When it comes to today’s digital marketing landscape, keeping up often resembles a game of whack-a-mole. This is particularly true for your broker members.

To help in that effort we create  a steady stream of content that focuses on helping brokers with their home search marketing website efforts. We welcome your input  on the type of content associated with IDX home search that your broker members would like to see.

This post is a round-up of recent articles, downloads and webinars with a focus on brokers. We welcome the opportunity for you to share them with your broker members and look forward to your input on the type of content we can provide to help with the issues your broker members encounter.

What The Heck Is a Technology Stack?

This article and the associated download allow brokers to understand the interoperability of technology investments along with a download of an interactive “Tech Tool Test” document for the purposes of auditing technology investments.

Focus On Excellence. A Profile of Broker Success.

Many of your broker members have probably gone through a number of iterations in their efforts to create a competitive home search marketing platform. This article showcases how working with a great developer can result in a great investment that can scale to compete and capture market share.

10 Must-Have Broker Website Features.

Big broker results don’t necessarily require big broker resources. In this article we review some of the most important features for capturing leads and competing on the big stage. It also includes a link to download one of the most popular resource guides we have created.

Broker Pain Point Coffee Break Webinar Series.

We know how busy your broker members are so we created a 4 part series of 15 minute “coffee break” webinars. The goal is to provide a synopsis of actionable information and links to more in depth information.

1.  Tues Feb 19th: Broker Pain Point Webinar Series Lead Capture - Recording Link

2.  Tues March 12th 1 PM CST: ATTRACT MORE GREAT AGENTS with simple tweaks to your broker website.- Recording Link

3.  Tues April 16th  1 PM CST: Your IDX Website & Market Share . - Registration Link

4.  Tues May 14th 1 PM CST: Analytics & Your IDX Website - Broker Pain Point Coffee Break - Registration Link

Look to us as a resource to help keep your broker members informed about the latest in home search marketing and the best practices associated with it. Reach out at any time to mprice@fbsdata.com. Another great way to stay up-to-date is to like our Facebook page and share the link to the page with your membership. We post the latest and greatest news, tips and content that impact web marketing strategies. https://www.facebook.com/idxsolutions.

In every training webinar we produce at FBS IDX Solutions we always take time to put emphasis on Flexmls’ LIVE Data. What does LIVE data mean in this day and age? For FBS it means that, when a listing is updated in the Flexmls system, it is reflected up-to-the-second, in our IDX products. (Unlike other products that may be updated via a RETS feed on a scheduled basis.)

We have created some great content resources that help your members grasp the importance of this competitive advantage and provide some guidance on how to best leverage it in their marketing strategies.

Success Articles

Marketing Your Live Data Edge Via Social Media

10 Ideas To Drive Leads With Live Data

Recorded Webinar Sessions

Generating Leads With Live Data

The LIVE Data Difference

There are white label versions of LIVE Data content in the MLSToolkit download center that you can modify and use in your own training.

Let me know how to best help you communicate this all important advantage to your membership and any other ideas you might have on how to best work with them to improve their IDX marketing efforts.

Welcome to the very first "Success Interview". These interviews will be spotlighting FBS IDX Solutions clients that are using FBS IDX products to build their brands and capture leads.

Jim Whatley of Uberrealty in Ft. Walton Beach FL. is probably like many of your members. He knew he needed  a good web presence with a great home search solution. He also knew that he wanted to focus on relationships and selling homes, not becoming an IT expert. Then Jim found the combination of IDX Smartframe and his Squarespace website, he was able to take control of his own web efforts without spending endless hours away from what he loves most: selling homes. As he says in his broker tagline :"Real Estate Simplified"

Q: How long have you been using the IDX Smartframe solution in your web presence?

A: For over two years. I first got it and had a web developer use it to plug into pages for me. That was a custom site. Then I got frustrated with the slowness of the process.

Q: Why did you decide on Squarespace to host your site?

A: I had used Squarespace before and like the ease-of-use. I just didn’t know how to embed the SmartFrame. I started banging away at it. I hit some roadblocks but just started asking questions and the support people at FBS IDX Solutions were extremely helpful. The response-rate for help is fantastic. Now [the website] is like butter.

Q: You’re using saved searches in creative ways. What has some of the feedback been from visitors to  your site?

A: I had a client that for some reason was unable to get the pictures from the listing that were sent to their emails. I was getting questions on how to fix it. I was like: how would I know? I came up with the idea to embed their search on a blog post. They then had a individualized search they could bookmark and refer back to.. That was beneficial to both of us. 1. It solved my problem of questions I could not answer.  2. It gave them what they wanted. 3. It helped my traffic and time on site.

Q:Has posting saved searches as blog posts in Squarespace improved the results of your organic SEO (search engine optimization) results?

A: I look at my traffic and it increases every month. So I go back to what I like to do, selling houses. Plus, if I want to change a search I can do it quickly.

Q: How long did it take for you to set up your site and add IDX Smartframe?

A: Once I got it down, I found I can pop in a IDX search in 10-15 min. You can create very narrow or broad searches. There are no real limiting factors in what you want to display. It is like a toaster. You put bread in, you get toast out.

Want to know why Jim’s site is a great example implementaion of FBS’s Live Data IDX? Here are a couple of ways Jim has used IDX Smartframe saved searches to provide his visitors with a unique home search option, something your members can easily implement:

Uberrealty Neighborhood Guide

Saved Searches As Blog Posts

When you encounter a member that is in search of a fast, inexpensive way to include LIVE IDX data in their sites, please feel free to share these links with them.