1. Everything is cheap: The economy has changed everything. Products and services are cheaper than ever. You can keep your start-up costs low by taking advantage of the great deals out there for any type of assets.

2. Vast talent pool: Due to massive layoffs there is a sea of extremely talented people out there for the taking (hiring). You can find great people who are willing to take on new opportunities for less than they were making before. But remember, respect their experience and be fair. Never under estimate their availability either…the economy is generating my start-ups and new entrepreneurs than ever before. Find your next rock star team before they go start their own businesses.

3. Many start-up Incubators: Many of the successful entrepreneurs that have already found an exit strategy are finding ways to help new businesses. Today’s incubators are a bit different than VC’s or angel groups. They are typically more involved in building the company and educating the young minds in the ups and downs of running a start-up. They also usually only focus on a specific number of start-ups each year and look for very early stage opportunities.

4. Friends & family: Since most people have turned away from the stock market and are being more careful about real estate investing, many of your friends and family might consider investing in you. If you are not comfortable taking on their investment as an equity stake (generally risky) then consider asking for a loan with specific but simple terms (i.e. offer their cash back with a 20% return in one year).

5. Open minds: Companies are looking for new supplies, new vendors, and new partners. Everything has been turned upside down and the result has fostered some open mindedness. Everyone is price comparing, so if you have a good product or service, beat the competition on price and get out there.

6. Open source technology: With the amazing array of great open source technology available today, new entrepreneurs can take advantage incredible software products that used to cost thousands.

I do not understand why old school CEO’s are still wasting thousands of dollars on print advertising. Did you know some businesses spend between $30,000 and $100,000 just for one print ad page in the Wall Street Journal to run one week? This is insane. You can’t even track the success results or conversion factors from print advertising. CEO’s still do this because they like to see their company name in big papers and they think their target demographic actually reads newspapers. When was the last time you saw someone aged 21-35 actually reading a newspaper? I think it has been months. Everyone I know gets their information, advertising, and news online and in real time. If you want to grow your business, you need to advertise where your clients live online.

To start an internet marketing campaign, every business that is business to consumer based should start with organic search engine optimization. This is the core of any internet marketing campaign. CEO’s and marketing professionals then need to research where their target demographic lives online. What sites do they go to? What times of the day and week are they online? Where do they live? All this stuff is crucial for deciding which sites to advertise on and how to market your company.

There are also some great tools you can use to see if your site is properly optimized for SEO and follows all the search engine guidelines.  The SEO Ranker Tool by IMI is a great one http://internetmarketinginc.com/seo-report or companies like Hubspot have some great software as well.

I encourage all CEO’s to try to run an ROI report on their current print spend.  Take half your print budget and use it online and run the same ROI report.  I am convinced you will never run print again when you complete this task.

-Brandon

The ATO crew – Yashar and Ceci go to the studio of Channel 933 here in San Diego, CA to interview the morning broadcasters of AJ’s Playhouse!

We asked them about Social media: what they like – what they don’t like – and how they see it integrating with the radio. Watch to see the members Aj, Geena the Latina, and Sonic as they tell us about how they use Twitter for everything from twitter dating to how main stream it is now with everyone from radio DJ’s to CNN broadcasters to our current president using the tool.

To remain competitive in today’s environment, real estate professionals and home builders must understand who their buyers are, where they are doing their research, and how to effectively communicate their brand message.   As we continue to see a dramatic shift away from traditional media, home builders and marketers are seeking advertising channels that are most cost effective, more targeted, and more measurable. 

Internet marketing is earning greater recognition as the industry becomes more educated about the valuable marriage between creativity and technology.  Social media is one of these strategies that is gaining fantastic momentum.  Social media as a marketing strategy has made so many advancements in the past 12 months that it is hard to keep track.  The online marketing space has redefined how companies brand themselves, communicate with customers, and allocate marketing dollars. 

Transparency is the only way builders can remain relevant and competitive.  The old days of companies hiding behind their “big brand” are over.  Companies that are engaging in social media are committing to real customer interaction and showing who they really are as a brand and as a team.  This article aims at providing insight into why we should care about social media, how it is redefining the way we market products and services,  and how to use it effectively to sell homes.

Why Should We Care About Social Media Marketing?

Home builders and real estate professionals need to understand that their buyers are in fact online and are using social networking sites on a regular basis:
• According to the National Association of REALTORS “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers 2008″ 87% of home buyers use the Internet to search for a home.
• According to a 2009 Facebook statistics report, the fastest growing group on Facebook is now the 35 to 54 year old demographic growing at growing at 276.4% in the first six months of 2009.  The 55+ demo is not far behind with a 194.3% growth rate.
• According to Nielsen, unique visitors to Twitter increased 1,382 percent year-over-year, from 475,000 unique visitors in February 2008 to 7 million in February 2009, making it the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category for the month.
• YouTube is now considered the largest vertical search engines in the world with well over 70,000,000 videos (as of March 2008)

Redefining the Marketing Landscape

The hybrid approach:  Social media marketing has created a fusion between real estate marketing, advertising, and customer relations.  The most successful real estate focused social media campaigns combine all online and offline marketing efforts and truly engage the audience.  The companies that use these strategies effectively are fully committed and spend considerable time on these initiatives.  Once a campaign gains momentum, the social platforms (i.e. Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube) become real communication tools.  Builders can now actively interact with potential buyers and industry professionals in a more personal manner.  Consumers want to see user-generated content and learn about your brand from people outside your organization. 

Branding:  We should be careful about how we define “branding” as it applies to marketing and advertising.  Sometimes branding can be thought of as that marketing strategy with an indefinable ROI.  Actually, it is of course much more important.  These days it doesn’t take just good advertising or PR to brand your company.  For home builders that already have a distinct brand image social media is about creating trust and transparency while still protecting the brand.  Once a real estate professional or home builder begins social media they should encourage everyone in the company to contribute.  A builder’s brand shouldn’t just be about the homes and communities.  It should be about the team of people driving the business.  If the Simon Cooper of Ritz Carlton is a regular blogger and uses Twitter, that should tell us something.

Cost Effectiveness:  Just like any other marketing strategy, Internet marketing and social media should be designed to support a builder’s sales goals.  With budgets being tighter, it is crucial to design a marketing plan that contains strategies that are measurable and can produce a desired ROI.   One of the key ways that Internet marketing and social media are more cost effective is because it is targeted.  With social media marketing, an effective campaign starts first with setting goals, doing research, and defining the audience.  There are many great social media tools available to help plan and manage campaigns.  The key element for measuring results should be in the analytics.  All social media pages should link to the company website and gradually build traffic and conversions.

10 Tips for Getting Started

1. The team:  Whether your hire a social media agency or consultant or use an in-house team, you have to be committed to investing in the process.  It’s all or nothing.  If you outsource, it is still recommended to have someone in-house directing the message and strategy.  The more your buyers and potential buyers communicate with you, the more you will have to remain involved.  If you plan to build an in-house team, enlist the help of some Internet savvy interns for some extra man power. 

2. Website:  Do not spend time and energy engaging in any online strategy until you have a website that is user-friendly and designed to foster conversions (i.e. building an email list, capturing registrations, and generating sales).  Your website will always be your most important foundation from which any online marketing strategy will be built.  Make sure to have Google analytics installed in your site so you can actively monitor traffic levels, traffic sources, bounce rates, and time on site. Be sure to have a great database management system for capturing and organizing incoming leads. 

3. Blog:  Keep in mind that social media is first about providing value to your online community and building trust.  The best place to start is with a blog.  Blogs are easy to set up and show your customers that you care about what’s going on in your industry.  Word Press blogs are a great recommendation and very “Google-friendly”.  Be sure to build your blog into your website as opposed to having it as an external site.  Write about current topics that people can relate to and never make your message self serving.  If you don’t think you have time for all this, think again.  Like physical fitness, if you care about it and are committed, you will make the time.

4. Facebook, Active Rain, Twitter, YouTube:  Set up a Fan Page on Facebook.com and profiles on Twitter and ActiveRain.com.  You will build a large network in two ways: (1) networking within the online community itself and inviting people to “join” your fan club or “follow” you on Twitter; (2) driving traffic from outside sources to your profile pages, which you can accomplish this by having links to your profile pages and encouraging people to follow or join. 

You will keep them engaged by having good content (i.e. your blog articles is a great place to start).  You can set up an RSS feed so that your blogs are automatically posted to your Twitter page and Facebook page.  Set up a YouTube channel and start adding content.  Most builders have some kind of video or TV content so start adding it to your YouTube channel and Facebook fan page.  To create new video content, purchase a simple flip camera and shoot three to five minute videos at your properties.  Interview sales representatives, property managers, and even owners. 

5. Communicate & Build a Following:  Your efforts will be fruitless unless you have a loyal following which takes some time to build.  The more effort you put into it, the better your results will be.  Ask your social media partner for effective ways to build a following on Twitter without spamming the community.  Be active on your profile pages on Facebook and ActiveRain.  The more value you have to offer the more people will talk.  Management should lead by example and get involved.  Encourage all employees and sales people to be a part of the network.  Once you have some momentum you can start incorporating your special incentives, promotions, events, grand openings, and other creative messages.  When communicating special offerings, remember to include links to landing pages that give more details and have very clear calls to action like simple registration forms. 

6. Online/Offline Integration:  Include links to all of your social media profile pages and YouTube channel on your website.  Also make reference to these sites in all other marketing and advertising efforts.  If your fully engaged in social media and offer a great resource to potential buyers, why not brag about it?

7. Track Results and Conversions:  The best way to really track results is to be sure your social media platforms are always pointing back to your website and landing pages.  From there you can use your analytics to watch how much traffic is coming from these sources and how its converting. 

8. Get your sales teams involved:  Every member of your sales team should be active in their own social media efforts and the company’s.  Just be sure that there is some level of control to the overall message being communicated through your social networks. 

9. Get your communities involved:  All of a homebuilder’s communities should have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts and be actively involved in the company’s network as well. 

10. Get Creative:  After you gain momentum, the sky is the limit.  Your social network sites then become a platform for creativity and true customer relationship management.  Develop new concepts like special promotions, events, and contests.  Make it fun for people to be inlcuded in your online community.

Does your website perform they way it is supposed to?  Do your visitors see the content you want them to and take action?  Web design and conversion optimization is all about maximizing your website’s potential to convert traffic into some kind of attainable and measurable goal.  Whether the goal is to collect emails, registrations, downloads, or purchases all the same rules apply.

Make your message clear

Make it simple

Make it easy

Here are a few suggestions to enure your visitors take action and become customers! 

Use simple but compelling language to communicate your message and its value.  Then compliment that message with a large and noticeable “call to action” so the user understands what the next step is.  The image below shows a good example of this:

The use of space, color, and page layout are very important.  Below is a great example of a good blend of color and space.  The more space you have around the call to action “buttons” the better.  Studies show that the more cluttered a page is the more likely the user is to get confused and not understand what you want them to do.

Notice how clean the page is and that a couple options are given.  The use of space is done purposefully to provide clarity and simplicity.

Other suggestions to improve conversions on websites and landing pages include:

• Trust factors – let the user know it is safe to enter their information or download your product
• Simple bullet pointed content – don’t make the user read to long paragraphs, keep them moving
• Compelling design and images – the pages of course should look clean and compelling to keep bounce rates low
• Large buttons – size does matter
• 3 to 5 step process – using a simple “step” process helps clarify what the user needs to do to complete your “sales cycle”

Social media as a marketing strategy has made so many advancements in the past 12 months that it is hard to keep track.  The online marketing space has redefined how companies brand themselves, communicate with customers, and allocate marketing dollars.  Obviously the economy is pushing businesses towards more cost effective and measurable marketing. 

I have said it before, but transparency is the new norm…the old days of companies hiding behind their “big brand” are over.  Companies that are engaging in social media are committing to real customer interaction and showing who they really are as a brand and as a team.  Here are three ways that social media is changing the face of marketing and branding.

Fusion Between Marketing, Advertising, and Customer Relations

The most successful social media campaigns combine all online and offline marketing efforts and truly engage the audience.  The companies that use these strategies effectively are fully committed and spend considerable time on these initiatives.  Once a campaign gains momentum and is tied into all marketing efforts, the social platforms (i.e. Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) become real communication tools.  The communication can then range from providing FREE information and valuable content (i.e. blogs) to promotions special offerings.  More importantly the platforms become customer relationship management tools.

Branding

I like to be careful about how we define “branding” as it applies to marketing and advertising.  Sometimes branding can be thought of as that marketing strategy with an indefinable ROI.  Actually, it is of course much more important.  These days it doesn’t take just good advertisng or PR to brand your company.  Many businesses now start with the social web first and think about investing in advertising and PR later.  They do this for a few reasons. First, advertising and PR cost money and budgets are tight.  Second, usually their customers are in fact online and engaged in social media so that is where they can get in front of them quickly and easily.  Third, it is targeted and can be measurable (but we’ll talk about that more in a minute.

Once a business begins social media they should engage everyone in the company to contribute.  A company’s brand shouldn’t be just a recognizable logo or fancy advertising…it should be about the team of people driving the business.  In the end, the success or failure will depend on the management and the team.  We are seeing executives come out from behind the curtain and engage the social communities.  And guess what, customers love it!  If the President of Ritz Carlton is a regular blogger and uses Twitter, that should tell us something.

Cost Effective – Targeted – Measurable

Just like any other marketing strategy, Internet marketing and social media should be designed to support a company’s business goals.  Online marketing channels like SEO and social media are not only complimentary to one another but show a true long term committment to business growth.  Strategies like this are more in line with business development than “marketing” really.  One of the main attractions of course to online marketing (whereas many used to be skeptical) is its economic value.  The days of expensive print ads and $20K per month on PR are over for most companies.  Now, every penny needs to be accounted for and advertising needs to show a direct return. 

One of the key ways that Internet marketing and social media are more cost effective is because it is targeted.  The traditional media model is design for you to spend a lot of money and hope you hit your target audience.  If you are not getting in front of your customers, either change vendors or spend more…that’s about it.  With social media marketing, an effective campaign starts first with defining the audience.  There are many great social media tools out there to help plan and manage campaigns, track results, etc.  The bottom line though with measuring results should be in the analytics.  All social media efforts should tie in with the company website and gradually build traffic and conversions.

Guy Kawasaki will be at the La Jolla Hilton on Thursday June 25th giving a presentation titled “How to Use Social Media to Market Your Business”. 

Businesses large and small are embracing the phenomenon of social media marketing strategies.  Companies are realizing that their customers are in fact on the social web!  They are realizing also that many of their competitors already have a head start.  Now is the time to get creative and communicate with customers online.  The web is a trasparent place and customers/clients want to know who you really are.  Show them!

By now if you have not heard that there was an election in Iran, then you have either not been on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo!, MySpace, Digg, CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, National, local, and international newspapers, and simply been living as a hermit in a long lost case where civilization is the furthest thing from you.  But since you are reading this that cannot be the case.

Today, Friday 06/19/09, major companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook announced support for Persian language.  Apple has done this with their SMS’ being possible in Persian, Google Translates to Persian now, and Facebook is available in Persian too.  And if you believe that is only company, think again.  Twitter rescheduled their maintenance so that the Iranian people inside Iran would have a means to communicate because the government had shut down sms/texting, and disconnected cell phone towers, and kept everything under watch.  Even Internet sites are being filtered and censored.  With Twitter for example, because their are so many applications using Twitter’s open API, it is extremely difficult to filter those servers because their IP address differs from Twitter’s main IP.  In fact, there are countless proxy servers setup out there with people from all over the world assisting in this digital revolution.  Regular folks, Americans, Europeans, Japanese, and more are all partaking in the first true digital revolution.  And this is all being done through Social Media platform like Twitter, Digg, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and many, many more out there.

To see tweets from inside Iran, you can follow the hottest “trend” on Twitter, or follow two students tweeting from within the country:

twitter.com/change_for_Iran

twitter.com/iranElection

Social Media is not going anywhere, it was indicated with the power of Obama gaining incredible following using these tools, and it is being cemented in the world as not only a cool tool, but as a power changer, as a ways to gain freedom.  Through the likes of Twitter and Facebook the world will know that through sheer will of power, anything is possible.  Let the dream of unity, the dream of freedom, and the dream of a better tomorrow ring true for the people of Iran, and the rest of the world needing their own CHANGE.

The Internet is an ever-changing environment and with the Web 2.0 revolution and more people surging to social networking, we’re seeing new trends in online marketing emerge each year.  Consumers want to have a voice in the brands they like and transparency has become the new “normal” if businesses want to remain competitive.  Here are ten trends we will continue to see during 2009:

ONE – Internet Marketing Surge:  As we have already seen, more companies are transitioning away from traditional media and moving to the more targeted, measurable, and cost effective online strategies.  These of course include investing in SEO, social media, PPC, and more email marketing.   

TWO – Discount Offers:  Due to the current economic conditions (the recession), the marketing message for most companies has changed.  More companies are offering discounts, special incentives, and promotions than ever before.  We started seeing this in the housing industry and then it spread throughout most others.  Even brands that have been against discounts due to “brand image” are bending in favor of staying competitive.

THREE – Out with the Old:  For most companies, its time for a new website.  Even large companies that have been around for decades are waking up and realizing that their online brand image does matter and that “YES” they can gain new business opportunties from the web if they make the effort.  More companies are investing in website redesign, building micro sites and using landing pages to support marketing efforts.

FOUR – Customer Interaction:  As mentioned above, the consumer now expects to have a voice and be able to provide feedback.  User-generate content platforms are growing immensely and the way people research goods and services has changed.  They want to here what others have to say.  Brands need to embrace this reality and get involved in these online “discussions”.

FIVE - Blogging:  The percentages of people reading blogs online will (and has) sky rocket this year.  The web is a wealth of information and people enjoy sharing knowledge online.  Companies have now embraced blogging as a part of the new transparent online world.  CEO’s and executives are getting involved in blogging and all kinds of social media.  Blogging is a great support element to marketing efforts, providing value to your audience, building trust, and adding great content to your website (think SEO).

SIX – Video Marketing:  Video content is now considered highly valuable and can improve website traffic and time on site immensely.  Companies that not only include videos on their website but also use YouTube and social media platforms to host these videos increase their online visibility. 

SEVEN – Social Media Marketing:  Social media ties into everything we have been talking about.  Social media marketing is another great way for companies to engage their audiences, provide valuable information, communicate, and create a viral buzz about their brand.

EIGHT – Mobile Marketing:  It seems that everyone is carying an iPhone these days and over 40 million people access email via their phone according to Nielsen.  Mobile marketing is in its infancy and it remains to be seen how consumers will react but it will certainly gain momentum in 2009.

NINE – Retargeting and Behavioral Targeting:  We will see display advertising technology improving and being based more on user’s online behavior.  Display ads can now be served dynamically based on what websites people visit and even what content they have on their social network profiles.

TEN – Integration of Offline and Online Marketing:  Companies are now realizing the importance of incorporating their online marketing with offline marketing.  The messaging must be consistent and all the same conversion rules apply.  For example a print ad with a special offer should direct someone to an optimized landing page rather then just a phone number or home page URL.