The moment you sign up for a vFlyer account, you are instantly given a live, stand-alone website called an Account Profile. This page serves as your listing inventory, displaying links to all of your published vFlyer listings in real time and making it easier to cross-sell your listings to prospective customers. For many vFlyer users, the Account Profile becomes their website, and there are several things that users can do to optimize their Account Profiles:

• adding contact information, a photo, company logo, a description of the business, and (for business subscribers) links to external sites
• applying a custom theme to it (again, only for business subscribers). This is especially effective if you have a custom branded theme such as this one.
• adding search and sort functionality, which enables prospective customers to more easily find listings that fit their criteria
• mapping a domain name to it, made easy through our Domain Plus service

Your Account Profile is, by default, also integrated into your flyers through the “More Listings” or “View Other Flyers” link, another reason to make it look sharp.

So that’s the skinny on the Account Profile. If you want a more detailed tutorial on how to set it up, here’s a new video we added a couple weeks ago:

Setting Up Your Account Profile

The GCC’s custom theme matches the branding on its website perfectly. I love their logo and the font they chose for the header text. Also, using different shades of green is a nice touch (and fitting!).

As I’ve said before, branding is key in online marketing. vFlyer’s Theme Editor provides an easy and effective way to incorporate your branding into your listings. Try creating your own branded theme today, or contact us and we can have our in-house designer create one for you.

WIth that, I’m happy to announce that this week’s Custom Theme of the Week goes to Mike Davis at The Car Store in Everett, Washington. His theme has a really nice header image that he modified from the header on his website and that has a nice balance of text and images. I like it because it provides ample information while looking very professional and well laid out. I also like that the colors in the theme all work well together.

Another great thing Mike does is he uses his custom theme on his Account Profile, making a very nice looking inventory website. This is a very useful feature of vFlyer for auto dealers.

We’ll be back in two weeks with another Custom Theme of the Week, so if you have a custom theme or have seen someone else’s and think it should be celebrated, drop us a line at support@vflyer.com.

If you haven’t yet created a custom theme, take a look at this series of short video tutorials on our website to get started. And if you would like a custom branded theme of your own but don’t have the tools or the time to create one, contact support@vflyer.com. We may be able to assist you in building a custom theme.

We’ll be back next Friday with another Custom Theme of the Week, so if you’ve created or seen a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, drop us a line at support@vflyer.com.

Great custom theme, Richie!

Once again, for a useful introduction to creating and using custom themes, take a look at this series of short video tutorials on our website.

We’ll be back next Friday with another Custom Theme of the Week, so if you’ve created or seen a custom theme and think it should be spotlighted, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

In addition to the option of uploading a custom header image, you can also choose from over 25 new broker themes including ERA, GMAC Real Estate, Realty Executives, EXIT Realty, Long & Foster, and many others, or create a text header in the Theme Editor. Also, these 25+ broker themes are themselves customizable, so you can change them to your liking as well.

To create a custom header image, all you need is an image editing program on your computer, whether it be PhotoShop, MS Paint, or another program. What a number of our members are doing is taking a screen shot of their websites, cropping the portion of the image they want to use in the header, and then adjusting the image dimensions. The ideal dimensions of custom headers are 754 x 82 pixels. In your custom header, you can include your logo, a photograph of yourself, graphics from your website… you name it. If you aren’t able to create your own custom header image (or you want a professional designer to do it for you), you could have a graphic designer do it or alternately, vFlyer could create one for you for just $99 through the end of November. Here is an example of one that we created to match this member’s website.

We are really excited about the new Theme Editor because it makes vFlyer immensely more valuable to our users, giving you all expanded capabilities to customize your Flyers. If you try out the Theme Editor and have some comments about it, let us know! You can email your comments to support@vflyer.com. And if you’re especially proud of a custom theme you created, we’d love to see it! Feel free to send a link to a Flyer that uses the custom theme.

If you haven’t set up your vFlyer Account Profile, you should do that right now (or at least immediately after you finish reading this post). Your Account Profile is a valuable marketing tool where you can display your contact information, a description of your business, your photo and logo, and (if you are a vFlyer business subscriber) links to other relevant websites. Also, if you’re a business subscriber, you can choose from a number of design themes for your Account Profile (including custom Flyer themes that you’ve created). So you see, if you are an auto dealer, simply by having a vFlyer account, publishing Flyers in it, and setting up your Account Profile, you have a vehicle inventory to utilize on your website!

vFlyer member Elton Rosales of KD Auto Sales in New Braunfels, Texas utilized his vFlyer Account Profile as a vehicle inventory on his website. Click here to see.

To put your Account Profile on your website, you (or whoever manages the website) will need to use an iframe to do so. An iframe is an HTML tag that inserts one web page into another and displays it in a frame. To embed your Account Profile using an iframe, follow these steps:

1. Copy the URL of your Account Profile. You can access the URL by clicking the Post Flyer tab from the Flyer Editor or the Post your Flyer quickly & easily link from your Flyer Dashboard. The URL will be labeled “Link to your Gallery.”

2. Open the HTML file for your website.

3. Copy and paste this code:

<iframe src=”Account Profile URL&Prime height=”1000&Prime width=”900&Prime></iframe>

Where Account Profile URL is, replace the text inside the quotation marks with the URL of your Account Profile (and leave the quotation marks). Paste this tag where you want the Account Profile to appear on the page. Depending on how large you want the Account Profile to appear on the page, you can adjust the height and width dimensions accordingly. You can also set the height and width by percentages instead of pixelage (e.g., “90%”).

If you use your vFlyer Account Profile as a vehicle inventory on your website, send a link to the page to support@vflyer.com. We would love to see it!

• On a trade, when a customer trades in an old car towards the purchase of a newer one
• From a user car wholesaler, who purchase excess inventory from banks and other dealers
• At an auction, where dealers pay to have the car in the auction, and dealers pay to buy used cars
• From a private party, usually through classifieds

Marketing Used Cars Once a used car dealer acquires a car, they will spend on average about $300 in marketing cost to the car off the lot. “Low Gross” dealers will try and make at least $500 of profit on each car. “Middle gross” dealers look to make $1,200–$1,500 per car. “High gross” dealers, who look to make $3,500–$4,500 in gross margin per car, are rare in today’s economy. Used Cars and the Real Estate Market The down turn in the real estate market has actually hurt the use car market in recent months. Most affected are used car dealers in previously hot real estate markets like California and Florida. For example, San Francisco bay area BMW dealers who might have sold 1,000 cars in a 3 month period last year, are off the mark by as much as 70% in the same 3 month period this year! In the past, many home owners would refinance their home and use the proceeds to buy a new or used car – those days are gone for now!

So How Can vFlyer Help?
So how does vFlyer help a used car dealers become more successful in the increasingly competitive marketplace?

• Making your Product Look Good According to Jim, “You have got to make your product look and seem better”. Jim correctly notes that potential car buyers no longer “pack up the wife and kids” and cruise down to the local auto dealer”. Instead they start their search online! The Internet has become their ‘virtual lot’ and buyer are armed with more than just the MSRP! Auto dealers have the option of having their classified ads look ordinary or extraordinary – that’s where vFlyer can help!
• Bigger is Better Jim made an interesting point that in order to capture more of the consumer’s time and attention, bigger is better! Bigger photos, more photos, more information and more options! At vFlyer we allow you to include more photos in your gallery! You can customize flyers to add more information or options. Use the premium layout to make your ads really stand out! Use enhanced HTML templates for Craigslist that feature large photos on Craigslist and more!
• Market Cars on the Internet In the past, the biggest bulk of a used car dealers ad budget went into newspaper. With the advent of the Internet, this has all changed. A medium-sized dealer these days has a monthly marketing budget of $35K-$45k and as much as 25% to 35% is being spend on Internet. Cost-effective vFlyer allow you to significantly improve online distribution without the high cost associated with other marketing options. With vFlyer, you can get your entire inventory online the same day. Unlike TV and radio, the Internet is a point of sales (POS) vehicle that can work in conjunction with brand advertising to increase customer acquisition.

• 2bd/2ba Upscale Condo and Everyday Price (Real Estate)
• 2004 Audi A8 4.2 Quattro (Auto)
• Landlords #1 Home Rental Company (Real Estate)
• 2005 Honda Accord EX Sedan 4D (Auto)

Compare these to the standard layout to see the difference!

If you are subscriber, simply preview your flyer and select Premium layout while in Preview mode:

This new premium layout applies only to the landing page for your flyer. The standard layout will continue to be used for Craigslist postings, Email, and Print/PDF.

You can upgrade today to take advantage of this new premium layout option!

With more and more auto dealers embracing vFlyer as part of their online marketing efforts, the vFlyer teams has been meeting with both existing and perspective customers and partners in San Francisco. Automobiles are the second largest product category on vFlyer as auto dealers are becoming more and more Internet savvy! The Internet marketing teams at auto dealers like Anderson Honda, CarSmith, Escobar Motors, Romi Motors, are great examples of this new Internet-savvy breed of auto dealers!  Many dealers are using the flyers on Craigslist, Ebay, and other sites. In addition, they appreciate the automatic submission of their ads to other marketplaces such as Google base. ]]> http://www.vflyerblog.com/2008/02/10/nada-convention-and-expo-comes-to-san-francisco/feed/ 0 http://www.vflyerblog.com/2007/08/07/real_estate_broker_discounts/ http://www.vflyerblog.com/2007/08/07/real_estate_broker_discounts/#comments Wed, 08 Aug 2007 01:01:10 +0000 omuoto http://www.vflyerblog.com/blog/2007/08/07/real_estate_broker_discounts/ A growing number of brokers have asked us about corporate pricing. Last month we started to building out a range of corporate features and began piloting corporate pricing with a handful of brokers and rental property management firms. We are going to be expanding the program in the coming months so we wanted to get the word out to the vFlyer user community! vFlyer Corporate Accounts are aimed at brokers or other firms that want to offer vFlyer accounts to 25 or more agents or sales and marketing professionals. Pricing is competitive and the discount grows with the number of accounts.

The vFlyer Corporate Account program is not for everyone. Some brokers prefer to offer agents discounts on third-party services such as vFlyer, as one of the many value-added service they offer their agents. We have several types of corporate discounts available to brokers, based on commitment levels or co-marketing act ivies and those have been available for several months now.

If you a broker, rental property management firm, or sales organization and are interested in either program, simply send us an email at: sales@vflyer.com. If you are an agent, associate broker or sales professional and would like to see your broker or organization offer vFlyer services or discounts, feel free to forward this post and give them a subtle hint.

Technorati Tags: Real Estate, vFlyerRemaxcoldwellprudentialbrokerrealtorkeller williamsreal estate

The basic idea is that prospective customers can easily subscribe to your inventory (in the same way they would subscribe to your blog) using your RSS feed and their favorite news reader. Some of the more innovate auto dealerships offer RSS feeds of their inventories (Ikon Auto, Mall Cars, i.e.) and I am certain some smart real estate agents are doing the same thing.

The good news for vFlyer users is you already have an RSS feed of your flyer inventory! Just in case you haven’t noticed, each user has a gallery (See Example) – your gallery is a graphic summary of all the flyers in your account as well as your business or contact information. Subscribers can customize their galleries (See Example), while non-subscribers get the basic gallery view (See Example). All users, however, get RSS feeds of their flyer!

You will notice at the bottom right hand corner of your gallery page there is an RSS icon that points to your RSS feed. The url to your feed looks something like this:

Users can add this url to their favorite RSS news reader and voila! – they have subscribed to your RSS listing feed! For most, it’s as simple as clicking on the link. All of the new browsers have made it a lot easier to subscribe to RSS feeds.

There are also many free online and desktop RSS news readers available to users. For online users, My Yahoo, Google RSS Reader, Bloglines and Newsgator online are some of the most popular readers. You can also download and install as browser add-ons or applications desktop-based readers. For more on the subject of readers, you can visit the Wikipedia.