All Forum Posts by: Sandra Willford

I agree, short names and an easy domain name work best. We are launching a new brand this summer RealEasy, and well the name is real easy :)

I've always believed that business cards are a transactional item. Meaning they aren't something we just stick on a poster board in the local coffee shop. That's what posters and postcards are for. With that being said, business cards should be handed to someone. People remember relationships, not cards. The business card just becomes a reference for them in the future. Following that logic, unless you have two separate businesses for your buyers and sellers, I would work on a business card that has one single and simple unified message. Hope that helps, that's just my two cents worth.

I've had several clients over the years use VRBO with success.

https://www.vrbo.com

Hi,

Although my profile is new to this site, I am not exactly new to it. At the time of this posting, I run a small but mighty Marketing, Design, and Development shop in Toledo, OH. Because of this, one of my current clients (some of you may know him by his alias the Real Estate Dingo) introduced me to this great site through the course of the day-to-day work I do for him. Although my portfolio spans a diverse range of industries, lately it seems to be very focused on the Real Estate industry. Reading through the forums has given me new insight to the needs of investors and the demands of their businesses, so I figured why not join in the discussions personally.

Aside from my primary business (TENDesign) representing Ohio Cashflow and List'n Sell Realty in their marketing efforts, I am also co-owner in ActiveMLS, a company that offers IDX websites for Realtors and Brokers with a lightweight CRM that supports it. ActiveMLS currently supports about 5 mid-size regional Brokers in NW Ohio. Over the next year, we will be rebranding this platform and opening it up for a variety of Real Estate professionals that need to have simple tools for selling or renting their properties. I don't want to make this sound too much like a sales post so I'll cut the elevator pitch off here!

I'm here to learn from all of you and what your marketing needs are, and to offer/listen advice that will help all of our businesses grow well into the future.

@Jay Hinrichs you blew my cover. Yes I am in the biz. I run a small but mighty Marketing, Design, & Dev shop in Ohio, as well as a company that develops IDX/CRM websites for Realtors and Brokers. Although my portfolio draws across a few other industries, I seem to be pretty hyper-focused in Real Estate lately. I was introduced to bigger pockets by one of my current clients, so I figured why not join as a pro and offer some valuable insight for folks here

Ya know the funny thing is that as much of all that stuff you listed are things I am engaged in everyday, if you looked up my facebook page, you would see it's "under-development". Same thing with my Linkedin, Twitter, Youtube, and you name it. For me it's not so much that I hate the platforms, it's more the old "builders house never gets built, and mechanics car never gets fixed".

@Account Closed  were you aware that the top level domains .estate and .property are now available through Google Domains?

But back to the original post, I will stand by my statement that none of this domain name and company name stuff really matters, what matters is content. Please take your time with it. Make sure your content has good keyword density, is readable, and to the point and your site will do just fine. Like it was mentioned above if this is your main site keep your contact info up front and center. I very often put the phone number right in the main menu. I also hate "contact us" pages. Put your address, phone, email etc right on the home page as well as a contact form.

Last but not least, get your business and website listed in Google Pages/Maps, Bing Maps, and maybe even Apple Maps! Most people are looking up businesses now days on a device and not their computers. In google search results, map results come before organic site results. This is as important as having a business card now days.

I highly recommend Mailchimp. They have a decent selection of easy to use prebuilt templates, and building your own is pretty straight forward. Their list management is top notch and so are their automation tools.

This is my basic setup for most drip campaigns,

Drip Campaign Steps

1. The first email is typically a thank you email with a special offer link.

2. Second is an email reinforcing the companies brand image.

3. Third is testimonials and reviews.

4. Fourth is any data or stats.

5. Last but not least is the "Take action email". Typically a landing page or web form asking the subscriber to commit to the next level. 

You can then use that action as a trigger for your sales efforts, or to move the subscriber into a different marketing segment or list.

I use Podio for my own organisation for CRM and Project management. I also have two clients that use it. The advantage Podio has over say Highrise, Salesforce, Top Performer etc... is the fact that it is basically infinitely customisable from its setup, lead capturing, integrations with other platforms, and automated workflows

The biggest difference is that many, if not most local MLS boards intentionally delay the feeds that go out to the Big 3 and other non-MLS member sites, whereas our local MLS for example, updates their feed every three hours. This is done mainly to give the member broker's websites priority.

There is typically more data available through the MLS that you can't access via the other websites. Mainly the "sold" data. This data could take weeks or months to show up on these sites, whereas it's available within days if you are an MLS member with access.

It should also be noted that representing MLS data without being an approved vendor through any given MLS is a copyright and trademark infringement.

The key thing that comes to mind to me regarding having the locality in the brand name is how does it work visually. If locality made a difference in brand recognition you would see it in every company in your locality. I think what is more important is:

1. Does your company name represent what you do?

2. Is it easy to remember?

3. Does your logo and mark represent what you do, and is it simple and easy to recognise.

4. Is the resulting logo and mark easily adaptable across multiple mediums (print/digital/social etc..)?

As far as your domain is concerned, it's important that your domain is extremely easy for the user to remember. Having a location in the domain can be effective. Google does consider your domain relevance as a scoring factor. What you don't want is something like realestateinvestingaustin.com. That would be a good example of something too long and hard for the user to remember.

The important thing to remember is that your company or brand name and your domain are only a small part of your website's success or failure. Content is king and you really could have anything as a domain and company name if your content is spot on. People will find you based on your message, and not your name!

I've worked with a few Brokers that are considering this tech. I know that depending on the platform it can be expensive and maybe not viable for a project or listing that is low budget. I know there are quite a few camera's (mine included) out there that have panoramic 3D as part of their Operating System, however, I haven't really had the time to spend learning it, so this really grabbed my attention. 

Now my overall opinion is that vivid imagery can make or break the success of any marketing effort. For that reason, I'm not a big fan of the fisheye look this results in. I'm sure there are solutions out there that solve this, so I would be curious to see what those would be.