Pristine and serene are words that best describe one of the most beautiful lakes in America. Yet, Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho is just one of 13 magnificent lakes in a mountainous region that includes the towns of Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint and Hayden Lake. With 5 ski resorts within a short drive of these towns, the area is steadily gaining a reputation for quality of life that is unsurpassed, especially if you enjoy a full range of winter and summer recreational sports. Located just 30 minutes from Spokane International Airport, the Coeur d’Alene area is not just a destination for vacationers it is a great place to retire or simply call home.
So much attention has been paid to get website visitors to find you, but what is going to keep them on your site and keep them coming back so you can capture their leads? In marketing luxury real estate online your website should give the visitor a strong level of confidence that you are the expert, the authority in your field. Visitors should feel like they do not need to look any further once they have discovered your site because they have found the most authoritative website in your marketplace or the niche in which you focus.
"Authoritativeness” is also one of the criteria used by Google in the page ranking system. They simply want to match the user with the expert who can best answer the user’s query. The more the user is satisfied with the answers the more often they will come back to Google for search, and that means more eyeballs for the ads they sell.
Here are 7 components that comprise a successful authoritative website:
An interactive “brochure” about you or your company that gives an immediate positive first impression. Your portfolio of sold homes, especially if it is extensive, can quickly establish your authoritativeness.
A strong marketing message in words and graphics that instantly sets you apart from your competition and demonstrates that you are the expert
A user- friendly self-service environment that is easy to navigate
A window to the lifestyle of your marketplace
Original content, content that no one else has
Content beyond just real estate information that offers compelling reasons to keep coming back to your site, especially for local visitors, those who are not currently in the market to buy or sell. These are your potential referral sources beyond just your immediate sphere of influence
Remarkable content that sparks word-of-mouth advertising and builds an audience of raving fans.
If market leadership is your quest, building the most authoritative website in your marketplace or niche therein is of paramount importance. But, website visitors are becoming savvier. If you do not instantly differentiate yourself or your company from your competition and offer original content that is engaging your chances of capturing the all important lead is reduced significantly.
You may have heard the phrase, “sticky website” bandied about. It has to do with the time a website visitor says on your website during a given visit. The stickier the site the more time they spend there and the more chance you have for capturing their lead which is important if you want to gain or sustain market leadership as a luxury real estate marketing professional. But, is there point where providing too much information is detrimental to your succcess?
Content rich websites are sticky to the extent they offer compelling information. But, how much information should you provide? It is possible to overwhelm your visitor with too much content. The key is to find the best balance for your target market. Compelling information is important, but compelling them to reach for more by contacting you is even more important.
Get the idea of feeling satiated after a good meal at a fine restaurant. Any more food beyond that point is an overdose. Now, get the idea of how you felt when the waiter brought you the dessert menu and offered you a choice of coffee or an after dinner drink. You were not satiated, yet. The meal was awesome up to that point and you wanted just a bit more. That is the point you want to achieve in terms of the amount of information on your website.
If you are a Monty Python fan you may have seen the film, “The Meaning of Life”. There is a scene in a French restaurant with an enormous man, Mr. Creosote, who is a glutton. The waiter offers him “one more petit four” and he literally explodes.
Think of Mr. Creosote, when it comes to de-cluttering your website and finding just the right balance of information that keeps your visitors hungry for more. That is an important factor to consider for a luxury real estate website, if you want to capture more leads.
One of the best venues to understand the marketing arena is by watching the Superbowl. The Superbowl reaches over 90 million viewers, and the advertisers’ intent is to generate “buzz”, and to firmly establish their position in the marketplace. As luxury real estate marketing and brand strategy consultants, we pay close attention to how luxury purveyors are differentiating themselves in their arena.
Luxury car makers such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and now Audi are competing for eyeballs during the time outs of the most watched football events of the year. In 2011, Audi clearly wanted to continue establishing itself as the “new” luxury car. Its message was, “escape the confines of luxury.” It showed wealthy people imprisoned (prison with gold bars) by their old standards of a chauffeur driven Mercedes and listening to Kenny G. This commercial translated into measurable post game sales.
This year Audi has turned to vampires. In its new commercial, a vampire driving his Audi S7 on his way to join his vampire friends drinking blood cocktails in the woods around a bonfire. As he approaches the grounds, he eliminates all his buddies because of the powerful LED headlights. These lights are according to Audi the closest to daylight.
Here is what Andrew Lipman, communications manager of Audi had to say about this commercial, “Audi’s upcoming spot puts Audi signature LEDs up against the focal point of today’s most ubiquitous pop culture craze: vampires. As the most-viewed television program of the year, the Super Bowl is one of the best platforms to showcase a brand’s creativity and voice. The S7 is the epitome of luxury.”
As viewed by Ron Schott, senior strategist at Spring Creek Group, Seattle. “I think this latest campaign is definitely a way for Audi to actually get a little closer with the average consumer during Super Bowl time, I really don’t think it portrays Audi as luxurious .”
This commercial is humorous and entertaining. However, it does not communicate with the luxury consumer whose interest in vampires is minimal, and who is definitely not the average consumer. Will the luxury buyer buy the epitome of luxury to kill vampires?
This is a clear case of competing on features rather than differentiating yourself from the competition. Mercedes already has LED lights around its headlights. LED lights are not a unique feature, and installing enough of them to mimic daylight is not a differentiator.
As luxury real estate marketing professionals it is important not to depart to stay the course of your position (stay in your niche), and to compete on your fundamental difference (not features) in the marketplace.
As a luxury real estate marketing professional you can distinguish yourself from the competition with a great slogan. The slogan is effective when you can distill in a few words the essence of your brand. How are you distinct from your competition?
In the highly competitive world of auto insurance, there are many slogans. One company is expressing its unique promise of value using this slogan: “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” Here is Mercury Auto Insurance’s slogan: “It takes more than a good neighbor to save you money!”
State Farm is promising neighborly personal service when you have a claim. That is nice. Isn’t that what is expected from any insurance company? Mercury Auto Insurance is saying that they are not just a good neighbor, they also save you money. Being a good neighbor is important, but isn’t it more important to save you money?
In the smaller competitive world of Farmers’ Markets in Central and Southern California, one of the growers has this slogan, “No baloney just vegetables”. In a venue full of organic vegetables, fruit, etc, this has no validity except for expressing a sense of humor.
A slogan has to be so compelling that in an instant it can communicate its value. In women’s shoes Donald Pliner has a slogan which distinguishes his brand from other shoes made in Italy: “Made in the Mountains of Italy”, which evokes an instant emotional response: the notion of craftsmanship and attention to detail in a small town rather than in an industrial city such as Milan.
What is great about all the slogans mentioned here is the brevity of their communication. The key is getting the entire value proposition condensed into just a few words. That is the art of slogan writing which is what we strive in our strategic branding practice.
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 9:00PM 
