Category — Experience

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All Alone

Originally uploaded by alteragroup

Hahns Peak & Steamboat Lake

It’s that time of year again where everyone is all in a twit about their Strings magazine ad. Headshots, font styles, ad sharing, the list of things to get done goes on & on.

But before you say yes to that final proof (for this publication or any other) take 60 seconds to watch this video. You’ll be glad you did.

(If you can’t see the video click here.)
At the risk of giving the video away I’d ask, how does your ad measure up? Given the context of the event and the amount of competing ads is your ad really good enough? Maybe spending sometime reflecting on this video and how it relates to your ad would be time well spent.

It turns out that many brokers have things a bit backwards when it comes to marketing properties. At a recent conference I learned that a study of real estate buyers shows that 80+% of buyers prefer great photos over virtual tours (the “spin-around-to-see-the-room’ kind) and 80+% of brokers prefer virtual tours. A bit backwards wouldn’t you say?

So in reorienting some to the reality of what buyers want, great photography is something that brokers should require of themselves as a minimum. I’ll try to illustrate some differences between really good pictures and the uninspired, drive-by point & shoot photos we see way too often.

I was recently on a trip and took a picture of some super colorful shops. Online, someone else had posted the same shot but with very different results. Take a look & imagine yourself in the market. Pay attention to how these photos make you feel.

This first version was taken by someone else with a simple point & shoot.

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I took this picture with serious camera gear and an inspiration to get a great photo:

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Big difference. Or how about this photo of a ranch:

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Compared to this one I took last fall:

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Which one would interest you?

Photos are such an important asset for real estate agents and here in Steamboat there’s almost no excuse in having crappy pictures. Hire a great photographer and smile when you pay them knowing that you have awesome photos that tell a story and sell property much more effectively. Great photos will pop on the MLS and can be leveraged in many ways.

Kim Keith is an excellent local photography resource. She’s a real pro and puts art into her photos. What this means to you is you’re likely to get photos that evoke emotion. More emotions equals more sales at higher prices.

Kim Keith Photography
Studio K
2550 S. Copper Ridge Rd, suite #204
Steamboat Springs, CO 80477
(970) 846-3680
kim@steamboatgallery.com

Following up on the last post, the only clips included here are either exceptional plays or huge screw ups. Those are the things we remember.

The Most Memorable College Football Plays of All Time

Click here if you can’t see the video. 

I mostly remember either the stuff that was really exceptional or the stuff that was really bad. I remember stuff like Dan from back in 1988, the exceptional Nordstrom sales guy, who mailed me birthday cards. I remember the awful boat rental shop in Lake Powell called “Do Powell” from back in 2003. However, I can’t tell you the name of the title exec that helped us close on a property just a few months ago. She didn’t do anything wrong and didn’t do anything exceptional either.

With so many brokers concerned about referrals are you memorable enough?

There is so much average stuff in the middle there’s not enough room to remember it all. I suppose it’s a bit like this graph with the painful experiences being a little more memorable:

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If you do everything right & meet expectations, you’re average.

So many Steamboat Springs brokers are concerned with referrals but I wonder if they’re really doing the stuff that’s memorable. Are you memorable enough? 3 years from now will your clients remember the exceptional experience they had with you. 3 years from now what will your clients say? Will they say you were average? If you’re truly average, I doubt they’ll remember anything at all. And in today’s world truly average is actually a pretty high bar.

If you do everything right & meet expectations, you’re average. It’s only when you exceed expectations or really screw things up do you become memorable. Going with the flow, blending in, doing what everyone else does feels safe but we won’t remember you come referral time.

Buying & selling a home is such a life changing experience for your clients the goal should be to make it THE most memorable experience of their lives so there is no way they could forget you.

I had a family dinner at Rex’s recently and because we have a daughter a key factor in our decision to eat at Rex’s was the fact that they have cool little coloring kits for kids. Princess kits for girls & train kits for boys (I think - we only have a girl).

(Not my kids)

Just as we expected, we had a great dinner and our daughter wasn’t fidgeting or dumping salt all over the table. So the question is, what kid friendly stuff do you have to occupy kids when you’re clients bring them along? It might be a good idea to have a “kid kit” in the trunk with an assortment of activities for boys and girls.

Love my kids and I’ll love you forever.

The conditions for photos were pretty amazing last Saturday morning. I took a few around Steamboat & uploaded them to our Flickr account. Here’s one that makes a fantastic desktop for your computer (click photo to download):

Can you guess where this is?

See the rest on our Flickr account

This is one of my favorite videos. Starting off a new year always brings the thought of a fresh perspective. This video is sure to help you see things in a different light. Happy New Year!

This video is from Michael Bungay Stanier

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In 1996 two guys had an internet search company called “Backrub.” They soon renamed it to Google.

In 1893, a young pharmacist created a drink that bore his name: “Brad’s Drink” In 1898, Brad’s Drink was renamed “Pepsi-Cola”, and what would become the world’s most recognized “number 2″ brand was born.

Naming your company, organization, development, etc, is the single most important marketing decision you can make. It sets a first impression that can’t be erased.

The best part of naming your company is that it’s FREE (and probably be the only free bit of marketing you’ll ever do).

700 is a big number. When I first heard about “Steamboat 700″ I thought “big.” Something didn’t fit - “Steamboat Big.” The only thing we really want to be “big” in Steamboat Springs is snow.

So the mistake, in my opinion, that Steamboat 700 made was using a big number in their name. Every newspaper article, filing, discussion, presentation, interview, conversation & blog post now includes that big number. I’m not at all questioning the merit of the proposed development. Danny seems nice enough and they’re intentions might add much needed resources to our community. But that number focuses our attention on the size instead of the merit.

A bit more thought up front about the name would have served them well. They have a critical time ahead and need to have the community on their side. For better or worse, community perception can make or break a deal. Just calling it what it is may have been simply the easy thing to do; 700 acres in Steamboat = Steamboat 700. But marketers need to realize that

my perception is my reality.

So the best thing you can do is set the right perception from the beginning. A good, free company name can do just that.

A relatively new site called Quantcast provides the ability to gather some interesting statistics regarding website demographics. I’m not sure how accurate the data is but I’d expect it to improve overtime. Running a report on www.steamboat.com yields some interesting info:

steamboat.com reaches approximately 13,976 U.S. monthly uniques. The site attracts a over 65, mostly Caucasian, slightly female slanted audience. The site’s visitors’ interests are auto info (Yahoo Autos, Edmunds, Kelley Blue Book), travel (Priceline, TripAdvisor Travel Info, Travelocity, Orbitz) and business & finance (MSN Money).

Here’s a partial report. What I find interesting is that people over 65 are almost 2.25 times more likely than average to visit steamboat.com indicating that demographic has a very keen interest in Steamboat (especially compared to vail.com which is only 1/2 as likely to visit). And yet I can’t find one real estate website catering specifically to that potential client.

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See the complete report here.