More and more the real estate brokerage’s brand is sinking into the background. Proctor and Gamble or Milton Bradley seem to do it right. They supply just the right amount of name recognition while spectacularly backing and advertising the brand of the individual products first. After all, it’s their *product* that sells, not the Big Daddy brand in the back ground. I certainly can’t tell by watching an agent on Youtube or reading their feed on Twitter what brokerage they are from. Like the big Daddy Brands of old, brokerages should be following suit along with their fee structure. That right there is the key. Let’s get back to that later.

The basic problem is brokerages aren’t selling homes. They are recruiting agents. The only way they can promote themselves is through the agent. Some brokerages have even gone so far as to provide “free” marketing for their agents. (You know who I’m speaking about?). There is nothing free about that. They are simply paying for advertising of themselves at the expense of the agent having no personal brand at all. It seems like a neat and tidy package that some agents just love. Nothing wrong with it just as long as we’re all clear and on the same page.

Back to the key point: Real estate agents get nickel and dimed at every turn. Some fees and insurances are real. Some are because they have to. The brokerage for the most part is a have to.

Here’s the part about turning it on it’s head. Many often suggest that the brokerage had better start providing more or they are going to be left in the dirt. But my thinking is why don’t they simply provide less in exchange for micofees?  This is the model the music business was forced to take. It works very well. You and I, we start an online virtual brokerage that simply provides the must have legal parts and charge fees in relationship to the service it provides. The brand is way in the background like Proctor and Gamble and we let the agent brand and sell the way they want to.

What do you say? Who’s in?

I am asked this all the time. I must sound like a nutty-internet-social-media zealot when I answer  those who have been successfully doing the old school sales thing for years and years without a real online presence. So sometimes my consultation is met with a glazed expression, silence at the other end of the phone or an email response about Mary Poppins; It doesn’t get very far and my creativity is superseded with the client’s own more excellent ideas. There are many reasons a website doesn’t work that are obvious from terrible design to poor content. That list is long. Here is a short basic list of how to hire someone to make a website that doesn’t work.

1. Place little value on creative marketing ideas involving the gain of website leads. Do not take any professional consultation seriously.
   Every business is different and every solution is different. Without an audit the quick answer to “Why isn’t my website working?” is always the same: Do the basics. Want to push past your competitors? Then for the love of all things don’t be just like them.
2. Spend as little as possible on the website marketing budget because it’s supposed to just get found in Google anyway.
   A nice looking store on the corner of a busy city street doesn’t always get the business it deserves if the sign isn’t clear, it looks closed, has no access and no parking. Whether it’s viral marketing or traditional marketing, at least have a plan. If the plan isn’t followed we’ll then know why the site didn’t work.
3. Have the website automated so you never have to touch it. Your phone number on the homepage should work.
   This is taking the view that the internet is not entirely real and a website is just a cost of doing business. Imagine walking into an open house where the agent is a cardboard cut out with a pasted on grin and a motorized arm waving  back and forth. The feature sheets are there with a “please take one” sign and we follow a roped off path through the home. Yea, it would work I guess.
4. Have the site created so it will be all things to all people. Avoid focusing on a target group of search terms.
   Specializing in Vancouver Real Estate is like a lawyer announcing they specializing in legal stuff. Come on. Have some balls and choose a market, geographic, demographic or caged monkeys. Choose it.

This internets stuff is a tough sell for some. Those who don’t like being on line, don’t have time for it or simply don’t care. They have been successfully doing the same thing for years. If they are in sales then it is probably a front loaded business which is to say, they have to jump through hoops, have meetings, drive people around, gathering documents and hold hands to get the sale closed. It’s a lot of free personal time with their clients before they close the deal and see any monetary gain. It’s no wonder the internet seems to contain little or no value to them. I understand this.

Just remember, online marketing is the most scalable choice for the small business. It’s measurable and most eyeballs start their search online for almost everything. Even if it’s something a prospect needs to see and touch in person before a final decision, the search will start online. Social media is getting easier for people to use – we are just at the beginning of what the internet might eventually be, and already is: A real space thick with engagement, communication and networking places.

Do you have a question or something to add? Please do so below or contact me today

I have a number of Youtube channels and a Vimeo Channel so I get your real estate home tour video updates as they are uploaded, if they are uploaded. So I go to your website to see how that same latest video is posted there. I click on the Video Tour Tab and notice that only an external link is offered to the video!!! Holey lost traffic Marketing Man! This blows me away!

Curiously, like a cat smelling it’s own up-chuck, I click the video link to see where it goes. As expected it opens a new window away from your website.  I am now on some butt-ugly video company’s website looking at your listing! Why? What kind of nincompoopish reasoning is behind taking me away from your website? Did you know you can display a video right in the listing’s details without sending people away from your site?

Link to Butt-Ugly Video Tour Website

I know what’s happened. You were sold the full java script enabled video package complete with galleries and mortgage calculators and map views and more; You already have all that available at your own website! Why pay for it twice?

Look, all you need is to embed the video into your website. And here are 3 reasons why…

Water Down your SEO Juice:

If you link to another site with your listing then there are now two website domains with that listing dividing up the Search Engine Optimization. Your website and the Butt-Ugly Video Company’s website and I am sure Butt-Ugly Ltd is very happy about all that traffic. Without you, they would have no traffic. Don’t let them sell this the other way. I bet they said something like “we’ll link it to your website so you’ll get more traffic”. No, not the case. I have also seen these sites without a link back.

Allow Your Customers to Drift away:

Many times I notice that the Butt-Ugly Video Company’s website offers all the same tools that your website has. Let your buyers discover the tools on your site so they can keep searching there. Don’t let your website visitors think (even for an instant) that your site doesn’t offer these tools. It looks like they are selling the listing and you are their assistant contact person.

Let them Mess up Your Visual Branding:

Your visual branding is completely different on the Butt-Ugly Video company’s website that you just sent your buyers to. Oh sure they add your name and throw up (pun intended) your mugshot but it’s their brand they are wrapping you around and it never works.

A couple of other things to consider

When a customer comes to your website and clicks the video tour tab, they really expect to see the video. No really. They expect that because every site can have video – including yours. If Butt Ugly Videos Ltd tells you their video tours can not be embedded, end the conversation.

Using something like Youtube to serve your video from is terrific because it is a strong social sharing website that is linking into your website. The video can remain after the listing is gone. Also, savvy users and newbies alike expect to see your videos there. The ability for them to comment, “like” and subscribe is very powerful and goes a long way to creating a tribe of followers.

How to solve this

Some video companies have different packages and perhaps they have a cheaper price for not offering the separate Butt-Ugly website.  I know that there are scripts needed to display some of these 360 degree tours that can not be embedded. My answer to that is don’t bother with it because nothing is going to replace seeing the home in person. All you need is a video so buyers will want to schedule a viewing in person and make an offer. I’m not seeing “Buy Now” buttons beside listings yet.

The best thing to do is save yourself some money and find a person who has a camera and some video editing skills. They make a video – you uploaded it to Youtube and simply embed the video into your website. Award winning music videos have been shot with less.

If you need help with any website administration please let me know. We do Web administration also becoming known as Virtual Website Assisting and used to be called Web Mastering.

Comments are appreciated!

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A screencast video is an ideal way to learn how to do something. You can stop, rewind, pause, come back and it will always be there so you can save it for later. We offer these short, concise Learn-How-Now videos exclusively to you  for your own use. If you allow us to post it for everyone we will waive the cost and send you the link for for free! Let us know what you need to learn.

We have written about this amazing email newsletter software’s trackable social sharing abilities before and you can read about that here. Social sharing from a newsletter campaign is just the beginning. Aside  from that there is the ability to create and upload your own templates, choose from a list of free templates or have us design a custom template that matches your brand and all with client personalization. You have a choice of  monthly rates or a free account with a low pay as you go rate so you don’t feel pressured to use it.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment.

Before I dive into the details, here’s a preview of the new Social Sharing report. You can click it for a full-size version.

Our providers have been thinking long and hard about the best way to add this kind of social integration for the TribalYell Eflyers System. As always, the goal was to keep the sharing process as simple as possible for you and your subscribers. Here’s how it works.

In-email sharing made easy

The easiest way for your subscribers to share your email newsletter  is by adding a “Tweet” or “Like” button to your campaign. Then with a couple of clicks any subscriber can share your email with their friends or followers. To do this, we’ve introduced two new tags that you can easily add to your existing designs.

Add a “Like” button to your campaign

Just add the following tag anywhere in your email design and we’ll instantly turn that into a working Facebook “Like” button.

<fblike></fblike> turns into

When your subscriber clicks on this button in their email, we’ll load the following lightbox where they can “Like” your campaign and see which of their friends have also liked it. Here’s an example of this in action:

If you don’t want to use the standard “Like” button, just add your own text or image between the tag and we’ll turn that word or image into a link that, when clicked, loads the lightbox like the one above.

Add a tweet button to your campaign

Let your subscribers tweet about your campaigns using the new tag below.

<tweet></tweet> turns into

If your subscriber is a Twitter user, clicking that button takes them straight to a compose window with the tweet pre-populated with your campaign subject and a shortened URL linking to the web version. Here’s how that one looks:

Just like the Facebook Like tag, you can add your own text or images between the tags and that will be used instead of the default tweet button, giving you complete design flexibility.

Sharing made simple for our clients

If we’ve built templates for you, we can easily add permanent “Like” and “Tweet” buttons to them that work for every email newsletter you send. We’ve also made it simple for clients to add their own share links to any campaigns they send using the editor.

Get the word out from within Campaign Monitor

Our new social tags aren’t the only way to get the word out about your latest campaign. You can also share them yourselves right from Campaign Monitor. The report for every email you’ve ever sent now includes a new “Share” button in the top right corner. Here’s how it looks:

Clicking the “Share button” will open the popup where you can share on Twitter or Facebook with a single click.

Whenever that URL is mentioned on Twitter or “Liked” on Facebook, we’ll track the results for you. You and your subscribers can share your campaign any way you like and we’ll handle the rest.

Real-time reporting to bring it all together

While there are lots of different ways to share your campaign, we bring it all together with the new Social Sharing report. This includes who tweeted about your campaign, who liked it on Facebook and who forwarded your email on to friends. Basically, whenever anyone shares your campaign, we’ll show you who it was and how they did it.

The report is broken up into two parts. Up top we’ve got a summary of the activity so far across Twitter, Facebook and email forwards.

Below that is a real-time list that pulls all of this together into a single activity stream. See what people are saying about your campaign on Twitter, who’s sharing on Facebook and which subscribers have forwarded it to their friends.

For each subscriber that tweets, we’ll show you their Twitter avatar and a link to the tweet in question. We also link to the subscriber snapshot and display a gravatar if available for anyone who “Likes” your campaign or forwards it on to friends.

There are loads of other subtle features in this report, but I’ll leave some of them for you to discover once you start sharing. We hope you have fun with this new feature. It’s a brilliant way to learn more about who is sharing your campaigns with the world, and what they’re saying about you in the process.

More about Tribal Eflyer Service

At TribalYell Integrated Branding, we offer everything you need to create and send successful email marketing campaigns. Deliver beautiful emails, manage your subscribers and track your campaign results, all from within your browser!

It’s new, as self serve as you want and it’s free. There is no monthly subscription. You are only charged a small fee per eflier and email in that campaign.  TribalYell Efliers [Beta]

Send beautiful emails

• Build your own campaigns
• We provide a custom template designs
• Choose which customers to target

Great looking reports

• Great looking charts on the results
• See who opened, clicked and forwarded
• Drill down to individual subscribers

Manage your subscribers

• Easily add your own subscribers
• Handles unsubscribes & bounces automatically
• CAN-SPAM compliant

Target specific customers

• Create segments for targeted campaigns
• Segment based on location, interest or
  anything else you store

View the results anywhere

• Mobile friendly version
• Access results from anywhere

No experience required

• Simple interface
• You don’t need to be a ‘coder’

For those of you who do not understand what Conversational Marketing and Interruption Marketing are, here is a brief explanation.

Conversational Marketing: Conversations happen and you are weeded out or led further into levels of brand alignment based on what you say. Contests and give aways might be used to entice you to re-tweet or post something and can help create a viral marketing spin and gain more conversation for catching already aligned people. Or to explain it differently, turn each person in the conversation into an advertiser. Facebook, and Twitter are the types of platforms where Conversational Marketing can happen.

Interruption marketing: This is a single sided conversation. An advertisement that is placed in a relevant magazine or a TV commercial that is played to a demographic who is watching a show. Interruption Marketing has interrupted you to say its thing. Considered Mass Media Advertising it is  therefor considered “Old School”. There is a trade-off that in return for the interruption, entertainment congruent with the pitch is offered as part of the better more well rounded advertisments.

For some odd reason, one is seen as good and the other as bad. Personally, I love good traditional advertising but then that’s part of my industry and perhaps I’m biased but tell me, don’t you hate missing the preview ads before a movie? I am always a little disappointed. Do people not like the Super-bowl ads? I love them. It’s part of the game on the screen!

With Interruption Marketing at least we know what we’re getting into. We either stop to look or move on. For me, (and again, my point of view), Conversational Marketing can be insidious and boring. Is the conversation real or fake? The day is coming when bots will be able to auto converse with masses upon masses of people to weed them out and get to a small percentage of those who will be lead down a garden path turning each one of them into little advertisers who tow the party line. (Also known as raving fans).

Interruption marketing tactics get used in purely conversational mediums. For instance, Twitter now sells tweets and is considered interruption advertising but with the ability to position well and so begins the confusion. They are also boring as hell, especially for those who communicate visually.

Then there are those just winging it with zero thought put into what they are trying to do.

Think Ben Think

Look Great?, Look silly

Almost 4000 tweets and 0 followers. What a charmer

This Free Client Appreciation Social Media Workshop  is for you if you are a client and one of the 4 categories below

1. You don’t have or understand Twitter, Facebook Fanpages, or Linkedin but want to.
2. You have, and understand Twitter, Facebook Fanpages, or Linkedin but want to connect them to your website
3. You have Twitter, Facebook Fanpages, or Linkedin, have them connected to your website but don’t follow a regular social media campaign.
4. You just want to hang out and meet your other Tribe Members.

Before I can commit to a date time and place, I need to discover how many would want to attend. For those of you out of town, let’s rig up Skype. Pre-register by emailing me or commenting below.

While you are at it, follow me on Twitter, Join our Fanpage and link with me on Linkedin.

I Don’t know if this guy thought of this by himself or if it’s been done elsewhere. It illustrates my point. More people who would otherwise never give any money to a street person, will be more likely to change their minds and throw money at this guy than any other in his market sector.