The Cutting Edge of Online Marketing

The video below by AVG was designed to demonstrate the idea of strength in numbers. Its short and interesting! Once you’ve watched, then let’s finish up this brief thought provoker.

Did it look to you like those tigers were stopped by tooth picks?
We don’t have to be giants individually.  When enough of us band together, instead of fighting each other, we can make a difference.  
Do you think we can do the same principle of Tiger vs. Toothpicks can apply to negative manufactured housing media?

Or with run away red-tape?

Business and job killing legislation and policies?

The point is the same principle works in Associations, which are designed to protect and promote the industry. They need you, and you need them. When Associations, professionals and our client base all team up, we have some of the key elements for success.  We have some of the key elements for marketing the Industry, protecting it from negative media barrages. 

Think of that tiger as the anti-manufactured housing media.

Think of that tiger as the run-away politicians and bureaucrats, you know the ones.  The ones who never met who never met a regulation they didn’t like. 

Read more here, or email Tony@MHMSM.com and in the subject line, say “Let me see the next MH Alliance/Phoenix Project webinar!”  We may not be tooth picks, but the idea of enough good pros pulling together will stop the tigers that are hunting the hard working owners and pros of our industry. 

Just as auto dealers or shopping centers and malls band together to market, the same thing can be done by enough pros.  All who do so can reap the rewards.# #

post by
L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach
Publisher and Marketing Director MHProNews.com & MHMSM.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

Manufactured homes.  We are affordable quality housing.  This doesn’t have to be rocket science. Yet way too many in our great industry are in search of simple and effective marketing messages.

Let’s look at the cold, hard – yet amazing – facts.

Let’s stop and think.

Every month, there are over 4 million searches done for keywords such as:

• mobile homes,
• manufactured housing and
• modular homes.

So why are current HUD Code shipments (read sales) at only about 4000 homes a month average?  Modular home sales are lower still.

That’s only .15 of 1% of all those searches being sold on a new home an average month. Do you see a huge disconnect between people searching for our product and the results our industry gets?

Do you see the amazing opportunity?

We do.

We can also show you how to attract and get more ‘upscale’ customers that may not be thinking about a manufactured home.  You know, the ones with good credit scores or who can pay cash for your homes, products or services.

Magnetic Attraction. Attract the right crowd, and your sales will go up.

MHMSM.com and our associates can help you, companies and organizations like yours tap into that large potential market of MILLIONS who are already looking for factory-built homes.

We are and will be making changes and improvements in the weeks and months ahead to serve you better at MHMSM.com.  You are looking at one of those changes.

From the Cutting Edge of Online Marketing Blog, we will focus on business development topics as well as our MHMarketingSalesManagement.com business development services to companies and organizations such as yours.

When you want an insights on Industry issues, you can check in to The Masthead blog. For those of you who do not know what “a masthead” is, it has a double meaning.  One relates to publishing, the other is the ‘crows nest’ or lookout point on the tallest mast of a sailing ship.  From The Masthead blog, we will be looking at factory built housing Industry topics, from a news and commentary perspective.

So in the future, The Cutting Edge blog topics may be written by me, Tony Kovach, or by others, who will be identified on the blog post itself.  The Cutting Edge will be a marketing and sales focused blog that is here to serve professionals like you.

Are you sick and tired of poor marketing and sales results?

Are you ready to increase those results?

Then stay tuned.  Follow this blog for 90 days, and it will provide you with the tools to change your marketing, sales and bottom line results.

Get ready for the new Cutting Edge in Online Marketing Blog.

Only those interested in growing their bottom line performance and profits should check in. # #

L. A. “Tony” Kovach
To learn more about award winning, record breaking results go to:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

Manufactured Home and Land Lease Community operators and owners, and retailers take note: if you’ve been waiting for the right time to photograph those installations, properties and communities, now would be the time.

In many parts of the country, you’ll need to wait out the rain to get a clear day to photograph those homes and communities, but it will be worth the wait.

Be sure to get plenty of photos when the sun shines so you’ll have a lot to choose from when you post them to your website or Facebook fan page.

You may need to re-size or enhance your photos before uploading them to your website. There are a few tools that I’ve used to do this that will cost you absolutely nothing to use.

If you have Mac, your computer came with iPhoto. iPhoto makes the job of adjusting, enhancing and resizing your photos a snap.

But if you’re using a Windows or Linux powered machine, there are a couple of tools here that can help you get the job done in style.

First, there’s the Open Source application the GIMP, that runs on Linux, Mac or Windows. the GIMP can do pretty much anything that Photoshop can do – but saves you the $700 that Photoshop costs. There are installers for each. The Mac version requires that the X11 X-Window system be installed. It is installed on OS X 10.5 Leopard and newer by default. the GIMP for Linux and Windows can be downloaded at GIMP.org.

Here’s a video showing how the get started with the GIMP:

Although it’s free, the GIMP has a learning curve like any other sophisticated software. The video above is from a 23 video tutorial set that can get you using the GIMP like a professional in just a few hours and provides ongoing support for as long as you need it.

The video tutorial set is called Create Stunning Graphics Using the GIMP and is available at HowDoIDoThatVideos.com.

If all you need to do is resize images, PixResizer for Windows will do the trick. You can download it from bluefive.pair.com/pixresizer.htm Here’s a short video on how to use it:

The long and short of this is get out there now through June to get the best images you’re going to get. So go get them, then use one of these tools to enhance them or resize them and put them to work for you.

Video is becoming ubiquitous on the Web. In fact, web users are beginning to expect it in many situations. And since some 80% of home sales begin with research done online, it is in your best interest to know that you can do place video in your listings, too.

You can even post a video Press Release online, as here for the Great Southwest Home Show.

If you use a Content Management System (CMS), such as WordPress or Joomla!, it makes the job of inserting video into your website a whole lot easier, but it can be done with any website.

First, you need to create your video. If you have any number of devices from a camcorder, to a modern still camera, through an iPhone or Android smartphone, you are in business.

Read more…

One of the services we offer is a website review. In a website review, we go over every page of your website and check for any missing elements or erroneous entries that might have a detrimental effect on your Search Engine ranking.

But do you need a full website review? Here’s a short video that will enable you to do a quick evaluation of your own website based on four critical factors. If you find your site coming up short on these, a full website review should be considered. It can save you a lot of lost business in the long-term and lost money in the sort term.

Click here for more information on Website Reviews