New 'Help?' Links

As you navigate through the back-end of all your Sequoia pages to alter Settings, create site pages, set-up forms, run reports, or track deals - you'll notice the new Help links next to all page headers. Each Help link is set-up to direct you to the corresponding page of our interactive User Guide. Each section will explain how to effectively use and leverage a specific Sequoia tool, feature, or general functionality.

It's very important to us that all of our client's are able to easily and effectively use all that Sequoia has to offer, so we are always open to feedback on the system's ease-of-use. Please contact Client Support for any suggestions, comments, or questions you might have- we're here to Help!

New Lead Report Interface!

Our development team has given the Lead Reports function a nice face-lift for 2012...here are a few changes you'll notice:

1) In addition to the line graphs previously shown you will also see bar graphs within, representing each Lead Creation Type (i.e. Modal, Dynamic Form, Inquiry, etc.) and Lead Type (i.e. Buying, Renting, Selling, etc.), depending on what you choose to filter.

2) You now have the ability to mouse over your Lead Type sections and dates to see a quick 'total' pop-up.

3) If you choose to filter by a date range that's too large for the screen to show, you can easily navigate back to previous weeks, or view a condensed graph of the entire range.

4) If you choose to Group your Leads by 'Total', Sequoia will generate an dynamic pie chart, giving you a digestible view of how the Lead Types break down as percentages of your total.

We hope this helps- let us know what you think!

Attend a Weekly Training to Learn More About Leveraging All Of Sequoia's Benefits

Congratulations to Owner Alex Hodara and his team on their new Sequoia website- Boston Logic's first site launch of the New Year! At age 23, in January of 2009, Alex started what CNBC coined "the first student run real estate brokerage"- quickly growing from 4 rental agents showing apartments for just a few landlords, to 12 agents showing apartments for over 100 landlords in the greater Boston area. Hodara has recently been featured in Forbes' 30 Under 30 rising stars and 'disrupters' in the Real Estate category, and was honored by Businessweek last year as one of America's Best Young Entrepreneurs.

Hodara told Boston Logic that his website was simply not producing leads and lacked the user utilities to do so. He wanted a new site that would compliment his personal brand and reputation, act as a strong foundation for his rapid business growth, and continue to propel his success in a competitive online marketplace. Hodara chose our Modified Website Design Theme, backed by the Sequoia platform's specially integrated YouGotListings, Town Pages, and interactive search map.

Schedule a no-pressure demo today to learn more about how Boston Logic's cutting-edge website design, Sequoia software platform, and online marketing services can take your real estate business to the next level!

Visit our interactive User Guide for help leveraging the LogicLeads CRM or sign-up for a weekly refresher training! Our Webinar trainings are Tuesday's at 10am and Thursdays at 2p.

LogicLeads Enhancements

We’ve added an icon on the lead’s details page that indicates if the lead has opted out of Daily Email Updates – very helpful for making sure you don’t accidentally send emails to a lead who has opted out. We’ve also added the ability to turn on a Captcha for the Sign Up and Contact pages on your Sequoia site - this is to prevent spam signups, and it works extremely effectively. We use Google’s reCaptcha, the most trusted and widely used Captcha tool on the market.

We’re also now tracking the Luxury Building or Development that a lead is captured on when they sign up through the modal window on the property’s details - this information is displayed in the lead’s History. In addition, we’re tracking the CMS page or sales Town Page that leads sign up on and showing that info in Lead History as well. What’s more, we are now tracking and showing the search terms that leads used to find your Sequoia site – a great way to see how effective your online marketing campaign is and what your leads are really after when they first come to you!

MLS Updates

In addition to the Lead Management enhancements, our dev team has completed an update to the MLS.
Sequoia users will now see that MLSPIN listings are showing full details on the front-end of their site for logged-in users.

MLSPIN now allows us to show all listing data to leads who are logged into their accounts - so we have added the full suite of info to property details pages in order to give the most info possible to users of your Sequoia website.

Stay tuned for more great Sequoia feature updates, and contact support for any questions you might have!

Boston Logic's development and design teams have been working on some key Sequoia System performance and feature upgrades that will propel our clients' business into the new year. Here's just a portion of what you can expect from the latest release:

LogicCMS (Content Management System):

◦    Trigger the Modal Lead Capture window on any page
◦    Export Dynamic Form submissions in a CSV file
◦    Enter a default page description for your meta data

Having the ability to trigger the Modal Lead Capture on any page within your site gives you yet another way to build lead acquisition mechanisms. If there's content that users want to read or see on a page, you can ask them to sign in before accessing it. It's also great functionality if you want to restrict special content to registered users/leads. Since Sequoia is able to track which page each lead signs up on, you now have better intelligence about that lead (i.e. what they're looking for and specifically which types of content they're interested in). This will only help you nurture a better relationship with that lead in converting them into a loyal client.

The added export tool for Dynamic Forms functionality lets users generate downloadable summaries of form submissions through the site. Jonathan Ufland, a new Sequoia user and Broker at Prudential Unlimited Realty, commented on the new tool,

"I love what you did on the export for dynamic forms. It works fantastically and will definitely help us with the adjustment to the new system."

New Search Improvements:

◦    Allow leads to create a 'Daily Search' email from the sign-up modal
◦    Property Details and Search Results now show the neighborhood for a property in the address

We’ve added an option to the lead signup modal to automatically create a Daily Email Update from the search the lead just performed. There is now a check-box on the modal signup window to automatically create the daily email update. We save the search with the name “My first property search” so you and your clients know which search was saved during modal lead capture.

Property Details and Search Results now show the neighborhood for a property in the address section – this not only gives a more precise description at a glance, it puts valuable information on the location of the listing right in the H1 tag for the details page – this is GREAT for long-tail searches.

Social Media Updates:

Our Share buttons for all pages now share the page you are on, not just the homepage for the site. We’re now automatically adding a Share tool to property details pages if your site does not have the Share tool shown in the header. Also, Brokers now have the ability to edit any Sequoia blog post, not just their own blog posts.

System Performance Upgrades:

If you've noticed your search results, Town Pages, Luxury Buildings and MLS property photos loading even faster than they did before - it's not the holiday madness setting in, it's really happening! Search engines take page load speed into account when ranking your pages in their results. So, if you want to rank higher in Google, having pages that load faster will help you achieve your goal. Our development team regularly dedicates resources towards making all of our sites load faster - just one of the benefits of being on the Sequoia website platform!

For more information about all of Sequoia's great features and functionality, check out our interactive User Guide or attend one of our weekly refresher trainings

We came across a recent study conducted by Active Rain that we found surfaced some important and thought-provoking results. The study was based on 1,758 Real Estate professionals who were surveyed to help shed some light on one key question:
What separates the 'top producing' agents (those earning more than $100,000 a year) from the back of the pack (those earning under $35,000 a year)? Some of the results were fairly predictable, but others we found quite surprising.

Study Group Stats & Demographics:
- 22% of respondents were 'top producers' and 21% fell below the curve
- 58% of the 'top producers' were men (study group gender was split evenly)
- On average, 'top producers' had 11-20 yrs. of real estate experience (study group average experience was 6-10 yrs.)
- Study group age had no bearing on annual earnings of the agents (study group average age was 51-60 yrs. old)

Here's what we found most interesting in what seems to have the greatest impact on annual earnings amongst agents...

TECHNOLOGY: Top producers invest 6x as much.
Where does the spending go?

1. A top notch IDX site - the reason? Well, we know that a good website with an intuitive search (and integrated MLS data), is the backbone of attracting quality clients and capturing their information when their foot's in the door.
2. A CRM System (i.e. Lead Management System)* - turns out that being able to systematically manage a database of leads (or, the lifetime of customer relationships), was an integral part of the top producers' success and ability to build a volume business.
3. Email Marketing - top producers aggressively use email marketing to touch their clients more often (sending automated property listings via their IDX searches) and are also more likely to use email newsletters.

*This was the most dramatic finding in the survey results - nearly twice as many top performing agents use a CRM system than those below the curve.

The study also found that top earners are more aggressively using forms of 'broadcast' social media (any social channels which are public to all on the Web) - i.e. YouTube & Online Video (which we found somewhat surprising as other research seems to suggest that a very small number of agents are actually leveraging video to attract new clients, although potential home buyers are more likely to close with an agency that provides video listings over one that does not), Blogging, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Overall, the study showed that top producing agents spend 10x more on marketing, (specifically on online marketing and lead generation tools/campaigns).

Survey Conclusions...

We can conclude that what really seems to make the difference for top earning agents is the investment they make in themselves (as an extension of their business) and their ability to efficiently manage their time - time is money to these successful agents, making it a no-brainer to invest in programs and applications that streamline daily operations and produce exponential returns.

Admittedly, this is music to Boston Logic's ears- and supports our very own recent study on the difference of the total transactional value (summed prices of all homes sold and bought) between user's of our Sequoia Website Platform and the average agent/broker. Guest what we found? On the buy side, our clients using Sequoia average 33% more transaction value than the average agent on the buy side, and 43% more on the sell side (read more!). It would be very reasonable to assume that Sequoia's integrated CRM, CMS, IDX, Blog, and Social Media components are a direct causality of higher earnings per agent.

Contact us today for a no-pressure demo - see how Boston Logic's Sequoia System can increase your earnings too!

Part of a 24 city tour, this month's Agent Reboot was at the A La Carte Pavilion in Tampa, Florida this past Wednesday. Boston Logic was an exhibiting sponsor of the event, which was hosted by Inman News.

David's Thoughts...

I can personally report that we had some great conversations with Broker/Owners eager to leverage technology and the web to its fullest. It was also nice to see Inman News CEO, Tim Smith, out at the conference. Always well produced and highly informative, Tim is obviously running a top notch operation.

I was happy to sit in on another Social Media Insights panel with Florida-based RE/MAX Business Development Consultant, Frank Chimento. The discussion was again hosted by Inman's Social Media Director, Katie Lance. (As I mention Katie here, I should direct readers to a nice video "snapshot" of her presentation about killer mobile apps- pretty awesome). The audience posed many questions and certainly agreed that they wished there was some tool or service to help do the work of social media engagement (or at least, the syndication for that matter). And indeed there are tools - we were very happy to talk about our Social Media Accelerator with many agents and brokers who approached the Boston Logic team afterwards. Let me be clear...I'm not suggesting you should outsource your voice, but we know that when you've got to focus on selling homes for a living, starting with a foundation for inbound marketing is better than re-inventing the wheel!

One observation at the event that I thought was note-worthy...

There was 3 general levels of participants at the conference:

1) Most participants were new to the web and technology. Realtors are learning that they need to get involved, join the conversation, and start investing their time and money online. These agents were looking for steps 1, 2, and 3. This profile probably represents 90% of the attendees.
2) The other 10% of the agents in attendance are already working social media, search engines, and the web. They were looking to fine tune their campaigns. They want to know the latest and greatest, and how to take the next step. I'm sure they got more than they could have asked for.
3) The final group of attendees were Brokers and Owners. These folks were, generally speaking, looking for solutions that will help every agent in their office. Of course, many of these folks came right over to our table to talk about how we could work with them and their offices, inquire about pricing questions, talk strategy, etc.

I'm definitely looking forward to future Inman conferences. Special thanks to Madelyn and Mike for their help too!

-DF

(David Friedman, President & Founder of Boston Logic)

Chicago Real Estate Artists

They came to Boston Logic ready to start a new brokerage, and needed a new website which could be up and running fast and on a budget - and they wanted the look to be as sophisticated and quintessentially Chicago as possible. For brokers and agents who need quality design work fast, we have just the thing - our Personalized Theme design option. Starting with any one of our already outstanding ready-to-deploy standard design themes, the Personalized Theme process lets you change colors, fonts, and images to make the theme match your existing brand collateral, or simply just make it suit your individual style. Within a matter of only a few days, Boston Logic worked with Chicago Real Estate Artists to make their new Sequoia website platform a visually compelling part of their brand identity.

If you are on a budget but want top notch visual impact, or need to launch a new site that speaks to your unique aesthetic in a hurry, our Personalized Theme design package might be just the thing for you. Contact us today to learn more!

The result is a stylish and easy-to-use website with an attractive user interface, plus all the tools Spark Realty Group will need to capture leads and close deals.

In addition, with the busy schedule of a brand new real estate company, Spark knew that creating unique, search engine optimized content for their new site would be a daunting task. Fortunately for them, Boston Logic offers content creation at levels from the very basic all the way up to highly comprehensive packages such as the one Spark Realty Group opted for. In addition to creating content for the basic pages of the site, such as the property search pages and contact forms, our marketing department filled Spark's new site with original and optimized content about the neighborhoods they serve, as well as a large  number of Boston and Cambridge luxury buildings which the Spark team focuses on in their boutique high-end firm.

Only a few brief meetings between our project management staff and Spark's core team were needed for Boston Logic to take the wheel of this project and craft a handsome, feature-rich website loaded with quality content.

We wish Spark Realty Group all the best as they continue to grow and succeed in the lucrative Boston real estate market!

If you're interested in learning more about how the Sequoia Website Platform could be designed to meet your needs, sign-up for a no-pressure demo! We host one every Wednesday at 2p EST.

Yesterday's Agent Reboot in Boston's Back Bay was a day packed with plenty of insight and inspiration, and most importantly, some actionable take-away's that every Real Estate professional could employ. Chris Smith, Inman's Chief Evangelist and MC of the event, proposed a clear notion that to stay ahead of the curve in such a competitive marketplace you've got to be an agent of change- he references a thought-provoking quote from retired U.S. General, Eric Shinseki,

If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevancy even less

A concept that has become a bit cliche to all of us over the last decade, may still be at the root of becoming the best of the best at what you do.

In almost every industry, technology continues to disrupt the most established players, and we only have to look back at the rises and falls of businesses big and small to realize only those who embraced the shift and rebooted their strategy kept a stake in the game.

Following a list of the latest and greatest mobile apps to help agents work effectively on the go (which included Qwiki, Zite, Quicklytics, Mobile Card Cast, Calcmoolator, Slydial, and many more), and a presentation about the importance of developing a content strategy that sells, Boston Logic's President & Founder, David Friedman, had the opportunity to engage the audience with a panel of fellow experts on Social Media engagement. Next to David on the stage sat the Founder of the MLSApp.com, Jimmy Mackin, along with Matthew Shadbolt from the Corcoran Group, and Heather Allen from the start up HubConnected. Hosted by Inman's Social Media Director, Katie Lance, the session was structured with a few key questions which were complimented with questions being "texted in" by members of the audience.

For the most part, the group seemed to be on the same page with the overall importance of having a presence in the social media sphere and the value of leveraging it to grow your business. However, there did seem to be a variance of opinion when it came down to technique, strategy, and the thought process throughout - a highlight of the dialogue that ensued from Katie's first question:

Which Platforms Yield the Biggest Gains & Where Should You Focus?

JIMMY: "Focus on where your customers are first. Think about who you're trying to reach, and where they are. Simple answer though, Facebook - that's where the majority of consumers are."
MATTHEW: "When tempering advice about platform choice, it's very easy to feel pressured to be on all of them...but the challenge with being on all of them, is being on one of them, well - so your focus becomes very important". Matthew went on to say that his method of choosing platforms is based on solving problems.
DAVID: Implies the choice and strategy that follows should be approached differently from an Agent's perspective (than a company's, for example). "Instead of starting with which platforms your customers are using, start with what you're already comfortable using...start by being a person, and don't worry too much about your real estate business".
HEATHER: "Choose one or two, and delve into them deeply". She also stresses the importance of having a blog, as the centralized content "hub" for your SM platforms, and also as a way to drive a larger targeted audience".

Watch the video we captured for the full panel discussion- each panelist gives an opinion on Google + and how/if it will fit into the social mix; how you go from a "Good to Great" Social Media Mastermind; and whether or not it makes sense to outsource your efforts.

CALLING ALL LOCAL REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS...

This one-day, fast-paced program will prepare you to leverage the latest technologies in your daily lives with expert training from some of the industry’s leading speakers. Amongst these industry leaders will be Boston Logic's President and Founder, David Friedman, who will sit on a Social Media Insights panel with Matthew Shadbolt, Director of Interactive Product & Marketing for The Corcoran Group, and Heather Allen, Director of Sales and Marketing at HubConnected.

Inman Agent Reboot will take place on the 3rd Floor of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA from 9am-3pm (registration begins at 8am). We'll be handing out a ton of candy and good advice, so be sure to register below and come visit us at the Boston Logic table!

Topics throughout the day include:

• 15 Mobile Tools That Will Make You Stand Out
• Developing a Content Strategy That Sells
• Social Media Insights - Making the Smartest Investment of Your Time
• Capture Consumers' Attention with Video
• Getting Down to Business: Optimizing Online Lead
• Lifestyle Branding: Why it Matters

BOSTON LOGIC IS AN EXCLUSIVE ASSOCIATE SPONSOR
This means we are able to offer our constituents a special discounted rate!