Digital Marketing

10 Digital Marketing Tips For Real Estate

It’s time for businesses to realise that digital and online marketing isn’t just a passing trend. If you look to any big company, they’ll have a strong online presence – those who don’t, are likely to fail in this day and age.

Having an online profile makes your business more likely to have a recognisable brand – reaping the benefits along the way. Here are the top 10 tips for digital marketing in real estate.

1)   Blogging

People who look to buy a home usually begin with an online search nowadays. They’ll go straight to the first authentic and credible-looking real estate website. It’s therefore the best option to capture traffic to your site using blog posts.

Blogging is an essential marketing tool for estate agents, as it increases your social media exposure and online presence – as well as showing potential leads that you know your stuff.

Real Estate Blogging – Why You Should Do It

2)   Search Engine Optimisation

SEO is a big deal. You should incorporate key words in your website’s blog or content. This can help you to capture traffic from search engines such as Google and Bing. Make sure that these target words are relevant to real estate business.

SEO will help to increase awareness of your company and is likely to generate some solid leads for you.

So, What Is SEO? Learn the Basics of SEO in Under 5 Minutes

3)   Email Marketing

Emails that are optimised for mobile devices, have a significant role in customer satisfaction. If you create a strong email list, you’ll be able to quickly and effectively communicate with customers.

Solid email marketing also enables customers to be acknowledged by your company, making them feel valued. You’ll be keeping consumers abreast of services that you offer, as well as any discounts or competitions that are ongoing.

Content Ideas for Your Real Estate Marketing Newsletter

4)   Social Media

Pretty much everyone is on social media these days. This makes the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram a fantastic set of platforms for promoting your real estate agency. Having a solid social media presence will enable you to generate leads, as well as promoting your existing listings.

Social media is a great place to engage with your target audience, as well as allowing them to interact with you – reviewing your services for all to see.

8 Crucial Ways That Social Media Can Help Your Real Estate Business

5)   Multimedia Content

Using multimedia such as images and video can help to enhance communication with potential leads. This is one of the most effective and positive ways of making customers aware of updates and deals.

You can even use videos to tour properties that you’re currently listing – generating a buzz with possible customers who will want to act upon the content.

5 Top Tips For Nailing Your Social Media Videos

6)   Market Reports

Publishing market reports can be a great way of making customers aware of local market trends. This can help them to become invested in your company – allowing you to show off your knowledge of the industry.

7)   Mobile Compatible Websites

Many people who research the property market, will be doing it through their mobile phones. We lead busy lives, so in the bathroom at work, in a restaurant or at home, we’ll likely be surfing on some kind of device. This means that you need to make your website mobile compatible.

Ensure your website is optimised for computer, mobile and tablet devices.

8)   Company News

Alongside the blog posts you put out, you should keep your audience up to date with news from within the company. It’s also a good idea to keep a separate section for in-house news so that everyone’s on the same page.

This feature will enable your website to remain active and engaging – increasing the number of potential clients visiting the website – further enhancing the trust factor of your business.

9)   Easy Site Navigation

Having a company website entails making it user-friendly. This means that it’ll need to be easily navigable for anyone coming to the website. You can provide an e-tour of the site through a video or website overlay for new users.

If content is hard to find on the website, consumers will likely end up abandoning your site quickly. You should therefore ensure that it is user-friendly.

10)   Google Ad Campaigns

One of the best ways to increase traffic to your website, is to run an ad campaign with Google. It can provide an efficient and easy way of targeting potential consumers online.

This type of advertising positions you across millions of potential websites – enhancing the number of potential leads who get to see your services at a quick glance.

A Must-Use Guide to Successful Keywords and Targeting Using Google Adwords

Unsure woman

3 Sales Objections And How To Respond

Unsure womanAs a real estate agent, do you find that your prospecting strategy is somewhat lagging? Perhaps you find it hard to get help, or to create authoritative articles which might help you to move out of a slump.

Many articles focus on the latter stages of the buying cycle – neglecting the important concept of prospecting. Getting the first meeting with a client can often be the biggest hurdle in a sales cycle.

If this sounds like you, then heed these 3 tips on how to respond to the most common sales objections. They’ll help you to get the attention of the client.

Perhaps Another Time

Have you made a cold call and been told to come back later? Maybe even next year? This is a common occurrence and can be one that’s hard to get over. The reason being because it is so immediate – straight-up rejection from the word “go”.

When selling to professionals, it’s worth remembering that they’re already likely to have a lot on their plate. They don’t want to be dealing with cold calls or 30 second sales pitches.

If you can offer your target audience something to make their lives easier, you’ll likely be able to overcome this common sales objection. Business owners will always want more hours in the day – so remind them that your service can do just this.

If faced with the issue of being told to go away until later, you should respond by saying “sure thing, I don’t want to waste your valuable time – in fact in five minutes I can [insert the benefit here]”. This proposition will position you to land a potential meeting.

I’ve Already Got An Agent

Nothing is more frustrating that being told your potential customer is already working with a competitor. An objection such as this is often a good opportunity however – one in which you can differentiate yourself from the competitor.

In this situation, your target is thinking to themselves “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. Your job is to change this mind-set so that they want to come to the dark side with you. To do this, you’ll need to communicate value to them.

Respond by showing that you don’t want them to make a dramatic change – just one that benefits their current needs. If possible, make sure it’s something your competition can’t offer.

My Budget’s Not Big Enough

If your potential client says they don’t have the budget to work with you, you’re in a sticky situation. Most of the time, they do have the budget – they just don’t want to spend it in this way.

If a client doesn’t have the budget currently, it doesn’t mean that they won’t have in the future. If you can dig deeper here and schedule a follow-up call, you can find out their needs. It’s important to position yourself as a solution here.

The client needs to understand that you’re not pushing expectations on them though. Position yourself so that they understand you have a good strategy for boosting their revenue – even if this isn’t at the present moment.

New Website - Blog

New Discover Stradbroke Real Estate Website

New Website - Blog

Long time iDashboard clients, Discover Stradbroke came to iProperty looking to upgrade their website to a modern, responsive website design incorporating their new brand style.

This is where our website team stepped in, producing the new Discover Stradbroke Real Estate website, which is completely responsive; working on Desktops, Tablets and Smartphones allowing their staff and visitors to access any, property any time.

The new website contains a great list of ‘must-have’ features, this includes:

  • Property Search Panel
  • Home Page Featured Property Scroller
  • Latest Listing on Home Page
  • Recent Testimonials
  • Market Appraisal Request Interactive Form
  • Latest Sold Properties
  • Latest News and Updates
  • Property Videos
  • Buyer and Renter Email Alerts Signup/Login

Along with this fantastic new home page, the website boasts a property grid list view, property information pages, interactive forms and many more professionally designed features.

We wish the team at Discover Stradbroke all the best with their new website and look forward to our ongoing relationship.

If you are looking for a new website, wether you are starting from scratch or want to upgrade to a modern responsive design, contact the iDashboard team today.

discovermockup

Cold calling clients

Success In Cold Calling

Cold calling clientsCold calling can be a bone of contention for many homeowners out there. Not everyone enjoys having a stranger saunter up to their front door, with the intention of selling them something.

As real estate agents, sometimes it’s necessary to go knocking on doors to drum up business. If you practice these simple principles, you’ll be able to build relationships more successfully when it comes to cold calling potential leads.

Statistically, real estate agents are amongst the least trusted professions – with some statistics suggesting we rank below sex workers in terms of trustworthiness. This is especially sad for agents who spend a goodly amount of time on their image.

Building Relationships

If you called five agents to book in a viewing for selling your home, and only three called back – what would you think about the other two? To be honest, it doesn’t really matter – with such a poor professional outlook, they won’t be in business for very long.

The bottom line is very simple – build relationships and nothing less. Despite the perceived lack of trust in realtors, at the end of the day people need us to sell their homes. If they didn’t need us, they wouldn’t be calling up.

Your main concern as an agent should be that the seller signs with you – not the next agent who walks into their home. Apart from your own personal systems for engaging with a seller, you should be able to build a relationship with them.

Once you’re able to build a relationship with the seller, they won’t be looking anywhere else. So how do we get to that point?

Top Tips For Good Cold Calling

The cold had fact of cold calling, is that there is a99% chance you’re disturbing the potential lead. With this in mind, it would seem a little tedious to open with questions like “How are you doing?”, “Could I have a few moments of your time?” etc. This will always get you off to a bad start.

Avoid the clichés and go in with something like “Have I caught you at a bad moment?”. It shows that you’ve thought about the fact you’re definitely disturbing them. Make sure you use that exact wording however, as phrases such as “is this a bad time?” will not be as successful.

When a prospective lead feels that they’ve been forced into a cold call, all they can think about is how they get you off the phone or from their doorstep. At this point you need to show them why they need you and your services.

Make sure you keep an honest tone – remember that although we sell real estate, we’re still very much in the service industry. If you make it your goal to provide a good service to people, your clients will be happy and your career will grow to be successful.

If you can adapt these basic principles, your cold calling technique will be much more effective. Ensure you love and focus on the core principles of a solid customer service model – this will always make you exceed the expectations of your potential leads.

Online Networking

5 Online Networking Tips

With the world wide web becoming a major player in a whole host of industries these days, real estate agents need to be able to take advantage of it. A measly 9% of agents use social media to promote their property listings. A well-connected agent however, uses the online world to generate leads.

Building an engaging online network however, is not an easy task – so here are 5 easy tips and tricks to get your online network up and running.

1)   Making A Good First Impression

Most agents tend to be quite charismatic, sociable people. Sometimes though, your online presence might not reflect this. Incomplete or poorly written profiles can come off as pretty boring or disinterested. There’s no need to tell your life story, but a couple of solid paragraphs should do.

Include key words such as terms for your local market and specialties. This will bump up that professional profile of yours to the top of the search engine results. In turn, this will make it easier for people to find you online.

Having well optimised content is the key to a great introduction to your potential consumers. You should also include a professional photo for your agent profile, so people can identify you clearly – not to mention that visual content is highly engaging.

2)   Using In-Person And Online Contacts

Now that you’ve got a solid introduction to your profile, add in colleagues, clients and other in-person entities to your portfolio. Perhaps ask colleagues to follow your professional Facebook page. This is useful for people you don’t see on a daily basis.

If you reach out to contacts online, it shows an interest in maintaining a lasting working relationship. In turn, this creates a bond that means people more likely remember you when they need an agent.

Having a strong online following shows to potential clients, that you have a wide-reaching database of contacts to draw from. Clients are likely to understand the value of a contact database – searching to find agents who are well connected.

3)   Using Online Communities And Professional Groups

It’s now time for you to start expanding your online network. This doesn’t include firing away a couple of random friend requests though – you’re unlikely to create meaningful relationships here.

You should aim to mingle in online communities and professional groups. You need not commit a huge amount of time to this, but it’ll ensure you move within the right circles – keeping abreast of real estate goings-on.

4)   Keep Clients In The Loop

Use your social media profiles to keep clients in the loop. This will create a deeper relationship with your clients – maintaining an engaging presence and keeping your network active.

Tagging people can be an effective technique, as it shows your followers that you are following them personally.

You can use this time to ensure that you create and put out engaging content for your followers to enjoy. This is a great opportunity to keep up to date on current real estate issues, and to impress your audience with knowledge.

5)   Use Word-Of-Mouth Advertising

According to the stats, nearly 3 in 4 people will make a decision to buy based on word of mouth alone. This concept goes hand-in-hand with social media, as it’s so easy to share information via platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

There are a number of ways of harnessing the power of word of mouth on social media, but the two most effective are as follows. Creating amazing posts works well with listings, and can be shared directly with your contacts.

The second way is to actively chase down leads online. Following up the posts of your followers with a comment, can lead to action. This all relies on a strong portfolio of colleagues and potential buyers/sellers though, so make sure to be always expanding your network of contacts.

Social Media Marketing

5 Social Media Marketing Tips

Social Media MarketingWhen it comes to setting your business apart from the rest, embracing social media and using it effectively, can put you head and shoulders above the competition.

If you’re bored of hearing other agents spout about how successful their social media campaigns have been, why not spend a little time and effort on yours? Wonder why yours is falling flat on its face?

Here are the top 5 tips to launch your agency’s social media presence through the roof.

1)   Stop Flooding Followers With Trash

People turn to social media these days, for entertainment and intrigue. If you’re posting for the sake of it, everything you post in the future will be trash to them. Don’t be tempted to feel you should post a certain number of times per day to be successful – it’s just not true.

The trick to being successful with social media marketing, is to stick to the 80/20 rule. This essentially means you should ensure that 80% of your posts are about lifestyle tips and social media interests. 20% need to be about your real estate agency and the things you can offer to the audience.

If you’re an agency worth its salt, you should have no problem following this rule – hopefully you already know enough about the local area to keep your clients engaged. Examples of what you might include could be local restaurants, latest decorating styles or goings-on in the community.

2)   Invest In Facebook Ads

Facebook ads will help you generate more leads – fact. You can gain attention through social media via organic growth, or through paid methods.

Paying for access to services such as Facebook ads, is key for ensuring that your content reaches the right audience. Facebook ads allows you to target prospective clients according to demographics, their interests, location etc.

This eliminates the “post and hope” of organic social media usage.

3)    Use Social Channels That Your Clients Use

It’s possible to oversaturate in terms of the social media channels that you choose you use. Some realtors will attempt to use every single social media outlet out there – it’s just not realistic.

A good example of this is LinkedIn – whilst it’s good for business-to-business relations, it’s not exactly going to get you a property sale lead.

You should concentrate on using the top social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. These four channels will have the greatest reach when it comes to connecting with your audience.

4)    Emulate The Tone Of A Channel

Heard the phrase “one size fits all”? Well it’s not true. It’s especially not true when it comes to real estate social media marketing. If you try to cut corners by copy and pasting material between Facebook and Instagram, your audience are going to notice – this could result in driving away potential clients.

The savvy real estate agent will know to tailor the content they put out for each different platform’s audience.

5)   Use Video

Using video for social media marketing purposes is a match made in heaven. Think about how you might use a video of a sunset from one of your properties, to illustrate the great locations you have on offer.

Make sure that you use about 10 seconds on Twitter and Facebook posts, 60 seconds on Instagram, and the full recording on your YouTube channel. This means that you stretch a single video across 4 social media channels – creating a draw for your audience.

It’s a fantastic showcase of innovation for your agency, and shows that you care about the properties you’re involved in.

Agent managing her database

6 Steps To Dominate The Database

Agent managing her databaseIn this day and age of digital domination, you don’t need to be a computer genius to know that data is important. Even more important, is having access to accurate and organised data – this is essential for real estate businesses.

It’s an unfortunate reality, that many agents still rely on their memory for databasing. Such an approach will only ever lead to frustrating moments where you just wished that you’d written something down – it’ll also lead to considerable damage to your bottom-line.

Priorities

It should be the number 1 priority of your agency, to build a reliable and clean database – the foundation on which you will dominate the market. Do this in combination with a well thought out CRM solution such as iDashboard, and you’ll soon be looking at consecutive quarterly growth.

Here are the 6 steps to dominating the database:

Step 1

Make sure you consolidate all your systems into on database. This central point needs to be accessible to your entire staff team. It’s time to implement an online solution that can be accessed quickly, and by mobile if possible.

Put in place a scheduled training plan to empower agents and administrators to get the most from your CRM.

Step 2

Clean up the newly built database. This will clear off any useless contacts who you no longer need – especially those with missing or incomplete addresses. Only keep the clients who matter.

This step can often feel quite liberating for your team – it’s a metaphorical clearing of the cobwebs from the office. Plan for everyone to come together in this task, as a kind’ve team-building exercise.

Make sure that the new database has relevant categories in place – this is so that clients can be accurately sorted into divisions such as ‘buyer’, ‘vendor’ etc.

Step 3

Capture the active buyers accurately, by entering their details from open home events and web enquiries. Buyer data needs to be carefully managed, so make sure you triage them continually and clinically.

Step 4

Become the agent that everyone comes to in your area. This means appearing in all places that your prospective sellers might be looking. Invest in a mix of advertising media such as local magazines, online content, letterbox drops etc.

Step 5

Get into social media such as Facebook and Instagram. It’s also worth investing in Google AdWords to keep track of online analytics. Sourcing an expert in real estate digital marketing is a solid idea for managing this task.

Did you know you can import lists of contacts into Facebook for targeting of adverts via Custom Audiences? Click here to find out more

Make sure you use search engine optimization (SEO) for your website, so that you maximise traffic to it. You can use Google AdWords to come up with keywords for your local area for this task.

Step 6

Be the real estate business that your customers will want to refer to their friends and family. If you take care of your referrals by rewarding past and present vendors/buyers, you’ll reap the rewards down the line.

Successful data domination is all about working as a team – everyone is required to pull their weight. If they do, you’ll have a robust and effective data system in place to protect yourself from the bad habits of the human memory.

 

New Website - Blog

New PEB Group – Real Estate Website

New Website - BlogPEB Group required a great new system to manage their properties and database for their Real Estate division, so after selecting iDashboard they needed a clean looking website to market their listings and services, that fully integrates with their Real Estate Software & CRM.

This is where our website team stepped in, producing the new PEB Group Real Estate website, which is completely responsive; working on Desktops, Tablets and Smartphones allowing their staff and visitors to access any, property any time.

The new interactive home page contains a great list of ‘must-have’ features, this includes:

  • Property Search Panel
  • Home Page Featured Property Scroller
  • Latest Listing on Home Page
  • Recent Testimonials
  • Market Appraisal Request Interactive Form
  • Latest Sold Properties
  • Latest News and Updates
  • Property Videos
  • Buyer and Renter Email Alerts Signup/Login

Along with this fantastic new home page, the website boasts a property grid list view, property information pages, interactive forms and many more professionally designed features.

We wish the team at PEB Re all the best with their new website and look forward to our ongoing relationship.

If you are looking for a new website, wether you are starting from scratch or want to upgrade to a modern responsive design, contact the iDashboard team today.

PEB Screens

 

Bright social media

4 Ways You Might Kill Your Brand On Social Media

Bright social mediaSo you’ve worked really hard to build up your real estate brand over the course of weeks, months or maybe even years. Then this thing called ‘social media’ came along and it looked like such a great tool for furthering that brand.

Beware though, as there are 4 common ways you might be killing your brand reputation through social media. Brand appeal and goodwill are important, intangible assets that will drive the growth of your brand – but only if used properly.

In 2015 alone, Facebook was found to have influenced 52% of its consumers’ online and offline buying habits – which is up from the 36% seen the previous year.

If you have a bad brand image on social media, users won’t engage with you – that’s the bottom line. The verdict is quite clear – more people rely on social media to discover brands than ever before, so you need to make sure your branding is tight.

So you may be wondering how you might negatively harm your brand via social media. Here are the top 4 signs you need to watch out for.

1)   You’re Being Pushy

You know when you walk through a big city and there are people peddling their wares aggressively in the street? Fair play to them for trying, but good brand marketing is about subtlety – so pushing the product into your consumer’s face can actually be a bit of a turn-off.

Doing this on social media is a definite fail, as it can damage your brand reputation. For a better image of your brand, you should make sure you shine the spotlight on your followers, rather than your service itself. This can take time and effort, but it is always worth giving back to your followers.

2)    Ignoring Complaints And Criticism

No one likes to be told that what they’re doing is bad, but it’s a fact of business as well as a fact of life. Taking in people’s complaints could actually get you referrals, leading to further business. This will make clients feel that you’ve provided a satisfactory service, and will therefore be more likely to recommend your brand.

Social media connects so many people nowadays, so if you don’t deal with a complaint swiftly and fairly, you could be putting your brand at risk – so make sure you hit up that feedback network.

3)   Not Keeping Track Of Brand Mentions

Monitoring the status of your brand is a crucial part of social media reputation maintenance. According to BrandWatch, 96% of people who talk about brands online do not actually follow said brands on social media platforms.

The research by BrandWatch is significant because it shows that the vast majority of online businesses leave consumers unchecked – meaning that they may interact less with their brand.

You may want to have a dedicated team member to take on the role of policing your social media brand interaction. Tasks for this individual may include checking Google Alerts and manually looking for discussions of your brand on social media.

4)   Taking Too Long To Message Consumers

We want everything, and we want it now in this day and age. That’s why it is so important to make sure you’re on top of your messages on social media. Responding to enquiries can really help to drive your brand reputation upwards.

According to research, 71% of customers who received a quick response to their enquiry, were more likely to recommend said brand to their friends. If you keep customers waiting for too long, the brand image becomes tarnished somewhat.

Website Provider

How Your Unreliable Website Provider Is Hurting Your Leads

Website ProviderIf you’re using a traditional website hosting service, you may be suffering from a bad case of the real estate blues. These two things often go hand in hand – especially as unreliable website providers are finally pushing real estate agents to look for a more consistent alternative.

Real estate agents are busy people, with all our meetings, viewings, paperwork and marketing rolled into a single day. This means that often we don’t get a lot of time for jobs such as maintaining a website – it’s something we just kind of expect to happen. In this era where websites are coming out of our ears, why stick with an unreliable website provider?

We’ll look at the issues with traditional website providers, and how using a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, can generate those well-deserved leads.

Traditional Website Providers Vs. WordPress

Back in the day (let’s call it 2009), website providers ruled the internet roost. If you wanted the flashiest site with all the gizmos and gadgets to make it look professional, you had to fork out a sizeable wedge of cash.

Traditional sites require an in-depth knowledge in order to create and maintain – something which most real estate agents just don’t have. If only someone could come up with a simple, time-saving and cost-effective solution to this dilemma? Oh wait, they already have.

Within the last few years, content management systems (CMS) have become commonplace on the world-wide web. CMS programs are generally used to bring together collaborative efforts – providing a user-friendly way of creating and managing web content.

The most popular CMS is called WordPress – which is used by around 60 million websites. So, why is your unreliable website provider hurting your leads and, more importantly, how does WordPress solve your problem?

1) Code is coming out of your ears

Unless you took a class in coding or studied for a computer science degree, it’s unlikely that you’ll have the technical knowledge to code a website. Traditional web providers assume that you have the knowledge, but if not, it can be costly. Hiring a web master or paying your computer buddy is all well and good, but it’ll eat into your profits.

Cue WordPress. The nifty content management system eliminates the need to understand HTML, Java and all that technical jargon. Instead, the easy user interface allows you to bash away at the keyboard – creating engaging content for your target audience in minutes.

Tricky formatting tasks of the past are also eradicated, as WordPress lets you arrange text, images and videos on the page with ease.

2) Expert help doesn’t come cheap

A lack of technical maintenance know-how results in having to call up your expensive web designer, before asking him or her to change this or add that. It’ll then take them a while before it can be changed and uploaded to your site’s web server. This is inconvenient in real estate terms, as we like to keep our customers up to date with listings – trying to generate leads over the competition.

WordPress enables the end user to instantly upload content to their website. This means you don’t have to phone up your expensive web master and painstakingly explain what’s going on. WordPress is your virtual web master – reducing overheads and saving your agency time on generating leads.

3) You lose out on quick wins

So, you’ve paid the website provider and your web designer for their time and expertise, but the changes took an hour or two to implement. During this time, your competitor (who uses WordPress) has nabbed one of your potential leads. As they say in business, “time is money” – and the time you spent faffing about with a traditional website provider has led to the loss of a potential sale.

4) Plugins and themes are far from easy

Plugins and themes give you an unparalleled level of flexibility and customisation in web design. Analytics plugins are particularly relevant for real estate agents, as these allow you to see which content is most effective, and which areas of your website attract the most traffic.

This can be a considerable headache for estate agents who use a traditional website, as plugins can be tricky to install, and even harder to maintain. With continuing updates to web code, plugins and browsers, the need for content management is paramount.

WordPress offers a solution to the nightmare of plugin management, by essentially administrating the task for you. It’s seamless, and will save you countless hours that could be spent showing clients around potential properties, closing deals, or driving new buyer leads into the top of your sales funnel.

5) Designing your own theme is a risky road

Designing a site layout from scratch is all good and well – if you’ve got the time and money to throw at it. On top of this, you’re never really going to be 100% sure it’s bug-free until it launches. If a bug does crop up, you’re not necessarily going to hear about it quickly, either. Whether it’s poor mobile rendering or a ‘contact us’ button that just doesn’t work, you’re going to lose out on leads.

6) Security can’t be guaranteed

A major flaw of having a traditional website provider is there’s no guarantee of security. Cybersecurity is a major issue – especially as more people are becoming technology focussed.

Different web hosting services will have varying levels of security, but you can bet your bottom dollar that you’ll pay a huge sum for top-notch security guarantees.

WordPress has its own dedicated team for security – overseeing all sites that use WordPress. A variety of security plugins can turn your website into a virtual Fort Knox – keeping client data safe and secure at all times.

It’s also worth mentioning that Google penalises a lack of security – meaning your site will rank lower on search results. Lower ranking means lower traffic, which in turn means lower leads. Why take the chance?

7) SEO is a breeze with WordPress

WordPress is a beast when it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO). If you’re not sure what SEO is, it’s pretty simple – it all comes down to where you appear in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

WordPress makes it supremely simple to edit meta data and general on-page content. So, although Google doesn’t pick favourites with web providers, a recent change to its algorithm means that websites with new and fresh content will shoot to the top of search engine results.

This positions WordPress perfectly for blowing away those traditional website providers, as it takes far less time to generate and upload content through WordPress.

Choose WordPress for a Quick, Simple, and Professional Real Estate Web Solution

The traditional website provider has been calling the shots since the internet went commercial. That means that they’ve had control over how much you pay, and how much time it takes to implement content online.

Website hosting services offer little in the way of security, and rely heavily on expert knowledge to create and maintain their many facets.

In real estate terms, this means that you might miss out on leads and in a competitive market, that’s not something you can afford.

WordPress could be the CMS solution to your traditional website. It’s all the following and more:

  • Free and open-source
  • Simple and easy to use interface
  • Offers flexibility and freedom through plugins
  • Is secure and monitored by a dedicated security team
  • Search engine optimized

If you’d like to learn more about how a WordPress site can help your real estate business, get in touch with our expert team at iDashboard today.

New Website - Blog

New Nexus Real Estate Website

As a new agency Nexus Real Estate required a great website to market their listings and services. This is where our website team stepped in, producing the new Nexus Real Estate website, which is completely responsive; working on Desktops, Tablets and Smartphones allowing their staff and visitors to access any, property any time.

The new interactive home page contains a great list of ‘must-have’ features, this includes:

  • Property Search Panel
  • Home Page Featured Properties Gallery
  • Latest Listing Grid on Home Page
  • Recent Testimonials
  • Market Appraisal Request Interactive Form
  • Latest Sold Properties
  • Latest News and Updates
  • Property Videos
  • Buyer and Renter Email Alerts Signup/Login

Along with this fantastic new home page, the website boasts a property grid & list view, property information pages, interactive forms and many more professionally designed features.

We wish the team at Nexus Real Estate all the best with their new website and look forward to our ongoing relationship.

If you are looking for a new website, wether you are starting from scratch or want to upgrade to a modern responsive design, contact the iDashboard team today.

 

NexusWebsite

 

Wordpress web design

Why WordPress Is the Best Thing to Happen to Real Estate

Wordpress web designAustralian real estate is always on the move, with local agencies battling against each other to win clients and sell the most properties.

When it comes to websites, however, finding a platform that can keep up is easier said than done. And when your online audience’s attention span is about as big as a budget Sydney apartment, a slow site will lose you leads.

Traditional website providers can give you a quick site, sure, but they definitely don’t come cheap. For this reason, and many others, more and more real estate agents just like you are switching their websites to WordPress.

What Is WordPress?

Put simply, WordPress is a seriously awesome Content Management System (CMS). These are computer programs which create and support the distribution of digital media. CMS’s are installed onto a web server – allowing the user the ability to easily create and upload engaging content in a relatively short period of time.

The real beauty of WordPress lies in the fact that content management applications (CMA) allow the end user to manipulate a website with relatively little expertise – ideal for real estate agents who don’t have the time to invest in heavy code work.

So, what are the benefits of using WordPress over traditional website hosts for your real estate agency?

6 Key Reasons Why You Should be Using WordPress – Right Now

Here’s everything you need to know about the biggest and best features WordPress has to boast for real estate agents. 

1) It’s search engine-friendly

A big worry for real estate agents who delve into the online world is search engine optimisation (SEO for short). SEO is all about getting to the top of the search results on websites such as Google and Bing.

Google’s new search engine algorithm puts fresh content at the top of search results. As WordPress enables users to quickly add new content, your website will shoot to the top of search engine results – something you’d have to do manually for a traditional website.

2) It’s responsive to different platforms

WordPress is one truly responsive CMS and that’s a huge win for you. Being responsive means that WordPress performs well across all platforms – i.e. if you load the site on your phone or on a computer, it’ll be adapted to fit that device.

Being a responsive CMS is a huge advantage for real estate agents, as many referrals come from online sources such as social media sites, mobile apps and more importantly – your own agency website.

3) WordPress moves at your pace

In a constantly moving market like real estate, it can be hard to find a web provider that can keep up.

With WordPress, however, keeping up is far from an issue. A continually growing suite of plugins and themes means you can stay on top of market movements, listing updates and, most importantly, your audience’s onsite habits.

4) It works around your schedule

With traditional website, not only do you write the content, but you have to spend time formatting and uploading. This is a real drag for busy estate agents, as it takes time from your no-doubt already tight schedule.

WordPress eliminates this issue, by allowing you to schedule content way in advance. This means you can sit and write a whole heap of posts before scheduling them to go live on a day and time of your choosing.

Scheduling also allows you to reach the most people, based on analytic data for when most people are online and scrolling through your website. It’s a real powerhouse of customer engagement guaranteed to keep those leads rolling in.

5) You’ll pick it up quickly

Learning the absolute basics of coding – we’re talking how to add text, paragraphs and colour – can take students weeks of tough practice. As a busy real estate agency, this time could be better spent elsewhere.

With WordPress, online tutorials quickly get you up to speed. Its intuitive user-friendly design means you can skip the studying and dive right in. You’ll be creating blogs, crafting pages and uploading images in minutes.

6) Security isn’t an issue

It’s sad but true – owning a traditional website with lots of plugins makes you vulnerable to cyber-attack. This is often an argument against WordPress, as it relies on plugins for many of its advanced features.

WordPress, however, employ a specialist team of 25 cyber security experts, turning your website into an almost impenetrable vault of digital goodness. Traditional websites just don’t get that level of protection for free – which could cost your agency a hefty sum each year.

Summary

WordPress’ success in the past 8 years is monumental in terms of real estate. It can save you money on expensive website costs and hiring a web designer, as well as giving you the ability to create and edit content with no technical knowledge.

You’re also able to launch your website seamlessly across different platforms, as WordPress has flexibility and consistency across different devices – especially on mobile platforms.

Not only does WordPress offer easy content creation, but it’s simple user interface provides a fast learning curve for its users. This means that just about anyone can get stuck into making a WordPress site with relative ease, and over a short period of time – and as they say, “time is money”.

To find out more about how WordPress will help your real estate agency, get in touch with your expert team at iDashboard today.