A distinct and positive difference from 2009.
Energy on the exhibition floor. Traffic was brisk and enthusiasm abounded. I do not know the attendance comparatives from last year but there was a dramatic and upbeat change in the mood.
Cautious optimism. Last year most conversations were punctuated by gloom & doom. The conversations I participated in (or overheard) this year were filled with ‘moving forward' and accepting the changes necessary to go beyond survival to long term success.
Education sessions & workshops. I mostly attended the marketing sales tracts; 4 sessions actually. They were standing room only with top notch presentations and presenters. Much focus on the benefits, the ‘how to' and the results of effective online marketing. It was noticeable that the depth of knowledge and experience in online marketing for homebuilders and developers is starting to be more common place and more leaders are catching the wave. Unfortunately, most of the focus was on how to use online to attract leads with very little information about how to then nurture prospects through their buying cycle to close. But it was a heck of a good start in blending ‘new school' with 'old school' marketing techniques. Mike Lyon stopped me on the floor and got me on video:
Cocktail Events. Very well done and thanks much to the hosts for the invites. And Las Vegas is so much fun après the organized events. I wish IBS was in Vegas every year.
My non scientific conclusion: Confidence is building. With noticeable enthusiasm for the future of the homebuilding industry and for the professionals who make it such a great industry to serve.
How would you like to convert leads better than 97% of Homebuilders and Developers?
Lasso's first webinar of 2010 will feature acclaimed builder and developer consultant, Mike Lyon. Mike will provide an easy-to-follow roadmap to a successful Online Sales Program for New Home Builders and Developers.
Join Lasso and Mike on Thursday February 18th at 10:00am PST (1:00pm EST) and find out . . .
- The online sales formula and process for home builders and developers
- Online marketing tactics that are tailored just for home builders
- A detailed overview of the follow-up process
- How to track and measure the success of your program
- And much, much more . . .
Attend this webinar and you'll have the opportunity to win:
Learn more and register HERE.
It sure was last week on my flight scheduled to the International Business Show (IBS) in Las Vegas. The story:
- Arrive 8am at Vancouver International for a scheduled 10:05am flight to Vegas.
- While checking in the ticket agent advises of a mechanical issue and departure is delayed to 11:45am. Not a big deal; I have a couple of meetings scheduled upon arrival that I can change and there are always emails and calls to complete anyway.
- Socialize briefly with a couple of executives from leading new home builders that are also travelling to IBS. Always insightful to get market updates from insiders from the industry.
- Arrive at gate 11am. Oh, Oh! Flight's further delayed until 3:45pm due to the mechanical problem taking longer to fix; now a replacement craft has been requested.
- Many would-be passengers are upset and expressing their frustration at the gate -- loudly. I am trying to go with the flow (the crisis in Haiti helps me appreciate all the good we have).
- Fill up next 4 hours with emails, calls, checking out the 2010 Olympic store and even a 15 minute shoulder massage at Absolute Spa (first time I ever tried this service at YVR; not bad at all).
- Arrive back to gate at 3pm and looks like we are good to go at about 4pm. You can feel the anxiousness in the waiting area.
- 4pm, we are on board; I am in my seat and departure instructions just completed.
- The Westjet Airlines captain now takes the microphone and with just the right amount of self deprecating humor about the airline and the day in general he shows genuine empathy.
- Then he says that every passenger will get a full credit in the mail in about 3 weeks and explains Westjet's practice about delays beyond 2 hours that are within their control. WOW! Almost a standing ovation and the mood in the passenger cabin changes instantly! He went on to mention that Westjet's on-time results are 99% (which they publish on their website).
- Great Marketing. You bet! Great customer service (and how we respond to problems) is still the best form of marketing.
- Kudos to Westjet! I would fly with them again anytime.
- And the experience reinforced my relentless commitment to customer service at Lasso. Funny how we learn from difficult events. From my week at IBS, I think the new homebuilding industry has learned much from the difficulties of the past couple of years, too. But that is for another post.
I listened to a webinar recently where Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki were keynote panellists providing their insights for 2010. As part of the closing, they were asked to make a recommendation to the audience for 2010 . . .
- Guy quickly said ‘Never ask someone to do what you don't want to do".
- Seth challenged everyone to turn their TVs off for a week and read a couple of books. Learn.
Given it's Januar
y and it's a time when we resolve to do better, refresh our thinking or take new approaches, I thought it appropriate to develop a reading list both for myself as well as professionals for new home builders and developers who really want to learn more about online marketing. Traditional forms of marketing are costly and there is an accelerating shift to more online marketing options; which are often more effective in producing results.
So taking Seth's advice, the following is a list of books that are worth a read this year for anyone focused on marketing, sales or customer service whether its new real estate projects and developments or other consumer goods - the same principles apply.
- Linchpin: Are you Indispensable? By Seth Godin - (to be released at the end of January) - Godin shows that the key to being indispensable is overcoming the fears that hold most of us back. Seth's the most influential business blogger in the world, and consistently one of the twenty-five most widely read bloggers in any category. Anything written by him is worth a read and get's you thinking.
- The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott - How to use social media, blogs, news releases, online video, and viral marketing to reach buyers directly.
- Browsers to Buyers by Mike Lyon - Internet Marketing for Home Builders. Learn more about creating a successful measurable online sales program.
- Inbound Marketing: Getting Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs by Brian Halligan and Darmesh Shah - an actionable "how-to" guide to getting found via Google, the blogosphere, and social media sites.
- Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, Outmarketing Your Competition by Guy Kawasaki - From competition to customer service, innovation to marketing, he shows readers how to ignore fads and foolishness while sticking to commonsense practices.
- Social Media for Builders: It's Easier Than You Think by Carol Flammer - Social media expert Carol Flammer demonstrates the power of this new marketing medium through case studies and online outlet created specifically for the home building industry.
A final read is a free ebook by Seth Godin. It's entitled What Matters Now. It's a thought-provoking read and worth the time.
January 1st marked not only the start of a new year and new a decade. It also marked Lasso's official five-year anniversary; the launch of Lasso CRM across North America. I say official because we had been doing R&D and test marketing regionally for a couple of years prior. Wow, five years has flown by - it seems like just yesterday we launched.
As I look back and reflect on the triumphs and challenges that we have encountered I'm extremely proud of three things:
- The market acceptance of our CRM for real estate across the globe. Builders and developers across the USA, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Europe and GCC have all embraced our solutions and helped us get better along the way.
- The people we serve across the industry are terrific. By far our biggest source of new business are referrals from existing clients; sales agents, marketing, managers, and executives.
- The commitment and passion of our employees. The last year or so has not been an easy one for the real estate industry and I love being a part of such a great group of talented, positive and down-to-earth people.
Looking forward, 2010 is going to be an exciting year for Lasso on a number of levels. As a business headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, we are excited to be "hosting the world" in a few weeks when the Winter Olympic games begin in February --- our love of hockey and beer is a perfect fit for the upcoming Olympic experience. We are also excited about the opportunities that lay ahead this year in real estate project marketing, sales and customer service. As much of the world begins to recover from recession and the housing crisis, Lasso is well-positioned to become the CRM real estate software of choice for new home builders and developers of all sizes - we just need to make sure we are relentless in innovation, client service and making it easy to do business with us.
Over the past few years Lasso has accomplished a lot. Here are some interesting Lasso tidbits:
- Over 1,000 real estate projects implemented
- Projects in over 35 countries - as nearby as a few blocks from our Vancouver office and as far away as Dubai, Montenegro, and Jamaica
- Accessed by users from over 50 countries every month, 7x24
- Smallest project - 6 waterfront lots
- Largest project - over 20,000 homes
- $ Billions in inventory sold through Lasso
- Millions of emails sent every month on behalf of our clients
- 250 software features & enhancements in 2009 alone
Statistics aside, my personal goal as CEO is that you, our clients, will think of us as a great customer service company rather than as a software company in the year(s) to come and that we really do help you turn prospects into purchasers!
I look forward to the challenges and opportunities that the next five years will bring to Lasso.
Happy New Year!
Recently, the Lasso team got together with B3 Communications to have an "in-house" Christmas party. Fun was had by all and we even had a special guest make a surprise visit (oddly enough, there are no pictures of Dave Betcher . . . hmmmm, where was he?)
Santa brought along some holiday cheer and a fun gift for everyone.
We are pleased that each member of our team made contributions to the local food bank with Lasso equally matching the donations - a small way we can help those who are less fortunate at this special time of the year.
Happy holidays to all! We look forward to a great year in 2010!
Note: For real estate sales and marketing professionals looking for a way to create similar videos - check out www.photoshow.com. They make it easy for you to create great-looking memorable videos.
We often get asked the question - which day of the week is best to send out mass email? Not an easy question to answer as it's really dependent on the type of email addresses in your database.
- Are they business emails or are they personal emails?
- Are you sending to realtors and brokers or are you sending to prospects and leads?
- Are you looking for a call to action?
- Is it a time sensitive event, such as an open house or VIP event on the weekend?
Regardless of the size of your database it requires some testing to see what works best for you. The day of the week is important, but the time of the day that you send should also be part of your strategy as often this can be more important than the day sent!
At Lasso, we recently did some testing and got some great results - one of the highest open rates for a mass mail. Following was the scenario . . .
It was time to send out our quarterly company newsletter - New Developments. The average open rate for the real estate industry is about 20% - anything over that is considered good, but we wanted to see if we could do better. Our database of clients, as you would expect, is home builders, developers, and real estate sales and marketing professionals. In the past, we've typically sent out emails mid-morning. This month, we decided to see what kind of results we would get by sending between 3:00pm and 3:30pm. A time, when for some, much of their work for the day is done and they may be looking for a quick break from work. We thought that maybe the recipients of our email have a little more time to open and read email at this time of the day. The result - a 35% open rate! Will we always see this kind of result? Maybe not, but the point is, don't be shy to try something different, and continually try to do better.
There's no question there are some basic email best practices that you can follow to improve open rates - a creative subject line, consideration given to who sends the email, a good balance of images, etc. - but there are other factors - day of the week, and the time of day. If you have a weekend event happening, Friday night may not be the best time to communicate this - but Thursday afternoon with a reminder on Saturday morning, may work. It's a common thought that it's ineffective to send email from about 10:00pm through to 9:00am. Mid-morning during the work week is not a great time either - most people are more focused on work-related activities than personal email. The late afternoon into the early evening may be the best time for business-to-consumer emails.
Think about when you open emails, or think of when you don't open them, and why. Don't be satisfied with average open rates, challenge yourself to see if you can do better . . . I bet you can!
The blog post from Seth Godin. . . Shocking Tiger Woods Video. . . really illustrates a great point.
Part of the content of his post is:
Is it better to get a click and then annoy someone, or better to only reach the people who care?
The mindset of the brazen copywriter is, "well, even if only 1% of the people I trick are actually interested in the content, that's worthwhile. After all, there are a lot of people out there, and offending 99 to get one one sale is good math."
The word I use for people like this is 'spammer'.
The mindset of the modern marketer is, "I can build a reputation in everything I do. If I teach people to trust me, then over time, I'll conserve their attention and build permission. That's priceless, particularly in a world that's getting more skeptical by the minute."
Over the past couple of years we are seeing a gradual and very definitely a positive shift to more and more new home builders wanting to go the ‘permission' based marketing route that builds a trusted relationship versus ad hoc mass emails and communications approach that basically says ‘let's toss it against the wall and see what sticks'.
We are here to help builders that are on the journey --- helping to equip you to capture every lead then target, nurture, communicate and close more deals with your prospects. Permission and nurturing also has a better chance of creating long-term loyal homebuyer to builder relationships.
A Vancouver Real Estate Blog recently posted an interesting video showing how IKEA used facebook (successfully) and created an engaged and interested following.
Updated Comment: The link below has been removed. To watch the video created by Forsman & Bodenfors, go to YouTube or register and view online at www.creativityonline.com.
The question was posed - think Real Estate Project Marketing - how could home builders and developers use the same concept and see success?
- Do you see people tagging themselves in pictures of show homes and display centers? Telling you what they like best about the project. Which display suite suits their style? All their facebook friends would see the picture (of your project).
- Do you run a contest to let everyone who tags themselves in pictures have the opportunity to win something? (again, everyone in these people's circle of friends will see the pictures and learn of the contest). Imagine the traffic that could generate to your sales center!
Maybe you can think of other ways this can be successful. The point is traditional ways to market real estate projects may not be as effective today as they were in the past. Thinking social, thinking viral and thinking outside the box is important for success.
I showed this video to a friend who has not jumped on the social media band-wagon and has dug his heels in a bit when it comes to facebook - his first response when I asked him about the application to real estate was these people probably wouldn't necessarily be considered a target for the real estate project. Good point, but maybe one of the 130 friends that many of these facebook gurus have will be interested . . . it goes viral, there is no better way to spread the word.
What is the risk? There is risk, there always is, but if you plan it out and consider your options, you can minimize it and really have some fun. You may be surprised - this approach to marketing may just bring you a great ROI.
And, just to provide a little more ammunition for coming up with a facebook strategy - the fastest growing demographic group on facebook is the over 35 group!
Let us know what you think.
Guy Kawasaki writes one of the most popular blogs in the world and is a leader in social media and online marketing. He has written several books, his latest Reality Check - The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition. (It's worth checking out.)
In a p
ost earlier this year on the Business know-how blog, Janet Attard wrote about Guy's 10 tips for using Twitter. Guy is a huge fan of using Twitter to help spread the word about your business and to help potential evangelists find you.
As many existing new homes builders and developers have already discovered, Twitter is a fantastic way to provide updates and information about new homes projects and communities. As 2009 comes to an end and we begin a new year, your social media marketing strategy should be an important component to your 2010 plan and it may be time to take Twitter to the next level within your company. Check out Guy's tips below:
- Defocus. Don't ignore the A-listers, but don't focus all your attention on getting them to pay attention to you, either. The important thing is "who loves your site" and becomes an evangelist.Twitter is a numbers game, and you need to have lots of followers. You want as many people as possible to find and follow you so they can "send the message up."
- Automatically follow everyone who follows you on Twitter. "I think it's arrogant," Kawasaki said, "if you think you are worth following but don't think the people following you are worth following."
- Have a goal for using Twitter and a way to measure how you're doing at achieving that goal. He suggested one good tool for doing that is Retweetist, which shows how many times you've been retweeted. (A retweet is when someone repeats what you said so people they know will see it.)
- Make interesting tweets. Like most other things on the Web, one way to get people to love you is to post information they want to know about.
- Monitor what people are saying about you. You can monitor the tweets about you by searching for your ID, company name, industry segment and by watching @ replies.
- Save time with various social marketing productivity tools. One such tool Kawasaki mentioned is Adjix, which is a Firefox plug that makes it easy to post to Twitter from any place on the Web, and also shows how many times people clicked on your links. Others include Tweetdeck and Twhirl, which both provide ways for individuals to monitor Twitter, and CoTweet, which is a tool for companies that need to coordinate multiple people using Twitter (for instance a support team).
- Copy best practices. On Twitter that means looking at how other companies are effectively using Twitter to engage with their customers and build buzz. JetBlue Airways and Amazondeals were two good examples of Twitter use he mentioned.
- Be willing to "squeeze the trigger" on Twitter. One way of doing that -- one that is somewhat controversial, he suggested -- is to set up searches for things you'd like to get known for, and then automatically tweet a response when that search term comes up in a tweet. The tool he likes for doing that is TwitterHawk, which not only generates the automatic response, it also remembers who the response was sent to so you don't keep spamming them with the same response whenever they mention the topic again.
- Make it easy to share. Add a Share on Twitter button to your Website.
- Be willing to take the heat if you use Twitter as a tool. People will say you are a spammer, that you aren't using it right. And for that, Kawasaki has invented a new acronym: UFM. It stands for UnFollow Me. If you don't like what he is tweeting, he says, just UFM.