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.

Here’s how it works:

Static FBML creates a new tab on your Page that accepts and renders HTML code. Once the application is installed, you’ll be able to post HTML code directly to your Facebook Page. To use this tool, go to the Static FBML Facebook Page and click the “Add to My Page” link to install the app. Copy and paste the HTML code for your flyer; I recommend using the “Blog” format, available when you use a custom theme on your flyer. You can give your new tab a title, like “Just listed”. Visitors to your page who click on this new tab will find the HTML code you entered automatically rendered – in this case, into a full-color, professionally formatted flyer.

There are myriad uses for this little application – you can add multiple “FBML” boxes to your Page to highlight your hottest listings, or devote a single Page to each listing, as suggested by Ross Hair. Whatever your approach, we’d love to hear about it; comment below or drop us a line at support@vflyer.com, and let us know how Facebook works for you as a marketing tool.

I’m excited to announce that vFlyer has integrated with Realty DataTrust’s VaultWare product. The alliance between vFlyer and VaultWare makes it even easier for property managers who use VaultWare to promote their available units on Craigslist as well as other online marketplaces where vFlyer automatically submits listings. Through this partnership, individual flyers will automatically be created for each floor plan offered by the property through a daily content feed from VaultWare. Pricing updates and other content changes made within VaultWare will automatically be applied to the flyers each time the content feed is processed. The flyers and the Craigslist-compatible HTML code generated by vFlyer will also include a link for users to check availability, reserve, and pre-qualify for apartments online via VaultWare directly from Craigslist.

If your company or apartment community is already using VaultWare, the new vFlyer-VaultWare product offers you a comprehensive content management and online marketing solution. By generating content from the data in VaultWare, vFlyer maximizes the efficiency of advertising your available units online.

Realty DataTrust Corporation, located in Scottsdale, Arizona, offers online leasing solutions for the multifamily housing industry that help consumers reserve apartments online and increase a property’s efficiency and occupancy rates. VaultWare is Realty DataTrust’s innovative service that integrates rental data into ILS systems, updates the data on the ILSs automatically, and allows prospective tenants to view available rentals in real time.

If you would like to learn more about the new vFlyer-VaultWare integration, please contact our sales team at 1-800-594-5930 or sales@vflyer.com.

Also, we tag any visitor to your website that clicks an affiliate link with a 60-day cookie, which means that if someone clicks your affiliate link or banner ad and then signs up for vFlyer within 60 days, you’ll still earn a commission.

If you have a website, blog, or other web property and are interested in promoting vFlyer and making some extra money, sign up to be a vFlyer affiliate! If you have any questions, please contact affiliate@vflyer.com.

Pretty cool, right? You can access this new feature by clicking the Account tab, then clicking the Email Flyer List sub-tab. To create a list, simply click Create New List and choose the Flyers and/or Teasers that you want to include. Then choose the layout and theme for the email, type a subject line, enter or import the email addresses you are sending to, and send it off.  We even provide the HTML content of the email in case you want to send via another email service. 

We hope you enjoy the new Featured Flyers email option. If you have feedback on it or other feature requests, let us know by emailing support@vflyer.com.

Now, if you send a Flyer link to someone and that person opens the link on his or her iPhone, it automatically redirects to the new mobile format. This makes navigating the Flyer from the iPhone a snap. There are easy-to-read tabs for the Flyer overview, features, map, YouTube video, links, and other components of the ad. You can even share the Flyer on Facebook and Twitter in just a couple clicks.

As the number of iPhone users (and Android phone users, for that matter) continues to grow, the new mobile format will become increasingly important for vFlyer users because more and more of their colleagues and prospects will be accessing their Flyer content on these devices.

We hope to add more mobile features to our service in the near future. If you have any feedback on the new mobile format or ideas for other mobile capabilities, let us know by sending them to support@vflyer.com.

Did I mention that vFlyer Voice is incredibly easy to use? How easy, you ask? It’s as simple as answering a phone call. To record your voice messages, simply enter your telephone number in the vFlyer Voice application and our system will call you and enable you to record your narration over the phone. It’s really that easy.

You can record voice annotations for each photo in the slideshow or record a single message for your entire Flyer slideshow. The choice is yours. See vFlyer Voice in action…

One voice recording for each photo

One voice recording for the entire slideshow

vFlyer voice is available only to vFlyer business subscribers, so if you don’t have a business subscription, upgrade today to take advantage of this groundbreaking advertising tool. Why stay quiet? Speak up and unleash the power of your listings with vFlyer Voice.

You can find the Additional Info field on your Account page. Any text you enter in this field will appear in the Contact Information section of your Flyers (see images below).

Thanks to Chris Crane at Red Oak Realty, Kristine Johnson at Gallagher & Lindsey Realtors, and Jason Born of Signature Realty & Mortgage, Inc., for providing us with useful feedback on the new California law.

If you need assistance, call or email vFlyer Support.

First, we added 8 new Craigslist layouts for our vFlyer business subscribers when you publish a Flyer using a custom theme. Now you can choose how your flyers will look on Craigslist. You want bigger photos? Check. You want creative and attractive layouts? Check. See for yourself… New Craigslist Layouts. Also, visit the vFlyer Support Wiki for information on how to use these new Craigslist Layouts.

Second, we enhanced our print content for our vFlyer business subscribers. Now when you print a Flyer that uses a custom theme, you will get a whole second page full of photos. This feature was added due to the popular demand of our users. You see… we do actually listen to you. There are more print layouts on the way.

Third, we added a new narrow blog layout for our vFlyer business subscribers. The blog layout is 480 pixels wide and thus fits most major blog sites including Active Rain and Localism. When you publish a flyer with a custom theme, you can access the blog layout HTML by selecting Blog from the HTML drop-down menu. Then all you have to do is copy and paste the HTML to the blog of your choice. It’s that easy!

Last but not least, you can now share your Flyers on Twitter. When you publish a Flyer, a Share on Twitter link will appear under the More Options section on the right side of the Publish Successful page. We have even created a special shortened URL for Twitter that fits well within the 140 character limit. If you want to get the word out about your Flyer, use Twitter and you can connect with millions of others. For more information on the rapidly increasing popularity of Twitter, check out this article from TechCrunch.

We hope you enjoy these new features. As we continue to enhance our services to make vFlyer better and better, feel free to offer any suggestions you have on how we can make vFlyer work best for you. Send your feedback to support@vflyer.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

We hope these changes make your experience of using vFlyer even better. If you have comments about the new logged-in home layout, feel free to send us a message through the feedback widget!

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.

Also, the winner of our vFlyer Basic Annual Subscription Giveaway was vFlyer member Tom Plant of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Wildomar, CA. Congratulations Tom!

Thanks to all of you for stopping by and saying hello!

Also, our very own Oliver Muoto was a panelist on a panel discussion titled, “The Hottest Productivity Tools.” Way to represent, Oliver!

The Inman show is a great chance to learn about, discuss, and debate the most important trends in real estate technology and marketing. We’re delighted to have had the opportunity to participate in the conference again and look forward to future Inman Real Estate Connects.

Note: The autosave feature only applies to the Flyer Editor and Photo Editor.

• 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.