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If Realtor Had To Work Like Web Designers

Dear Realtor:

Please find me a commercial building. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion. My commercial building should have somewhere between two and sixty rooms. Just make sure the building is such that the front doors, windows can be easily added or deleted, and do not forget that I need a large exterior space to display all twenty five of my business meta key words.

HUD

Realtor

Posted by Carlos Sagastume on 07/13/2007 06:35 PM

Comments (6)

web designers, realtor, hud

6 Comments on If Realtor Had To Work Like Web Designers

JUL

2007

Carlos, if the REALTORS(R) client were anything like the REALTOR for whom I just finished a site, after the REALTOR found exactly what the client said he wanted, then he would say, "oh wait, now that I see it, that's not what I really wanted after all."

Another gem from the same client, "I don't want your marketing advice, I just want you to do graphic design."

Suzanne Stephens, Point2Agent Design Partner

Well, I guess your client doesn't know the difference between strategy and tactics...the marketing is the strategy, the design the tactic...and great design does not mean anyone will ever find your client's website. Sigh.

I think I'm guilty of this at the beginning of my web design request life...for those of us who lack technical knowledge and only have a pocketbook, it's hard to know what to ask for. I just cruised around looking for sites I liked and asking for 'something like this'. So I apologize to you designers for myself and the rest of my technically clueless colleagues who depend on you!! =)

In our defense, most of us know a heck of a lot more about building specs than we understand about website specs! Clients could certainly have a list prepared about what they want to accomplish. By the same token, web designers could have a process through which they could get clients focused on exactly what they were asking for.

Classic case of not letting the professional do his/her job. You hire a pro to do a job, let them do it. I feel for you Carlos. Oh, and do you need an insurance policy for that ever changing commercial building?

Stephen, good design should also be strategic, and good web site designs should encompass several aspects of marketing strategy, including SEO. I ran a full service ad agency for several years as well as working for many different advertising agencies. Our approach to marketing strategy was threefold: the overall marketing strategy plus the creative strategy and the media strategy to support the marketing strategy. As an ad agency CEO and/or Creative Director, I typically worked at the front end of the strategic planning process. We referred to implementation of the creative strategy as "creative production." Because few REALTORS have much knowledge of strategic web site design I frequently work with clients to help them develop their online marketing strategies.

Anyone with a copy of Photoshop can call herself a graphic designer and can do production work. Not any graphic designer bring 30 years of senior-level ad agency marketing planning and strategic design expertise to the table.

Leigh, apology accepted. Hey! At least you have a pocketbook! That's important. A smart client will find a designer whose style she likes rather than hiring a designer, then asking the designer to design a site in someone else's style. If you see a Web site you like, hire the designer who designed that site, not some other designer.

Carlos, forgive me if I appear to have highjacked your blog!

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What does the graphic say?