Archive for the ‘Real Estate Sales’ Category
Homeownership Is No Longer Expected In America
Posted by Sibet B Freides in General, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Trends on January 6th, 2011
It has always been the American dream to own a home. In fact, the government made it clear that it was our duty as citizens to own a home and the banks were there to convince us that it was the best investment we could ever make.
With fixed mortgage rates hovering around 4.8% percent and home prices at an almost all time low, there is still a lag in the housing market. Experts will attribute it to a struggling job market, which undoubtedly plays a role, but I think Steven Bergsman of Inman.com has the right idea of why home purchases are so low despite favorable conditions.
Bergsman’s theory centers on the changing concept of homeownership. In the modern American life, homeownership has taken a backseat for several reasons. One being that the Gen Y buyers entering the market are scared to death to own a home after seeing what just happened to their parents. It’s hard to tell a young person buying a home is a smart investment when foreclosures are everywhere and borrowers are paying off mortgages worth more than their home. He also makes the point that in order to take a job in a new city, you have to sell your home, which is not easy to do. We now see ownership as a restriction in our lives. It prevents us from the betterment of our careers and living situations.
Another great point made by Bergsman has to do with the condo market. As he states, once the government and banks began forcing the idea of homeownership, they eventually began to focus on the large city dwellers. This is where condos came in. Developers took aim by building high-end homes for these urban dwellers to buy. This may explain one reason why the condo market is struggling so badly. Those urban dwellers may have been the first ones to realize that owning a home isn’t always the best thing, nor is it out expected anymore.
How To Design Effective Banner Ads
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Real Estate Sales on December 28th, 2010
Emarketer.com
Where do standard banner ads fit in the future of Internet advertising?
To answer this question, I think it’s important that we take a look at where they played a significant role in the past. That is, what makes the good ones effective and the bad ones ineffective?
E-Markter.com has a great blog detailing some of the best banner ad practices in recent years. According to their date and predictions, banner ad spending is going to increase in the coming years even though click through rates have dropped significantly from .15% to a stable .09%. Surveys and research shows that consumers react only to certain banner ads for certain reasons.
According to the study, the number 1 reason consumers click on banner ads is because they offer some sort of incentive. This includes coupons, discounts or services. The other top reasons consumers click is because the banner ad effectively demonstrates a solution to their specific problem.
Given this information, this is how you should design your next banner ad. Try to incorporate a strong, clear, and concise incentive in your ad. This will greatly increase the chances of a click. Not only will it increase the chances of a click, it will be a high quality click assuming the ad will send users right to where they can learn about the incentive. It is also very important to be specific about the incentive and also the placement of the ad. Choose networks that have a proven demographic that is similar to your target audience. The solution your ad will present needs to be the problem that your ad viewers share. You must be specific.
Two Year Confidence Mark For Social Media
Posted by Sibet B Freides in General, Marketing, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Trends, Social Media on December 13th, 2010
In a recent survey discussed on Social Media Examiner, researchers found that there is a two-year confidence mark for social media.
This means that on average, companies incorporating social media as a part of their business model don’t feel entirely confident in the first two years of its application. If you think about what it really takes to successfully orchestrate a social media strategy, you can see why it takes a while to feel fully confident about your efforts.
Whether you are using social media for advertising, customer relations, or lead generation, it will take time to fully execute a strategy and it will take even more time to gauge its performance. The idea that a company can successfully plan, execute, and evaluate a social media strategy in a few months is outlandish and this survey proves it.
In addition to the two-year confidence mark, the survey also identifies other insights into how businesses are using social media. According to the survey, most businesses focus on the big 5 social networks. That includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and blogs. While there are many opportunities on niche networks, it’s obvious that businesses are easily finding their customers on the big 5 networks.
So if you are still feeling uncertain or uncomfortable about your new social media strategy, take comfort in knowing that you’re not alone. It’s going to take time for your strategy to take off and only then can you realistically gauge its success. It is important to have realistic expectations for your strategy and to understand that there will be hiccups. Changes in your strategy are inevitable.
Urban Homebuyers Are Highly Educated And Informed
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Trends on December 8th, 2010
Trendwatching.com 2011 Trend Report
According to this year’s consumer trends report from Trendwatching.com, the urbanization of our economy continues to gain momentum as we prepare to enter 2011.
A move towards urban settings has been on the real estate radar for a while now but research shows that this movement is in full swing. As more consumers move to more urban settings, it is important that we understand their characteristics and buying habits. Research shows that urban consumers tend to be more daring, experimental, and social. This explains the strong spike of social media use pioneered in urban settings.
So, what are these urban dwellers looking for? It looks like the tastes of urban homebuyers are more refined. Most choices made by urban buyers are highly educated and informed. With so many options, making a good choice requires education and planning. This is why real estate professionals working in the budding urban areas need to be very specific with their products because consumers will be very specific with their desires in a new home.
An interesting and important point made by trend report is that some of the aspects of our urban-geared products need to be city specific. Another interesting suggestion when it comes to appealing to the refined urban consumer, don’t be afraid to inject a little “urban pride”. It’s already there and it won’t hurt to stoke the fire a bit.
Controversial Profiling Technology On Its Way Back
Posted by Sibet B Freides in General, Marketing, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Trends on December 3rd, 2010
It appears that the once controversial profiling technology known as “deep packet inspection” is making a strong comeback.
It was recently reported on WSJ.com that a couple of technology companies are looking to reinvent or redesign the once frowned upon internet profiling technology so that ISPs (internet service providers) can take full advantage of the advertising potential of their systems.
In the past, this profiling technology has been considered highly intrusive. Considering spy agencies use it for surveillance, you can understand why it’s greeted with so many red flags. The difference now is that the two companies pushing the technology, Kindsight, Inc. and Phorm Inc., are stressing the privacy and protection for the users that will be profiled. For starters, Internet users that use ISPs with the technology will have to opt in from the start. The idea is to provide free security software in exchange for opting into the service. The full potential of the software will not be used as user e-mails will not be read and sensitive online activities will not be documented. Personal user information such as names will not be recorded either.
For advertisers it could mean a highly sophisticated ad targeting system that could help deliver precise ads at the optimal time. The question is whether or not users feel comfortable with someone essentially spying on their online activity. When you put it in those terms I don’t think there will be a lot of buy in. The idea of scaling back the intrusiveness of the technology could prove to be very valuable for marketers and the ISPs who choose to use it. It will be interesting to see how users greet it.
Understanding How Consumers Use Different Communication Channels
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Trends on December 1st, 2010
The exploding popularity of social media over the last two years has opened the doors to more frequent consumer interactions and brand sharing for companies. Along with that, it has also introduced new complexities to market targeting.
AdAge.com has recently published a great article listing several characteristics businesses should be looking for when searching for its ideal or best markets. Accompanying that is a list of characteristics companies need to be looking for in an operational sense. That is, how does your market utilize traditional media and social media? How can you merge these two channels in your strategy?
Several of the characteristics listed are more traditional than those dealing with word-of-mouth value via social networking and the brand advocates spreading it. The idea of word-of-mouth is by no means new but advertisers and marketers are having to reformulate their efforts due in part to the vast number of tools, frequency of use, and instantaneous nature of social networks. We still need consumers that are brand loyal, interested in new products, and aren’t price sensitive. The goal, according to the AdAge.com article, “Rather than look at each of these things separately, though, we’re suggesting marketers can and should bring together all of these proxies for profitability.”
The characteristics needed in searching for your best target market today are similar to the ones that were successful in the past. We must now understand and factor in the different ways brand advocates will play their role. This requires brands to research and understand how the best customers use traditional and new media in the different stages of the buying process. For real estate sales companies, how does your best consumer learn about neighborhoods, sustainability, and financing? Maybe they are willing to communicate and learn about a particular neighborhood on Facebook but not financing.
A strong understanding of what our best costumers do and how they behave on the differing communication channels will give use a better understanding of how to effectively communicate with them.
How To Market A Green Home
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Green, Marketing, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Trends on November 30th, 2010
A recent Builderonline.com article reports that homebuyers want well-performing sustainable products and homes that are attractive and traditional.
When it comes to the green movement, homebuyers care more about the looks and cost savings that come from sustainability. According to the article, only 15% of consumers are green advocates while the other 85% are not willing to compromise style or function. This means that homebuilders must be able to construct and sell sustainable homes that perform equally or better than non-sustainable focused ones and they must incorporate traditional architecture and aesthetics.
Among every age group, energy efficiency is a top priority. This isn’t because homebuyers are green advocates. It’s because they know that energy savings translates into money savings. Experts suggest that sustainable homes be marketed in simple terms as most homebuyers want to know how a home will save them energy and money. Surveys suggest that consumers do not respond well to complicated messages. According to the article, “Focus on how much it costs to operate the home.”
Most consumers are under the impression that green products cost more presenting a sales challenge. Since most consumers aren’t green advocates, they want to see where these costs will even out or when they will break even in energy savings. At the end of the day, the majority of consumers are looking for a traditional looking home that will save them money. Few are looking for a way to save the planet.
Social Media And Its Relation To SEO
Posted by Sibet B Freides in General, Marketing, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Trends on November 22nd, 2010
Courtesy of Carlos Luna
Very often we focus on the benefits of social media that come from conversing with consumers on a neutral playing field. Whether it’s Facebook or Twitter, most of our strategies focus on creating a two-way conversation with consumers.
While this definitely is a positive thing, I think we sometimes overlook one of the other major benefits that come from utilizing social media in our advertising strategies. The effect social media has on SEO for a brand is amazing if done correctly.
I have found that a social media strategy should consider message content and interaction before SEO. This is because most well planed strategy already takes SEO into consideration without the strategist realizing it.
As long as you are providing relevant content that strategically ties to your overall marketing strategy, your keywords for SEO will develop on their own. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make sure that your content such as blog titles are SEO friendly and relational to your goals. It means that you should focus on the conversation first and worry about the SEO later. By creating rich content you will also encourage links to your blog and other social media pages. This is a huge contributor to SEO.
It’s easy to get bogged down with SEO in all of the social media strategy talk. The truth is that it doesn’t have to be that difficult. I suggest starting with a blog and making sure you are writing useful and insightful content. Through web analytics, you can see what keywords are strong for your blog and then use that information for your SEO strategy development.
User Feedback Is Key For New Real Estate Site
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Trends on November 10th, 2010
The growing popularity of user review networks such as Yelp and Urban Spoon have sparked the interest of entrepreneurs in industries other than the restaurant industry. The very new YourPlace.com claims to be the Yelp of real estate and its early impressions has a lot of industry professionals agreeing.
YourPlace.com is a network driven almost entirely by user feedback and reviews that is a lot like Yelp. The idea is to have users or residents contribute insightful information on an area’s schools, markets, safety, and overall quality of life. According to the Inman.com article reporting on YourPlace.com, the aim of this new site is to add candid reviews of an area for those seeking to buy a home.
Each area on YourPlace.com is broken down into multiple tabs including schools, neighborhoods, and market information. The market information tabs includes useful information including media prices for the area and demographic information on current residence including income levels. Users of the site can contribute their own opinions on how they see the market to help those looking to buy in the area.
The idea behind YourPlace.com is to eventually have most of its content generated by real estate agents considering their wealth of knowledge for the market and area in review. This would only be the starting point of the conversation though as users would hopefully chime in and reinforce claims or offer a more realistic review.
The site’s owner, Brian Wilson, seems to be the most concerned about user contributions. This is where I question how successful the site will be. It will no doubt be useful to home buyers just as long as individuals in the community besides real estate agents participate. Is there really an incentive for them to take part?
I think the site is an excellent idea as it crowd sources information from individuals other than agents. This combined with other social media network integrations could make this a credible source for homebuyers. With only three areas currently unlocked for use on the site we will have to wait and see what kind of user involvement will be generated. Like I said before, interaction is key.
Do Social Network Advertisements Fit Into Your Strategy?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Trends, Social Media on October 28th, 2010
I have received a lot of questions regarding advertising on Linked In as of late. I thought I should address this topic, as more and more companies are looking to advertise on the different social networks.
In my experience with Linked In direct ads, I have found them to be very useful. For starters, the demographic targeting options are great. Attributes range from age, location, sex, occupation, and education. Once you get into the occupation attributes your options for targeting really open up. You can select seniority level, industry, and many other attributes. You will be impressed with how many options there are to choose from. This makes Linked In direct ads an effective way to target professionals. I have always stood by the idea of targeting your audience as much as possible and in comparison to Facebook ads, Linked In does a better job at this.
This doesn’t mean that Linked In ads are better than Facebook ads. It still depends on whom you are trying to reach. If you are advertising for business-to-business purposes, then Linked In is a great option. You can pinpoint the exact companies, positions, and industries that you are trying to reach given that this information is provided on every Linked In profile.
While these new forms of advertising are great, I think it’s important that we not forget about Google AdWords and SEM as a whole. There is still a lot of benefit in search engine marketing considering users are actually seeking a service, product, or solution when using search engines. Social network ads may be highly targeted but they should still be considered interrupters where as Google ads are a response to search queries.
I think an effective online campaign should focus on both. There is a lot of utility in both of them. A good idea would be to start on multiple networks and monitor their performances. Once you get a grasp on what is working and what isn’t, you should shift your budget accordingly. Sometimes it’s about trial and error.
