- Posted by craig on June 12, 2009
We’re all familiar with the old adage “desperate times require desperate measures.” We’ve been hearing more of that these days on account of the slow economy.
Whether or not you agree that the times in which we live are indeed desperate, there is consensus about the need for businesses to increase efficiency as a matter of survival. Some have resorted to desperate measures such as layoffs. Fortunately for the real estate community at large, the digital age provides many low- or no-cost measures that together with a web marketing plan allow you to market your services to a wide audience and remain competitive. Best of all, these measures are not desperate and, in fact, are easy to implement. The first step to doing so effectively, however, is to re-examine your business from the consumer’s perspective. Let me know if you are interested in my free program "5 minutes a 60 days to a successful Web Presence".
- Posted by craig on June 1, 2009
For many generations we have grown accustomed to the steady, incremental flow of new technology and information. Today, things have dramatically changed and will continue to change, the way we live, work and Play. "Did You Know," a five-minute slide show.
Some facts and figures might surprise you; some might excite you; others might give you pause. Though we might need to account for the possibility of outdated information in the video—(it was made way back in 2007)—the video does an effective job of conveying the speed with which our world evolves. It does not mention Facebook because 2 years ago it was too new. This really drives home the speed of change.
Consider this factoid: "Four of the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 … did not exist in 2004."
Or how about this: "The amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that … half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study."
And consider how long it took various technologies and tools to reach a market audience of 50 million:
- Radio, 38 years
- Television, 13 years
- Internet, four years
- iPod, three years
- Facebook, two years
The Real Estate business is living in exponential times TOO! What is your Web Marketing Strategy?
- Posted by Admin on May 19, 2009
AgentExcel.com Debuts New Product
Line 
Missoula, Mt. - AgentExcel has launched its new line of website products
focused on helping real estate agents through the tumultuous market conditions
by offering affordable web marketing solutions that meet and exceed their
market specific needs. Rather than rely on older technology, the new
version was created from the ground up on Microsoft’s new ASP .NET Model View
Controller application framework. By developing a fully XHTML/CSS
compliant content management system (CMS) they have not only launched a new
real estate product but have changed the landscape of the CMS market as well.
The ASP .NET MVC framework was
just released by Microsoft last month and aids in this product being the most
search engine friendly solution available to real estate agents today.
With the new product line, real estate agents will be able
to have a website that is created to match their specific branding and this
website will give them the real estate tools to assist their clients with the
buying and selling of properties.
Some of the latest innovative features will give real estate
agents the ability to syndicate their listings to real estate portal sites such
as Zillow, Trulia, Yahoo! Real Estate, Oodle, eBay, Craigslist and many
more. This syndication will give our customers an advantage over their
competition due to the fact that in today’s market over 85% of real estate
sales begin with a web search.
With the launch of AgentExcel’s new product line, they are
offering a contest for real estate agents. This winner of this contest
will win a complete custom website makeover and one year of free hosting a
value of $3,000.
About AgentExcel
AgentExcel is the flagship product line from Adaptyne Technologies that provides
marketing solutions to real estate professionals including MLS data enabled
dynamic web sites. We currently support hundreds of customers all over
the United States.
Adaptyne Technologies is a privately owned corporation that
exists to meet our customer’s specific needs by bringing targeted solutions to
the marketplace using an application service provider framework. Adaptyne
was founded in 2005. Our headquarters and state of the art data center
are located in Missoula, Montana.
Media Contact:
Craig Moore – VP of Sales & Marketing
888.311.8882
media@agentexcel.com
www.agentexcel.com
####
- Posted by craig on May 15, 2009
There are many effective tools that can spread the word about your website available. Pay-per-click advertising with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, and other Social Media Networks are great tools to reach a focus demographic. These are pieces in Internet Marketing Puzzle maze. Ideally you would devote your time and money to all of them, all of the time, but for many this is not realistic. Every Realtor® needs an Internet Marketing Strategy. A Internet Marketing plan that determines which of these tools to use, when and how to use them, and where and when to deploy your valuable resources, time and money. AgentExcel will look at your business and whether you are a multi-million dollar producer or just starting out, we can provide you with an Internet Marketing Strategy that will focus on your strength and give you the greatest return on your marketing dollars and get you more business. Contact us today to learn how to get more business from the internet!
- Posted by craig on April 23, 2009
A common problem among real estate agents and their marketing attempts are that they hear about different marketing strategies from a medley of sources and then they try to implement them all into their overall advertising campaign. As with houses, colors are very important , you may have heard that colors Blue & Brown elicits trust & honesty, Red encourages feelings of wealth, luck and confidence, whereas too much blue can encourage feelings that discourage action and Red can create feelings of danger. You may have heard that a good site needs Flash or Java and that you need a blog. What ends up happening is that your message gets lost in the translation; it is like writing a book, one chapter at a time but in a random order.
Buyers and Sellers won’t remember agents that go are one of the crowd. When you decide on a focused marketing campaign or theme for you, it’s important that you maintain a high level of consistency across the entire campaign. Everything associated with your business should have a common theme or feeling to it. When you look at marketing for IBM, the color blue always features prominently and the same is true for Starbuck’s green theme.
Be consistent not only in the look and style of your various marketing materials, but also in your ad message. What is it about you that you want to emphasize? What is it that you want people to know about you and your offerings? This consistency should be maintained across everything: business cards, letterhead, envelopes, website, email, print and newspaper ads.
By being as consistent as possible, you will have a much better chance at establishing your brand in the marketplace. Can you imagine how memorable McDonalds would be if every restaurant had a different color scheme or if certain Nike advertisements lacked the swoosh altogether?
- Posted by craig on April 21, 2009
What makes a website credible?
I just reread this article from http://captology.stanford.edu/pdf/p61-fogg.pdf and found several truths that stand up.
I found interesting that people were also finding websites more credible if they were more user friendly and if it noted that they had been a previous visitor. Does this make a website credible? You only have to look at something like Craigslist, ebay or Amazon - they recognize you individual.
Definitely, we can agree that commercial advertisements and amateurism are a definite website turn off. Although, I was surprised to see that their research noted that the younger respondents were more critical of glitches and typos.
I was impressed by the overall conclusion that there are many perceptions that the different demographic groups shared when it came to credibility. Real Estate agents must be cognizant of these facts primarily because to be successful they must reach an ever widening demographic.
- Posted by craig on April 16, 2009
Is your site CredibleBy Craig Moore
Is your goal as a real estate agent primarily focused on helping your clients find or sell property? If so, you likely want to gain your clients' trust so that you will be chosen for their continued and referral business. 
Conveying credibility through a Website is a challenge we all face, but real estate professionals are a unique case. They must convince potential clients of their credibility, experience and professionalism to such a degree that people they have never met are eager to contact them about what is likely to be one of their biggest transactions of their life.
A bio or resume can alleviate the lack of connection and increase the integrity of your site. A factual presentation of your experience can add valuable credibility to your online presentation. After all, the more credible your site, the more likely your prospects are to make contact with you.
A bio is most appropriate when incorporated into Website content, proposals, business plans, portfolios and press kits. As a bio is an important tool for presenting details about your business or yourself.
The First 10 Seconds!
The first few seconds of your online presentation are the most critical. You are attempting to convince viewers that you have what they want, so convey your expertise proudly. Ideally, your presentation should be no longer than a page, but in today's market, a one-page resume might suggest that you do not have enough experience. On the other hand, you do not want your bio or resume being boring or too long, Striking a balance is the key.
Should You Get Help?
Writing about ourselves can be a daunting task, as it can seem self-promotional or arrogant. However, there is a way to express yourself honestly without appearing arrogant or conceited: tell the truth. When information is conveyed honestly, it never appears smug. If you find it difficult to write about yourself, consider having a professional prepare your presentation. It is often much easier for an outsider to be objective about your experience, and to present it in the best light.
- Posted by craig on April 12, 2009
When real estate professionals are examining marketing budgets and trying to make wise spending decisions, it's really a slam-dunk to consider a trade of one ad's cost for a year of exposure.
That's about what you can do by canceling one print ad that costs $300 or more and starting an effective online marketing program for your real estate business. Forget the things that scare you. Think of the changes you have seen in the last ten years: myspace, facebook and iPod. These high tech items or services didn't exsist ten years ago.
You can do it. It will work, and you will be able to build a huge business from your web presence using our tools.
- Posted by craig on April 8, 2009
- Posted by craig on April 5, 2009
You have thirty seconds to tell me why your website matters, and what it can offer me. GO!
Did you panic? It’s a simple enough request, but did you manage to simplify everything down to half a minute? That is the idea behind the elevator pitch.
What is an elevator pitch?
It’s a simple explanation of who you are, what you do, what you are selling or why you matter. The bottom line is that you have to be able to pitch yourself in the time the average elevator takes to travel from lobby to top floor, or in today’s world, the time between the answering machines first beep and the last. The short and sweet pitch.
This is just as important for your website as it is for your business. If you can describe the key points in under thirty seconds, you’ll end up using it many more times than you’d expect.
Visitors = Customers
In today’s real estate business, visitors are the currency of any successful website. What pulls them into your site in particular? What does your site say about you? What does your site actually provide? What can you expect the average visitor to get out of it?
AgentExcel has a very simple elevator pitch:
AgentExcel is a web design, development and branding business. We focus on providing real estate professionals of all levels with the tools to attract more clients and keep those clients. With our tools, not only do we build, design and maintain your site, we get you noticed.
The elevator pitch is a much more personalized form of marketing. You connect to an individual, and show them why you are beneficial to their needs.