, if you’re lucky. At the very least, you’ll gain greater control over users’ emotions, behaviors and personal, online experience. And when credit cards are at the ready, isn’t that what it’s all about? Transaction Coordinator CompanyCONTENT MARKETING, MARKETING STRATEGY, WEBSITES“Color provokes a psychic vibration. It hides a power, still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body.” — Russian painter and art theorist, Wassily Kandinsky In a previous post we (dutifully) acknowledged that on the web, content (actually, good, relevant content) is king, and wondered aloud if his highness could spare some love for another key element of the user experience, color. We summarized a semantic color meaning-and-context framework from Usabilla founder and CEO, Paul Veugen, and promised to share, at a later date, Veugen’s top color-use best practices for maximizing web success. That date has now arrived. Applying the Power of Color Here’s how we’ve paraphrased Veugen’s best practices for using color on the web:
Can calculated color use really provoke ‘psychic vibrations’? Maybe, if you’re lucky. At the very least, you’ll gain greater control over users’ emotions, behaviors and personal, online experience. And when credit cards are at the ready, isn’t that what it’s all about? TC On Point - Transaction Coordinator CompanyVideoWhen integrated marketers think of using YouTube, they tend to think of the latest viral video sensation and how they can duplicate that success. Don’t even go there. You don’t get to decide what goes “viral”. That’s up to the viewers. Don’t Try to Duplicate Viral Success It’s extremely difficult to predict or duplicate viral success. For instance, in the summer of 2012 a video by Korean rapper PSY called “Gangnam Style” featured campy choreography that simulated riding a horse. Within a month of its release, the video racked up over 28 million hits on YouTube and inspired parody clips from all over the world. As of this writing, the video has over 1 billion views. So never mind the viral part and focus instead on generating traffic back to your website. The three traffic-generating giants include Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Videos Rank Highly on Google YouTube (which is owned by Google) is the second-largest search engine after Google. YouTube is also one of the smartest marketing tools in your integrated marketing program. While it may be hard to get your website on page one of Google, videos rank highly in search results because there aren’t as many marketers using them effectively. 4 Billion Pairs of Eyes YouTube currently receives over 4 BILLION views—every day. Now that YouTube offers its own online video editing tools, it has never been easier to create video content, share it with the world, and drive traffic back to your website. YouTube is successful because it empowers you, the user/viewer, to become the broadcaster. You can make videos about whatever you want, and whatever your audience wants. YouTube marketing authority James Wedmore offers these five tips for creating videos successful videos: 5 Essential Video Ingredients:
Have you started using video to market your company? We’d love to know about other companies you see using YouTube effectively. Include links of notable examples you’d like to share in the comments. TC On Point - Transaction Coordinator CompanyCONTENT MARKETING, DIRECT MARKETING, WEBSITESImagine hiring a stunningly attractive spokesperson to talk about your company—one whose appearance and delivery are so alluring, so riveting, that no one—clients, prospects, media, competitors—can tear their eyes away from the story that’s being told. And when ‘The End’ comes, the audience’s perception of you is totally transformed. That’s what infographics can do. An infographic (sometimes called a “visualization”) is a customized composition of—you guessed it—information (stats, data, knowledge, a timeline) and graphics, such as photos, illustrations and creative type treatment. Traditionally a mainstay of science and academia, infographics have emerged as a favored marketing tactic among brands and companies of all types and sizes. Quintessential marketing tool From a marketer’s perspective, there’s much to love about infographics. They’re attention grabbing and easily understood. Infographics enable you to present data- or stat-heavy content such as chronology, hierarchy, process and technology in an aesthetically pleasing way that gives word-weary readers a visual change of pace. They’re also versatile enough to enhance any print or online channel, from ads and direct mail to blog posts and social media. Done well, infographics can help your company:
There are no hard and fast rules for creating infographics, and no limits, except your imagination and, of course, your budget. Outsourced infographics can cost several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on size, quality, complexity and how you promote them. More channels or desired impressions equal a higher investment. If your graphic goes viral or is cited by trade or mainstream media, congratulations! You’ve attained infographic nirvana and will soon be the envy of your competitors. A well-executed infographic can bring almost any data-intensive story to life in a fresh and compelling way. And unlike a stunningly attractive, flesh-and-blood spokesperson, they’ll never pout, sulk or ask for a raise. Want some examples and ideas to get started? Feast your eyes on Pinterest’s extensive collection of infographics. TC On Point - Transaction Coordinator CompanySearch MarketingTo effectively optimize your website to help it get found by search engines, it helps to understand how search engines work. Search engines send automated programs, called robots, that “crawl” the web, reading each page on your website. As the robot reads your site, it “indexes” each one with a ranking score. Have you ever read a website where you couldn’t figure out what business the company was in? Just imagine: if people have a hard time understanding what you or your site is about, it will be even more difficult for search engine robots, which interpret text in a very literal way. Keywords help these robots understand what your site is all about. Keyword choice is crucial in the development and maintenance of your website. When selecting keywords, think like your prospects and customers. What words do they use when describing you company or your products? To define your keywords, start by understanding the goal of your site. Once you decide your goal, you will need to choose the handful of keywords that best describe it. Google offers a free keyword tool to help you find out which terms are most popular in your category. Keywords in Titles and URLs Page titles and URLs also affect search engine rankings. Use your chosen keywords in page titles and URLs for individual pages whenever possible. But beware: If you use keywords too often, the search engine robot may suspect you of “keyword stuffing” to manipulate rankings. You can’t just use the same word over and over to trick the robot and rise to the first page of Google overnight. Search engines eventually catch on to such “black hat” tactics and punish sites by removing them from search results. Your website content should be written for people, not robots. A good rule of thumb: Keywords should be used throughout a content page at a density of between 3 and 5 percent. Short vs. Long-Tail Keywords You’ll need to balance choosing keywords that are popular versus those with less competition. The more general the keyword, the more it will be used in searches. However, that also means greater competition among other websites for the same keyword. More specific keywords or phrases (long-tail keywords) will be less popular in searches, so there will also be less competition for them, which means it will be easier to rank higher for more specific terms. For example: “candles” is a short keyword, “vanilla-scented dripless candles” is a long-tail keyword. At the end of the day, the more effective your keyword strategy, the higher your rankings will be with the search engines. Transaction Coordinator - Virtual Real Estate ASSISTANTBetter Search MarketingLaunching a search marketing campaign without first preparing your site is like inviting guests for dinner and serving them empty plates. Follow these three easy steps before information-hungry visitors come to your site: Brand scan. Starting with the Home page, scrutinize your site closely, paying extra attention to the details. Is it obvious what you do—and for whom? Does your value proposition sing? Are branding elements, such as logo, fonts, color palette and page layout/template consistent throughout?
Mind your meta. A search engine’s main purpose is to return the most user-relevant results possible. One way engines determine relevance is by checking web page titles and description tags.
Collaborate and cogitate. The allure of search marketing is how quickly it can produce results. PPC and SEO aren’t magic bullets but rather two of many integrated tactics that combine to support your overall sales and marketing effort.
Visit this blog regularly for bite-sized tidbits of actionable search marketing advice. Virtual Real Estate Transaction CoordinatorAre you on Facebook?Facebook is one of the most popular websites in the world with upwards of 900 million users. To reach that valuable customer base, many companies have set up a Facebook marketing presence, with branded Facebook pages that attract thousands of what are now considered “friends” who “like” their favorite brands’ pages on the social network. If your customers are on Facebook, obviously you need to be there, too. But don’t make the mistake of using Facebook as your default website just because it’s popular and free. Your Facebook page is not really yours Facebook belongs to Mark Zuckerberg and the company’s shareholders. You don’t own the site or the list of contacts you compile through it. Facebook also has that annoying habit of changing things around all the time, and not only the look, but even the rules that dictate how you can promote your business. Don’t let another company dictate how you do business. Own your own piece of the ‘Net You’re better off buying a domain (a website URL) and getting your own web hosting package to establish your primary online presence. That way, you have your own email address, and all of your online digital “content” (e.g. the text, images, videos and other works published on your site) belongs to you. Using your website as your Internet marketing “hub”, you’re able build customer and prospect lists in the form of opt-in email subscribers. A subscriber to your company blog is far more valuable than a Facebook “like”. To borrow another metaphor, if the gold is in your list, isn’t it much better to own it? Transaction CoordinatorInternet researcher, comScore, revealed that in May, more than 180 million U.S. Internet users (84.5% of the U.S. total) watched 36.6 billion online content videos. YouTube reported more than one trillion-with-a-T views—or about 140 views for every person on earth. Staggering stats, to be sure. But isn’t entertainment, not information, the goal of most online viewers? Hang on to your paradigm shift. Because as Invodo.com reports, consumers in record numbers are using video to inform buying behaviors:
Video turns interest into engagement: It’s said that people buy from those they know, like and trust. Web video marketing enables companies to accelerate know-like-trust by showing off products, services or expertise in engaging and emotional ways static print materials can’t. Take “How To,” thought-leadership or educational videos. They not only help introduce and humanize your company, they can also position you as the industry expert—just as clips of happy customers touting your methods, system or results can confer instant credibility. Web video marketing’s SEO benefits: Citing Google’s ever-growing link-juice (love and authority) for video, search marketing guru Bruce Clay calls video “must-have content.” “Video’s biggest element (advantage) is that it’s high engagement. Any site that wants to rank highly must use video,” Clay says. Why aren’t SMBs all in? Despite these advantages and opportunities, many businesses remain on the sidelines, convinced that web video marketing is too complex, costly or time-consuming. The fact is that costs are down and quality is up. So whether you outsource the task or do it yourself in-house, creating serviceable video content has never been easier or more affordable. Linking to videos from other materials is a great way to infuse energy and momentum into a new (or flagging) integrated marketing campaign. Transaction Coordinator
A website is like a garden. Properly attended, it will produce an abundant harvest of qualified leads and satisfied customers. Neglect it, and user interest will shrivel up and die on the vine. Here are three things you can do this weekend to help your website flourish:
With proper care and feeding, websites can yield a regular crop of informed Transaction Coordinator Company |
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