MARKETING
Arizona Realtors has presented the 2018 Distinguished Service Award to Shelley Ostrowski, an associate broker of Century 21 Action Group, 394 E. 16th St.
This award recognizes a member who has “tirelessly provided meaningful service to the association, while creating a positive impact on Arizona Realtors.”
Ostrowski, former president of the Yuma Association, has been a realtor for more than 15 years. She has served on numerous committees on the regional, state and national levels such as the Realtors Issues Mobilization Committee and the Professional Standards Committee. Currently, Ostrowski serves on the National Association’s State and Local Issues Policy Committee and will continue through 2019.
Arizona Realtors held its annual Leadership Conference on Oct. 17, where state and regional officers of the association were appointed for 2019. Select members of Arizona Realtors were also recognized for their leadership qualities and industry contributions.
Consisting of more than 50,000 professionals from all areas of real estate including residential, commercial, property management, land, appraisal, relocation and more, Arizona Realtors is the largest trade organization in the state. To learn more, visit aaronline.com.
Keller Williams Realty Yuma welcomes new agents, staff
Seven new agents have joined Keller Williams Realty Yuma, 2553 East 24th St., in the last few months.
Keller Williams operates on the premise that if the company focuses all its resources on building its agents’ businesses,
the agents in turn will build the company beyond all expectations, according to its website.
The new team agents are Dallas Leigh, Elizabeth Cherry, Christopher Ames, Neal Baker, Manuel Villapudua, Brittany Weddle and Cassie Scudder.
New administrative staff also joined the agency. Madison Humphrey is the new “director of first impressions” and Kelsey Pitts is administrator for the German Lopez Team.
To reach one of the new agents or staff and/or for more information on Keller Williams Realty Yuma, call 928-247-6180. customers.
Brenda Rodriguez of Spectrum TV represents marketing opportunities with 70 English and seven Spanish networks. She said her company’s “products are designed to help businesses grow.”
Brandy Wright of Del Outdoor/Sign Pro noted that the family-owned business has 226 billboards and 702 billboard faces all over Yuma, San Luis, Somerton and outside of Yuma County in Arizona and New Mexico. The company also works with private property owners, paying them monthly, quarterly or annual fees for use of their properties.
Susan Sternitzke of Limelight Creative Group, a full-service marketing company, helps companies with strategizing if they have a new business or product. They talk about goals and budgets and narrow down the target audience. She noted that surveys are often overlooked, but it’s a way to find out what customers want.
Matt Molenar of MGM Designs said his company has been building websites for 20 years and noted that marketing should be the cornerstone of every business. “Even I do advertising.” The goals of marketing should be to drive an audience to the website. Once there, the website can tell the company’s story, inform their audience, answer questions and then move them to action by either buying or generating a lead.
He noted that websites should be mobile friendly since everyone today uses smartphones. He also pointed out the importance of making sure websites are secure, otherwise Google will turn people away by telling them the site is unsecured and asking if they want to proceed. Instead, they will go somewhere else.
Scott Gamble of Colo- rado River Media, representing NPR/Kofa and Border Radio, described its audience as highly educated, sophisticated and very loyal to public radio. They listen for 8 hours a week and they consider it a public service, Gamble said. Rather than long commercial breaks, public radio has small breaks underwritten by sponsors in the same calm measured tone as programming so listeners will not tune out.
Villones said El Dorado Broadcasters, which run radio stations KBLU, KTTI and KQSR, includes listeners from almost every demographic. He noted that radio is still free and it reaches 93.5 percent of Americans and 95 percent of Hispanics.
Tim Chaulk of the Yuma Sun, which is more than 100 years old and is the oldest surviving business in Yuma County, is in the business of providing information to the public. Advertising is news for many people, he noted. The Yuma Sun produces a paper every day, rain or shine, and has many publications other than the daily newspaper, including magazines, maps, visitor guides, publications focusing on military health, families, etc.
Caitlin Slater of KSWT 13 said that the network brings “entertainment and real life to your homes” as well as sports and local news. It’s free with an antenna or someone can pay for cable and satellite to view it. People watch TV on many platforms, such as mobile apps, for an average of 3 hours 15 minutes every day, she added.
Oswald Rivas of Telemundo joked about how Hispanics love their soap operas. He noted that Hispanics are the largest population group in Yuma County, which is 62 percent Hispanic, and 72 percent of Hispanics watch Spanish programming.
After the presentations, guests asked questions, and the panelists shared some interesting observations. Chaulk pointed out why repeat messaging is needed: consumers get distracted and need reminders.
Sternitzke noted that sometimes businesses forget to work with the news media. She encouraged companies who have human interest stories to share them through press releases. Sometimes these stories are picked up by regional and national outlets, she said, adding that reporters are always looking for story ideas.
Molenar encouraged companies to use the free Google Analytics, which tracks internet traffic, including what pages people look at and what keywords they use in searches.
Jeff Byrd of 1st Bank Yuma asked about the worst social media mistakes. Castillo said that some companies think their Facebook account is their website but they don’t own Facebook. They may be inconsistent with their posting, or they don’t target an audience.
She pointed out that Facebook knows a lot about people and can help target an audience. She also noted that posts shouldn’t just “promote, promote.” Rather, they should entertain, engage and be fun, with about 80 percent fun and 20 percent advertising a product or service.
She talked about researching generations, such as Baby Boomers, Millennials, etc., learning who they are, what they want, what their concerns are, etc. Using the right words to reach an audience is also important, she added.
Molenar reminded guests that reviews are golden opportunities. “Everyone has a voice” and sometimes that voice can be used against a company. Negative reviews won’t go away, but owners can respond and provide a solution. Owners should check review sites like Yelp and Google, and if they find negative reviews, they should not argue. Just address the situation. “People will see that you addressed that,” he said.
Chaulk noted that it’s possible to set up immediate automatic replies and if a negative comment comes in, the owner will be alerted so they can respond quickly.
Molenar also recommended that businesses ask customers who had a good experience to post about it. And if they did not, they can have a message encouraging customers to contact them at their direct email. It reduces the risk of public negative reviews.
Lisa Reilly, publisher of the Yuma Sun, highlighted event marketing, which gives businesses an opportunity to meet their customers face to face. She also noted that audience targeting is very sophisticated nowadays. Customers can be targeted down to the house, for example.