Archive for the ‘FEATURE ARTICLE’ Category
6 Proven Ways to Generate Business In Today’s Market
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
Well, the results of the Mr. Internet Best Online Idea / Strategy Contest are in and the winning entries are awesome. Here’s a quick overview of what they were and how you can incorporate them into your business (or if you just want to view the Webinar, just go to www.Facebook.com/OnlineDominance and click on the “Free Secrets” tab for complete access to the entire recorded session).
Drum Roll Please…
During our last Tuesday Live Group Coaching session we shared the top three winners, one runner-up and two “ringers” (agents who are direct coaching students of mine that I couldn’t let enter because it would be unfair to the others). Here’s a breakdown of the ideas and strategies:
- 1st Runner-Up – a very clever, simple and unique video from a Canadian agent that so engaged the viewers that it led to at least two closings. WARNING: when you view it you may think “Why would anyone even like this?”, if so you are thinking like an agent rather than a prospect.
- 3rd Place Winner – a Florida agent using a highly targeted site and traditional virtual tours in a way that generated over 50 closings this year alone.
- 2nd Place Winner – a Massachusetts agent leveraging her specialty and the Web to drive prospects to her seminars that have resulted in at least 15 closings this year.
- 1st Place Winner – another Canadian agent who used a very innovative online method to register prospects for her online Webinars that resulted in one of them selling out in 3 hours and 5 closings after just conducting two of them.
- Ringer #1 – a Lawton, OK agent who found the secret to turning Craigslist ads into incredible new business. In under three months she has 5 under contract or closed and another 10 about to go into contract.
- Ringer #2 – a Miami agent whose site is generating 30 – 40 phone inquiries a day and the extraordinary way he handles that call volume to literally have prospects begging to work with him.
Devil is in the Details
Obviously there is not enough room in this post to explain exactly how each of the winners (and “Ringers”) implemented their successful ideas. Besides you will find it infinitely more interesting to hear and see it for yourself. Just click the video image below to watch and learn from this incredible session. NOTE: this video has a table of contents which allows you to click to any winner section you want instantly!
Okay, so you watched the session and realized that anyone can implement what each of these winners have done. The only question left to ask is which one of these ideas / strategies are you going to implement now? Don’t let “Someday I’ll get to it.” rob you of additional business. These winners have generously shared their ideas and pointed the way, now it’s up to you to do something with it.
Essential Content
Thursday, September 30th, 2010
Over the past 2 weeks I’ve been involved in a research project which had me viewing hundreds of real estate websites. I’m compelled to write this article based on what I saw while conducting my research. Although I didn’t keep track of the following results in a scientific manner you can get a rough idea of the problems I saw.
- Lack of relevant key words – 80% (ie: name of the town, area or major employer, the term relocation, relocate or moving to…)
- Lack of phone number on home page – 40% (I was surprised by the number of sites that actually “hide” their phone number deep inside their site, usually on their contact page)
- Lack of office location – 50% (If I am not from your area how can I locate your office?)
- Lack of how you can benefit the customer and/or client – 30% (I was surprised to see websites still dedicated to the attributes of the agent, the agent’s family, the agent’s hobbies, the agent’s pets, even the agent’s grandchildren. I think Facebook and LinkedIn are the proper venues for this-but more on this in another article)
- Lack of sophisticated, dynamic, interactive websites – 65% (This observation really startled me. With all of the inexpensive template website companies today it is a shame that an agent would have a website that looks like it was designed in 1970.)
Now, why should I be bothered about these statistics? Look at today’s economy. It is bad for many real estate agents and these agents are wondering how they can survive. If you are in this category then take a look at your online presence. You aren’t still in the last century are you? You can get virtually left behind if you don’t keep up!
Take a good look at your website and the content. Are you offering anything valuable to a visitor? What do your visitors consider valuable? Do you really know what your website visitors are looking for? Do you really have an idea how people search and find what they are looking for? You’ve got to know! You aren’t spending the money on a website just to give a visitor something to fill up a few minutes of their free time, are you? No!! The ultimate goal is to generate business!
What do you need to generate business? You need a visitor that is informed about the services you offer or specialize in and is compelled to take action and contact you. This also means you need the visitor to know how to contact you. Your phone number and address needs to be in a prominent position, above the fold, on every page. Don’t make your visitors search! They didn’t come to your page to play hide and seek!
Speaking of hide and seek, can the right people find your site? If you want to attract a specific niche market then your site needs to be optimized to attract those customers you desire. If the largest employer in your area relocates a lot of executives on a regular basis and that is your desired market then make sure your site reflects that. Don’t have a site that is so general that no one can locate you when they are searching for real estate information in your area.
What you want for your website is essential content! You want content that is necessary to the visitors and that in turn will generate business for you. If you need a website review please contact me and I’ll give your site an unbiased opinion and let you know if your site is meeting the needs of your intended target.
EDITOR’S NOTE: this is a re-post from Guest Author Jeri Winkler who is a VA and CEO of The Secret Assistant. We invited Jeri to post her article here because it complements the most recent one by Mr. Internet (Seven Qualities of a High-Performance Website).
Seven Qualities of a High-Performance Website
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
The vast majority of real estate sales associate Websites fail miserably to come anywhere close to achieving their full business-producing potential online. Typically these sites fail in a number of different ways. Here is a powerful way you can self assess your own site to see what works, what doesn’t and what to do about it…
It’s Not Just About Driving Traffic
Driving traffic to your site is easy. Getting visitors to engage and convert into serious clients is not. In fact there are seven major qualities that your site needs to get right before it can be a fully productive online presence:
- Targeting & Branding – This is how well your site is targeted and differentiates itself to a specific niche market. Less than 2% of all real estate Websites are targeted. In their attempt to “speak to everyone” they end up talking to no one.
- Design – Just because a site is beautiful doesn’t mean it will be effective (just ask any agent who has spent thousands on a “beautiful” site only to see it not produce a dime of new business). Design needs to take into account many factors including being consistent with the nature of your target market and branding.
- Copy & Content – The primary purpose of you copy and content is to engage the visitor and effectively answer the question “What’s in it for me?” from their perspective. It has been my experience that most real estate Web copy fails completely in this respect.
- Interactivity / Ability to Engage – Information, even great information is not enough. Your content needs to engineered to maximize engagement via irresistible offers.
- Navigation – Ease of use and consistency are the hallmarks of good Website navigation.
- “Internet Empowered Consumer” Friendliness – Reassurances of privacy throughout your site and explicitly not requiring consumers to reveal who they are when they complete a form are crucial for your visitors to feel safe and secure when using your site.
- Promotion & Tracking – How your site is promoted depends upon its target market focus. Keep in mind that some target markets will NOT use search engines to find your site.
NOTE: You can self-assess your own Website for these qualities by downloading a 40 Point Website Assessment form I use to evaluate agent sites. Just go to www.Facebook.com/OnlineDominance and click the “Cool Tools” tab at the top and follow the instructions on the assessment form.
Don’t Bother Calling a Web Designer –Yet
There is no such thing as perfect, only a constant state of refinement to continually improve a Website’s ability to generate business and differentiate you from your competition. It takes many months of planning before you even THINK about talking to a Web designer. Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite approach used by most people in the business.
Even the most gifted designer cannot make an effective Website that scores high in all of the above categories until you give them your written plan and vision for dominating a particular niche. Think of it this way: 90% planning, 10% building and execution. Once you give them your plan, the building of the site is actually fairly straightforward.
Here are some sites that score very high on the above mentioned assessment:
- www.DowntownLivingMiami.com
- www.ChevyChaseLiving.com
- FortSill.GoArmyHomes.com
- www.IntownLivingAtlanta.com
- www.SellingCantonHomes.com
- www.MilitaryMove.ca
- www.GotDreamNeedHome.com
Each of the above sites are highly targeted and required 3 – 6 months of intense planning before their owners even spoke to a Web designer. Take a few moments to examine each one carefully and you will see why they all score so high on the Website Assessment.
Improving your site’s performance starts with determining what its weaknesses are and then taking very well thought out and committed action to correct them, one at a time.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: another version of this article was first published in REALTOR Magazine Online a couple of weeks back. Despite the warning above about not seeking out a Web designer prior to planning your site, apparently that is what many people who read this article did. In speaking with Bobby Carroll of Dakno (the design firm for all of the above sites) he said their phone “rang off the hook” with agents wanting sites “just like the ones in the article”. Another example of how people look but don’t see and read but don’t get it…
Earn More, Work Less & Enjoy Life
Saturday, July 24th, 2010After you have been selling real estate for awhile, chances are you have become reasonably adept at generating and closing leads. Striving to improve these skills will incrementally improve your business for sure. However, here is the one thing you can do that will result in a quantum leap in your bottom line and give you more free time to enjoy it…
Job vs. Business
First of all, you can’t possibly have a massive improvement to your business if you don’t have a business. The vast majority of real estate sales professionals have a “job” they work for rather than a business that serves them. It’s a huge distinction that is lost on even some of the industry’s top producers. It doesn’t matter how much money you make, it is how it’s made that matters.
As the figure below shows, there are only three things to consider for any business (whether it’s real estate sales, manufacturing widgets or building skyscrapers) Lead Generation, Lead Conversion and Business Support. These are known as the three phases of the business cycle, and every successful business follows them.
How you handle each of these phases will determine the extent of your business success. For the sake of this article we are going to assume that your core competencies of Lead Generation and Conversion are well handled. Our focus instead will be the Business Support phase of the cycle. The way most agents handle Business Support literally guarantees they become mired in the job of selling real estate, rather than having the benefit of a business doing the heavy lifting for them.
The Three Most Expensive Ways to Get Things Done
The biggest factor that holds sales associates back from truly having a business that serves them, is how they handle all of the myriad details that need to be done outside of their selling activities. Here are the three most expensive mistakes most agents make when dealing with these issues (listed in order of most expensive on down):
- Not Do It At All – in their well-intentioned attempts to do everything themselves, they become so overwhelmed that the detailed items start falling through the cracks and their lead generation / closing activities suffer.
- Do It Themselves – one of the biggest limiting beliefs in real estate sales is that if you want to have “total control” and have things done right, you have to do it yourself. Just for laughs, tell that to the CEO of any successful company and see their reaction. Remember, any time you do something outside of your core-competency, you end up paying top dollar for amateur results.
- Hire an Onsite Assistant – this may actually work if you are naturally gifted manager and motivator of people (which the most salespeople are not). However, you are still paying way too much for what you need done.
There is a fourth way however, that allows you to focus on what you do best, brings in the most money and costs you the least. It is the way I’ve run my businesses for the last 15 years and have taught 10s of thousands of REALTORS to transform their business…
Virtual Outsourcing – Business Support On Call
Imagine being able to hire talent to accomplish nearly anything you need done, that you don’t have to train, motivate, provide office space, equipment or benefits, and you only pay for what you use. That is the payoff of using virtual assistants and consultants. It is the only way I’ve found that is accessible to every real estate sales person of any experience level that truly addresses the Business Support phase of their business cycle in a practical and profitable way.
Keep in mind however that working with virtual assistants and consultants is not at all like working with a traditional onsite assistant. In fact, if you treat them that way it is almost guaranteed to fail. The process of finding, evaluating, hiring and working profitably with virtual assistants and consultants can be a bit involved. So to avoid the inevitable overwhelm that would result from my attempting to insert all that material here, I’ve created a separate PDF download for you that covers the following topics in great detail:
- On-Site Assistants vs. Virtual Assistants
- Ways Virtual Assistants Can Support Your Success
- How To Find And Hire The Right VA For You
- Five Critical VA Interview Questions
To download this free document, just go to www.Facebook.com/OnlineDominance and click the “Cool Tools” tab at the top of the page. There you will find a number of free resources including the special report “ePRODUCTIVITY – Earn More, Work Less & Enjoy Life!“.
Case Studies
Here are just a few examples of REALTORS who have incorporated Virtual Outsourcing into their business and never looked back:
- Dave Fletcher, The Fletcher Group – uses a virtual transaction coordinator to handle the many 10s of millions of dollar closing each year. Here’s the best part, she only charges Dave if the deal closes!
- Chris Coveny, Royal LePage Performance Realty – found a skilled virtual writer to research and post on his blog for a fraction of what his time is worth.
- Roman Pavlik, Pavlik Luxury Real Estate – found several VAs to keep his listings up to date on his Website on a daily basis.
- Sven Andersen, The Andersen Team – uses a team of VAs to handle every aspect of his listing marketing coordination, which of course frees him up to bring in as many new listings he wants without breaking a sweat.
It is no accident that all of the above (and many, many others) have a business that serves them, instead of being a slave to a job. If you truly want to have a business where you can earn more, work less and enjoy life you need to focus on what you do best and outsource the rest. Virtual Outsourcing (i.e. using virtual assistants and consultants) is the most viable and affordable way to accomplish this available to all REALTORS of any skill and experience level.
NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.
Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He’s dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com or you can visit his Website at http://www.russer.com
This article is reprinted in its entirety from the July 2010 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark of RUSSER Communications.
The Nearly Perfect Real Estate Website
Monday, July 12th, 2010
As a speaker and author about doing business online I’m asked all the time for examples of Websites that work. There are plenty to point to but almost all have one or more things that don’t meet what I consider certain standards. Well here’s one that does and scores a 10 out of 10 on just about every measure of an awesome productive site.
Don’t Bother Calling a Web Designer
Roman Pavlik, the owner of this Web marvel is a member of my ULTRA eTEAM Alumni and is frankly one of the most coachable sales associates I’ve ever met. Instead of hiring the best Web developer he could find, he spent the first four months planning and outlining every aspect of his site www.DowntownLivingMiami.com from the perspective of his target market. Once he had his written site plan completed (and fully vetted by me and the rest of the ULTRA eTEAM) then and only then was introduced to the best Web developer I know of. With a written plan in hand (including most of the copy produced by a professional copywriter) it was relatively easy for the designer to manifest Roman’s vision for his site.
Hot Seat Wunderkind
During our Tuesday evening Live Group Coaching sessions we will occasionally have what is affectionately known as a “Hot Seat”. This is where a sales associate volunteers to have their site evaluated by me and the group live during the session. For most it is an extremely useful exercise on how to improve their sites dramatically. The video below is a recording of the recent DownTownLivingMiami.com site’s hot seat session. In this particular case it was a struggle to find any way to improve this site. Check out the video and you will see why (and you will also see which criteria I use to evaluate sites.)
(NOTE: it is strongly suggested that you play this video full screen to see all the details being discussed.)
Nothing is Ever Perfect…
You are probably wondering why this site is referred to as “nearly” perfect. Well, if you watched the whole hot seat session video above all the way through (it’s about 71 minutes long) you will have seen and heard about “constant refinement”. There is no such thing as perfect, only a constant state of refinement to continually improve a Website’s ability to generate business and differentiate you from your competition. By the way, Roman’s is the first of several “nearly perfect” Websites we will be highlighting here and during our future live Hot Seat sessions. These others will also be coming from my ULTRA eTEAM Alumni. You will find that their sites are just as impressive and unique as Roman’s but for different target markets.
The moral of the story here is don’t even THINK about contacting a Web designer before you do your planning and outlining first. To do otherwise you are inviting much frustration, financial pain and ultimately ending up with a business Website that is anything but perfect.
Maximize Profits Through Hyper-Targeted Facebook Advertising
Monday, June 28th, 2010
Imagine if you could advertise your services in such a way that only those who are most likely interested would even see the ads. And better yet, you only paid for when they acted on those ads. Sounds a lot better than traditional print advertising doesn’t it? This is what “hyper-targeted” advertising is all about and nowhere is the opportunity greater for this than on Facebook and yet few people in the real estate industry have taken advantage of it.
Facebook vs. Google
Facebook is huge with close to a half a billion members and continuing to grow rapidly each month. What makes the advertising potential so great however is that by the very nature of the data found in “personal profiles”, Facebook has amassed incredible demographic and psychographic information on its members that is the envy of even companies like Google. This information includes personal likes, dislikes, affiliations, interests and so on. It doesn’t stop there however because Facebook also has the ability (and the necessary funding) to cross tabulate their internal member information with purchased third party data like magazine subscription information, group membership affiliation, etc which allows them to further refine their targeting ability.
When Google serves up ads to users of its search engine, the ads typically are targeted based only upon the search query because that’s limit of Google’s knowledge about that particular consumer. Whereas when Facebook serves up ads to members, it knows far more about the member and can show ads (on the right side of the page) that are tremendously more targeted and hence more likely to convert. And Facebook ads can leverage built-in “social proof” to add credibility and increase conversion rates since your ads can show who else of the viewer’s Facebook friends have interacted with you or your services. Also, the amount of time an average member spends on Facebook eclipses even the most avid searcher on Google.
Like Google Adwords, you can pay for Facebook ads either as Pay-Per-Click (PPC – recommended in most cases) or per 1,000 impressions (CPM). The process of setting up, managing and tracking your Facebook ads is very straightforward. And frankly, no one does a better job of explaining it than Facebook. Just go to http://www.facebook.com/advertising to review the steps and best practices. (TIP: Facebook suggests ad pricing to best reach your defined ad target. Let’s just say they can be a bit biased about this. Experiment using PPC values that start out about 10% less than suggested and then continue to lower your bid amounts until you see a significant drop off in impressions. This strategy can save you a lot of money!)
Now let’s take a look at all the ways you can use this high-powered advertising rifle to grow your business…
Hyper-Targeting for Hyper-Growth
The ways in which you can use Facebook advertising to grow your business and differentiate yourself are limited only by your imagination. The following came out of a recent brainstorming session with my Online Dominance students. To help organize these ideas, I’ve broken them down into categories:
- Win New Listings – show your prospective sellers how you can advertise their listings on Facebook and receive literally thousands (if not tens of thousands) of impressions. Chances are very good that none of your competitors are doing this and it will help you stand out considerably.
- Sell Targeted Listings – if your listing is unique or fits a particular profile (e.g. Florida waterfront property) you can create an ad that is shown only to those who would likely have interest in this including “snow birds” from other areas that have a proven track record of purchasing this type of property.
- Property Tours – advertise just about any kind of tour you can imagine (the more out of the box the better) to targeted Facebook members in your area. Here are just some ideas that came up for this:
- Riding horse property tours
- Bicycle property tours
- Waterfront property tours ending in a wine-tasting party
- Luxury high-rise condo bedroom tours
- Boat tours of waterfront properties
- Golf course / property tours that include short presentations by the golf pros at each course
- Foreclosure property tours, or pre-foreclosure tours (with the permission of the owners of course.)
- Seminars – either in person or Webinar-based. There are tons of possibilities here including:
- Investor seminars
- Foreclosure / Short-sale seminars
- Invest with IRA funds seminars
- First-time Buyer seminars
- How to get around today’s mortgage maze seminars
- How to prepare your home for sale seminars.
- Community Involvement – you can advertise your community involvement by getting local people to participate. For example:
- Charity food drives
- Client appreciation parties
- Neighborhood block parties
- Irresistible Offers – if you Website has irresistible offers, using Facebook ads is a powerful way to drive targeted traffic to take advantage of them.
Advertising without targeting is just taking shots in the dark. Your chances of actually hitting something are pretty slim. Advertising without the ability to measure your ROI is just throwing money at something and hoping it sticks. Neither are a viable way to grow business profitably. Facebook on the other hand offers a convenient, inexpensive way to hyper-target your advertising dollars and almost instantly measure the results. And the good news for you is that very few real estate professionals have even started taking advantage of this potential. Now is your chance to grow your business in a way that will have your competitors guessing and you smiling, all the way to the bank.
NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.
Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He’s dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com or you can visit his Website at http://www.russer.com
This article is reprinted in its entirety from the June 2010 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark of RUSSER Communications.
Plan Your Success In Just 5 Minutes Flat!
Monday, April 19th, 2010
Our industry continues to evolve into the space of “less agents doing more business”. There’s an interesting parallel you should notice: A very small percentage of agents have a written business plan they follow on a consistent basis.
Today’s consumer is looking for a relevant and competent business person, not just a real estate agent. To be in business the basic first step you must take is to have plan of action to realize your vision. Here is your chance to discover how to create a workable plan for your business faster than you thought possible. This Tuesday (4/20/10) from 7:00pm – 8:00pm EDT we are hosting top industry speaker and consultant Jon Cheplak as he delivers a no-cost (and nothing to buy) Webinar on “How to Create Your Killer Business Plan In 5 Minutes Flat!“. (CLICK HERE to register now —we expect a very full house…)
Here is what he will cover:
- The six critical steps to a successful business plan;
- How to benchmark your current business;
- How to analyze your current market for opportunities;
- How to develop strategies and tactics;
- How to implement your plan and measure results;
- And, how to automate much of the business planning process.
SPECIAL BONUS: Just for attending the event you will receive a FREE online automated business plan.
DATE & TIME: Tuesday April 20th, 2010 — 7:00pm – 8:00pm EDT
REGISTRATION: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/281829840
Jon Cheplak has 20 years in the business first as a highly successful agent, then growing and managing very large multi-office brokerages and now the CEO and founder of several ground-breaking companies that serve the real estate industry. He also happens to be a close friend and colleague of mine as well :0)
Refining Your Website For Greater Profits
Monday, April 5th, 2010
Congratulations! You just launched your brand new Website loaded with the latest bells and whistles. And, you can hardly wait for it to start cranking out new business while you sleep (hey, the vendor promised that would happen!) Sorry to curb your enthusiasm, your Web marketing journey isn’t over, it’s just getting started…
Measure, Test, Refine
Let’s assume for the moment that your site has tons of new traffic coming to it on a daily basis. Believe it or not, that is not a hard thing to accomplish. What is much more challenging however, is getting your visitors to convert to new business. That’s why it is important measure their behavior when on your site and consistently test additional ways to engage them and then refine your site to optimize conversion. And, this is an ongoing process that should take place ideally on a quarterly basis.
For example, something simple as changing the words from “Featured Properties” to “Best Buys” made a huge difference to Realtor Jim Dolanche’s site in terms of click through rate.
He never would have known unless he tested it.
Measuring What’s Hot and What’s Not
Imagine being able to sit over the shoulder of your visitors and see exactly how they interact with your site. Measuring site visitor behavior is very different than visitor statistics and is crucial to understanding how your site does or does not engage people who land there.
CrazyEgg is a service that generates “heat maps” of your site pages showing you where people click and how often. The brighter the spot, the more people clicked on that particular spot (see example heat map below).
CrazyEgg shows where people are clicking (the lowest form of engagement) whether or not there is a clickable link there. In one snapshot you get an immediate and rich sense of what your visitors found interesting and just as importantly, what they didn’t. For just US $9/mo you can measure the behavior of up to 10,000 visitors/mo on up to 10 pages of your site (prices current as of this writing).
Once you have measured your visitors’ collective behavior it is time to start testing alternative text, graphics, offers and even layout to see if these changes significantly improve your site’s ability to convert casual visitors into serious clients.
The ABC’s of A/B Testing
To effectively test changes to your site you need to have a way to randomly serve up both the current and changed versions of your site and then measure visitor behavior on each. This is known as A/B Testing (or Multivariate Testing when making more than one change at a time), and is a very powerful way to consistently improve your site’s conversion performance.
There is good news and bad news about the A/B Testing process however. The good news is that Google has a free A/B testing service call Google Website Optimizer that is very feature-rich and lets you test any changes to your site and statistically measure the differences in conversion, time spent on your site and visitor satisfaction. The bad news is that it is so sophisticated that you will need the help of a knowledgeable Web developer and/or SEO person to set up the tests and measure the results. One last caveat; your site needs to see several thousand visitors per month in order for test results to be statistically significant.
Consistent Incremental Improvements
Once you have completed visitor behavior measurement and A/B testing part of the refinement cycle, it is time to implement the changes you have determined will enhance your site’s conversion potential and start measuring all over again. Ideally, you want to repeat this cycle 3 – 4 times a year. Think of it as polishing your Website. It just shines that much more brightly with each treatment.
Websites are not “launch and forget” marketing weapons. They need to be consistently refined and course corrected if you want the most bang for your online marketing buck. If you focus more on the Web marketing journey rather than the destination, you will have a lot more fun and more business to show for it.
NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.
Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He’s dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com or you can visit his Online Dominance Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/OnlineDominance
This article is reprinted in its entirety from the March 2010 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark of RUSSER Communications.
The Future is NOW…
Sunday, February 21st, 2010Here are three new innovations that will change the way we live, work and power our lives.
The Kindle Killer
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my Kindle –it has changed the way I read books forever. However it was only a matter of time before someone developed an innovative new “passive” screen technology that blows the doors off Kindle’s E-ink nearly static gray-scale screen. Qualcomm appears to be that company as they plan to launch their Mirasol e-Reader in this coming Fall.
It incorporates a revolutionary new screen technology that uses ambient light to reflect a full range of colors using the same principles that nature uses to produce breath-taking colors in a butterfly’s wings. Because it uses no backlight to illuminate the screen it uses very little energy. In fact, Qualcomm claims that it will use even less than Amazon’s Kindle. In addition, this screen will show full motion video as well. Check out the YouTube demo below…
Now imagine having your For Sale signs incorporate this kind of screen (powered by a single solar cell). The only problem is you’d have to post an armed guard just to prevent people from stealing them :0)
Minority Report Minus Tom Cruise
Remember those cool virtual screens with floating images that Tom Cruise manipulated with special gloves? It was all Hollywood smoke and mirrors back then. However, the MIT professor the producers hired to come up with a futuristic computer interface for the movie has started a company called Oblong that went ahead and actually created this way of working with computers. And they gave it a really consumer friendly name: g-Speak Spatial Operating Environment –now there’s a mouthful! The following video can do a much better job of explaining what this is and how it works.
Some Fortune 500 companies are already using this technology and eventually it will find its way to you and me. When it does, virtual tours will never be the same!
A Power Plant In Every Garage
If you happened to watch the 60 Minutes show this evening (2/21/10) then you witnessed what could end up being the birth of a whole new energy renaissance. It highlighted the work of a Silicon Valley company called Bloom Energy that has figured a way to make inexpensive and compact fuel cells that work using most fossil fuels (like natural gas). During the interview, the founder of the company estimated that homeowners could have one of their fuel-cell systems installed to replace the grid for about $3,000. That’s a whole lot less than solar and it works 24/7, day and night, rain or shine.
Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that I got excited when “Cold Fusion” was announced in the ’80′s. This time it’s different. First of all, legendary venture capitalist John Doerr is behind it with about $400,000,000 in venture capital (not exactly chump change even by Silicon Valley standards). And major companies like Google, eBay, Wall Mart, etc. have been using these systems for months to inexpensively power their operations. Bloom Energy is planning a major unveiling of this technology to the general public this coming Wednesday (2/24/10). This is something I wouldn’t miss. Talk about a green-jobs boost to the economy! This could be one of those innovations that is a game changer and help us out of the current recession. Let’s hope anyway…
