How Will You Say 2010

Two weeks into the New Year and the enlish speaking world still hasn't decided what to call it.
Should 2010 be pronounced "two thousand and ten" or "twenty ten"? The former is the natural way to go thanks to a decade of precedent. But "twenty ten", with two fewer syllables, simply rolls off the tongue. So which one will win out?

My money is on "twenty ten", what about you?

Style Palace Princess

Recently I have been helping my wife Darlene in establishing an online boutique specialising in Australian fashion named Style Palace.

This e-boutique is scheduled to open in early September this year and to get the registrations coming in for both shoppers and designers the following You Tube snippet was created entitled the "Princesses Dilemma"

I hope you like it? And of course make sure you register!

E-mail Marketing - 3 Things You Must Do!

In a recent survey conducted by Return Path, an email performance management company and reported in Rismedia.com it would appear that many marketers are not making the most of their electronic marketing campaigns.

The 3 Must Do's to Improve Performance Are:

1. Personalise Email Communication

Marketers are collecting data at sign up that should be used to personalise initial and subsequent emails.

2. Put Out the Welcome Mat

It is essential that you respond to new email subscribers with a welcome message as soon as possible. From the survey it appears 60% of companies never sent a welcome message to new subscribers.

"Instead of putting out the welcome mat, marketers are telling their subscriber to go away, by not welcoming them."

3. Immediacy Matters

Marketers are struggling with the immediacy of email. In the age of instant messaging and the like Return Path found that the companies studied sent their first email an average of 9 days after a subscriber joined.

Combined with a lack of welcome message this lag in sending email has implications for sender reputation and deliverability.

Kill Bill with a Guerrilla

A magnificent piece of guerrilla marketing for the release of the TV version of the blood thirsty movie "Kill Bill" in New Zealand.

Rumour has it that the kiwis are thinking of using a similar idea to promote the next rugby test between Australia and New Zealand.

Acknowledgements to Guerrilla Marketing defined for highlighting this site.

The Successful Combination of Photography and Real Estate

Pictures that are poor or less-than-flattering can turn buyers off, leading to fewer leads and offers. In real estate, good pictures - the right pictures - are worth more than a thousand words - they can be worth thousands of dollars.

According to a survey of buyers and sellers by the US National Association of Realtors, 80% of the people across the country who purchased a new home last year used the Internet while researching their purchase. These buyers rated photographs as the single most useful tool in their search. Agents say the photos buyers see online are often the first, and sometimes the only, chance they may get to make a good impression.

The photograph is almost always the first element in any ad that connects with the buyer. It is the handshake, the first impression, the thing that cuts through the visual clutter to capture the buyer’s attention. Everything in the marketing campaign to sell your home relies on the quantity and quality of the photographs of your home. Photographs are needed for the listing on the Web and in print, a website, brochures, flyers, photo boards, newspaper ads, possible magazine articles, real estate preview guides, blogs, etc. Many times, buyers will decide if they will visit a home, and agents will decide if they will show a property based on the strength (or weakness) of the photos accompanying a listing. Quality photos can and do make a difference, a big difference.

The California Association of Realtors findings show that “Multiple photographs/slideshows” continue to be the online feature with the highest rating among all online features, followed by “Map/Directions”. Because of the nature of the Internet, more photos can be posted with your Web listing and on a home website than in any other medium and for a fraction of the cost.

Point2 (point2.com) conducted a study monitoring listings over a 30-day period which clearly showed that properties which feature just one photo generated approximately five views and 1.37 leads, while listings displaying 21 or more images received over 77 views and close to 11 leads. Clearly, the listings that added 20+ photos generated nearly 10 times the number of leads and over 15 times the number of views.

Another study relating to the number of photos a listing post compares photos to the number of Days on Market (DOM). The findings show that listings with more photos sold faster. This is the break down on the photos to Days on Market (average) analysis.

- 1 photo = 70 DOM
- 6 photos = 40 DOM
- 16-19 photos = 36 DOM
- 20 photos max – 32 DOM

And listings with fewer photos sold for less. The Closed NET Price as a percentage of the Original Price also showed a direct correlation.

- 1 Photo = 91.2% of Original Price
- 6 or more = 95% of Original Price

According to these findings, a $600,000 home, sporting only one photo, could sell for as much as 3.8% LESS or a loss of over $22,000, just because there was only one photo accompanying the listing. More amazing is the fact that only 12% of agents posted the maximum 20 photos.

4 Ways to Use Video in Your Marketing

Capital Square

With the advent of easy to add video onto website services such as YouTube, more and more companies are embracing the technology as a part of their marketing.

Recent articles are citing that the 4 main ways Companies are now using video on the net are:

1. On Primary Website
2. On micro sites designed for specific campaigns
3. Syndicating them through advertising networks
4. Releasing them to video search engines in the hope that they go viral.

An Idea to Remember

How many times have you chanced upon a marketing idea that has worked a treat?

Generally this has occurred as a consequence of some feedback from a previous effort or a tweak here and a tweak there. Whatever the experience, when you chance upon something that has worked,hang onto it and apply this formula:

1. Find Something That Works.............. then
2. Replicate it ............Then
3. Scale it!

Put simply, once you think that you are onto something, do it again and test the result. If it has worked again to your expectation now is the time to scale it.

By scaling it, I am referring to either a bigger spend, or a bigger demographic or even a bigger offer. Just keep multiplying the effort carefully checking the results to ensure that your winner keeps performing for you.