Category: For Retirement Village Operators

Posts and information on developming and managing retirement / aged care villages.

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Why salespeople hate CRM? (& our solution!)

Why is it that salespeople generally dislike and do not use CRM software implemented by the Company that they work for?

After all as commission based salespeople don’t they stand to benefit from the primary reason CRM exists – to improve sales!

To start with you might even question this proposition. Perhaps in your organisation your salespeople do use your CRM. That is great if they do, but let me assure you that in most organisations with CRM software, the greatest problem with true implementation is getting salespeople to adopt and use the software. Over the 20 years that we have been building and implementing CRM software in the property industry, this has been and continues to be the single most difficult issue.

In the property industry we can charactarise a number of reasons that management elect to implement CRM software. We believe they are:

– improve sales

– improve systemisation

– provide better data clarity

– reduce costs

– reduce risk

I will go through each in turn:

1. Improve Sales. This is the most obvious reason and ostensibly the primary reason for putting in a CRM. “Lets capture every lead, put in sales source automation, coupled with fully integrated database marketing, and lets see our sales rates improve”.

2. Improve systemisation. In the property industry this includes everything from capturing leads, then implementing systematic database marketing, price list management, contract administration, financial reporting and so on. The implementation of a system to manage this entire process is a compelling reason to implement a CRM.

3. Provide better data clarity. A CRM should provide clear and realtime data on everything from leads, to live price lists, contract status, financial exposure and so on. All critical information to be a successful property business.

4. Reduce Costs. This is really a by-product of Point 2 – Improve Systemisation. Through implementing a CRM successfully, you should be able to reduce operational costs in your business.

5. Reduce Risk. This is not raised as often as it should be as a reason to implement a CRM. By centralising your company data into a single ‘silo’ you will eliminate significant risk in that data walking out the door, being lost and generally misused. Data is becoming an increasingly valuable asset to all property businesses, and a CRM should be an essential tool for collating and securing that data. Through systemisation of your business CRM will also reduce a businesses reliance on specific personnel, reducing the impact on any one or multiple employee’s leaving.

Quality CRM software is now generally good at delivering on the last 4 of these points. Industry specific software such as our foxEnterpriseCRM, are particularly powerful at Point 2 through many years of continuous optimisation to meet the specific needs of property developers, project marketers, investment groups and so on.

Point 1 – improving sales is however still a significant challenge for almost every CRM implementation I have seen. Why you might ask? The answer is simple. If you salespeople do not systematically use your CRM software, your sales pipeline has failed at the very point where it starts. If your salespeople are not entering new leads, are not updating leads as and when they communicate with them, if they are not following your automated activity plans, and not even accessing live price lists and other essential sales information via the CRM, then your attempt to improve sales through improved conversion rates, cross selling, database marketing or other techniques will fail…. or at the very least will struggle.

So we come back to the question at hand: Why do salespeople hate CRM? I will pose this in another way. What do salespeople want in a CRM? In our view it is the following:

1. Software that is easy to use.

2. Software that helps them perform their sales or admin tasks more easily.

3. Software that gives them the essential sales information they need (live price lists, sales kits, floor plans, fly throughs etc)

4. Software that is available to use no matter where they are

I have included below a screen grab of Salesforce, reputably the most popular CRM in the world.

The No 1 reason salespeople do not use CRM software is complexity. CRM software is just too complicated and confusing to use. When looking at this Salesforce screen grab there is nothing ostensibly easy about reading and certainly entering this data. Lots of of fields, lots of categories, lots of buttons. If you use the toolbar and start going into Accounts, then Opportunities and so on it just gets worse and worse.  If this software was developed and implement for salespeople, as every CRM vendor purports, just why has it ended up being so complex and difficult to use!

I am not just picking on Salesforce here. The is no CRM software that is as powerful and as full of features as our own foxEnterpriseCRM. For 20 years we have been customising and improving it with feature after feature to meet the specific needs of the property industry. The answer as to why foxEnterpriseCRM and other CRM software is just so complex can be found on my earlier points on why CRM software is implemented in the first place. As pointed out earlier CRM software is expected to do a lot more than just help salespeople make sales. Points 2 through to Pt 5 above all have nothing to do with salespeople and helping them make more sales. Each of them are fundamentally important reasons to implement a CRM however, so we can not say that a CRM should be developed solely for the needs of a salesperson. Marketing Departments, Contract Administration teams, Customer Service and Handover teams, Management and so on all have detailed requirements, and the CRM software has to meet all of them. By virtue of this, the CRM inevitably and inexorably morphs into a complicated beast that salespeople will simply not use.

If you have read this far then you are desperate to know the solution (or are a competitor of ours!). So I will let you out of your misery. The answer is you need 2 CRM’s. One for your salespeople, and one for your admin team!

One that gives your salespeople exactly what they want and need, and another that gives your administration staff exactly what they want and need. We think this is a revolutionary idea and is going to change forever how people think of CRM software. We are calling it CRM V2

One size does not fit all. One CRM does not work for all! Your current CRM almost certainly does not work for your sales team. So we have developed and launched a new CRM that runs side by side with foxEnterprise CRM – its called SalesCRM and as the name suggests it is made exclusively for salespeople. It is easy to use, beautiful, fast, available on every device and did I say simple to use! And it works.

Your salespeople will love it, and your management team will love foxEnterprise. Two CRM’s, working as one representing a whole new approach a successful CRM implementation.

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How will Google’s Latest Search Changes Affect You?

SO WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING?

As of April 21st 2015 Google changed its search algorithms to favour websites that are ‘mobile friendly’. This means that mobile optimised websites will begin to rank better in searches than those that are not.

WHY IS IT CHANGING?

This change by Google is a response to the changing way in which users are increasingly searching for content via smartphones and tablets. It is a move to improve the user experience and ensure users are directed to mobile-friendly sites as a preference when searching for content on Google.

WHAT ABOUT MY WEBSITE?

If your website doesn’t have a responsive design or mobile specific site it is likely that your search rankings will suffer. This can send your website tumbling down Google’s search results and potentially cost you deals.

BRIGHTFOX IS HERE TO HELP…

Although this change has already taken effect there is still time for businesses to act. Google can recognise newly optimised sites quickly and will revise your search ranking accordingly. Contact Brightfox now and ensure your website is ‘mobile friendly’ and you’re not losing sales as a result!
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Why bother with video and what’s with all the fuss?

 

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Videos have always been a powerful tool when marketing property as they allow us to get potential buyer’s attention and help share the ‘story’ of a project or individual property in a truly engaging way. One of the greatest limitations of email design has been the inability to incorporate embedded videos into your emails like you would in a website or other interactive media. But times are a changing and Video support in HTML email is quickly becoming the hottest topic in email marketing circles.

For those who have been working with direct email campaigns for a number of years you may recall that there was  a time many many many years ago that most desktop and web-based email software supported video in email. But with online security tightening and spam becoming a bigger problem, the belt was tightened and video support in email became a thing of the past. 

With the release of HTML5, it may all be possible again. One clever project has surfaced that uses the <video> tag for browsers that support it and for those don’t support it provides a fall back to the traditional option of a cleverly designed image linked to your video on a hosting platform such as YouTube or Vimeo.

So why should you consider incorporate video into your email content strategy?

According to a recent survey by the Web Video Marketing Council, a whopping 88% of marketers who included video in their email marketing reported a positive impact from recipients. With the rise in popularity of mobile devices, such as Apple iPhones & iPads, which provide the perfect platform for HTML5 and embedded video playback you have the opportunity to put your content rich visualisations directly into the hands of your customers. This direct compatibility is also true for Apple Mail, which is also excellent news for your desktop readers. Gmail and Hotmail users, can also view an inbox-playable preview if linked to a video hosted on YouTube.

Is there a downside to incorporating video into my emails and how do I overcome it?

The downside is that adding URLs as text can trip off phishing warnings in some email clients, so this should be applied with care. For browsers and desktop email software (such as Outlook) that does not support embedded video it is possible to include a fall back image, which will display if HTML5 is not supported. Being able to reliably provide a fall back image is absolutely imperative to ensure that all recipients are able to receive the most relevant content available to them

Our Recommendation?

Our recommendation is that you should do some market research and explore your options before deciding if it’s worthwhile incorporating video as a standard into your emails. Utilising a product like the foxMessenger platform provided  by Brightfox will allow you to run your tests and review the report statistics of your send(s) to determine if you’ve had a better uptake from your customer base.

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The Modern Real Estate Display Suite

The property industry knows how to spend a lot of money on marketing! That is a simple fact. As an organisation that has done business in Dubai and the Middle East for many years, I will never forget the excesses of the marketing undertaken by Developers promoting projects in the Middle East. This was most fully demonstrated at the wonderful exhibition – Cityscape Dubai. Here is a link to a walk through video of some of the models that were built for Cityscape Dubai in 2007. I think it would be fair to say that millions of dollars was spent on models alone.

I would argue that models, and this kind of excess, has to be confined to the pages of history. In the modern world of reduced budgets, mobile customers and international markets, physical models such as these just do not cut it. Why? Here are a few reasons:

– 1. Deadlines. When was the last time a physical model was supplied on time? Almost never. The process simply is extremely time consuming and inevitably something that must be completed by a small number of staff with the suitable skills. This makes delivery painfully slow.

– 2. Cost. Physical models, for all of the reasons mentioned above, are expensive.

– 3. Physical constraints. It is very difficult to simply bundle up your physical model and throw it on a plane to Hong Kong, or Milan or anywhere for that matter. Worse still it will often turn up damaged. Physical models simply are very difficult to move.

– 4. Evolution. We all know about DA changes, extra levels being added, masterplan changes and so on. If any of this occurs, your physical model is pretty much a throw away.

And yet a model provides some fundamentally important information to a prospect. When selling property off the plan, there is no doubt that visualisation of the final product is a huge advantage in selling a quality product. The majority of us are more visual learners (up to 65%) as opposed to auditory and kinaesthetic learners – so we love to look at things and learn more by doing so.

So the question is how do we overcome the limitations of a physical model, and yet deliver a sales medium that educates (sells!) to our prospects? We believe that interactive touchscreen models are the answer.

Let me be clear that I don’t necessarily mean a physical 60″ touchscreen. This technology will work as equally as well on a tablet, however when it comes to visualisation, big is better. If you need convincing check out that Cityscape Dubai video again.

With the evolution of technology over the past 5 years, touchscreen can now deliver a fantastic representation of a property development, delivering many of the same benefits of a physical model, and also adding in a few new ones. With the rapid reduction of the cost of TV’s and the rapid increase in their physical size, large scale touchscreens really have come into their own. It is now very affordable to have one or even two large touchscreens in even a smaller project’s display suite – and certainly affordable enough to have a touchscreen at seminars and exhibitions. With the inherent ease to setup and install the underlying program, it really is realistic to say that a touchscreen solution can be deployed at all significant events – notwithstanding the physical location. This in itself opens up a whole new world in the way that Developers and Project Marketers can run Seminars and Exhibitions, and of course set up a Display Suites.

So to summarise the benefits:

1. Mobility. A touchscreen solution can be easily deployed to multiple locations. We have clients that have touchscreen solutions in their display suites, the corporate head office, take it to local and international seminars and even place them in the offices of key stakeholders and business introducers.

2. Adaptability. Making a change to a touchscreen solution is possible, and far easier than a physical model. We recently had a client who added a further 2 levels to a building. Not an insignificant amount of work to change the touchscreen solution, but it was possible without having to start again.

3. Cost. Cost of touchscreen solutions in my experience is generally lower than building physical models. This price differential increases as the size and complexity of the project increases. In other words touchscreens become proportionally less expensive for larger projects/buildings.

4.  Faster to produce. It is a simple fact that the production of physical models is a bit of a specialist art. Whilst quality IT people may be relatively hard to find, they are certainly more abundant than quality model builders. This makes production easier and inevitably faster. Deadlines are therefore far easier to hit.

5. New Features. With a touchscreen we can introduce a whole heap of new features that can enrich the experience in a way a model simply can not. Live availability for one is a fantastically powerful way to get a prospect deeply involved in exploring the project, and progressing down the sales track. Interactive location maps, travel times, floorplans and more all add to these multi-layered ‘exploratory’ process.

6. VAK’s learning. As I touched on above, most people learn primarily through a visual process. However auditory and kinaesthetic learning are all used as well to differing degrees and are the primary learning styles of a significant % of people. A touchscreen solution stimulates all of these learning styles – kinaesthetic through the physical touch exploration process, and of course audio by taking advantage of the speakers in the device. A well constructed touchscreen solution can therefore extend the learning process and lead to a far deeper level of interaction with the prospect than physical models can.

To have a quick look at some of the touchscreen solutions that we have been developing  click here. If you are interested in implementing a new and more innovative ‘model solution’ for the launch of your next project, we would love to talk to you.

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HTML5 in mobile and web development

You may or may not have heard the term ‘HTML 5’ used lately when discussing the future of web development and in particular the future of mobile web development. So what is HTML 5? HTML 5 is a browser-based programming language that can make your content more accessible and interactive. In short HTML 5 can deliver app-like usability and mobile friendly delivery in a website.

Is it worth jumping on the HTML 5 band-wagon? The continued support and growth of HTML 5 is undeniable and its capabilities were clear to Apple Inc’s CEO Steve Jobs over two years ago when in April 2010 he controversially issued a public letter that concluded that Adobe Flash would no longer be necessary to watch videos or consume web content as “new open standards such as HTML 5 will win . . .” in the mobile arena. The result of this statement? Apple does not support Flash based content on any iPad or iPhone devices and when you consider that global sales of these devices are in the region of 180 million units, that’s a whole lot of users without the ability to view your content and subsequently adobe gave up the fight and ceased development of mobile versions of flash.

With improved support for offline data storage, advanced form development and API support for complex web applications HTML 5 is clearly becoming the favoured path to follow, particularly for companies looking to avoid the increased development time & cost to publish multiple platform specific applications. Brands such as Ford, The Financial Times and Vimeo have paved the way, utilising the power of HTML 5 to develop their web based ‘apps’. According to the Burrows Communications Agency who developed the ‘Ford Showroom’ application it’s all about cross platform integration and “The cost savings of not developing twice (for multiple platforms) can add up to the hundreds of thousands . . .”

Here at Brightfox we’ve been busy building HTML5 websites (stay tuned and check out our revamped website due for release in a little over a month) and web apps for the property development industry. A new product that we have recently launched is a powerful multimedia sales tool developed for use on Tablets, and in particular for the IPAD. Combining the power of our live agent portal sales tools and our interactive display suite touch-screen solutions, we have developed a sales and presentation tool that not only allows our clients to interactively present their product to potential purchasers but also seamlessly roll their presentation into a sale utilising one dynamic tool. Stay tuned for more on this product!

Click Here to be taken to an interesting infographic about HTML 5 hosted by mycustomer.com

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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Impeccable Customer Service!

Not long ago we talked about the importance of implementing CRM systems. As a winner in your industry, I hope you critically analysed your own processes and the available products out there and took immediate action.

This week we will be following up on the topic and adding to it, just like a builder will add the walls on top of a solid foundation for a multi-storey building.

 Let’s take two stories as an example:

1. Buying a Luxury Car – When you go to test drive a luxury car, let’s say a Jaguar or something similar, a good salesperson will be asking questions to get to know you; to get an understanding of who you are, what you like and more importantly what you don’t like, so that he / she can utilise this knowledge to persuade you to buy that expensive but lovely car. One sales agent I know of asks the question: What kind of music / artists do you like? When you do purchase the vehicle and return to the dealership to pick-up your new car, a stack of cd’s with all your favorite music is waiting for you!

2. Le Meridien Hotels – one of the well known, luxury hotel chains, has a unique service to ensure their clients always return to their hotels, anywhere they go in the world. So how do they get their clients to be so loyal? When you first go to one of their hotels they ask you a bunch of questions, silly things like what kind of pillows do you and your partner like (feather, downe, etc), how you like your eggs, do you like orange juice or apple juice, how do you take your coffee, etc. Silly questions right? Well, should you choose to stay with Le Meridien again, no matter where in the world you stay, when you walk into your room you will have your favourite pillow on the bed and when you wake up, your breakfast in bed will consist of your eggs prepared the way you like them, alongside your preferred morning drink, etc.!

Now the simple question you may ask, as a fellow salesperson, is how in the world did they know all this information and remember it? I can’t even remember a person’s name, let alone his / her partners name or where they work, let alone their kids’ names!

Well let me tell you that this is where the best salesperson leaves the rest trailing behind.

Just imagine, you maintain as much information about your prospective buyer or seller and even if they don’t do business with you now, you keep in touch with them (via email marketing as discussed in one of our earlier blogs) and when they do come to discuss their options with you in a year or two, you’re able to say:

“Hi Paul & Wendy! How is [insert kids names here]? Are they still at [Name of school]? Etc. And did you get my [Birthday Card /Anniversary of Purchase Letter]? . . .”

If I talked to you like that, would you feel a rapport between us? Would you like to do business with me? I hope you say yes!

How do you achieve this in your business?

Step 1: Build a strong foundation for your business with a good real estate specific CRM system.

Step 2: Capture the Data! You will need a process where you are able to capture the required information while you are on the move. This can be achieved by a paper based form which you fill out as soon as you have spoken to a prospect (buyer or seller). This information can be entered into the CRM by yourself or by your PA so as to maintain the accuracy of your CRM system.

Step 3: Implement the process. Time and again we have seen many agencies implement a fancy CRM program and even design a very good system but do not follow through. This is where your CRM supplier has to play an integral part to coach / consult with you to ensure the implementation is successfully carried out over the first 90 days. As soon as the Agency has been using the system continuously for over 90 days, it becomes second nature and the chances of falling back to the old ways of doing business will be reduced.

A Quick Brightfox Plug!

Brightfox is one of the world’s leading providers of CRM software and online marketing solutions for the property industry. We have a suite of software applications to suit individual agents, small, medium and large agencies, multi-office agencies, property developers, investment networks and retirement village developers and managers. We would welcome the opportunity to show you how we can help your busines, so please do not hesitate to contact us.

Action Plan:

• If you have not finalised a CRM system as yet, please do so. And when you are talking to your supplier, please enquire on whether they provide a consulting / coaching system to ensure successful transformation of your business processes.

• Decide on what kind of information that you would like to obtain from your prospects (buyers / sellers) and put it in a form / CRM • Start collecting information today!

• Put a plan in action for sending cards to your prospects / clients for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

As always, please let us know your feedback on this or any other idea, as your feedback helps us to continuously improve these strategies. And don’t forget to pass these insights on to your friends / colleagues and help share the success!

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Never Lose Another Client Again!

Recently we have been talking about the importance of communicating on a regular basis with your client database. The question that we want you to think about this week is, how many names do you have in your database and how often do you add to that list?

In the last 12 months how many people did you meet or talk to on the phone?  Stop and think about the approximate number.. Is it 100 or is it more like 1000 + +.

Online marketers love to talk about how the money is in the list. What do they mean LIST? It basically means the list of prospects / clients that you have in your database. So in your career as a Real Estate Agent, how many people have you meet, and are they all in your list?

We know that in most developed counties people move houses every 5 to 7 years. So if you meet me today and we talked about buying a home, then theoretically by 2016, I will do the following:

– Buy a home

– Sell my home

– Buy another home

So in theory, you could possibly be involved in up to 3 transactions with me over the next 7 years. Now that does not include

– Any investment properties that I may buy.

– Any family and friends that I may recommend to you.

So let’s say you have 1,000 people in your list, who you keep in touch with regularly with valuable information: you know what they want and they know who you are. Now let’s say that you got 10% of their business as outlined above, then your settlement list will look like this by 2016:

3 x 1000 x 10% =
300 settlements in 7 years, that’s approximately 3-4 settlements every month!


That is the foundation of a very solid and successful business.

Now the question is, do you have all these 1000 + prospective customers details and have you kept in touch with them?

If you are not already doing this, what are you going to do to get started?

There are many different ways you can maintain this list:

1.     On pieces of paper / sticky-notes !!

2.     Outlook

3.     On excel spreadsheets

4.     Generic CRM software. You may have heard of ACT, Goldmine or similar off-the-shelf software.

5.     Real Estate specific CRM software

What is CRM Software?

Definition: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a way for you to capture every lead, purchaser, seller, service provider and other contacts that you deal with on a daily basis. It then enables you to systematically communicate with all or select contacts very easily by email, phone, mail, the web or sms.

It will transform the way that you sell, increasing sales whilst lowering the cost of sale, improve customer service standards and protect your business when
key staff leave.

Action Plan:

1.  Review your current CRM / Database system

If you already have a CRM system that you are using, identify if you are using
the system to  its full capacity and if you need further training to make
better use of it, then organise that. If you can’t get it working the way
you want, you might need to consider changing software and suppliers.

If you don’t have one – identify that you want to implement Real Estate
specific CRM software. Research the software out there in the market (Choose
one that is easy to use and gives you the functionality you need. It is
important to list for yourself exactly what you want to achieve from the CRM
software and then use this to compare the various options available).

2.  Set up your existing contacts. We suggest that you focus on quality and not quantity. That is put into your database people that you have meaningful relationships with and will welcome communication from you. Don’t import old databases from prospects 10 years ago that you have never spoken with since.

3. Send out your first email to all your contacts / prospects / customers / past customers. You can use the templates you have already downloaded from our previous blogs. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the response you will get from even your first email.

As always, please let us know your feedback on this or any other idea, as your feedback helps us to continuously improve these strategies.

A Quick Brightfox Plug!

Did you know that Brightfox is one of the world’s leading providers of CRM software and online marketing solutions for the property industry. We have a suite of software applications to suit individual agents, small, medium and large agencies, multi-office agencies, property developers, investment networks and retirement village developers and managers. We would welcome the opportunity to show you how we can help your business, so please do not hesitate to contact us.

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Google Friendly Websites

Is your website a Google friendly website?
One of the most important things to consider when looking at your website is to determine how “Google friendly” it is.
If you want to rank better on Google, you need to make sure that you are “playing their game” and giving them the information they are looking for, so that they favour your website over your competitors.

Take a look through the simple tips below, and use this blog post as a checklist of tips for creating a Google-friendly site.

Make sure your site is easily accessible:

Build your site with a logical and usable menu structure. Every page should be reachable from every other page, by at least one static text link. This is normally done via the Navigation menu, but can also be achieved by adding internal links into your page content. Make sure to keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number

Also offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map has an extremely large number of links, you may want to break the site map into multiple pages. One great idea is to use a text browser, such as Lynx, to examine your site. This will show you how the search engine spiders see your site. If features such as JavaScript, frames or Flash keep you from seeing your entire site in a text browser, then spiders may have trouble crawling it & indexing it.

Give visitors the information they’re looking for:

This is probably the single most important thing to do. Make sure you provide quality content on your pages, especially your homepage.
If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract visitors and entice others to link them, thus creating a helpful, information-rich site.
You should aim to write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic. Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site, but within a natural flow of information.

Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn’t recognize text contained in images. If you must use images for textual content, consider using the “ALT” attribute to include a few words of descriptive text.

Make sure that other sites link to yours :

Links help search engine spiders find your site and can increase the ranking in search results. When returning results for a search, Google uses sophisticated text-matching techniques to display pages that are both important and relevant to each search. Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote by page A for page B. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”
Keep in mind that Google can distinguish natural links from unnatural links. (Only natural links are useful for the indexing and ranking of your site.)
Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and link to it.
Unnatural links are those placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines. Some of these types of links can be found via Link Exchange programs or on pages set-up specifically to attracts search engines (called ‘Doorway Pages’)

Things to avoid
Don’t fill your page with lists of keywords or attempt put up pages just to attract the spiders.

If your site contains pages, links, or text that you don’t intend visitors to see, Google considers those links and pages deceptive and may ignore your site.
And do not stuff words onto pages in the hopes of attracting search engines, such as has been done under the footer, on this site :  Red Pepper Realty

Don’t feel obligated to use companies that claim to “guarantee” high ranking for your site in Google’s search results. While legitimate consulting firms can improve your site’s flow and content, others employ deceptive tactics in an attempt to fool search engines. Be careful, because if your domain is affiliated with one of these deceptive services, it could be banned from Goggle’s index.

Don’t create multiple copies of a page under different web addresses. Many sites offer text-only or printer-friendly versions of pages that contain the same content as the corresponding graphic-rich pages. To ensure that your preferred page is included in our search results, you’ll need to block duplicates from our spiders using a robots.txt file.

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Places for Real Estate

If you don’t already know what Google Places is all about, it is basically Google’s attempt to provide relevant local search results to searchers based on their geographic location.

So when you search for something like “Real Estate Agent Capalaba”, Google assumes (and rightly so) that you are looking for Real Estate Agents in Capalaba.

If you do not already have your office set-up with a Google “Places” page, now is the time to do so.
Why? Well, here are three simple reasons :
•    It is free.
•    It will help people find you more easily.
•    It makes Google happy.

Why get a Google Places listing now?

Recently, Google has rolled out changes which emphasise how serious they are about the Places search and helping  users quickly finding local business results.

Places is now a search type of its own, found in the left-hand column on Google, along with other common search categories.

The current order is:

•    Everything
•    Images
•    Videos
•    Places.

What’s different about Google Pages listings?

Places Listings have far more prominence than they used to, dominating the results page.  They also provide more information than before, including an image if images were provided with the listing.
To understand the impact of this change, consider your search engine optimization efforts.  If you used to be on page one of Google for a search term that is local in nature, your business might be relegated to page two with this change.
As well, the map works differently now too.
It has been moved over to the  right-hand column above the AdWords ads and it will now scroll down the page as you do. Places is so important to Google, that the map will actually cover up those AdWords ads which are also so valuable to Google.
This says a lot about how important local business listings are to Google.

Google Places: Tips to Optimize Your Local Business Listing

  • Create a Places listing for each physical office you have.
  • Complete as much information as you can in your Places listing.
  • Make sure your business name, address and phone number is the same as you have it listed on other local listing sites.  (Google is looking for consistency)
  • Ensure you’ve listed your business in as many categories as are applicable.
  • Add links back to your main office website.
  • Add photos and videos (as appropriate)
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Tips on using Twitter for Real Estate

Have you taken the plunge & joined Twitter? Perhaps you have and you are not getting the results promised to you? Well, don’t worry – what you are experiencing is completely normal. Getting social media (including Twitter) to work for you is not an easy thing to do, so we have put together a few tips to help you.

1.    Twitter is not a competition

Do not try to get the most followers possibly in the hope that they will all be hanging off your every tweet, chomping at the bit to list or sell with you. You need to be conversational & let your follower count grow organically.

2.    Twitter is not a marketing medium.

At least not in the way you may expect it to be. It is a social medium, which means it works best when approached as a conversation.
Marketing is generally a one way conversation, where you share information about your services. Twitter needs both sharing AND listening.
Give updates and talk up your services. But also take time to respond to questions, or to join in a friendly conversation.

3.    It is not just all about your business.

When you tweet, you may be representing a brand, but you are a PERSON who is placing the tweets online. So act like a PERSON. Take the time to discuss things that are not just about your office or even industry. Share interesting stories, links or pics. They do not always need to be realestate related.

4.    Keep your re-tweets interesting & useful.

If you have found the Retweet button, then keepthe things you are repeating interesting. You could retweet local news, realestate stories or even cricket scores! Make your RT’s useful information-packed tweets for your followers. If you do, your followers will retweet them too, which helps attract new followers.

5.    Stay consistent.

If you are going to start, keep your twitter activity consistent. Don’t go crazy for a day or two, then share nothing for weeks on end.
Try to space tweets out throughout the day  or week, to reach the widest possible audience and so that your followers recall who you are.

So, give it another go, but just remember that Social media is not just a short term thing. If you want this medium to help enhance your business and create profits for you, treat it like any other business tool. Stick with it and pay attention to how you use it.