Active Website Enterprise Network Blog » Residential Properties Ltd.

Conference Highlight: Your Brand is More Than Your Logo

Amanda Stephan — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:43:53 +0000

At this year’s Active Enterprise Network Annual Conference, attendees had the opportunity to hear from Enterprise Network member, Tom Flanagan, on the importance of establishing your brand. Tom is the Technology Director at Residential Properties Ltd., a syndicated technology columnist for Inman News and has spoken numerous times at Enterprise Network events.

Because Tom is one of our most forward-thinking members, we invited Tom to present at the conference on ways to bridge the gap between your brokerage’s brand and your customers through a usable website and superior customer service. In order to do this, it is important to understand that your brand consists of more than just your logo; your brand is everything, including your strategy, communication tools, agents and staff, website and more.

A main focus of Tom’s presentation was how usability is a crucial component to establishing a strong brand. Keeping usability at the forefront of design, The Active Enterprise Network understands that a website is more than just a conversion tool. While it’s important to drive traffic to your site, it’s also necessary to ensure your customers have a positive experience once they arrive. By doing this, your brand will be associated with quality and increase the chances that a user will return.

To reiterate the importance of establishing a strong brand, Tom ended his presentation with the following video that answers the question: What is branding?

For further reading, Tom recommends the following books:

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
The Laws of Simplicity: Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life by John Maeda

2011 Active Enterprise Network Annual Conference: Bridging the Gap Between Broker and Customer

dyanagutierrez — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:09:35 +0000

As The Active Enterprise Network Conference quickly approaches, we’re excited for the discussion and innovation that will develop as a result of this unique conference. The theme of this year’s conference is Bridging the Gap Through Personalization, and the first session will focus on bridging the gap between Broker and Customer. Below is an overview of topics that will be discussed during this session.

Broker → Customer

Usability Vs. Branding: Your Logo is Not Your Brand
This session will help clarify the difference between usability and branding. Because we live in a customer-centric world, we need to keep usability at the forefront of design – not our branding. By focusing more on usability, you supply your customers with a higher quality experience that will then be associated with your brand. Keep in mind, your brand encompasses more than just your logo and design. It also includes your strategy and communication tools, your employees and facilities and most importantly your customer service.

Speaker:
Tom Flanagan
Technology Director
Residential Properties Ltd.

Search, Mobile and Social: Their Impact on Real Estate
Last year, we defined search, mobile and social as the major trends that are revolutionizing the Real Estate Industry. Tyler Olmstead, Active Website’s Director of Deployment, and Chris Chares, Active’s Mobile Developer, will discuss their impact on the Real Estate Industry as well as the functionality we have developed as a result of these trends.

Speakers:
Tyler Olmsted
Director of Deployment
Active Website, LLC

Chris Chares
Mobile Developer
Active Website, LLC

Getting the Most Out of Your Community Relations: Increasing Brand Recognition Through Community Involvement
An important component of your brokerage’s marketing strategy involves your ability to connect to your local community. By bridging the gap between your brokerage and your customers through community involvement, you can increase brand recognition. Randall Graham, Vice President and Director of Marketing at Ebby Halliday Realtors, discusses Ebby’s strategy for positioning their brokerage in the community through events, fundraisers and various other programs.

Speaker:
Randall Graham
Vice President and Director of Marketing
Ebby Halliday Realtors

Stay tuned over the next couple weeks as we release more details about the sessions at our annual event!

By Dyana Gutierrez

Enterprise Network Members Make Real Trends 500 List

Amanda Stephan — Tue, 10 May 2011 20:19:12 +0000

Active Website would like to congratulate The Active Enterprise Network for another great year in 2011. With the release of The REAL Trends 500 Report, we’d like to take the time to spotlight several members who made the list.

Every year, REAL Trends ranks the performance of residential real estate companies across the country by sales volume, transactions, mortgage, etc. This annual report is a trusted standard of measuring performance, so again, congratulations to the following members!

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Transaction Sides for 2010)

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Sales Volume in 2010)

Top Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Affiliates

The Largest Independents

Top Firms Ranked by Closed Sales Volume Per Sales Associate

Top Firms Ranked by Closed Sales Volume Per Office

16- Kentwood Real Estate

Top Firms Ranked by Average Sales Price

24- McEnearney Associates, Inc.

The Billionaire’s Club! (Those who closed at least one billion $ worth of real estate in 2010)

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Mortgage Closings

The Group, Inc. Real Estate

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Title Closings

The Group, Inc. Real Estate

The Danberry Company

Real Trends Market Leaders

Ann Arbor: Charles Reinhart Company Realtors
Dallas/Ft.Worth: Ebby Halliday Realtors
Denver: Kentwood Real Estate
Fort Collins: The Group, Inc. Real Estate
Lexington: Milestone Realty Consultants
Portland: Hasson Company Realtors
Providence: Residential Properties, Ltd.
Toledo: The Danberry Company

Active Website Speaks on Real Estate Insight

Amanda Stephan — Mon, 09 May 2011 22:53:09 +0000

Yesterday John Sable, Managing Partner at Active Website, had the opportunity to speak on Residential Properties Ltd.‘s weekly radio talk show, Real Estate Insight. Discussing emerging trends in the Real Estate Industry, John spoke about the recent launch of Residential’s lifestyle search engine and the benefits this latest search technology provides to buyers and sellers.

The first member to implement lifestyle search, Residential Properties is once again demonstrating why they’re leaders in the Rhode Island real estate market. Through Active Website’s technology and data provided by Onboard Informatics, Residential Properties is able to offer top-notch service and provide a more personalized experience for their online customers.

If you missed the live show, you can listen to the podcast by clicking here.

10 Lifestyle Searches in 10 Weeks. First Up, Residential Properties!

Residential Properties Ltd. Launches First Lifestyle Search on Enterprise Platform

Amanda Stephan — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:06:33 +0000

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the release of lifestyle search on Enterprise Network members’ sites and we’re proud to announce that it’s finally time to launch our first lifestyle search engine! Through Active Website’s technology and data provided by Onboard Informatics, members now have access to the latest technology revolutionizing our industry.

The first member to adopt this feature is Residential Properties Ltd. Based in Providence, RI, Residential Properties has been serving the Rhode Island Real Estate market for over 30 years and was a great first candidate for the launch of this product. Working closely with Tom Flanagan, Residential’s IT Director and one of our most forward thinking members, we were able to implement a well-polished search engine that will meet the needs of their customers.

Customers visiting ResidentialProperties.com are now able to search for homes that match their unique lifestyle ranging from family-friendly neighborhoods with great schools to communities close to shopping, golfing, night life and more. By ranking criteria most important to them, customers can find their ideal home quicker and more efficiently than ever before. As an early adopter of this new technology, Residential Properties is able to further enrich the user experience and gain yet another advantage over the competition.

So without further adieu, check out the very first lifestyle search engine implemented for The Enterprise Network by visiting Residential Properties at www.residentialproperties.com/lifestyle_search.

The launch of Residential’s lifestyle search engine kicks off our blog series, Enterprise Network Challenge: 10 Lifestyle Searches in 10 Weeks. We’ve taken on a huge undertaking releasing one lifestyle search a week over the next 10 weeks, but we’re confident that we will accomplish this big task!

Through the joint efforts of the Active Website team and our outstanding members, we will continue to drive lifestyle search to the forefront of our industry.

Want to find out who will be next to implement this feature? Check back with us next week as we release our 2^nd lifestyle search engine!

Active Community: Introducing Lifestyle Search

By Amanda Stephan

Active Usability Lab: The Ideal Sitemap

Amanda Stephan — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:38:24 +0000

Tom Flanagan, from Residential Properties, wrote an interesting article today for Inman News about the importance of improving your website’s usability. Within the article, Tom highlighted Active Website’s most recent usability report released to Enterprise Network members earlier this year.

To give you some background information, Active Website partnered with Tobii Technology last year in order to further develop our Active Usability Lab. Tobii’s eye tracking technology is the latest innovation in usability testing and has helped make companies like Google, Microsoft and Ebay leaders in their respective markets. The first company in the real estate realm utilizing this eye tracking system, Active Website can now scientifically measure how customers are interacting with our sites. To see a demonstration, check out our blog post, Active Community: Introduction to the Active Usability Lab.

As a result, the Active Usability Department has conducted several studies to test the overall effectiveness of Enterprise sites. Through the use of Tobii’s eye tracking system and various other methods, we can now make educated decisions on how to best position our brands online.

During Tom’s article, he mentioned our most recent report that focused on sitemap and navigation. The report addressed the most efficient main navigation style, best sitemap structure and best practices for content – just to name a few. The goal of the study was to allow customers from a wide range of ages and web experiences to tell us how they expect content on a real estate website to be organized. By utilizing card sorting and the eye tracking system, our study produced a user-generated sitemap we refer to as, “The Ideal Sitemap”. Click here to download a copy of the Ideal Sitemap Template.

At Active Website, we understand the key to our success is our customers. Through our Usability Department and the Active Usability Lab, we’re taking huge strides in becoming a truly customer-centric company. There is no denying that our customers’ needs have evolved. In order to maintain the high level of service we want associated with our brands, we must meet the demand of our users. Through these studies, we’ve been able to do just that by taking what we’ve learned and making improvements to our sites. As a result, Enterprise Network members gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

If you’re interested in learning more about The Active Usability Lab and our eye tracking technology, contact Kendal Greer by email at kendal@activewebsite.com or by phone at 303-396-0103.

Residential Properties Featured on Today Show!

Amanda Stephan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:27:29 +0000

Enterprise Network Member, Residential Properties, was featured on this morning’s episode of NBC’s Today Show. During Barbara Corcoran’s Real Estate segment, Joyce Hughes‘ waterfront cottage property was highlighted during a segment on homes around the country between $200,000 and $400,000.

Below is the clip from today’s episode. For more information about the featured property, visit 495 County Rd Barrington, RI.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Content is KING!

Amanda Stephan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:23:34 +0000

At our conference this year, Tom Flanagan, Director of Information Technology at Residential Properties, spoke about the importance of unique and engaging content. According to Tom, last year 200 of the top Real Estate sites accounted for 95% of the real estate traffic online. Because of this, it’s crucial to find ways to set yourself apart from the competition.

By providing sticky material to our websites, we are able to enrich the user experience as well as improve our company’s SEO. Today, we’d like to showcase Residential Properties and a few of the ways they’re reaching customers through various platforms and reinforcing the importance of content.

Earlier this week we posted a blog discussing the need for telling a story in regards to our property listings. We showed a great example of how good writing can increase SEO and create an emotional connection with consumers. At Residential, they’re taking this a step further. Below is a video posted on YouTube that provides a great description of not only the property listing, but the community as well.

Yet another way Residential is providing content to consumers is by hosting a radio talk show called, Real Estate Insight. Every Sunday morning at 10am Eastern Standard Time Sally Lapides and her team discuss today’s hottest real estate topics. By going to their website, you can listen to the live show or catch a past airing in the archives section on Podcast. This not only allows users to hear more about the world of real estate, but is another way Residential can keep people on their site. You can also find a more in-depth discussion on the show’s blog, www.realestateinsight.com.

Finally, we’d like to mention what Residential is doing to get the entire company involved in the process. Every Season, they hold an internal photo contest and everyone in the company is encouraged to submit a photo they have taken of the community. The winning photos are then displayed on their homepage slide show as well as the blog. Your blog is a great publishing platform and is a vital way to engage your consumer. Click here to see this year’s spring winners.

So take these examples as advice for advancing your company’s website. Social networking, blogging, and contests allow for dialogue with the consumers and are just a few of the ways you can reach them. The longer you keep a user’s attention, the better your odds that they’ll remember you!

Finding Ways to Connect to Our Customers

Amanda Stephan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:48:00 +0000

We’d like to spotlight Enterprise Network Member Residential Properties out of Rhode Island in today’s blog. Residential Properties entered a video into the 2009 REALTOR Party Video Contest on YouTube in an effort to extend the $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit.

This video features a first time homebuyer and single mom, Andrea Larocque, and Kathy Vaillancourt from Residential’s Narragansett office. With the tax credit, Andrea, who struggled to get out of debt after putting herself through school to become a radiology technician, was able to purchase a home for her and her nine-year-old son, Isaiah.

This is an inspiring video that tells a story about the importance of our customers. It’s about the emotional connection- what can we do to showcase our efforts in putting the customer first? Videos, blogs, and social networking sites can all be used to our advantage. With so many avenues for reaching out to people, we need to start finding new ways to utilize these great opportunities. Residential’s video didn’t take any expensive equipment to accomplish this task, just the desire to use these great resources to meet the needs of their customers. Follow Residential’s blog by clicking here.

Social Networking that Works!

John Gadeken — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:03:17 +0000

You may have read our months worth of blogs in June talking about social networking strategies, solutions, suggestions and more- and this month we have a great Social Networking success story from a member of the Enterprise Network, Residential Properties. Many brokerages struggle to grasp the power that social networking can have for their company as a whole. For individual Realtors to use these methods seems common and basically necessary; but for a brokerage to use Social Networking, there seems to be a question of how impactful it can really be. So, why do it?

93% of Social Media Users Believe A Company Should Have A Presence In Social Media

-Cone, Business in Social Media Study, September 2008.

Residential Properties has a presence on 9 social media outlets, establishing more control over their identity, brand awareness, and a modern interaction with consumers and agents alike. They recently utilized Social Networking as the main outlet for a marketing campaign of Open Houses. Residential Properties achieved great success with an increase in blog and website traffic as well as a higher than average number of attending couples at the open houses.

Read the full case study: Residential Properties’ Social Networking Success