Tag Archive for 'online marketing'

New White Paper — From Website to Web Presence

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NDG
on March 30, 2010
in e-marketing, marketing, new home sales marketing and real estate marketing
. 0 Comments

“Today’s Home Builder exists in a world of inter-connected online communities, yet many are not fully adjusted to the need for a well-designed and user-friendly website, let alone the many other ways a builder must exist online” says a new white paper from New Home Feed, which makes the case for creating more than just a robust website, but also “a thoughtful, nuanced web presence.”

NDG Communications CEO Tom Nelson was quoted in the document: “Homebuyers now start their buying process online first, using many different web resources to shop by elimination—deciding which precious few communities they will actually visit in person. Online success requires you to be where your prospects are looking, continually ready with the fresh content they’re looking for.”

Read the New Home Feed Blog HERE, and Download the White Paper HERE.

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Eyes, Clicks, and Real Results—Online Advertising Basics for the Real Estate Industry

Published
by
NDG
on March 24, 2010
in articles, e-marketing, interactive, real estate marketing and web
. 1 Comment

Continuing our series of posts about real estate and homebuilder online advertising and marketing fundamentals for 2010, this week we’ll discuss the basics of online banner ads and how they fit into your 2010 marketing plan.

“Banner” or “online display” advertising can be found on every search engine, and on many news and portal websites. These ads can be targeted to specific consumers based on their browsing habits and on the demographics associated with each website’s content. And setting a budget is easy: You decide how much to spend and where within a specific timeframe, meaning you can test your ads for a very small cost until you have refined for the most results, and that you can easily control costs.

Best of all, you can not only measure how many impressions—how many people were actually exposed to the ad—but also how many people clicked the ad as well. Most banner advertising is very cost-effective, with the average cost per click (CPC) under $2, and the average cost per thousand impressions (CPM) at approximately $10.

For several years, fewer and fewer people have been clicking on banner ads, raising the question of how effective banner ads really are. Current research shows that low number of clicks doesn’t necessarily mean banners don’t work; online culture and consumption habits have changed over the years, and there is a great deal of evidence that regardless of clicks, banner ads contribute greatly to increased visits to websites. According to one report, “Within one week, consumers exposed to a display ad were 65% more likely to visit the advertiser’s site than users who never saw the ad. Even at four weeks, people exposed to displays ads are 45% more likely to visit the brand’s site.”

And, if you still doubt the importance and effectiveness of banner advertising, just look at where other media buyers placed their money in 2009: “TV ad spending fell 10%, magazines dropped 17%, newspapers and radio each dropped 20%, and outdoor fell 13%. The only major growth area: Online ad spending. Internet display ads increased 7% in 2009.”

Remember, you control the budget, so you can test your outreach to ensure the most return on your investment. Like all other digital advertising and marketing tools, banner ads are an effective component of a larger plan, and they too must be linked to real and meaningful content to help prospects on their journey toward becoming your customers.

Next time, we’ll discuss E-Mail Marketing and its role in your online advertising and marketing fundamentals for 2010.

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They Do the Hard Work For You—3rd Party Online Referral Sites

Published
by
NDG
on March 11, 2010
in advertising, articles, e-marketing, interactive, marketing, new home sales marketing, real estate marketing and web
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Continuing our series of posts about real estate and homebuilder online advertising and marketing fundamentals for 2010, this week we’ll discuss why and how to integrate your website listings content with 3rd Party Online Referral websites, such as NewHomeSource.com, Trulia.com, or Move.com—automatically—ensuring your listings on these websites are current and accurate, without having to manage the data manually.

An XML feed is a simple way to share your listing information with other websites. An XML feed allows you to publish as frequently as you need to, and modify the relevant fields (price, availability, square footage, etc) as often as you need to.  In order to help provide their users with relevant content, the referral websites will allow you to link your feeds to them, thus propagating your offerings further and creating more frequency and exposure for your listings.

WHY should you share your listings with these websites?

HOW do you share your listings with these websites?

By setting up an XML feed from your website to the 3rd party vendors of your choice. Your website or technology partner can help you organize your listing data into a standardized set so that your information is always represented accurately. This requires that your information utilize the correct fields and structures, as well as content tags. While the intricate details can be complex, the big concept is that you’re making sure your information is set up so that it can be shared effectively with the people who are looking for it—web-savvy homebuyers who are searching for your new homes.

Next week, we’ll discuss Banner Advertising and its role in your Online Advertising and Search Engine Marketing plans.

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Integrating Social Media into Your Online Marketing Plan

Published
by
NDG
on March 5, 2010
in advertising, articles, e-marketing, marketing, new home marketing and real estate marketing
. 0 Comments

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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Why TRACKING is KING

Published
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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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NDG’s 2010 Online Marketing Fundamentals

Published
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NDG
on February 3, 2010
in advertising, articles, e-marketing, new home sales marketing and real estate marketing
. 0 Comments

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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