• Social media referral programs
• Interactive advertising
• Search engine optimization
• Search engine advertising
• Customer relationship management integration
• Website design and creation

Almost overnight sales got complicated. The problems you faced last year bear no resemblance to today’s. From out of nowhere the Internet has created a new breed of buyer who shop circles around 20th-century sales agents. Social media is driving traffic in exciting and explosive ways. And, finally, Gen Y and X have come of age with impressive clout—and behave like no buyers before.

Buyers are smart. Savvy. Sophisticated. Fluid. Demanding. They see you before you see them. They decide then—online—if you’re worth the time. They’re not all the same and better not be treated with one-size-fits-all indifference. If you do, they will vanish—in spite of your marketing creative and the quality of your product.

Discouraging, yes. Impossible? No. Our message is that the marketing-to-sales equation has a new formula. Filling the familiar sales funnel of the past does not work and needs to be turned upside down. Buyers are out there and you can create happy, delighted customers. To do so you need fresh insight and new tools.

Desire. With so many look-alike resorts, homes and communities, it’s never been more expensive to create desire. Add the Internet and deciding where to spend your budget becomes more than a little foggy.

Are we facing the end of mass-media marketing as we once knew it? In the 20th-century sense of newspaper-based mass marketing, yes. Direct mail and outdoor too are failing. Radio is re-emerging as an affordable vehicle. Search engines, blogs and social media are a powerful traffic source but tricky.

Where do we start? Is your product already established or do we need to put it on the map? Do you need to create demand or sweep the market for existing demand. Each approach demands a different strategy. What’s the mix of Gen Y, Gen X and Baby Boomer prospects? That’s another major driver of strategy.

With our national reach, Liquid possesses deeper insight into traffic generation: what media delivers the most prospects at the least cost.

Harvest more and better prospect traffic. This is where our data mining vendor, Liquid, made its mark years ago. Today we make gee-whiz technology pay attention to the wisdom of time-tested sales veterans. The ideas are revolutionary, patented and proven.

Buyers use websites like they used to use sales centers—as a first chemistry check. However, they expect the same quality of customer service as they would in person. That means immediate answers–day or night. They use your website to disqualify you, to knock you off the list, not add you. Because Internet-based research has never been easier and buyers are overwhelmed with choice. So do yourself a favor: Don’t call your website by that name any more. Call it your “never-closed sales center.” Because that’s exactly what it is. Keep the lights on–with excellent service.

Buyers will visit your site four to six times before they decide to visit in person. Does your web site notice this be-back traffic? Does it gently uncover key geographic, demographic and attitudes about what they’re looking for—without asking? Does it tailor the presentation based on what it learned in prior online sessions? Do be-back alarm bells ring in the sales office? Probably not.

The reality is that most industry web sites talk more than they listen—like rookie sales agents. And today that means less traffic. Which is no small problem. So, talk less, listen more.

Your marketing people already have enough data to tell your best story to each and every buyer who comes knocking online. But they don’t. Your web site trots out the same story regardless of your guests’ age, their kids’ ages, where they’re from or more. Chances are, you didn’t know you had the data and you don’t know how to mine it. Got great video? Good floor plans? Gorgeous photography? Are you matching those up with each buyer’s lifestyle and interest? Probably not. Liquid uses the best profiling in the business to tailor your best story—Hollywood style. That’s lights, camera, action! And it gets results. So be personal, get dramatic.

Nothing predicts a buyer’s tipping point more than shopping activity: web sessions. Yet no one in interactive marketing tracks the number of sessions other than the Amazon and Wild Honey. Any online be-back behavior should triggers alarm bells on sales agent Blackberrys. Using Liquid technology, Wild Honey automatically pings sales agents and lights up the web site with real-time offers based on behavior. It’s an idea so simple it’s revolutionary. And no one else has thought to do it.

Consider this unhappy fact: 80% of what buyers saw online last night has already been forgotten today. Is your web site the one remember? What are you doing to keep in front of elusive buyers?

There’s no way all of your leads are getting worked. You’ve suspected it for a while, but didn’t have to do anything about it. Things are different now. Traffic is at an all-time low and so is conversion. Your agents were terrific order takers when the market was hot. Now that it’s not, agents need to learn how to sell again.

Wild Honey uses profile information—buyer persona and readiness—to determine the optimum contact. For a relo buyer, that means an expedited live conversation about inventory homes. For a young Gen X family, that means a series of emails with tons of links, school system report cards and pictures of the community tot lot or dog park. For a soon-to-head-south pre-retiree snowbirds, that’s a direct mail invitation to a private party at the club from a host couple. Wild Honey sifts out these buyers and matches them with automated follow-up with the most welcome contact—live agent, email or direct mail. All automated so no lead is left behind and new staff is not needed.

The result? Your hottest leads are worked by your best resource–live agents. And the not-ready-for-prime-time prospects are worked by automated, personalized programs to fan the fires of their interest. Regardless of how busy your sales department is, you’ll never fumble leads again.

The current economy demands more than fresh thinking. For many, a bottom-up analysis of your marketing programs is mission critical. We can help with consulting to diagnosis and prescribe solutions for:

• Amenity strategy for Gen Y, Gen X and Boomer demographics and psychographics
• Buyer niche targeting and media mix
• Traffic and lead generation
• Web site and customer relationship management
• Follow up programs: automated and sales agent-based
• Web site and sales force mystery shopping