 AutoPlay are pleased to announce a partnership with Customer Radar. Customer Radar allows your customers to provide feedback quickly, easily and directly. HOW DO CUSTOMER RADAR SERVICES WORK?    VISIT https://www.customerradar.com/ TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT CUSTOMER RADAR. WHAT IS NPS (NET PROMOTOR SCORE)? The NPS is a globally recognised management tool that is used to gauge the loyalty of a businesses customer relationships. Knowing that promoters churn less means you can invest more in creating an amazing customer experience that turns more 'Passives' and 'Detractors' into 'Promoters'. Detractors are your biggest headaches. Work on reducing the percentage of defectors to improve your NPS and grow your business. WHY DO I NEED TO BE WORRIED ABOUT MY NPS SCORE? - 96% of dissatisfied customers don't complain. For every 1 complaint you know, there are potentially 25 others that haven't complained. - 66% of consumers who switched brands did so because of poor service - 85% of customer churn due to poor service was preventable. - 11% of customer churn could be prevented by simple company outreach. - 67% of customer churn is preventable if the customer issue was resolved at the first engagement. - Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable compared to companies that are not focused on the customer. - Research shows that 55% of consumers are willing to pay more for a guaranteed good experience. - 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for an upgraded experience. Air travel and hospitality are examples where upselling better experiences can generate incremental revenue and bolster customer loyalty. - 84% of consumers are frustrated when the agent does not have information. - Customer frustration leads to the following: 13% tell 15 or more people if they’re unhappy. Conversely, 72% of consumers will share a positive experience with 6 or more people. - 67% of consumers site bad experiences as reason for churn. - 50% of customer experience natural occurring churn every 5 years. - Only 1 out of 26 unhappy customers complain. The rest churn. A lesson here is that companies should not view absence of feedback as a sign of satisfaction. The true enemy is indifference. - 91% of unhappy customers who are non-complainers simply leave. - It is 6-7X more expensive for companies to attract new customers than to keep existing customers. - 65% of companies are able to successfully upsell or cross-sell to existing customers. - Only 12% of companies are able to successfully upsell or cross-sell to new customers. - 75% of brands do not know what engagement means - but are measuring “it” Contact sales@autoplay.co.nz to find out more about Customer Radar services, pricing and how to sign up.
 What would a new year be without a "trends for 2018" article? To save you time reading them all we've scoured the web for all the best trends the experts are saying will be big in 2018. Mobile will dominate digital interactions 71% of all digital interactions occurred on a mobile in 2017 and this is only likely to grow in 2018. In the US this means not only mobile responsive sites, but also mobile apps. · 66% of people use mobile apps · 41% are likely to download a dealer or manufacturer app as part of their pre-purchase research · 36% find manufacturer apps useful in making a decision (Rebixit, 2017) Local searches are vital Most car shoppers are searching for information on their local dealerships including; · 54% search for business hours · 53% search for directions to their local store · 45% search for availability of product at a local store (Rebixit, 2017) Video will be the biggest disruptor Video marketing brings the highest ROI and 4x as many customers would rather watch a product video than read about it (Rebixit, 2017). Social video sharing is predicted to be very impactful with 69% of people watching Youtube when buying a car reporting they were influenced by it (J&L Marketing, 2017). It’s reported 1 in 3 online visitors watch car videos at least once a month (Izmocars, 2017).  VIN specific campaigns In the US they refer the them as “VIN specific campaigns” but you might not recognise them by that name. These adverts are vehicle inventory specific adverts that display on Facebook and other websites after someone visits your website and views the content. The adverts are highly relevant which generally translate to better results. After three months, dealerships experience an average 41% increase in clickthrough rate (J&L Marketing, 2017). Voice Optimised Search becomes a thing In 2015 over 20% of online searches were conducted by voice search (Search Engine Land, 2017). By 2020 it is predicted this will increase to 50% due to services like Siri, Google Voice, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Echo Alexis (Entrepreneur, 2017). In 2017 marketers will start to focus more on voice searchable content – meaning more full sentence answers and conversational copy. Digitise the car buying process Increasingly car manufacturers are taking advantage of technology to introduce digital aspects to point of sale such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Overseas retail space can be scarce or costly so it is not unusual to see dealerships with only a handful of cars on display and supported by digital selling tools like vehicle configurators and 360-degree explorers – the new Audi Virtual showroom in London (Entrepreneur, 2017). In NZ we’ve seen large format digital screens in airports and shopping malls for a few years now and this is only expected to grow as technology becomes even more entwined in our lives.  Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace launched in October 2016 and overseas there has been a large up swell in the dedicated vehicles category. In late 2017 Facebook announced further improvements in the US with used car values pulled from Kelley Blue Book, and inventory listings from Edmunds, Cars.com, Auction123, CDK Global and SocialDealer and expanding search options to include transmission and vehicle types (The Verge, 2017). When customers show interest in a dealer-listed car on Marketplace they are prompted to contact the car dealer directly via the Facebook Messenger App – giving car dealers a new tool to speak with potential customers on a one-on-one basis (Stuff, 2017).  Ah good ol’ new year’s resolutions. Most of us set them……and unfortunately most of us don’t follow through. Despite this there’s nothing wrong with a little self-improvement. A recent newspaper article stated that after 4 years of record growth in new car sales, 2018 is likely to be a flat year for kiwi dealerships. With that in mind now’s the perfect time to think about how you currently utilise AutoPlay, and set some new year’s resolutions about the role AutoPlay will play within your dealership in 2018.  1. I WILL BE BETTER AT TRACKING MY LEAD SOURCES AND CAMPAIGNS Some dealerships are fantastic at tracking the source of their leads and the campaigns that generated them. These dealers have a fantastic understanding of how both their own, and their brands marketing is affecting in dealership activity (not just sales!). On the flip side if you are only capturing lead sources for 50% of your leads then you are only seeing half the picture. Capturing lead sources and campaigns is easy and as of 17.4 you can now hide sources you don’t want to see. In 2018 managers need to take control of this process to ensure their sales teams are capturing this valuable info. Some AutoPlay clients make it part of sales KPI’s for their team, whilst others simply make the fields compulsory. However, it’s achieved, one of your biggest lead management goals for 2018 should be to increase the rate at which you are capturing Lead Sources and Campaigns.  2. I WILL IMPROVE MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE AUTOPLAY REPORTING SUITE Besides improving accuracy and efficiency across dealership processes, one of the real cherries on top of the AutoPlay pie is the huge amount of reporting we make available to dealerships at no additional cost. AutoPlay reports are designed to be easy to understand and digest, however like anything gaining true understanding requires work. In 2018 whether you are a salesperson, sales manager or dealer principal you should focus on really understanding some of the data at your fingertips. If you already have a basic understanding of AutoPlay reports then your focus should be on understanding what that data means. An example of this is knowing that 50 leads in awaiting action is likely to translate to 25 Test Drives and 10 Sales at your normal rates of conversion. This represents the next level of understanding over your reports which can help take performance and decision making to the next level.  3. I WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE TOOLS I HAVE ACCESS TO As a rule, most dealers use AutoPlay Sales Pipeline well – capturing leads, scanning driver’s licences and business cards and completing digital Test Drive, Appraisal and Write Up forms. With AutoPlay we don’t charge per lead entered, or per form completed. Most of our services follow a ‘fill your boots’ model – meaning users can really focus on taking advantage of the tools available to them. One aspect that can yield real benefits is the new Live Leads process which makes it easy to build a database from your captured leads, and automatically funnel any resulting follow up activity back against the customer and lead in the Sales Pipeline. AutoPlay will typically send one of these emails on behalf of each dealership who wants it, however we place no limits on how many Live Leads eDM’s each dealership can send if they create and manage the campaigns themselves. As the emails are templates with your branding and vehicle videos it’s incredibly easy to build these emails. If you are not taking advantage of this already jump on board.  4. I WILL MANAGE MY OVERDUE & STALLED LEADS One of the most common issues we see at dealerships is their response to Overdue or Stalled leads. Overdue leads are those that were due for action -3 to -20 days ago but have not been diarised forward yet. Stalled leads are more than 21 days overdue without being diarised forward. These leads are easily filtered to and management is alerted via Daily Health Checks and other reporting. However, what we commonly see is dealerships paralysed by fear when it comes to this data. For some reason many dealerships see huge value in their Overdue or Stalled leads and seem unable to make the decision to close the leads as lost. It sounds redundant, but there is no value in these leads unless you action them. There are several approaches to handle Overdue & Stalled leads. a. Allocate them to another salesperson – nothing is more effective at motivating salespeople to update their system than threatening to give those leads to another, more motivated salesperson. You can do this individually or in bulk using the ‘Bulk Allocate’ function. b. Close the leads as “Lost” – you don’t need to be scared of the word “lost”. In AutoPlay’s context all “lost” leads are still visible in the Sales Pipeline and can be easily found using the search filters. Closing leads as “lost” helps keep your dashboards manageable. c. Use AutoPlay Live Leads to retarget these Overdue or Stalled Leads by emailing them with Live Leads. You can do this by selecting Close Lost if you had previously do so, or alternatively you can use the other filters to isolate these Overdue or Stalled Leads. If the customer is still in the market the lead will be updated accordingly – saving time communicating individually with customers who may be more than 6 months overdue.  5. I WILL USE THE CALENDAR EFFECTIVELY The calendar built into the Sales Pipeline enables users to diarise leads forward for future follow up. As the default AutoPlay dashboard is set to only show activity due in +/- 3 days, this means that you only see the leads you need to be focussing on right now. A good habit to get into at the end of handling each lead is treat the Sales Pipeline like your manager - tell us where you got to, and what you are going to do next. In practice this means updating the Lead Progress, then setting a Calendar event for follow up. This serves multiple purposes; a. Keeps your Dashboard clean and makes finding leads easier b. Minimises the number of leads falling through the cracks into Overdue or Stalled and being forgotten about c. Ensures the Morning Meeting Report contains accurate information about what is happening within the dealership d. Ensures the Overdue Lead Report and Daily Health check provide management with an accurate reflection of salesperson activity Sticking to these 5 new year’s resolutions can be an effective way to get better at using the AutoPlay Sales Pipeline, however they are not the only ways to make positive changes. We encourage all our customers to sit down, review their own usage and commit to 5 of their own lead management resolutions. If you have any questions about AutoPlay products & services, or wish to book training you can contact AutoPlay on support@autoplay.co.nz
 The end of the year is here and with it the AutoPlay team takes a well deserved break. Our last day before Xmas is Friday 22nd - we will be wrapping things up around 1pm (pun intended!).
As always AutoPlay will be closed over the stat holidays. Over the 27th, 28th and 29th December the office will still be closed, however for any emergencies you can email support@autoplay.co.nz. This email will be checked a couple of times a day for any issues that is critical (i.e wrong price on Trade Me). Any improvement requests or non critical issues will be addressed when the full team is back on board. The office will reopen with a skeleton crew on the 3rd of January, with reduced hours of 9am to 4pm. The full team will be back on January 8th, 2018. FULL XMAS HOURS Friday 22nd December Closing at 1pm ------------------------------- Monday 25th December Closed ------------------------------- Tuesday 26th December Closed ------------------------------- Wednesday 27th December Office Closed. Email support@autoplay.co.nz for emergencies ------------------------------- Thursday 28th December Office Closed. Email support@autoplay.co.nz for emergencies ------------------------------- Friday 29th December Office Closed. Email support@autoplay.co.nz for emergencies ------------------------------- Monday 1st January Closed ------------------------------- Tuesday 2nd January Closed ------------------------------- Wednesday 3rd January Open 9am to 4pm ------------------------------- Thursday 4th January Open 9am to 4pm ------------------------------- Friday 5th January Open 9am to 4pm ------------------------------- Monday 8th January Full AutoPlay Team back on board - business as usual ------------------------------- If you have any issues over the XMAS and New Years break please email support@autoplay.co.nz and we will get back to you as soon as possible.  Version 17.4 of the Desktop, iPad and iPhone Sales Pipeline is well under way and is scheduled for release on Wednesday, December 6th. This release will be the last for the year excluding any urgent bug fixes. Although this has been a shorter development window of 2 months since our last release, we've still managed to pack in a tonne of new features.
More details on all of these new features will be sent with the release notes on December 6th HTML5 Studio Rebuild & Development Freeze 2018 We have started our planning for the rebuild of the AutoPlay Studio into a HTML5 Application. This will be a significant improvement as it will allow users to access the AutoPlay Sales Pipeline on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. At present you are required to run Internet Explorer (at least for the initial software download). Additionally it also means that users will be able to use the Sales Pipeline on Android or Windows tablets and smartphones.
We are completing this work from January to June/July. This is a massive project and as such we will be freezing all non essential development on our current Desktop and iOS Applications. This means that 17.4 will be our last release for approx. 6 months. This is essential to allow our developers to focus on the rebuild of the Desktop Studio/Sales Pipeline. Freezing development over this timeframe is not something we have considered lightly, but we believe this is the best way to ensure the project stays on track, and we can deliver an improved AutoPlay experience to our customers in 2018. We are aiming to deliver our HTML5 version of AutoPlay Sales Pipeline by early July 2018. From late December to July there will not be any new functions added to the iOS or Desktop applications. Development will be restricted to any critical bug fixes over this period. When the new software is launched we will begin to phase out the current Desktop Studio. We will continue to run the iPad and iPhone Apps for a minimum of 12 months after launching the new application (depending on the functionality we are able to replicate from the iOS apps to the HTML5 version). If you have any questions about the 17.4 release, the Desktop HTML5 Rebuild or the development freeze please contact matt@autoplay.co.nz What were the Top 3 Sources of Leads, Test Drives and Sales for kiwi dealers in August 201713/9/2017
After a drop in the total number of captured leads in July, August bounced back with an increase in the number of leads of 12.2%. Last month we saw increases in Test Drives & Sales of over 5%. In August Test Drives and Sales continued to rise, but by smaller margins with Test Drives increasing by 3.7% and Sales increasing by 2.3%.  The usual suspects occupied the top 3 lead sources again in August, with ‘Web – Classified’ continuing to increase as the main source of leads post Fieldays. A lot more leads were received from dealership website with a significant 50% increase from this source – a great sign of dealers focussing on marketing to drive customers back to their websites. Last month we saw a massive drop in the number of leads referred by Brands. This was due to the unusually high volume of leads generated by brands around Fieldays returning to normal levels. In August ‘Brand’ rebounded as a lead source to occupy the third spot and increase by 28.6% from the previous month.  In July ‘Web – Classified’, ‘Brand’ and ‘Direct’ were the top 3 sources of Test Drives – although ‘Brand’ and ‘Direct’ were on a downward trend. In August, both of the Web Sources increased dramatically and ‘Brand’ slipped to third.  ‘Web – Classified’ regained the top spot for source of Sales in August – increasing by 72% as some other sources dropped off. As with Leads and Test Drives, Sales from the ‘Web-Dealer’ source also increased significantly. Sales from ‘Repeat’ business continued to occupy one of the top 3 spots in August and increased by 16.5% from July 2017.  Make sure to check back in next month’s issue of Autotalk to see how kiwi dealerships fared in September 2017.
Matt Darby works for AutoPlay who specialise in pre-sale lead management tools. To find out more about AutoPlay services email sales@autoplay.co.nz or visit www.autoplay.co.nz  AutoPlay Sales Pipeline is like a gym membership....it's nice to have, but unless you use it consistently, regularly and continually you won't achieve results. And just like a gym membership, you need a goal to work towards.
To help our customers get the most from AutoPlay we've put together a list of best practice actions that you should be doing in AutoPlay, as well as some benchmarks to help you stay on track. 1. CAPTURE EMAIL LEADS AUTOMATICALLY Firstly the easy part - are all of your email leads being captured to AutoPlay automatically. You should never have to manually load email enquiries to AutoPlay - if you are contact support@autoplay.co.nz with a link to the web form in question, a copy of the enquiry that is submitted and an outline of what source and campaign you want to map to in AutoPlay. 2. LOAD ALL PHONE & WALK IN LEADS Slightly trickier is ensuring that all leads are loaded in AutoPlay - not just email leads and not just those most likely to result in a sale. Luckily there are several ways AutoPlay make this easier; - Loading leads is easy with the ability to scan business cards, drivers licence and choose existing customers all save salespeople having to type everything from scratch - Floor Log TV Report can be set up for managers in their office on a TV to view real time as new leads are entered in AutoPlay - The Health Check email can be set up to be received daily or weekly and provides managers with a breakdown of how many leads are being loaded to the Sales Pipeline. 3. LEAD CONVERSION TELLS YOU A LOT Conversion to Test Drive generally falls within the 35% to 50% range - Deloittes use 40% as the benchmark. Sales conversion should fall within the range of 15% to 30% - Deloittes benchmark at 20%. If you have a Salesperson who is achieving well in excess of this it's highly likely they are not recording all their leads - a fact you will know if they are achieving their Sales targets or not. Conversely if conversion is too low this could indicate a performance issue, but could also indicate that particular user has fallen behind in updating their own Sales Pipeline. 4. SET TARGETS The Sales Pipeline allows you to set Dealership, Yard and Salesperson targets for Leads, Test Drives and Sales. It is highly recommended that you set salespeople targets as this provdes a very quick reference of whether your sales team is on track or not. If you are not sure what to set as your Lead and Test Drive targets it's a good idea to work backwards from sales at standard conversion rates. Just multiple sales x 2 to get your Test Drive target, and multiply sales x 5 to get your lead target. 5. NO LEADS AT AWAITING ACTION If there is one metric that you need to be aggressive about maintaining, it's that by the end of the day you should aim to have zero leads sitting at Awaiting Action in Progress. Leads at Awaiting Action indicate leads that have not been touched or followed up on. It's easy to keep on top of Awaiting Action leads. You can... - Filter the Dashboard by Progress - Check the Daily Health Check email which highlights whether there are any leads that have been at Awaiting Action for longer than 24 hours - Check The Sales Pipeline Report in reporting .autoplay.co.nz 6. NO OVERDUE OR STALLED LEADS The Sales Pipeline is set up to show user the leads they need to action now - within a +/- 3 day window. A lead becomes overdue when there is a scheduled event that is not actioned. The dealerships that are most successful are those that on a daily basis ensure there are ZERO Overdue or Stalled Leads. Managers can easily stay on top of this by using the built in filters in the Dashboard, checking the Daily Health Check email or running the Overdue Lead Report in reporting.autoplay.co.nz. 7. TRACK WHERE YOUR LEADS ARE COMING FROM Every dealership should be tracking where their leads are coming from. For email leads this happens automatically so salespeople only need to add this on Phone or Walk In leads. At a minimum dealerships should be aiming for 75% of leads with a recorded lead Source, and 50% of leads with a Campaign assigned (though the best dealers should aim even higher!). In addition it is highly recommended that dealerships add costs to their Lead Sources and Campaigns - this will automatically calculate a cost per lead that can help make marketing decisions more than "intuition". If you want to make Lead Source compulsory this can be arranged - contact support@autoplay.co.nz to request a change to your mandatory fields. 8. DATA QUALITY AutoPlay has a purpose built report in reporting.autoplay.co.nz to measure how effective your sales team is at collecting data. Dealerships need to aim toward capturing 80% of leads with email addresses, 80% with mobile numbers, 60% with Phone numbers and 50% with addresses (though this becomes more important when the lead is converted to a sale). Integration with your DMS makes this much easier to achieve as users will be shown any similar customers from their database whenever they try to load a new lead. 9. DON'T BE AFRAID TO CLOSE LEADS AS LOST Some dealerships shy away from the word "lost" and leave leads sitting open in AutoPlay forever. These leads inevitably fall into 'Stalled' and gather digital dust. It is far better to close these leads as lost. This helps keep your dashboard tidy and easier to manage. Lost leads can be filtered to in a click/tap and with the new Live Leads process you can retarget these lost leads incredibly easily with Live Leads eDM's. 10. USE THE TOOLS AT YOUR DISPOSAL AutoPlay is incredibly feature rich. Once you've mastered the basic you are silly not to take advantage of all the tools at your disposal. Some of the features users often forget about include; - Video email responses can make converting email leads to face-to-face a lot easier - Live Leads remarketing can help dealerships retarget cold leads for no added cost - Use the calendar properly - it will help you become more efficient managing leads - Find out if DMS integration is right for you - it can save time and streamline your processes - Use Appraisals including SMS to wholesalers, Manager approvals and the built in vehicle checks via CarJam, Motor Central and MotorWeb - Use the Wishlist - it helps connect potential trades with potential sales - Understand reporting - there is a wealth of data available via Sales Pipeline. Identify and understand a few select reports and you'll be well on your way to improving performance If you have any questions about AutoPlay features you can contact our Support Team on support@autoplay.co.nz. If you feel like you need additional training this can also be booked via Support (charges apply for all offsite training).  We have a new job available for a National Sales Consultant at our Auckland location in Freemans Bay.
The draft position description and job advert are below. NATIONAL SALES CONSULANT • Automotive industry experience strongly preferred • Opportunity to join a growing, vibrant “kiwi-as” business • Auckland - Freemans Bay location AutoPlay are a progressive Kiwi owned and operated business whose customer base is made up of many of the largest automotive brands in New Zealand and internationally. This position plays a key role in our business, the purpose of which is to cultivate revenue by identifying new selling opportunities by representing the AutoPlay brand and full product offering to our clients. You will need to come to the role with a mixture of sales and business development in your background, along with great interpersonal skills and the ability to quickly build trusted relationships. We are a digital business so you’ll need to be technology savvy, passionate and inquisitive about how things work. Many companies state it, but we are truly a flat-structured company and the full resources of the AutoPlay business will be at your disposable to ensure success. We always have a number of new and exciting features and products within our development pipeline and you will also have input into the product roadmap and direct access to product management for support Our customers are based throughout New Zealand and there is an expectation that the role will require domestic travel throughout our fine country. Our business was an entrepreneurial start-up 10 years ago and with the growth and stability we have built over this time, we are now expanding into the global market so this is an exciting time to be joining and one that will open up career opportunities if you love our business as much as we do. We offer a fun working environment, autonomy to get on and do your job. We work hard to live by our values which exemplify who we are, what we aspire to be, and how we do it. Our core values are: Kiwi, Ambitious, Bold, Empathy, Deliver. Your key responsibilities would include: • Working to a formalised plan of outbound sales management both via phone and in person • Building relationships and maximising value of existing customers • Working closely with the rest of the AutoPlay team • Supporting the Marketing Manager with promotional initiatives Your background, experience and attributes will include: • Proven B2B outbound sales and experience preferably in a solution/software selling experience • Automotive industry experience strongly preferred – even better if you’ve used the AutoPlay product! • Previous experience using CRM systems • Full clean drivers licence • Strong customer focus with well-developed communication and interpersonal skills How to apply? Please include a personalised cover letter and take the time to tell us why this particular role and business if of interest. Attach your CV and email your application to Jo Yearsley, AutoPlay HR Consultant at jo.yearsley@sonata.co.nz asap. Applications close Sunday 10th September 2017.  The majority of home buyers start their search for their next property online. Whilst in the past this might have just meant searching brand sites or listing sites like Trade Me or RealEstate.com.au, increasingly savvy buyers are turning to social media like Facebook. Good Real Estate Agents are now cottoning on to the power of social media and many are doing a fantastic job. However social media can be done, or it can be done well. Check out 10 mistakes that real estate agents make on social media. 1. Being a bit of a knob With social media you have to take the good with the bad. The worst thing any business can do is try to sanitise their social media by deleting anything slightly negative. In these scenario's it's more important how you respond to any issues - you need to be transparent and honest in how you resolve any dispute. By all means move the convo offline as soon as possible - don't get involved in a flame war in full view of all your potential customers. It's also important that you are friendly and polite to everyone - even if you disagree with their opinion. In short don't be a dick! 2. Not touching their Social Media accounts Many businesses feel a pressure to be on Social Media to build their profile, but many don’t really “get” it. These agents invariably stand out – they are the ones with 1 post 2 years ago. If you are going to have social media then use it. Build for yourself a process that involves certain pre-sale and post-sale activities that are non-negotiables – and then give yourself 30 minutes over a coffee to actually complete these tasks. 3. Not utilising paid ads or posts You can get a lot out of social media without spending a single cent. However, it’s well proven that you can reach a much broader audience with your posts if you boost them or even advertise on Facebook or Instagram. You can read more about that here - http://www.theplaybook.co.nz/playbook/why-use-video-on-social-media 4. Wasting time with a scattergun approach Failing to plan, is planning to fail. Cliché yes, but no less true for it. Not all of us are creative geniuses that can churn out engaging, relevant and effective posts at the drop of a hat. If you don’t book in a time each week to tend to social media it will invariably be skipped in favour of other “more important” tasks. Similarly, if you wait until you are ready to post to write your posts you will often end up with something of lesser quality than if you had planned ahead. 5. Not getting the right tone Although social media is by definition “social” many people forget that it’s still separated by a screen, and tone can easily be lost. Too little personality and you might come across as uncharismatic – and no one wants that in a sales person. Too much personality and you can come off as a little crazy, or arrogant and boastful. 6. Inappropriate content Agents are people too. However, you need to be careful to separate your personal account from your business account (or make sure you censor yourself on your personal account if you or your friends are prone to “colourful” comments. Dodgy content must be avoided. It goes without saying that anything racist, homophobic, sexist or any other “ist” crosses a line. However, you should also ask yourself if you are posting a lengthy diatribe on the merits of Crotty over Sonny Bill Williams whether this is the right thing for your professional social media. 7. Too many posts, at the wrong time The principle of “spamming” doesn’t just apply to email marketing. Just like we will opt out from a company sending us sales emails every day, we will unfollow someone who spams us with posts. A couple of posts a week is probably perfect for an agent (depending on your market size). The timing of social media can be as important as the message. The stats say that 1pm to 4pm is a great window to post on Facebook but you should probably avoid posting 20 beers deep at 2am in the morning. 8. Copying other people’s posts Social media users crave original content. Sure, we all love to share interesting articles, funny photos or cat photos. However, we also get a bit annoyed when we see the same content recycled through every business or page we follow. At the very list put your own spin on someone else's content, but even better is to create your own. As an Real Estate Agent you have an advantage over a lot of social media businesses as your content is almost self-generating every time you list and sell a property. 9. Boring text posts Social media is a visual medium. Short, sharp content is more easily digestible than a 20 page white paper on sales trends when viewed on social media. Images and videos play a big part in drawing the eye to read social media posts. Use photos of your property, photos of happy buyers, video tours, drone footage, stitched videos, auction footage. All of this helps make your social media presence exciting and engaging. 10. Not automating your posts If you post across a number of social media platforms some automation software like Hootsuite, Buffer etc can really help make this process easy. However even if you are just starting out you can schedule posts on facebook yourself. Knowing you can create all your posts in one small window, but stagger them out across the week is much easier than finding time a couple of times each week to post each time manually.
 We are smack bang in the middle of winter and it’s bloody cold! The last time people want to think about buying a house, right? In particular June and July are quiet times for the industry. When the temperature cools so does the market – just pick up any newspaper recently and you’ll see a range of opinions on the impact of winter on property demand and the trusted advice of “sell in spring”. However, there is also the thought that with less supply of houses in winter that house sellers that do opt to list in winter will face less competition. The advice will be “make sure the house has natural light”, “make sure it’s warm and dry”, “make sure the house, paths and deck are clean on the outside” and “make the entrance welcoming and cosy”. All good advice for open homes, but there are a tonne of articles about selling and open homes in winter, and this is not one of those. How do you overcome the fact that houses invariably look worse in winter? That crisp green lawn can become a sodden, boggy mud pit. Winter is where video can really come into its own. Whilst you can control the presentation of your property you can’t control the weather – and chances are 50/50 that you’ll catch some rain during your open homes. What you can control is your sales material. If you can’t rely on the weather then you have no guarantee that your potential buyers will ever see the property in the best light. That’s why it’s extra important that your photographs and videos showcase the property in ideal light and weather conditions. Whilst the numbers matter to a lot of buyers, there’s no arguing that buying a house still has a real emotional component that can help buyers fall in love with your property. The right light, smell and atmosphere and other less tangible things can really affect the buyer’s perceptions of a property. When selling in winter it becomes even more important that you pick a day to photograph and film your property that is bright and dry. The same applies for drone footage – you pay good money to have drones film your property so make sure the roof and gutters are clean from leaves and debris, the property section is clean and tidy, and hard surfaces like concrete and decks have been washed down. There’s no denying that video is playing an increasing part in the sales process. In the US it’s said that 73% of sellers would choose a real estate agent who markets with video and 70% of customers want a video tour of the property before even stepping foot in it (Virtulets,com). If customers are viewing your property videos before coming to open homes a bright, sunny video will showcase the property and showcase the property to its full potential. Even if the gods fail you and your open home day is then a torrential downpour, the potential buyers will at least have been able to view the property showcased in its best light.  AutoPlay build property videos quickly and easily from static photos and a personalised or professional voiceover. AutoPlay videos can be built quickly – generally within an hour of completing the audio. This helps agents get their property to market quickly – even when the weather isn’t co-operating.
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"AutoPlay Sales Pipeline is a pre-sale lead management tool"