[INFOGRAPHIC] Your Customers Are Living in a Mobile World

Open your eyes. Check your phone. Brush your teeth.

Sound like your morning routine? If you’re between the ages of 18 and 44, you share this ritual with 80 percent of your peers (at least when it comes to checking your smartphone as soon as you wake up — we can’t speak to the toothbrushing part).

As the below infographic by DK New Media shows, your customers, like you, are living in a mobile world.

What are you doing to make your business mobile friendly?

How Real Estate Offices Can Use Social Media

With tweets and status updates running our world, social media is the prime place for business and networking. We know that online real estate marketing can be downright brutal, so here are some tips you can use to make the most of your social media accounts.

Bring in Customers

It’s true. The times of newspaper ads and yard signs are slowly being consumed by Internet traffic and screenshots.  Keep up!  While in-person connections are still a vital part of the process, using social media can really seal the deal.

About 82 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds use social media, and that’s your primary target market. You have to find a way to connect with them organically so they don’t feel pressured to make a decision. Once you connect with them, start cultivating a relationship.

Build Relationships

The real estate industry is second overall in terms of inbound engagement (give yourself a pat on the back for that one). That’s huge! People are begging realtors to get in touch with them; however, realtors don’t seem to take advantage of this opportunity.

Real estate is ranked 13th in responding to online messages. Do we see an issue with these two rankings? An easy way to practically improve social media usage is to stay organized. Set deadlines for social media and blog posts each month, then stick with them. By simply incorporating social media updates into your daily routine, clients will stay interested and connected with your agency.

Be Creative

Whether it’s taking photographs or creating designs, staying afloat in the social media world means you’ve gotta get crafty. Facebook has an 87 percent action rate with posts that include a photo.  If you have a new listing, post a picture of the house and prompt a question. This will boost engagement and show your audience you care enough to interact with them.

Social media is the prime place to get new clients and keep up with the competition, so hopefully now you see how this tool can benefit your agency immensely.  To continue growing your client list, learn how to get leads to call you.

What the NBA Finals Can Teach Us About Marketing

Our hometown Houston Rockets might be out, but that doesn't mean we're not enjoying watching the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors duke it out in the NBA Finals.

Watching the Cavaliers' LeBron James drive to the hoop and the Warriors' Stephen Curry hit long 3-pointers got us thinking about some things we can learn from these two juggernaut squads. Here are a few tips you can take from them to make sure you're set up for success.

It Takes More Than a Superstar

LeBron James is as big a superstar as they come, but even he needs good teammates to give the team a chance to win. With players such as J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson playing their respective roles, the Cavaliers are in the finals for the first time in eight years and are trying to give the city of Cleveland its first major championship in more than half a century.

Just as you wouldn't ask Thompson — the Cavaliers' second best rebounder — to take 3-point shots (he didn't attempt even one this year), you wouldn't ask one of your marketing team members to produce every aspect of a campaign. When creating a campaign, let the graphic designer, the writer and the web developer each do their respective jobs. They'll produce a better campaign as a team, playing to each other's strengths, rather than if a single employee took on all the work.

Focus on Your Forte

The Warriors' Stephen Curry broke the record for most 3-pointers made in a single season and also led the 2014-15 season in number of 3-pointers attempted. Why did he take more than 620 3-point shots, you ask? We're pretty sure it's because he knows he can hit them; hence that whole record-breaking-3-point-shots-made-thing.

If you do something really well, keep doing it. Don't kick out your most successful ideas just because it's time to try something new. When you strike gold with a campaign, ad or promotion, keep it running so you can generate a greater return than you would on less-loved campaigns. If Stephen Curry won't stop shooting threes, you shouldn't either.

...But Don't Be Afraid to Take Risks

As we mentioned, you'll get a large return if you keep doing what's always worked. But at the same time, risks can still have a big payoff. Just take a look at the coaches in the finals. Cleveland coach David Blatt had never played or coached in the NBA, and Golden State coach Steve Kerr didn't have any coaching experience going into his rookie coaching season in the NBA. The teams took risks hiring newbies, but so far it looks like it's paid off.

Whether it's making the most of a modest budget or doing something out of the ordinary, taking risks when it comes to marketing campaigns can sometimes not only generate buzz but also a healthy return on investment. If your campaigns are getting a little stale, maybe it's time for a brainstorming session with your team. Some of the craziest ideas can turn into great campaigns.

If you're more interested in sports with wheels, learn about how "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" can apply to your call tracking needs in our post "How to Make Sure Wins on the Track Turn into Wins in the Showroom."

Three Great Auto Marketing Campaigns

The automotive industry has done some wild things over the years in the name of generating buzz. Need examples? Ford put a Mustang on top of the Empire State Building (twice), Smart used extra-large bike locks to secure some of its diminutive-but-versatile vehicles to lamp posts in Canada, and BMW created a not-so-diminutive art piece called "An Expression of Joy" with a drifting Z4 and lots and lots of paint.

At Callbright, we're big fans of quality automotive marketing, especially when those big, expensive stunts actually do their job and generate a healthy return on investment. Here are some of our favorite auto campaigns from recent years that generated both buzz and ROI.

Chevrolet — Firsts

Image courtesy Think With Google

How do you market to millennials? Chevrolet's answer in 2011 was to engage them digitally. They did this by making YouTube videos showing the 2012 sub-compact car, Sonic, doing crazy stunts. Chevrolet took the Sonic on its first skydive, first bungee jump, first kick-flip (with Rob Dyrdek at the wheel) and first music video (co-starring OK Go). The campaign started on YouTube and then culminated with a TV spot during Super Bowl XLVI.

Chevy wasn't lacking creativity on this campaign. The car's bungee jump was streamed live online and the car wasn't "launched" until the website received enough clicks to push the Sonic over the ledge. The campaign was so popular for the way it engaged the audience that it earned a coveted Effie Award in 2013.

Honda — Cog

Image courtesy YouTube

This one still amazes us more than 10 years later. The "Cog" commercial was part of a larger U.K. Honda campaign that included TV spots called "Sense" and "Everyday." It originally aired during a British broadcast of a Formula 1 race in 2003 and featured an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine built with parts from the new generation of Honda Accord.

Honda, which had struggled in the U.K. over the previous five years, struck gold with the "Cog" commercial. It became one of the earliest viral videos as it reached a global audience via the Internet. The commercial was called the "water-cooler ad conversation of the year" by a British journalist, and Honda's website traffic jumped 400 percent over the course of the campaign.

Mini — Let's Motor

Image courtesy AdverToLog

Rebooting a brand that had been dormant in America for almost 35 years was a daunting task for Mini when it brought its new Cooper and Cooper S hatchbacks to the U.S. in 2002. The market was dominated by SUVs and pickups, and Mini had a relatively modest marketing budget to work with. Mini's solution was to target enthusiasts with a counterculture message that encouraged adventure and derided the status quo of American car buying.

Thanks to the "Let's Motor" campaign, Mini's return to the U.S. was a roaring success. The company sold 5,000 more cars than the original 20,000-unit limit.  Brand awareness increased to 80 percent, with about 40 percent converting to consideration. The modest budget meant Mini spent just $567,000 per percentage point of awareness in its first year while other brand's spent an average of nearly $6 million for the same gains.

For more marketing inspiration, check out some of these awesome dealership mascots!