Think Tank Recap// Practical & Tactical: Online Approaches, Tools, & Trends

LeverageRE

In the Think Tank Conferences, Leverage Global Partners connects participants from across the nation and around the world for a meaningful presentation about successful and innovative strategies.

Practical & Tactical: Online Approaches, Tools, and Trends featured a presentation by Jay Dysart (Founder & President) and Courtney Harmeling (Senior Producer) from JLOOP, a creative technology and development firm. During the presentation, Jay and Courtney shared some of JLOOP’s trends, tips, and tools for building a meaningful web presence.

HERE ARE SOME KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE PRESENTATION:

TRENDS

Responsive Design: Crafting websites to have an optimal experience across a wide array of devices and screen sizes
Single Page Sites: Content is simplified and more experiential
Parallax: The visual effect creating the illusion of depth; objects in distance appear to move slower than those in the foreground
Authenticity & Transparency: Being familiar with the difference between professional vs. personal, marketing vs. conversation, and company vs. individuals
The Rise of the App: Mobile apps have streamlined user experience
The Facebook Effect: Users have become savvy and now have expectations of continuous improvement
Speed & Responsiveness: Full-page reloads have come to an end, and suggestions have replaced the “click” and “hover” mechanisms
The Internet of Cards: Meta data is often the only direct experience users have with your content

TIPS & APPROACHES

DIFFERENTIATORS: What makes you truly unique?
- Expertise?
- People/Culture?
- Reach?
- Relationships?
SHOW DON’T TELL:
- Images tell a story
- People don’t read online
- Graphics are better than data
- Use icons for quick recognition
HAVE A PURPOSE:
- What do you want your site to do for your business?
MOVE THE DIAL:
- Where is your consumer when they visit your site?
- Focus on moving them to the next step
BE HELPFUL:
- If you are going to provide “tools”, make them count.
- Don’t be a copycat
- Help a buyer move down the funnel inside your unique value system

USEFUL TOOLS

EMAIL MARKETING: Reach an audience, build brand value. Still at the top of the online marketing chain.
- Lead Magnets – White paper, eBook, market stats & trends, webinars, discounts
- Automation – b=Build a welcome series that puts you in control of how your subscribers are introduced to your brand. Also date-based emails (holidays, birthdays, etc.)
SYNDICATION:
- Property Feeds: Custom feeds for greater control. Syndicate to Zillow, Trulia, etc.
- Blog/Content Feeds: Syndicate your content to whoever wants to subscribe
- Social Media: Quality over quantity
- Video: Incredible way to tell your story quickly online
- SEO/SEM: Optimizing for indexing/appearance and ranking, and paying for placement