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Real Estate Marketing:
The internet has dramatically changed the way companies must conduct business in order to be successful. The internet's pervasiveness gives users access to infinite vendors and suppliers, creating increased competition among businesses and the elimination of geographical limitations for both buyers and sellers.
This is particularly true for the real estate industry. Over 85% of homebuyers use the internet to search for new homes and to find realtors. Furthermore, the vast majority of homebuyers use this resource as the first source of information. For many homebuyers making a move into a different region of the US, the internet is the best, and often only, point of reference.
This environment is a boon to those real estate companies and agents that use effective web marketing strategies. However, this environment is potentially devastating for those who primarily rely on traditional methods of advertising or don't understand that simply having a website is not the same as having an effective web marketing strategy.
Realtormarketing101.com provides practical strategies for effective real estate marketing. By covering both traditional marketing avenues (print, direct mail, etc.) as well as progressive, non-traditional marketing tools (web, search engine optimization, pay-per-click campaigns, email marketing, blogging), RealtorMarketing101.com gives today's real estate agents and agencies the tools needed to be successful on the web.
Jaymie Moore and Evans Wroten have over 15 years of experience in marketing and Internet technologies. We are passionate about how technology and non-traditional marketing continues to change the real estate industry, and how real estate marketing professionals can incorporate these changes in their advertising strategies to be more effective and successful.
It is our hope that this information will help real estate professionals and real estate marketers meet their objectives. We welcome your feedback, suggestions and success stories.
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Wendy Maynard is one of my favorite marketing bloggers. While her recent post is not specifically written for Realtors, it certainly does apply. I have seen some absolutely horrendous Realtor web sites online and I am always wondering "what are they thinking?". Anyway??.enjoy the read and please follow her advice!
Some businesses make the mistake of trying to design their own logo, business card, or website. Or they have an amateur "throw together" something for them. This is actually a VERY costly mistake. Having a logo, stationery, brochures, and other marketing materials that look unprofessional and poorly designed creates a less-than-favorable impression in the minds of new prospects and can lose you potential business.
Hire a professional, reputable design firm to develop your logo and marketing materials. Do it right from the beginning. Here are some specific reasons why having professionals design your marketing materials is an investment in the future of your business:
1. First Impressions Count: Your logo and marketing materials are the first impression people get of your company. People often make decisions about where they make purchases based on imagery. Your appearance helps sell your company and draw in new prospects!
2. Your Branding Sets You Apart: A well-designed identity will help to differentiate your business. Without a solid brand, your core-marketing message isn't being reinforced, you aren't memorable, and you also have a problem distinguishing your company from your competitors.
3. Your Materials Sell You: Anything your company puts out in front of prospects and customers must be of the highest quality. If your logo, website, business cards, and brochure aren't professional, why would prospects think your services are any better?
4. Professional Design Enhances Credibility: People want to purchase services or products from a company that appears established, secure, and reliable. Your business needs to look sound and trustworthy. Professional materials show that you care about quality and have attention to detail.
Well-designed, strategic marketing materials will reward you again and again by driving more customers to your company and helping you to make a great first impression. Professional, high-quality marketing tools will move your prospects closer to making a purchase.
And after all, you wouldn't show up to a professional networking event in pajamas ?? so, why would you dress your business in sloppy clothes?
~ Wendy Maynard - Kinetic Ideas
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I've been frustrated lately. It seems people just don't get it. There's lots of talk about SEO copywriting these days, but hardly any of it is on target. The majority of the conversations, posts and articles I've seen deal with topics like keyword density, allowable limits, over optimization and such. These people are making search engine copywriting all about the search engines. They are forgetting the fact that SEO copywriting is still copywriting.
What that means - generally speaking - is you are still writing promotional copy designed to cause a *person* to take a specific action. Your target audience (your site visitors) should come first. The elements designed to help the copy rank well absolutely come last.
What good is all the traffic in the world if your site copy doesn't convert visitors into buyers? Not much. That's why - when writing SEO copy - the human visitor comes first.
Unfortunately, SEO copywriting is getting a bad name because so much of what is being cranked out is repetitious babble. Most of these pages would never have made it on to a site, except for the fact that the site owner wanted to rank highly for certain key terms.
So, in the interest of salvaging the good name of search engine copywriting, before it's too late, let me offer some guidelines.
SEO Copy Is:
- first and foremost - written for the visitor.
- unique and purposeful.
- natural-sounding - it flows.
SEO Copy Is Not:
- written exclusively with the engines in mind.
- mirrored, adjusted or altered to create new pages by simply changing keyphrases.
- stiff, forced or overly repetitive.
The Dos of SEO Copywriting
When writing SEO copy, you'll want to:
- understand who you are writing to.
- choose what the focus of the page will be.
- create a plan outlining the message you want to convey.
- decide how best to communicate that message to your particular target customers.
- choose which keyphrases will be incorporated into the copy.
- make sure those keyphrases work well with the page and the planned copy.
- incorporate keyphrases as you write (not after you write), so they flow naturally with the planned message.
The Don'ts of SEO Copywriting
When writing SEO copy, you should never:
- create a plan based solely on how to rank high.
- replace *every* instance of a generic term (car) with a keyphrase (red, convertible car).
- add pages of copy simply to appease the search engines.
- rely on useless keyword density ratios and formulas.
- shove keyphrases in everywhere possible. (No, it won't get you banned, but it will sound completely ridiculous!)
SEO copywriting is not the process of writing exclusively for the search engines. It is the process of writing copy to appeal to your visitors, while including elements to help the search engines and your visitors understand what the page is all about.
If you remember who truly makes or breaks your site's success (your customers!) and focus on them, you're sure to create SEO copy that rings true.
~ Karon Thackston ?? Search Engine Guide
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When researching search engine optimization (SEO) companies, it is tempting to choose any company willing to offer guaranteed SEO services. It is human nature??people love a guarantee.
This holds especially true for purchases where the buyer is purchasing something outside of his or her area of comfort. When companies first consider pursuing SEO as a potential marketing channel, particularly when there is an ongoing cost involved, they get a sense of comfort from purchasing "guaranteed SEO." Unfortunately, with many SEO companies, this confidence in the guarantee is ill placed.
A lot of questionable SEO companies offer what I like to refer to as a "leprechaun repellent" guarantee. In other words, it's a guarantee that is easily attainable??if you purchase such services and are not subsequently harassed by a pesky leprechaun, the guarantee has been met. How can you complain?
The truth is that SEO companies do not control the major search engines, and any firm that claims to have a "special relationship" that gives it sway over the natural search engine results is simply counting on your ignorance. Fortunately, this does not mean that guaranteed SEO is impossible, especially when the guarantee has to do with aggregate results and the methods used to achieve them.
What follows is a partial list of some of the more popular types of guaranteed SEO out there??some of them roughly as useful as leprechaun repellent, and some of them actually meaningful.
Questionable Guarantees
The 'Leprechaun Repellent' Key Phrases Guarantee
Many SEO companies boast that they will achieve a certain number of top rankings in the organic results of major search engines. This type of guaranteed SEO can be tempting, especially to those who are investigating SEO companies for the first time. After all, high rankings are what it's all about, right? Isn't that the goal?
The answer is an emphatic "No." Quality SEO companies will point out that the real goal is to bring high quality traffic to your site. It's quite simple to guarantee top positions if you choose noncompetitive or obscure phrases??for example, "leprechaun repellent."
Want proof? Enter "leprechaun repellent" into your favorite search engine. You will almost certainly find this article dominating the results (caveat??if you are reading this article immediately after its release, the search engines may not have indexed it yet. Wait a week and try again.).
It is extremely easy for SEO companies to achieve high search engine positions for phrases that nobody uses. Such rankings might impress your friends and neighbors, but they won't send you quality traffic. They likely won't send you any traffic at all.
It's important to note that the phrase "leprechaun repellent" is used only for demonstrative purposes. Many unpopular phrases may not sound absurd. There are surely countless phrases that sound extremely relevant to your business that are never typed into search engines. Good SEO companies will avoid such phrases. "Leprechaun repellent" practitioners will embrace them??it allows them to attain their worthless guarantees.
There is also another aspect of this type of guaranteed SEO in which SEO companies will guarantee you first place positions on unspecified search engines for more competitive phrases. Unfortunately, this type of guaranteed SEO often involves obscure engines that have very little market share and are not sophisticated enough to quickly eliminate Web pages that use spam tactics. In a few documented cases, the guarantees involved search engines that the SEO companies actually owned and operated!
There are really only three major search engines at present??Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are a handful of minor engines that are also worth mentioning, including Ask Jeeves and AOL Search. Any guaranteed SEO should involve prominent engines, not obscure ones.
The 'Company Name' Guarantee
There is also a common guarantee that shady SEO companies will use that guarantees that a company will show up for a search on its company name. This, much like the "leprechaun repellent" flavor of guaranteed SEO, offers no real value.
Sure, if your company name is "Acme," it may actually be competitive. But chances are that if your Web site does not already show up near the top of the search engine results for a search on your company name, there is an easily fixed technical glitch that will resolve the issue. Quality SEO companies will address this area immediately.
Moreover, ranking highly for your company name, while obviously desirable, provides only a tiny fraction of the potential value of search engine marketing. The real benefit for most companies is that search engine marketing attracts potential buyers who are not already familiar with the company name. Unless your company is a household name, it is unlikely that having your company name figure prominently in the results is going to have a huge impact on your business.
The Pay-per-Click Guarantee
Some SEO companies will offer guaranteed SEO services that promise top positions for certain key phrases on popular engines, but they are counting on dealing with prospects who do not understand the difference between natural search engine results and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
With PPC, it is very easy to guarantee a number-one result, but this result will appear in the "paid" or "sponsored" results of the engine. Say, for example, that your company installs custom swimming pools. While a competitive phrase like "custom pools" might be difficult to achieve in organic results, the SEO company is not concerned with organic results. All it has to do is outbid the current highest bidder (using your money, of course), and your site will show up as number one in the "sponsored" results.
Studies have indicated that sponsored results are held in a lower regard than natural results by savvy Web searchers who recognize them as advertising. Also, as soon as you stop paying, your ranking disappears.
The 'Submit Your Site to 50,000 Search Engines' Guarantee
There are many variations on this offer, primarily involving the number of engines promised. Regardless of the number, this is probably the most pervasive and persistent type of "guaranteed SEO," and it is basically a scam that preys on ignorance.
Companies that believe that they have high quality Web sites are predisposed to believe that the only thing holding them back from search engine success is that the search engines do not yet know that their sites exist. However, search engines measure quality in a much different way from a Web site owner. A properly optimized site does not need to be submitted to search engines at all. (I refer to actual "spider-based" search engines such as Yahoo, Google, and MSN, not human-edited directories such as Business.com, the Yahoo Directory, and the Open Directory Project). Engines prefer to find sites on their own.
This "solution" offers no real value, except of course to the SEO companies offering the service. Also, as previously mentioned, there are not 50,000 search engines??or at least 50,000 search engines worth worrying about.
Do SEO companies that offer this service meet this guarantee? Certainly??they use automated programs to do the submissions. Is this type of guaranteed SEO worthwhile? Not for search engine positions, but it may keep leprechauns at bay.
Meaningful Guarantees
Given the preponderance of "guaranteed SEO" that is meaningless, the seemingly Wild West nature of the industry and the reality that SEO companies do not control the results of any major engine, it may seem that guaranteed SEO can never be a worthwhile endeavor. However, that is not the case.
If you note the abovementioned examples, they are primarily involved in specifics??top positions, a certain number of submissions, a certain number of engines. However, good SEO companies, understanding that they have no control over individual results, should be confident enough in the results of their work in aggregate and in the safety of the methodologies that they use to offer guaranteed SEO that lives up to its promise.
The Targeted Traffic Guarantee
SEO companies dedicated to showing value to their clients will take a baseline reading of current search engine traffic at the outset of a campaign. While, as previously mentioned, SEO companies do not hold sway over search engine results, they should at least be confident enough in their overall skills to promise that their clients will see an increase in targeted search engine traffic based on popular phrases relevant to the business.
If the firm offering this type of guaranteed SEO charges on a monthly basis, any month of the engagement where traffic for targeted phrases does not exceed the baseline should not be charged. After all, you are paying on a monthly basis to protect and improve your positions. While major algorithm shifts that make results on individual results unstable can and do happen, they rarely happen on all engines at once. You should feel confident that the firm you are paying has a very vested interest in making sure it adapts to the changing nature of search engine algorithms, and few things inspire such confidence as knowing that it will not get paid otherwise.
If your prospective firm is unwilling to guarantee that it will send increased traffic to your Web site from targeted phrases, every month, it may be time to look elsewhere.
The 'White Hat' Guarantee
SEO companies are commonly broken up into two camps??"white hats" (practitioners who remain solidly within the search engines' stated terms of service) and "black hats" (practitioners who work to unravel the latest search engine algorithms and base their optimization techniques largely on technology, regardless of an engine's terms of service). Both approaches are legitimate??in that there is nothing illegal about exploiting a technical loophole for results.
However, black hat SEO companies put their clients at risk of penalization, including outright banishment from the major engines. Getting back in can be a long process, and sometimes it is not possible at all. If you are concerned about potential penalization, get a guarantee from your firm that it adheres to the stated terms of service of all major search engines. If you can (and this is rare), get a guarantee that your site will not be penalized through any action of the SEO firm.
This is harder for a company to offer, since the major engines frequently update their terms of service, and techniques that are acceptable today can be deemed unacceptable tomorrow. However, a confident firm that always errs on the side of caution when optimizing client Web sites will offer this type of guaranteed SEO services, since it will not use techniques that have a potential for penalization in the future.
~ Scott Buresh ?? MarketingProfs.com
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Because professional search engine optimization (SEO) is a relatively new field, many key decision makers are not aware that it exists. Or they simply believe that it cannot work in their industries or with the existing marketing mix.
This is not because those decision makers are ineffective or backward thinking but because in most companies marketing efforts are focused on activities that have already been proven effective. (Think direct mail, print advertising, tradeshows.)
Very often, the people who first recognize the potential benefits of professional SEO are not the key decision makers. They are the people on the front lines of the organization??the ones who deal with prospects and customers every day. However, proposing professional SEO as a new marketing initiative to the people higher in the chain of command can be a frustrating process, very often leading to disenchantment and a general sense that the marketing decision maker doesn't "get it." The real problem, however, may lie in a flawed approach.
But, first, a word of caution: Think about your company's culture. If your company does not have a history of trying anything new, you may be better off spending your energies elsewhere. Professional SEO as an addition to your marketing mix can be a hard sell, no matter how convincing the argument, to a company that is still relying on computers that were cutting edge during the Reagan administration.
Talk the talk
Your motivation for suggesting professional SEO may not necessarily inspire your marketing decision maker to immediately add it to your company's marketing mix. What will? Most marketing execs have a hot-button issue, and they are rarely shy about sharing it.
Is he or she concerned with increasing overall revenue? Is he or she always discussing cutting marketing costs? Does he or she talk about reducing the cost per lead? Does he or she always espouse the value of improving your brand recognition?
For each of these scenarios (and others), there are specific studies on SEO that will support your recommendation. If you approach your marketing decision maker without keeping the issues most important to him or her in mind, you diminish your chances for success.
Use the competition
Few things seem to motivate companies as much as the action (or sometimes the inaction) of the competition. With professional SEO, there are two potential scenarios??either some of your competitors have added it to the marketing mix effectively, or none of them have.
If they have, it is fairly easy to demonstrate by taking your marketing manager through a few key phrase searches on any major search engine and showing him or her that your hated enemy figures prominently in the results. Alternatively, if your known competitors have clearly not embraced the channel, it is just as easy to show a few searches on keyphrases demonstrating that you can (for now) have a competitive advantage.
Such keyphrase searches can also turn up additional competitors??lean, forward-thinking companies that are embracing new marketing tactics. This eye-opening experience can also encourage a decision maker to act.
Use potential vendors
Talk to some established professional SEO firms before approaching your company with the suggestion that they consider adding SEO to the marketing mix. A good SEO firm has encountered all of the objections that you are likely to face and should be able to help you with your approach by compiling relevant stats and offering compelling case studies.
If a firm is unwilling, or unable, to help you to make a presentation to your marketing decision maker in way that directly speaks to her or him, look elsewhere. Asking for this type of assistance can both help you to sell to your company and also help you in the early stages of the all-important vendor selection process.
Offer a plan
Piquing the interest of the decision maker is only the first step. You should be prepared to offer a clear project description, including the price ranges of your proposed professional SEO vendors, how long it will take to see results and, most importantly, how success will be measured. This is another area where your potential vendors should be more than willing to help??good firms will collect extensive data at the outset to measure success, and will be able to clearly articulate what "success" will look like.
* * *
As many companies are discovering, professional SEO is an incredibly powerful and cost-effective addition to the existing marketing mix. It is a sure bet, however, that the marketing decision makers of many of the companies now embracing professional SEO did not come up with the idea independently. The truth is this: Some underpaid visionary in their organizations brought it to their attention first!
~Scott Buresh - MarketingProfs.com
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Search engine optimizers typically label themselves as "white hat" or "black hat" to identify their basic philosophy, approach and methodology for SEO.
As with most things in life, SEO probably isn't as much "black" and "white" as a spectrum of gray. And, more importantly to marketers, the question isn't so much what's black and what's white but what impact can each approach have on your brand?
With that question in mind, let's explore several ways the opposite ends of the SEO spectrum can be defined in relation to each other, and how each of these practices can affect a Web site's resources and rankings in the search engines.
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SEO Criteria
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White Hat
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Black Hat
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Rules
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Play by the rules
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There are no rules
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Text/technology
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Focus on text
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Heavily leverage technology
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Strengths of Optimizer
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Marketing
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IT/Programming
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Speed
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Take time/invest
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Get it done NOW
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Rules/No Rules
One of the more popular ways to distinguish between the two is how they observe "the rules" set out by the search engines. White hats tend to see themselves as the "good guys," playing by the rules published by the search engines. Black hats take pride in their "there are no rules" approach to SEO??all's fair in love and war... and SEO.
Black hat optimizers say that as long as they're not doing anything literally illegal, just because the search engines don't like it doesn't mean they can't or shouldn't do it.
The question here becomes how to interpret the "rules." Black hat and white hat quickly blend to gray as soon as interpretation enters the discussion.
For example, white hat optimizers typically work to increase keyword relevance on a page by inserting the target keyword into the site's visible content. Purists would charge that that is not white hat, but rather sliding into the darker side of the spectrum because the optimizers worked to attract the search engineers. These purists say that any optimization is questionable because they reserve the white hat for "no" optimization.
Now let's move from this extreme example to a more common one: in-bound links and what hat you are wearing when you're trying to get them.
While the search engines indicate that links set up simply to drive rankings are verboten, white hat optimizers will request links from other sites by providing content that is relevant to their brand and the site that hosts that content. The content will contain links back to the optimizer's site. Because there is relevant context for the links, it's considered white hat.
Have you ever gone to a site and seen links at the bottom that seem to have little??or nothing??to do with the content on the page? It's probable that these are paid links??and paid links represent a gray area.
When links are purchased as pure advertising, that practice is considered legitimate; when links are purchased to increase rankings, the search engines consider that an abuse, and therefore a black hat practice.
What it means for your brand: The risk for your brand in going the black hat route is the potential for (or the risk of) having your site delisted by the search engines. With white hat practices, the risk for being delisted for disapproved behaviors doesn't exist.
Text vs. Technology
Another way of delineating between black hat and white hat optimization is from a text vs. technology perspective. White hat optimizers tend to focus more on visible content development, that is, content that humans can see. They populate sites with keyword-rich content and title tags and generate off-site content for placement on other sites with links back to their sites.
Black hat optimizers tend to leverage technology, often using hidden text, cloaking, redirects, and other technology-based solutions of which the search engines don't approve.
What it means for your brand: What this means for your brand is that if you don't already have roughly 250 words of text on each page you want to optimize, with each page capable of targeting a specific keyword/phrase, you will need new copy to be written and target keywords injected for keyword density to go the white hat route.
While some marketers welcome the opportunity to use more text to tell their story, others may resent having to add more copy to the site. They feel that the optimization copy impedes the graphical messaging of the site.
With a more technology focused optimization solution, the existing site can remain "as is" and the optimization can happen on the non-visible portion of the site or on another site created by the black hat optimization team.
Marketing Expertise/Programming Expertise
As a general rule, white hat optimizers tend to have backgrounds in marketing communications, and so they focus their attention on the copy/text aspects of the site and its link-building programs to generate results. This also means they are naturally attuned to the brand's messaging, image, and the balancing act between readability and search engine considerations.
Black hat optimizers certainly need to understand marketing, but because they tend to have IT and/or programming backgrounds, they home in on outmaneuvering competing sites using technology solutions.
What it means for your brand: With white hat optimizers, you are more likely to get a marketing savvy ally to aid you in communicating your brand's attributes on the Web. They will be more cognizant of the affects of any negative PR on your brand. This is not to say that black hat optimizers don't care about your brand and work on multiple levels to get good results while generating positive brand awareness.
On the flip site, black hat optimizers are more focused on programming techniques to save the day and don't typically factor the brand image/messaging into the optimization equation. With a black hat optimizer, you will get an ally for your site development/programming team, someone who speaks their language and help balance the search engines' technology needs with the technical specifications of the existing or planned site.
Invest, Take Time/Get Results Now
White hat optimization definitely takes time. It's typical for an optimization program to take three or four months to kick in when white hat strategies are employed. That's because it takes time for the search engines to find and index the newly optimized content.
Black hat, on the other hand, is faster moving, leveraging multiple sites, link farms, and other pre-established environments that draw the search engines to the site and get them to rank it for mission-critical keywords.
What it means for your brand: You are more apt to find black-hat work being employed in highly competitive categories, where it is more likely that site managers will feel pressured to go the black hat route. They will weigh their chances of getting caught and delisted against the upside gain and gamble that either they won't get caught or, if they do get caught, they can black hat their way into an alternate path to quick success.
If you don't like risk and can afford the investment in time it takes to develop content and get it indexed and ranked via white hat strategies, you will probably appreciate the long-term, no risk rewards of white hat optimization. If you need fast action in this white hat world, consider buying pay-per-click ads and using them until your SEO program's results became apparent.
On the other hand, if your competition is eating your breakfast, lunch and dinner and you need results NOW and pay-per-click isn't an option (or you're already using that and want SEO too), you may feel the rewards outweigh the penalization risks. So you may find black hat SEO the way to go.
The World Is Gray
As you can see from this overview of approaches and what they leverage, the SEO world is really much grayer hat than purely black or white hat. Aside from truly illegal activities, there's a lot of room for dancing in that middle ground. So from a brand manager's perspective, it comes down to this one-two punch:
1. What approach are you most comfortable with?
2. What is the worst thing that can happen?
Number one is a personal choice. Number two is easy: the worst thing that could happen is that your site could be de-listed??disappear from the search engines??poof, just like that.
That's the worst case. So what's a not-so-bad case?
In an already aggressive category, like financial services or hospitality, having competitors discover you are using black hat practices can only make them more aggressive and perhaps even hostile, risking reporting your site's "bad" behavior to the search engines in the hopes that theirs won't be investigated further. You may not consider that much of a risk for your brand, however, because "everybody's doing it." If the search engines are going to go after one site, they'll most likely go after several of the sites in the category. So if your site is dropped, although you will lose lots of potential business, your competitors will probably suffer similarly. It's a category loss, not yours alone to bear.
But what about in a not-so-aggressive category, say a particular consumer product that's not being sold through the manufacturers' site? Well, a sudden loss in visibility could be a real risk, enabling your competition to gain precious ground in the eyes of millions of consumers who use search engines to get tips, where-to-buys, and other information from your brand's site.
And so, it really comes down to a risk:reward equation and your basic personality as a marketer. If you view business as a game, you're more likely to want to play by the rules for the most part, run the risk of getting a foul called from time to time, but playing so that your team stays in the game. On the other hand, if you tend to view business as war, you're probably also a risk-taker who believes the ends justify the means, and you play to win at all costs.
In the end, it's not so much black hat or white hat but the risks with which you are most comfortable for your brand.
~Veronica Fielding ?? MarketingProfs.com
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Search engine marketing has boomed in recent years and statistics show that spending for online marketing is only going to continue to increase year after year. Several years ago the concept of running a website in conjunction with your "brick and mortar" store was seen as just another avenue to generate a handful more sales each year. Today, running a website is not only a great way to generate a considerable amount of new revenue, it is almost essential to the total marketing plan of your business.
Every day, millions of people go to the web for research, shopping, news, entertainment and more. Offline stores are heavily promoting their websites to their consumers in the isles and at the checkout stand as a means of building brand loyalty as well as shopping convenience. Marketing your website online can literally add thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars into your business bank account.
As consumers turn to the web for a variety of reasons, planning the online marketing strategy of your website can help you tap into each of those avenues as a way to generate new traffic, more conversions, and a loyal customer base. Ignoring the potential of the web will only serve to give your competitors a substantial advantage in reaching your target market. Not investing appropriate time, money, or resources into the online marketing of your website is akin to handing your customers over directly to your competitors.
Let's consider the success of Amazon.com. When you think of online bookstores, most people think of Amazon. Why is that? Why not BarnsandNoble.com or Borders.com? Ten years ago, when the web was in its infancy, yet growing in popularity, Jeff Bezos jumped into the online game with a bookstore of his own. He got his store online before Barnes and Noble and Borders and now runs one of the most successful marketplaces online: Amazon.com
Even today, as all national booksellers are selling their products online, they have not been able to overcome the online success of this one guy who started a bookstore in his basement. Here we are, ten years later, and there are still thousands of businesses that have still not built up their online presence. Many have websites, but very few are marketing their websites effectively. You may not become the next Amazon.com success story, but effective marketing of your website can add considerable coin to your purse.
~ Stoney deGeyter
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By now, if you've been attempting to raise the position of your website in Google, Yahoo, or MSN, you know that one of the ways to do so is through "back links." (There are others too, like fresh content and updates, meta tags, and more.)
If you're not sure what back links are, back links are links to your site from someone else's. Each back link acts as a vote for your site. In other words, the search engines think that if others are willing to link to your website, you must have relevant worthwhile information on it. However, there are a few points to remember:
1. The quality of the pages linking to you matter.
2. The higher their ranking, the more their vote weighs for your site.
3. Be careful not to get banned from the search engines by creating many different junk sites that link to your site.
4. Don't SPAM all over the web, linking your site however and whenever you can. You should only be leaving your link on other relevant sites when you have something to contribute!
~ from: www.royallmedia.blogspot.com
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Attracting prospective clients and customers to your site is only half the struggle??the other half is actually making the sale or conversion.
One way to increase your conversion ratio is to make sure your Web site is easy to navigate and information is easy to find. In other words, ensure its "usability." Often, search engine optimization and marketing principles benefit a site's usability with people as well as search engines.
Here are some tips on how to improve usability and improve your conversion rates.
Analyze the usability factor
Your Web site can drastically change over time with the addition of new products, services and content. That's why it's crucial to regularly put yourself in your visitor's shoes and evaluate what they experience.
Carefully study your homepage. Can visitors quickly find what they are looking for? Is the site navigation simple and logical, or are visitors confused by too many options, too much junk or flashy ads?
Even though you know your product inside and out, assume your customers don't. Show them why it is the best, how it can be used and how it will benefit them. Offer free demos (if possible), or provide customer testimonials or third-party reviews from professional sources.
Try to get an outside perspective. Ask a few trusted customers, other business associates, or family members to look at your site with fresh eyes.
Deliver what you promise
Some sites forget to follow up on their promises. Or, just as frustrating, the product that's attracting customers' attention is buried behind other information. Putting essentials in the back of a store might work for the grocer down the street, but it doesn't fly online. Online customers have a choice: If they don't see what they want right away, they leave and click over to a competitor.
You can show visitors other products and services after you deliver on your offer, whether you're touting free shipping, a white paper, a case study or specific product benefits. Your customers will have a more positive experience, and they may bookmark your site so they can come back again and again.
Design landing pages with care
Make good on any headline or offer, whether you're directing traffic from pay-per-click ads and banner ads or links to specific pages. For example, if you advertise, "Download A Free Demo," then be sure to give them the free demo. No tricks or gimmicks. No lengthy explanations of your other services or products, no matter how great they are. There's time for that later, after you make your customers happy by giving them what they requested.
Landing page design should be clean; it should have easy-to-find buttons and a clear call to action. Test which images work best. In general, photos of people are attractive and engaging, but you'll also need to determine what kind of product photo tells the best story or explains the most about your benefits.
Small changes, like tweaking the location of your submit button, can add up to big differences, influencing conversion rates by as much as 40 percent.
Keep the navigation options to a minimum. The point of a landing page is to quickly guide your prospect to the item, issue or offer that caught his or her attention in the first place. Too many navigational choices are distracting. Plus, if you're trying to guide folks to a form, you don't want them to veer off track.
Forms are a good way to capture information about your prospects on your landing pages, which should provide information or some other benefit in return for a completed form. Keep those forms as short as possible??users can suffer form fatigue and abandon your offer if they get bored or you ask for info that they feel is too personal.
To make prospects comfortable about telling you who they are, display your privacy policy and let prospects know what you plan to do with their information. Ask permission on the form before you follow up with a phone call or email. And keep testing these actions as well, finding the precise balance of information gathered to information shared.
Rely on your analytics technology
Your analytics technology should be able to tell you where visitors enter your site and what content interests them. Some visitors might enter on a page touting a research study, for instance. Keep them engaged by making it easy for them to explore related topics, suggesting they read a new products page or subscribe to a newsletter. Use your analytics technology to find out what components engage them most.
In the end, the most compelling reason customers buy is because they believe in you or your product. Make it easy for them to see your benefits. Analyze your site regularly, making sure it's easy to navigate and delivers what you promise. Then watch your visitors turn to loyal, paying customers.
~ Lisa Wehr - MarketingProfs.com
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How do I get more listings in real estate?
There are three main strategies you can take to getting more listings. It's up to you to commit energy and resources to the one you feel is most appropriate for you:
1) Find a Differentiating Factor:
What sets you apart from other Realtors? Whenever I ask prospects and clients this question, I get the same laundry list of responses. They tell me they provide better service or they offer a discount or they are quick to respond. When I look at agents' marketing materials, I read things like "#1 real estate agent" or that "I'm different from other agents."
The truth is that none of these are good differentiating factors because every agent says them. And once everyone starts saying the same things and doing the same things, there's no differentiation. Instead, find a way to differentiate yourself that's bold and clearly states how you're different. Don't tell them. Show them.
2) Outspend Your Competition:
Spend more on advertising and mailings and other promotions so that you do get greater and repeated exposure to your audience. It does work but it takes a long term approach. In the short term, you will burn through a lot of cash breaking into the market and establishing your dominance.
Look at how Microsoft operates. They see a profitable industry they'd like to get into and buy up a few companies. Then they blitz their current customers and everyone else with ads, promotions, and samples. They look for ways to get their message out - through the media and customer evangelists - and they pick up those messages and market some more. It's the same way with real estate or any other industry. You can outspend your competition to reach more people more frequently.
3) Find a Niche and Fulfill Their Need:
The last strategy is to find a market that has an unmet need and focus your efforts on solving their problems. Niches usually have less competition than the overall market, so if you can create a marketing message tailored specifically to your target audience, you'll stand out. The benefit of this is that you start small and build a reputation as the agent to go to for this particular niche.
The absolute worst thing you can do is say that you focus on "buyers and sellers." It's too general. Marketing works best when you can reach the same people repeatedly. It can take 6-8 times before people even start to recognize your firm. Reaching them once or twice is not enough. You have to have enough resources - time, money, and expertise - to reach these people on a constant basis.
What types of people should you focus on? Consider these: first time buyers, baby boomers, vacation home buyers, second time move ups, Hispanics. I bet if you start brain storming and you can come up with more.
~Krista Baker -Morningstar Multimedia
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