Like any industry, digital marketing has its own verbiage and if you are trying to keep up with current trends, you might need a little extra help. This list of common digital marketing words, phrases, acronyms, and lingo will help you stay caught up when you start planning and strategizing how to improve your digital marketing results. 

Ok, it’s time to point out an ugly truth that affects a ton of marketing. We don’t like being the ones to do it, but we care about you too much to just sit back and let you waste all your hard work. Hey, it’s no one’s fault, and we’ve all done it at one point or another, usually early on in our business infancy. It’s the tendency to slap something together, throw it up on the internet, clap yourself on the back and leave it there for God knows how long. It hurts us to watch because it usually leads to a bad disappointment for good people who just don’t know better. Maybe it’s a website you haven’t updated in ages, and are slowly killing your SEO in the process. Maybe it’s your blog you haven’t posted to in 6 months. Or, maybe it’s your banner ads, put together without rhyme or reason. The latter is our focus for today, or more specifically, why your banner ad is falling flat. 

Terms like “The Sales Funnel” always sound more vague and complicated than they truly are. While it may sound like something only a well-seasoned marketer would know what to do with, it’s really just industry speak for the sales process. The term “sales funnel” is helpful because the visual is accurate to how you cast your net when it comes to converting leads to paying customers. 

When I sit down for an initial meeting with a client to talk about their their business, I ask them what their digital marketing goals are. The common response is, "To rank #1 in Google at X keyword." Which I usually follow up with "Why?" The look I get is usually a bit dumbfounded, as if I obviously don't know the answer to the easiest question on earth. Think about it, why would you want your business to rank #1 on Google? The response I like the most is, "Because if we are ranking #1, that means we are doing good." Doing good at what? It's clear that many people equate a #1 ranking as an indicator of success, but sometimes I have to push my clients to think deeper. Success isn't measured in ranking for one keyword-- rankings don't equal money. Leads, sales or conversions equal money. In all honesty the need to rank #1 for that top keyword is closer to a middle school popularity contest than a measure of success. Step outside of the competitive mindset that Google has created and really think about your business. How is the success of your website really measured? What does your website need to do to help your company?

In most real estate markets business slows down from the middle of November to the beginning of the new year. The holidays, rightfully so, take the focus away from shopping for a new home. The phone stops ringing, your website traffic plummets and showings subside. That means you have plenty of time to go have fun, right? Not so fast…don't confuse slow business for no business. Take advantage of this time to focus on your marketing plan, something that often gets put on the back burner when you are busy. To help you improve your real estate marketing in the new year focus on three things; setting goals, creating a plan and scheduling time to execute it.

In your day to day list of tasks it's easy to overlook taking the time to learn new tools that will help with your marketing. It's also very easy to get overwhelmed once you do sit down and try to learn. It seems like there are a thousand different tools to help with your social media posts, blogs, and email marketing. How do you know which ones to use? I get it! Your time is valuable and you don't want to waste it clicking around blindly. 

Pope Sixtus IV needed his chapel painted. He asked a cardinal if he knew a guy who could do it. Sensing a chance to save some money, the cardinal said sure, he knew someone. Over the weekend, he got a few bishops together with paint rollers and some buckets and they went to work, getting the entire project done on time and under budget.

Living in Bozeman we take for granted the great amenities we have right out our back door. The stories and photos you see in publications like Outside or Powder Magazine truly reflect our lifestyle. We fly fish, backpack, hike, backcountry ski, rock climb, kayak, and so much more. It's truly a paradise for the outdoor enthusiast. The last couple of years there has been a buzz about Bozeman being a landing spot for businesses from the outdoor industry and I get it. Why not? Companies like Sitka, Simms Fishing Products, Mystery Ranch, Oboz Footwear, Duckworth, and West Paw Design are proud to call Bozeman home and the mountains around Bozeman their testing ground. This is by far the fastest growing city in Montana boasting an educated population with 57% of residents earning a bachelors degree or higher. It also offers a quality of life that is rarely matched by cities its size. More and more people are choosing the Montana life over the headaches, traffic and busy life of the major markets. Bozeman is ideal for the outdoor industry because of the easy access to incredible recreation, robust airport service and the great people that live here.

Whenever I talk to real estate marketing managers about blogging their eyes roll back in their head as if saying, “Enough already.” Everywhere they turn, it’s hammered into them, “You need to blog, you need to blog, you need to blog.” Which begs the question, “About what?”

The majority of blogs completely miss the mark and turn into a mismanaged love fest about the agent or the area. On the other hand, we have developed blogs for countless clients that go unused because they want to create the content themselves. What actually happens is they end up like a “deer in the headlights” when they sit down to produce valuable content.

So how do you come up with ideas for real estate blog content? We can help. 

The holidays are right around the corner and stores have spent months game planning for Black Friday. The usual strategy is to offer a handful of doorbuster deals, generating lines of consumers clamoring to start shopping. This year, there is one outdoor retail store that won't have lines of ravenous consumers, REI. The retailer’s 143 stores will lock their doors and shut off the lights on the biggest shopping day of the year. And instead of reporting to work, the co-op will pay it’s 12,000 employees to do what they love most— enjoy the outdoors.