Jan 5, 2023
Roses are Red: Using Pantone’s Color of the Year 2023 Viva Magenta in Your Graphic Design
The long-awaited announcement of Pantone’s 2023 color of the year has arrived, and it does not disappoint: Viva Magenta (18-1750). A powerful and bold red, Viva Magenta straddles the line ... Read more
Read moreDec 12, 2022
Why You Need a Matterport Tour for Your Event Space
Are you a little stuck in the days of old marketing strategies? If you are using photos alone to show off your beautiful property, you might be. It’s okay, it’s ... Read more
Read moreNov 10, 2022
How to Set Your Creative Team Up for Success: A Unified Campaign Comes from a United Creative Team
Your creative team is the voice box of your company, reaching out to your audience through social media, copywriting, photography, video, live streaming, design, and a host of other skills. ... Read more
Read moreJun 24, 2022
Make the Best Use of Your Marketing with Seapoint Digital’s Matterport and Drone Services
We at Seapoint Digital have been hard at work getting ready for New England’s busy real estate season. Part of our preparations includes updating and increasing the services that we ... Read more
Read moreApr 14, 2022
Five Ways Matterport VR Tours Will Take Your Real Estate Listing to the Next Level
Virtual reality is one of the most powerful technological tools available today. It’s easily accessible, user-friendly, and allows users to experience a world they would otherwise not be able to. ... Read more
Read moreMar 10, 2022
4 Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs PPC Ads
Have you ever heard of the acronym PPC? What does it stand for? PPC, or Pay-Per-Click marketing, is a form of online advertising that utilizes search engines and social media ... Read more
Read moreDec 13, 2021
Violets Are Blue
For the past 23 years, Pantone has been proudly bringing light to the power of color. The Pantone Color of the Year is chosen based on the direction and trends of people in all markets across the globe. What color will resonate with all audiences in 2022? Defining a Year of Uncertainty As we approach the two year mark of the coronavirus, people are craving stability, security, and calm. At the same time, there is an overwhelming hope for growth in the post-pandemic world. Individually, many are hoping to improve their quality of life by pursuing passions, seizing opportunities, and reevaluating priorities. On a larger scale, many hope to bring changes to social and economic standards. Can a color encapsulate stability and change? Introducing PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri is Pantone’s answer, and she is simply stunning. This is a new release for Pantone, marking the first time in the history of the Pantone Color of the Year that a new color was developed for the release. Like all periwinkles, Very Peri is ultimately a blue hue. Blue is a universally classic color, carrying an air of predictability. Blue is the color of the sea and the sky – there is nothing more stable in our world. At the same time, hints of red and magenta warm the periwinkle to a point just shy of purple. They give this shade an undertone of excitement and boldness. Straddling the line of warm and cool, this is a color of dynamic possibilities. Trending Color Palettes Balancing Act This color palette features poised and well-composed hues across the spectrum. Their complementary partners support each other, rather than compete for attention. Wellspring This analogous theme brings a feeling of harmony and peace. The colors blend effortlessly and are soothing on the eyes. Star of the Show This selection of neutrals are perfect backdrops to allow Very Peri to pop as a welcome splash of color. The warmth in these creams, grays, and browns bring out the best in Very Peri. Amusements A joyful triad will liven up any application. This set holds a sense of sophistication without taking itself too seriously. Reference Color Data PANTONE 17-3938 TCX sRGB 102 103 171 HEX #6667AB LAB 45.75, 12.21, -36.75
Read moreNov 25, 2021
What is a CRM?
Remember rotary card indexes? (If not, make the most of your youth.) Imagine if each major department in your company used rotary card indexes for keeping contact information for potential and existing customers …and each department had their own rotary card indexing system. Along with their contact data, you also have summary notes on calls between you and these clients. How many total cards would your company have? How many total cards would your company have for just one customer? How long would it take to piece together the client’s perspective of their relationship with your company? How long would that client be on hold? Want to hear something crazy? There’s a chance that your company’s methods of customer relationship management aren’t much different than using rotary card indexes. Do you have different data systems in different departments? How much do data input methods differ from system to system, department to department? How many contacts are duplicated across those systems? How many internal phone calls does it take to get the most recent snapshot of your client’s relationship with your company? How long does that client listen to hold music while you gather all of that information? If any of that sounds familiar, you should probably consider using a CRM platform. CRM is short for Customer Relationship Management. Nowadays, the term CRM usually refers to managing data using a software platform that stores all information about company relationships. According to a 2019 NetHunt report, the average returns from a CRM reached $8.71 for every dollar spent. How does your company compare to the average? #CRM #HubSpot— Seapoint Digital (@SeapointDigital) December 2, 2021 Does your company need a CRM? Yes, Your Company Needs a CRM! Companies have to maintain healthy relationships with customers and service providers in order to keep growing. A CRM helps you sort through the layers of information about a client’s relationship with your company. It helps employees have a more complete picture about the people involved in these relationships before reaching out to them. What kind of information can a CRM organize? Here are a few examples. The relationships your company has are mostly with: existing customers and clients potential customers and clients other businesses that provide products or services for your company Information about those relationships may include: contact information customer profiles interaction history tasks yet to be fulfilled collaborations with B2B service providers reminders in connection with a contact or set of contacts analytics to view contacts with similar stories projections to help plan the next steps Those relationships may be maintained through: phone and video calls text messages emails social media platforms contact forms website visits calendar appointments purchases and other avenues That information is generally used to: keep track of relationships follow up on tasks offer personalized help to customers understand the history and context of those relationships discover opportunities for growth learn what processes work and don’t work and – perhaps most importantly – · get everyone working as a team A CRM cohesively organizes all of those layers of information into one central location. A CRM helps increase productivity, understand your client’s perspective more quickly and clearly before talking with them, and anticipate their needs. It also allows your clients to spend more time listening to your solutions to their issues and less time listening to your hold music. That’s what you get with a CRM. How to Choose the Right CRM For Your Company The key to choosing the right CRM for your company is choosing the right platform. Some Service-as-a-Software (SaaS) providers have developed high-level CRM software with specific focuses – sales, marketing, service, support, social, analytical, collaborative, and startups, to name a few. Some of these systems perform extremely well and are customized for specific department and functional needs, so multiple departments within your company have the chance to use the best software systems ever created to get their jobs done. Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? Here’s the issue: these systems are written in different coding languages, created for different purposes, designed by different minds, and are focused on resolving different pain points. Imagine that the system language for each of those systems was different: English, French, and Japanese. You would need a team of translators just to make your business run. That’s what happens when one company uses multiple systems. How can you avoid that type of situation? Choose a platform, not a brand. What’s the difference? Imagine a marketing software provider acquires a high-level system, puts it’s company name on it, and includes it in a package alongside the systems they were already offering. You would have two different systems that speak two different languages, all in one box with the same company name on it. That’s choosing a brand. Now imagine a marketing software provider’s offering creates a new tool on it’s already-existing platform to go along with the previous tools that also work on that same platform. They all speak the same language and work together as part of one system. That’s choosing a platform. If you choose a brand, you would need data extraction teams and analytics teams to piece everything together before your company data would start to make any sense, much less make it understandable and presentable. Fortunately, there’s a better way to access and manage your customer relationship data. What CRM does your company use?— Seapoint Digital (@SeapointDigital) December 13, 2021 Why HubSpot’s CRM Stands Out Above the Rest HubSpot’s CRM is a business tool, not just a sales tool. The HubSpot CRM is a single platform that serves as a common source for your company’s ever-growing, organically collected data. It houses the entire body of your company’s growing amount of data and makes it accessible to the proper departments, divisions, and teams within your company. That type of complete, easy-to-access picture makes improving work processes and giving customers a better experience that much simpler. Does that sound like a lot of information for one department or employee to have to sort through at once? It’s true that your marketing department doesn’t need the same information as your customer service department, but having a common source of information can provide a more complete picture of how to interact with the client, much the way a specialist doctor needs to consider your basic overall health before applying their specific practice. HubSpot’s CRM helps users to harness company data so that your company, as well as your client, will have a better experience. How does the HubSpot CRM harness that data? By using hubs. HubSpot hubs allow each department to access the cross-section of information they need before interacting with a client. They won’t be overwhelmed or slowed down by information that doesn’t apply to them, and they won’t be missing information that is crucial to good customer care and decision-making. HubSpot’s CRM currently has five hubs: Marketing Hub Sales Hub Service Hub CMS (Content Management Systems) Hub Operations Hub Each of these hubs provide information based on a combination of five main elements of modern business: data, content, messaging, automation, and reporting. These elements help present a clear picture of a client’s overall relationship with the company as well as the specific information a department needs to understand how to help the client. Which CRM Is Right for You? Your company’s size and goals will strongly influence your choice of CRM. If your company has plans to scale its growth, you need a CRM that will give you a better chance at succeeding. If you’re a smaller company and don’t plan on expanding any time soon, there are a handful of data management methods that may work for you. Even if you don’t plan on scaling your business, the HubSpot CRM and its accompanying tools are a world-class solution for your data management needs, giving you one less thing to worry about when running a business. Regardless of your size and growth goals, choose a high-quality CRM platform to make sure that your business growth won’t be hampered by inadequate data management.
Read moreNov 25, 2021
What Is HubSpot’s Operations Hub?
HubSpot released the free, starter, and professional versions of Operations Hub in April 2021. Along with their Marketing, Sales, Service, and CMS Hubs, Operations Hub runs on HubSpot’s CRM platform (link to What Is a CRM article). Here’s some information about Operations Hub and why it might be a good choice for your company. What Is Operations Hub? Operations Hub is built to unify company data, organize workflows, facilitate automation, improve communication, and increase productivity across teams and departments. It is particularly useful for scaling companies by providing more accurate insights regarding potential growth and the accompanying challenges. Operations Hub allows all data across all platforms to be accessible from one spot. It also allows for workflows and automated processes to work across platforms. Teams can get information as quickly as they need it, and the operations teams that provide that information can do it faster and with less stress. What would you say are the biggest or most common data/systems challenges that you’ve seen?The biggest challenges we’ve seen have to do with trying to gather data from multiple systems to create a report.— Seapoint Digital (@SeapointDigital) November 30, 2021 What Makes Operations Hub Valuable? Operations Hub coordinates and consolidates information that businesses need to run smoothly and make that information accessible to all necessary teams and departments. This hub is especially designed for companies whose are trying to: connect their systems and make their existing tools work better include more automation in business processes more easily manage business data for smoother in-house operations Some of the features of Operations Hub include: Data Sync (available in the free version) Data sync links data between different supported applications, automates data maintenance without disaster-waiting-to-happen CSV imports, and scans and updates records every five minutes. Programmable Automation (available in the Pro version) This feature allows you to trigger automated workflows based on in-house or customer actions. Workflows in Operations Hub can trigger HubSpot workflows as well as workflows in other supported applications. Data Quality Automation (available in the Pro version) Data quality automation cleans up the processes of data management (date formats, calculations, text fields), such as capitalizing first or last names or selecting appropriate timestamp formats based on customer location. How Do I Know If Operations Hub Is Right for Us? All companies with scaling plans should consider Operations Hub, but especially ones who: have issues with data maintenance have used data cleansing software have messy CRM data have multiple systems, tools, and integrations have a large number of workflows use webhooks need custom code actions in workflows or bots are already using HubSpot as their CRM Whether you’re a company in the midst of scaling growing pains or one that is happy with its present growth rate, Hubspot’s Operations Hub is what you need to know how to grow. hbspt.forms.create({ portalId: "433728", formId: "80b2d422-19a8-4925-8aef-01a1d1e6ffba" });
Read moreSep 2, 2021
Four Great Ways to Win Social Media with Matterport
The 2021 real estate market has proved that buyers are definitely still in the market to buy. As an agent, you know the value of widening the reach of your listing. You want to include potential buyers who work weekends, ones who are limiting in-person social interactions, ones who prefer to shop online, and ones who are searching from out of state. How can you ensure buyers will discover your listing? How can they fall in love if they never lock eyes with their real estate soulmate? You already have a stunning Matterport VR (Virtual Reality) tour scheduled to win their hearts. Use these 4 tips on social media to get buyers engaged. Tip #1 – Find Waldo Do you remember the hours you or your children spent looking for that funny little man with the striped red shirt? It’s human nature to love the thrill of the hunt. Leverage that! Make your own “Where’s Waldo” game within your Matterport tour. Plan ahead to place a mascot or message somewhere in the space during the time the VR images are captured. Then create a contest on social media, offering a gift card to the first one to find your hidden image. Even after the item is found, the VR tour game is still very shareable on social media: “I found it, can you?” As visitors virtually search for the hidden-in-plain-sight mascot, they will be exploring each room of your listing, peering at every detail of your gorgeous property. Successful sellers know that leaving a lasting impression is everything. hbspt.cta.load(433728, '142c968a-d906-496e-9e52-22fe9514631e', {}); Tip #2 – Teaser Video Clips A fifteen second video that features the highlights of your virtual tour can easily be shared on social media. Pique the interest of a wider audience with this action-packed tour snippet. Casual viewers can easily share the link with friends, family, or coworkers who may be seriously searching. And sooner or later, decorators and stagers will get wind of your virtual tour and the shares will continue to climb, reaching an even wider audience of potential buyers. Tip #3 – Share a 360º Image Interactive snapshots come included with your virtual tour. These are great for sharing on Facebook. Simply click on the image to twirl around and take a full 360 look at a featured room or outdoor space. Now that buyer can finally envision how their eclectic collection of rather large mirrors can fit into a room – in a house which suddenly became their dream home. Tip #4 – Run a Promotional Contest Everybody loves a free raffle. Invite followers to share the link of the virtual tour with all of their followers and friends. Offer a fun prize or a gift certificate as an incentive to share, comment, or tag a friend on the post. Select a winner at random or choose the person who tagged the most friends. Matterport VR tours are the perfect platform to introduce prospective buyers to their future dream home or commercial space. These tours showcase listings in a visually-stunning, professional, and modern way. Maximize your impact on social media to draw attention to these captivating, immersive images and make the most of your Matterport investment. We would love to talk to you about scheduling a Matterport for your business! Fill out the form below and we'll be in touch. hbspt.forms.create({ portalId: '433728', formId: 'e9ab785b-6aff-4c0a-827a-c3afb3482007' });
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