SEOptimise’s blog, “Five online marketing New Year’s resolutions” provides 5 healthy reminders for your 2009 resolutions, especially if you’re still not optimizing your online marketing potential via search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO).

Resolutions include: set a budget, start a blog, focus on your audience, seek experts (especially wnen you don’t exactly know what to do or where to start), and be personable (build relationships, don’t toot your brand’s horn).

Don’t let fear of failure or of the unknown daunt your marketing resolutions. Sure, there are significant changes in the economy, consumer behavior and online marketing techniques. While our realities are undergoing constant evolution, there are certain SEO truisms that still reign supreme, such as: lots of relevant, keyword-rich content, great inbound links and proper site architecture and formatting.

Focus on the basics, put forth a plan and just take the first steps. A little action, even if imperfect, is better than procrastinating for a better quarter, bigger budgets, or more stable economy. Go forth and resolve to better position your site in 2009!

Post by David Gosse.

An Apartments.com survey of 2,000 respondents provides intriguing insight into the psyche of American families. With foreclosure on the rise, it would seem that more homeowners are turning to apartment rentals out of necessity. But this study shows that the majority are choosing renting over ownerships due to affordability and a preferred lifestyle package associated with renting.

The features most favored by renters are a maintenance-free lifestyle, flexibility, access to apartment amenities, prime neighborhood locations also help. The freedom to move when employment changes is a very important feature, particularly with increased uncertainty in the economy.
It also seems that once someone chooses to rent over buy, there’s a very good chance they will remain a renter. Nearly 70% of respondents have always rented and around 37% have rented for 10 years or more.

Post by David Gosse.

SearchIgnite reports a 33% increase in retailer’s ad spending over last year illustrates that retailers are likely pouring more dollars into search campaigns which can be monitored and tweaked in real-time.

Roger Barnette, president of SearchIgnite notes: “Advertisers are shifting more dollars to paid search and digital media. Retailers want media they can buy on a performance bases to track and measure.”

Despite a decline in overall consumer spending, people are steadily purchasing goods over the Internet. Observationally, retailers are offering more incentives earlier in the season than is typical,  likely incentivizing consumers to go ahead and make necessary and discretionary purchases.

Post by David Gosse.

Online advertising data offers some light in the current economic do. Third quarter figures reveal an 11 percent increase over 2007, coming in at $5.9 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The first nine months of revenues set a new record, climbing 14% over the same period last year. This data not only shows that Internet advertising has continuing to grow as predicted, it reveals that its becoming a haven for ad dollars in the downturn. Continually hailed as the most cost-effective and measurable method of reach customers, online shines while other ad outlets fade.

Post by David Gosse.

How does an apartment website get higher natural placement in the search engines? It is the same battle that companies fight in just about any type of business. There are many important steps to effective search engine optimization, but there is one simple rule that is described in detail recently in SeachEngineWatch. As the article mentions: “The answer to long-lasting results in the search engines comes back to one simple truth: search engines like content.”

A website with more content is considered more relevant to searchers and search engine spiders and thus, the result will be higher rankings in the results. For example, an apartment website with a paragraph of descriptive information, photos, floor plans and contact information provides the basic information for a website visitor to research their apartment, but that limited content is unlikely to be ranked high by Google or MSN. Additional content that includes keywords relevant to the metro area that the apartment is located in, such as a local directory of businesses, will add pages of new content within the area, and the search engines will place higher value on the website.

Post by Greg Starr.

Movers in the rental realm are getting slammed with higher moving costs in 2008 and being advised to shop around and negotiate for extras. As much as apartment dwellers are encouraged to take advantage of move-in specials and amenities in rental communities, they are also pushing for incentives with professional movers, truck rentals and storage facilities, to name a few. It can be worthwhile to look past the big brands and consider some local alternatives. On the East Coast for example, Safeguard Self Storage boasts impressive package deals, modern facilities and high-end security to protect your belongings. Smaller brands like this accommodate local movers and those from afar, but sometimes you have to do an extra layer of digging to discover them. Niche local search engines like WeAreNetwork are a great way to find these gems of local establishments, because their content is more specific to a metro and its neighborhoods, rather than being more franchise and national based as the major engines typically are.

Post by Stephanie Santoro.

With today in increasingly sketchy economic times, how could companies not be more likely to seek out better values in their marketing efforts? I might sound overly optimistic (to the point of possibly being laughed off the internet), but I am excited that marketers are going to have to get more resourceful and creative. Since marketing budgets in companies everywhere are plunging, it’s likely that business owners and executives will begin employing less expensive and more free methods for keeping their name on the map.

Small business owners can start by increasing their visibility with the free search listing tools available at Google’s Local Business Center and Yahoo’s Add a Business page. By ensuring their information is visible and fresh, they become more accessible, therefore increasing their rank and visibility in search results with every curious click. And how could any local business go wrong by making sure they appear in various local engines such as WeAreNetwork where you can add a free listing at any of their U.S. and Canadian city sites? TrueLocal offers a similar service.

While niche search companies are typically confident in their specialty and highly value their own services over others, they still know they are fresh on the scene and might have the flexibility to cut you better deals to join your campaign.

Post by Stephanie Santoro.

Is it far-fetched to say that businesses offering products or services that are remotely connected to the Olympic games are missing out if they aren’t advertising online right now? I don’t think it’s a stretch because of people who behave like me. I was watching the table tennis competition and became so inspired, I searched for “ping pong tables” online. As I browsed some product sites, I wondered how many actual impulse transactions like this might actually have real follow-through during some of these events? I quickly came to my senses before reaching the “Add to cart” stage, but there could conceivably be others following a similar behavior patterns who actually do have the space and disposable income to buy what they want, when they want it. There is just something so motivating about the Olympics and the desire to relive that energy. The same could happen during a volleyball tournament or women’s fencing. Why not buy keywords or rich media that lets customers buy a gift card in one click and get a free volleyball with the purchase? How about capturing the thrill of fencing and advertising for fencing classes? Or a link to the private sports instructor’s website? Not everyone has an Adidas size budget to directly sponsor the Olympics but why not ride the coattails of $200 million campaigns with the same powerful concept on a smaller scale?

Post by Stephanie Santoro.

The social media hype continues and is enticing companies of every shape and size to dabble in creating new networks. To facilitate the craze, dozens of open source social networking platforms have launched. Jeremiah Owyyang’s blog lists over 60 brandable software platforms that can plug into your existing domain, allowing you to create your very own social network.  But does every company really need to have a social network?

In a Deloitte study of 100 businesses with online communities, Ed Moran found that 35% of these communities have less than 100 members and less than 25% have 1000 members. 6% of the businesses studied spent over $1 million on their social networks. Sadly, all too many fail at their attempts to connect customers to their brand because instead of focusing on the community itself, businesses are focusing on the value that social community could provide for their business.

Despite the failures, there are definitely industries that DO have ready-made communities with well-established brand alliance, and have a greater chance of building successful online communities. The multifamily is definitely well-positioned for this. Other verticals include: local television networks (daily news watchers), radio (listening audiences), niche local communities (customized hyperlocal search) and education (school districts, private schools, universities).

Most multifamily companies have a couple clear-cut missions in life (e.g. collecting rents and driving occupancy rates), but a newer mandate is to establish and promote your brand for a longer-term connection with an increasingly transient population.  Before signing a rental contract, an individual needs to identify with what that apartment provides – far deeper than price points, the rental market is now driven by amenities. “Lifestyle” is the buzzword for providing more than a roof over people’s heads. Now, apartment companies need to provide easy to use services ranging from online rent pay to pet sitting to VIP concierge services and customized local search while hosting real live community pool parties, golf instruction classes and more. While it may sound exhausting (and it is), apartment companies are finally optimizing their built-in community of residents and finding creative ways to connect the residents together, along with meaningful lifestyle amenities that cement the value of their brand, while gaining loyalty in the minds of renters.

Riverstone Residential, the nation’s third largest apartment management company, offers a moving program, Riverstone-to-Riverstone which helps transfer residents to another Riverstone community sans application process and deposit fees. Combined with their Living Made Easy features, including “Your Neighborhood Directory,” a local search engine launched in three metros, where users can find “just down the street” local businesses via a true search results format (e.g. not just Yellow Page data), residents benefit from buying into Riverstone’s “community” and the value it provides to their daily lives.

Morals of the story:

• If you don’t have a pre-existing community, don’t assume that you can create one (and don’t spend a lot of money trying to create one).
• If you do have a pre-existing community (and they already visit your website regularly), focus on the value that your social network will provide to your users.

Post by David Gosse.

A major distinction between online search advertising and traditional advertising is that an online searcher is looking for choices and recommendations while a television user may not be. Both users are bombarded with offers, though the online user is more likely to accept irrelevant offers as a self-inflicted experience they simply expect to endure. This is an age where digital recording services are coming standard with cable services after all. Ignoring a television commercial is as easy as flipping to the next page in a magazine. 

Some may argue this contrast alone elevates a viewer’s intolerance and increases their likelihood of flipping off the tube. They can easily switch to the laptop instead or often simultaneously. But whether they turn it off or keep it on, consumers are likely to follow up what interests them on TV with research or shopping online. Events like the Super Bowl pull in a tremendous amount of pre-kickoff and post kickoff searching. Recently Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of GoDaddy.com delivered a keynote address at AIM 2008 (Apartment Internet Marketing Conference) in April about how he catapulted his business from small to world leader in domain names and web hosting by reinforcing Go Daddy commercials with online branding and direct marketing. The point is that people are advertising online more than ever, whether it’s to reinforce more traditional campaigns (or not).  Either is good for search sites that offer relevant content and either is good for the actual advertiser.

Post by Stephanie Santoro.