Category — Marketing

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Legacy -

leg·a·cy (lěg’ə-sē)
n. pl. leg·a·cies Money or property bequeathed to another by will.
Using death to sell real estate is an interesting approach from Alpine Mountain Ranch. Every time I see one of their “Legacy” ads I can’t help but think about death. Every I see them I’m reminded of my own mortality.

So we came up with a few tag lines they could use free of charge:

Alpine Mountain Ranch - Buy now the end is near!

Alpine Mountain Ranch - Because you can’t take it with you!

Alpine Mountain Ranch - A great place to spend your final days!

Alpine Mountain Ranch - A little closer to God

Alpine Mountain Ranch - Free estate planning with every purchase!

On the other side of town, their competitor, Marabou has created a ton of buzz, interest and community value. And guess what? There’re selling out. Alpine Mountain Ranch continues to languish because of this shallow marketing even though in a lot of respects it may be a better development. I just don’t think that reminding their target market of their mortality is an effective approach. It’s a turn off.

Whose team would you want to be on?

One of the greatest strengths of a marketer is being able to tell a good story. Not a lie or something misleading, but something that resonates with the audience. A good story helps the audience connect with the essence of the issue. Steve Jobs is a brilliant storyteller and his contemporary Bill Gates, not so much. A good story that matches the audience’s world view helps them relate their own experience with what you’re marketing. Your message is much more likely to cut through the clutter and stick in their mind.

In Steamboat Springs, Jeff Temple is a good storyteller. As a result just look at the success of Marabou compared to other competing developments. At the recent Real Estate Round Up he was able to encapsulate the essence of Marabou in a simple powerful sentence that sticks. He said

“Marabou is 1717 acres, 1300 of which will be open space forever.”

A month later that’s the only quote from the event I remember. And I can repeat it to you. Good storytelling should be key in every aspect of your marketing. Anyone can copy & paste listing descriptions. Telling a compelling story through copy can add true value and help potential buyers connect and remember your listing. Here’s copy from 2 listings, $10 milli0n & 23 milli0n properties respectively. Is there anything in this copy you’d remember a month from now?

One of a kind ski in/ski out building site at the base area. This site is likely to be the most convenient ski in/ski out location for a home on the mountain with easy ski access from See Me, Voodo, and Lower Valley View. Just above the base and poised to benefit from the new luxury projects just below it. If you want a truely (sic) unique location, this is it! $10,000,000

This ranch acreage sits in the upper Yampa River Valley and on Thorpe Mountain. Home on the property is 1700 sq. feet and there are several barns and outbuildings. Irrigated river bed transitions to timbered high country laced with pine and aspen trees. Superior environment for elk and deer. Two seperate (sic) conservation easements border the property protecting the pristine environment. Water and mineral rights included in the sale. Opportunity for development or ultimate personal retreat. Contingencies may or may not apply. $23,000,000

Spelling mistakes and snoozer copy in a $10 million & 23 million listing. Ugh. Would you want this broker working for you?

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.

Anyone looking to get a little nip & tuck or a full blown extreme makeover of their website has a lot of options and a lot elements to consider. Here are 5.5 questions to ask before you get started. The questions are designed to give you insight into a web designer’s thinking. The way we see it, there’s plenty of nuts & bolts type questions to ask but the better thinker they are, the better site & experience you’ll get. That’s where these questions come in. Hopefully these questions will help you find someone who will create a unique presence and give you the tools to help your site succeed.

1. How much does a website cost?

If you get an immediate answer or a ball park answer this may not be the shop for you. The problem with this is there’s no way to know how much a site will cost without an understanding of what your needs are and what you want to accomplish with a site. If you get an answer right off the bat, you’ll probably get a templated site that looks like everyone else and does little to differentiate you to visitors. Ideally they’ll want to know a lot about your business and your clients. So look for and expect deep, probing question.

2. What’s your process?

Many small shops don’t have a process & they wing it. Process is important because it means you’re project is more likely to avoid problems and meet your expectations. If they do have a process, look for elements of “communication” as a key area of their process. Things like “review meetings” are a good sign because you’ll be in the loop upstream in time to make corrections if necessary.

3. How will I be able to update my site?

This is a big one in my mind. Most small businesses should be able to easily update their own site with timely information relevant documents and elements that keep the site fresh. All too often however business owners are at the mercy of a web shop’s schedule. The updates don’t happen fast enough, they often have mistakes and the whole process becomes a big hassle. It becomes easier to ignore the site which then quickly becomes stale.

Instead, make sure that you have a clear method of updating and adding to your site. Insist on tools and/or functionality that’s easy to use, and learn how to use them.

4. How long will it take to finish?

The correct answer here is a site is never finished. An acceptable answer might be something like “Phase 1 will be done in 6 weeks.” There’s always room for improvements, tweaks, value-add-ons and other work to consistently make your site a better experience for your visitors. If they’re a blow-n-go shop you may find you’re abandoned 6 months down the road when you’re ready to revise/add to your site.

5. Are most of your solutions CSS or straight HTML based?

This gets a little technical but a CSS based site will give you much more flexibility than an HTML based site. CSS stands for cascading style sheets. With a CSS based site, the formatting elements for the entire site are controlled within a single file. Why should you care? It makes managing and tweaking a site much easier. Say for example you decide 3 weeks after the site launches you don’t like the font color. You can make a single edit to the CSS style sheet and the whole site changes. With an HTML based site the same change requires manually editing each and every page to make the same change. This blog is CSS based and I can change the ENTIRE look by clicking a button. That’s only possible with CSS.

Tech stuff aside, a shop that’s using CSS indicates they’re committed to the best of breed solutions.

5.5 How many other real estate sites have you done?

Conventional wisdom would say “go with a pro” someone who’s done a ton of real estate sites. But I’d challenge that notion. What you want is fresh thinking not been-there-done-that-so-here’s-your-site thinking. A shop that really understands usability, design and experiences but is light on real estate development could be just the ticket for a stunning fresh site. Remember, at the end of the day it’s not about what you think is great, it’s about what your visitors think is great. Sometimes we’re so in the bottle and can’t read the label that we need this outside perspective.

Happy hunting!

I had an interesting interview today with an applicant for a position with Altera. She was 25, college educated and well mannered.

I asked the question “Tell me how you use technology.”

She gave a long pause and responded with a puzzled “Technology? Gosh I’m not sure.”
In my mind it was game over - interview done.

Then I asked one more question.
“Do you have an iPod?” I asked
“Yes”
“Do you download music?”
Yes
“Do you have a facebook account?”
“Yes”
“Do you text message?”
“Yes”
“Do you have Tivo?”
“Yes”
“Do you have a Flickr account?”
“Yes”
“Do you have a wireless laptop?”
“Yes”
“Where do you use it?”
“Amantte”
“Skype?”
“Yes to my brother in England all the time”
“Google maps?”
“All the time”
“Online banking?”
“Most of my accounts”

“So,” I asked, “you’re not sure how you use technology?”
“I guess I just consider that stuff a way of life and don’t think of it as technology.”
“Right,” I said “kind of like how we don’t think of electricity to be made up of electrons.”

Are you ready for this kind of client?

What a great time of year it is!

I thought you might like to know that most of Altera’s photography is available online at full resolution and is free.

Some old skool shutterbugs may frown on this but we think it’s a lot better to get this stuff out there for people to see & use rather than sit locked up on our hard drives.

The pictures are covered under a creative commons license so you can’t sell them directly and if you do use a photo, you have to give attribution to us. So use them how you like for things like a brochure for your business or a greeting card to a friend etc.

So head on over to our account on flickr.com and check it out. We’re adding pics all the time and most are tagged on their mapping tool so you can see where the picture was taken .

Free stuff is fun!

Steamboat recently was home to a regional Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. Who knew there was such a thing? The nature of the game got me thinking about real estate companies. In Rock, Paper, Scissors is there really any strategy in picking one “device” over another? Not really. Often we end up picking a device for our throw that makes us feel good not because it has any greater chance of beating the other player. I tend to pick a rock because it “feels” like it has a better chance of winning but in reality, it doesn’t.

Is the same thing true for real estate companies?

If one takes a close look at Re/Max, Century 21 and Prudential are there really any concrete easily identifiable differences that a typical home buyer or seller will notice and more importantly value?

If one takes a close look at Re/Max, Century 21 and Prudential are there really any concrete easily identifiable differences that a typical home buyer or seller will notice and more importantly value? I don’t see them. They each have a slightly different message and slightly different position but I’m not sure consumers can really tell the difference. I could see how in a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors where Re/Max, Century 21, and Prudential are substituted we’d be faced with the same dilemma. Which to pick because each has about the same value? Which company has the resources and people to sell my home within my time frame and for the highest price? I know the differences between Schwab and Merrill or Mercedes and Kia or even Lowes Hotels and Hilton and I’ll make my decision based on my understanding of those differences.

Does the Re/Max balloon, a marketing idea hatched in 1978, really convey anything to the consumer today?

I see huge opportunities for small real estate companies not saddled by national marketing and branding to create new value by engineering their business in providing superior differences and value compared to the big guys. Does the gold jacket really matter to the consumer today? Does the Re/Max balloon, a marketing idea hatched in 1978, really convey anything to the consumer today? No & No. So I say to the small real estate company - GET BUSY! You have a huge opportunity while the big lumbering real estate companies stumble around.

The good news is that Google recently updated their “My Maps” service to allow users to embed a map they created into any web page.
The bad news is that Google recently updated their “My Maps” service to allow users to embed a map they created into any web page.

What this means to you is now you have a very rich mapping tool that you can use to display listings and relevant location based content.

And so does everyone else. Most Steamboat Springs realty websites are devoid of any mapping technology that’s worth a crap. Now there’s no excuse. Here is an example map complete with embeded videos that took me less than 10 minutes to create.

Click on a few of the icons, drag the map around and zoom in & out. All done without writing a line of code. Simple copy & paste. (NOTE: You may not be able to see this in an RSS reader so be sure to visit steamboatstories.com to view the map.)

View Larger Map

Before this upgrade the learning curve to create a map like this was quite steep. I spent hours translating lats & longs, coding & hacking to get a map to look & function like this.

This is an extremely powerful tool that helps give your clients context and information in a way they are increasingly expecting. Head on over to maps.google.com to create yours. You’ll need a Google account which is free.

Happy mapping!

The difference between marketing, PR, advertising & branding: