J&M Group WordPress Blog

Winning Agent Pro Theme for Realtors

marciacatlin · April 22, 2020 ·

Want your own website so your agency can get found in online searches? Start by building your personal agent brand with the Winning Agent Pro Theme, a premium WordPress theme designed with both real estate professionals and their clients in mind.

Whether your aim is to write an agent blog, highlight your properties, build an email list, or go hyperlocal, this theme has you covered

The Winning Agent Pro Theme for the Genesis Framework provides a beautiful, mobile-friendly, real estate website. It’s ready to use, as is, but has multiple options so that you can customize it, and make it your own.

Consider this —

In today’s world, 92%-96% of all home buyers and sellers start their searches online.
The decision process for these prospective and informed clients is now 12-18 months long … much longer than in the old days when Cousin Fred referred you to a warm prospect.
70% of the above prospects work with the first person they have a conversation with online over those many months. A perfect opportunity for the digital savvy realtor.
Result: Old School referral marketing is much less reliable and relevant these days, slowly heading to the dustbin for the realtor who needs to compete in the marketplace.

If you’re just getting started, follow these six simple steps:

First, create a stunning website with all of the functionality required for a realtor. And, yes, you need your own website even if your company has one with your profile.
Identify your target consumer, and build a marketing persona that consists of details on their unique needs, questions, and concerns.
Start creating shareable content that is readily available to potential clients (not just existing clients).
Promote your content by creating a business blog.
Add resources to your website and ramp up your social media presence.g that you’re the local expert. Create detailed community pages about your local neighborhoods and towns with a lot of keywords for local SEO.

Learn more here – Why Real Estate Websites Need Community Pages

The Genesis Winning Agent Pro helps you connect with your clients in many ways, it offers:

Enhanced visual presentation of your property listings and communities.
Increased client interaction with Create an agent blog for your content marketing efforts.
Interact more easily with blog posts and threaded comments.
Go hyper-local with the built-in Community custom post type with its own layout templates and display widget.
Build your client and email list using the custom-styled Genesis eNews Extended plugin.
Link up your social profiles easily using stylized Social Icons
Show your properties using the free real estate plugin or integrate with your IDX service.
Includes several flexible widget areas, so you have more layout choices to achieve your desired results.
Social sharing is also easy using the Genesis Simple Social Icon plugin or the plugin of your choice.
Works seamlessly with popular contact form plugins free or paid.
Add search for just your listings or use your own IDX service; theme can be used with most IDX services.

Need to learn more about building your own real estate WordPress site? Get in touch with Florida web designer Marcia Coffey at 561-906-3436 or contact her by email.

COVID-19 Small Business Marketing Tips

marciacatlin · April 10, 2020 ·

It’s a scary time for small businesses during this COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses have closed, others have lost most of their customers. Most have been reduced to skeleton crews or a remote workforce.

Continue or Pause Your Marketing Campaigns?

With everyone in panic mode around COVID-19, many business owners are not sure whether to continue or pause their online marketing campaigns.

Businesses that should increase online marketing campaigns
If your customers can get your product or service online, you should keep at it. Some of these include online classes, financial related businesses, and more. Anything where your customers’ fulfillment is online

Other Opportunities Worth Knowing About

There may be opportunities that you don’t want to pass by. Here are various tips to help you come out on top during this pandemic.

1. Enhance Your Digital Presence

Considering a website redesign or thinking about enhancing your website with new functionality? Have you been considering eCommerce? Now is the time to shift your focus to serving your customers online, instead of in the store.

Check out the new BigCommerce Free Trial for small business.

There are lots of ways to improve your digital presence, including introduction of new technology, such as:

2. Website Personalization

Headlines and hero images. For most site visitors, the homepage and other key landing pages are the first touchpoints they interact with.
Call-to-action
Customer testimonials and logos
Featured blog posts and other content

Now is the time to think about how to improve your digital footprint and provide your customers with a better user experience as they engage more with your company online.

3. Reassess & Reallocate Your Marketing Budget

Clearly, trade shows are simply not an option with the COVID-19 pandemic. If you were planning to invest in trade shows or other in-person events, you should divert those dollars into other channels, such as digital marketing.

4. Change Your Delivery Method

If you have a brick-and-mortar business where you’re no longer able to see customers/patients in-person, then see if you’re able to generate revenue or generate leads or set appointments through other means.

Here are some ways you may be able to change your delivery methods during this pandemic:

Dentists/orthodontists can offer virtual consultations instead of in-person consultations: https://www.capterra.com/dental-software/
And the same goes for financial advisors and other types of professionals: https://www.salesforce.com/products/financial-services-cloud/overview/
Local retailers can offer to deliver goods to customers instead of people coming into their stores:
Restaurants: https://www.posusa.com/compare-restaurant-pos/
The Best 8 WordPress Ecommerce Plugins
The good news about WordPress eCommerce plugins is that they integrate with an existing WordPress site. So if you run a blog and eventually decide to sell eBooks or merchandise, you have the capabilities to do so.
Life Coaching Software
Other businesses can offer discounts for payment up-front. For example, some restaurants are offering “bonds” where customers can pay $75 to get $100 worth of food in the future when the restaurant reopens. Businesses could do something similar with discounted gift certificates.
How Churches Can Offer Online Sermons with WordPress

5. Focus on Your Existing Customers

We all know it’s much easier and less costly to market to existing customers versus acquiring new customers.

The key question? What else can you do to help your existing customers?
Can you offer additional products or services? Can you speed up your delivery for an additional fee? Can you sell more with a bulk discount? Can you partner with another business to enhance your product or service?

6. Increase Social Media Activity

The #COVID19 pandemic will continue to impact marketers in the upcoming months. Make sure your marketing strategy is agile to make adjustments in response.

Now is the time to keep up with social media to reassure your clients that you are active and present. Staying engaged and entertaining your customers will help to maintain a connection.

Finally, social media is a great tool to get in front of a new audience. People are spending even more time on social media during the pandemic, so now is the time to get in front of them. If you are not already, consider advertising your products and services on social media to reach a new audience.

7. Engage With Your Customers via Email

We have all received countless emails in the last few weeks regarding businesses’ responses to COVID-19. If you have not already, send out correspondence to reassure customers of your company’s response to the pandemic.

Beyond the response, consider a new email campaign to engage with your customers. Since you cannot meet face-to-face, or in your store, use email marketing to connect with your customers on a digital level. Maybe consider a video and send it out to your customers. Or craft new content marketing pieces in response to the pandemic.

Use your email marketing as a direct connection to your customers and connect with them about the services and products that matter most to them.

4. Expand Google Search Marketing

Make sure you are paying close attention to your keyword rankings and organic traffic during this time.

Continue to evaluate the search engine results pages to determine opportunities for new content to respond to new types of queries in the search universe. Also, pay close attention to Google trends to see what fluctuations in search volume have occurred for your target keywords.

The Coronavirus pandemic will continue to impact marketers in the upcoming months. Make sure your marketing strategy is agile to make adjustments in response to them.

Need to update your website? Time to get started with an online business? Let’s work together!

It’s Time to Take Your Brick & Mortar Store Online

marciacatlin · April 1, 2020 ·

Maybe your business is impacted by a sadly now familiar emergency or disaster.

Maybe all of your competitors are moving online. Or maybe your customers have a newfound preference for online shopping.

Pairing your brick and mortar with an online store is key.

For online retail, sales are expected to reach nearly $600 billion by 2024.

Combining online and offline retail efforts in your 2020 business plan have the power to amplify reach and sales. It is another stream of revenue for your existing stores or a back-up plan if your customers are unable to purchase on a specific channel.

eCommerce + Brick-and-Mortar Advantages

Depending on your business needs, there may be many different reasons to add an eCommerce channel to your business. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider adding eCommerce.

Track customers to know what they really want.
Have direct access to your customers’ purchasing behaviors.
You can learn from these insights and make real-time changes to your store.
Improve customer loyalty and experience.
The online experience adds convenience to your customers’ daily lives. They can engage with your business anytime, any place. This creates more opportunities for you to serve your customers with relevant, personalized content.

Selling online gives you an entirely new landscape to entertain and connect with your customers. Get creative when thinking about how you can merge your online and offline.
Competition is moving online. Creating an online presence will give you a fair shot at challenging your competitors.
Speeds up the buying process.
Customers can now engage with you at any time in any place when many of them can’t shop offline for various reasons.
Engage customers of all generations.
While your business may thrive in a particular age demographic, selling online expands your reach which means you may discover customers from all generations.

The beauty of eCommerce is that you can create personalized experiences for every customer.

eCommerce Complements Brick-and-Mortar

Drive customers to your brick-and-mortar with in-store events or exclusive promotions (and vice versa).

Offer a wider product selection online. You may not be able to provide your entire inventory in-store. But, an online store makes it easy to display your entire offering — perhaps even products that haven’t been released yet.

Leverage your online store to showcase all your business has to offer and your brick-and-mortar to give customers a chance to interact with your products in person.

How To Select An eCommerce Platform

BigCommerce for Small Business

Not all eCommerce platforms are created equal. Every business has its individual needs, so you’ll need to review each platform with your own considerations in mind.

Depending on your industry and company, you may require specific features, such as:

Responsive eCommerce.
Product page functionality (e.g. cross-sell and upsell capabilities).
Auto-updated shopping cart.
A beautiful, modern, and clean design.
Mobile optimization.

J&M Group Tip

If you’re thinking about modernizing your eCommerce business, or are ready to begin selling online, we want to help. You can get three free months of BigCommerce to build your new online store. If you’re new to eCommerce, not to worry — J&M Group and BigCommerce can help you get set up. Click below to get started!

Create Your Store

Here’s Your Free Landing Page Guide

marciacatlin · March 23, 2020 ·

Landing pages are the superstar salespeople in your online business. Download your free landing page guide here.

No matter what stage of business you’re in, landing pages come in handy for a wide range of different marketing purposes.

Each landing page is designed with a single purpose: to convince visitors to convert. This means eliminating anything that is distracting like navigation menus and other unrelated content.

Successful landing pages share a few common elements. You can read more about how to design winning landing pages in our guide to landing page best practices. Here’s a quick overview:

• Create a new landing page for each offer. Landing pages with more than one CTA see dramatically lower conversions, so keep each landing page focused on a single offer.
• Keep your design clean and simple. The best landing pages are aesthetically pleasing, easy to read, and have clear messaging.
• Attract visitors with pictures and video. Great imagery evokes emotion, and emotion helps drive landing page conversions.
• Write persuasive copy. Focus on the pain your audience is experiencing and how your offer will help solve that pain.
• Add social proof and testimonials. The power of storytelling is mighty. Testimonials and case studies from existing customers build credibility and boost customer loyalty.
• Answer your visitors’ burning questions. Your copy should leave no stone unturned, answering the most common questions and concerns your audience might have.
• Include a strong call-to-action. Your CTA is crucial to your conversion rate, so it needs to be crystal clear.
• Track and optimize for conversions. Understand what success looks like, measure your results, and work on improving your landing pages over time.

Download our free Landing Page Guide below. It includes the following chapters:

What is a Landing Page?
13 Landing Page Best Practices to Help You Make Your Mark
How to Write a Great Landing Page
4 Essential Landing Page Elements
How to Use a Landing Page to Test a New Idea
What is a Good Landing Page Conversion Rate
8 Call-to-Action Examples for Your Next Landing Page
How to Create Lead Generation Landing Pages that Convert
How to Use Landing Pages with Email Marketing
How to Grow Your Email List with Free Landing Pages in 2020

Download FREE Landing Page Guide

No More Excuses Video Marketing

marciacatlin · February 27, 2020 ·

It’s expensive. It’s hard to do. It takes a lot of time. It has a questionable ROI.

Are these the reasons you’re not investing in video as a core part of your social marketing strategy?

Video Marketing. Did You Know?

Videos on landing pages increase conversions by a whopping 80%.
Video ads have a CTR (click-through-rate) of nearly 2%.
A branded social video leads 64% of consumers to a purchase decision.
Social videos generate 1200% more shares than other forms of content.
Companies that are going video-first are running far ahead of their competition.

So why are most companies still not taking video marketing seriously?

Because they’ve bought into these misconceptions:

Too Expensive

As with most new strategic endeavors, adding video to your marketing strategy requires some investment of money. AI or Artificial Intelligence software, however, changed all that!

Off-the-shelf video creation services have now made things 10x cheaper.

Too Difficult

Creating videos may seem difficult to some, but it’s really not. Look what I did here -> Content Marketing Lumen5 Videos

With some careful planning, a business can generate ideas that produce hours of video content. Creating these videos is a matter of prioritizing ideas, associating a strong CTA with each, and then finding the means to film. This may require investing in some new equipment, finding a freelancer to edit on a per-project basis, or calling in professionals to produce the video.

With Lumen5, I needed zero equipment. I created all of my videos on their platform with their images plus my own, their templates, my content, plus countless styling, animation, and other tricks.

Too Time-Consuming

For businesses that don’t have a lot of time to spare, they can hire a freelancer on a per-project/contractual basis to handle everything from idea generation to editing to the final publishing. Those businesses that are able to put in a little more time can save substantial amounts of money by keeping things in-house.

How can a business realistically begin creating videos?

The trickiest part of creating any video is figuring out the focus of the video.
That’s what creates the hang-up for many businesses. Since they struggle to even get past this first step, they assume the entire video creation process is going to be an uphill battle.

The key is…

Turn Pre-Existing Content Into Video

Lumen5 video creator uses a powerful approach because it takes the content ideas that your business has already put on your blog. It then generates a storyboard that automatically enables you to create appealing videos.

These are content ideas that you’ve repurposed into a video that’s guaranteed to boost engagement.

It’s as simple as pasting a link into
an A.I. powered tool!

GET More shares. By having a video to accompany your written content, you can share that video on social media rather than simply sharing a boring old link.

Since video is the most shareable form of content on the web, you’ll immediately triple your organic reach.

GET More engagement. If a person clicks through to an article because of an enticing title but is then met with a wall of text, they aren’t as likely to stick around as they would be if you featured a video on that page to accompany the text. Most people prefer video.

GET More conversions. Remember how we said that video increases landing page conversions by 80% and leads 64% of visitors to a purchase decision? Once you get that a-ha moment of just how ridiculously easy it is to start adding eye-catching, professional video content to your blog and social media pages, you’ll never turn back.

There are tangible, incredible, revenue-generating benefits that come along with having quality video content.

A tip. Post every day. Do it. Seriously.
Videos aren’t like a Facebook personal status update – your viewers aren’t going to develop content fatigue. Every video presents something new, and as long as you keep it short & actionable, the few seconds it takes to watch a video is nothing close to the mental energy used to read a long post.

The importance of video marketing is only set to increase with researchers estimating that 85 percent of all internet traffic within the United States will be video-based by 2020.