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Jan

23

Inman Real Estate Connect NYC 2009 Presentation

Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
Filed Under Real Estate, Research, Tradeshows | 5 Comments 

Here are some very interesting presentations delivered at Inman’s Real Estate Connect in New York.  Hope you enjoy them.

    Jan

    22

    Affiliate Summit – Recap (Vegas 2009)

    Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
    Filed Under Affiliate, Interesting Companies, Online Marketing, Research, Tradeshows | Leave a Comment 

    Affiliate SummitOkay, this took me awhile to get to…sorry!   We attended the soldout Affiliate Summit (Vegas, January 11-13). If you were unable to attend the show, they have just posted all presentations online. The presentations can be found here.

    Here are some interesting takeaways and companies from my perpsective:

    • Tracking202.com – My favorite company from the show. I had a demo and love what they are doing.   They aren’t doing bid management yet, but have some fantastic tools to “increase profits with real-time PPC analytics so you have a clear picture of how well your campaigns are performing.”
    • Prosper202.com – Provides pay-per-click affiliate marketers with free, leading-edge, self-hosted ppc software. (free version of Tracking202.com)
    • 99Designs.com – I had never heard of this site, but it is a great resource.  After all, who ever has enough design resources?  From their site, “Need something designed? 99designs connects clients needing design work such as logo designs, business cards, or web sites to a thriving community of 25,780 talented designers.
    • ODesk.com, eLance.com – Sites that simplify the process of finding, managing, and paying for resources like: web programming, writing and translation, admin support, sales and marketing, finance, legal, etc.
    • Izea.com - Pay-per-post blogging. If you would like to use the power of bloggin and social media to drive in-bound links and awareness, consider using these guys… pretty cool.
    • Sendori.com (acquired today by IAC/Ask.com) – will auction off redirects from parked domains through their servers and to sponsored advertiser pages in a PPC auction.
    • Facebook Advertising – They now offer a self-serve PPC network with over 150MM unique users (1/3 U.S, 2/3 International). While their platform is very new, raw, and often frustrating, they offer solid demographic and psychographic targeting.  Once you get your ad approved, you can get “massive traffic.”  There isn’t a lot of competition on their system right now, but making it profitable will require focus and attention.
    • Interesting Affiliate Networks that attended the show: Azoggle, Buy.at, Commission Junction, Google Network (formerly Performics), Linkshare, Shareasale, ClickBank.com, DirectResponse.com, HydraNetwork
    • Note to self – Several panelists suggested everyone read the book, 4-Hour Work Week.

    Jan

    21

    Real Estate Connect NYC Wrap-up

    Posted by Sean Fox, COO
    Filed Under Real Estate, Tradeshows | Leave a Comment 

    Having been to Real Estate Connect for 10 years running, I’ve seen the show during both the boom and the bust.  Regardless of the circumstances, you can always get an insider’s view as to what is going on in the market at this conference.  Three major points jumped out at me in reflecting on my conversations at the show:

    1. The Big Pullback.  Many companies have pulled back dramatically on their online spend in response to the downturn this Fall.  Real Estate has been tough for awhile now, but the end of Q3 and Q4 marked a new low for many companies that service the real estate market.  And I am not just talking about real estate brokerages – a number of online companies that have built their whole business around their web presence have put paid search expenditures on hold.  Also, I ran across – without much searching – several companies that had been forced to give up on or dramatically curtail their direct selling activities to agents or brokers because the return on investment was not there.  The bottom line is that, even though the real estate market had been in a malaise for nearly two years, the events of the past six months caused a major pullback and Q1 does not look much better for many of those companies.
    2. Lasting Change.  The new reality is forcing everyone to look hard at their business model and find ways to improve the results.  The tough times will no doubt cause fundamental changes in behavior that will persist long after the market recovers.  One example that struck me was Alex Perriello’s (CEO of Realogy who always shows up with a cool head) comment that there are far too many real estate offices and that he expected a significant shift toward home-based operations for the real estate industry in the future.  NRT (the largest real estate company in the US and owned by Realogy) recently rolled out a web-based transaction management platform that will help facilitate such a transition; so he, no doubt, has an incentive to emphasize this change in the real estate business.  Regardless, I was struck by his candid assessment that “there is too much brick and mortar in the business,” and that the financial realities of the situation will accelerate the transition away from the traditional, office-based business model.
    3. Time for Deals.  Given the doom and gloom in the market, most leaders were actively searching out business deals that could help them weather the storm.  In some cases, that meant reaching beyond the types of deals that would have gotten serious consideration in past years.  When the markets are rolling along, leaders tend to focus on execution of their own game plan and are generally risk-averse when it comes to taking on new business partnerships.  I found potential partners to be unusually open to exploring innovative business relationships and pushing beyond their historical comfort zone.  I would not be surprised to see some interesting (maybe even shocking) business relationships be forged during the next 6-12 months, as we all figure out how to thrive in the new reality.

    There has been a lot of good blogging done in follow-up to the show.  Inman News pulled together a sampling of some interesting contributions that I recommend you check out, if you want to get a more holistic view of the show’s content: http://www.inman.com/blog/2009/01/14/bloggers-share-their-experiences-connect-nyc-09

    Jan

    21

    Even Google Can’t Save Newspapers

    Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
    Filed Under Online Marketing, Uncategorized | 1 Comment 

    According to this Google blog post, they have decided to shut down Google Print Ads (Adwords / offline print interface) effective, February 28th.  Advertisers in AdWords were able to place ads in locally-targeted newspapers using an online interface.

    Google had over 800 newspapers sign up and apparently still couldn’t make print profitable enough to keep the investment flowing.  “While we hoped that Print Ads would create a new revenue stream for newspapers and produce more relevant advertising for consumers, the product has not created the impact that we — or our partners — wanted.”

    To me, it is no surprise that even Google can’t make offline print profitable.  It makes me wonder about businesses that target local consumers and their willingness to continue to invest in offline advertising with unclear return on investment.  I am surprised that more businesses haven’t aggressively moved their entire advertising spend online.

    For Google’s part, I bet killing their offline Radio interface will come next.   However, I do believe that while TV may not be profitable today, ultimately any device that is, or will be I.P. enabled will be square in Google’s sights.  Given the enormity of the advertising pie in TV advertising and their investment in YouTube, Google should continue to heavily invest in TV/I.P. advertising.

    Jan

    14

    Reply! Top 20 Real Estate Site

    Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
    Filed Under Real Estate, Reply! News | 1 Comment 

    According to Hitwise monthly category report for Real Estate, Reply! has joined the top 20 list of real estate-related websites in December and  Reply! is ranked 17th overall.  This is fantastic growth for Reply! and we are thrilled that both our Click Marketplace and Lead Marketplace have been so well received.

    For more information on Reply! real estate leads please listen to the ActiveRain radio Interview that was conducted on Tuesday December.

    Citizen Broadcasting - Blog Talk Radio   For further details, check with Rain Radio.

    Jan

    8

    Affiliate Summit, Vegas (Jan 11-13th) – Presentations Just Published

    Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
    Filed Under Tradeshows | Leave a Comment 

    Affiliate SummitReply! will be attending the sold out Affiliate Summit (Vegas, January 11-13). We will be blogging from the show and sharing what we learn. For those that cannot attend the event, they have just posted all the presentations online. The presentations can be found here.

    Jan

    6

    Auto Sales Plunge – Advertising Online Will Help!

    Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
    Filed Under Autos, Online Marketing | 1 Comment 

    The news on autos continued slide is wide spread.  I find the image below a powerful example of the challenges facing the industry.  In fact, several articles forecast a very bearish forecast 10 million units in 2009 and if accurate, paints a  challenging year for the industry.

    Photo

    Even with gas prices under $2 a gallon, inventories are growing and many in the industry see heavy incentives necessary to to move vehicles and engage consumers.  According to Jim Lentz at Toyota, “the biggest issue we have seen is the lack of people coming through the door.”

    To me there is encouraging news with the unfortunate downturn in auto sales – eventually dealers are going to  embrace online and aggressively move wasted offline advertising to the Internet where they can produce and track measurable results.  This is a new year,  it is a great time to test and improve the bottomline.  At Reply! we have powerful tools to either drive leads to your business or qualified clicks to your website.

    Need consumers or traffic – we can help.

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