How To Promote Your New Website: Part 3
If you've been tuned into to our special three part client consult on how to promote your new website, you've already got 2/3 of 
your strategy in the bag and ready to put into action:
1) Get savvy with online techniques- utilize and employ social media applications, tools, and SEO tactics
2) Think outside of the box- draw attention to your website with creative marketing and outbound communication
Last, but certainly not least, let's talk about some traditional and new methods of reaching your audience offline...
Business Cards & Stationary
If you were thinking that your company logo, business cards, or stationary could use a facelift (or you don’t have any yet) you’ll want to make sure that you have consistent branding throughout your collateral that compliments the theme and design of your new website.
Now’s your chance to decide on new branding, such as color schemes, fonts, and logos! Boston Logic’s design team can help. You’ll want to try to coordinate the launch of the new site with the printing of your newly branded collateral so you’ll have it ready to go for a strong, unified launch.
QR Codes
Show off how hip you are by adding a QR code to the back of your business cards, in printed advertisements, on ‘Open House’ & ‘For Sale’ signs, event signage, etc. that lead users to your website when scanned on their smart phones.
The Sequoia System adds QR Codes to your Listing Sheets and Showing Sheets.
Conferences & Events
If you're attending trade shows or conferences, be sure to have a monitor up at your booth showing off the new site. If you are speaking or presenting at an event, you can announce it at the end of your talk directing the audience to contact you after the event. Make sure you’ve got signage and handouts with your new website URL and/ or QR codes leading to pages on your site.
Your Office Windows & Reception Area
If your company has an office, or multiple office locations, you can put signage in your windows announcing the new site. Leave extra trade show brochures in your reception area for visitors to take with them when they leave, and hopefully they will re-visit your site.
Host a Party!
If you’re an established company or have a large list of contacts, host a launch party to thank loyal customers- celebrate the new website during the party on a projector or during a speech, etc.
Make a Facebook Event to promote your actual launch party if you’re having one. If not, consider hosting a Virtual Launch Party and make an Event for that! Just like a newsletter announcement, you’ll want to include an intriguing image and highlight the coolest elements about the new website. A little incentive to visit the site/attend the [virtual] party is a good idea, too! It has to be fun and creative or people will look at your communication as spam.
Press Releases
You could do a traditional press release along with self-promoting your blog about the website launch, but your new website alone may not be deemed news-worthy by bigger outlets, so make sure you submit your press release to industry-specific news publications or magazines, as well as or local newspapers and business journals.
If your press release is published, be sure to announce, share, Re-tweet, and link to the publications that feature your website on your various social media sites (i.e Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook) as a way of saying ‘thank you’ and getting that content more attention.
The After Math -- Your Content Strategy & Schedule
If you’ve ever attended a Boston Logic LogicClassroom, you know that we always preach ‘Content is King’ when it comes to developing your brand online, and increasing your website traffic, lead generation and search engine ranking. Once the initial fan-fair of your new website announcement dies down, you’ll want to ensure you are enticing people to continue to visit your website!
This means you’ll want to come up with a Content Creation Strategy (i.e. a plan to write Town Pages for all the areas you serve, or to create a section of your site with Buyer or Seller Resources, etc.), and blogging schedule for your internal team. I’d suggest blogging about twice per week (more if you have the time and resources!) when you first launch your site so that you are generating fresh, keyword-rich content regularly.
Informative, entertaining, and useful blogs are the most popular blogs. Consider writing downloadable ‘White Papers’ that your potential clients would want to read, and require an email address to download the content to capture more leads.
Research proves, blogging regularly to create fresh content for your site will encourage people to come back and increase your search engine ranking and lead capture.
If you just launched a new website and you have any additional questions or comments- don't hesitate to reach out to our team of marketing experts!
New ideas or success stories of what's working? We'll take those too!
And if you're stuck in a rut with your current website provider, and you're now realizing the benefits of having a great platform and design to help grow your business online- contact us today for a no-pressure consultation
Good luck!
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Posted on August 31, 2011 Filed Under Boston Logic Products, Boston Logic Services, New Website Launches, Real Estate Software, Real Estate Web Design, Real Estate Web Site, Real Estate Website Design, Real Estate Website Features, Real Estate Websites, Website Design | Leave a Comment
How To Promote Your New Website: Part 2
In last week's edition of our special three part client consult, How To Promote Your New Website: Part 1, we talked about strategies and techniques you can use to get your website noticed, or found (by prospective clients, search engines, and industry "influencers"). All of those techniques involve utilizing Web 2.0 best practices or social media outlets - and while these methods are certainly crucial in growing any business in today's marketplace, we shouldn't completely forget about the "offline" world. The most effective marketing and PR campaigns are one's that employ a harmonious mix of traditional, inbound, and creative techniques to command attention through a myriad of communication channels.
Getting Your Website Attention with Creative Marketing & Communications
Here are a few ways to get the word out and create some more buzzzzzz
Run a Contest
Running a contest can be a great way of generating buzz both on and offline. However, there is an art to creating a contest. Each social media platform and/or marketing medium has its own set of guidelines about contests, so make sure you know what they are and don’t break them!
First, figure out what the business goals of the contest are (i.e. to get more followers on social media channels, increase brand awareness, capture leads, etc.) - then you've got a framework to start with.
Next, determine what the incentive or give-away will be for the contestants (i.e. maybe a 'no broker’s fee' on your client's next apartment; a gift certificate for a fancy dinner for two at a local restaurant; a gift basket filled with coupons and products of local businesses; a free iPad- you get the idea). If you want to offer a bigger prize, like offering a free iPad or cash back at closing, I suggest making the level of engagement bigger- like filling out a survey about your new site so you get valuable feedback in return (make sure contact information is required so you can follow up to qualify the person as a lead).
Figure out what they have to do to enter the contest (‘Like’ your Facebook Page and mention you in their status update or comment on a photo on your Page; @mention your company and follow you on Twitter; comment on a blog post; subscribe to your RSS feed, etc.). Be creative and try to make it something that will get you a lot of exposure, but require little effort from the intended audience (the less roadblocks, the better).
Last but not least, create a landing page on your blog to promote the contest and share it across your traditional channels and online platforms to increase participation. In your blog, provide necessary links, the rules of the contest, as well as the end date and how a winner will be determined and announced.
Affiliates & Partners Can Help
Do you have a good relationship with a vendor you use all the time? Ask them to include a link to your new site on their website, blog, or newsletters. For example, Boston Logic often features new Sequoia website launches in our bi-weekly newsletter. We also feature some of our favorite client site designs in our online Portfolio, providing you with inbound links and exposure to a larger audience.
Email Signatures
Have everyone in the company update their email signatures with the URL of the new website. You’ll want to make everyone’s email signatures uniform to create consistency for your branding.
Linking to your company Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, You Tube, etc. are also a great way to increase traffic to your other online presences and increase engagement on those platforms. I recommend avoiding image icons in your email signature, and sticking with text hyperlinks.
If your website URL is changing (and/or your email address as well), be sure to make a note of that in the signature! Some of our clients like to note that the site is new and improved in the email signature, or even include a little teaser text before the new website has launched (i.e."coming soon!"). Everyone you are corresponding with via email should be seen as a 'vessel' in which to spread the word!
Targeted Emails to Your List of Contacts
Is your email list segmented by relevant categories? If so, send targeted emails to each group announcing the new website and the specific benefits to those groups.
For example if you bought a new Sequoia website, you could talk about things like Advanced Property Search Tools to renters and buyers; focus on the Integration with Social Media and Syndicating Listings for sellers; and talk about the Advanced Lead Capture and Management Tools if you are trying to recruit new agents, etc.
If your list isn't segmented, do a more general email highlighting the best features for each type of user so they can easily see why this new site is important to them. Provide links or images to get the recipient interested enough to visit the site and find out what you’re promising.
Newsletter Features
Not only can you generate special targeted announcements via email, you can also keep on promoting your new website in your regular newsletter. Create a featured edition showing ‘before’ and ‘after’ screen shots of your old and new sites, write a little blurb about the benefits of the new site, ask for feedback, etc. Continue to highlight website features, benefits and content in the sidebar of your newsletter.
EXPERT TIP:
Using a service like Constant Contact or MailChimp will help provide you with insights about the Open Rate of your emails and see what links people clicked on/ what features they were most interested in, and help you improve your site over time.
Share your creative ideas in the comments section below, and stay tuned for our next edition on How To Promote Your Website: Part 3- we'll finish up with some additional offline techniques that should round up your campaign, and give you the best chance possible of getting your site the attention it deserves!
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Posted on August 24, 2011 Filed Under Blogs, Boston Logic Services, New Website Launches, Online marketing, Real Estate Websites | 1 Comment
How To Promote Your New Website: Part I
TIPS FOR INCREASING TRAFFIC
Special Three Part Client Consult
YOU’VE GOT A NEW WEBSITE- CONGRATS!
Every day Boston Logic helps Real Estate brokerages and independent real estate agents leverage the web in promoting their services and listings online to help them generate more leads- and ultimately, close more deals. Being a seasoned leader in the real estate technology space, we know that your success in competing for business online is tied to the usability and value of your website to your potential clients, as well as how easily your website can be found on and off-line.
And this is precisely why you, our clients, come to us. You recognize the value of having a best-in-class website that provides user-friendly features that buyers and renters want- like advanced MLS search options, the ability to save and “favorite” properties, live chat with agents, and more- all bound by our powerful Sequoia system– served with accessible, friendly product training and support. (We really don’t mean to toot our own horn!) But now that you're armed with great technology and tools…
HOW DO YOU GET YOUR NEW WEBSITE NOTICED?
We get lots of requests from our clients for suggestions on what to do to market their new (or newly redesigned & upgraded) website. I thought others would find this list of suggestions helpful. I’ve included a lot of low-cost options, things you can do before and after your new website launches, as well as long-term strategies to increase traffic to your site.
ONLINE TECHNIQUES – SOCIAL MEDIA & SEARCH MARKETING
Company Facebook Page
Be sure to add the URL to your website (and your other social media profiles, for that matter) on your company’s Facebook Fan Page’s Info Tab. Make announcements about the new website when it’s ‘coming soon’ and when it launches. Post screen shots in your Facebook Page Photos and ask your followers for feedback!
Employee’s Facebook Profiles
Employees can link to the Company Fan Page in their personal Facebook profiles in the ‘Employment’ section of their bios. Over time, this will encourage their social network to visit your company Facebook Page, and then lead those people to your website. Have your employees review this helpful LogicClassroom presentation about Facebook Privacy Settings, too!
Company & Employee Twitter Profiles
If you don’t have a company Twitter, create one! Add a link to the website in the profile. Just like on Facebook, you’ll want to make ‘coming soon’ announcements, and link to the site when it’s live and ASK for feedback and/ or a Retweet! Consider sending a Direct Message to important followers. If you change your Twitter handle, make sure to keep the old one in the profile bio for a prolonged period of time so if people do a search for your old Twitter name, they can still find you.
Encourage employees to engage with the Company Twitter account (@mentions), retweet announcements about the new website, etc. If they want to include something about their position at the company in their Twitter bios, encourage that too because it will give you exposure to their social network. Just be sure to have a clear Guidelines Policy in place so your employees know what is/ isn’t allowed if they are representing the company online. I’ve seen a lot of Twitter profiles that say things like “CEO at XYZ Company, opinions are my own!”
LinkedIn Employee & Company Profiles
Employees should update their personal LinkedIn profiles to include the new website URL. Does your company have a listing on LinkedIn? If not, create one! Having a company listing on LinkedIn is a great way to promote your products and services, improve your credibility, and boost your SEO.
For tips on how to customize the anchor text linking to the website on your LinkedIn profiles and other optimization tips, view our recent LogicClassroom on Marketing Yourself on LinkedIn.
Yelp Listing
Is your company listed on Yelp? Yelp is an ever-growing social networking site where users review local businesses and give them a rating of 1-5 stars. Even if you haven’t created a Yelp listing, one of your past clients may have added you to the site without your knowing. Do a search in your area to see if your company appears in the search results. If so, claim your Yelp listing! If not, create one! Make sure you optimize your company listing by filling out all the available fields. Make an announcement about the new website and maybe offer a small percentage off for mentioning they found your new website on Yelp.
There are LOTS of review sites like Yelp, such as YP.com, SuperPages.com, Merchant’s Circle, CitySearch, etc. There are also a large variety of industry-specific directory/review sites available online. Do your research, and register your new website!
EXPERT TIP:
Once on Yelp, it’s important to add new photos to keep your listing fresh. You also want to encourage your happy clients to review you on Yelp so if the occasional unhappy customer leaves a bad review, you’ve got enough good reviews to soften the blow. Set up email notifications so that if you get a review on Yelp about a negative client experience, you can respond to it promptly.
Google Places Listing
If you need your website to be at the top of Google’s search engine results for some marquee keywords asap (don’t we all?), one of the ways to help that happen faster is by registering your website with Google Places! You’ll need to register your company with an actual physical address where you receive mail, but if you run a small business out of your home, you can hide your street address from your listing and only show your city and state.
A Google Places listing is FREE and you can make announcements, add photos, service area, company history and other business information, feature YouTube Videos, and more! This is a great way to showcase your business and increase clicks to your website without having to shell out lots of money for PPC advertising!
Your company may have been added to Google Places by a user and given a review and star rating. In that case, all you’ll have to do is click the “Business Owner?” link in the upper right corner of the listing page and follow the directions to claim the listing. Google will send a postcard to your attention via snail-mail to your business listing with a verification code you will enter online to claim the listing.
Add Links to Company Social Media Profiles to Your Site
Say WHAT?! You just got your visitors to land on your new website, and now I want you to lead them away again? Not exactly. It’s just a good long-term investment for your relationship with that lead. You want people using your site as much as possible, but if your potential clients and clients want to check in with you via the social media channels they use regularly because it’s convenient for them- make it easy for them to do so and give them access right from your home page.
Add Social Sharing Buttons to Your Site Content
Make it easy for your website visitors to share and syndicate your content for you! Add quick-share options such as the Facebook ‘Like’ Button, the Twitter ‘Tweet’ Button, and the ‘Google +1’ Button to your blog posts and property listings, etc. Utilize social sharing plugins for your blog like ‘AddThis’ to let readers quickly syndicate your blog posts to popular bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, Reddit, etc.
Blog About It – Share, and Syndicate
Your first blog post on your new website should essentially be a press release about your new website that you will syndicate to your social media profile & share on popular and industry social bookmarking sites. If you already have a blog, consider doing a ‘coming soon’ teaser blog about the upcoming relaunch.
Guest Bloggers
Invite a vendor (like a landscaper, interior designer, or exterminator, etc.) you frequently do business with to post as a guest blogger on your site, and link their blog post back to their website. As a Realtor, you can pick local business in the areas you serve to spotlight and invite someone to guest blog from that business about their company and the neighborhood. These ‘First Tier Guest Bloggers’ will promote their blog post on your new site for you and will appreciate the exposure and inbound link from your site!
Once your blog is more established and you begin to get a substantial amount of traffic to your site and blog, you can start to attract ‘Celebrity Guest Bloggers’, industry leaders and experts that are fairly well-known and will drive traffic to your site because they have a big following or good name recognition or are in the news frequently, etc.
Watch the Recent LogicClassroom on Blogging for Business Here
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Analytics
To get the most out of your content creation efforts, it’s important to optimize your pages with meta data, headings and subheadings, keywords, internal links, images, etc. so that search engines can properly index your site and potential leads can find your content when they search for your services online.
In order to run a successful SEO Campaign, add Google Analytics to track visitors to the site, and find out what content they find the most valuable (i.e whatever gets the most traffic). This will help guide your content creation over time. If you sign up for SEO and Online Marketing Services through Boston Logic, we will help you! We also have a blog full of resources on SEO and Social Media at www.realestateseo1.com to provide you with helpful tips and education on best practices and industry updates.
Optimizing your website pages and content should be an ongoing process, especially because you’re going to have a very active blog (right?!). Plan to review your SEO campaign keywords and strategy regularly to ensure you’re on track.
301 Redirects
301 redirects are an important, yet often overlooked, part of an SEO campaign if you already have an existing website. Essentially, 301 redirects are a little snippet of code that directs any search engines and visitors trying to reach URLs on your old website, that are no longer on your new website, to the appropriate replacement page on your new website. 301s are convenient for users and help ensure your company’s website won’t lose any SEO ranking it had with its old website. Boston Logic can help implement 301 redirects for your website upgrade - just ask!
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
There are a variety of PPC advertising options available to you. I encourage you to take the time to look into each option. Find out what type of tracking each option offers (Google Adwords data tracks nicely in Google Analytics, for example), as well as the type of exposure your ads will get, and what type of competition they’ll be up against.
Facebook and LinkedIn PPC advertising may not offer the exposure of Google or Bing PPC ads, but you can make your ads extremely targeted based on geographic region, workplace, personal interests, industries, relationship status, etc. This kind of highly targeted advertising may be a better place to start for smaller budgets. LinkedIn PPC ads are best for B2B or recruiting ads.
You may also want to consider industry-specific venues like the real estate section of Boston.com or other popular industry websites that get a lot of traffic. Boston Logic’s Sequoia websites feature an Inbound Leads API so we can track leads from sources like Boston.com and enter them directly into your Sequoia CRM. Talk about Analytics!
Think outside the social media box, too...
There's still a bunch of ways to get the word out about your stellar new website! With a little creativity and good communication, you can be proactive about getting found. Stay tuned for the next part of our consultation to learn more about How To Promote Your Website: Part II.
We'd love to hear some anecdotes in the comments section from your own website launch experience- and check out our SEO blog for more on how to get your web pages ready for Google
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Posted on August 18, 2011 Filed Under Boston Logic Services, New Website Launches, Real Estate Website Design, Sequoia Real Estate Solutions | Leave a Comment
Boston Logic New Hires- Meet the Team!
We are happy to announce that as Boston Logic's products and services become more robust and our client base continues to grow, we are bringing on new members to join the internal team. Just as we want to position ourselves as market leaders in the Real Estate software and online marketing services space, we are equally as focused on recruiting the best talent around to make this possible.
At Boston Logic, we believe that marketing and technology must be conceived and developed together. And this is why our Marketing, Web Design and Development teams work as a cohesive unit to set our clients up for success. We also believe in transparent processes and results, and we take pride in educating our client's to become poised for their own growth and success. And as a company, we also know that our beliefs create a very high standard of internal operation- but as long as the demand for excellence grows, we here at Boston Logic will continue to be committed to delivering the highest level of service to the Real Estate Industry that we can.
Team Boston Logic, Summer 2011
So who are we? Some of us are "techies", some of us are artsy, and some of us are both- some of us are type A and some of us are type O+. We're thought leaders, entrepreneurial junkies, renaissance professionals- and we all like to play as hard as we work. Meet the mastery behind the means...
Meet the Boston Logic Team!
To check out our open positions,
please visit the Careers page
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Posted on August 3, 2011 Filed Under Boston Logic, Boston Logic News, Boston Logic Products, Boston Logic Services, Careers | Leave a Comment