Recognizing the hard work and innovation that went into building our company into what it is today, Inc. ranked Active Website #1151 on this year’s list. In addition, because we saw a 258% growth rate over the past three years, Active ranked #18 overall in the real estate industry category and #22 overall for companies based out of Denver, CO.

We are honored to be recognized for this distinguished award and to be a part of a network of entrepreneurial leaders.

Here is our official response:

We feel very lucky for the substantial growth we have had over the past few years. We are extremely proud and honored to have placed 1151^st in the Inc. 2010, 5000 Fastest Growing Independent Companies in the U.S.

We develop complex web based platforms for major industries. Currently we service the waste disposal and real estate industries and are eager to expand.

To be honest with you, we did not reinvent the wheel with the core of our business model. Henry Ford was a great man; a visionary, way before his time. I can sum up our keys to success with two of his quotes:

1. ‘It is not the employer who pays the wages. He only handles the money. It is the customer that pays the wages.‘

For a long time corporations had a tremendous advantage in the marketplace over their customers (many of which abused their position). With the increase of easy access to information and competitors via the web and emerging technologies, customers are better educated and demand more. This evolution is slowly forcing companies to provide a higher level of service and realize Mr. Ford’s vision, or risk falling behind.

Since Active Website was founded (in 1998), we managed every aspect of our business with this concept in mind. We treat our customers and employees like family, and pride ourselves with the highest level of service. In our yearly conference we often cover topics surrounding the customer centric business model, hoping to pass this notion on through our customers to theirs. We thoroughly believe that building a strong brand is achieved through satisfying your customers.

Furthermore, we see many businesses charging their entire fee or the larger portion of, upfront. We structured our business model to charge a small setup fee and an ongoing monthly service charge, meaning that we collect most of the fees on the backend of our contracts. This model helps us align our goals with our clients; companies that charge most of their fees upfront are typically not as incentivized to provide an increased level of service.

2. ‘A man who will use skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little, is bound to succeed.’

These words are really extended instructions on how to make the most of the first quote. To us, more than anything it resembles the need for quality and value in order to keep customers satisfied. Quality in everything you do; your products, your services, your team. When you lose your passion, start cutting corners, achieve the minimum required to get by, stop innovating and breaking new ground, you might as well close shop.

We passionately enjoy the challenge in taking on new and complex projects, but strive never to compromise quality in the process. We have found innovative ways in creating collaborative business networks to help speed up functionality production while reducing our customers’ costs.

We have seen these fundamental concepts take us from strength to strength even through difficult market conditions. It is actually those hard times that provide us with the opportunity to further show our clients the value in our partnership.

We feel how fast we are growing, and while it would be easy to get overwhelmed, we really enjoy the fact that the larger we become the more impact we can have in increasing standards. We recently reached the size where it became viable to open our very own Active Usability Lab. Many vendors base their production on experience and preach their ideologies throughout their potential client base. Usability has come a long way; modern eye gaze technology allows you to scientifically analyze how customers best interact with your online presence and its content. We feel we can bring more to our clients by adding quantitative data to our already qualitative interpretation of user experience. Our findings often result in unexpected and sometimes drastic changes that have proven to yield significant results.

In this early stage of Internet evolution, many companies are still too focused on driving traffic to their sites. Some have progressed to targeting specific traffic. While this approach is heading in the right direction many companies are not aware of the impact of increasing the usability of their sites. With the customer centric model in mind, if we make the end user happier to use our sites, our brands will be associated with quality and greater service and will grow through additional positive user recommendations as well as invested marketing. Focusing on traffic rather than usability is counterproductive; it can lead to increased exposure to less than perfect production, which these potential customers will associate with your brand.

In the pursuit of perfection for our clients, we have had little time to devote to our own online presence. We are finally releasing our updated website in Q4 of this year.

Please check it out: www.activewebsite.com

You will be able to learn more about our history, service offerings, current projects and more.

We try to keep the public well informed about our news and events via our blog and social network pages.

Our team worked hard over the past few months and we are happy to announce the release of several new products for The Network including the LCD Display Application that showcases featured listings in their lobby and our mp3 player that allows members to upload mp3 files on any page within their site in a custom Flash player. Still to come for Active Website this year includes SEO site audits and the new mobile website for LifeCycle, Active’s inquiry management system.

In addition, we would  like to congratulate Sean O’ Toole and Chris Robak for being July’s Idea of the Month and Employee of the Month respectively for their dedication to the team.

For more information on our team, product releases and other related news,  read our July Newsletter.

So we need to use this to our advantage. Buying or selling a home does not happen overnight. Many of our customers will spend several months researching and looking at homes before they’re willing to make a commitment, while other customers may not quite be ready to buy a home, but know within the next year they will be. Communicating with our customers on a regular basis lets them know we’re here when they’re ready to begin the process.

Not only that, but email marketing is a great way to keep your brand in front of our customers after we’ve completed a sale. As an industry, many of us do not stay in touch with our customers after they’ve bought or sold a home. If that’s the case, we’re doing a huge disservice to our company and our customers. With people being in the market to buy or sell a home every few years, if we’re able to sustain our relationship with them over those years, we’ll increase the changes that they’ll buy or sell from us again in the future.

That being said, below are a few ways we can use email marketing to reach our customers:

Establish trust: Email marketing enables us to send targeted and focused messages, so first and foremost, we need to establish trust with our customers. Be sure you know who your audience is before you send any email campaign. The worst thing you can do is blast an email to hundreds of people who will not find the information relevant. Be sure you research who your target market is so you don’t send an email about new homes on the market to someone who purchased a home from you last week. By doing this, we’re establishing ourselves as the authority on our market, while building a solid relationship.

Monthly Newsletters: Keep your customers up to date on enhancements to your website, events your company is hosting, housing trends and statistics, etc. Showcase newly listed properties or properties just sold in their neighborhood and success stories of customers who had a great experience buying or selling a home from you. We already have this information available, so organize it in a newsletter to highlight important information.

Home Buying or Home Maintenance Tips:  The home buying process doesn’t end after a sale. Often times, there is still a lot of work to do on a house in order to make it feel like home. Home renovation tips and advice, for example, will come in handy to customers looking to take on home improvement projects on their own.

Community News: As brokerages, we have a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips. If you’re working with clients that are new to the area, send them community information to help them feel at home in their new city. Not only that, this is a great tool for keeping up with past clients as well. Letting them know if events and happenings in the community that month makes you the local expert.

Open Houses and Other Events: Inform current and potential customers of upcoming open houses or events your company is hosting. Through email marketing, you can target customers looking for homes in a certain price range or looking for specific features that fit the criteria of the house. An easy way to invite customers to an event you’re hosting or to show your involvement in the community is to showcase events you’re participating in as well.

Online Surveys: The best way to find out what your customers want is to ask them! Online surveys are a great way to get to know your clients better and help you get feedback on open houses or past events in order to measure overall customer satisfaction.

Call to Action Items: Be sure that you include clear call to action items in all your email campaigns as well. Readers will want to know what they’re supposed to do with this content and where they can go next for more information. Direct them to specific pages on your website that relate to the topic of the email or give them a contact person to call or email if they’re interested in speaking with someone further.

All in all, email marketing is a simple cost-effective tool to staying in touch with potential, current and past customers. With the ability to control what content you’re distributing to your customers, you can make sure the message aligns with company goals and expectations – giving you a successful email campaign strategy.

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Active Community: Top 5 Takeaways from Real Estate Connect SF

By John Sable

There’s a joke in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall that goes something like this: “A relationship is like a shark – it has to keep moving forward or it dies.”

Replace the word “relationship” with “business” and the statement remains true.

Consider the dawn of commerce.  At one time the cost of an orange was determined by lead weights and a balance. The time it took to complete a transaction didn’t matter because that was the only technology available.  It was the standard.  It wasn’t until 1838 that the hanging spring scale was invented to antiquate that technology.  In 1879, James Ritty invented the cash register, allowing customers to spend more time looking for that perfect orange and less time at check-out.  In 1948 came the barcode system.  Then, the electronic scale.  1958 brought us American Express.  Credit card machines went from carbon-copy sliders to magnetic strip readers, and today we buy our oranges online.

Now, imagine we go into a store and the clerk weighs our orange on a balance in 10-decagram increments, using an abacus to determine the price.  Next time we will go somewhere else.

So, how do we define moving forward?  It is the implementation of technology to streamline all aspects of business.  While it took centuries to go from scales to the internet, today’s open means of communication has accelerated the rate at which technology is developed – and it is that technology which determines the wants of a customer.  Can it make their life easier?  If so, then a customer will not only want it, they will require it – especially if they’ve already got a taste for it.  If we don’t offer that service, or employ that technology, they will go somewhere that does.  This is why moving forward is the only way to survive.

A lot of it comes down to the internet.  In the past decade the percentage of internet home-buyers has increased from 28% to 72% – and that number is climbing.  Also, what used to be a market driven by Baby Boomers is quickly becoming lead by the Millennial and Y generations, which means more young people are buying homes.  We are in a unique position to attract these buyers.

Let me explain:

Right now, many  independent real estate firms operate on an even playing field governed by somewhat archaic business practices.  So, by implementing the market-savvy practices and consolidated technologies already employed by other industries – technologies which are second-nature to young buyers – we will create a gap between our company and the competition.  We will stand out to the younger buyer.  We will be sleeker, savvier, and moving forward so fast that our company will be the one to set the standard.  When our competitors don’t offer the same brand of dedication and streamlined service, where do you think the buyer will go?  Hint: it won’t be to the guy with the abacus.

Move forward.  Be the shark.

By Jeff Payne

At Real Estate Connect this year, speakers stressed the importance of meeting the demands of today’s consumer (which happened to be the theme of last year’s Enterprise Network Conference). Over the past few years, Active Website has encouraged Enterprise members to make the move to a customer-centric business model because in order to last in today’s competitive market, we need to keep in mind what the driving force behind our success is – our customers.

With a wealth of information available via the web, customers are now better informed – meaning we need to provide a higher level of service then we did in the past in order to win their business.  Our online users now expect instant results and if you don’t provide that, it is extremely easy for them to visit a competitor’s site instead that may have the information they’re looking for readily available.

So then, what does it take to be customer-centric?

Keep in mind the switch won’t happen overnight: It’s not just about changing your business rules; it’s about changing the culture of your company and requires a fundamental shift in attitude.  Customers are our surest and most reliable source of future revenue, so by taking the time to educate our agents and staff on the benefits of a customer-centric business model, we can ensure the growth of our company through the coming years.

Know who your customers are: If you don’t know who your customers are, you won’t be able to share your services with them or know how to reach them.  Think about who your target market is – are they first time home buyers, new to the area, or in the market to sell their existing home? Keeping the demographics and interests of your customers in mind will help you tailor your services to fit their exact needs – which bring us to our next point.

Know what your customers want: There is a huge dichotomy between what the broker wants and what customers want. Understanding your customer means understanding their reasons for needing your services, making you able to adapt to their demands. Meeting their needs and achieving a higher level of customer service ensure our customers leave satisfied – helping you build customer loyalty. In an age where customers are looking to their peers for trusted recommendations (like Yelp for example), this is another critical component in moving your business forward.

As a network moving towards a customer centric business strategy, we’ve seen growth even through difficult market conditions. All too often, companies are too focused on driving traffic to their sites. We’re not saying this is bad – in fact, it’s another crucial part of your business. However, driving customers to your site is only half the battle. You also need to focus your time and resources on developing a process for taking care of these customers once they’ve found you online.

In order to do this, Active Website has encouraged Network members to create customer-centric business rules through LifeCycle, our inquiry management system. By having proper response times (15 minutes or less is ideal) and knowing how a customer wants to be treated through the process of buying or selling a home, you’ll be able to increase lead conversions and leave your customers satisfied. And –through The Active Usability Lab, we can scientifically track how users are interacting with our sites. With this information, we can make educated decisions for how to position our brands online.

It’s our mission to continue providing The Network with the best technology available to better meet the demands of our customers. We truly believe that in today’s online world, if the end user is happy to use our sites, our brand will be associated with high quality and great customer service that will ultimately lead our companies forward.

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Active Community: eBusiness – Where Do We Stand?

Active Community: Four Questions on eBusiness

By Amanda Stephan

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 companies for a successful year.

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Transaction Sides for 2009)

• 12 – Ebby Halliday Realtors
• 112- The Group, Inc. Real Estate
• 154- The Hasson Company
• 156- Skogman Realty
• 192- The Danberry Company
• 199- The Kentwood Companies
• 242- Charles Reinhart Company Realtors
• 285- Milestone Realty Consultants

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Sales Volume in 2009)

• 12- Ebby Halliday Realtors
• 89- The Hasson Company
• 99- The Kentwood Companies
• 108- The Group, Inc. Real Estate
• 223- Skogman Realty
• 261- Charles Reinhart Company Realtors
• 335- The Danberry Company
• 339- Milestone Realty Consultants

Top Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Affiliates

• 7- Ebby Halliday Realtors
• 43- The Hasson Company
• 44- Skogman Realty
• 50- The Kentwood Companies
• 62- Milestone Realty Consultants
• 63- Charles Reinhart Company Realtors

The Largest Independents

• 8- Ebby Halliday Realtors
• 42- The Group, Inc. Real Estate
• 52- The Hasson Company
• 62- The Danberry Company
• 63- The Kentwood Companies
• 72- Charles Reinhart Company Realtors
• 76- Milestone Realty Consultants

The Billionaire’s Club! (Those who closed at least one billion $ worth of real estate in 2009)

• 12- Ebby Halliday Realtors

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Mortgage Closings

• The Group, Inc. Real Estate

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Title Closings

• The Group, Inc. Real Estate

Real Trends Market Leaders

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

To read more, check out our press release, The Active Enterprise Network Makes Real Trends Top 500 List for 2009.

By Amanda Stephan

Looking back on last week’s conference, it was a pleasure to see that our innovations and predictions over the past year have been sought out by others in the industry. Inman was an affirmation to what Active Website has been trying to instill in The Enterprise Network. With our conference last year focusing on creating a customer-centric business model, it was encouraging to see Inman starting to drive home the point that we need to find ways to better meet the demands of today’s consumer.

Which brings us to our top takeaways from Inman this year:

1. Moving towards a customer-centric business model: This was our theme for our Annual Enterprise Network Conference last October. Again it was great to see Inman reiterating the need to increase the focus on our customers. You’ve heard us say this before, but with a user’s experience on our websites playing such a vital role in the success of our companies, it’s important that the needs of our customers come first (a lot more on this next Friday).
2. Email marketing is back: As an industry, many of us have lost touch with email marketing and have disregarded it as an outdated form of communication. However, in today’s fast paced world where we’re constantly being bombarded with campaigns, a well tailored email marketing strategy is still a very effective method for reaching our customers.  It was great to see the people at Inman discussing ways to get back to our digital marketing roots.
3. The release of WordPress 3.0: Speakers at the conference discussed the release of WordPress 3.0 this past June and a variety of cool new enhancements including multi-user integration, plug-ins and how to use your WordPress site for additional SEO value. Always striving to stay ahead of the curve, The Active Enterprise Network, had already made the switch over to this unified enterprise blog system prior to Inman. We have learned a lot utilizing this new platform and would love to share our experience with all of you.
4. Home prices do not appreciate, they stay up with inflation: Another key point made at Inman this year was based on the housing market and our infatuation with price. While not a lot of time was devoted to this topic at the conference, this hit home with us and we feel it’s important to discuss further.
5. Three major areas are moving the industry: We’ve all been watching these trends, but the conference reiterated the importance of mobile, search and social integration (or as we call it, personalization) to build your online brand. No longer can we rely on just our websites to be a main point of contact with our customers. To be successful in our ever-evolving industry, we understand the need for a strong digital presence – including social and mobile sites – in order to increase search ranking. Staying up-to-date on new advancements in the technology world gives The Enterprise Network an edge over the competition and ensures our members’ place as market leaders.

While we gained a lot of valuable information from the conference, it is our goal to expand further on these topics to showcase how we can apply this knowledge to our network and beyond. So again, check back with us next week as we explore our first topic, the importance of a customer-centric business model.

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By Amanda Stephan

For Enterprise Network members and followers unable to attend this year, we will be releasing blog posts and related videos centered around the top 5 take-aways from this year’s event as part of our Active Community series.  So join us this Friday as we introduce the major themes from Inman Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2010!

Above: Group shot of everyone who accompanied us on the boat tour around San Francisco. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful night!

By Amanda Stephan

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Meet Tobii at Inman Real Estate Connect!

By

Amanda Stephan

The first company in the real estate technology realm utilizing Tobii Technology’s eye tracking system, Active Website can walk you through a live demonstration to see how users interact with your website. This technology has helped make companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon number one in their respective markets.  Below are the results of a sample usability test for Where’s Waldo? conducted by Active Website earlier this year.

And, having just released our first usability study through The Active Usability Lab, we can give you a sneak peek into our findings as it relates to real estate.  Launched earlier this year, the goal of the lab is to collect data to enhance The Enterprise Network platform and keep members ahead of the competition.

Want to see a short demo? Watch our Active Community video below for a demonstration.

If you like what you see and you’re going to be at Inman in July, this is a great opportunity to learn more about Tobii’s eyes tracking technology and other web solutions that Active Website has to offer your business. With a limited number of openings available, schedule a private meeting today to hear about the advantages of being an Enterprise Network member!

Contact
Kendal Greer                                                                                                                                                                                           303-396-0103                                                                                                                                                           kendal@activewebsite.com

www.blog.activewebsite.com