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3 key steps to successful apartment marketing

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:02:00 GMT

It should be obvious to every Real Estate company reading this that the Australian contemporary apartment market is heavily geared towards the younger, hip, middle to upper-class set. And this is especially true when it comes to the inner capital cities that make up a huge chunk of this competitive market.

The educated, the urban executives, the creatives and the green enthusiasts (to mention a few) have always dominated the buyer description in the apartment market. Socially aware and net savvy they are influenced by style and location and are increasingly relying on the Internet for their research and information.

Using the Internet is the obvious way reach these buyers however there are 3 key strategic steps that you must integrate to take full advantage of the internet’s influence.

Step 1
Website design and functionality is ultra important. Your property website or landing page should closely match the look and feel of the apartments your selling. A website for a boutique project should mirror the same “feel” as the apartments themselves. Often large sums are invested in the architect and similar attention should be paid to your marketing. Carefully consider your positioning and commission designers/marketers with experience in this area.

Step 2
Viral videos and walkthroughs are now crucial. A photo can say a thousand words but a 3-minute video is priceless. Companies like Visual Domain are making it easier and cheaper to do this. Make sure you plan video into your marketing and remember to post it onto Youtube with links back to your site and make the most of the viral power of the Internet.

Step 3
Most importantly, search engine optimization (SEO) and some aspect of social marketing should feature strongly in your strategy. The trend for this target market is to spend less time surfing the Internet on their own. Increasingly they are exploring the Internet through their friends' suggestions or activities - a phenomena know as “friend-casting”. They are early adopters; they are frequently found on Facebook or Linkedin and trust the recommendations of their networks, which in turn influences their buying habits.

The way they discover, share and consume media should influence the way you market to them. For new generations social media is not something new, it’s entirely natural and some experts go as far as to say social media could become the Internet's next search engine. For this reason SEO and “key word” research is very important to work into any campaign.

Real estate developers looking at apartment marketing need to re-think their marketing efforts and consider a more e-centric strategy as online exposure and branding is imperative.

9 Reasons not to keep all your social media eggs in one basket

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:55:00 GMT

I like to say that I am a social media enthusiast (just ask anyone in the office). However, I am well aware of what social media can and can’t do for a company’s online marketing strategy. I have always advocated that the best social marketing strategy for a business is to ‘pick n mix’ – that is to choose a combination of online and traditional marketing techniques to maximise return on investment (ROI).

Social media marketing is a blessing in disguise for conventional marketing as it’s another tool in the marketing box that can compliment traditional methods rather than replace them. With new social media opportunities opening up, it is vital that business understands how they can employ the two ‘styles’ in any given campaign.

Here are the top 9 reasons why a business should not keep its entire social marketing efforts online and focus on utilising a hybrid marketing strategy:

Not everybody is online
Though it’s fair to say that we live in the age of Web 2.0 and the Internet revolution has truly arrived, it’s equally true that not everybody accesses the internet. In fact, less than 30%* of world’s overall population has access to the Internet. Therefore, conventional social marketing techniques are required to reach out to customers who do not access the Internet.

Can miss the broader audience
Online marketing can seldom match print, TV and other traditional marketing strategies when it comes to reaching out to people from various walks of life. When a consumer goes online, the are making targeted searches and already know what they are looking for, so you are missing out on the lucrative impulse buyers market. Traditional marketing techniques are capable of spreading brand awareness on a larger scale.

Brand awareness will suffer
In order to get maximum brand awareness a business needs to adopt an approach that combines the best of both worlds – traditional marketing and online marketing (using social media). If either of the two is missing, your business is likely to miss out on the recognition that it deserves.

Can lack structure and consistency
Traditional marketing techniques are more structured and consistent as compared to social marketing. While social media introduces innovation, it tends not to be standardised and falls short in consistency as compared to traditional marketing techniques. Social media is still in its infancy trying to establish its viability and is still developing and evolving; where you have an audience today may not exist tomorrow whereas traditional media is apart of our lives and will always have a consistent audience base.

Can be vulnerable to attack
While the Internet is by and large secure, there’s some degree of risk involved when it comes to the security of social networks. In the past, hackers have shown that social networks are vulnerable to malware and security attacks thereby promoting the philosophy that it’s way too risky to rely on social media alone to launch a marketing campaign, a new product or idea.

Social Media isn’t meant for selling
While it’s true that Facebook and Twitter have turned out to be fantastic tools for marketing it was not invented for this purpose, and when it comes too aggressive selling, social media networks sound too pushy. It’s easy to forget the social aspect of “social” media.

Openness
Social networks are like open books. While they offer an unparalleled reach, their openness can be discomforting at times for any business. Word of mouth – be it good or bad spreads like wild fire in the world of social media marketing.

Social Media is a means, not an end
When it comes to businesses; the final objective is to make profits – be it using traditional media and / or social media. There are millions of success stories where businesses have effectively used social media along with traditional media to achieve the final object – higher revenues and more profits.

Getting the basics right
Social Media Marketing isn’t a magic wand. It is crucial to get the fundamentals of marketing right before you join the social media bandwagon.

There’s no better way to getting the basics right than to go back to traditional marketing techniques. I recommend that you search for an agency that has their grass roots in Traditional Advertising and Marketing and has embraced New and Social Media. That way all your eggs will be well protected and if one cracks then not all of them will go rotten.

*source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Clever dicks at HEMA

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:47:00 GMT

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Building brand equity in a crowded market

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:40:00 GMT

I don’t have to tell you how choc-o-block today’s marketplace is, no matter what your industry – but what I can tell you is that the key to successful brand development and product sales is by revisiting your products positioning.
In this article I turn some old marketing principals on their head and propose a way to redefine market segmentation and position your product and brand in a way that ”really” means something to consumers.

Old school thinking
Traditional marketing has always defined target segments in terms of location, age, sex, lifestyle, buying behaviour. For instance if you are selling drills then targeting “homeowners” sounds like the right way to go about finding buyers. But how do you know that these “homeowners” actually want to purchase your drill? In the mind of the consumer they actually don't want a drill; they want a hole in their wall. Two distinctly different needs!
I argue that to make headway in a competitive arena the marketing should focus on the "job" that consumer’s want accomplished, not the product you are trying to sell.

Focus on the “job”
To build brands that mean something to consumers, you need to attach them to products that have a purpose and accomplish the “job” they want done. A classic example is the "job" performed by McDonald's Shakes. By interviewing shake buyers in the United States a pattern emerged showing a surprising number of shake sales were made during breakfast hours. McDonald’s discovered that many people who bought these morning shakes were consuming them during their boring commutes – a psychological treat that would last most of their journey.

To these consumers the shakes performed a specific job: they satisfied their hunger, relieved their boredom, could be consumed easily behind the wheel and purchased quickly.
Understanding the “job” a product fulfills can then lead to further product improvement and sales. McDonald's could enhance the "job" their Shakes do by including fruit to enhance the shakes' nutritional value, or sell prepaid cards to speed checkout.

This demonstrates that the conventional way of slicing and dicing consumers into segments overlooks opportunities. By identifying a cluster of consumers united by the "job", in this case “long-distance morning commuters", McDonalds found an untapped segment. They could now go about designing a better shake and also have crucial insight into the best way to promote a new shake.

What does it mean for your brand development?
When you think about it many of today's great brands started out as a “job” built brand. The product did the job, (think Gillette), and consumers talked about it and the brand built equity.

Take the time to look at how you talk about your product on your website and in your marketing materials. Are you emphasizing a product category or are you emphasizing the job your product does uniquely? Look for a niche defined by unmet or poorly met needs and think in terms of product enhancements to capture that "job-defined" segment.

Good Luck!

7 Inexpensive but effective marketing tactics

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:07:00 GMT

How do you use your budget to plan a marketing campaign that is low cost, effective and drives business your way? Simple – you stop thinking within the boundaries of the budget. Here are seven wonderfully inexpensive ways to flesh out a marketing campaign that will work for you.

Of course, you will need to do some groundwork prior to launching this with discreet strategies and plans in place. But once you have the nitty-gritties worked out, you can choose one – or all - of these quick-working tactics that will give your business the push it needs.

Tactic 1: SEO or Pay-Per-Click advertising
Ever since the online ad business kicked off, advertisers have had a growing range of mediums to get to grips with. New media such as SEO, website marketing, PPC through to social media and even viral marketing have all redefined the way people can make money.

Though SEO takes longer than the others to give you a return, you might want to consider tying up with an SEO professional to improve your search ranking. The other extreme of new media is PPC advertising. It requires minimal effort, and the ROI is measurable and the budget controllable. All that is required is for you to register with a search engine, choose keywords that work for you, program text or banner ads, and you’ll be in business.

Tactic 2: Local internet advertising
You can’t target customers in a particular area or field of interest more successfully than by using the net – it can work wonders. Look at it this way. If your target audience is in Sydney why pay for traffic from another city or worse another continent altogether? There are a lot of companies that provide solutions for local online advertising. And they’re hugely cost-effective. Budgets are low, too – they start as low as $200-$300.

Tactic 3: Email marketing
Ah, our favourite. So many free email services to choose from, such little time! If used smartly, email campaigns can be the most cost-effective tactic, but involves a good amount of work. Here are the 4 basics you must get right prior to launching an email marketing campaign. Note that the only difference you will notice between email marketing and traditional marketing is the ‘e’ in email.

The message: Tone, voice, language and a distinct CTA are the need of the hour.
The offer: Why should the guy reading the mail (pardon, email) take you up?
The audience: Who is at the receiving end of the campaign
Technique: The means of getting your message across.

Remember to have your website and/or landing pages ready prior to sending out your emails.

Tactic 4: Promotions and special offers
What every customer looks for is value that goes above and beyond his investment in any company. So before you launch your attack, ask yourself what it is that the customer could want in addition to what he’s getting to compel him to turn to you for his business needs or issues. Always offer a value-add – a handy tip, some inside knowledge, a newsletter or a downloadable PDF white paper?

Tactic 5: Traditional advertising
Traditional media isn’t dead yet. You can still rely on radio, news, mail and print for your campaign. Traditional advertising’s biggest minus point are the costs involved. But with the advent of new media, traditional media has pulled up its pants, and offers a wide range of low to mid cost solutions for small business to reach out to niche audiences.

The possibilities are huge – local cable advertising, radio spots, ads and jingles, local papers, inserts as well as direct mail. Do think of costs involved, though – they usually will set you back by about a couple thousand dollars, but you can run your campaign in phases and choose to expand if the returns are promising. The one shortcoming, however, would be that you can only cater to a comparably narrow audience geographically.

Tactic 6: Sales support
Here is where an in-house sales team comes in. Once the leads and brand awareness have been generated, your sales force can push the campaign forward, close deals, and convert potential leads to customers. They can also contribute to future lead generation by word-of-mouth and feedback generated by current customers. Remember that they are the face of your company to prospects, so their portrayal of your brand’s image is of utmost importance.

Tactic 7: Publicity and public relations
There is enough demand for content on new developments in every industry. And nothing work’s as good as positive PR, usually spread by the first few tiers of your target audience. Our recommendation would be to kick-start your campaign on both new and traditional media to maximise the success. Of course, you’ll have to use customised templates of messaging for each. One word of advice – do not copy paste from a generic press release. Make it your own.

Also, before you set out to educate your audience, divide them into categories based on how critical they are to propel your business forward. Lastly, create a tab or page on your website that is completely dedicated to this exercise. And oh, add a couple of client testimonials, and you’re good to go.

Effective “call to action”

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:34:00 GMT

For any website to convert potential customers into a sale or enquiry, it needs to have a distinct “call to action”. This enticement should be aimed at engaging with your audience and encouraging them to leave their details, buy a product or spend more time discovering your website, hence, helping your business grow. This can be a call for debate or discussion, signing up to receive newsletters, taking part in a survey, or adding a widget from your site on their computer.

A “call to action” should be unique, simple, clear and compelling enough to persuade a potential customer to take some action. Structured properly it will help attract new clients and retain current ones. It plays on the simplest of marketing rules – “give the customer something for nothing”. Although it is essentially an information-collecting tool it should leave the customer feeling good and feeling like they have began a real relationship with your company.

Bear in mind that a mere “Contact us” form on your website is not considered a “call to action”. Today’s audience is smart, and is unlikely to share contact information on a plain vanilla text form. This is not only unappealing, it also sets off an alarm in the audience’s mind that all you want is contact information and nothing else. A “call to action” is about building trust and relationships – and ultimately a stronger web conversion ratio on you site.

At Creative Brew we have studied the netizen’s mindset and will customize a call to action for your website based on the kind of business you’re in, what you sell, what your strong points are and what kind of audience you’d want to attract. In short, here are the 5 principles we follow to arrive at the best call to action for individual website:

The KISS formula
Keep It Simple – we can’t say it loud enough! Do not over-embellish your call to action – statistics (and common sense) dictate that for a call to action to work, it has to be easy to act on and delivered immediately. Do not place your call to action as a final point after navigating your website, do not promise an elaborate reward upon completing it and for heaven’s sake, do not get cute. If you sell cute stuff, it’s a different story, but do not give off an impression of flippancy – it turns people off. Make your call to action a clear offer.

Highlight it
Make it the star of the site, position it on your Home Page. By placing it at the top or by highlighting it in a banner or in a different colour than that of your website’s background, you’re telling your audience that this is where they can connect with you. Let them know.

Throw in something extra
Don’t forget this golden rule - everybody and their grandma loves a good bargain. Offer up one with your call to action. It doesn’t have to be exorbitant; it just needs to be there. Study your competition and what they’re offering. Understand what kind of a giveaway will complement your website – and hence, your product/service/business. Get inside the head of your target audience – they never lie.

Use the right words
Active language is the key. A single word that calls out to your audience to click on your call to action and get going is what your site requires. “Call”, “Subscribe”, “Register”, Free” – these are some of the tried and tested active words. Use them.

Make it work
Give your audience what they think they should get from your site. For example, if you’re a consulting group that provides expertise in manpower management, put together a document that includes a PDF of the services your company provides, a couple of case studies and a form for the HR manager to complete. Also include handy tips to reduce attrition, snippets from articles you have written and mistakes to avoid during hiring. Which HR team would not want a ready reckoner on employee retention? Since these “whitepapers” are downloadable, the visitor gets instant gratification and you would have high recall value in his mind the next time he needs help in this area. And with this positive experience, you’re sure to get some positive word-of-mouth as well.

9 Facebook tools – ignore at your peril

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:41:00 GMT

The “social web” is fast becoming a dominant force in terms of driving traffic flows on the Internet, threatening the major web players such as Google, and is something you ignore at your peril.

People are spending less time navigating the Internet on their own and are now discover based on their friends' recommendations and activities. This trend has led some experts go as far as to say social media could become the Internet's next search engine.

Facebook has become an integral part of the consumer Web experience and advertisers need to figure out how to leverage this medium. Did you know that you can have a Facebook page devoted to your business and you can alter the layout and functionality of the page? The end result is your own “social” business website for a fraction of what it costs to build a traditional website.
Here’s a brief rundown on some of the key Facebook features that relate to business promotion.

Facebook public profile
A Facebook profile page is one of the most ignored options for establishing an online foundation for your business. In fact, it’s actually a makeshift website that you can populate for free and prime space to advertise one’s business.
Public profiles allow “fans” to initiate and participate in discussions and most importantly Facebook public profiles can be indexed by search engines, assisting your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) efforts.

Facebook events
Launched directly from your public profile this feature lets fans know of upcoming events and meet-ups your company will be hosting or involved.

Facebook groups
When you’re targeting a particular set of users, based on their interests or location, Facebook groups is useful. Once you create a group, you can use it to attract like-minded individuals and promote your business via these channels.

Facebook ads
Facebook ads are text ads mostly, but accommodate a small image. The two main concerns about using these ads, however, are that most users find them irritating, and secondly, they do not generate many clicks. Still, these ads can be used to extend your business’s visibility on Facebook.

Facebook apps
Facebook applications, “apps” for short, are developed by third-parties and cover a huge variety of categories and interests ranging from gaming to music to travel to plain, silly fun. These widgets are a dime a dozen – literally. Use these sparingly.

Facebook lexicon
Lexicon gives you an understanding of what’s trending within Facebook. All you do is key in single or double-word keywords and analyse millions of wall posts on Facebook.

Facebook share
This feature adds a small button to your website that lets Facebook users share your website details with their friends on Facebook – in short, it’s an unassumingly brilliant marketing feature to drive incremental traffic to your site.

Facebook connect
Connect enables netizens to use their Facebook ID to log in to other websites. In short, with just one online identity, you can log in to various other sites and establish your unique identity across all of them.
With some creative thought this has huge potential to multiply you audience 10 fold.

Personal profile
To add to the authenticity of your business’s presence on Facebook, we strongly recommend that you link to a personal profile from your public profile, because it adds that personal touch. You can use your personal profile to network, connect, establish contacts and grow relationships within your own circle, which will only add to your business’s trust factor in the long run.

Get your real estate website top results

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:30:00 GMT

With Google now the first port of call for any property search, your web strategy should involve getting to the top spot in search engine results — it’s not as hard or as expensive as you may think.

Incorporating a company blog into your website will immediately begin to increase your websites search engine rankings by adding naturally occurring, keyword-rich pages to your website on a regular basis increase the potential for adding incoming links to your site.

Here is how it works — it’s all about numbers — Static vs. Dynamic Website
Google uses some 200 different techniques to rank websites and places a greater value on dynamic websites (websites that are continually updated) versus static websites (websites that are less frequently updated or not at all). If a website has relevant data/information/pages being updated on a regular basis Google notices.

Imagine your real estate business website has 10-20 static web pages. In most cases these pages rarely change, either because it’s an effort or it can be an expensive proposition. With a properly built site using all the appropriate code and metadata, the best-case scenario is the search engines will find and index your pages of mostly static content rating you accordingly.

Add a Blog Post & make your site dynamic (we can show you how)
You now make the decision to add a blog to your static website. Let’s say you have five staff who are keen to write one blog post per week. Make sure you run some statistics and use the valuable search words and phrases that relate to your business in the company blogs. Search engines are focusing on location more and more so you use local terms and you’ll be rewarded.

Begin by posting your blogs, alerting your database and advertising its existence on your website. Each time a new blog post is added, a new page is indexed by the search engines. By the end of the first week 5 extra pages have been added to your website, by the end of the year your website will have over 250 indexed pages, greatly increasing the chances of Google finding your website and ranking higher than your competition who has no blog.

Time to add the incoming "links" effect
Now that your daily posts on topics of interest have become a valuable source of information; a viral effect comes into play. Your blog posts have followers and online publications will start to link to your site. Google notices that other indexed website pages have linked back to your site, again increasing your sites ranking.

A leading newspaper's real estate reporter researching a new story, mentions your blog and includes a link back in his article. Google is impressed when it sees links back to your site from highly credible and trusted high-traffic sites like the The Age. Google also sees that the newspaper linked to your site through an article related to keywords and moves you even further up the search engine ranking.

Your little website of 10-20 static pages now holds one of the top spots in the Google search results for your targeted words because you initiated a blog.

What We Say - What We See

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:29:00 GMT

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