Tag Archive for 'e-marketing'

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.

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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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Being Ready for the Bounce: Four Marketing Fundamentals

Published
by
NDG
on July 30, 2009
in articles and new home sales marketing
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From the Washington Post:
“The battered housing market appears to be on the mend, with sales climbing nationally and prices leveling off, even rising in some spots….On Tuesday, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller price index, a closely watched gauge, showed that single-family-home prices rose 0.5 percent from April to May, the first monthly increase since 2006. Earlier this week, the Federal government reported an 11 percent rise in new-home sales from May to June, the largest monthly gain in nine years.”

So, according to a key indicator of the housing market, for the first time in nearly three years home prices actually rose month-over-month across the nation. Foreclosures have slowed as well as lenders address new loan-modification programs, and economists think there’s now enough data to show that the housing market is  recovering and even bottoming in some parts of the country. Even the conservative Wall Street Journal reports this indicator data as a possible “change in momentum” for the housing market.

Now that reliable data shows that the bottom is being reached across the nation, it’s time to prepare for the bounce in your market. But your budgets are still tight, and you’re not even sure how to prepare after such an extended downturn. Here are the four marketing fundamentals every homebuilder or real estate brokerage should be doing to prepare for the bounce, with little cash expense required:

1.    Follow Up: Odds are, you already know the person who’s going to buy that house. They’ve likely already visited the community if not the very same unit. Go back to your prospect list and follow up.

2.    One Person’s Inventory is Another’s Content: Utilize the free and low-price targeted online advertising available to you, including trulia.com, zillow.com, newhomesindex.com, move.com, craigslist.com, realtor.com, google base, and others to give the right online searchers numerous opportunities to encounter your offerings, all at incredibly low cost or, at some sites, for free.

3.    Reach Out: Nationwide, more than 50% of all new home sales in 2008 were through a realtor. In fact, some builders saw this figure rise as high as 90% in the last year. It’s not enough to have just an introductory event and send out an occasional postcard. Your outreach must be coordinated, consistent, and actually connect—create events that encourage realtors to bring their clients to experience what your products or communities have to offer, stay up-to-date, and boost the frequency of your contact with them. Get more solid advice on Realtor Outreach from the NDG Blog.

4.    Start Listening: All those nifty social media tools like facebook and twitter are just the means to an end. We’re not just using them to be using them; we’re using them to have a new kind of conversation. Social media channels aren’t like the old, 1-way, broadcast channels where you just yelled at people, frequently. Online, people are talking back, and you must hold up your end of the conversation by genuinely listening and honestly responding. Listening will give you incredible insights; not listening will become dangerously reckless.

Commit to doing these four marketing fundamentals, and you’ll be cost-effectively connecting with your prospects and opening new channels in preparation for the rebound.

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Celebrating Independence Day

Published
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NDG
on July 2, 2009
in marketing
. 0 Comments

From all of us at NDG, we wish you a happy and safe 4th of July Holiday. Celebrate our freedom, enjoy time with family and friends, and please remember, if you’re drinking, don’t drive, and if you’re driving, don’t drink.

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This is ARGENT

Published
by
NDG
on May 21, 2009
in articles and e-marketing
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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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Introducing the New Fulton Research Website

Published
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NDG
on May 14, 2009
in e-marketing
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NDG Communications is proud to announce the launch of the new Fulton Research website www.FultonResearch.com, where you can:

•    Register to receive a free subscription to Residential Market Trends, which provides key market statistics and important indicators every month. With your free subscription, you will also gain access to the complete archive of past editions.

•    Stay up to date with ON TARGET, the Fulton Research blog, which comments on current market events, and gives you early notice of big news on the horizon that affects your business.

•    Learn more about Fulton Research’s project profiles and how their comprehensive services can give you the competitive edge you need to make smart, informed decisions about everything from marketing and sales to investing tactics and long-term business strategies.

We’re very proud of the work we’ve created for Fulton Research and encourage everyone in the builder, real estate, development, and housing industries to visit their new website for some of the most up-to-date insights and analysis available.

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A Wide World of Web Commercials

Published
by
NDG
on April 30, 2009
in articles
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We’re big believers in the power of new media to transform relationships. And we’re big on Seth Godin. Over at his blog, Seth points out that “TV advertisers are finally discovering that YouTube + viral imagination = free media.” And while the cost of providing and “broadcasting” content is now phenomenally lower, “the rules are different, as they always are online.” For starters, you’re going to have more companies to compete with. And, once you set your idea free into the digital world, you lose control over it. The biggest change? The guys with the best ideas will win; not necessarily the guys with the most money. Read the whole artice here.

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Online Video Streaming Views Grow 40% Over Last Year

Published
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NDG
on April 16, 2009
in advertising and articles
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Nielsen has released a new analysis of online video viewing—more than 9.6 billion streams were viewed by an estimated 130 million web users, a nearly 9% jump over the previous month, and 38.8% increase over figures released for March 2008. And YouTube, hulu, and Yahoo! were the top three sites for streaming video, serving up more than 6 billion video streams among them. Read the entire article here.

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Social Media & Empowered Women

Published
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NDG
on April 9, 2009
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“It’s about making your brand more personal than on other channels.”

Over at Online Media Daily, Gavin O’Malley has mined the latest Forrester Media report on social media for some impressive facts on social media usage by “empowered women.”

“In particular, 42% of this prized demographic reported visiting social networks like Facebook and MySpace, compared to just 33% of all U.S. adults online engaging in such activity….Empowered women — or those ages 25-54 who feel that the Internet helps them manage their family life — are highly influential as household decision-makers as well as among their peers.”

Read the article here.

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Introducing the Newest NDG Team Members

Published
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NDG
on April 2, 2009
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NDG Communications is proud to announce that two new team members have come aboard recently: Beverly Kitchens is NDG’s newest Art Director, and Deanna Spence is our latest addition to the NDG Account Services department. We are very excited about the capabilities and experience each one brings to NDG.

Beverly Kitchens, Art Director

Beverly is a graduate of James Madison University, where she earned a BFA in graphic design. Prior to joining NDG Communications as Art Director, Beverly was a graphic designer for Delucchi+ in Washington, D.C., where she served numerous development, real estate, and resort clients. She has also served as a designer for The George Washington University Communications & Creative Services Department, and as a print specialist at Alexandria, VA-based Pixels & Ink. Her expert hand, consistent visual style, and strong conceptual skills have quickly made her an integral part of NDG’s creative team.

Deanna Spence, Account Executive

Deanna has worked in the real estate industry for more than eight years, serving both new home sales companies and builders. She is also a licensed real estate agent and has served in numerous community sales roles. Despite the fact that Deanna is the only Raven’s fan in the midst of some hardcore Redskins supporters here at NDG, we’re still proud to have her aboard. When she’s not taking care of client needs, Deanna enjoys sampling sushi with her bulldog, Fallyn, and spending quality time with her family.

Beverly Kitchens, NDG Communications Art Director

Beverly Kitchens

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Deanna Spence

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