In a Digital World, Will a Real Estate Agent Become Obsolete?
With the rapid evolution of technology, jobs that used to require good old-fashioned human attention are now automatic, creating efficiency through high-tech, advanced computer programs. Conspiracy theorists speak of the “rise of the robots,” like something out of the 1990s trilogy The Matrix. Today, searching for a new home can be as simple as a Google search. Key in a few target words, and you can find side-by-side listings, complete with features and price assessments. As such, many people may be left wondering: What is the value of a real estate agent? If sellers can easily put their homes on the market with a few clicks of a button, and buyers can peruse listings from the comfort of their homes, then why invest the time and money to work with a middleman to help broker a deal? Throughout the past decade, the role of a real estate agent has shifted dramatically. Whereas once real estate agents were the primary lifeblood of the industry, with their fingers on the pulse of markets, prices and top investments, many of these traditional functions are no longer necessary due to technological advances. Of course, it’s not that simple. Even in a world where everything is automatic, a good real estate agent offers a goldmine of expertise. Like with any service industry, it pays to have an expert to help. A seasoned expert can help a purchaser navigate the difficult terrain of the home buying process, or can help a seller get the best price for his or her investment. Part professional marketer, part community expert and part customer service representative, the real estate agent must be able to solve problems on the fly and be able to effectively communicate with clients. Notably, many real estate agents and agencies have fallen behind in keeping up with technology. The average age of a real estate agent is 55 years old, meaning that some more mature agents may not be keeping up with the rapid changes in the technological landscape. Therefore, real estate agents who are able to use a variety of services have a distinct advantage over their competitors. Rather then expressing concern about their jobs becoming obsolete, real estate agents should instead leverage new technologies for their own advantage. For example, potential buyers who can see side-by-side listings may not understand the nuances of legal language, discrepancies in prices, or the added value of certain home features. Real estate marketers who strive to keep up with new technologies can better communicate with potential clients. For example, a commercial real estate agent trying to build rapport with a foreign investor may wish to communicate via Skype, as the simulation of face-to-face context offers psychological advantages in terms of positive interactions. Data management tools for realtors can also increase efficiency. Calendar invitations are superior organizational tools to monthly planners, as they easily facilitate email reminders, mapping features and a host of other options. The team here at our Florida advertising agency depends on our real estate agents to advise us when making informed choices about home buying and selling. While some agents may fear their jobs are in jeopardy, we believe that our real estate agents, guided by changes in digital technology, will always be there to offer a personal interaction to help address our real estate needs. In search of new innovations to assist you in your real estate practice or other small business? Contact our team today to learn more!
Keeping tabs on the competition’s ad sensibilities & success rates
The online advertising front has changed drastically in the past 5 years with new and developing platforms such as coupon deal sites, new blogs being born every day, e-commerce websites, Yelp, Google Adwords, etc. offering several advertising avenues. In this sea of the world wide web, it seems overwhelming to keep tabs on your competitors’ strategies and gauge their success rates. Who are they advertising with? Did their latest advertising campaign perform that well? How big is their advertising budget? Frankly, it would take the work of Sherlock Holmes to research and find every platform your competitors are using to reach out to customers. Well not to worry my dear Watson, there are some easy ways to track your competitors ad sensibilities and success rates without employing much more than your finger tips and a keyboard. Why, it’s almost elementary! Below are three simple steps you can take to monitor your competition and learn from their mistakes and successes: ONE: Sign up for a free beginner account with MixRank, a leading spy tool for text and display ads. Just enter your competitor’s website, a key advertising word/phrase associated with their company or product, or a major advertisers and publishers to begin. In seconds, you’ll have a list of your competitor’s top active ad links, a record of their ad reach, rates from the best performing ads, a link list of their ad publishers, and a listing of both text and display ads. [quote]Tip: Take a look at both their text ads and display ad details. Knowing which type of ad and which ad design has been more successful can help you create more engaging advertising content and be one step ahead of your competition.[/quote] TWO: Check out your competitor’s keywords and how often those specific words or phrases are being sought out by customers using GoogleAds Keyword Tool. For instance, we use a similar service when looking at our competition via a keyword search like: “Orlando marketing and ad agency.” You can see which keywords rank on the hierarchy and drive traffic results as well as the words may be viewed as negative or non applicable. We always discover more about what the customer is searching for and if our competition is incorporating these keywords in their advertising campaigns. [quote]Tip: Use this competitor information to find out what keywords you should be incorporating in your ad and website content to help boost your chances of customers finding you first. [/quote] THREE: Become the 007 of advertising and join SpyFu. This web service offers a host of benefits and “spyware” to compare domains, discover new keywords, find the best ad copy and check the quality and success of your own advertising campaigns. You’ll have access to top ads, domain-level numbers, and gain some insight on their SEO traffic and Adwords budget just by typing in your competitor’s company name or keywords. Tip: Stay ahead of the game and check out which publishers are boosting the success rates of their ads. These statistics can help guide you when choosing the right publishers to advertise with and give you a higher return on your advertising investment. Our Florida advertising agency hopes you have found these tips useful for your business. To learn how BIGEYE can help you track your competitors and make the most out of your digital campaign, click here to Think BIG!
SEO: Search engine optimization, aka how to be #1 online
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In other words, this is how you get your name to the top of the list. Not just any list, but the list, the one people rely on for quality solutions to their everyday problems. Now, who doesn’t want that? With search engines such as Google driving as much as 80% of todays Internet traffic, SEO is essential to setting your website within the view of potential visitors. But before we get into some details of SEO, let’s talk about search engines. Search Engines. Search engines perform two major functions. They crawl the Internet and provide answers. In the crawling, or mapping, process, the search engine explores billions, yes billions, of pages and creates references. Relevant content is stored within databases, patiently waiting to be recalled upon for future searches. When the search engine provides answers, results are displayed based upon relevance and importance. These dimensions are measured by complex algorithms, which ultimately determine the ranking of websites. Think popularity. Contrary to what most of us are taught, popularity, at least in this case, is everything. Popularity equates to importance. The search engine assumes that the more popular the website, the more valuable the information; a method that has proven to be quite successful. Design & Development There are several elements to keep in mind when optimizing a website. Primarily, there is content. Containing HTML text on the page enables search engines to read through and index the information. Want to see what the search engine sees? Google’s Cache, SEO-browser and MozBar are some helpful tools to let you do just that. Then there is the link structure. Search engines navigate pages through the most available pathway, often traveling through links. It’s important to remember to properly link the pages of your website. Otherwise, the search engine will not recognize any of the pages left out, regardless of its relevance and importance. Keywords are another element of SEO. The results of a search are based on the words entered within the search box, including their spelling, punctuation, and even capitalization. When a word is entered in the box, the search engine finds a relevant database, ranks the documents and then returns a list of results; a pretty big job for less than a second of work. One of the best ways to optimize pages is to include key words in the titles, text and meta data of a website. More specific key words increase the chance of ranking higher. This is due to the fact that more specific key words provide less competition. Search engine optimization can also be improved with the adjustment of other elements such as title tags, meta tags, URL structure, duplicate content and rich snippets. As a Florida advertising agency, BIGEYE practices and encourages SEO. Everyday, people are using search engines to navigate their way through the Internet. This an opportunity to make your website and your business more accessible to the visitor. When an individual types a query into their search box and the name of your business appears near the top of the first page, there is an intangible quality about it. There’s that comforting sense of reassurance that your business is the right one. For a more in depth look into search engine optimization, check out this informative tutorial provided by SEOmoz or learn how to build the perfectly optimized page. Ready to get in touch with a team of digital strategists to help you navigate the in’s and out’s of search engine optimization? Contact us today to get started!
The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Search Engine Optimization
If you’re like me, you pretend to be “in the know” on all things digital. I’m not saying that I don’t “try” to fully understand; it’s just a bit confusing at times. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of those digital concepts that I just couldn’t quite get a grasp on. So to save you hours of research, I have pulled together a plethora of information that describes the concept of SEO and basic tips to help you capitalize on this marketing strategy. What is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the process of affecting the visibility of a website in a search engine’s “organic” (unpaid) search results. The concept behind this strategy is to find ways to increase your site’s appearance in web visitors’ search results. [quote] In laymen’s terms, SEO is an Internet marketing strategy that, if used correctly, will drive more traffic to your site. [/quote] A Florida Advertising Agency helping you capitalize using SEO: 1.) Monitor Your Current Standing Before you change anything on your site, see where you already stand with your visitors. Use tools, such as Alexa and Google Toolbar, to check out your page rank. Make it a habit of regularly checking your referrer log, which will give you insight into where your visitors are coming from and the search terms they’re using to find your site. 2.) Be Conscious of Keywords Sprinkle appropriate keywords throughout every aspect of your site. These aspects include: titles, content, URLs and image names. According to Business Insider, “the title tag and page header are the two most important spots to put keywords.” Be strategic in where you place keywords because you don’t want to overdue it. Search engine spiders, which are programs that automatically fetch Web pages and feed them to search engines, are programmed to ignore sites guilty of “keyword-stuffing”. 3.) Always Link Back to Yourself The most basic strategy to increase your site’s traffic is the integration of internal links into your site. Make it a habit to frequently link back to your archives when creating new content for your site. As I stated above, don’t overdue it. The last thing you want to do is spam your readers with an annoying amount of links. 4.) Keep Your Content Fresh This tip is a given. Updating your site regularly is crucial for increasing traffic to your site. MarktingVox explains, “the best sites for users and consequently for search engines are full of oft-updated, useful information about a given service, product, topic or discipline.” Carve time out of your daily routine to update your site with fresh and unique content. 5.) Use Social Media to Your Advantage Distributing links to your content across appropriate social networking platforms will open you up to a new audience that you might not have reached before. Business Insider said, “Whether displayed on your company’s account, or recommended, re-tweeted, and re-distributed by someone else, this strategy exponentially multiplies the number of places where visitors will view your links.” Now that you understand Search Engine Optimization a little more, it’s time to start implementing it into your growth strategy! Need help building your SEO? No need to fret. We’re pretty much SEO experts. Give us a ring, we’ll help you out. Article by Paige Goodwin
Your digital revolution begins today: 5 things you must do in 2013
Each year, millions of people around the world use the celebration of the new year to purge and rebuild. This year, while you’re hydrating that New Year’s Eve hangover with Gatorade while eating a greasy cheeseburger, it is also important to reflect on the things that you can do to help build your business. Our Florida advertising agency team has come up with a number of strategies to help you evaluate the stakes for your digital revolution. Make a Plan: No matter where you’re going, it’s a lot easier to get there if you have a path. No matter what your goals, you’ll get there a lot faster if you know what steps you need to take to achieve them. Have a strategy for growth, a checklist of things you want to accomplish, and a solid idea of where you’d like to be on Jan. 1, 2014. Throughout the year, don’t forget to frequently review your task list, which will keep you inspired to continue to pursue your goals throughout the year. Go (More) Digital: Still wasting hundreds of dollars each year sending out paper invoices and snail mail correspondence? Move in to 2013 by implementing efforts to use digital services, which will help your company save money in the long term. Paperless document management systems make it easy for everyone to go paperless (except, of course, our friends who work for Dunder Mifflin). Stop Complaining: The reality is that, no matter how much you plan, some things are going to always come up that are beyond your control. This is especially true if you are in a business or field that requires you to take risks. However, people who take risks seek better rewards; a recent study of high school valedictorians showed that most were only moderately successful, as they chose the promise of stability over the risks and reward of entrepreneurial behavior. [quote]When you feel down, it’s important to lift your head up, focus on the things you can change, and accept the things you can’t.[/quote] Update that Old Computer or System: A friend of mine has a boss who hasn’t changed his software accounting since 2005, with the argument that “it works.” Well, that may be true, but these days, if you’re not investing in technology, you are probably costing your business (and your clients) time and money. The system was inefficient, impractical and had a limited range to features relative to today’s accounting software. These days, providers host many effective features through cloud services such as Salesforce, which can help you manage numerous tasks and projects at the same time, accessible from any location with WiFi. Get Organized: The longer you’ve been in business, the more likely you are to have dozens of folders scattered throughout your office, alongside random brochures, business cards and bills. Take some time to go through your work, clearing out trash and making room for the things that are actually important. The New York Times reports that there’s a link between clutter and mental health, giving you one more good reason to get organized in 2013. Focus on these five tips, and watch your business scale in 2013. The team at BIGEYE’s Orlando advertising agency wishes you the best of luck in the new year!
6 resume tips to help the struggling marketing college grad
It may be the holidays, but if you’re in college, it’s not too early to start thinking about employment prospects for after graduation. People who start their search now will have much better luck securing a full-time advertising agency job fresh out of school than those who put off their job search in favor of late-night parties and lazy Sundays. But in order to start your search right, it is essential to polish your resume so it’s in tip-top shape. Here are some resume tips from our Florida ad agency to help you land the job. Go digital: First of all, paper resumes are going the way of… well, just about anything else that’s paper. In lieu of a resume, try creating an about.me digital resume profile instead for an interactive experience that also demonstrates your commitment to design and technology. If you really want to set yourself apart from the competition, link back to it with a QR code on a business card. Outline your strengths: If you want to avoid waiting tables at TGI Friday’s for the next decade, your resume should outline your academic strengths and extracurricular accomplishments. Even if you aren’t expecting to graduate at the top of your class, you can still add other extras like intramural sports, time spent volunteering and membership in any clubs. (And, if you’re in your final year of college and your only extracurricular activities involve drunken phone calls at 4 a.m. and sleeping through your brand strategy course lecture, then it’s time to venture off campus and try a few new things.) Show off your personality: You’ll also want to include snippets of information that emphasize your own uniqueness. Think it’s not relevant that your improv troupe, The Yes Andersons, sold out a show in a makeshift basement theater under Jonny’s Meats & More? Think again. Feats like that can demonstrate initiative, as well as display essential marketing and public speaking skills. Or, your potential employer may have had his own improv troupe back in the day, which is a great icebreaker for a hiring conversation. If you’re hoping to show your skills as a designer, include this list as a sidebar for added effect. No Comic Sans! While a resume and accompanying online portfolio may be great places to display any artistic talents, which may be highly in demand in many marketing segments, it’s not the place to use the surprising popular cartoonish font that everyone loves to hate, comic sans. The silly and overused font stemmed directly from comic book font and looks unprofessional as a chosen resume font, unless you’re applying for a job as a comic book superhero. Offer social media links: In this day and age, it should be a given that any potential employer is going to check your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and any other accounts you have. This is particularly true in marketing, where companies will rely on your social media savvy and following. Research shows that an employer who takes a few minutes to check out an applicant’s Facebook page can learn more about what kind of employee they might be. Perhaps surprisingly, it turns out that all your crazy photos might be a benefit – it shows extraversion and suggests that you are friendly. Exploit this by listing all your social media on your resume, for easy access. List your favorite blogs: To show off your dedication to marketing, it helps to list a few of your favorite marketing blogs. May we suggest: TechCrunch, Mashable, Fast Company, All Things D, Business Insider, Ad Age and of course our very own Orlando marketing agency’s blog, EyeFull. Take these resume tips into consideration, and we guarantee you’ll be the first person a marketing employer calls. Heck, maybe you could even come work for us at our Florida advertising agency.
Physician marketing: It’s important to ask the right questions
One of the best things a hospital marketer can do is show genuine knowledge of and respect for physicians’ duties and responsibilities by learning about the service line. This shows a demonstrated commitment to service, and will allow the marketing team to adequately address physician’s concerns with competence. When the marketing team meets with physicians, they should conduct this meeting with the answers to the following questions and concepts in mind. WHAT’S THE BUSINESS PROBLEM? As discussed in our Florida advertising agency whitepaper on physician marketing, physicians often come forward with the solutions, without ever addressing the actual problem. If the physicians are unable to properly articulate the underlying issues, follow a rule of thumb and ask them why they think such solutions will be effective. [quote] The physicians’ responses may offer some insights into the true underlying issues, which will help the teams in their efforts to work together to create the most practical solutions.[/quote] WHAT’S OUR POINT OF DIFFERENCE? WHY CHOOSE US? A common problem in marketing settings is that companies attempt to appeal to the masses, rather than targeting specific niches that may be specifically interested in the business’s services or offerings. In identifying the specialists’ differentiators, the physicians and marketing team are able to begin to create a selling focus. These differentiators provide specific incentives for individuals in the community to elect this particular hospital, as opposed to others in the community. If there are numerous differentiators, it is important to target and tout those where success makes the most financial sense, such as a practice area expertise or a new state-of-the-art facility. WHAT’S STANDING IN THE WAY OF SUCCESS? By defining impediments to success, the teams are able to work through them in order to determine practical and efficient solutions. If there are barriers that need to be addressed, defining them can help the teams prioritize them and offer solutions for combating these roadblocks. Sometimes specialists have operational issues that are standing in the way. For instance, their office doesn’t have appropriate scheduling software, or their office location is hard to find. These are operational issues that come to surface when marketing discussions begin. WHAT’S WORKED BEFORE? Many businesses rely on data sets because they offer insight into what’s worked in previous marketing initiatives. Focusing on the positive, rather than the negative, allows the hospitals to achieve repeated success in marketing efforts by replicating successful past projects. Physicians may be able to relay stories of past successes that can lead decision-making. Remember, many physicians think of their practice as their own business, and can take a lot of pride of ownership in it. Their historical perspective is relevant. Check out our whitepaper on Marketing to Meet Hospital Business Objectives,While Keeping Physicians Happy
It’s not so black and white: New insights about Black Friday
Years ago, Black Friday marked the day when stores would stop operating at a loss for the year, and would enter “the black” in terms of the year’s sales. Merchants and their employees would leak deals to consumers to lure them into stores with special offers. This was all done in an effort to clear inventory in preparation for holiday sales, where the companies made a high percentage of their sales for the year while people spent money in anticipation of the holidays. But Black Friday doesn’t operate like that anymore. These days, Black Friday is more of a kickoff signal for shoppers to begin a month-long holiday spending spree. Deals that used to only last during the 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. regular brick-and-mortar store hours have moved online, and may last through the weekend and into the following week, with an event called Cyber Monday. (The original theory there is that while people had off on Black Friday after Thanksgiving and could visit the stores in person, Cyber Monday served to capitalize on peoples’ Monday morning shopping habits when they returned to work and were sitting in front of their computers). Today, Black Friday is more of a ritual to get people into a spending mindset. And spend, they do… Black Friday weekend in 2012 racked up $52.4 billion for merchants across the country. If your company is planning to take part in Black Friday, then our Florida Advertising Agency has some ideas to help you make the most of it. First, all businesses should know that it is typically cheaper and more cost-effective to run an online campaign than a print one. Companies must plan print campaigns months in advance, and must pay for advertising space in their local publications. On the other hand, these companies can build online campaigns in mere hours with no printing fees, and such campaigns have the capacity to reach far more people. If you do opt to run an online campaign over Black Friday weekend, it’s also important to know what you’re up against. You are in competition against a large number of massive Internet retailers (think Amazon, for starters), many of whom attract buyers through free shipping. But as we all know, the Internet is a big place, and is big enough for all types of commerce. Address this by developing a creative and attention-getting marketing strategy. If you need some ideas, don’t hesitate to contact our Florida marketing agency so that we can help you get your gears turning. Finally, if you want to make the most of Black Friday, you don’t need to put all your eggs in one basket. Continuing to run sales through the holiday season will help you clear your inventory and drive sales throughout the New Year. A mix of online and in-person discounts will help drive a diverse group of people to your store both online and in-person. Black Friday can be a big moneymaker for your business. It provides a platform for innovative marketing opportunities at both your retail location and at your store. As the BIGEYE team gears up for another Black Friday to help drive commerce throughout the United States, we wish you the best of luck with sales. And of course, happy shopping! See how we can revolutionize your digital marketing strategy.
Read about the SEO Orlando & the Bing v. Google Debate
The Bing v Google debate is a long running debate that encompasses the effectiveness of both of the major search engines. For a marketing firm Orlando, the importance of this debate can not be ignored. When dealing with SEO Orlando, it is important to determine which search site is the goal for increasing page views and search rankings, as one rank does not necessarily transfer to another. BIGEYE Creative understands the differences between the two and how they effect sales. What is Google in Relation to SEO Orlando? Googles search engine bot is called Panda. It bases its finds on relevance, keywords listing and usefulness of content. Google is also the larger search engine, with 80% of consumers turning to Google first when seeking a product or service. There are many benefits to focusing advertisement on Google, however, competition is fierce and it is very hard to make it to the top ten pages without a very focused SEO Orlando campaign. BIGEYE Creative can create that campaign. What is Bing in Relation to SEO Orlando? Bing is very similar in the way it locates content. However there is one key difference. Spammers tend to focus less on Bing search results and instead focus their marketing campaign on Google. Because of this, a marketing firm Orlando may be better served with focusing their products on the less competitive Bing pages and it will probably be easier to reach the top ten search results. However the downside to this is Bing has far less users than Google. SEO Orlando Should Focus on Both BIGEYE Creative, a marketing firm Orlando, will focus on both search engines and work to increase search rankings on both pages at the same time, rather than work with just one. This helps a product reach more viewers so key market segments are not lost in the shuffle. When using SEO Orlando, if the focus is on quality articles, the search results will easily follow.
How does using local SEO Orlando benefit your business?
If you are using an Orlando advertising agency, changes are, they are using SEO Orlando from local providers. There are millions of SEO Orlando providers on the internet, however, some are much better than others for creating focused search results. BIGEYE, an Orlando advertising agency chooses local talent for SEO Orlando because they are working with a local company that is seeking local buyers. When picking SEO Orlando providers, it is important to focus on the goal rather than the price. What SEO Orlando Providers Do SEO Orlando providers may provide an Orlando adverting agency or business with SEO Orlando content articles for search engine optimizations. These articles will be posted on the companies web pages so that search engine bots can view the page and give it a relevance rating. This relevance rating will decide whether the page will come up at number 1 or number 100 in search engine results. Why Choose Local in SEO Orlando Providers It is not enough to just be found in a website ranking. BIGEYE Creative, an Orlando advertising agency, wants to keep the reader on their page. An article written poorly, by someone who is clearly not familiar with the area, will come off as spammy and not professional. It is important to hire local SEO Orlando providers to ensure that once the person clicks on the link, they find a page related to the information they were seeking in the first place. While a keyword packed poorly written article may come up higher in the search results, it usually isn’t enough to gain a potential buyer. For that, a certain level of quality is needed. Choose the Best Orlando Advertising Agency for SEO Orlando When seeking SEO Orlando content, BIGEYE Creative should be your first stop. This agency will know the best local providers and may even have some on staff. These days, with search engines working the way they do, and fickle consumers who stay on a page for less than a few seconds, it is important to find a quality SEO Orlando provider to keep those consumers reading and keep those page rankings high. Visit our SEO services page to learn how BIGEYE rules the digital marketing world.