Real Estate Videos Work for Brian Boardman, Burlington Vermont

Union Street Media presented at the Coldwell Banker Agent Real Estate Trends & Social Media Seminar on the 16th at the Ethan Allen Club in Burlington, Vermont. Our presentation focused on utilizing real estate videos.

The presentation went very well. We received a great deal of positive feedback from participants from all over the region. Our friend and client Brian Boardman, a REALTOR® here in Burlington, Vermont chimed in to talk  about how a particular listing video help him get one of his high-end properties under contract.  It was a fun, engaging conversation!

Please contact us if you attended the session and would like a copy of our notes (or if you couldn’t make it, and would like a copy of our notes).

Two Union Street Media Clients Win MAR Website Awards!

We here at Union Street Media are proud to announce that the results of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors annual Website Competition are in and two Union Street Media clients have received first and second runner up in the Office Website Category!

We would like to congratulate Lomenzo Properties of Dennis Village on Cape Cod who won for first runner up! This is doubly impressive as they are a two-agent office and beat out countless larger offices in their category. Their prominence is largely do to the wealth of information that they have on their website. They are  prime example of how powerful expansive, high quality content can be. Congratulations to Peter & Elaine for all of their hard work and focus!

We would also like to congratulate Northrup Realtors of Lynnfeild, Ma who won for second runner up! Their achievement is even more impressive as they only launched their new website this past spring. The fact that they have been able to add enough information and resources in that short time period is an impressive effort.

If you read the comments on why these two offices finished in the top of the pack it is clear that it is a combination of the design and functionality that we provide but mostly that our system gives them the  supporting structure to showcase their knowledge and vision of their market area. Again Congratulations to our clients for all of their hard work!

Great New York Times Article on Engagement Thresholds

On the 25th of June the New York Times published an article by Barnard Lunn entitled Build an Insanely Great Web Service. Not only is this article worth reading because it gives the reader the opportunity to read the work “suck” as a descriptor in a New York Times article which I just find amusing, but it offers a great model of the engagement thresholds that websites and services need to think about. The article is written using a start up web service as a model. The applicability of what the author Mr. Lunn says does not stop there, however. The concept can easily be transferred to any website and web service. Viewed through the lens of real estate sites, we see a clear structure in which to think about how users interact with websites. The time thresholds that he lays out are:

• 30 seconds: “I get it.”
• 3 minutes: “I’ve used it and still get it, and it has not annoyed me yet.”
• 3 days: “I find this really useful or fun.”
• 3 weeks: “I am raving about this to other people.”
• 3 months: “I couldn’t imagine not having this, and I’m boring my friends telling them about it.”
• 3 years: “How weird to see this on Oprah.”

(Lunn, Barnard, New York Times 6/25/09)

Now, I am not saying that your real estate website is going to end up on Oprah — though I would not rule it out. But in the mean time, lets look at this structure in the context of a well designed real estate site being used by an interested potential buyer. (Please note that I am going to add a threshold that I feel was overlooked):

• After 3 seconds visitors should like the site design, be able to identify where they should look first and find it easy to read. (Things to think about: Design and Layout)
• After 30 seconds visitors should have clear idea of what your site has to offer them and most importantly what the next step is that they can take. (Things to think about: homepage content and calls to action)
• After three minutes, your visitor has used some of the functionality on your site. If it is well organized and the functionality is intuitive, they will still see the value in your site because they will find that they can easily access the information that they are interested in. (Things to think about: ease of use of your sites functionality and navigation)
• After three days they have fully explored your site, read information on you, your market area and used all the applicable functionality. They find it useful and at this point contact you. (Things to think about: quality and amount of information available, easy and obvious conversion tools)
• After three weeks they have found that your website integrates seamlessly with their property search process and your personal service. They continue to use the site to save searches and ask you questions as you set up viewings. (Things to think about: Lead management and contact utilities)
• After three months they have found the house they want and close on it. They can’t imagine what the process would have been like without your website and your personal attention. (Things to think about: how integrated is your website to your current client management)
• After three years they are ready to buy again and call you . . . or they see you on Oprah and are really impressed. (Things to think about: the value of continued contact with past clients, how good Oprah looks in that pant suit!)

Using these time thresholds as a structure to think about your website is a great way to take a tough look at how your site encourages the engagement of potential and existing clients. If your site is not up to snuff, the possibility of losing potential buyers at any one of these 6 stages is a very serious reality.

The moral of the story is always look at your site from the user’s perspective. Your site should be all about what the potential client is looking for and what you can offer them that they haven’t even thought of yet.

Real Estate Apps on the iPhone

Apple is running TV commercials focusing on the applications available on the new iPhone.  They recently released one that highlights a real estate application geared towards students looking for apartment rentals close to campus.  You can see the advertisement here.

Although college students perceived as market leaders when it comes to technology adaptation (just behind middle schoolers), they’re not the only ones using their mobile devices to look up real estate.  As iPhone sales skyrocket even in this down economy, users are expecting that your site will load on their mobile device.  The trend is catching on amongst real estate data sites too.  Some newspapers like the Gainsville Sun and sites like Trulia & Zillow are making their sites easier to search using a mobile phone.

You should check with your web developer to make sure your site is mobile friendly.  Some real estate web site developers (like Union Street Media), can create a new mobile template for your site that strips away non-core images & content, which increases the speed that the site loads on the mobile phone.  Check out the two variations of Brian Boardman’s web site to see what it looks like on a web browser and on a mobile phone.

We generally see three types of REALTORS requesting mobile-friendly sites:

• REALTORS who are technology savvy and browse the web on their mobile phones
• REALTORS who’s clients are technology savvy and use mobile phones for real estate searches
• REALTORS in a second home markets

Check out www.adamdow.com if you’d like to see one person that fits all three categories (and was one of the first clients to get a mobile-friendly site from USM).

There are a lot of other cool examples of mobile-friendly real estate web sites out there.  Please share any that you have come across in the comments section below.  Thanks!

Internet Marketing Basics for Realtors: IDX participation

In all the hubbub about listing aggregation services like Trulia and Zillow or the classifieds site Craigslist or any number of other new and emerging real estate services out there, some simple basics can get lost. If you are a real estate professional interested in getting the property you list seen by the most people there’s often a basic tool available to you: MLS IDX participation.

I know that it isn’t new or sexy. In fact, it’s really old. But getting your listing viewed by people who are genuinely interested in buying property can be achieved right out of the gate by participating in your MLS IDX. The people who see your listing via the MLS IDX are likely to have the following traits:

• Interest in buying property vs kicking tires
• Interest in working with a Realtor
• Interest in the geographic region served by your MLS

That’s the basics. If someone meets those characteristics then you probably want them to see your listings. By participating in your MLS IDX program you make it easier for more qualified people to see your listing.

Once you’ve got that basic piece down, then go wild with all the other aggregation and syndication options you can. In some MLS programs they will even handle the syndication themselves. If not, your web developer may be able handle automate the syndication as well (I know the real estate websites we make at Union Street Media can have syndication options enabled).

But start with the basics. Don’t miss out on all those people interested in buying, interested in working with a real estate professional and interested in your area.

Increasing Reach and Engagement: Integrating real estate search technology on your website

Sean Purcell nails it when he says “the premier ingredient in creating real estate success: lead generation.” Let’s look at how putting property search capability on your site can expand your reach and increase visitor engagement as part of your lead generation activities.

The search function on most real estate professional sites can be broken down into two types: integrated IDX property search and framed IDX property search. Since Union Street Media specializes in IDX integrated real estate web design, we’re often asked what the difference is and which is better.

Framed IDX is often cheaper. But if your real estate website is a part of your online marketing plan, there are significant advantages to an integrated IDX solution that should be considered.

Let’s start by breaking down the components of real estate search technology that matter most to online marketing.

Anatomy of real estate search technology

Search technology for property is a combination of four things:

• Data The MLS data can be hosted on a third party provider or on your site
• Search Interface Flexibility of the search interface to reflect your customers’ desires and your local expertise
• Visual Design Ability to keep your agent or office branding intact throughout your customers’ search process
• Technical Design The code used to display the listings and search results can have implications on your SEO and other marketing objectives

Understanding how these four elements interact can help you make an informed decision about what kind of search technology to deploy on your real estate website.

Your property search and Google

People looking for something will often start on a search engine. The NAR has said that over 80% of housing searches begin online (I bet you’ve heard this from every single technology vendor for the past few months). A fair share of those searches started at Google. You want your property search to be visible to Google in order to reach those people.

From a marketing standpoint, a big difference between integrated IDX and framed IDX is how they appear to Google. On an integrated IDX site, the property data is hosted on your website. That’s part of the integration. On a framed IDX site, the property data is hosted on a third party’s website and “framed” into your site.

Google doesn’t see visual design on websites. It only reads code and data. So while a framed IDX site might appear to be showing all the property data to a human eye, Google doesn’t recognize that the framed data is part of your site. This means that any SEO value from showing property on your site would be lost in a framed IDX site.

Your property search and your brand

Once people find your real estate search website, the next thing you’ll be wanting to do is provide them with an engaging experience. Engaging experience is web marketing geekspeak for “help them find stuff by making the search easy and effective.”

The design of a framed IDX search is often shared across a vast number of real estate websites. This can make integrating the design and branding of your office site with your search technology difficult.

Integrated IDX sites inherit the design styling of your site because the data is on your site. For this reason, it is often easier to maintain branding consistency on your site with an integrated IDX property search.

Widgets and other real estate tools

Integrated IDX sites also offer the capability to add widgets such as a quick search on every page of your website, easily configurable one-click real estate searches and other tools that you can use to promote property and encourage visitor interaction with your search technology. You’ll also want the ability to add extra information to your own listings on your site (if your MLS allows this) so that you don’t get a “duplicate content” penalty from Google. Some framed IDX searches offer these things and some don’t.

These extra tools and widgets have become more prominent and important in the past year as a way for agents and offices to differentiate their specialty knowledge in a geographic region, customer type or property type.

Some questions to ask your real estate search technology provider

Choosing the right technology for your real estate website will always come down to weighing the costs against the benefits. Here are some questions to ask your technology vendor (whether you’re using integrated IDX or framed IDX) so you can plan your online marketing efforts accordingly:

• Will Google and other search engines consider the property information part of my site for SEO purposes?
• Can I change the design and color scheme of the list and detail views to match my site’s branding?
• Can I set up one-click searches and provide links from anywhere in my existing site?
• What incentive do you have to improve your search technology in the future?
• Can I show extra information about my property that is only on my site (avoiding duplicate content issues with Google)?

If you found this article helpful, you may also be interested in the “Is your code hurting your website” post.

Is your website code hurting your online marketing efforts?

Tables. Font tags. CSS/XHTML. Eyes glazing over yet? Well try to keep the lids open just a little longer. I promise to make this as fun as possible (or you can just skip to the video at the end).

Your web design is just a bunch of text

If you “view source” on your website you’ll see a bunch of text. That text is “the code” of your website. Your web browser (Firefox, Safari, IE, Chrome or whatever you use to surf the web) reads the code and then draws the website on your screen. Search engines and other computers also use this code to learn about your site. In fact, the search engines don’t look at what your site looks like at all, only what is written in that code. A search engine is only reading the code and doesn’t care how pretty your website looks.

A pretty web design could be the result of good or bad code. You need to view the source to be able to tell the difference.

There are many ways to write code and get the web browser to draw the same thing. Some of the ways to code the site are “bad” and some are “good.” And the only way to know if the code is bad or if it’s good is to look at the source. Your site may look pretty to you, but it may be miserable for other users or unreadable to search engines.

What does “bad” code look like?

Bad code can look like a lot of things. Unless you’re a web developer you’re going to get bored in a hurry if I go through all expressions of bad code. But I’ll give a quick way to tell if your code is really really bad.

Some key indicators of web code that might be hurting your internet marketing:

• If you see <table> in the code but there are no spreadsheet-like tables in your content.
• If there is almost nothing that makes sense to you when you read it and you see <object> and a bunch of other non-meaningful in the code.
• If you do not find <h1> in the code anywhere or if you can’t make sense of what comes right after it
• If almost all of your code involves <image src= followed by stuff that doesn’t make sense.

What makes “bad” code so bad?

Bad code is anything that doesn’t support your business objective. For the rest of this post I’m going to assume that your business objective involves internet marketing.

Here are two ways that bad code can get in the way of your internet marketing (I bet there’s more):

1. If your online marketing strategy involves using search engines, then bad code is anything that gets in the way of the search engines.
2. If your online marketing strategy is targeting visitors who are impatient with slow-loading websites, then bad code is anything that slows down your website.

Bad code derailing your search engine optimization efforts?

Bad code can be responsible for a web page that looks great to humans, but is completely unreadable to a search engine. If you can’t find anything in your code that makes sense, then the search engine can’t either. The search engine will treat it just a page full of random gunk. The more readable stuff in your web code, the more likely a search engine is going to find your page useful.

SEO efforts are harmed when the search engine spiders can’t read your code.

You will always need some sort of code to make the page work, but you want all that structural code to be as minimal as possible. Think of it like a percentage. You want a high percentage of stuff you can read compared to the stuff that is structural code. The search engine is always going to like sites that have the most useful content, they have to in order to remain relevant.

If another site has a better good code/bad code mix, then it will rank higher than yours.

Take Google, for example. If Google started returning all garbage pages that weren’t any good and some other service returned pages that were full of useful content, then more people would use the other service. And if more people used the other service then Google would make less money selling the ads they sprinkle around the margins of their search engine results page.

At the end of the day you’re marketing to humans and so are search engines. Both like lots of good content.

The search engine may be a machine, but it has to keep real humans happy. One way the machine determines whether people will be happy to see the page is by determining how much useful content that anyone can read is on the page compared to how much structural stuff that might be good or might not be so good.

Bad code frustrating your users?

Sometimes the way a web site is built can really slow it down. This is usually where people start talking about Flash and how evil it is. I won’t do that because there are ways to use Flash that don’t slow down a web site. All the same, make sure your site isn’t using too many graphics or a complicated layout that uses a bunch of the <table> things I noted above.

If your code is too complicated or includes a lot of images, it may be slow to load because the browser has to sort out the complicated code and then go fetch the images. Yes, seconds do matter to web visitors.

Bad code slows down your visitors, too. Bad for internet marketing.

Just because broadband is getting better penetration doesn’t mean we don’t have to worry about load time either. Because now we have a lot of cell phones and other mobile devices starting to browse the web and these little machines on their internet connections work faster when you have more good code.

I’ve got bad code! I’m firing my web designer!

A word of caution here. You might have bad code for a variety of reasons. Here are two things you should consider before getting too worked up:

• If your website is five or more years old, remember that your website may have been good when it launched. New good coding methods are always being developed.
• This second one might be hard to take. You might have made design requests that could only be accomplished with bad code. Like a gigantic full-page image of some sort, or a great big animation or video, or very very specific control over where every pixel is on the screen. Sometimes meeting client demands can result in bad code (though your designer should at least give you a warning that you’re going into bad code territory).

I don’t want to read all this, I just want to watch a video about internet marketing and code

Here you go. My favorite internet marketing musician, SEO Rapper brings you through everything you need to know to keep your code all good.

Using the One-Click Real Estate Search Feature to Demonstrate Knowledge and Expertise

This post is part of Union Street Media’s submission for the Forrester Research Groundswell Award.

I would love it if you take time to write a review at the Groundswell site.

Name of Groundswell Entry:

One-Click Real Estate Search Feature

Name of Company Entering:

Union Street Media

Category:

Talking

Dates available to users:

December 2007 to present

What is the audience for the One-Click Real Estate Search Feature?

Real estate professionals looking to attract attention from consumers by demonstrating the the professional’s knowledge of consumer needs and property on the market.

What is the environment in which the One-Click Real Estate Search Feature operates?

Real estate marketing online has changed significantly in the past four years. One of the developments has been the rise of competition from other real estate professionals as well as the rise of real estate data aggregation sites.

Real estate professionals would like to attract as much of the initial attention of real estate consumers as possible. One advantage real estate professionals have over aggregation sites can be leveraged by demonstrating their knowledge of local markets.

What business problem does the One-Click Real Estate Search Feature solve?

Real estate professionals want to use their knowledge of their market to deliver the most appropriately customized search results for their clients. Existing generic MLS sites (sites containing all of the listing data for a particular geographic region as entered by realtors but lacking visual style or other customizations) typically do not offer this capability. Existing aggregation sites may not contain the most accurate information.

What are the business goals of the One-Click Real Estate Search Feature?

This feature was developed to help real estate professionals attract consumer attention by demonstrating the depth of their knowledge about their local markets to consumers. As with any business, efficiency is important. Use of the tool should require as little time as possible to yield the greatest benefit possible.

How does this feature work?

The feature begins by pooling data from the real estate professional’s MLS (Multiple Listing Service, a database of property information entered by realtors and maintained by an organization of realtors). This gives their site an advantage over national aggregators as MLS data is often perceived as more accurate and complete than that of aggregation sites.

After the MLS data is added to the system, a real estate professional can then enter in specific search criteria which is run against the MLS data. It is easy to create searches such as whether or not the property is suitable for equestrian use, architectural style, proximity to sports facilities and so on as well as for number of rooms or pricing or other non-specialized information.

Introductory or explanatory text can be added to the search to further demonstrate the real estate professionals knowledge about homes within the One-Click search.

The search query can be given any name which the real estate professional thinks is relevant, and then saved.

Once saved, a link to the search results is available from anywhere on the real estate professional’s web site. The search results page displays the text as well as the listings which are related to the search.

It is important to note that the creativity and knowledge expressed by the real estate professional in using local language and expressions can differentiate them from their local and regional competitors as well as national aggregation sites. It is also important to note that this language and expression is accompanied by presenting relevant information to consumers.

In list form, because I love lists:

1. Import MLS system for most accurate data (automatic from our CMS)
2. From the admin site create search filter
3. From the admin site name the search filter
4. Save and go about your day
5. Someone finds your search result page

Two examples of how this all appears on a site, for a consumer: Wright Realty’s White Mountains Ski Homes One-Click Real Estate Search and Patton Property Group’s Bring on the Horses One Click Real Estate Search.

Business results of the One Click Real Estate Search feature:

First, some qualitative results. Here is what one of the users of this feature, Sean Bossie of Wright Realty, has to say:

“The diversity of use for this tool is at first very subtle and admittedly I overlooked its true strength by the apparent simplicity of it.

The “One Click” customized real estate searches we create offer our users the online experience they want–speed in searching and clear, targeted results. If a potential client is interested in purchasing a “log home near a river in the White Mountain National Forest” we can now create that very specific targeted search–rapidly reducing the time it would take this user to dig through hundreds of listings in numerous towns in order to read the detail view and find this particular home.”

The effect of this tool is magnified when combined with existing analytics tools such as Google Analytics. Again, from Sean Bossie:

“The use of these ‘Long Tail’ custom searches now allows even small firms like ourselves to use Pareto distribution strategies that the mega-marketing companies like Amazon and Netflix do. Not only does this help us reach ALL our potential client needs but it also leverages our search engine efforts with new, increased exposure for those ‘One Click’ searches.”

I particularly like how the combination of using Google Analytics to listen can be combined with using the One-Click Real Estate Search to present the right listings.

Now for some numbers.

One way to measure the results of using the One-Click Real Estate Search feature would be to look at the number of landings the One-Click Real Estate Search generates and multiply that number by the cost for a keyword buy in the general area. This would give us a sense of the value of the real estate professional’s knowledge which is now unleashed by the feature. The metric could probably be improved or refined but should serve as a useful indicator nonetheless.

Last month, Patton Property Group received about 630 landings on pages generated via the One-Click Real Estate Search feature. The average cost of an keyword buy in the appropriate real estate market is about $3.25. It would cost about $2,040 per month to deliver the same targeted traffic via Google Adwords.

Note: These measurements do not calculate the value of pleasing a consumer who arrived on the site via another source.

The One-Click Real Estate Search Feature is available as a component of the Union Street Media Real Estate Web Design CMS.

Foreclosure Maps

Another map post.  Today it’s foreclosures, via HotPads.com.

Using the widget tools in the upper left of their map, select heat maps and then foreclosures to get a map overlay of the United State real estate foreclosure data. It takes awhile for the image to load.

4 things you can do right now to improve your website home page and why

For most sites, the home page is by far the most visited. The visitor segments are the most broad here too: random search engine traffic, sometimes advertising ends up here (though I, personally, recommend against that), sometimes a link from someone’s blog ends up going to your home page. All of these wide, varied audiences need to be directed and channeled to the place that will help them get something done.

Too often, home pages end up getting fractured and fragmented due to a lack of focus. These tips should help you get focused.

Here’s a quick list of simple things you can do to make your real estate home page more effective. To be honest, several of these tips could work for any business site with a little tweaking.

1. Have one main headline that tells users what can be done on your site. Resist the urge to use the generic “Welcome to my homepage” stuff. People aren’t on your homepage to feel welcome, they are there to accomplish a task. You can’t make them feel welcome by saying “Welcome.” You can, however, make them feel welcome by making it easier for them to accomplish their task (like buy or sell a property).
2. Have a page title (the text at the very top of the browser) that relates to your headline and contains the search term you want most. This will help in two ways: it will help your search ranking and will improve the usability of your listing in the search engine result page.
3. Include a clear call-to-action. You probably have a desired outcome for people who come to your site. Know what that outcome is and make it easy for your site visitors do what you would like them to do.
4. Include a visual and direct link to the thing you want to sell most, like a featured property listing, a page with your listings on it, a page with listings that you like to represent, whatever it is that you do best. Some of your site visitors know exactly what they are looking for and will likely skip over your offer. But other visitors will appreciate your suggestion to get them started down the path to do business with you.

What are some other things you can do to make your home page better?

keep looking »