Locale has launched the Best Practice’s blog to help our advertisers (realtors and others operating in specific real estate markets) embrace the changes and disruptions the Internet is causing their industry, and learn how to leverage the Internet as the dominant marketing medium it is becoming.
The Internet is an evolving medium, so our coverage on Locale Best Practices has great breadth, from search marketing to how the adoption of technology by consumers creates opportunities for first-movers in the market. No longer can realtors rely on walk-in traffic and traditional advertising venues; rather, they must engage with potential buyers in an online environment, during the customer’s research process and before any relationship commitments are made.
Each Locale Best Practices blog entry identifies a trend or topic and gives you advice on what to do about it. Experience the advantage today. Subscribe via email or RSS feed to Locale’s Best Practices blog.
Circumerro Video was featured in the June 20 issue of the Jackson Hole News&Guide Business Focus special section. The article is reprinted here for your reading enjoyment.
Circumerro Video
With at least 60 percent of the online population regularly watching web videos, one Jackson-based company is setting the trend locally by offering affordable Web video services for both local and national businesses. Circumerro Video, a new division of Circumerro, recently began offering its services in order to help clients effectively connect with customers through short-form video on the Internet.
“Video offers a depth of experience you cannot achieve in other mediums,” said Circumerro President Latham Jenkins. “Don’t sell people on your product or service, let people experience it!” Supervising producer Alden Wood described Circumerro’s videos as short documentaries, where clients can convey themselves and connect on a personal level with consumers. “Video is a lot easier than reading a Web page, it is easy to digest” said Jenkins. “People are creatures of habit, thus watching video online is a natural extension. It allows us to engage them in the offering.”
Examples of clients who have used Circumerro Video’s services are: real estate brokers, to either introduce themselves to consumers or showcase a home they are selling; business owners, to connect personally with their customers; and spokespeople, making public relations announcements. “Video offers effective means of communication for nearly every industry, offering new possibilities to connect with one’s audience,” said Jenkins. “It allows businesses to connect with consumers in ways that are more personal, direct and rewarding.” The authentic delivery of a professionally produced, unscripted video is what helps to sell a message,” said Wood. “Almost anyone can use video to further sell their products.”
Generally structured as 30-second to 4-minute presentations, Circumerro’s production crew puts together the entire video in what they describe as a “soup to nuts” process. All videos are shot in high-definition, edited in-house, and are hosted in a manner that allows for easy viewing on any client’s website.
“All of our videos are shot and edited utilizing the industry’s newest and most innovative technologies,” said Jenkins. “Not only do the videos look great, but they have a 95% delivery rate, no longer do you have all the browser and plug-in conflicts.”
Another advantage to using Circumerro Video is the speed at which clients and their customers can see and use the videos. Circumerro’s crew can turn most projects around within a week to two weeks, allowing for time-sensitive projects to be fulfilled in an efficient manner. “Video is the new content asset online and I encourage local businesses to embrace the medium, it will create radical change in how we go about our daily Internet experience in the near future,” said Jenkins. “We have had great success stories with our web videos and the conversion rates are far higher than standard Internet banners,” he added.
Videos can be produced and delivered starting at under $1,000.
—Allison Arthur
Locale was featured in the June 20 issue of the Jackson Hole News&Guide Business Focus special section. The article is reprinted here for your reading enjoyment.
Locale
There is only one place to go if you want the most cost-effective and efficient way to reach customers seeking real estate in the Jackson Hole area—www.livewaterjacksonhole.com. Locale, a publication of Circumerro Publishing, is the most effective way for Jackson Hole real estate professionals to connect with out-of-area buyers.
According to Circumerro President and Publisher Latham Jenkins, “Locale is the online marketplace for lifestyle real estate in exceptional places to live.” With the rising number of second- and vacation-home buyers relying on the Internet to find potential properties, it should come as no surprise that Locale is a prime opportunity to showcase your real estate and related businesses.
“We realized early on that the Internet was the most effective way of getting real estate in front of buyers,” said Locale Western Sales Director Arik Griffin. “The Internet is becoming more crucial to the real estate market by the day, and out-of-area buyers are now relying on it more than traditional publications such as magazines and newspapers. There has been a huge shift in how people are finding their property. A large portion of home buyers—the current statistics stating 80 percent—are now using the web in their search for a home.”
Griffin explained that people searching for property within the Jackson Hole area typically type “real estate” and “Jackson Hole” into Google and other search engines. “Because of our site’s thorough editorial content,” continued Griffin, “Locale is nearly always the first to come up.”
This is where Locale helps advertisers. Due to its rich content, which includes real estate listings, property videos, maps, information about areas, and community profiles, among other things, potential buyers spend a great deal of time searching through the site. This helps advertisers ensure exposure through property listing banner ads and specific sponsorships. “Our extensive content is how we maintain our competitive edge over other real estate sites,” Griffin said. “The objective is to give enough of an overview that people will say, ‘Yes, I want to be in Jackson Hole.’ Our site does not replace the role of the agent—it helps expand their reach and ultimately their client base.”
“People living here likely already have a relationship with a local real estate agent,” said Griffin. “So establishing a relationship with interested out-of-area buyers via the Internet and Locale is a key component to expanding an agent’s client base.” Various advertising packages are available, and a five-listing package starts at $250 per month. Locale advertisers can also get the added benefit of being included on listings with other national real estate sites.
For more information, visit www.jacksonhole.locale.com, email Arik Griffin, or call him at 307-733-8319.
—Allison Arthur
We’ve finally seen the fruits of about eight months of our labor over here at Circumerro Publishing. Our three main publications have been out for about three weeks now and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
Under the guidance of our fearless leader, a new publishing team was assembled in the past year to freshen things up in Publishing. With that direction, our talented designers have completely redesigned Homestead and our flagship publication, Rendezvous.
In addition, a new piece was created to help augment Rendezvous: the Rendezvous Pocket Guide. This companion to our traveler’s guide to Jackson Hole provides the Jackson Hole visitor with business listings and a helpful map of the area (proudly sponsored by START Bus and including their stops—something we hope will encourage folks to utilize public transit). It can be found on brochure racks and at concierge desks throughout “the Hole” and, best of all, it’s pocket-sized.
We’re particularly pleased with the new Homestead magazine. It has been increased in size to a 10 x 12 inch publication with more beautiful home pictures and editorial content. We’ve also increased the circulation and made it available for sale on newsstands throughout the region. We hope you take the time to pick up a copy, which you can do at newsstands or by contacting us Circumerro.
You can learn more about several of Circumerro’s products in the special Business Focus section in today’s Jackson Hole News&Guide. Let us know what you think; we hope you like what you see.
—Chris
Circumerro Publishing’s Rendezvous traveler’s guide was featured in the June 20 issue of the Jackson Hole News&Guide Business Focus special section.
Rendezvous
Want to find out the best place to eat outdoors or the perfect all-day family activity? Do what almost every tourist does: read Rendezvous, the traveler’s guide to Jackson Hole. Rendezvous, published annually by Circumerro Publishing, can be found in nearly every hotel room in Jackson Hole and Teton Valley, Idaho.
This guest directory is Jackson Hole’s unofficial traveler’s guide and is the best place for visitors to find the broadest range of information on area activities, events, shopping, dining and more—no matter the season. Rendezvous provides readers with general information on getting to and around Jackson. There are sources listed to find out about current weather, road, and ski conditions, and stories about the history of the area and other general points of interest.
“Rendezvous gives visitors and anyone else new to the area an overview of what to do while experiencing Jackson Hole,” said Circumerro Publishing Director Chris Hansen. “From how to get here and get around once you are here, to history, to what to do, who can help you do it, and where to relax when you’re done, Rendezvous is the most comprehensive, well-rounded, free guide-book to the area.”
Found in area hotel rooms, condos and other places travelers rest, the book is designed to be read and browsed at your leisure. “The format of the book and the presentation of information in it is created for someone to sit down and read when they have the time to do that,” said Hansen.
In its 11th year, Rendezvous has come to be a publication hoteliers look forward to putting in their rooms. The book has been updated this year with a new design and a cleaner, more contemporary look. While much of the relevant information is similar from year-to-year, stories and photos are updated annually. “This year we reorganized and increased the editorial content of Rendezvous,” said Hansen. “We hope travelers find it easier to read and discern helpful information.”
Readers will find information about the national parks and wildlife and a detailed calendar of events. Stories highlight fun things to do in both the summer and winter seasons, as well as dinning, nightlife, art and culture. New special sections were added this year, including “Beauty and Wellness” and “Kids and Teens.”
Another added value in the book this year is that the distribution and content have been expanded to include Teton Valley, Idaho. “Because the area is growing so rapidly and becoming a more integrated part of a vacation in Jackson Hole, we’ve included information and business listings within Teton Valley, and the book is available in lodging facilities over there as well,” said Hansen.
Also new this year is the addition of the Rendezvous Pocket Guide, a smaller companion piece to Rendezvous. As its name suggests, this annual pocket-sized guide includes business listings and a map of the Town of Jackson. The map, sponsored by START Bus, locates bus stops to make getting around a breeze. Eighty thousand pieces were printed and are being distributed through hotels, at concierge desks, in brochure racks, rental cars and at the airport.
—Allison Arthur
Circumerro Publishing’s Homestead magazine was featured in the June 20 issue of the Jackson Hole News&Guide Business Focus special section.
Homestead
Want a private tour of some of the most beautiful homes in the region? Homestead, one of Circumerro Publishing’s signature publications, gives you a peek at some of the most innovative and beautifully created homes in the Jackson Hole area.
In its sixth year, Homestead has been completely re-designed and circulation expanded. The magazine’s large-format (10″ x 12″) and contemporary design bring featured homes, art and craftsmanship to light for readers. The new look better reflects the changes in architecture and design seen in the Jackson Hole area today.
Chris Hansen, publishing director for Circumerro, said that the complete redesign and shift in the magazine’s focus resulted in positive growth for the company. The overall focus highlights how western and contemporary styles are uniting in new ways through architecture and design in the Rocky Mountain West. “These changes to the magazine allowed us to broaden the editorial and geographic scope beyond what has traditionally been considered western design in Jackson Hole,” he said. “We strive to showcase homes that are unique and that represent a collaboration among the best architects, builders, interior designers, artisans and anyone else who has been involved in creating a truly unique home.”
Builders, architects and interior designers are invited to showcase their homes through multi-page photo spreads and editorial that tells the story of that collaboration. In addition to showcase homes, Homestead includes stories on landscaping, green building, interior design, art, artists, art collectors and galleries.
Homestead’s reach in the market has greatly expanded. Circulation has been increased from 10,000 to 30,000 and new avenues for distribution have been introduced. It is available at newsstands, bookstores and other local retailers; is mailed to affluent homeowners throughout the area; can be found in real estate offices; and is offered as a gift at high-end local events, such as the Grand Teton Music Festival’s upcoming wine auction.
An expanding subscription base is also increasing readership of Homestead. “Growing the editorial content is a goal for the coming year,” said Hansen of plans for further expansion. “We want to include more content that is of interest to readers who look to Homestead as a way to connect with professionals who provide the services high-end homeowners are looking for.”
Reinforcing one of the strongest elements in the magazine, Hansen commented on the design. “A talented in-house team here at Circumerro designs the magazine and maintains consistent creative control over the publication from start to finish,” he said, adding, “The design is clean and it’s easy and enjoyable to read. The quality is top notch.”
For more information on featuring your project, advertising or purchasing an issue of Homestead, please contact Circ at 307-733-8319.
—Allison Arthur
Here at Circumerro we’ve gotten pretty good at producing our products. But just when you think the job of producing is done, it’s time to market. While there are many ways to do that, direct mail and direct email marketing tend to be fairly straight forward and effective. And as we continue to focus more of our energies on the Web, we look to direct email marketing as the easiest and most cost-effective way to get the word out.
But here’s the catch (or at least one of ’em): email addresses tend to be hard to come by, while snail-mail addresses practically grow on trees. Of course, I completely understand the reluctance to provide email addresses in this age of unending spam. Many of us who work in front of a computer get literally hundreds of emails a day, and the average Internet user has something like four separate email accounts. If you work a lot with email and have an effective spam filter, most of those emails are qualified, necessary things. Unfortunately, in a less-than-perfect world, a great deal of email is unwanted spam.
Back to the point:
Sending snail mail costs money. You’ve got to print the piece and then pay to have it mailed, including the physical cost of handling the pieces so many times before they end up in your box. But to send something via email costs very little, for both the sender and the recipient. Mostly just some extra bandwidth and the time it takes to set it up. Of course, there’s the time on the recipient’s end to read the message, qualify it as something they want to respond to, and then hit delete if they’re not interested—arguably less time than it takes to check your snail mail box and throw the unwanteds in the trash (or hopefully the recycle bin).
The cost of direct snail mail marketing certainly gives marketers pause about the resources they are using (or should). But the system continues to encourage us to waste resources to deliver our messages effectively when email marketing creates no waste.
For as much as we hate to receive junk mail in our postal box, we still prefer it over unwanted email. For example, when I call my local chamber of commerce for their business listing, they are more than happy to share their members’ physical addresses with me, but the emails? That’s a big no-no.
It’s controversial enough that, when I floated it by my friend Keith for use in his CarbonNeutralJournal blog (as I do for many things I find on the subject of saving resources), he bounced it back to me, saying:
“I agree with your logic, but not with the reality. You can do a lot to curb print junk mail (Greendimes is just one such service), but you can’t do anything to stop junk email. Plus it’s often so vulgar and offensive.”
As a marketer I realize that much of what we produce in print is just so much fodder for the recycle bin (which is why we here at Circumerro focus our efforts on the Web when we can). It is very much a resource issue, and I hope we can get to a point where it’s more acceptable to receive email than snail mail.
Again, Keith sums it up:
“I’m afraid the spammers have spoiled the water for what could/should have evolved into an efficient and reasonably unobtrusive way to do direct marketing.”
Thanks for nothin’, spammers.
—Chris
Today I noted a couple of things going on with so-called “new media”; and worth mentioning, I found both tidbits online for free after having missed them in their traditional “old media” delivery channels.
Perhaps the next best thing to being at the leading edge of “new media” (if you’re part of the “old media”) is reporting on it. Enter the NPR series (just started today) on one of Madison Avenue’s oldest ad houses’ approach to the latest thing. I heard the teaser during Morning Edition and was eagerly awaiting the story on my drive home. It was interesting, but not what I expected. I hope the rest of the series is a little more compelling. At the very least, it’s hooked me into waiting for the next installment.
Meanwhile, Organic’s blog, Three Minds, rebroadcast Rupert Murdoch’s Special Report “Mixed Media,” which appeared on Forbes’ site on May 7. Perhaps the most interesting, yet unsurprising statement, is that “old media are threatened by the erosion of our traditional profit centers.”
I’m thinking that’s what NPR was thinking when they chose to examine the subject, but they might have missed the mark.
What ever you might feel about Mr. Murdoch or his enormously successful Fox News empire, if you’re at all in tune with what’s going on in the overall media world, you’ve got to at least appreciate his perspective on the direction of mass media, and his ability to express it in the throes of a multi-billion dollar take-over attempt. You can’t deny it: he gets it, but we’ll just see if he can make “it” happen.
—Chris
Website design has been pushing the envelope for some time. In my research (read: surfing) I’ve come across some compelling sites that are delivering a variety of information in some very unorthodox ways. Sometimes it’s useful, sometimes it’s trivial. One category of sites I’ve come across is the genre I would consider simply “fun.”
These sites that I consider fun are sites that take a non-traditional approach to delivering their “information,” often a fairly loose term. But they challenge the visitor to explore the site—to search every nook and cranny for tidbits they might not realize were there at first blush, and that they probably didn’t know they needed to find. At the end of the trip, you probably aren’t that better off for having combed the site for every last tidbit, but you probably had a good time getting there and were challenged to think differently about how you find information on a website.
Check out these two examples…and have “fun!”
Is our life being homogenized with global brands that preclude any localized discovery? On a recent business trip to San Francisco, I felt like my travel experience was as if I had just taken a trip to the local mall (which fortunately JH doesn’t have).
Effective brands offer a level of trust and security as we travel. Obviously all those passing travelers offer lots of impressionable eyeballs, so why not expose your brand to them? Upon exiting the BART train I was deluged with Microsoft’s promotion of Vista, almost buying every square inch of the Powell Street terminal. For a second I thought I had arrived in Vegas at the Consumer Electronics show, not in the financial district of one of America’s most cultural cities.
As I walked the block-and-a-half to the Marriott, identified by it’s signature architectural facade, the only thing that stood out in the fog was the glowing white Apple logo from their store on Stockton Street. I had traveled all this way and not experienced one thing related to San Francisco (BART excluded—it rocks) that was local in nature.
So, do we want our lives consumed by large-branded experiences where we are told how these products will help us feel, travel and live? Well, to each their own, but to live an engaged life means you forgo the obvious and look for the experiential opportunities in your environment. On my next trip I think I will challenge myself to not patronize any large brand that is not regional in nature to that locale and actually take in some local culture.
The best part of returning home and the only thing that stood out in leaving the airport was a local sign—a reminder of why living in JH allows us to not become a homogenized American.
—Latham