Recency and Frequency Metrics

Have you marketers/web analytics people considered the implications of Firefox users?
If you are a Firefox user you may use a number of the many extensions available to stretch, modify, personalize, and customize the browser's capabilities.
If Google Browser Sync is one of those extensions consider teh implications on web analytics and ad tracking.

According to Google, Browser Sync "continuously synchronizes your browser settings -- including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords -- across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions."
In other words, no matter how many work, home, or other computers you regularly or sporadically use, if you use Firefox, have this extension installed, and are logged in, you can theoretically be counted as one single user!!
That would inform recency and frequency metrics.

By synching your cookies, log files could, however, easily parse out more accurate unique user data from visitors using the tool.

Hope that helps!



Stewart Severino

Real Estate Marketing-Generate Leads-Be Trust Worthy

...Continued from Blog-Lead Generation

People don't trust strangers. We talked about that already. So if you cold call people as a stranger, you already face an uphill climb in terms of real estate lead generation. The key, then, is to inspire trust among your target audience. This will help you overcome the natural skepticism people have and make them more likely to contact you.
How do you generate trust? Testimonials help, especially when you use the former client's full name, photo, and neighborhood. A long track record helps too, as do professional certifications and sales awards (just be sure to tie these back to the success and satisfaction of your former clients).
You can also generate trust by sharing your expertise with people. Real estate blogging is a great example of this. If you publish a real estate blog over a long period of time, and people find that blog online (through search engines or otherwise), they will feel as if they already know you a little. If you publish quality content, people will realize that (A) you know your market, (B) you are active in that market, and (C) you obviously like to help people. Suddenly, you're not such a stranger ... you're a perfect candidate to be their real estate agent.

Blog about things people want to know about; examples, Community, Schools, Taxes, Development in the community, Recreation, Retail Stores, Best place to get coffee, Best place to eat dinner....starting to get it?! Let your readers know that you are the expert in this field.

To learn more:
About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Real Estate Marketing- Leads-Be Valuable

...Continued from Blog-Lead Generation
The agents who are most successful with real estate lead generation are those who understand the concept of "perceived value." When a person perceives something as being valuable, they naturally want that thing. In real estate terms, this perceived value comes from many elements:
A real estate agent with unique knowledge of a certain niche ... or one who offers access to the best listings ... or one who has a proven (and illustrated) track record of client success ... or one who streamlines the process by networking with mortgage folks ...


These are all ways a real estate agent can increase his or her perceived value, which is the value your audience perceives you to have.
You can also create an item with a high perceived value, and you can in turn use this perception of value to generate leads. Let's examine the concept of "free reports" as an example. Many agents use this approach to real estate lead generation, but they botch the strategy because the report in question does not have a high enough perceived value.

A report entitled "Top Ten Home-Buying Tips" does not have a strong perceived value and therefore will not generate many leads. Why? Because it is generic, it does not identify closely enough with the target audience, and it's information that you can find anywhere. It is not exclusive "must read" information. It will not motivate the average reader.


So how do you increase the value of such a report? Easy. You make it a "must read" document. Instead of basic home buying tips, why not boost the value and put people under pressure to read the piece? Why not promote something like this: "Which Happytown Schools Are the Best? Exclusive Report Tells All."


This kind of document would have a much better chance of motivating people and generating leads. It would be easy to tie into real estate, too, so most of your leads would be qualified ones. But this is just something I came up with off the top of my head. You could create an even better "hot button" report with a little imagination and knowledge about your community.

To learn more:
About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Real Estate Marketing- Lead Generation- Be Visible

This is continued from my previous blog-Lead Generation

Obviously, people cannot contact you if they don't know you exist. This is where your business visibility comes into play. Online visibility is a big part of this, which is why search engine optimization is such a hot topic among real estate agents. The more visible you are online, the more likely people will be to find you.


You can also increase your business visibility by publishing articles in your local newspaper, publishing blogs, articles and press releases online, being active in your community, conducting free seminars, and other aspects of PR. Visibility and awareness are the first steps to generating real estate leads.

To learn more:
About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Real Estate Marketing - Focus on a niche

I have seen many real estate sites that try to cater to the whole, when focusing on a particular segment would provide the realtor with a much more focused audience.


You want to attract prospects that are actually interested in a particular area.

This makes it easy for you to market to them by providing them with a level of detail

that is not provided by other realtor sites.



Building your site for your customer is the first step.

So be sure to identify the persona you are going after. Make a list of personas that would be interested in lets say a lake community.

From there you can build content on your site or blog that answers their every question and concern.

Come up with topics that they wouldnt think of searching for.

For example; write about what is being built in the area (new stores or schools), talk about how that may affect the taxes. You get the idea.



When you begin pumping out lots of valuable content (blogs), the reader or in this case the perspectice client will see you as the expert in your field and will want to contact you for more information.

Speaking of contact; make sure at the end of your blog you provide some info about the author (that's you). Provide some contact information.

Give them a reason to contact you! Every blog should have a 'call to action'. Simply stated, give them a reason to call or email you.



This blog for expample can become a 100 page series of tips and maybe I will keep posting more tips. There are so many scenarios I am sure I will leave something out.

Just check in with my blog series for more updates.



Or...Feel free to contact me for more info on Real Estate Marketing

To learn more: About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Real Estate Marketing - Generate real estate leads

So, aside from your busy day of Open houses and doing paper work you are thinking to yourself, "how am I going to make and serious money? How can I generate leads?"


Back in the "old days," purchasing real estate leads was a popular strategy. And while a lot of agents still use this approach to real estate lead generation, it is by far NOT the most effective way to go about it.

Think about it. When you buy real estate leads, you are basically buying the names and phone numbers of people who you don't know you, haven't asked to be contacted by you(no permission), and could very well have an agent by the time you contact them.
In other words, you will be cold-calling strangers. This is not the best way to approach real estate lead generation. This is no way to focus on a niche market, which by the way is what you shoud be doing. But that's another blog (click on the niche market link above to find out more).

Being visible, valuable and trustworthy will make your real estate lead generation efforts pay off in the long run. Is all this effort worthwhile? Well, let me ask you this. What would it be worth if you never had to call or email a stranger again? That's a goal worth striving for, isn't it? That's the kind of thing that can happen when you change the way you think about lead generation.


To learn more:

About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Search Engine Optimization Tips SUMMARY

It is simply not enough to use a bunch of keywords within your content. "But its still important for search engine ranking" Quote from maddock media .

You must know who your target audience is. Identify them. Make a list of the different personas that your business services. When you have identified each persona you can write content speficif to each one. Providing help to each persona.

Don't write about your products and services! Keep it interesting for your potential customer.
Think about what questions or problems they may need help with. That's how you write your content. Just be helpful. Don't write any jargon, keep it simple.


Help your customer become savvy to your industry. In the end they will see you as the expert in your field.

Then they will come to you for advice.

To learn more: About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Search Engine Optimization- Tip 5-Title tag

Write a compelling title tag-


I left this as a separate step from meta tags because this is the most important part of your optimization program. Again, it can be done at the same time as the previous two steps, but it’s importance can not be over-emphasized.


This is because the title tag is the tag which is displayed in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). It is the link that people click on, and also the tag which is generally read by the visitor before they decide to visit.

Therefore, if your title tag isn’t compelling, it doesn’t matter how well optimized your page is, it may not get that click.
For this step, you need to look at your competition to determine what they are doing. Perform a search to see what is compelling about their listing?

Is there one that stands out?



If so what are they doing?


For example, if on every other site the keyword is the first phrase on the title, then consider moving your keyword in to the second or third phrase.
This is because, as you will notice, engines like Google bold the search term in the title and snippets or description. One way to make your title stand out is to have the term in a different position than the competition. That way the bolding stands out like this:

key phrase in title tag
key phrase in title tag
title tag with key phrase
key phrase in title tag

Notice how the third one stands out from the rest?
I can not emphasize enough how important that title tag is. As I said, it is the “hook” to get visitors to your site. If the title is ineffective, then it won’t get clicked which means you don’t get the opportunity to woo that client.
...go to my Summary

To learn more: About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Search Engine Optimization -Tip 4- Optimize Pages

Optimize your Pages -

This can be done in conjunction with the writing. In fact it should be done at then to save time. I made this a separate step so that I could outline the finer points of optimization.

Provided that you are following the guidelines found in tip 3, your pages should already have good keyword density, now is the time to improve that optimization by adding optimized meta tags.
First is to write the meta description tag. While many engines will index thousands of characters in your description, I recommend no more than a couple hundred characters. That is about how long this paragraph is.
The meta description should be a readable sentence or two with the same keywords that you wrote the page for. In other words, the same phrases should appear in the meta description as the body. They should also appear as near to the front of the tag as possible however don’t sacrifice readability for this.


If the tag doesn’t make sense with them at the front, then reorganize until they do make sense. Be sure to use proper punctuation as well.
Also preferred but not mandatory is a meta keywords tag. While none of the major engines use this tag, other smaller ones, and some specialty engines do use the meta keywords tag. If your target uses one of these engines then it makes sense to have that tag in place.
Also, with the keywords tag there is a lot of debate over using commas or not. Personally I do not use commas. I just combine the phrases and remove duplicate words. For example, if the page is about real estate, water front property and property tax,then the keywords tag could be: “real estate water front property property tax.”
... go to tip 5



To learn more: About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Search Engine Optimization- Tip 3 Content

Write your own pages-
Now that you have your keywords its time to write, or re-write, your content to make them more appealing to the target audience, inserting the key phrases you’ve selected whenever possible.
Keep in mind that you don’t want to over do it. Also now is a good time to ensure you have proper keyword density’s and page length.
I recommend pages that are 100-250pages long.

On this 100-250 word page you should have 2 or 3 occurrences of a key phrase, and you want to limit the key phrases used to 2 or 3. In other words you could have between 4 and 9 occurrences of all your key phrases per page. This should provide you with optimal keyword density.
Above all, make sure the pages are readable. Don’t optimize for optimization’s sake. If only one key phrase applies to the page, then only use one.

...go to tip 4

To learn more:
About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Search Engine Optimization- Tip 2 Keywords

Pick the right keywords-
This may be the most difficult part of your journey, especially if you don’t fit the target profile. That is, picking the keywords they will use to find your site.

DO NOT GUESS!!
You can start by using free tools like FREE KEYWORD SEARCH. It gives you a good place to start picking keywords.
Start with a phrase you know your site is about (i.e. if you are in Real Estate in Houston, TX, then simply put “real estate Houston, Texas” in the search box). The tool will then not only return other related words, but also the search volumes associated with each for the previous 3 month.
A word of caution however: Sometimes, depending on when you use the tool, the search volumes are from a couple months ago. So if your product is seasonal based, the numbers may actually be lower or higher than represented.
Don’t be afraid to get a few hundred words to start. Remember, right now you are just gathering ideas – phrases that could drive traffic to your site. They aren’t all necessarily being used by your target customer.



At this point you want as many phrases on your list as possible. Don’t worry, you will cull the list pretty quickly.
Also remember as you are culling your words, don’t just focus on the competitive factors. These won’t account for your target audience. Therefore you need to have that picture in your mind of the target as you are selecting phrases that they might use. If you are unsure, you could always as for help from friends and family that fit the target profile.
A good rule of thumb would be to chose about one phrase per page. That doesn’t mean that you will only have one page per phrase, but it gives you a good target. So if your site is 300 pages, consider having a list of 300 phrases.
...go to tip 3


To learn more: About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Search Engine Optimization- Tip 1

Identify the type of Persona-


Define your target audience.

It is vital that you identify your audience. You do not want to cater to the WHOLE. You want to center your content around a specific audience and fulfill their needs.

If you don’t write to the crowd you aren’t going to get too much business.

The best thing is to write down who you think the target is. Be as detailed as possible. For example, your target may be a 30-45 year old male, in executive management, who drives a Merceds. He makes $175,000 per year and has a Masters degree in finance. This is the type of detail you need. You should be able to picture this person in your mind. Not just the abstract idea of hm, but a physical look as well. The better you can picture them in your mind the more successful you will be.
Once you know who you target is the next step is choosing keywords.
...go to tip 2

To learn more:
About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Permission Marketing- Build your own email list?

Do It Yourself -
Many businesses build their own lists by harvesting the names and e-mail addresses of visitors to their Web sites and their stores. This is probably the most effective way to assemble lists of qualified prospects.
Ask visitors to your site to check a box and enter their name and e-mail address if they want to receive related mailings. And be careful to protect the names once you collect them. Do not sell or distribute them for others to use (or misuse) unless you give fair notice on your Web site.
Build a list of your current customers, and include each new customer on future mailings and promotions. It is important, however, to obtain the permission of each and every person. It’s basic business marketing and it works.

Go with the Pros
You can rent e-mail lists just as you would a direct-marketing list, and they can be targeted by the industry and/or topic. Companies that provide direct-mail lists will even handle the details of the mailing — for a fee. CAUTION-This isn't permission marketing but it can be a good starting point to weed out those non qualifying leads.


Make sure that the rented lists contain only names of people who have agreed to receive targeted mailings. Ask the companies offering the lists how they acquired the names and addresses. Under no circumstances should you use bulk lists, often sold on CD-ROMs. They typically contain names of people who have not agreed to receive unsolicited e-mail. Be aware that if your ISP receives complaints about your company's e-mailing practices, they could shut down your account.



To learn more:
About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Permission Marketing- RULES-Email list

Email marketing is one of the most effective weapons in a small business owner's arsenal. It allows you to market to large numbers of potential customers for a fraction of the cost of traditional direct mail. However, there's a fine line between sending effective email messages and spamming your client base.


Whether you buy, rent, or compile your own email lists, keep these four points in mind when developing your opt-in strategy:
Make sure that the names on your list belong there. Don't add the names of people who haven't agreed to receive messages from you. Sending unsolicited e-mail — known as "spam" — creates a negative impression of your company. Your ISP can even shut you down for this. For guidance on how to develop an e-mail list, read my 'Do it yourself' post.
Let your customers decide the format in which they'll receive your promotional mailings. Not everyone has an e-mail account that can process HTML and rich-text messages, and some people prefer plain text.
Give customers a chance to opt out of future mailings. Customers come and go, so don't be alarmed when someone wants to be dropped from an e-mail list.
Give fair notice to your visitors, if you harvest names from your Web site. Reassure your customers that their personal information is safe, and that you won't sell or distribute it. Develop a privacy policy, post it prominently on the site, and stick to it.

To learn more:


About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Marketing Using Permission

Why would you waste your company's money on contacting people who may have no interest in your product of service?



What does that say for your reputation if you are constantly bombarding prospects with junk mail/email?





Permission marketing is the way to go if your are to compete in todays market place.



In a world of chaos and clutter offering your customer a way to opt in for information will greatly increase the response from a customer.


They are only interested in things they want so give them the option to receive information on that product or service.


Here are some rules to follow for permission marketing...

To learn more:

About Author Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. To learn more about this topic please visit, http://www.maddockmedia.com/

Mobile Marketing for Businesses

First consider the mobile phone. It is by far the biggest factor when considering mobile marketing. The mobile phone is personal, you take it wherever you go and you can't picture being without it. Remember, since this decive is so personal you MUST always request and gain the permission to communicate with a customer. If you dont you end up invading their personal space.
We can break mobile marketing down easily leaving out ringtones and downloadable wallpaper.
1)Mobile Customer Service
I'm sure you have seen these services around; Bank alerts, News and weather updates, Flight or Hotel alerts, etc...

All of the above serve 3 common threads.
1) You must have permission to communicate to your customer. They must give their consent.
2) You must give them the opportunity to Opt Out.
3) You are giving your customer more CHOICE. You are providing them with an aditional way of doing something. They get to choose one that is most convenient for them.



To learn more:
About Author
Stewart Severino, a marketing consultant who specializes in helping business owners and company's with marketing and advertising utilizing different customer touch points. Stewart is the author of the educational blog covering the topics in online, mobile and direct marketing. Check Stewart Severino out at