Web Site Performance and Conversion: Get Out the Measuring Stick

Our Guest Post today comes from Jennifer Kennedy, Technology and Operations Specialist at Property Counselors Management Group in Fort Myers, Fl. Jennifer, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and getting the conversation going. This is Jennifer’s second Guest Blog with us, her first post, Does Increased Web Traffic Draw Increased Sales had lots of comments!

Get Out the Measuring Stick

A few years back industry leaders were conveying the importance for properties to have a website and online presence.  This is when our team at PCMG decided to move forward with each property having its own website for current and future residents.   After the initial launch, we saw a significant increase in traffic.

However, it is far too easy to create the websites and then just set them on the shelf.   Are the photos currently on your site from the fun and exciting resident function you had last week or last year?   We have come to realize that it is critical to keep updating content and evaluating website performance.   We just completed revamping our entire company website, which is quite an undertaking that requires resources constantly allocated to website content and improvement.

Now that the websites are launched and the content updated, it is time to get out the measuring stick.  The primary purpose for a property website is to generate traffic and secure leases.  In order to properly evaluate these goals, standard metrics need to be in place.  We currently measure our website conversions for unique visitors that lead to an online guest card or a phone call to the property.    As a portfolio, websites are converting 5% of new visitors to an online guest cards and 4% converting to a phone call resulting in a 9% total conversion.

The most important part of measuring is that our efforts are producing new leases.   Portfolio results consistently show that any property that converts 10% of its new visitors has seen a boost in occupancy with most averaging a 3% increase.

There is nothing I would like to see more from our industry than coming to a consensus on how to measure website performance with benchmarks that we can gauge our results against. What measuring stick are you using to evaluate your property website performance?

Social Media Marketing; Learn How to Move the Google Needle

I am in Dallas this week at the Optimization Summit Conference. Tami Siewruk, the event organizer and Chief Imagination Officer at Multifamily Pro has done an outstanding job with a stealer line up of top rate small business and Social Media Presenters. I feel pretty honored to be on the same ticket along side guys like Christopher Penn, Jason Falls, John Jantsch and Geno Church to name a few. This may well be one of the best positioned Small Business Conferences I have ever attended.

Tami’s following from pulling off successful Multifamily Brainstorm Sessions for over twenty years has mostly drawn apartment folks. The attendees here are ready for change, they are past talking about Social Media, and are eager to implement. Many still have questions, and more over fear, but they are ready to pull the trigger. Some with big apartment portfolio’s. We are moving past the place of talking and into doing. I love that, it is pretty cool and very exciting.

My session on Wednesday is Move the Google Needle, and will cover the below outlined items in four two hour sessions.

1. Anatomy of a Search Engine; The difference between organic and paid searches and where you should focus your time and resources
2. Domain Names and Alternate Domain Names Own the right web site addresses and watch your traffic soar.
3. Keywords The most important list you’ll ever make
4. Title Tag A search engines first impression of your web site —-make it a good one.
5. Meta Description Tags Your chance to tell a search engine user why they should click your link over all the other
6. Home Page Content This critical content must be created with two audiences in mind: your residents and the search engines.
7. Link Popularity Learn how to increase your web site’s popularity and become noticeable with the search engines
8. Hurl your URL The easiest way to effectively market your web site
9. Social Networking Sites Find new business quickly and effectively using these new sites
10. Articles Be known as a content expert in your field and allow others other’s to market your web site for you
11. Press Releases Generate buzz and make a splash on search engines
12. Blogs Your online forum to inform prospects about your products and brand
13. E-mail Marketing Stay “top of mind” with your residents and prospects

Here is a link to the slides, Move the Google Needle should you have further interest,

B2B Social Media; Senior Marketing Executives Want Control

A Guest Post from HiveFire Marketing; Taariq Lewis

B2B Social Media; Senior Marketing Executives Want Control

While participating at the Online Marketing Conference, I heard a few comments from a few very hard-working working eMarketing managers.  These managers commented on their company’s leadership view of the growing importance of Social Media for their businesses.   In their view, most senior executives still don’t understand the need for all this focus on Social Media.  Sure, some bosses are willing to devote a little time and budget, but senior marketing executives see lots of fads in their lengthy careers.

Thus, the brave eMarketing Managers, whom they employ, are usually pioneers, risking their careers, to launch and integrate Social Media plans into their corporate marketing efforts.  Not only do they have the smallest budgets, but they usually have the highest ROI proof requirements.  I am guilty of chuckling at the true story of one eMarketing Manager sneaking their company’s credit card to make a Social Media tool purchase.  They were only able to keep their job after showing the ROI on the tool!

It’s my view that senior marketing executives in large companies clearly understand and see progress in Social Media.  This is old news.  Many of the leading social media marketing technology companies have covered it here and elsewhere.  However, the problem, from my perspective, is one of control.  Who controls Social Media in the organization?  Does it fall under Corporate Marketing or Marketing Communications?  If Social Media ROI doesn’t deliver, as promised, who’s responsible, the eMarketing Manager or her boss?  Finally, if an eMarketing or Social Media Manager positively impacts revenue growth, how does the firm properly reward that individual and encourage the rest of the organization to support that success?

Social Media Marketing is not easy.  It’s not non-technical and it requires increasing understanding of analytics, software, and rapidly evolving Internet technology.  Although there’s sufficient education for eMarketers through organizations such as Online Marketing Institute, where’s the educational opportunity for Senior Marketing executives?  How will they learn about Social Media so that they can feel empowered to move their marketing organization, with confidence, in this rapidly emerging and highly effective direction?
In the absence of more education, tools must suffice and these tools need to get easier and give Senior Marketing executives more control and easier participation in Social Media marketing activities.  Information automation tools and social media dashboards are a start.  However, there’s more that can be done and I’d like to see more conversations around other possible solutions.  Unless our senior executives are encouraged to participate in B2B social media, we’ll miss out on their insights and support for this new customer engagement channel.

Your Blog IS About Results;

We Are Driving Ourselves Mad

Content Curation, Original Content, Re-purposed Content, Purchased Content, Content Yada, Yada, There sure is a lot of fodder these days about how to slice the Content Pie, from bloggers, clients, side liners and such.

What is a Business To Do?

How about starting with what you always do when operating a business, Look at The Numbers. If no one is reading your blog, what you are doing isn’t working. How the content is labeled has little bearing on the success of your blog.

There is an underling current surrounding original content, and sometimes folks get stuck on always wanting original content on their blogs. That is a flawed approach. As an example, a good friend of mine, Erin Rose runs a local news blog  Positive Detroit,, now a couple of years running was just voted as The Best Local Blog in SE Michigan by our local media, Real Detroit. Erin does an outstanding job curating content, but guess what friends, none of her content is original!

The point here is this, Erin has a keen understanding of what type, and feel of content her Circle of Influence wants to consume, and she satisfies that by filtering through localized content for her readers and following.

Focus on Results

If you are using your blog for your business, it IS about driving leads. Marketing has always been about selling more stuff to more people for more money. If you are using new media, social media or whatever the buzz word of the day is, Focus on the Results. Nothing else matters,