[Infographic] Huddle Up with Your New Real Estate Team
Real estate is a game that can be played alone, but you can get much more impressive results when you work as a team. But before you start filling out your roster, you need to decide which players you want to recruit first and the roles they'll play in your overall real estate strategy. Find some of the most important team positions below and for more advice on starting a real estate team, check out the Teamify: When and Why to Build a Real Estate Team webinar with experts Jim Remley and James Colburn.

[Infographic] The American Dream Home: Millennials vs. Boomers
Bigger is better... if you're a Millennial. Our recent survey found that Millennials' dream homes are twice the size of Baby Boomer dream homes. Find out what else Millennials and Baby Boomers want in their dream homes. Check it out:

Vector Images: What are they and why do you need to use them?
When you build your website or are creating a billboard advertisement, designers will request vector images. But what is a vector image, and why do we want one? Designers prefer working with vector images because vectors are extremely versatile and able to be resized. In other words, vector images will allow your logo, headshots and advertisements look good no matter what size they are! But what exactly is a vector image? A vector image is a file that uses coordinates to define the size and position of points, lines, curves and shapes to create an image. This means that no matter how the image is resized (whether it’s a small logo on a business card, or a large one on a billboard), it always looks really clear and crisp. The most popular vector file formats are AI (Adobe Illustator format), EPS (Encapsulated Postscript), and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) which can be used on the web. This differs from a raster image (also known as a “bitmap” or “flattened” image), where each pixel has a specific defined color value. The biggest limitation of a flattened image is that it can’t be made larger than the original size. Typical raster file formats are JPG, GIF, PNG, and BMP.

Let's Get Graphic: How to Make an Infographic and MORE
Infographics are unsung marketing heroes. They can be standalone content, supplemental for an article, or used as a visual aid in a presentation. We often reference infographics because they're easy to drag to our desktop, and looking at an infographic is a lot simpler and more time efficient than reading through an article. The bottom line is that we see and use infographics all the time for both our personal and professional life. But why? Read ahead to find out why we're psychologically drawn to infographics and how to make them yourself for your business, social media, or marketing! How to make an infographic. But first... why should you? Why are people drawn to them? Infographics can serve a variety of different purposes. Whether you're cranking them out for content on a site, or trying to learn something new, infographics can be your best friend. On average, people only remember 10 percent of information they hear three days later. However, when that information is paired with an infographic, people remember 65 percent of information three days later. Needless to say, infographics are a critical part in helping you and your viewers learn, retain, and apply information in the future. If you're the viewer, infographics are an easy way to get a comprehensive summary of a topic without necessarily having to sift through a ton of words to get to the point. Especially if they're properly organized, infographics can provide an easy path to understanding a difficult concept or breaking things down in chronological order. From a business perspective, however, infographics serve a different purpose. Infographics are shared three times more than any other type of content, so they help a company gain better brand exposure. By adding tags and including "share" buttons, they help improve your SEO (check out our article on how to use SEO to boost your website traffic) and enhance your internet presence. Needless to say, infographics can benefit everyone!

Redesign Your Real Estate Business Card
Your business card is your first and last touch point with your clients. It's the first thing you hand over to new clients, and it's the last thing your clients will refer to get in touch with you. I have seen tens and thousands of business cards over the past couple of years and most have a lot in common. Your business card should be short, precise and provide a gist of who you are and what you do. Here are five key things to keep in mind while designing your business card: 1. Colors and Fonts I know, I know–this is very basic right? Well, you'd be surprised how many people get this important element completely wrong. Do not use a funky font, keep it professional. Use an appropriate font size; not too small so that people reach for their reading glasses. Try using black or a darker font color—pale colors do not stand out and might make it very hard to read. 2. Titles and Positions A business card should be exactly what it's called. Keep it formal; it could be fun but definitely not ridiculous. Your title should describe exactly what you do. Broker/Owner or VP of Marketing are titles that people understand. Real-estate extraordinaire or real estate rock star are titles that mean nothing! Always have a real, legit job title on your business card.

Large Images Are Killing Your Real Estate Website
Creating a strong "first impression emotion" in your audience is a great strategy to keep visitors on your site. But when that first impression emotion is annoyance your bounce rate will skyrocket. The current trend is to use large, full-width, high-impact images to create emotion in your visitor. But improper us of these images are killing your website. I see it everywhere. Click to visit... wait, and wait for the top of a site to load. Expect that 7 seconds is the very longest your new visitors will wait for a page to load. For repeat visitors, it is a little longer at 10 seconds. But both of these load speeds are unacceptable; you should be impressing your audience in the first 3 seconds, no excuse. Google states that it takes load speeds into account with their SERPs Ranking. Granted, there are many factors that can slow your site (server speed, coding, plugins, redirects, etc.), but as a casual website owner, it is the improper use of larger images that you can quickly overcome and avoid.

Four Tips for Better Banner Ads
The current wisdom surrounding content marketing suggests that it's important to focus on helping—create content that provides value to readers. The world of advertising should be the same. If you've noticed a decline in your banner ad clicks, or are considering using banner ads to bring more visitors to your website, here are four things you should implement in your advertising. Provide Value Your banner ads, like the rest of your content, should provide some kind of value to readers. If they don't, readers won't click them because there's no motivation to do so. Instead of a "buy now" type of ad, offer a free eBook or other downloadable resource. Find what your ideal clients are searching for, and fulfill that need. Be Relevant Going hand-in-hand with providing value, your banner ads should be relevant. It's important to determine who you're trying to connect with and what they want. Even if your ad has a great value proposition, it won't be beneficial if it isn't reaching people who will find it interesting. When you're running a targeted campaign, use any data you've collected on your webpage to determine who is visiting the site you're advertising on and why they're there.

Canva: A Simple, Beautiful Way to Create Great Marketing Content
As a real estate professional, you need to wear a lot hats. You have to be a jack of all trades, and it is up to you to be proficient at each one. However, a lot of Realtors® seem to stumble when it comes down to design. You know your market or properties inside and out and you can tell people about them until the cows come home, but putting those details into a professional looking marketing piece can sometimes be problematic. Canva to the rescue! The hardest part about designing something is getting the project started. Most of us don't have the creative insight and vision to see the final result we want. Canva has 20 different templates and countless design options to get you moving, to spark that imagination and make it your own. Here is a list of some of the pre-sized design templates currently available to create: Facebook covers Posts Posters Business cards Social media graphics Twitter banners Real estate flyers (133 templates just in this category) Facebook ads Pinterest Collages and so much more!

Infographic: How to Sell a Home
Our crew at BoomTown recently came across an informative Infographic on How To Sell A Home created by our friends at Mint.com. This would be a helpful addition to any real estate agent’s content marketing library and makes explaining the process a lot more fun. Enjoy!