Digital Marketing Tips & Info - by TheDigitalMass.com

Attleboro Falls, Massachusetts

I will be posting any online and/or mobile industry news or tips that I feel may benefit the community. Check out thedigitalmass.com for more information.

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Digital Marketing Tips & Info - by TheDigitalMass.com

August 2008

The importance of Local.com to real estate agents

Aug. 29, 2008

Tagged with: localcom importance to real estate

If you are not familiar with Local.com, they are localized online search tool specializing in helping people find large and small businesses within their local area. Unlike other local search tools out there Local.com contains rich review content submitted by actual customers as well as free listings within their directory.

According to Compete, Local.com’s traffic has been steadily increasing over the past few years as well and they are now just under the 10 million visitor per month mark.

At a minimum real estate agents should submit their business as a free listing….it’s a no brainer with almost 9 million people going their per month. If you are in a larger market and feel advertising on Local.com will benefit your business their rates are low with a $50 introductory offer.

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3 Point Digital Marketing Strategy and the Importance of the ‘Assist’

Aug. 26, 2008

Tagged with: digital marketing, marketing online

Too many marketers live in silos. Their strategy too often fails to address all the ways they could be reaching their target audience. In many cases if they are reaching their audience through the right channels the message is not consistent or integrated properly.

When I build a digital marketing plan for a client there are three primary points that I focus on. I encourage you to think about these three points if you are struggling with your own marketing challenges.

1. Channel Diversity - Are you reaching your customer in the places and at the times when it matters most? If you’re a real estate agent you should be reaching your customer in newspapers/tv/etc. (local paper, home shows) , online through real estate websites and social media (sites like Facebook, Trulia, Realtor.com), and in their email box or on your customers mobile device (with services like HItxt, http://www.hitxt.com). These are the primary ways your customer is consuming messages/communication which is why you need to be there. The levels of these channels start with a broad, untargeted reach (newspaper, etc.) and funnel to a very specific and personal connection with the customer through mobile interaction and email.

If you are successfully reaching your customer in these three areas you are building deep brand equity and a higher propensity to significantly speed up your sales cycle.

2. Message Consistency - So you are reaching your customer in the three primary channels listed above, but how consistent is your message. Ensure that customers are not getting conflicting messages between channels. Also, it’s important to use one channel to promote the other. For example listing your site URL on your TV spot. Or listing your SMS listing information in your classifieds ad. Showing a customer that your reach spans well beyond the way they are finding is important to demonstrate your ability as a marketer.

3. Measure the Team - This is an integrated strategy so don’t measure it in silos. Too many times I hear marketers criticize on area of a strategy like this consistently more than others. The fact of the matter is there are channels that will receive direct sales or leads and others that will drive sales or leads to that channel. It’s like hockey, players stats reflect actual goals scored and assists. The assist part is as important as the goal. Yes, you need to make sure you are seeing an ROI through any marketing efforts, but at the same time think holistically in how you are reaching people and how they will likely respond.

Don’t give your target customers the excuse that you were not accessible to them. Reach them at every point possible and deliver the clearest and most consistent message possible.

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Debunking 9 SEO Myths

Aug. 11, 2008

Tagged with: marketing in search engines, search optimization, seo

liger- napoleon dynamite

Search engines may not be mythical creatures bred for the skills in magic, but they are constantly engulfed by marketing myth. That is simply because the rules change almost daily. The rules you knew from late 2007 have changed and will likely change again before the year is out.

The points below specifically address Search Engine Optimization. Some of the tactics below, such as video marketing outside of context, are effective outside of an SEO strategy. Google and the big engines are making page rank more and more difficult, hopefully these tips help.

 Search engine submissions are worthless. Once your site is
indexed, it’s over. Mission accomplished.

 Directories are no longer a good source of quality one-way links.

 Article submission sites are so inundated with content that any
new articles will be buried on Page Rank 0 pages forever.

 Press releases are nice if you just cured cancer but they don’t
help you reach your target audience.

 Diverting traffic from blogs is called spamming. It will get you
banned from any decent blogs (the only ones that matter).

 For an RSS Feed to work, you need relevant, well-written
content that is regularly updated for your core audience.

 Social bookmarking is great IF you to have something of
value to post. You need your own blog to do this effectively.

 Getting permanent, one way backlinks from other sites is
ideal, but the only way to get them is to write customized,
individual e-mails aimed at target sites of value.

 Using video clips to promote your business is effective IF
you place the videos within the context of your blog. Placing
them in social media sites is not going to have the desired effect.

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5 Ways to Use SMS in your overall marketing plan

Aug. 8, 2008

Tagged with: real estate marketing, sms

Adopting new marketing techniques is essential for agents to keep up with an evolving buyers market, and one of the hottest technologies today is mobile marketing. Now don’t jump to conclusions on mobile marketing and SMS, it’s NOT just for teenagers. Right behind teenage users, SMS is most heavily used by women ages 25-40 according to mmetrics (a mobile marketing intelligence service).

There are many ways to leverage this technology to your marketing advantage, here are just a few ideas:

1. Posting a Mobile Information sign at the property – Giving buyers the ability to acquire your property information on their cell phone while they are sitting in their car in front of the property is extremely powerful. Mobile listings can immediately provide the buyer critical info on the property and pictures of the interior or backyard. Also, agents can immediately follow up with the potential buyer while they are still sitting in front of the property.

2. In your classified listings – Quickly save money in classifieds advertising with unique SMS listing codes. In your classifieds ad provide details on one property in the ad, and list four SMS codes under the listing detail indicating that readers can find additional info on like properties by sending a text message to the advertised codes.

3. On your business card and signatures- One of the great things about SMS listings is that they are completely reusable and only expire when an agent wants them to. On business cards and email signature place one or two SMS listing codes that contain information on your latest listings. This gives prospects immediate access to your listings while they are communicating with you and shows then that you are technically savvy marketer.

4. Link your mobile listings- SMS listings give you the ability to cross promote other listings without taking a significant amount of space. Place a short line at the bottom of one SMS listing with the unique code of another like listing. Buyers can end up browsing your entire listing portfolio from one inquiry and while driving to their next home showing.

5. Keep them engaged- Establishing communication with a buyer on their personal mobile device is an extremely powerful position for any sales person or agent. Without abusing that important line of communication, SMS gives you the ability to contact the buyer with additional property information or listings immediately, when they need it. Timing is almost everything in sales and SMS removes any potential time lag that may have been a factor in the past.

These are only a few ideas on how to use mobile marketing to enhance your advertising and marketing efforts. To learn more about this form of marketing and to try 30 days for free go to HItxt at http://www.hitxt.com.

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Early Consumer Response to Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace

Aug. 4, 2008

Tagged with: mortgage marketplace, zillow

In April of this year Zillow launched their mortgage service called “Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.” The marketplace enables consumers to create a request for a purchase mortgage, home equity loan, or refinance loan. However, unlike other home loan aggregators, Zillow enables the potential borrower to remain completely anonymous throughout the process. For instance, consumers are not required to enter their social security #, address, or even their name at any point during the online application experience. Borrowers ultimately receive loan offers from multiple lenders sent directly to an anonymous Zillow account. Clearly Zillow believes that by keeping the application process anonymous users will be more likely to fill out an application to gauge potential home loan financing options without fear of being inundated with marketing solicitation from lenders.

You may be wondering what type of traction the “Mortgage Marketplace” is gaining with consumers. As the chart below illustrates, traffic to this section of Zillow’s site has steadily grown from the time of product launch.

It is clear that this offering is an increasingly important piece of Zillow’s overall portfolio, as ~25% of total site visitors in June went to the Mortgage Marketplace. It certainly will be interesting to keep an eye on the rate of consumer adoption for the Mortgage Marketplace in the months ahead.

Best,

Michael Ouellette

Hitxt.com - SMS Real Estate Leads

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