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Mobile Marketing and Real Estate Go Together Like . . .

On November 1, 2011   /   About Marketing   /   Leave a comment
How to make the perfect PB&J

How to make the perfect PB&J

Our little magazine has always been a hyper-local, mobile-enabled advertising vehicle.   We feature local homes and real estate agents and place it in targeted distribution locations all over town.  Home buyers and sellers pick it up, put it in their pocket or purse, and take it with them to search for homes, and agents in the magazine and on the websites they see featured there.

We’ve been doing this for over 30 years. This experience has been crucial in our adaption of mobile technology as part of our overall strategy.

A few things we’ve learned –

  1. Home buyers and sellers are short-term customers.   Once they’ve made the decision to buy or sell, there is a very short window of opportunity in which to engage them.
  2. A significant percentage of the 2 million unique users who go to RealEstateBook.com and NCI’s suite of sites are new every month – not repeat visitors.  High churn.  Once they’ve selected a home or a real estate agent, they typically don’t buy or sell again for another 6-7 years.
  3. Therefore, you have to be everywhere THEY SEARCH for real estate information.
  4. And, you have to SEARCH FOR THEM through advertising.  It’s not their job to find us.  It’s our job to find them.


Here’s why mobile works well with real estate advertising.

  • 73% of local searches are performed through mobile web browsers*
  • More than 48 million mobile users accessed maps on their device in May 2011, marking an increase of 39 percent from the previous year. *
  • In June of 2011, time spent on mobile apps and sites surpassed time spent surfing web sites on a laptop or desktop computer.**
  • By 2013, more people will own smart phones than personal computers or laptops.**
  • 14 million mobile users in the U.S. representing 6.2% of the total mobile audience, scanned a QR or bar code on their mobile device in June 2011
  • The most popular source of a scanned code (49.4%) was a printed magazine or newspaper.

In other words, more and more consumers are using their phones to surf the web – and using an offline source to drive local traffic to a mobile enabled site makes perfect sense – especially in an industry like ours in which location is key.

Want to learn more about mobile marketing for real estate?  Contact your local Real Estate Book representative.  Enter your zip here to find yours.Our offering now includes single property mobile websites, text codes, and QR codes - at no additional cost.

Because print advertising and mobile marketing go together like . . peanut butter & jelly.  Bees and honey. Bacon and eggs.  Baseball and hot dogs.  Football and tailgating.

Ok . . please excuse me.  I’m hungry now.

*comScore, Inc. Research  ** Nielson Research

ComminqueAd120904

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The New Search

On August 23, 2011   /   About Marketing   /   2 Comments

The new search happens everywhere. 

Today’s multi-media multi-taskers take in print, tv, radio, mobile tools, the web and , social networks. It’s not just the Google web or even the social web.  The new “search” is not just online.  It’s also physical.  We “search” everywhere we turn.

To reach the top of the “new search, you must integrate your media and content marketing to reach consumers in relevant ways.

An integrated strategy includes 4 types of media

1.       Owned media – Your own website –  information about you from you.

2.       Paid media – Advertising that connects to your owned media, your brand.

When consumers conduct a Google search, they find you.  When you advertise, you find them.    

You must use prospect focused distribution of relevant content to interrupt your target audience – a print ad, a online banner, a postcard, a billboard.   

3.       Social media – Facebook, Twitter, your blog – part of the billions of conversations  on social networks daily.  Relevant conversations build brand awareness,  loyalty, and engagement,  drives traffic to owned media and creates earned media.

 

4.       Earned media – the stuff you can’t buy.  Positive reviews and voluntary distribution through networks of influencers the highest quality leads.

The Real Estate Book has spent over  30 years studying consumer habits in the real estate industry. 

·        We understand today’s consumer.

·        We understand the tools you need to connect with them.

·        We create those connections.

Based on this deep understanding, we guide leading real estate professionals through today’s marketing complexities.

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It’s Just What We Do.

On April 11, 2011   /   Uncategorized   /   2 Comments

I was recently reminded of a story – true or not – about a visit that President John F. Kennedy made to the space center at Cape Canaveral sometime in the 1960′s. While there, JFK ran into three custodial workers. He asked all three, “What is it that you do here?”

The first replied, “Earn a livng.”

The second said, “I pick up the trash.”

The third said, “Mr. President, I am helping to put a man on the moon.”

The third understood that he played a part in a larger picture. Clearly, for effective operations at the space center, someone had to keep the facility clean and operational. And, as the facility was able to operate effectively, those who worked there also were able to accomplish their goal of sending a man to the moon.

This worker had two things – passion and a sense of purpose.

I thought about all the people here at Network Communications and our passion and purpose. On the surface, we create and publish shelter-related content. And it takes around 800 – 900 people to do that in various forms – whether they are making sales, creating web content, running a printing press, creating graphics, servicing our customers, gathering and reporting data, delivering the mail, driving a truck, or any other number of functions – including keeping the place clean and operational.

But, as an entire organization, what is that we really do? What’s our purpose? Here’s what I came up with –

We help people find their home.

They may be looking for an apartment, a first home, a next home, a second home , a retirement home, or a place to age gracefully. We will help them find that place. Then, we help make the place they live into a place they call “home” with information on decorating, repairing, or improving their space and on enjoying and becoming a member of the community around them.

And, we’re pretty darned passionate about that.

What do you do?

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