Archive for the 'e-marketing' Category

Integrating Social Media into Your Online Marketing Plan

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NDG
on March 5, 2010
in advertising, articles, e-marketing, marketing, new home marketing and real estate marketing
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Continuing our Step-By-Step Process to Staying Focused and On Track in Today’s Market, this week, we’ll discuss how Social Media can help you distribute your content online to help achieve your search engine marketing and optimization goals, as well as help you achieve real authentic customer engagement.

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter—there’s a growing number of social media channels and platforms out there. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and off course trying to be everywhere, so we’re going to set the record straight about what you should, and shouldn’t, expect from your social media marketing efforts.

Make sure to review NDG’s online integration map for flowing data (content) throughout the fundamental online marketing components for Homebuilders, Developers, and Real Estate Brokerages.

NDG recommends that our clients have a living strategic plan for implementing, engaging, and monitoring your social media outreach. While social media can help build brands and maximize publicity efforts, do not expect these marketing components to instantly drive traffic or sales. Social media platforms are recommended because of their word-of-mouth generation capabilities and because of their wide-ranging reach across many varied demographic audiences. Do NOT abandon all other forms of marketing; rather, integrate social media into your current marketing strategy and, most importantly, your corporate website.

As a first, fundamental step, develop a blog to serve as the “content repository” to feed timely, relevant content to your corporate website. This same content can be distributed via a Facebook fan page. Then,  you can add other platforms such as Twitter and YouTube to your mix as you develop more content appropriate for these digital meeting places. Your website is the hub of all your marketing and advertising, and from this hub are distributed communications, each tailored to the channel you’re using.

Finally, remember that Content is Queen, and especially so for the social media. If you’re just shouting the same stuff down these channels, you’re wasting your time and money, and potentially damaging your brand and reputation. The ROI on your social media outreach will be directly influenced by your investment in generating good content, because this is what will help your Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) rankings grow higher and higher, and create more authentic engagement with your prospects—not repeating the same weak content over and over, which will just get you ignored by both your prospects and the search engines.

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Pay to Play Until You Can Go Organic: Search Engine Marketing

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NDG
on March 1, 2010
in advertising, e-marketing, marketing, new home marketing and real estate marketing
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As new home sales expert Myers Barnes often says, “It’s Online or the Breadline.” According to the National Association of Realtors, more than 90% of new homebuyers are starting their research and selection process online, shopping by elimination to determine which communities they will visit in person.

Your goal is to have your website appear on the very first page of search engine results pages (or “SERPs”) when your prospects search under the keywords associated with your website and its content, and have it appear there “organically” — that is, without resorting to paid advertising to help maintain this first-page ranking. This is no easy and simple task, nor does it happen overnight, but with testing, vigilance, and perseverance, you can achieve this goal.

Search Engine Optimization (or “SEO”) refers to improving your search engine ranking via non-paid methods. This is different from Search Engine Marketing (or “SEM”), paid search engine advertising that can help you eventually achieve your search engine placement goals without any financial investment. The most prominent example of search engine advertising is Google AdWords.

Keyword research will help guide the ongoing development of your paid search engine advertising, so that you can allocate minimal funds to test your advertising first. Once you have positive results, roll out your complete, tested & proven paid advertising. Remember, your goal is to have your website appear on the first page of search engine results. With a combination of Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing, you can achieve this goal, and then eliminate the expense of paid search advertising once you achieve sustainable “organic” first-page ranking.

Next week, we’ll discuss the facts and myths of how “Social Media” such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter can help you distribute your content online to help achieve your search engine goals.

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Why TRACKING is KING

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NDG
on February 17, 2010
in advertising, e-marketing, new home sales marketing and real estate marketing
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While Content is Queen, Tracking is King. Here’s why: Advertisers and Marketers today have the most concrete, reliable, and ample data to help analyze and understand the results of your labors.

Now you really can see what is working, and deduce why or why not with your online efforts (including e-mail, advertising, and websites)—giving you the power to refine and adjust over time to maintain and increase positive results. Your content will generate the results, and tracking will ensure that your content is as well crafted and targeted as possible to create the most response over time as situations evolve.

Remember: Advertising is what brings you the first contact with the prospect; marketing is what happens when you respond. Analytics help measure both your advertising and marketing results. Now you can have true ROI metrics that spell out the who, why, where, when, and how.

Of course, it takes time to analyze. And of course it’s not black and white; there will be shades of gray, but this is what gives you the most clarity. There are also industry benchmarks available to help evaluate your performance against other competitors in your selected arena. For example, here are some recent real estate industry e-mail averages, courtesy mailchimp.com:

Open Rate: 22.84%
Click-through Rate: 4.24%
Soft Bounces: 2.02%
Hard Bounces: 4.31%
Unsubscribe Requests: 0.30%

And since almost all online advertising and marketing can be tracked if the proper steps are taken, there’s no reason to blindly assume or guess about what is working and what isn’t anymore. So, never forget that the key to your online success is the formula of CONTENT + TRACKING.

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Why CONTENT is QUEEN

Published
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NDG
on February 12, 2010
in articles, e-marketing and real estate marketing
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Continuing our discussion from our previous post, 2010 Online Marketing Fundamentals, we now turn to the importance of content.

For the real estate industry (and practically every other industry), the key to online success is the formula of CONTENT + TRACKING. Today we’ll talk about why CONTENT is the fuel of your online engine.

So, an engine will not run with fuel. As you know, the gas in your car won’t last forever—you’ll use it up and will need to fuel up again to get further down the road. The same is exactly true of your online content. You’ll need to put new content into the system continually to keep your company moving toward your online goals.

Since consumers start their buying process online, your website must be the hub of all your activities. Even with the numerous social media platforms and channels available, your website must be the central core that radiates content outward, and receives, processes, and interacts with inbound communications.

Content is everything. Content is what brings consumers to you. But once they’ve seen it—unless it is complex or incredibly compelling—they won’t be back. Thus, ensuring that your content is changing, fresh, and answers the needs of your potential audiences is absolutely critical to the success of all your online efforts.

But what does “fresh content” really mean? It means that you’re telling your story continually; and not just your story, but also the story of how you can fulfill your clients’ needs. It means that your representation of your product must stay fresh as well, even if the product or service itself has not substantially changed. And it means that you are getting your content in front of as many targeted faces as possible—adapting for each new segment’s unique needs.

So commit to regular fresh fuel-ups of your website and outbound channels with fresh content, tailored to the wants and needs of your audiences. Otherwise, you’ll always be going nowhere.

Next Week: Why Tracking is King

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People Prefer to Watch than Read

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NDG
on February 9, 2010
in articles, e-marketing, new home sales marketing and real estate marketing
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Sarah Yaussi of Hanley Wood, publishers of Builder magazine and many other publications that serve the residential and commercial construction industry, recently attended the IBS 2010 show in Las Vegas where she saw NDG Companies President Tom Nelson’s presentation on online marketing for homebuilders, developers, and realtors.

“I ran across this factoid on page 15: Google and YouTube are serving 10 billion videos a month. The take-away was that people online would rather watch than read. So, I’ve been taking this insight to heart of late, even purchasing a FlipCam pocket video recorder and shooting some video on my own with the intent to integrate more of it into my news stories and blogs.”

Sarah then shares “lessons learned” from her experience with video, which are good recommendations for everyone beginning with online video production. Click here to continue reading Sarah’s blog and see her new video experiment results.

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NDG’s 2010 Online Marketing Fundamentals

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NDG
on February 3, 2010
in advertising, articles, e-marketing, new home sales marketing and real estate marketing
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Connect the Dot.com’s in Your Online Marketing

for Homebuilders, Developers, and Real Estate Brokerages

A Step-By-Step Process to Staying Focused and On-Track in Today’s Market

NDG is sharing a roadmap with our clients and friends this year. It’s a roadmap to achieving online advertising and marketing results in 2010. In seven steps—steps, which we admit, are complex, and which take time and dedication to achieve—NDG will show you how to lay the groundwork for online real estate marketing and sales success this year. We’ll share one step per post, starting this week with:

Follow the Content Path: The Fundamental Components Required for Integrating and Flowing Your Data

What to do, where to do it, and how to make it all work together: Revealed below is NDG’s online integration map for flowing data (content) throughout the fundamental online marketing components for Homebuilders, Developers, and Real Estate Brokerages.

dataflow3

1. Utilize a Branded, Adminable, and Content-Driven Website

What does “Adminable” mean?

This term simply means that your website is easily updated with new content by non-programmers via a Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to modify the content on your website without the help of a programmer.

What does “Content-Driven” mean?

We mean that fresh content is critical to your success, just as gasoline is required to make your car’s engine go: Community Listings, Inventory Homes List, Customizable Interactive Floorplans, Product Photography, Customizable Driving Directions to Sales Centers, Homeowner Testimonials, etc.

2. Utilize a Customer Relations Management System  (CRM)

What is a Customer Relations Management System?

Software that helps organize, manage, automate, and ensure the quality of your company’s interactions with both sales prospects and buyers.  Utilizing a CRM system will help you convert browsers into buyers.

3. Export XML Data Feeds from your CRM to 3rd-Party Referral Websites

What is an XML Feed?

This is the programming code that feeds YOUR HOME LISTINGS into third-party referral websites such as NewHomeSource.com, Trulia.com, or Move.com, etc., automatically, ensuring your listings on these websites are current and accurate—without having to manage the data manually.

4. Connect with Social Media Platforms

What are Social Media?

These are the online communities, websites, and platforms (such as Blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc) that allow people from any location on the planet to come together to share common interests. Social Media are today’s public relations.

5. Acquire and Analyze Website Analytic Performance Data

What are Website Analytics?

The hard numbers from your website and other online components that tell you who is interacting with you, or not, and why, where, when, and how. The proof is in the numbers, and the more you know and understand, the more you’ll be able to refine your approach and modify your outreach to create the greatest results.

By utilizing each of these fundamental components, and by properly flowing your content and data through them in the correct order, you can ensure that your online resources are structured for maximum efficiency, that no (or at least few) opportunities for exposure and connection with the right prospects are being missed, and that you are poised for the most return on your investment.

Next week we’ll discuss the fuel that makes this online engine run: CONTENT!

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NDG’s Red Hot Online Marketing Strategies from IBS 2010

Published
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NDG
on January 25, 2010
in advertising, e-marketing, marketing, new home marketing, new home sales marketing and real estate marketing
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A huge thank you to all who attended the Red-Hot New Home Sales and Marketing Solutions seminar with Myers Barnes and Jim Adams at this year’s International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas. We appreciate your time, and we’re confident that if you employ the tactics we outlined in the program, your team will achieve online marketing success in 2010!

We know it seems overwhelming but, with a solid plan of action, and a commitment to seeing it through, your online presence will begin to pay measurable dividends.

IF YOU MISSED THIS YEAR’S SHOW: A complete PDF of the Red-Hot New Home Sales and Marketing Solutions presentation is now available for you to download at your convenience here.

And of course if you ever need help, NDG stands ready to create real solutions to your online marketing and advertising problems. You can reach us anytime at our website, on our Facebook Fan page, or by calling (877) 889-1848.

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Facebook Users Now Exceed 250 Million

Published
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NDG
on July 23, 2009
in articles and e-marketing
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Just a few months ago, social networking behemoth Facebook announced that it had reached 200 million users. Now, just over 3 months later, the site has reached 250 million users, acquiring up to 750,000 new users per day in recent weeks.

And though much of this growth (approximately 70%) has come from outside the United States, the site is now the most visited in the United States where it is the undisputed #1 social networking site.

“For us,” says Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “growing to 250 million users isn’t just an impressive number; it is a mark of how many personal connections all of you have made, and how far we at Facebook have to go to extend the power of connection to the billions of people around the world.”

So, everybody’s jumping aboard the social networking bandwagon, and Facebook is the leading platform, but what about engagement? Facebook reports that users spent an average of 4 hours, 39 minutes on the social network in June 2009, that 20 million users log in at least once a day, and that 30 million update their status daily, making the company’s apparent inability to fully monetize all the more mystifying—though there are hints that the floodgates of revenue may be opening soon.

Read Mashable’s take on this impressive milestone here.

Read Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerburg’s blog post here.

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Red-Hot New Home Sales And Marketing Solutions

Published
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NDG
on June 4, 2009
in e-marketing, new home sales marketing and real estate marketing
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What’s hotter than hot? The e-marketing strategies that are getting new homes sold. Come and learn the New, New Fundamentals with New Homes Sales Training Expert and Best-Selling Author Myers Barnes and Real Estate E-Marketing Expert Tom Nelson of NDG Communications at the 2010 International Builders’ Show.

This year’s show will be January 19-22, 2010 in Las Vegas. Myers and Tom will share the latest and greatest strategies and tactics of online real estate marketing used by some of the most successful companies in North America. Don’t miss your chance to ask the experts—get more information on the 2010 International Builders’  Show here.

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This is ARGENT

Published
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NDG
on May 21, 2009
in articles and e-marketing
. 0 Comments

NDG Communications proudly announces the new website and multi-channel launch campaign for Argent Condominiums, a multi-story condominium project in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C.

In addition to the launch campaign, and even with a critically urgent schedule, NDG developed a pre-launch teaser campaign that used strategically placed print to create curiosity and lead consumers to a clever landing page that captured qualified preview registrants weeks before the website or building was ready to receive visitors.

“NDG worked very hard to craft a very compelling multi-channel campaign for Argent,” said NDG President Tom Nelson, “one that fully leverages new media to make meaningful connections with qualified prospects.”

NDG Communications is an award-winning, nationally recognized advertising and interactive marketing agency just outside Washington, D.C.

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