Lasso's Real Estate Technology Blog

Reading List for Every New Home Builder and Developer

 Email Article |  Twitter |  Facebook |  digg it |   delicious |   StumbleUpon |   LinkedIn |   Technorati |  reddit 

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 January 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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Browsers to Buyers by Mike Lyon - Internet Marketing for Home Builders. Learn more about creating a successful measurable online sales program.
4. 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.
5. 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.
   
6. 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.

Trusted Reputation or Headlines? Which is Better for New Home Builders?

 Email Article |  Twitter |  Facebook |  digg it |   delicious |   StumbleUpon |   LinkedIn |   Technorati |  reddit 

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.

Good vs Bad Email

 Email Article |  Twitter |  Facebook |  digg it |   delicious |   StumbleUpon |   LinkedIn |   Technorati |  reddit 

There's definitely a difference between the two - we have all received good engaging, relevant email and we've all received the bad email with little or no relevance. The good email we read and the bad email we either unsubscribe (possibly) or mark as junk (likely).

Seth Godin, one of our favourite marketing professionals, recently posted an article to his blog about email campaigns and permission email marketing. We think his views are spot on.

He refers to receiving great, relevant email that he has signed up to receive and anticipates receiving. Alternatively, he receives email on a daily basis from companies that he's never done business with personally or professionally - there's no connection.

Sending email to non-subscribed people does not build brand, it does the opposite. Earning permission is a long-term, profitable scalable strategy that pays for itself.

For the complete post, visit Seth's blog - Email campaign case studies (one good, one bad)