blogs.alamode.com http://blogs.alamode.com/agent/article/the-agents-guide-to-acronyms-you-should-read-asap

The agent’s guide to acronyms you should read ASAP

June 18, 2014 | Hunter Meek

Have you ever been in a webinar about a coolnew marketing solution and suddenly heard anacronym you’re completely unfamiliar with?Before you know it, you’re lost in a sea of letters,but you don’t want to be the one to ask for anexplanation and seem out of touch. First, let mesay I’m a firm believer that there are no stupidquestions, as long as they’re sincere. I’ll be thefirst to admit I’ve asked a few in my day thatreceived immediate responses of “Are youserious?” To which I slowly reply “No…justkidding,” and then immediately go type myquestion into Google, who never gives me suchcondescending looks.

In today’s fast-paced digital marketing technologytyphoon, there are sure to be times when youhear a new acronym that stops you in yourtracks. So, I’ve put together a list of marketing, sales, technology, and real estate acronyms with quick explanationsand links to more information that I hope you’ll find helpful. Some of them you’re sure to know, but maybe someoneelse isn’t.

Check it out, and hopefully next time someone says “Let’s look at the CTAs in your PPC ads to see if we can up yourCTR and boost your ROI,” you can say, “Gladly!”

AVM - Automated Valuation Model - Ever heard of a Zestimate®? This is one example of an AVM: an estimatedcalculation of a property's value by utilizing available information on the property and also comparing it with similarproperties in the area. Of course, these are somewhat inherently inaccurate, since they rely on complex algorithmsthat can't take all necessary factors into account. But, they really aren't meant to be used as hard evidence for what aseller should list their house for, or what a buyer should offer. The problem is, many times buyers and sellers don'tknow that. That's why it's so important for you to put your expertise to work in coming to the smartest list or offerprice. Love 'em or hate 'em, AVMs are here to stay. It's probably best to find ways to use them to your advantage.

CMA - Comparative Market Analysis - A CMA is a report that gives a seller information and context on how theirproperty compares to the market. It usually includes things like comparable properties (expired, active, sold, andpending) recent sale prices, absorption rates, days on market statistics, and more. *Shameless plug*... Our free iPadapp, RE:Focus Analytics, offers CMA publishing as one of its most popular features.

CMS - Content Management System - A CMS is simply a computer program, software, or application that allowsusers to intuitively publish, edit, and modify the creation of content on the web. Essentially, it's a way to manage yourwebsite content without diving straight into the code and having to know programming language. Oh hey, we havesomething like that...

CPC - Cost Per Click - CPC is a type of online advertising campaign in which you pay for each click your onlineadvertisement receives. Different ad companies set CPC differently - for example, Google AdWords offers automatic

bidding and manual bidding. Automatic bidding lets Google choose what fits within your daily budget, while manualbidding gives you more control over how your ad is displayed and who sees it. It's sometimes used interchangeablywith PPC (pay-per-click). While it's possible for an agent to manage their own CPC/PPC campaigns, it's probably bestleft to experts, unless you're pretty tech savvy and have a lot of time on your hands to create campaigns, reviewperformance, optimize ad copy, etc.

CPM – Cost Per Thousand - Wait, shouldn't it be CPT? Well, the "M" in this case is for " mille" meaning 1,000 in Latin.This term is used when establishing the price of 1,000 impressions for an online advertisement. According to GoogleAdWords, this type of advertisement works best for companies seeking brand awareness. For companies whose maingoal is sales or website traffic, CPC/PPC advertising makes more sense.

CR - Conversion Rate - A conversion can be a variety of customer actions, such as filling out a request informationform or downloading an eBook. The conversion rate tracks the amount of conversions you receive for each click onyour online advertisement. In real estate, a popular conversion rate measurement is lead conversion. If you buy100 ads from Zillow, and you "convert" 25 of them to clients (whether buying or selling), your conversion rate for thatlead source is 25%. Knowing your conversion rate is crucial to improving your marketing ROI and increasing revenue(check out Pipeline ROI).

CRM - Client (or "customer") Relationship Manager - A CRM is a system to manage past and future customerinteractions. A CRM allows businesses to track sales, marketing campaigns, and contacts with customers to establishthe best strategy for reaching them effectively. A CRM essentially serves as the hub for all your business contacts,and helps you leverage those relationships more effectively.

CTA - Call To Action - A CTA is a compelling statement on your website, email campaign, or any other marketingpiece that encourages readers to take action, such as calling you to discuss selling their house. A strong, effectiveCTA can be the difference between generating a lead, and letting someone slip off the hook. There are tons of studiesout there about what kind of words work best in CTAs, what kinds of button colors get more clicks, etc. CTAs are afascinating aspect of marketing, and it's always a good idea to test different combinations of words, colors,and locations to see what works best with your target audience. Quick tip: Don't use the word "Submit" on your leadcapture forms. Instead, point out the value to the potential client. For example, use a button that says "Get my freemarket report." Would you rather submit, or get something free?

CTR - Click-Through Rate - CTR is a gauge for measuring (partially) the success of an online ad campaign. This isgenerally measured as CTR = Total # of Clicks / Total # of Impressions. For example, if a banner ad is delivered1,000 times and receives 10 clicks, the CTR is 1%.

ESP - E-mail Service Provider - This is a company that provides e-mail marketing, including services such asproviding information and statistics regarding an e-mail campaign, like CTR. We actually provide an e-mail marketingsolution for real estate agents called XSellerate, that helps you reach your sphere with timely, valuable messages. Italso tracks ads sent, read, and sites visited so you know what campaigns are working and what aren't.

GA - Google Analytics - This is a service offered by Google that provides statistics about a website's traffic, such asnumber of page views, what actions visitors are taking on specific pages, where your traffic is coming from, and abouta million other things. The possibilities are pretty much endless, but you might want to have a professional help youwith this if you're interested in looking at anything other than the basics. You can find out more here.

HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language is the standard language used in the creation of web pages. Web browsersread and translate the HTML codes into web pages. Of course, it's just one of many programming languages used inweb development, but this probably isn't the place to get into that.

MLS - Multiple Listing Service - Let's hope you know this one! An MLS in an organization that accumulates,organizes, and dissemenates information about homes for sale, listed by its members. Access to an MLS is restrictedto agents and brokers who are appropriately licensed by their respective state. MLSs exist for many reasons and

perform many functions, but at their core, are meant to facilitate efficient cooperation between many agents andbrokers in the sale of properties.

PPC - Pay Per Click - This is the cost of running an advertisement based on the number of clicks it received. Thebasic formula is PPC = Advertising Cost / Number of Clicks. This term is also sometimes used interchangeably withCPC. PPC ads have gained more and more popularity, especially with real estate agents and brokers looking togenerate more traffic to their websites, leads, etc. It can definitely be a viable alternative (or addition) to just buyingleads from Zillow, Trulia, etc.

ROI - Return on Investment - ROI is a valuation on the efficiency of an investment based upon the total cost. Basically,what are you getting back from an investment you've made? The simple version of the "formula" would be ROI =(Gains - Cost) / Cost. Let's look at a quick example. If you spend $2000 on leads from Trulia, and only one of thoseleads ends up closing, and after commission splits, you make $3,000, your ROI would be (3,000 - 2,000) / 2,000 = .5or 50%. Of course, this simple example doesn't factor in costs outside of money spent directly on the leads. To bemore accurate, you'd have to take into account the amount of time you spent getting that lead to close, money spenton marketing the property, etc.

RT - Retweet - On Twitter, a "retweet" is a tweet that has been re-posted by a new user, and will also be displayed tothat user's followers. Increasing RT's allows more people to see your tweets, potentially increasing your audience.Say you have 100 followers, but someone with 5,000 followers retweets one of your tweets. Your message now haspotential to be seen by 5,100 people instead of just your 100. Retweeting others is also a good way to build socialrelationships and gain followers.

SEM - Search Engine Marketing - SEM is a type of internet marketing that utilizes SEO and PPC advertisements toincrease a page's search engine visibility.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization - SEO is a strategy used in SEM that is meant to increase a page's search engine(usually Google) search rank. Generally, the higher a page ranks on Google, the more page views it receives. Thereare several strategies for optimizing SEO, such as using keywords in content, increasing the amount of links back toyour page, and updating your content frequently. The Ghostwriter function on our XSites takes the hassle out ofcontent updating. You can set Ghostwriter to automatically update your website's content every 30, 60, or 90 days.This will increase SEO by showing the search engines you are keeping your website fresh. Check out our free eBook"5 Common sense SEO tips for your real estate website."

Want more helpful tips on real estate marketing, website design, social media and more? Subscribe to our Agent blogand follow us on Twitter @PipelineROI!

1 5 Google 2 0