ONLINE MARKETING CENTER User Guide
1 Online Marketing Center User Guide Introduction 2 Home Page 2 Getting Started 4 Business Information 5 Creating a Project 7 Designs 7 Projects 9 Step 1: Project Info 9 Step 2: Photos 10 Step 3: Text 13 Step 4: Agent Info 14 Step 5: Distribution Options 15 Contacts 25 Importing Contacts 26 Campaigns 27 Account Balance I Storage 28 Support 28
2 Introduction Better and easier marketing. The Amherst Madison Online Marketing Center ( OMC ) empowers Agents to market effectively in a mobile, social, and consumer-centric world. The OMC provides the industry's only mobile-ready digital marketing platform that is compatible with desktops, laptops, ipads or Android tablets. Print or digital, the OMC allows you to create professional, Ad Agency designed marketing pieces in a matter of minutes. Home Page After you have logged in to the OMC you will be directed to the homepage, which looks like this.
3 Getting Started The first thing you will need to do with your new account is enter profile information. Access your profile information after logging in by clicking on your name in the upper-right of any page, then click on "Profile". Once you have entered your profile information, it will automatically populate to each new design you create. 2
4 Business Information After logging into the OMC, in the upper-right of the page, click your name. In the resulting drop-down menu, click on "Business Info. After entering your business information, click the "Save" button. The information will now automatically populate in new projects. However, you are given the opportunity to edit your Agent information on a project-by-project basis if you like.
6 Uploading a logo is done under "Business Info". To upload a new logo, in the box labeled ''Logo'', click the phrase ''Click to Upload. (Chances are there will be a pre-populated Amherst Madison logo already there.) In the resulting dialog box, locate the logo file on your computer and double click on it (or click it, then click the Open button.) Logos must have dimensions of 2:1 (the logo must be twice as wide as it is high.) If your logo does not meet these dimensions, the cropping tool will launch automatically. You must crop your logo to the 2:1 ratio forced by the cropping tool or it will not display properly in your projects.
7 Creating a Project Step 1: Designs After populating your Profile and Business Information you are ready to create your marketing pieces. To do so, click the "Design" tab on the main menu and you will be directed to the Design Gallery seen below. This page is separated into two different sections. The upper half of the page includes the designs you have used most recently, designs you select as favorites, the most popular designs used by other Amherst Madison Agents, and featured new designs. You can also search designs by "Product'', "Task", or "Occasion". These tabs can be found in the lower half of the page. "Product" sorts by type of marketing piece; "Task" sorts by the intent of the marketing piece (just sold, just listed, etc.), and "Occasion" sorts by holiday, season, etc.
8 Once you have selected the marketing piece you like through one of the dropdowns mentioned above, the page below will be shown. As you can see at the top, you can filter through design templates a number of different ways to find the exact marketing piece you are looking for. When you find the perfect template for your marketing needs, click on the thumbnail (red arrow shown above) to view the description. The page shown in the picture below will open with Select This Design button on the bottom right.
9 Projects Once you have clicked the "Select This Design" button shown above, you will shift from the "Design" tab to the "Project" tab in the OMC. The "Project" tab contains all previously created marketing pieces and is where each new project you make will be stored for future use. The following are the steps you will take to create a project, as seen on the progress bar at the top of the page. (Note: This example follows the steps to create a flyer. However, the steps taken in this example are the exact steps you will use to create any piece in the OMC, whether it is a flyer or a single property website.) Step 1: Project Info The first step when creating a project is entering the project information. This step will require a project name, an optional description, and a folder. If you create multiple projects for a single listing, it is useful to have a folder for that listing to hold all of its associated projects.
10 Step 2: Photos The next step is to add photos to your project. You will notice each photo position is labeled (i.e. Photo 1, Photo 2 ). If you want to view where each picture will be placed prior to adding them to your project, click "View Layout on the left of the page. A pop-up of the marketing piece will open and each photo and text position will have a corresponding label. The OMC gives you multiple options when choosing photos. If you have already uploaded photos for this property into the OMC, they can be found by clicking "Photo Library" near the top of the page, and can be added to the project by dragging and dropping them into the "Drag a photo here from above" square below "Project Photos".
12 If you have not uploaded photos, there are two options. The first option is to upload photos from your computer. To do this, click on the Add New Photos button in the upper-right of the page. An Upload Images page will open with a Select Files to Upload button. Once you click this button you are able to browse files on your computer and find photos you would like to upload. You can choose to select one or multiple photos to upload. Any selected photos will be added to the project.
13 The second option, particularly useful when working with an Amherst Madison professional photographer, is uploading photos from DropBox. When the photographer has taken the pictures, they can be shared via DropBox where you can upload them into any items of the OMC. When you have found the photos you would like, click the Choose button on the bottom right of the window. You will see the word Loading while the photos are being copied from Dropbox to the OMC. Just as the photos automatically populated the project if you uploaded directly from your computer, they will do so if you uploaded multiple photos from Dropbox as well. When you are done uploading and adding photos the project, click Save and Continue button at the bottom right of the page to move on to text.
14 Step 3: Text Adding text to the project is the next step. You have the option to create your own copy, however if you are in a hurry or find yourself with writer's block you can use our Phrase Assistant. Phrase Assistant provides pre-written professional copy suitable for any project you create in the OMC. To do so hover your cursor over a text field to make the Phrase Assistant button visible. The Phrase Assistant button looks like a piece of paper with a quill. Click on it to launch the Phrase Assistant. The window below will open when you have launched Phrase Assistant. The "Your Phrases" option on the "Source" menu contains all phrases you have entered into previous projects. There is also a Stock Phrases option under the Source menu which contains royalty-free pre-written phrases. You will notice a check box that is followed by Show only phrases, which, when selected, will show only the phrases that fit in the text field you are working on. When you have found a phrase that suits your project, click the "Insert and Close" button on the bottom right of the window.
15 Step 4: Agent Info When you have filled out both the Profile and Business Information sections of the OMC, your agent information will automatically populate each project you create. You can also add a "Secondary Agent Name" to your project if the design you selected includes it.
16 Step 5: Distribution Options The last step when creating a project is distribution. We provide a number of ways to distribute your project, both print and digitally. For digital designs such as Virtual Tours and Slideshows, additional distribution options not shown above are available. The aforementioned distribution options added are publishing "IDX" and publishing to Realtor.com. Publishing IDX will give you an unbranded marketing piece suitable for the MLS. If you choose to publish to Realtor.com, you will be asked to fill in the MLS ID, and the address of the property you made the marketing piece for.
17 Publish to Web Publishing to the web provides a link to your projects, which can be pasted into an email, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook. A window in reference to the size of the image you want will open initially, followed by another window with options pertaining to the link that will be generated.
18 Email Contacts If you would like to email the project, you have the option to Self Send or use Premium Email. Self-Send will send the project to the email associated with your OMC account. It can then be forwarded at no charge to your contacts. Premium Email, which is CAN-SPAM compliant and allows you to track your email history, open rates and bounces, and send your project to one or more contacts in your address book from within the OMC. Depending on the number of emails there may or may not be a per email fee associated with Premium Email. l,).
19 Download PDF There are three download options. The first is a Standard PDF, which can be used when printing at home or the office. The next option is Commercial PDF which is designed to include options for commercial printers. The last option is Web Image, which will create a file optimized for display on a website, blog, or email. l,).
20 Social Media On the distribution page there are options for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. Each option when selected will open a window that gives you two options, Publish as Image and Publish as Web Page. We recommend using the Publish as Image option when planning to distribute through social media outlets. When chosen, this option will post a thumbnail and corresponding.jpg link to your project on the social media outlet. l,).
21 Craigslist Ads We have design templates specifically created for display on Craigslist. To find them, click "Designs" on the main menu at the top of any page and then click "Craigslist Ad". To publish the project you created in the OMC to Craigslist, click "Projects" on the main menu, and then click the Craigslist Ad you have created. The distribution options page will open, click on "Download PDF". Then, under Web Image, Click Download
22 Keep the default size selection of 75%, and click "Download Image". In the resulting Download File dialog, click on the link to the right of the word Download. After the ad image has been downloaded, right click on it and choose Save as or Save image as (The wording may depend on your browser used.)
You are now ready to post your project on Craigslist. The first step is log in to Craigslist and make sure your ad is created under housing offered and Real estate by broker. This is very important that the ad is placed in the proper category. 26
Fill out the details for your Craigslist post. The posting body field cannot be blank. We recommend entering either the property adder or a caption be displayed under your ad. After filling out the details of your Craigslist post, click the continue button. 27
You should now be on a page with information about verifying the map marker. You ll want verify the accuracy of the address and click the continue button. 28
29 You should now be on a page with information about uploading images. You ll want to load your Craigslist Ad first, even if you have photos of the property to include. Click Browse or Choose Files Locate the Craigslist Ad on your computer, select it, and click the Open button. After uploading your Ad and whatever other images you d like to include, click the done with images button. Preview your Craigslist post. If you need to make changes to the post, you may do so now by clicking edit text or edit images. If you do not have any edits you wish to make, click the publish button to post your ad to Craigslist.
Your finished ad will look like the below. 30
31 Contacts The Contacts page is where you manage your Personal Address Book used to email your sphere of influence from the OMC account. Use the Address Book to enter, import, and manage your contacts, as well as create and manage groups of contacts. Importing Contacts To import contacts into your address book click "Contacts" located on the main menu. Then, in the left column of the Contacts page, click on the "Import Contacts button.
32 There are two ways to populate your contacts in the OMC. The first option is to manually create them by selecting "Create New Contact". The other option is to import contacts into a new group by clicking "Add Group" or use an existing group by clicking "Select Existing". Once you have created or selected a group, click the "Next" button. On the progress bar at the top you will see the transition from "Group" to "Upload". To upload contacts into the OMC, you will need a.csv,.xl,.xls, or.xlsx file. The file can be imported into the OMC either by clicking the "Choose from Dropbox button or the "Click to Upload" button if you have the file saved on your computer. Once you have selected the file, you will move to "Map Fields" on the progress bar. On this page you will map the columns of the OMC to match the columns of your file. You will see drop-down menus at the top with "Skip Column" in each. To match your fields, click the drop down, and select the relevant categories (I.e. first name, last name, email address) that match each column of the file you uploaded. The last step is "Confirm" on the progress bar, where the OMC will tell you how many new contacts will be created, if existing contacts are being updated, and if there are any errors. To complete the process, click "Next.
Campaigns Automated marketing campaigns allow agents to keep in touch with past, current and future homebuyers and sellers. Pre-written by awardwinning writers and editors, the OMC offers dozens of automated campaigns, all you need to do is add the desired contacts you wish to reach and the rest is done for you. When you have purchased Campaigns, there is a separate Campaign Guide which will be sent to you. If you do not currently have campaigns and are interested in learning more, you can look in the OMC under "Premium Enhancements" or contact support at 425-646-8426. Account Balance / Storage The Account Balance is used to prepay for email and campaign events. To add funds to your account balance, after logging in to your OMC account, click on "Add Funds" in the left column of the page. Enter the funds you would like to add to your account, and then click the "Buy" button on the right. You will then be asked to enter your credit card information. If you would like a printed receipt, when the transaction is complete you will be shown a receipt of your records, click the "Print" button to get a copy. Your account includes 100 MB of free storage for your hosted projects. If you use all of the included 100 MB, you can make room for more hosted projects by unhosting projects you no longer need to have hosted, or you can purchase an additional 100 MB of hosting space for one year. Support On each page of the OMC, there is a "Get Support" button on the left. This feature will provide answers to questions you may have not had answered in this manual. You may also email Support@Impreve.com, call 800-809-3356, or contact your Amherst Madison Marketing Dept at Marketing@AmherstIdaho.com.