Every business must address the question, “Where are we going to invest our limited time, attention & resources?” The online space has huge implications for most businesses so it only makes sense to understand the commitment needed to whatever path is chosen.

For most businesses WordPress is the best choice.

Here are 3 key reasons to support that statement:

WordPress is Open Source

Many business people have no idea what open source is or what the benefits can be. A simple distinction of open source is: Original software source code which is made freely available and may be redistributed with or without modification.

For example Microsoft Windows is not open source – it’s not free and you can’t modify or redistribute it. The Linux operating system on the other hand is open source – it’s free (download it here) and you can make modifications to the code and redistribute it.

While it’s true that some open source software can be extremely technical, user unfriendly & geeky in nature WordPress has gained the reputation of being extremely user-friendly while retaining all the benefits of open source software. Ok, “whatever,” you say, “how does the open source nature of WordPress help make a strong business case?”

WordPress has gained HUGE traction of the past several years in part because of the software design & development approach (among other things) the good people of Automattic (the creators of WordPress) have chosen. WordPress has a culture, following & loyalty that some might say is similar to that of Apple.

This benefits the business owner because unlike software development being done purely for profit, the WordPress community can deliver very, very specific solutions and do so in much less time.

What this means to business is there are literally tens-of-thousands of developers actively contributing to the improvement, security & functionality of WordPress. Interestingly the motivation for many of WordPress developers isn’t financial but rather a love for the software. In many cases they are improving WordPress to scratch their own itch, solve a useful problem or simply show off their programming skills.

This benefits the business owner because unlike software development being done purely for profit, the WordPress community can deliver very, very specific solutions and do so in much less time. The issue with a for-profit software development company is that improvements must be done in such a way that the development, upgrade support, etc, makes economic sense. For most software development companies of any scale, a specific function needed to satisfy just a few hundred users isn’t economically viable.
But for a WordPress developer, who needs functionality to solve a specific problem, he can develop and distribute a plugin that solves the problem at no cost – and maybe that plugin only helps a few hundred people but it does so with no economic risk to the developer.

For a real world example look no further than the ubiquitous Facebook “Like” button available all over the web. While we now take the functionality of this little button for granted, back when Facebook made the announcement of this opportunity, no one knew how it would play out. While many for-profit software development companies took a wait & see attitude, the WordPress community had a working plugin to instantly add the “Like” functionality to a website the day of the announcement – for free.

The traction, developer loyalty and its open source nature makes WordPress of great benefit to businesses in terms of staying relevant and employing specific functionality.

WordPress Delivers the Complete Package

Ease of Use, Functionality, Design
Ease of Use
Ease of Use refers to the relative difficulty to add content, make changes and updates as well as perform routine maintenance and fixes.

In my experience the most frustrating aspect of a website for a business is making updates, changes and adding content. The pain points usually fall into one or more of these categories:

• The CMS has great looking front-end features but is extremely difficult to use.
• The backend looks like it was designed by a 14 year-old command line hacker.
• A third-party is required to make changes & updates.

Click to Zoom

Functionality
This refers to the ability for the CMS to adapt to your specific business needs. For example designers might need strong portfolio capabilities whereas a news organization might need strength in social media and rapid content creation.

Typically a company launches a new site with great fanfare built on a number of business model assumptions. As these assumptions are challenged, proven wrong or insufficient many businesses find themselves trapped with a CMS that can’t provide the functionality needed to satisfy visitors and differentiate them from their competitors.

A well designed user experience can drive greater sales, more revenue and customer engagement than just about any other aspect.

Design
The third critical component, design, is one that far too many businesses don’t prioritize highly enough. A well designed user experience can drive greater sales, more revenue and customer engagement than just about any other aspect. And yet so little attention is paid to the user experience. And while a custom design project can be time-consuming and expensive, the WordPress premium theme market can do much of the heavy design lifting. Because the front-end design is separate from the back-end content businesses can quickly create compelling web experiences.

By leveraging powerful & flexible CSS techniques, a small business can create a design experience that rivals any fortune 500 company for a fraction of the cost. The custom CSS options are literally endless – allowing a business to create an experience that exactly matches their brand.

Design Samples

WordPress as a Platform

The ability for a business to stay relevant, current and useful to customers is absolutely critical because customer attention has never been so difficult to capture. With customers using so many channels for information, a static, siloed website is no longer competitive.

When selecting a web platform, being able to adapt to the ultra-fast-paced online world is a key consideration. The last thing any business wants is to invest significant time, energy & resources into a solution only to find themselves irrelevant a short time later because technology has progressed past the businesses capabilities. We call this collection a “platform” in that it houses a number of functions all on one common infrastructure.

Click to Zoom

Features like social media integration, mobile capabilities, customer support, analytics and newsletter generation are just a few areas that need to be considered to offer an experience that meets customer expectations.

For example, at the time of this writing, less than 2 years ago the iPad was introduced. Now on its 3rd version, the iPad and iOS mobile platform has changed the entire content consumption universe. Content formatted for mobile should be a major part of any company’s online presence. And yet, creating that mobile experience is no easy task. In another example Pintrest.com is becoming a major online social destination. Quickly integrating Pintrest options into a company’s website can create a key marketing & competitive advantage. And yet most proprietary platforms can’t keep pace with the changing online landscape resulting in missed opportunities for businesses locked into their platform.

The “plugin” architecture allows endless possibilities of features & functions to be added to a WordPress platform.

The functionality, extensibility and open-source community make WordPress perhaps the most viable online platform technology for most businesses. The “plugin” architecture allows endless possibilities of features & functions to be added to a WordPress platform. But it’s not just the number of plugins available, it’s the degree to which very, very specific problems can be solved through plugins.

Because WordPress is open source, anyone on the world can create a plugin to provide any type of functionality. This is important because not only does it allow businesses to stay relevant but this functionality allows businesses to create experiences as unique as the business itself. This diagram represents a typical WordPress Online Platform:

Conclusion

Far too many businesses are locked into an online solution that’s no longer effective for them or their customers. Many other businesses may be using WordPress but don’t really know why. Perhaps they were led to WordPress by a suggestion from a business colleague or a reaction to online buzz. Understanding the business case for WordPress is a fundamental distinction most businesses never make. Having been in the online world for 17+ years in a number of roles including development, strategy, start-ups & consulting WordPress is the only platform I’ve encountered that has the flexibility, stability, security and functionality to serve as the center of most businesses online presence.

 
Learn more about how WordPress can enhance your business by hitting me up on Twitter, Google+ or contact me.

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

My HDR photography is ideal for real estate

So during this off-season I’m running a real estate photography sale. Any property photographed for only $499!
But there are only 10 packages available. Package includes:

• Stunning interior HDR photography
• Exterior photos
• Processing
• Delivery

Use Now or Save for Later

The Red Bell Ranch

When you want to use it is up to you. Use it now to capture fall colors or wait until the snow falls for a winter wonderland package. You have until February 14th to use the package.

With a money back guarantee on the photos there’s no risk.

(I’m only doing 10 of these so once they’re gone, they’re gone.)

Learn more about my photography services here or on my Steamboat Photography website www.Steamboatpics.com

Sample Before & After Photos

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Me & Matt Mulleneweg, Founder of WordPress

If any aspect of your marketing touches the web you should be using WordPress. WordPress is an incredible platform that’s gained tremendous traction over the past few years.
Let’s look at some facts:

• WordPress is the #1 open-source Content Management System in the world
• WordPress.com has more than 30 million accounts.
• Microsoft just closed it’s blogging service and migrated millions of accounts to WordPress.com
• WordPress is free.
• More freelance jobs are being done on WordPress than any other platform.
• Major companies like NTY, eBay, Time, Mashable.com, techCrunch.com and CNN all use WordPress

Interested? I hope so.
The fact is, you can out-distance your competitors, connect with customers and make more money using WordPress.

Ok, maybe you’re still not convinced. I get it – so I present to you 10 ways to use WordPress other than a blog.

1. Start a Q & A Site About Your Industry

Quora.com, StackOverflow.com and other Q&A sites are have become extremely successful. These Q & A sites have a ton of traction in-part because people want answers from real people. Why not start a Q & A site about your industry and let the people who care about your niche help each other out? With WordPress you can. Take a look at this Q & A solution:

Q & A Site

2. Host a News Aggregator About Your Industry

Sites like PopURLS.com and AllTop.com are extremely popular new aggregators. With WordPress you could make a news site full of current info about your industry. This is exactly what I did with www.SteamboatDaily.com

News Aggregator

3. Start a Paid Membership Site

Maybe you have an idea to start a paid membership site. With WordPress it’s a snap especially with a plugin like member.wishlistproducts.com/
WishList Member is a powerful solution for creating an online membership site – all built using WordPress as the core content management system.

Membership Site

4. Host an Auction

Be it a charity fundraiser, corporate or personal event, WordPress can be used to hold an online eBay style auction. These guys have built a fantastic plugin to create a full e-commerce enabled online auction: http://www.wpauctions.com/

Auction Site

5. Project Management

Looking for a low-cost, high quality solution for project management? Well, you guessed it, WordPress. CollabPress is an all in one project and task management plugin for WordPress. Transform a standard WP installation into a full featured project management application in a single click! Easily create unlimited projects, task lists, and tasks with all of the features you would expect.

Unlimited projects, task lists, tasks, and comments
Easily edit/delete projects, task lists, tasks, and comments
Email notifications for new tasks and comments
Task due dates with a calendar view
Uses built-in WordPress user accounts
Activity log tracking all activity
Multisite compatible
100% GPL and Free!
http://collabpress.org/

Project Management

6. Start a Discussion Group

Create a dynamic discussion with P2 for WordPress!
P2 is a theme for WordPress that transforms a mild-mannered blog into a super-blog with features like inline comments on the homepage, a posting form right on the homepage, inline editing of posts and comments, real-time updates so new posts and comments come in without reloading, and much more. Here’s a quick video tour of the best features:

7. Sell Stuff

WP e-Commerce is a free bolt-on shopping cart that lets customers buy your products, services and digital downloads online. They make setting up shop incredibly easy.
http://getshopped.org/

8. Coming Soon

Have an idea that’s not quite ready? There are a number of killer coming soon WordPress apps that allow you to show a countdown timer and collect info from interested people.

Coming Soon Page

9. Launch an Online Community

WordPress has an add-on component called BuddyPress allowing you to create a full-blown online social website.

Community Site

10. Event Registration

Sure there’s plenty of event registration services out there but you can set up your own with Event Espresso. I used an early version of Event Espresso for a conference last year and had great results.

Event Registration

As you can see, WordPress is an incredibly powerful platform and one that every business should be looking into.

Sign Up Already!

Ok, the best thing to do now is sign up for a priority invite. By signing up, you’ll get an invite before the general public and you’ll help me gauge interest & venue size.
What are you waiting for – Sign Up!

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

There’s been a great discussion in the comments of the original post and thanks to all who commented!
While there were some diverse opinions, the general consensus was the ad could be dramatically improved.

Find the 5 Mistakes - Click to Enlarge

It has… forever.

Why This Matters

The ad for the exercise represents two properties with an asking price of nearly $4 million each. In order for these properties to sell, someone is going to have to extract a worth of $4 million in perceived value from the property. They are going to have to be convinced and make an emotional connection that the property is worth $4 million. What makes this extremely challenging is that the pool for buyers at a multi-million dollar price point is extremely shallow and the pool for $4 million homes is extremely deep. Plenty of supply but little demand.

So every step along the sales cycle matters more than ever in the effort to create perceived value.

The Premise

Even though this may be viewed as a tactical exercise after all, it’s just an ad – there are some strategic observations that can be applied across the marketing spectrum.

1. People Don’t Read

They scan. They scan magazine pages, webpages, newspaper pages, twitter feeds, etc. Their eyes dart around the screen or page looking for something interesting. Advertisements are scanned even less.

You’re probably scanning this content right now to see if there’s something interesting — to get the essence of the content.

(Highlighted by the text in block quotes.)

Having conducted a number of eye-tracking and usability studies I’ve seen first-hand how easy it is for people to miss even the most important information.
Creating scannable marketing assets is key. Think “Scan-Ability” in everything you do.

2. No Second Chances

This property is on the market for $3.9 million per side. Less than 3/10 of 1% of the people in the U.S. can afford this property.
Even fewer are in the market to buy a home at any one time and even fewer still would be interested in a home in Steamboat.
Even fewer would actually be here and see this property in a magazine.
So for the perhaps the small handful of qualified, interested, potential buyers per quarter who might see the ad it better be compelling. You’re not getting a second chance. This is why print magazines are so tough for single property-type marketing – the frequency and reach for this target market is very low.

With these two points in mind, here are 5 issues with the ad along with commentary on how this ad can be improved to better connect with a potential buyer.

1. Hotmail

Click to Zoom

Just about every commenter had an issue with the Hotmail e-mail address. So do I. It’s a professional credibility issue. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail e-mail addresses are fine for personal e-mail but a Hotmail or similar account for business is unprofessional. It lacks credibility. For example spammers, scammers and Internet crooks all use Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc. and we’ve developed associations from those experiences. Those negative associations hinder the process of establishing trust in the early stages of a relationship.

For some reason many in real estate continue to use such an email address. I can’t figure out why this is so prevalent in real estate while other professions got the message a long time ago.
A professional company e-mail address is a must.

2. Duplicate Photo

NAR research shows that 84% of buyers consider photos the most important piece of information about the property. In this case a crop photo repeat of the gondola car doesn’t reinforce the value of the property, add context to the narrative or aid in the scan-ability of the ad. In addition the placement of the photo in the center causes an unnatural break in the text. A stunning interior, detail or view photo could have been a great hook to pull a reader in.

We see issues related to photography perhaps more than any other. This is completely at odds with what buyers want to help them extract value and make a decision. Photography is at the heart of marketing because people want passive visuals that help them determine if a marketing message is worth their time. Again, photography speaks to the “scan-ability” of a marketing message.

3. Copy/Information

Click to Zoom

Since we know people initially scan it’s important to present critical marketing information in a way that scannable and easy to understand.

This text is just the opposite.
The treatment of all caps with a mono–spaced font is almost painful to read and impossible to scan.
The main selling and differentiating points of this property should be easy to find, easy to read and easy to understand.

Click to Zoom

Unfortunately this copy gives no indication of price, property scope or even property type. This is a $4 million property and yet the last line reads “a must see for any buyer.”
No it isn’t.

Finally, a grammar error in the third sentence puts the nail in the coffin of this copy.

The trend we see in real estate is to write uninspiring, generalized, one-size-fits-all copy while using the same tired descriptions over and over. Go read a few more descriptions and you’ll quickly become numb to the echo-chamber of:
“amazing views”
“views, views, views”
“Exquisite”
“Views”
“Luxury”

This is completely at odds with the social-media driven cultural shift to authenticity, tone/voice and transparency.
Once someone makes that initial scan and decides they’re interested, copy gives an opportunity to connect. The copy should be meaningful and relevant.

Having conducted a number of eye-tracking and usability studies I’ve seen first hand how easy it is for people to miss even the most important information.

4. Who is in Charge?

Click to Zoom

The ad contains three different entities for contact:

• The developer
• An individual
• A brokerage

From an interested buyer’s perspective this is confusing and adds unnecessary clutter to the ad. This ad can be improved by providing a single clear contact.

Real estate developments typically have a number of “cooks in the kitchen” all wanting exposure and credit for the project. Many brokers even admit they use their listing’s marketing as a primary way to market themselves. But for marketing to be effective all the egos and ulterior motives need to be put aside and the focus put on what’s in the best interest of the potential buyer. Put the buyer’s need for simplicity and clarity first. Don’t make the potential buyer think.

Internet adoption in real estate is still too low and much of what is being created is way behind what’s needed to meet consumer expectations and be competitive.

5. No Online Resource

Click to Zoom

We know that 90% plus of real estate buyers begin their search online. I’d go so far as to say an even higher percentage of second homebuyers begin online.

And yet this ad offers no web address for someone to find more information. For an $8 million property this is a lost opportunity. Even the developer’s domain is without a website.

Internet adoption in real estate is still too low and much of what is being created is way behind what’s needed to meet consumer expectations and be competitive.

In this case, a memorable domain with a simple landing page containing property information and a short contact form would be a good start. It would provide the added benefit of being able to track the ad’s effectiveness. Get on the web or get out of business.

Summary
What’s encouraging to know is that all recommendations are essentially free. More attention to detail and understanding of how a medium can best be used can go a long way to improve marketing results. What are your thoughts?
Thanks for reading!

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Find the 5 Mistakes - Click to Enlarge

There are at least 5 mistakes in this ad that, if avoided, would make this ad much more effective. Can you find them?

(The fact that it’s print isn’t one of them )

Leave your thoughts in the comments and I’ll follow-up with answers in a few days.

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Today I’m launching a new venture called Web Camp. To some this will be really special. I say ‘some’ because it’s not for everyone. Web Camp is an advanced 4-day camp where we, (I emphasize ‘we’ meaning up to 8 Campers) build a complete online marketing platform.

This isn’t a watered-down generic, one-size fits all opportunity. Instead Web Camp is an advanced and intense 4-days focused on results for a few passionate, fun, smart business people.

The result of Web Camp is an online marketing platform providing everything a business needs to be competitive, connect with customers and control their online marketing. By combining up to 8 Campers at the same time we can offer so much more value at much less cost. The total cost for Web Camp is $1895. Campers must apply & be accepted and each Web Camp is limited to a max of 8 and needs a minimum of 4.

Why Web Camp?

To be competitive in today’s world you need much more than a simple website. Competition, your current & future customers are raising the bar for what it means to do business. Businesses who connect with their customers & prospects on their terms have a significant advantage over their competitors.

Click to Enlarge - Web Camp Platform

Breaking the Budget Barrier

Is it possible for a company with a budget of less than $2000 to get a complete online marketing platform?

No.

$2k isn’t a lot of money but I’ve met with plenty of business owners willing to spend that amount, on something whether it works for them or not. With that budget constraint I found two solutions, neither of which are very compelling.

There’s the ‘Website in a Box’ solution – a simple point & click, very canned, inflexible, online service that ranges in price from $7 to $19.99 per month. There are so many problems with these services I don’t know where to begin but let’s just say, these solutions aren’t something you want to hang your online hat on.

Then there’s the ultra cheap solution from the local ‘web shops,’ you know the usual suspects. You get not much more than a website-in-a-box but at a much steeper price and in the end there’s still no client control of the content & growth.

(I suppose the third is the ‘DIY’ approach that usually produces the worst result of all.)

So I thought it’s time to rethink this whole thing.

The mandate became find a way to produce an online marketing platform to include the top elements that all online marketing platforms should have:

• A content management system (CMS) so content can be easily added & updated
• Easily supports multimedia
• Is, for the lack of a better term, Web 2.0+. Meaning uses CSS and had a strong focus on design aesthetic & usability.
• Has Social Media functionality and integration
• Has an automatic mobile component to render & display properly on a mobile device (iPhone, etc)
• Has Search Engine Optimization features
• Includes analytic reporting.
• Is self-sustaining; the owner can not only own but also operate.
• Is future-proof; this platform can grow & change as the web grows & changes.

What I found was this cannot be done, as a service, for under $2k.

But, and this is a big but, that’s the case when considering one single project at a time – the traditional way of looking at it. What if multiple projects were conducted at the same time, in the same venue, with the same set of tools & objectives? That’s a whole different picture.

Thus, Web Camp

Web Camp isfor businesses who need to be competitive, need to reach new customers and who want the best use of their marketing dollars and management time. By combining a number of projects together, the economics make sense on both sides. The business owner is able to get a set of marketing assets that make their business more valuable and competitive at an investment level they can afford.

The key to make this happen lies in-part, with recent developments in open-source tools in terms of traction, maturity & support along with the advancement of front-end design options. These two things make Web Camp possible.

By rethinking the traditional approach to project & online development it’s my belief that a business can now get a complete marketing platform that would have easily cost $15k+ for less than $2000.

4-Days

But there’s one more thing. To make this approach even better, it has to be done in 4 days.

Why?

Because business owners & entrepreneur types need focus. They need the constraint of a compressed time period to get it done and out to the world. We’ve spent an enormous amount of time creating a Web Camp program that delivers these results in 4 days.

[box type="note"]Web Camp starts November 18th and is open to the first 8 who apply and are accepted.[/box]

Who’s winning online – you or your competitor?

Click to Enlarge

How do you know?
Understanding how your online presence stacks up against the competition is an important step in providing a better experience for your customers.

You can get a free report that’s an easy to read and understand technical assessment of how your site performs against your top competitor.
We’ll analyze your online presence against your competitor and email you the results in a personalized PDF.
[button style="info" color="silver" link = "http://www.webcamp.co/info/site-assessment/"]Get Your Report[/button]
[hr]

Interested?

For more info head over to the Web Camp Site

www.WebCamp.co

[button color="red" link="http://www.webcamp.co/apply/"]Apply to Web Camp[/button]

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Sadly, much of what we see in real estate are poor Excel spreadsheet graphs that are hard to understand and uninspiring. Most often they don’t give proper context or help a buyer or seller make a decision.

I think the opportunity is to consider “infographics.”

Infographics, if done well, are a powerful way to simplify an often complex set of data or complex situation. To get an idea of the power of infographics, there are a number of sites dedicated to showcasing infographics such as ChartPorn.org and WallStats.com. It’s fascinating to see the clever & well thought out graphics created to help better explain an often difficult subject.

For example, here’s an infographic illustrating how people get hurt at Burning Man (source).

Click to enlarge

Using this format, it’s easy to understand the context of different types of injuries and it’s done in a way that’s enjoyable to read.

Infographic Concepts

Here are three simple, demonstration real estate infographic concepts designed to immediately deliver a lot of information and value.
(Note: Data used is for illustration purposes only. Please do your own research to make accurate representations.)

Cost per Square Foot Value

When someone is in the market for a second home, vacation home or retirement home it’s fair to assume they’re comparing several different markets. This infographic clearly shows the value of this market compared to its competitors by actually giving a real-world scale of what you get in terms of price per square foot. This graphic goes way beyond the empty statement that Steamboat is a “great value.” This graphic actually shows what that value is and does so immediately. In fact, it’s so powerful, it’s unlikely for someone serious about these communities to ever forget this image. Why buy in Aspen when you can get so much more here?

Infographics, if done well, are a powerful way to represent an often complex set of data or complex situation.

Give Meaning to the Market Report

Click to enlarge

Market reports typically give a narrow sales snapshot or a comparison of sales year-over-year. The problem with that approach, aside from the terrible Excel graphs, is that it doesn’t show what’s driving the numbers.

This approach, illustrating the current and past market inventory, is powerful because the concept of supply and demand is one a client can understand. The chart also gives a bit of a forecast into the future. A client can see that with so many homes in the market it’s going to take longer for their home to sell. This infographic goes further by defining the Buyer/Seller market zones.

Homes sold & prices only tell so much but seeing the current inventory on the market and the associated trends gives more insight into what’s going on. This is especially useful when dealing with an unrealistic seller. If a seller can see their home will be in a crowded market they’ll have more incentive to price accordingly. I have yet to see anyone use an approach like this.

Illustrate Open Space

Click to enlarge

One of the key advantages this community has over its competitors (Vail, Aspen, Telluride, Crested Butte) is the amount of open space our properties have. This infographic clearly shows Steamboat leading the way in open space per property by a wide margin. If a buyer places a high value on open space it’s immediately clear how compelling Steamboat is.

Real estate for most people is a complex animal. The more you can simplify their understanding of the markets, data implications and align the information with what they value , the more successful you and your company will be.

UPDATE

Just after posting this I ran across this terrific video on Data Visualization

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bonus: There’s a bunch of cool real estate related infographics here.

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

I’m hosting a free 1/2 day conference on March 12. We have some great speakers coming to Steamboat to present and the announcement goes out to the public Monday morning.

To say thanks for reading my blog I’m opening up the first 15 seats to you now (there’s only 60 seats).

All the details are here: www.steamboatedge.com

Thanks for reading and I hope you can make it.

About the Conference
What a rough few years for real estate. The way we see it, you can either continue to do things the way you’ve always done them, hoping for the best or you can embrace the new-normal and move forward. This conference is about moving forward; the future of real estate marketing.

2008: “Oh S%#t, is this really happening?”

2009: “Can we just hang on?”

2010: “Time to move forward!”

Because there are so many properties and so few buyers, marketing has become the centerpiece of any successful real estate business. At the same time, the face of marketing has changed. The “bullhorn” & “how many people can we reach” approach to marketing costs more & is less effective. It’s time to consider new opportunities to connect buyers & sellers and do it earlier & more effectively.

Buyers have more choice, more education and less time than ever before. While you may have fewer financial resources the good news is there are more opportunities than ever before. Somewhere there’s a place where these two things cross & success happens. This conference is about moving your business forward with new approaches & opportunities.

Conference Details:

March 12, 2010
8:30am – 12:30pm
Catamount Golf Club

Head over to the conference site for more details & RSVP

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

One of the most interesting aspects of Twitter is live search. Through the use of live search we can, for the first time, “listen in” on public conversations. It’s that ability to listen to what’s being discussed on just about any topic that makes Twitter such a powerful medium.  We can search for just about any keyword and get instant results of what’s being said right now.

So I set up a page that gives you real-time, auto-refreshing search results of Twitter real estate terms. The default results are from the phrase “real estate” and with a click of a link  you can narrow the results to Colorado & Steamboat real estate. Plus I added a search box to view the results for any term you like.

Click to check it out.

What do you think? Is Twitter being used in an effective way to engage people? If you were in the market would this be a helpful medium?

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Tactic Treadmill

If  you want to improve your fitness you have a lot of options and one of them might be a treadmill. The thing about treadmills is that you do a lot of work, spend a lot of time & energy and you don’t really get anywhere. As soon as the treadmill stops, the value stops.

You also have a number of choices to improve your business. It turns out there’s been one very popular choice I call the “tactical treadmill of business.” It looks something like this: You need customers so you place an ad in the newspaper. After that runs for a while it’s time to place an ad in the quarterly magazine  (where  it takes an enormous amount of time to get the ad  just right). Along the way you do a little direct mail trying to connect with people in your “database.”  As soon as that’s done it’s time to advertise in the newspaper again. And around and around and around it goes looking something like this:

Click to enlarge

If we plot the value of the Tactical Treadmill versus time we get a graph that used to look something like this:

Value vs Time

In the past, using the Treadmill had some certainty of a return but now there are two big problems with relying on the tactical treadmill of business.

First, when the treadmill goes away so does the value. When cash is tight and you spend less, the value is much less. Hop off the treadmill and all the value disappears. All that stuff is now in the landfill.

Second, many of the key elements that the treadmill depended on have changed. Advertising costs and response rates are going in opposite directions; ad rates are going up & response rates are going down. The number of information channels are going up at the same time our attention span is going down. At my house, for example, TV shows don’t start at 7:00 p.m., they start at 7:20 because we record them, skip the commercials and we’re still done by 8:00.

When the treadmill goes away so does the value.

Successful businesses have abandoned the Tactic Treadmill and are focusing their efforts on creating new value and connecting with customers in more meaningful ways.

As you look to the new year how about a different approach? I’d like to suggest an approach that gets you off the tactical treadmill and results in a graph that looks something like this:

Get off The Treadmill

The hard part is this approach isn’t worth very much when you start. But over time it has the potential to outperform the tactical treadmill and won’t be subject to the same downward forces as traditional media.

If you can begin to leverage some of the new opportunities of today, you’ll start to grow and develop marketing & permission assets that don’t go away, don’t diminish over time and continue to provide value as you move forward.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be posting a series of articles on ways to do this.

- How to listen & why it’s the best thing you can do now.
– How successful companies are realigning their business to satisfy customers.
– The biggest change traditional media wishes you didn’t know about.
– Why the new stuff isn’t the old stuff.

Thanks for reading!

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology