What is wrong with Zillow and many other online real estate marketing solutions? There are many things wrong with them. In this article, we will highlight the user and agent frustrations when it comes to real estate marketing online. 

I spent 8 years as a Mortgage Lender and I was right in the center of the Zillow vortex myself. I had agents asking me to co-op with them on Zillow because they felt that it was the best source for leads. I actually gave in to it and spent money in order to get leads. Even then, I always thought it was crazy to spend money with a company that was charging agents for leads on their very own listings. 

Zillow, as well as Trulia and Realtor.com, are one of the most popular real estate marketing solutions online. They have become the Google of Real Estate. Zillow alone lists information about millions of homes for sale and rent across the United States and Canada. Users can search for a home in any area using different categories such as prices, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, type of home, and other amenities. It’s an awesome tool for consumers but an absolute headache and nightmare for brokers and agents.

These websites are built to be easy to use and navigate however the process ends up being longer and more strenuous than calling a real agent or brokerage. Most of these real estate websites are traps for weak leads all for the purpose of making revenue for the necessary “Evil”. Many Real Estate agents fall for these services and with so many options of services to pay for from zip codes to live transfers, they make it seem like it is the easiest and cheapest way to get leads pouring in. 

One big problem is “The Zestimate”. Both the buyers and the sellers LOVE  Zestimate. The Zestimate works off an algorithm that uses the surrounding area to determine a property’s value but doesn’t account for the condition of the surrounding area or the subject property that is getting valued. This inaccuracy leads to misinterpretation of the actual properties being sold all because of Zillow’s slothful algorithm and lack of consumer support.

Zillow is just an algorithm that does not know anything else aside from the data being fed to it. A true real estate agent and a broker will know their neighborhood and properties like the back of their hand. These agents and brokers will guide you through every step of the way until you get the quality home you want and deserve. 

Buyers love Zillow and there is no shortage of people going to their site daily. People love the accessibility, they love the pre-foreclosures, they love easy to search, and they love “the Zestimate”. But there is another way people can view homes in their community and that way is to build your brand. Anybody can be their own brand you just have to be involved with your community online and offline. This way buyers and sellers can come straight to you and have a more human experience when making a life-changing decision such as buying the home of their dreams.

The Online Beast is constantly fed by agents and lenders that allow them to grow. Some the same people that gripe about Zillow turn right around and pay their next bill to them. Some look at it as a necessary evil for their online presence. I believe a lot of that thinking is because they do not trust in their own efforts to grow a brand or to set up a system of their own to attract clients. 

If Zillow continues to grow, you will eventually see them eliminate some agents in the industry. I honestly believe that it will cause teams to continue to grow in order to have the revenue to continue their lead cycle as they become more and more dependent on the outside sources that they depend on. After all, Zillow has the database and the system. 

My final thoughts. What if Zillow goes away tomorrow, what would you do then?

Ecommerce has been growing for the last decade. Online sales have jumped up nearly 20% within two years, and are only going up. If you’re starting a business and selling a product or a service, an e-commerce site is essential in order to expand your business.

There are tons of options available to you whenever you decide to get an e-commerce website. This article will highlight the top 5 things to consider when choosing an e-commerce platform and some extra tips on how to increase your online sales.

1. Cost

The first thing you should consider when searching for an e-commerce platform is the price. Whether you’re a small business just getting started or an already established brick & mortar business moving online, you need to know the exact cost of your new online shop.

The best platforms all have a monthly fee. Depending on the type of platform you get (self-hosted vs. hosted) the costs may vary. You should also consider the processing fees that will be associated with the platform. You should also consider how your customers will be paying. Some platforms don’t offer the ability to pay via third-party vendors (such as PayPal). If your platform does not have the necessary apps or plugins for checkouts, the customer may become irritated and abandoned the cart. Try to weigh the pros and cons of each to get the best for your budget.

2. Integrations

One of the biggest factors in choosing an e-commerce platform is the apps and plugins available on it. Most platforms will have plenty of tools for you to run your business. Your business needs to be top of mind when deciding on the plugins that will work best for you and your business. When looking at different platforms, think of what tools you’ll need or already use for your business.  Here are some of the most popular types of plugins that you should look out for:

• Accounting plugins to help with sales, taxes, revenues, and profits
• Email marketing tools to help you keep in contact with your customers
•  Sales platform that helps you reward your customers for using your products
• Apps to help with shipping your products
• Apps for reviews
• Analytics tools to help track your data
• Seo tools to help rank your site

3. Mobile Friendliness

Nearly 70% of searches are done from mobile devices? This percentage is only going to increase as phones become more powerful and available to more people. Often those searches continue to the add cart and first-time users purchase because of the availability of having a phone. Shopify has an excellent app that is also user-friendly so you can see everything happening on your e-commerce in your pocket. This means it’s important to look for platforms that are mobile-friendly and allow customers to easily access your website as well as make a purchase on their mobile device.

4. Customer Service

Arguably the most important part of any business is customer service. The experience provided by traditional brick-and-mortar businesses are based in a physical store, they have more control over how smoothly their business runs.

E-commerce is similar in the front end. You can control everything from top to bottom you just have to figure out how. There are many blogs on how to run an e-commerce store to help you get the best out of your business and maintain it.

On the back-end of each e-commerce platform, it’s mainly apps and plugins. The front end should be the main focus because it is the only thing the customer sees. Your product page should have professional photography as well as a good description underlining why people should buy your product or service.

Another thing that your product page needs are plenty of reviews. Search if there is an app for reviews on the e-commerce platform you are looking at or any other apps and/or plugins for customer service and checkout. The checkout must be quick and as painless as possible.

5. Scalability

All business owners hope their business will grow in the future, but you may not know how much and how quickly. Nonetheless, it’s important to look for a platform that will scale along with your business.

You don’t want to pay for features and storage that you’re not using when you first start out. You also want to keep up with higher demands as your business takes off. Choose a platform that you can scale to your business size and that won’t charge you extra fees for doing so.

Conclusion

Choosing an e-commerce platform can take some time, however, once you know what you are looking for you are well on your way to building your online business. We recommend Shopify because it is user-friendly, reasonably priced, has many apps, and is scalable. Shopify has everything you need to grow your business and more.

1. Blogs increase Seo

No matter the size of your business, posting regularly gives your potential customers more reasons to click. You can help them stay there too, with the help of a call to action. .For example, if you’re a Gym company writing a blog post about building muscle, you might add a call to action at the end saying “If you still have more questions, get in touch and we can help!” You would also link that blog to your contact page and close.

“Customers will look to you as a reliable resource for information in your industry, then come to you to buy.”

ake sure you use 1–2 keywords that match the intent of your ideal reader. Use those keywords in specific parts of your post; page title, a section header, the body of the blog post, and the URL. If you’re generating content at least once or twice a week, that’s one or two more keywords for a given topic.

2. Advertise Your Brand

A blog allows you to show more personality to your business that your audience won’t see through sales & marketing techniques. We maintain a blog for one of our clients, a Gym Business in local to Calhoun. We identified a customer persona we would assume when writing content:

•  Inform without being demeaning
•  Use quotes from staff to show direct, extensive knowledge
•  The human body is weird and funny, lean into that & produce
•  content that others will relate to
•  Use “I” and “you” statements,

a conversational tone leads to higher interaction. This type of content allows you to show the passion you have for your business and industry. Passion is contagious, and your blog’s readers will feel the excitement too. Blogging also gives others a vision of your company. And any Q&A’s your audience may have.

3. Blogs Show Competence

If you’re showing up on search engines as the number one place for Accounting, for example, that’s great! Users see your name and might even click on your website. However, many people are searching for specific accountants: How do I get a tax accountant? Where should I start looking for a financial accountant? Blogs will help you niche down into the right location on the web.

A blog post allows you to answer commonly asked questions. They give evidence that you know what you’re talking about. business does in more specific terms than an about page.

4. Blogs Make Great Content

Quality blog posts give you great content to share on social media. Think of your blog as the heart of all of your content marketing efforts. It’s great for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email newsletters, e-books, and more. Blog articles are also ideal to share in email newsletters. This gives you a broader message to share.

“Blogs can show your business has more personality and there are many more pros to them.”

On a blog, you can be a lot more yourself than anywhere else on your website. You can answer questions and respond to comments. If sharing on social media, this opens your company up to even more opportunities to connect to your audience.

5. Blogs Build Audiences

Customers who read your blog are 90% more likely to click on your website. That improves your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) making your website more likely to rise to the top of Google. In addition, the more you blog, the more traffic you get. There are no guidelines for blogging, but you should have a strategy in mind so that you’re posting regularly.

blogs can serve many purposes:

•  To increase Seo and Reach on searches
•  To help advertise your brand
•  To show that you are an expert in your industry
•  Blogs make great content to share with all your audiences

“We give you insights on your company and go the extra mile for your business goals”

A Brief History ⚡️

BrandLyft launched with the simple mission: To help the brands and entrepreneurs in our area connect with their customers and implement business strategies to grow beyond. What started as a local business consulting and social media management agency, grew to the hustler-driven business consulting & marketing agency you know today.

Contact Us

If this Article was informational, get in touch & find out what custom software solutions we can create for your business.

Email: [email protected]

Lead Dragon is the Ultimate Automation & Text Messaging Platform built to manage a Businesses Follow up, two-way texting, pipeline, scheduling, and so much more.

What our users are saying

Never worry about your salespeople or marketing campaigns letting leads go cold. We facilitate and create meaningful conversations with all your lead and sales sources.

Get More Online Customers Consistently.

Lead Dragon is the most powerful nurture & sales tool that grows your business and gives you actual results. Feel the Dragon.

Reactivate Your Existing Lead Database

Import an email list, and send a bulk SMS text and email campaign with triggers and sequences to reactivate any potential interest in a cold database. Capture the leads, and get alerted when someone has booked an appointment, call, or asks a question that needs a human answer.  

Automatic Call-Pushing Built For Speed

When a Lead, Opt-In, or Trigger comes in, you can automatically push a phone call to contact your leads. Harness the speed of LeadDragon.

Centralized Analytics Dashboard

Track stats such as appointment rates, campaign effectiveness, and even response/open rates. Forget reports and gluing together reporting tools.

Built-In 2-Way Messaging Platform

Harness the power of SMS texting or Messenger. Increase the speed of all conversation channels all in one easy-to-use platform. Never let a lead get cold!

Built-In Appointment Management

Use our built-in calendar or integrate with Google Calendar to set and manage appointments. With triggers, you can create mini-campaigns for no-show appointments and reminders!

 Full SMS Text Automation Sequences

Follow up with an automated SMS text drip that can be scheduled at any predetermined window. Use it for appointment reminders, text drips or delivering lead magnets.  

Automated Follow Up Campaigns

You’ll be able to create automated follow-up campaigns to any Lead, Prospector existing Clients all in one central place. Combine the power of SMS and email in one powerful follow up system.

Ringless Voicemail Marketing Capabilities

Drop a Voicemail to any contacts automatically using a pre-recorded message. We have the same features of SlyBroadcast & much more including call-recording for training purposes.

Full Email Marketing Drip Automation

Follow up on new leads or an existing list with an automated email drip sequence that can be scheduled at any predetermined window. Create full sequences based on your lead sources.

Reviews Manager For Your Business Listings

We help your business grow by automatically generating more positive reviews. Get customer feedback, increase your Google local rankings, reputation up, and help your overall SEO Trust Score.

Here is a list of our favorite software, equipment, and services we use in our business almost daily. These are the building blocks and foundational tools we use to record, edit, and flesh out our podcast episodes for ourselves and our clients. We’ve used a ton of different softwares and tools in the past, but these are the tried and true, the well tested and have the fullest recommendation from us.

Podcast Equipment (Tools)

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 2 In/2 Out USB Recording Audio Interface

Audio-Technica BPHS1 Broadcast Stereo Headset with Dynamic Boom Mic

Sony Alpha III with 28-75mm FE Lens

Director’s Chair x 2

Victiv 72-inch Camera Tripod Aluminum Monopod T72 Max. Height 182 cm

MOUNTDOG 1350W Photography Continuous Softbox Lighting Kit 20″X28″

2X Tascam DR-10L Studio Recorder Lavaliere Microphones + 2X TH-02-B Headphones + 2X Sandisk 32GB Audio Bundle

Software

Audacity 

Audacity is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. A sweet tool to edit all of you audio clips.

Agorapulse 

Agorapulse is a social media management tool that helps you schedule your content, get reports, and engage followers with one simple tool.

Anchor.FM 

Anchor is an all-in-one platform where you can create, distribute, and monetize your podcast from any device, for free.

WhereBy

Whereby is a flexible tool providing you with video meetings, screen sharing, and recording in the browser! – no downloads & no logins for guests.

We made this list because you kept asking! If you need any additional help or have some questions, feel free to schedule a call.

As marketers, we love tried and tested. We walk the road well-traveled, lacking the time, the budget or the opportunity to try strategies that won’t guarantee you results.

But now and then, something comes along that will disrupt your methods. And it’s up to you whether you jump in when it’s new, or wait until it’s been tested. Often by your competitors.

That disruptor is TikTok.

The rise and rise of TikTok

As part of Talkwalker’s social media trends analysis, we’ve seen a big change in consumer habits, especially when it comes to social networks. While the average time spent on social media is increasing, how we divide that time over different platforms is having the biggest impact. And the new player that’s taking a slice of our social media time, is TikTok.

TikTok is a social media video app for creating and sharing short lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos. Barely 2 years old, the platform is now the fourth largest in the world, hitting 500 million active monthly users in June 2018. And remaining one of the most downloaded social media apps.

For 2020, social media marketers need to start looking away from the big 4 (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter), and start including new platforms like TikTok into the mix. Here are 5 reasons why.

1. Building communities

The way people are consuming social is changing. It’s becoming less about what you are doing as an individual, and more about what you can do as a community.

Sharing ideas, starting conversations with like-minded people, building community projects – that’s what matters. The major channels saw this coming, focusing on groups as part of their strategy. Facebook now has over 400 million group members across the globe.

Although there isn’t a group element in TikTok, you can see community is at the heart of the platform. Much of the content is trend-driven, with people creatively responding to other people’s videos. Duets are a great example of this, with users able to add responses to other videos, for real collaboration.

TikTok is providing the kinship users desire, while avoiding the potential toxicity on other platforms.

2. Anti-marketing marketing

Generation Z doesn’t like advertising. 51% of them now use ad-blockers when browsing. That means the traditional strategies of SMA and SEA won’t work as well for them as previous generations.

Instead, you need to be less invasive. It ties back to that sense of community. These savvier social media users are willing to engage with brands on their level. So when you’re building brand stories that incorporate your community, you’re on to a winner.

TikTok is an ideal platform for this. Brands are now building their own channels on the platform, with content adapted to suit the TikTok audience. Which is already paying off. The NFL started advertising on the platform in September 2019, and amassed over 541K fans.

NFL has mastered content creation designed to suit the TikTok audience.

3. User-generated content

User-generated content is also one of our trends for this year. And that links to another major concern for this generation: authenticity. 90% of Millennials say authenticity is important to them when it comes to choosing the brands to support.

Due to the increase of fake news, consumers trust in social media has declined over the last few years. Although each platform is working hard to fight this issue, TikTok has the advantage due to its newness. It drives authentic content as part of its design.

And that’s because of its focus on UGC. It’s the most authentic content available, relying not on marketing strategy, but consumer advocacy – that people want to talk about your brand only because they love it.

As part of your TikTok strategy, ensure you encourage UGC whenever possible. Be part of the conversation, and help shape that conversation towards your brand.

4. Instant, raw trendjacking

Social media is quick. Being on trend is essential if you want to be seen as a relevant brand, and if you want to drive engagement as much as possible.

Speed usually comes at a cost to production value – but the good thing is, that doesn’t matter as much anymore.

Users are more willing to forgive raw, less polished content if it’s right on trend.

This isn’t a strategy specifically for TikTok. It can work just as effectively on Twitter, where short, sharp messages can cut through the noise quickly. But TikTok has nurtured a platform of raw, unfiltered content that you can create with minimal effort and time.

An example of quick, raw content that engaged as it was right on trend.

5. Nano influencers

Influencer marketing will still be a major part of marketing in 2020. Though expect the change in audience to disrupt that too.

Influencers are no longer the people we expect. As part of the issues with authenticity, and the increase in more discerning social media users, celebrity influencers are on the wane. There’s too many dangers associated with using these large audience influencers. That and consumers don’t want to be sold to by the stars they feel disconnected from, instead turning to the smaller, niche experts that have built the communities and content they enjoy.

This isn’t just a trend for TikTok. We’ve seen this turn towards micro (upto 100K followers) and even nano-influencers (upto 1000 followers) across all social media channels.

But TikTok is perfect for nano-influencers. There aren’t the established influencers that you’d find on other channels. And the platform allows anyone to quickly and easily build a community around their content, amazing views in a fairly short period of time.

TikTok – the 2020 social media disruptor
TikTok is still a new platform. And while it’s not tried and tested, it does hold the potential for anyone willing to take a risk on it.

2020 is going to be the year that social media marketing gets disrupted, and we will see consumers bouncing around platforms other than the big 4. The question is, if your audience migrates to a platform like TikTok, will you be there to greet them?

This article was originally written on Business2Community

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We’re super excited to announce that we’ve launched our series of business, sales, and marketing Podcast called “Full Potential”. This podcast will overlap over the common things that business owners think about when growing their businesses and taking it to the next level. We’ll talk about our “BrandLyft” formula of identifying where a business cycle in growth is at, invite awesome industry expert guests, and keep you at the head of the marketing industry. Our host will be our CEO, Shawn Greenway. You be able to listen to our podcast on Anchor.FM , Spotify, iTunes, & Google Podcasts.

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