Active → Broker

New Releases on The Active Enterprise Platform: Putting Innovation to Work
2011 has proven to be successful for The Active Enterprise Network and we are proud of the progress we have made already this year. With technology constantly evolving, it is our goal to keep members on the cutting-edge of innovation in order to maintain their position as market leaders. During this session, Senior Programmer at Active Website, Conar Welsh, will give an overview of the technologies released in 2011 and what’s to come.

Speaker:
Conar Welsh
Senior Programmer
Active Website, LLC

Implementation & Adoption of Quarterly Releases: Securing Your Position as Market Leaders
As a member of The Active Enterprise Network, you’ve made the commitment to push innovation forward in order to remain on the cutting edge of real estate technology. To do, new releases are produced quarterly on ensure that you are the first in your market to implement the latest technology. Ori Staub, Managing Partner of Active Website, will discuss why implementing these features are crucial to the success of your brokerage.

Speaker:
Ori Staub
Managing Partner
Active Website, LLC

Training on The Active Enterprise Platform: Expanding Our Training and Education Initiatives
As a member of The Active Enterprise Network, you are given access to a wide variety of tools for increasing productivity and your bottom line. However, without proper training it can be difficult for agents and staff to know what is available and how to best utilize these technologies. Michelle Hendrickson, Project Manager at Active Website, will discuss Active’s plan for expanding our training program through video, on-site training and more.

Speaker:
Michelle Hendrickson
Project Manager
Active Website, LLC

ROI Management: Getting the Most From Your Enterprise Network Membership
In order to manage each member’s return on investment, Active Website appointed a ROI & LifeCycle Manager in 2011. During this presentation, Stephanie Streeter will discuss the department’s progress and how to get the most out of your Enterprise Network partnership through ROI reporting, The Active Partner Program and more.

Speaker:
Stephanie Streeter
LifeCycle and ROI Manager
Active Website, LLC

Related Posts:

• 2011 Active Enterprise Network Annual Conference: Briding the Gap Between Agent and Customer
• 2011 Active Enterprise Network Annual Conference: Bridging the Gap Between Broker and Agent
• 2011 Active Enterprise Network Annual Conference: Bridging the Gap Between Broker and Customer
• The Active Enterprise Network Gears Up for 2011 Annual Conference

The LifeCycle and ROI Manager position, driven by Network members, is crucial to the evolution of our platform and maximizing The Network’s Return on Investment. Responsibilities for this role include working with each Enterprise member to develop comprehensive ROI analysis reports, monthly updates on ROI progress and detailed reports on closed business. The position also supports the Active Partner Program and manages LifeCycle, our inquiry management system.

Due to Stephanie’s background in real estate technology and project management, she has a well-rounded viewpoint when analyzing business processes. As an added benefit, Stephanie has worked closely with Active Website since Smith & Associates joined The Active Enterprise Network in 2008. Having worked with The Enterprise Platform for two years on the client side, Stephanie is familiar with its nuances and how it benefits both brokers and agents in The Network. From managing a brokerage website to conducting technology training for agents, Stephanie’s involvement with our systems on a daily basis allows her to bring new and fresh ideas on how we can enhance the everyday user’s experience.

In addition to understanding a real estate customer’s needs, Stephanie understands the day-to-day needs of owners, senior management and agents, bringing a wealth of inside knowledge to this position. Communicating and interacting regularly with those directly affected by our technology, Stephanie understands what it means to be a part of a successful real estate company.

We are very happy to have such a talented and knowledgeable individual join our team. Stephanie will play an integral part in the continued success of The Enterprise Network. By overseeing the future development of our LifeCycle system and supporting each member’s business goals, this position will ensure members realize the value of their Enterprise Network membership as we continue to lead the way as market leaders.

For members wanting more information about this announcement, please contact your Project Manager.

By Amanda Stephan

Today, we heard that Google has plans to take this one step further and will be releasing a paid-for analytics package sometime this year that will compete with top products including Adobe’s Omniture and IBM’s CoreMetrics. Google currently has a basic paid-for analytics package called Urchin, but the new package is an enhanced version that will compete at the higher end of the market.

This is a big move on Google’s part as large corporations rely heavily on analytics data to better meet their customers’ needs and to monitor ROI. We talk about this a lot, but meeting the demands of our customers is critical to the success of our business – so how does web analytics help us achieve this?

First of all, it’s important for us to understand our customers’ online behaviors in order to market our products and services efficiently. Through web analytic solutions, we can track what keywords are brining customers to our site, what pages they’re visiting, how much time they’re spending on our site– the list goes on. From this data, we can measure our online initiatives by tracking what areas we’re excelling at and where we need to improve.

In addition to tracking how our customers are engaging with our sites, it’s equally important to monitor where they’re leaving our sites. When customers leave a particular page on our site it may be due to poor usability. Utilizing our analytics, we can adjust accordingly and create a more positive experience for our users.

Web analytics is a great tool for collecting data about our online users – but it doesn’t stop there. We need to make sure we take this rich data and turn it into a plan of action for the future as well.

By Amanda Stephan

To further demonstrate the competitive edge Danberry has over others in their market, below is the 2010 monthly breakdown of unique visitors to Danberry.com as well.

Danberry’s traffic can be attributed in part to their aggressive SEO strategy and several upgrades to their site. During their first year with The Enterprise Network, Danberry has made several enhancements to their website in order to remain on the cutting edge of technology. Not only did changes to their site lead to an increase in traffic, but the internal structure of the company allowed Danberry to have a strong support system for implementing these changes as well. 2010 saw a lot of advancements within the company and has established a solid foundation for success in 2011 and beyond.

By Amanda Stephan

The process of finding an appropriate partner for The Network begins with Active Website researching 3^rd party vendors whose technology will help further boost the presence and effectiveness of The Network.  In order to ensure Active is meeting the needs of our customers, recommendations are also taken from Enterprise Network members. These potential vendors are then passed onto The Active Evaluation Committee, a team comprised of solely of Network members. The committee is responsible for reviewing the services provided by potential partners in order to determine their overall value and ultimately aid in the final decision.

Since employing this new system of technology and service integration in early 2010, The Enterprise Network has partnered with the following third-party vendors:

Onboard Informatics
A rich source of hyper-local information, Onboard Informatics offers Network members the ability to provide customers with important community data needed when buying or selling a home. This includes school and neighborhood information, population density, demographics, average housing prices, time-on-market statistics and more.

eHome Marketing
Branding marketing materials can be tedious and time consuming.  However, eHome Marketing cuts down on the time it takes to create these marketing materials by maintaining pre-approved branded templates for a variety of printed marketing pieces.  In order to streamline the process of creating these materials quickly and efficiently, information dealing with specific properties is pulled directly from the MLS – removing the time it takes to replicate details for brochures, postcards, etc.  In addition, targeted marketing campaigns can be launched directly from eHome Marketing, allowing agents to target individuals within a given radius, and from there, within desired demographics.

Landmark Signs
Landmark Signs provides real estate signage and products to help companies gain exposure in their market.  Through this partnership, Landmark provides Network members a specific online store from where they can purchase new signs when needed.  Since the styles and templates are pre-approved and adhere to broker-specific branding standards and guidelines, members can enter in their contact information and create signs quickly and efficiently with fast turnaround times.  Of course, with thousands of homes being represented by a brokerage the cost of signage adds up. Landmark offers preferred pricing to Network members based on volume.

Altos Research
Also offering hyper-local content to members, Altos Research offers up-to-the-minute real estate market data.  Members of the Network can use this service to make comparative analysis reports of specific neighborhoods or any other defined area of interest.

American Solutions for Business
Branded promotional products – specifically apparel – is now available to all Enterprise Network members through an online shop for agents and staff. Through access to their own company-branded store, members are able to purchase branded merchandise with ease. What sets American Solutions for Business apart from other companies of its type is the ability to order single pieces, rather than always requiring to order in bulk.  This apparel is offered in a variety of brands across all styles.

2010 proved to be a successful year for this program and we look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead in 2011. As new vendors are added to the program, we will be updated our blog with further information pertaining to the partnership.

By Jeff Payne

A good website wins internet leads- a great one keeps them coming back- a successful one turns them into closed business, and this is what the Enterprise Platform can help your business achieve. We recognize that closing a website lead is a long journey taken by the consumer, especially in real estate. But here is what we can help you do, we will help with 2/3 of the journey by developing an SEO strategy that will help consumers online find you- providing them with the features and information that they want- and giving you a system to manage these leads- the rest is up to you and your great agents!

Rubloff is one of our many Enterprise Network Members who has seen success with the Enterprise Platform. In 2008, Rubloff’s web leads increased 150%. Want to hear more? Take a look at this case study highlighting Rubloff’s online success. Rubloff Internet Leads Case Study.

Youtube Video Link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGYZjJ0Js70

Last month Trulia posted an article about the trends in online open house searching. Their research found that home buyers were “twice as likely to use online sources than print sources to find open house information.” Listing open houses on your brokerage website is a feature of the Enterprise Platform, and another of our ROI tools. Open house searches are one of the many advanced type of searches available to all the Network members.

But it doesn’t stop there- The Enterprise Platform also includes a long list of syndication sites, including Trulia and Openhouse.com. Trulia features an open house filter for home searches pulling only homes in the specified area that have upcoming open houses. Openhouse.com has more than 20,000 open house listings in markets across the nation on any given weekend. Both provide added exposure for your sellers and are another great online marketing tool for your Brokerage and Realtors.

Check out the Ebby Open House Search

See the Ebby Open House Search Results

This is Trulias Results for Dallas, Tx this Weekend

Websites for Realtors are not only an important marketing tool for the agent, but also a great feature and ROI tool in the Enterprise Platform. Rebrandable websites of the platform offer a professional and unified design that maintains continuity with the corporate site.

Features of a Rebrandable Agent/Team Website:

• Unique URL 

• Sizable Photo

• Customizable Color/ Themes

• Feature Homes

• Current Listings

• Same Corporate Technology

  • Local Community Content

  • Google Map Search

  • IDX Listings

• Website Leads

• And Much More…

Each Rebrandable Website offers the Brokerage and Agent alike, many SEO benefits. Because the sites are synchronized, traffic going to any of these sites will catch the attention of the search engines and boost your placement in the rankings. Not to mention all leads that are generated from the particular agent’s site are automatically entered into that agent’s own administrative area!

Take a look at Tonya Callies of Windermere Tri-Cities Rebrandable Website- tonyacallies.com

Take a look at The Culverhouse Group of Windermere Tri-Cities Team Rebrandable Website- theproperties.com