Is your company, service, product, or brand receiving attention? Is anybody talking about you? If not, you may need to ask yourself some hard questions. Seth Godin shares a particularly critical concern in his blog that everyone in business should be considering.
Category Archives: advertising
Supporting The Arts
From time to time we like to share the work of other people and agencies that we really like. This series of ads encouraging public support of the arts from Leo Burnett for AmericansForTheArts.org is a rare example of PSAs that really capture attention and interest. And you should support the arts, too—the world truly needs more Pete Townshends, Aretha Franklins, Itzhak Perlmans, Elmore Leonards, and even Seth Rogens. Besides, we only have one Willie Nelson left.
Guten Taaaaag!
NDG Communications at IBS 2009
We invite you to join NDG Communications President Tom Nelson at the 2009 International Builders Show in Las Vegas. Tom will be a featured guest speaker again this year and his topic will be “Attracting Today’s Buyers Online: Building Success with Connected Customers.” The panel for this talk also includes Mike Lyon of www.DoYouConvert.com and Stephen Feltner, President of New Homes & Rentals Divisions at Move.com.
Tom and his fellow panelists will provide extensive strategies for developing effectively targeted online marketing campaigns, including:
• Proper integration of online and offline marketing initiatives
• Fulfilling buyer expectations of real estate websites and their content
• Understanding the latest online marketing trends to help reduce standing inventory and drive more home buyer traffic to sales centers
Date: Thursday, January 22, 2009
Time: 8:00AM to 9:30AM
Location: North 259/261
Click here to see the official IBS website listing for Tom’s talk.
If you’re a homebuilder and ready to help make your online investment create real, measurable returns, this talk is one you just can’t miss.
Getting to the Top, Part 2
With interactive advertising the advertiser now has total control of budget—meaning they determine how much they are willing to pay for each click, and how many clicks they will pay for in a predetermined period.
And, with the fully detailed reports of the campaign’s performance provided by the various ad venues (Google AdWords, AdSense, Realtor.com, etc.) you can now actually see and determine what works and what doesn’t to refine your approach to maximize the return on your online advertising investment.
This is the true advertising revolution: You are now in control. You determine what is spent, where it’s spent, and when to change course to ensure your share of the prospect pie. And you do it armed with hard and accurate information about your results.
How to Make Search Work for You
Last time, we gave you some hard facts about the importance of search engine optimization for new home sales websites, like the fact that 84% of homebuyers start their new home search on the internet. So you understand WHY you need to be concerned about making sure search engines rank your website as high as possible. Now, here’s the HOW. Below are some fundamentals you must consider when creating your website in order to help search engines connect you with the right prospects who are searching for new homes.
• It is estimated that 47% of all website visits come from direct navigation (that is, a user typing the website address or URL directly into the address navigation box). Therefore, your website’s address or “URL” should be simple and intuitive—as close to the community’s name or brand as possible. The closer your website address to your actual property’s name, the easier it will be for prospects to locate you online and for search engines to connect your website with the right prospects.
• A website’s architecture (the pages of content and how they are structured together) and the actual content of the website’s pages themselves have a direct impact on the way search engines interpret the site’s information and determine its relevancy. So, the better your content, the more relevant it is to your prospects, and the fresher it is, the easier it will be for prospects to find your website via search engines. When you update your website often with news, events, and more detailed information, the search engines notice this and will boost your ranking higher so that you can be found more easily. Websites that never change will begin to fall further down the list. The lesson: Stay fresh.
• Websites use special “tags” in the actual programming code to help search engines understand the content of your website. The Title Tag is one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings. Limited to 68 characters including spaces, the title tag description is what appears in the clickable link on the search engine results page and is incredibly important in helping your website get better search rankings. Each page in your website can have a separate title tag that describes the page’s content. Remember, the title tag determines what your prospects will see when they’re searching for new homes online and find your website’s listing, and will help them determine whether to click your link, or to skip it and move on. So make sure you take advantage of this simple but most important programming tag to connect with your prospects.
• Having other websites link to your website can boost your ranking with some of the search engines and substantially increase the flow of traffic through your site. Just as having new and fresh content regularly added to your website will help improve your ranking, the more links you have between your website and others the more search engine optimization benefit you’ll be able to realize.
There are many, many more methods and strategies for helping your website achieve better search engine results rankings, but the ones we’ve discussed today are among the most fundamental and a good place to start. NDG Communications has helped countless clients boost their rankings to get more qualified leads, increase registrations, and help establish communities with our effective SEO services and e-marketing capabilities. If we can help you, please call or e-mail today.
Does Your Website Get a Passing Grade?
Ready to see how your website really measures up when it comes to driving qualified traffic? Use this professional website assessment checklist to see if your website is making the grade and or if you could use some improvement. Scoring is based on a 1 through 10 system—1 being extremely poorly represented and 10 is extremely well represented. Be honest and objective.
WEBSITE GRADING CHART
URL (short, simple, intuitive) _____/10
Download Time (size of home page) _____/10
Look and Feel (readability) _____/10
Require User to Download Additional Software _____/10
Homepage on One Screen (above the fold) _____/10
Unique Selling Point (USP) or Value Proposition_____/10
Ability to Take Action (Key action points provided)_____/10
Feeling of Wanting More (depth of site)_____/10
Contact Details_____/10
Credential Validation (certifications, associations etc.)_____/10
Statement from Management_____/10
Useful Information_____/10
Level of Interaction_____/10
Use of Valuable Graphics_____/10
Use of Valuable Animation_____/10
Reviews, Testimonials, and Certifications_____/10
Content Presented in Digestible Quantities_____/10
Up-to-Date Information_____/10
Available in Multiple Languages_____/10
Accessibility for the Disabled_____/10
Disclaimers & Terms of Use_____/10
Easily Usable Site Structure/Content_____/10
Useful Title Tags_____/10
Description Meta Tags_____/10
Site Directory/Site Map_____/10
ALT Tags_____/10
Partner & Affiliate Links _____/10
TOTAL____/270
SCORING:
240 points or more: Excellent work; are you one of my clients?
200-240 points: Great effort, but more work is required to drive traffic and sales
100-200 points: Seek Professional Help
Less than 100 Points: Critical Warning—Get Help Fast
Driving Web Traffic, Part 2
DOES YOUR WEBSITE HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO DRIVE TRAFFIC? Part 2
With the website being the most fundamental marketing tool, and the hub of all information, here are some additional basic but critical factors to consider for your sales website:
CONTACT DETAILS
Providing immediate contact details such as email addresses and telephone numbers on the home page will give the site an open feel and add a personal touch, thus increasing user confidence and instilling credibility.
CREDENTIAL VALIDATION/TESTIMONIALS
Providing the kinds of information that establishes credibility and consumer confidence, such as awards, is a useful way to build trust with the consumer. Providing independent comments on positive experiences (applicable to the product or company) will have an even greater impact—instilling confidence in your brand and qualitatively boosting the consumer’s perception of the quality of your product and company.
STATEMENT FROM MANAGEMENT
This content will share the vision and values of the people who envisioned and are building the community. This information provides credibility and legitimacy for the property.
UP-TO-DATE
All content published on the website should be recent and up-to-date.
DISCLAIMERS & TERMS OF USE
It is very important to supply the appropriate disclaimers, terms of use, privacy policy, and other legal terms.
Driving Web Traffic is Job #1
DOES YOUR WEBSITE HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO DRIVE TRAFFIC? Part 1
In today’s market, new home consumers are spending up to eight weeks doing their research online. Their goal in this research process is to shop by elimination—to narrow their search down to three communities that fit their desires and then make an on-site visit. If your website does not effectively tell your story or resonate with the consumer, you will lose this battle before you ever realized it began.
Consumers will not contact you to clarify your message—they will simply eliminate your product from consideration. With the website being the most fundamental marketing tool, the hub of all the information here are some key considerations:
UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (USP)
It is extremely important that the user can immediately ascertain the value of the site’s purpose and the usefulness of the content. The unique selling proposition should be clearly stated on the home page. Remember, current research tells us that we have 4 SECONDS to tell your user who you are in order for them to continue to invest their valuable time in your website.
KEY ACTION POINTS/ CALL-TO-ACTION
This site should be richly interactive and encourage user participation from the outset. There should be direct links to key action points immediately visible on the homepage. The website should provide a means to engage in a discussion with the user and encourage the next step—direct contact via an online form, email, or phone call.
DEPTH OF SITE AND LEVEL OF INTERACTION
The site should strive to completely engage the user. The goal should be to create a website with such compelling and engaging content that the user stays as long as possible on each visit, and revisits the site frequently. Also, as a medium, websites are especially tailored to present content through the combined use of text, graphics, and animation—offering a huge potential to convey content and meaning to users. Therefore, a website should be as interactive as possible to take advantage of the great opportunity to engage users
AESTHETICS/USE OF VALUABLE GRAPHICS
Successful websites are founded in firm and established design principles. Graphics should add value to the website, and never reduce the readability or performance. It is important that the look and feel of a website be a positive and compelling visual reflection of the product through the use of colors, fonts, and graphics.
USEFUL INFORMATION
All content presented on the site should be of the highest quality. Animations and graphics are to support the content, not compete. It is important to ensure that your message is clear and your intent is obvious. And make sure that all content is accurate and error free.
Stay tuned for the next part of this article for more new home sales insights from NDG’s Tom Nelson.
The Hide and Seek of Search, part 2
HOW BUYERS FIND YOU IN THE 21ST CENTURY, Part 2
NDG President Tom Nelson shares how website searches are used by prospective homebuyers and how you can make sure your website is as close to the top of their list as possible.
So your website has fresh and relevant content—but even the best website in the world will not lead to conversions if prospects never even know about your website.
It is therefore critical to ensure that, when prospective buyers who should be your prospective buyers are searching the web, they find your website. The process of helping your website connect with people you want to find it is called “Search Engine Optimization” often abbreviated as “SEO.”
SEO is a set of an ever-evolving set of methods to help your website achieve the highest ranking possible in search engine results. And while the specifics of HOW it’s done can be a bit complicated, the WHY cannot be overstated. Here are some incredible facts: According to Forrester Research, 81% of internet users find websites via search engines. In addition, the first 3 positions in “organic” (that is, non-paid) search engine results are viewed almost 100% of the time, and the 4th organic position was viewed 85% of the time.
In total, 90% of all Internet search engine traffic goes to the top 30 organic search results. And with 84% of homebuyers starting their new home search on the internet, you can see the overwhelming importance of proper Search Engine Optimization in getting prospects to your community.
So, that’s the WHY. Next time we’ll begin to discuss the HOW—the specifics of how you can make sure your website has effective content, and is effectively optimized for web search engines to be able to connect you with the right prospects.
The New Civista Health Website
Helping a Hospital Connect with the Community:
The New Civista Health Website
NDG recently completed the design and execution of a brand-new website for Civista Health, the parent organization that owns and manages the Civista Medical Center, the preeminent hospital facility in Southern Maryland.
As the healthcare leader for Southern Maryland, it is Civista Health’s mission to help create a healthy future for all those they serve. NDG provided a dynamic new tool to help Civista in that mission: the new Civista website.
Now Civista can provide all the information the community needs to take charge of their own health, and all the information they need about the medical center, in a single online resource. From the new health resources page, which provides brief and easy-to-understand articles about almost every health concern, to presenting the latest health news, the new Civista website is truly a comprehensive portal to good health.
Visitors can use the new Civista website to find a doctor, download a welcome kit for those who will be patients at the medical center, send a card to a patient, and view the newest arrivals at the Online Nursery. NDG also developed a new section of videos where users can watch Civista staffers share their experiences, watch patient testimonials, and even take a video tour of the brand-new facility. And, a new blog from the President will share news and insights each week.
With their new website, Civista Health can now truly say Good Health Starts Here.
See the new Civista website for yourself: www.Civista.org
