This week’s featured custom theme comes down to us from Hood River, Oregon, where our friend Maui Meyer and Copper West Properties are located. Copper West Properties is a company that’s very much tied to the Hood River area and that connection to the place is a big part of its company identity. They created a wonderful custom theme that not only incorporates the branding from their website but also captures the landscape of Hood River. I especially like the backgoround image of a topographical map of the area they use. It makes perfect sense for a company for which its location plays such an essential role.

Nice work, Copper West!

We’re planning to feature some themes for the summer in the next couple weeks, so if anyone has a summery custom theme they want featured, send them to us at support@vflyer.com. And if you haven’t done so, now’s the time to check out vFlyer’s branded listing tools and create your own custom theme today!

Around this time last year, we introduced a great new feature called Flyer Labels. It seems some users, perhaps with their minds more on summer vacations than managing their flyers, may have missed it. In any case, flyer labels allow users to give individual flyers a label that’s different from the flyer title. The label has no effect on the flyer itself; the only place it appears is on the flyers page in the user’s vFlyer account. This can be an invaluable feature for vFlyer users who have a large number of listings and need an easy way to keep track of them. For instance, a Realtor may have 15 flyers in her account; instead of having to remember that the flyer for 123 Main Street is the one titled, “Stunning 4BR/3BA Victorian in Great Neighborhood,” she can simply label that flyer with the address. It’s almost too easy.

To label a flyer, click the Flyers tab, then click the pencil icon next to the flyer title. Simply type the label in the field that appears.

Want to know more? Learn about the many other features of vFlyer’s do-it-yourself online marketing solution.

I’m pleased to announce that vFlyer has become a member of MITS (Multifamily Information and Transaction Standards), the apartment industry data exchange standard. The committee and members of MITS have developed a series of standards that facilitate better interoperability between apartment communities and vendors, leading to more accurate data and time and cost savings. vFlyer has already developed MITS compatibility to import property and floorplan data to automatically create listings, thus enabling apartment communities to leverage their existing data with vFlyer’s comprehensive marketing service. We plan to assist efforts to continue to improve the standards and develop a greater level of MITS support in current and future services. Learn more about Property Management Marketing solutions.

One sector that so far hasn’t been represented in our Custom Theme of the Week series is self-storage providers, more and more of whom we’ve seen utilizing vFlyer’s suite of marketing tools. That ends today, however, with a really nice custom theme from Accountable Management out of Lutz, Florida. Accountable manages self-storage facilities across the Sunshine State and advertises each one in a different flyer. They’re able to maintain a consistent look and brand in all of their vFlyer content through their custom theme. The header image, which comes from their website, combines a sleek, almost minimalist look while managing to include plenty of relevant information, such as their phone number and website address. I also love the color palette they use; the tan and light blue work quite well together.

Well done, Accountable Management, and kudos to you for being our first self-storage Custom Theme of the Week!

As a side note, we’re putting the finishing touches on a new video tutorial on custom themes, so be on the lookout for it next week.

At vFlyer, we love it when service providers take advantage of the branding capabilities we offer through the Theme Editor. It’s so important for service providers to distinguish themselves from their competitors, and the first way to do that is to create a strong, indelible brand for themselves. That’s what Pat Connolly, proprietor of Sound Prodigy Mobile Disc Jockey Service in San Diego, has done. He’s created a very personal brand centering around a caricature of himself, which is the first thing you see when you visit his website. It’s an effective approach; the next time a friend of mine in San Diego asks me if I know of any DJs in the area, the cartoon image of Pat will be the first thing that pops into my head.

Pat’s custom theme matches the branding and look of his website. In fact, it utilizes the same header image on his site (slightly resized), making for a seamless integration of his vFlyer content and the rest of his web properties. Pat also utilizes vFlyer Voice, our phone-based voice narration technology that enables users to add narration to their photo slideshows right from their phone. It’s a great feature that more users should take advantage of!

We’ll be back next week with another great custom theme. In the meantime, have a safe and happy 4th of July!

It’s official: summer is here! To ring in the new season, we’re spotlighting a very summery custom theme this week from Brian Long of Sea Coast Executive Properties in sunny Encinitas, California. Brian’s custom theme says summer to me: the bright blues and yellows, the sun-and-sea feel of the branded header, and the sandlike page background he uses. This is the vFlyer equivalent of a trip to the beach. It’s a well-integrated theme that, like most of the other great themes we’ve featured, prominently displays the most important information in the header.

Great job, Brian, and thanks for bringing a bit of SoCal sun to us up here in the foggy Bay Area.

Seasonal custom themes are a lot of fun to make and can be an effective marketing tactic. Try creating one this week using vFlyer’s custom theme toolkit. If you have a summer-themed, well, theme, feel free to let us know. Who knows, you may be one of the lucky ones to see your theme on our blog!

This week, we’re featuring another custom theme created by a vFlyer designer based on the user’s existing branding. In this case, the user is Gregory J. Spalasso, founder and principal of Gregory Preston Development Group, an Architecure Planning Construction firm in San Ramon, California that specializes in high-quality custom homes.  Gregory contacted us earlier this week requesting a custom theme based on his website;  our designer was able to produce two versions of his custom theme that same day. Gregory’s website is spectacular and perfectly suited for a vFlyer custom theme; I love the elegant,  minimalist look of the logo and the use of different shades of gray throughout.

Gregory’s flyer also demonstrates how service providers can collaborate and cross-promote with vFlyer. In this case, he is advertising a house for sale that his firm designed and providing the listing agent’s contact information. In today’s real estate market, this kind of collaboration, coupled with new and creative ways of marketing listings, is essential. vFlyer’s marketing toolkit provides the customizability and collaborative capabilities to make this kind of cooperation very easy. And a great looking custom theme is the perfect finishing touch!

If you’re interested in having vFlyer create a custom theme for you, you can fill out our request form by visiting our custom themes page. And if you have a custom theme that you think deserves to be highlighted, let us know by sending it to support@vflyer.com.

The iPad has indeed arrived, and based on last Monday’s announcement that Apple has sold more than two million iPads since it began selling the device in early April, it looks like it’s here to stay, for a while at least. While it’s not yet clear exactly what place the iPad will take in relation to laptops and digital readers such as Amazon’s Kindle, the enthusiastic embrace of it is surely an indicator to tech companies that they need to make their content iPad-compatible.

For this reason, vFlyer just introduced an iPad format of our listings pages. The iPad format is a Javascript-based version of our Flash-based premium flyer layout. Apple stopped supporting Adobe’s Flash platform for the iPhone and iPad in April, meaning that Flash components in any website will not display on these devices. The Javascript-based version we developed presents the same smooth transitions between photos but in a new iPad-friendly format. Best of all, our system automatically detects when a flyer is viewed on an iPad and displays the iPad version with no additional steps required by the end user.

vFlyer already introduced an iPhone format for its listings last year and we’re excited to roll out this new iPad format. So as we’re all excitedly watching what happens with the iPad in the coming months, those iPad users among us can at least enjoy admiring our users’ beautiful vFlyer ads. To learn more about these and other vFlyer capabilities visit vFlyer Listing Marketing Service.

Happy Friday! Our Custom Theme of the Week is a beautiful theme from Sancerre Apartments, an Alliance Residential community in Kirkland, Washington. I must say, this is one of the best custom themes I’ve seen in a while. It starts with a great evocative logo, for one, which they do a nice job of incorporating into the branded header. I also like how they make their phone number so prominent in the header. While it can be tempting to stuff the header with information, sometimes “less is more” (apologies for the cliche). If you want prospects to call you, then making your phone number large and clearly visible on your header is a surefire way of encouraging them to do just that.

Sancerre’s theme also makes good use of color, with the olive green flyer background playing off the black page background nicely. The theme as a whole gives off an aura of sophistication, which I imagine is just what Sancerre Apartments was going for.

Summer is a great time for custom themes! It’s a chance to get creative, add splashes of color to your flyers, and give your listings a bright, sunny feel. Try creating your own custom theme, or if you want, we can create a branded custom theme for you for as little as $99. Just fill out this form with your theme specifications and our designers will get right on it.

Our Custom Theme of the Week is a theme that we created for Jesus Orozco, Jr, a real estate broker in Denver with a powerful brand: “Jesus Sells Denver Homes”. Talk about an idea that sticks! Using Jesus’s website as a guide, our designer created a custom theme to match, adding touches like a tab displaying his website address. Like many savvy web marketers that use vFlyer, Jesus’s website has a very modern, sleek look and his custom theme gives his vFlyer listings that same look and feel.

Nice work, Jesus (and vFlyer)!

If you’re interested in having vFlyer create a custom branded theme for you, just let us know! You can fill out this form if you have a website that you want your theme to match, or this form if you don’t have a website but would like a theme based on your specifications. Give your flyers a professional and unique look and feel to make them stand out.

And finally, a Happy Memorial Day to everyone!

Our custom theme of the week comes from Milestone Management, one of our vFlyer Agency Edition clients. One of our designers created this custom theme for Milestone based on specifications they provided us. In the image below, you’ll see that one of Milestone’s properties, Costa del Sol in San Antonio, has utilized the Showcase layout for Craigslist, one of 10 Craigslist layouts available to business subscribers using a custom theme. Showcase is a great layout when you’ve got a really nice photo to, well, showcase. I love the photo in this flyer; even though it doesn’t show much of the property, it’s a beautiful image that draws you in.

I mentioned that a vFlyer designer created this custom theme for Milestone Management. If you’re interested in having your own custom branded theme for yourself or your company, one of our designers can create one for you for a small fee. Simply fill out this form if you have a website that you want your theme to match, or this form if you don’t have a website but would like a theme based on your specifications. We can have your custom theme ready and set up in your account within 5 business days.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: branding is key in online advertising. With so much content on the web, it’s essential to set yourself apart from your competitors by creating a strong, recognizable brand. vFlyer makes it easy to apply your branding to your vFlyer content through our Theme Editor. We’ve featured dozens of great custom branded themes of our users on our blog.

If you’d like to have your own branded theme but either don’t have the time or the resources to create one yourself, vFlyer can create one for you! We have an in-house design team that will take your specifications and use them to produce an attractive, unique branded theme. You can get a custom theme made for as little as $99 and delivered to your account within 5 business days.

If you have a website that you would like our designers to use as the basis of your custom theme, you can request a theme by filling out this form. If you don’t have a website and want our designers to create an original theme for you based on your description, you can request a theme by filling out this form.

vFlyer members in the vacation rental industry have been creating wonderful custom branded themes. We already spotlighted themes from Big Bear Cabins and Northern Shores Vacation Rentals, and this week we have another great vacation rental theme from JoAnn Taylor with Rent 1 Sale 1 Realty in West Palm Beach, Florida. JoAnn’s theme makes great use of color with its striking blue gradient background playing off of the green accents in the flyer. The header image in the theme is excellent as well, with its series of beach and ocean photos as the backdrop to the logo and slogan.

We’ll be back next Friday to feature another fantastic custom theme, so if you think your custom theme should be highlighted, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

This week’s featured custom theme is a shining example of how to make a fantastic branded header. AllCities Property Management of Medford, Oregon created an exemplary header image that includes a surprising amount of content but doesn’t feel cluttered; on the contrary, it’s a well-organized and very professional-looking centerpiece of the theme. They display their company logo, name, address, slogan, phone number, website address, and a photo of one of their properties, complete with a nice red and black color contrast. It’s a textbook example of how to make a header both attractive and functional.

This theme also makes good use of a gradient image as the page background, adding texture and depth to the theme. Great work, AllCities!

Did you know that vFlyer has in-house designers that can create a custom branded theme for you for as little as $99? It’s true! We’ve created hundreds of branded themes for our users, helping them match their vFlyer content to their websites and give their listings a unique, professional look. If you would like a custom theme of your own, contact support@vflyer.com and we’ll be happy to provide you with more information. You can learn more about vFlyer’s branding capabilities on our custom themes page.

As always, if you have a killer custom theme that you think should be featured, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

From the start, giving our users quality, timely support has been one of the top priorities at vFlyer. We hired our first full-time Customer Success Rep in early 2008 and now have an entire Customer Success Team devoted to assisting vFlyer users and helping them get the most out of the service we’re providing. As our Customer Success Team has grown, our goals around supporting our users have evolved as well. It’s no longer enough to say that we will try to respond to most support requests within two hours. Our members demand more and deserve more than that.

As a result of this, we initiated a regular review of support response times in order to get a clearer picture of how quickly we are responding to our users’ inquiries and how we can improve in this aspect. Used for internal purposes until now, we’re making the results of this review public. Here they are:

The results of the first review were a revelation to us. We saw that we weren’t providing the level of support we thought we were and, consequently, we improved our response times significantly in the following two months. There’s still room for improvement, of course.

Going forward, our goal is to respond to at least 95% of the support inquiries we receive within 2 hours and at least 85% within 1 hour. We’ve set up a page on our Support Wiki where we will be publishing the results of our regular support response time reviews and that you can access on vFlyer Support Time Report.  Keep in mind that the Customer Success team is also answering calls, conducting training webinars, writing help content, and producing How-to videos.

We want to do whatever we can to help our users be successful. A big part of that is offering fast responses to questions and support requests that we receive. And now we’ve got the numbers to show that we’re serious about this. I welcome you to send your comments and other feedback, positive or negative, about the level of support you receive from vFlyer to support@vflyer.com.