Over at the excellent Smartblog on Social Media, Rob Birgfeld is examining exactly how sharing is going on between users—and explaining why your customers are the best marketers money can’t buy. According to Rob, “If you’re mindful of how and where they share, you’ll have true word-of-mouth working on your behalf.” Read the whole article Here.
Tags: e-marketing, interactive marketing, ndg communications, social mediaArchive for the 'marketing' Category
Things are Changing Fast.
Here are some fast facts from the National Association of Realtors on how new home buyers are shopping, and their expectations:
Buyers are now 1000% more likely to find the home they purchase on the Internet than in a newspaper.
Buyers are now 3200% more likely to find the home they purchase on the Internet than in a real estate publication or magazine.
Buyers are doing more research: 16.5 weeks in 2008, compared to 12.1 weeks in 2007 and only 6.4 in 2006.
Buyer expectations for online response have increased: 68% expect response within an hour, and 96% expect with in 4 hours.
The new home shopping and buying experience is now largely an Internet experience. If the experience you’re offering your prospects isn’t clearly superior to that of your competitors, isn’t it time to Get Real about your online sales and marketing?
Data courtesy NAR 2008 Buyers and Sellers Profile
Tags: ndg communications, new home sales, new home sales marketing, real estate marketingOver at Marketing Sherpa they’ve asked consumer marketers to rank the ROI of various online marketing tactics and published the rankings for Q4 2008. The results? It appears that email, SEO, and paid search continue to enjoy the best ROI. And, it seems no surprise that display advertising is taking the back seat now. Click here to read the whole article.
Tags: e-mail marketing, e-marketing, ndg communications, new home marketing, new home sales, real estate marketing, search engine optimization, SEOE-mail marketing is very effective and has a reasonably low cost compared to regular direct mail, but regular direct mail is not going away, and it can be part of an effective marketing mix to reach particular segments of the population who may not be in your e-mail lists. So let’s talk about getting the most from our “land mail” direct campaigns.
The most important thing to understand with regular direct mail is that you must determine your audience first, and then tailor your message to that audience. By getting more specific about your list, about who it is that you should be selling to, you can get better returns from more qualified leads. Conduct better research to isolate your ideal buyer characteristics in your mailing lists to get more on-target.
But direct mail now has a new helper to make your campaigns even more effective. Remember in my last post about e-mail marketing where we talked about a “website landing page” linked in the e-mail where the recipient could go to register for an event, to receive more information, or to receive a gift or a chance to win some incentive? You can do the exact same thing with direct mail by providing the website address for your campaign landing page.
Of course, it’s easier with e-mail marketing because the recipient only has to click a link in the e-mail to go to the landing page, but with a properly targeted list, a strategically crafted message, and an appropriate incentive, you can still push many direct mail recipients to the same landing page where they can provide you with solid contact information for an actionable, and most likely very qualified, lead.
And, variable printing has created the ability to further personalize mailers to each recipient’s name, interests, and correct product categories and thus make your communications more relevant to individual recipients.
If you make sure to follow these essential rules, your direct mail campaigns will yield more results and produce far more qualified leads.
Tags: advertising, direct mail, direct marketing, marketing, ndg communicationsFrequently we come across blog postings, white papers, and articles in magazines regarding the use of Flash-based websites and its negative effect on search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Almost unanimously, many who claim to be experts condemn the use of Flash and label the technology as a “death wish” for those who wish to achieve high search engine rankings, especially on Google.com.
The Facts: Optimizing Flash is not easy, but far from impossible.
Flash is now a viable technology that helps create rich online experiences and, with common sense tactics, can be optimized to target search engine results. Innovation in Flash website development practices, combined with other development technologies (like JavaScript) can now help produce high Search Engine Results Page (SERP) rankings for Flash websites.
In July 2008, Google and Adobe (the developers of Flash) announced a joint-venture update to resolve the Flash/SEO issue. The introduction of Google’s Flash algorithm means most Flash sites are, by default, search engine-friendly—assuming your programmer is up to date on the latest techniques required to effectively optimize Flash.
Of course, some issues remain, but these are being addressed and industry-standard work-around solutions have been developed to make Flash a viable technology to use for websites. And with Google now capturing 64% of the search engine traffic, and providing reliable indexing of Flash sites with their new algorithm, Flash should be a major component in the technical palette of every web designer and programmer.
Still Not Convinced? More in-depth technical explanations of these techniques can be found online. There are many sources where more specifics can be provided on actual SEO for Flash tactics.
Here are some examples of Flash-based websites with effective SEO from the NDG Communications portfolio:
This Flash-based website is optimized for several key phrases, but our main phrase is “Townhomes in La Plata.” Our Google SERP (search engine results page) has this site ranking consistently between #2 to #4.
Using the search phrase “Chestertown Waterfront Homes,” the Google SERP ranking for this Flash-based website is consistently #2 or #3.
So, while Flash is not necessarily the best choice for every website, it has been proven in usability research to enhance the overall user experience by making a site more interactive and intuitive. Remember, you have approximately 4 seconds to really grab a website visitor’s attention and help them make the decision to stay and consume more of your content. For now and the foreseeable future, Flash is still the best technology available to website designers to achieve real engagement and to convert visitors to registered users, and it can now be properly indexed by the world’s most dominant search engine, Google.com, ensuring that SEO goals are attainable.
Tags: e-marketing, Flash, ndg communications, SEO, website designAnother year of low expectations and even lower delivery for the ad industry at this year’s Super Bowl. Rather than howl on like every other advertising-related blog about the dire collection of hyper-inflated nonsense that was trotted out last night (Danica Patrick in the Shower? And give the Clydesdales a rest, already), we’d just like to share what was very likely the best Super Bowl ad of the entire lot:
It’s probably worth pointing out that nobody at NDG feels this way. Except for Steve, and only when the coffee runs out.
Tags: advertising, ndg communications, Super BowlCoy little campaign from (we think) a Brazilian sound production company called “Saxsofunny”:
Tags: advertising, brazil, ndg communicationsAh, Social Media. Like fire, it’s great for heating things up, but it can also burn down your house. Or, in some cases, your client roster. While Twitter is a fantastic resource and, when used the right way by diligent brand stewards, can be a part of a healthy campaign, David Henderson shares the power of the tweet to potentially destroy relationships in his blog post How Not to Be a Key Online Influencer.
Tags: social media, twitterWhile direct mail has lost some of its ability to effectively connect with prospects who often see the mailing as simply “junk mail,” e-mail marketing has now become an incredibly effective and interactive method of helping prospects reach you.
E-mail marketing has an incredibly high return on investment because you’re only paying for your recipient list and the creative services used to create the art, copy, and e-mail itself, because there are no printing costs, and because those you are e-mailing have already opted to receive such mailings—these people actually want to hear from you and are far more likely to read what you have sent and make contact with you.
Many of you may have already begun to dip your toes into the e-mail marketing game, and have seen the incredible results. Others of you may have tried, but without attaining the response rate you’d hoped for. The keys to effective email marketing are consistency, a strategically developed message, and a website landing page that captures registrations.
Where most builders and developers fail with e-mail marketing is in applying consistency. Simply sending out one e-mail message and expecting hard returns is unlikely to accomplish anything. Think more in terms of a campaign—where a new e-mail goes out every two weeks, and possibly more often to promote community-specific events.
And, just as important as applying consistency, your message must be on-target and resonate with your audience. If you understand who the correct buyer is, you can create e-mails that are appropriate for their wants and needs. You also must provide the recipients with some incentive to make contact with you.
Typically, when NDG Communications creates an e-mail campaign, the e-mail provides a link to a “website landing page” that provides the e-mail recipient with a form to register to receive more information in exchange for some reward, possibly to enter for a drawing at an event, or the chance to win some prize. The recipient has an incentive, and you now have a registered (and most likely qualified) lead with full contact details.
Tags: e-mail, e-marketing, ndg communications
