A few brokers have contacted us lately to ask if we 'assist with lead generation', and the confusion is one that is easy given we invest quite a lot into a leading website experience. The reason we apply effort to your website because it leverages your promoted (and organic) funnels enormously. You cannot and will not enjoy digital success without a compelling digital presence. This article introduces the Instagram Post Slider - another feature that'll support a more engaging website experience.
The Result
An Instagram Post Slider will show the latest Instagram posts from one or more accounts in a fully customisable rotating carousel. Each carousel shown on your page can be unique in terms of the posts displayed and the hashtag filtering applied, and each may inherit its own style.
We Don't Like Sliders: First, we're not particular fans of 'sliders'. However, this applies when your primary and clear Call-to-Action message is obfuscated by multiple messages... so our distance from sliders doesn't apply to lower-tier content such as social media and videos. When it comes to social media articles, the carousal is a highly effective way in which to render large amounts of content.
For the purpose of our in-post examples, we'll use shortcode to return a result, but it's expected that clients will use the drag-and-drop Elementor block introduced shortly.
For the first example we'll return a 'default' carousel with the shortcode of [bm_instagram]. The result isn't ideal because we're limited to just two results in a post-style format when the intended purpose is for usage on a wide page (if you're on a mobile, you will only see one single panel).
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For the last few years we've made attemps to call out illegal, non-compliant, unethical, or offensive financial advertising. Originating mainly from pay-per-lead services, the plethora of deceptive finspam has left a permanent stain on the industry's underpants.We were fortunate to be asked to provide advice and guidance to various groups over the last year, and it's great to see Facebook implement many of the changes we've suggested. What they've introduced is a good start. It's not a fix, but it's another layer of protection for consumer.After we authored our final recommendation, we asked 72 lenders to endorse our prposals, and we were thrilled to receive 72 responses. Of the 41 aggregators we asked, none chose to endorse what was essentially a manifesto for ethical advertising.As far as Facebook is concerned, anybody running ads will have to validate themselves and their licencing. We've completed this with all our active clients, so this post is for everybody else.From Facebook:To help prevent fraud and impersonation in financial products or services advertising, and in some cases to comply with regulatory authorities, Meta may ask you to verify information about yourself or your organization in order to publish ads that promote financial products or services. These requirements are intended to promote consumer safety. Before running eligible financial services ads, advertisers will need to verify information about the ad beneficiary and payer, including their Australia Financial Services License information (unless otherwise exempt). Generally, the beneficiary is the individual or organization benefiting from the ad, whereas the payer is the individual or organization paying for the ad.Eligible financial services ads will need to contain a Paid for By disclaimer, featuring the name of the individual or organization paying for and/or benefitting from the ad. The clickable disclaimer leads to a separate info sheet. https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/help/719892839342050.. #beliefmedia #linkedincompany #linkedin #advertising #facebookmarketing #facebookadvertising #marketing [title: FB Verification Required For Financial Advertising]
I tend to waffle on about the lack of a comparison rate in advertising, and It's not because I think the comparison is overly important, and it's not simply because it's against the law. It's because I see it as a deliberate means to deceive consumers. Failure to abide by such an entry-level and seriously basic obligation - particularly when consumer-facing communication is intentionally crafted to trick customers - is a symptom of something much uglier. Brokers have evolved into the primary channel for obtaining a home loan, and this places a bigger-picture burden on the entire industry to hold itself to the highest of standards, and our honesty, integrity, and ethical behaviour is measured in binary terms - either we're honest or we're not, and when over 80% of all consumer advertising manufactured by brokers is manipulative or dishonest in some way, this ubiquitous malfeasance inevitably shapes consumer opinion and invariably impacts the credibility of those honest brokers that have higher standards.Sadly, the everyday infractions aren't limited to advertising. Most of the time, it's because brokers simply aren't provided with the necessary guidance.We've created a package for aggregators and ACL holders that deals with a number of compliance issues, and we've prepared a presentation suitable for PD days. If you'd like more information, please make contact with us.
About This Stock and Bond Business, by Louis H. Engel. The ad is so good that I'm sharing it 76 years after it was first written. Most copy we see nowadays is forgotten within seconds. There's so much to learn from this amazing ad and copy. Ogilvy was famous for his story telling, saying over and over that "the more you tell the more you sell", but the unfiltered, raw, informative, compelling, educational, and entertaining copy that was central to the early examples of long form has slowly devolved into long 'squeze-type' 'copy that says virtually nothing, provides no answers, and exists solely for the purpose of escalating 'manufactured' intent with little regard to the broader 'Lantern' attributes that are central to BM's own advertising models (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust).We often draw upon a Simpson's line "you don't make friends with salad" to articulate the nature of the digital handshake at the top of funnel, and this ad tends to support this ideology. Content engages, while hyped sales copy does not. "About This Stock and Bond Business" was one of Louis H. Engel's most innovative advertisements. Considered one of the the one hundred most influential ads in North American history, the ad appeared in the fall of 1948, approximately two years after he had joined Merrill Lynch.The ad consisted of six thousand words of very small print squeezed onto a full-size newspaper page (the full-page broadsheet advertisement was the original landing page). The copy was informational and educational, and textbook dry in tone. There were no explicit references to the firm's own brokerage services in the entire text, but at the bottom right of the page was a small calling card (call-to-action) that identified Merrill Lynch as the sponsor and invited readers to request free reprints of the advert in pamphlet form.Once tested, responses exceeded three million, and those returns translated into millions of prospective customers.Use long form to tell a story - not to sell. The former achieves the latter. Full write-up in our FB group.
There are a few big-ticket compliance SNAFUs in this ad (the exclusion of the comparison being the most obvious), but usage of the Coat of Arms in a black and white ad designed to emulate a Government document is the focus of this rant.The use of the mark is regulated under federal law, and its use in any advertising is prohibited unless specific permission is granted (and it never is, particular when used in consumer-facing finance advertising, and certainly not on ad that is natively non-compliant or deceptive).Let's look at some of the laws relating to usage of the Coat of Arms.1. Crimes Act 1914 (Cth). Section 73: Prohibits the unauthorized use of the Australian Coat of Arms in a way that suggests a connection to the Australian Government.2. Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth). Section 39: States that the Australian Coat of Arms is a protected symbol and cannot be used in trade or commerce without authorisation. Use in advertising is considered a form of trade or commerce.3. Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Act 2015 (Cth). This amendment strengthens protections for official government symbols, including the Australian Coat of Arms.4. Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The Australian Coat of Arms is not covered by copyright but is protected under laws governing national symbols. Misuse could still lead to enforcement under this act in conjunction with other legislation.5. Australian Government Branding Guidelines. These guidelines clarify appropriate uses of the Australian Coat of Arms and explicitly prohibit its use for commercial purposes, including advertising.6. Consumer Law. Implying a government endorsement or affiliation is misleading and a breach of Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Section 18).7. Other consumer/financial legislation deals with trickery, deception, false representation, false endorsements or associations, and consumer perception.Be careful.
"How to create financial advertising that sells" was a 1974 advertisement from New York based advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. It's a master-class in copy.[More information and a full transcript of this advert can be found in our FB group]The 'financial advertising' advert was one of a number of Ogilvy's long-form advertisements that were used as a means of demonstrating their expertise and providing industry-specific social proof. The long-form advertising was a technique widely avoided by many in the fear that they were "giving too much away" (a ridiculous proposition when measured against our current understanding), but the technique was a defining feature of Ogilvy's ads while others were trying to be cute.Of interest is Ogilvy's line "the more you tell, the more you sell" (top right). While Dr Charles Edwards might have said it first, Ogilvy made it famous. There's no question that long-copy sells if you're selling the right product in the right way (sadly, something brokers just do not do).When Ogilvy and Mather printed the article they essentially took ownership of the principles discussed despite the fact they were commonly applied by others at the time (their points of diff were shared by others, but Ogilvy were the ones talking about them). Ogilvy took the long-form approach when others were printing small ads that weren't nearly as readable or compelling.If you write long form, tell a story. Stories master.
The relevance of the screenshot is because it was taken when our broker attracted 50 leads - the typical number of 'leads' delivered by leadgen charlatans at a cost of around 8k.Leads delivered by leadgen crooks convert under 3%, and usually closer to zero. You would literally enjoy more success if you parked your ass at a bus stop and talked to strangers. Let's say that our broker invested 8k into their *own* marketing using the above campaign (about 4X what most brokers will spend). That's 1221 leads.Funnel branded leads convert between 18% and 30%, with refinance campaigns usually coverting up to 28%.Let's say we converted just 25% of our 1221 leads with commissions at $3500. That's roughly 305 deals.The net result: $1,068,375.The guy that purchased 50 leads probably closed one deal and wasted a lot of time chasing ghosts. The reality? FB is slow initially with conversions around 20%. Even if you converted half of what we've detailed above you're still looking at $535k. Screw the pooch completely and you'll only walk away with $267k. On the flip side, you can always do better. Facebook advertising is not just interruption marketing - you're also competing with others using the same words... and most homeowners already have a broker (so it's literally relationship destroying marketing).We often say Facebook advertising is like hanging out at a Caltex service station expecting to meet classy girls. It doesn't happen.Around 90% of our time is spent helping brokers build their network. This month our partner program alone will return 560m. Our brokers will still advertise on Facebook, but it'll be for the same reason McDonald’s sells cookies.Not a single one of our current clients running FB ads is paying more than $70 for a conversion into a settlement. Not one.Invested in the 'Broker Grow'? - nothing to do with our awesome 'Broker Growth' program. Migrate across to our product, and if we don't improve your conversions by 300% overnight we'll give you 10k.
Shad of the Day, 15th November 2024. More of the same nonsense with *multiple* compliance issues. This gem comes to us from 'Finance Group AU' (aka 'Finance Scanner' among other fake brokerage brands), and it's operated by a typical leadgen crowd called Biz Focused. If you're ever in need of some finance humour you simply need to sit yourself down and check them out... unless you're buying their leads, in which case you'll probably want a Bex and a sulky nap.I get tired of the Shad because it's the same recycled nonsense, but in this case it's worth mentioning because of the lengths these clowns go to in order to hide their involvement with the service (no mention on the website, no domain info etc). It makes me wonder if they're hiding from regulators, or perhaps they're creating distance so brokers don't connect the dots and identify the dodgyness (reminds me of the story of a guy that married a beautiful girl, only to learn on their wedding night that he had in fact married a feminine man). Either way, the pictured experience probably delivers leads to brokers at around $130, but if you did it yourself (a solid 10-minutes worth of work for something so simple), higher quality leads would be delivered for less than $10. We work in a crazy industry.Don't buy leads. The industry deserves better. Our customers deserve better.Stop the finspam.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I feel like I need to point out the obvious.Far too many legitimate businesses are exposing themselves to a litigious future, and excluding a comparison rate is the most obvious obligation imposed on our ads. If I were to consider quantitative claims, about every broker advert currently showing is illegal.... yet aggregation/ACL holders do nothing. I just don't get it.I've just published an article on a group called 'Broker Grow' showing some of the most egregious infractions I've ever seen (no relationship to our 'Broker Growth' program in any way). The article was necessary so brokers knew we had nothing to do with the lower-performing product.To recap. RG178.23"An advertised comparison rate must be identified as a comparison rate and the comparison rate must not be less prominent in an advertisement than any interest rate or the amount of any repayment stated in the advertisement: s164, National Credit Code.We [ASIC] consider that the following examples would result in the comparison rate being less prominent than the advertised interest rate:(a) a comparison rate is smaller in size or faded in colour when compared to the interest rate; or(b) an interest rate is published online and a consumer is required to click through or additionally do something (such as move their cursor over the interest rate) to view the comparison rate; or(c) the displayed comparison rate is not in close proximity to the displayed interest rate."RG178/RG234.156"It is not necessary to show that consumers have actually been misled - the law prohibits conduct that is *likely* to mislead.Consumers cannot be expected to study or revisit an advertisement - the most important consideration is the overall impression created by the advertisement when viewed for the first time. Silence can be misleading or deceptive when it is reasonable for a consumer to expect disclosure of important information - silence on important details can render a statement misleading, even though it is factually correct."It's not hard to be compliant.
Had the pleasure of Peter (from 'Duck Duck Go') and his family at the farm today. Currently Duck's product manager, he's previously worked with Firefox, Blackberry, and others. As far as I'm concerned, his greatest claim to fame is work as the Technical Adviser for the series finale of HBO's 'Silicon Valley'. A true genius. Looking forward to next time.
Shad of the Day, 7th November 2024. Just another example of somebody using trickery to bait consumers into a phone call (by failing to disclose a comparison). Note the second comment. The subscription experience celebrates the same commitment to compliance and ethical marketing. It's probably unfair to point this group out since non-compliance is now the rule rather than the exception.
Pictured are some recent domain name sales, although the big-ticket sales are normally protected by an NDA. The purchasers of these names understood the value of online real estate.I'm selling the website and leadgen facility behind what I believe to be the best domain in the industy. It comes with trust, appeal, socials, and traffic. You'll take ownership of a massive and diverse segment of the population (as I once did), you'll attract significant organic traffic, and you'll promote with authority.Call me on 0400 777 300.police.com.au
Shad of the Day, 3rd November 2024. I'm not going to show you the landing page. It asks a bunch of dumb questions and qualifies me regardless of the nonsense information I provide. Typical 'Mortgage Magnet' leadgen finspam. The rate is an unattainable solar rate.The comparson rate (however useless it might be) and disclaimers are required by law, and they're required for the protection of consumers. Simple.ASIC's RG234 is a simple document that ratifies legislation and makes our obligations known in simple language.RG178.23: "An advertised comparison rate must be identified as a comparison rate and the comparison rate must not be less prominent in an advertisement than any interest rate or the amount of any repayment stated in the advertisement". Ref: s164, National Credit Code.ASIC makes it clear that the comparison rate should be as prominent as the advertised interest rate: or must not be smaller in size or faded compared to the interest rate, and the comparison rate must be in close proximity to the displayed interest rate.RG178/RG234.156 (and the linked legislation) states that it is not necessary to show that consumers have actually been misled. The law prohibits conduct that is *likely* to mislead. Consumers cannot be expected to study or revisit an advertisement - the most important consideration is the overall impression created by the advertisement when viewed for the first time.Silence can be misleading or deceptive when it is reasonable for a consumer to expect disclosure of important information.That rant relates to just the rate issue. The copy, subscription, deception funnel, and clear baiting, is all far worse, and it's all *deliberately* deceptive. Yet there are still idiots that'll buy his leads.At this point I'm probably taking into an echo chamber. Aggs will chew out your arse for an unintentional application infraction but they'll seemingly turn a blind eye to the staggering level of genuine consumer-facing digital frauds. Their wilful negligence is unconscionable.Consumers deserve better. Stop the finspam.
You're going to see a string of brokers refer to the linked study for the next week or so. Data will further fuel the war on trail, but please remember that results are consistent with numbers published in 'The Conversation' well over a decade ago, and certainly consistent with a study sanctioned by a steering committee I participated in during the BRC.I'm hearing that important industry voices are surprised by these details. How could we convincingly argue and fight for the eradication of antiquated clawback policies without this elementary understanding?Well done to the Australian Institute for their detailed report (ensure you read the raw research data).https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/profit-in-home-lending/"Australia Institute research shows the big four banks take profit of approximately $9,130 in the first year from households with an average owner-occupier home loan.This is $761 each month, or $176 per week, from homeowners".
Shad of the Day, 14th October 2024. The guy behind these ads is not particularly savvy, and his technical illiteracy and lack of financial knowledge results is a non-compliant and low-performing experience. It's not my job to educate competitors but I gave some of my time to this chap - he's implemented some of my suggestions but ignored most of them. While the above ads are *very* poor (one of the landing pages doesn't even work), it's the exclusion of the comparison rate that is the focus of this Shad. I've referenced ASIC's RG234, although the guide points to the relevant legislation.RG178.23"An advertised comparison rate must be identified as a comparison rate and the comparison rate must not be less prominent in an advertisement than any interest rate or the amount of any repayment stated in the advertisement: s164, National Credit Code.We [ASIC] consider that the following examples would result in the comparison rate being less prominent than the advertised interest rate:(a) a comparison rate is smaller in size or faded in colour when compared to the interest rate; or(b) an interest rate is published online and a consumer is required to click through or additionally do something (such as move their cursor over the interest rate) to view the comparison rate; or(c) the displayed comparison rate is not in close proximity to the displayed interest rate."RG178 5"Information in advertisements should be current (changes should be made in a week - is this rate current?)RG178/RG234.156"It is not necessary to show that consumers have actually been misled - the law prohibits conduct that is *likely* to mislead.Consumers cannot be expected to study or revisit an advertisement - the most important consideration is the overall impression created by the advertisement when viewed for the first time. Silence can be misleading or deceptive when it is reasonable for a consumer to expect disclosure of important information - silence on important details can render a statement misleading, even though it is factually correct."It's not hard to be compliant.
The company managing the advertising for the group pictured on the right have simply copied Macquarie's logo, creative, and general formatting. There's generally no rule against leaning on recognition, but it will always come at the expense of your own brand. It's always a shame to see such a lazy advertising effort (the copy, landing page, and everything that comes afterwards, tends to reveal the 'quality' of their digital representation).
Shad of the Day, 11th October 2024. It's been a while since I've posted a Shad. After the first couple of thousand I started to bore myself with the repetition. However, while we've had an impact on dodgy pay-per-lead leadgen, this has shifted many into selling their 'magic broker flow pipeline accelerator unicorn' systems, all of which aren't worth having if they're non-compliant or broken (I just recorded 7 broken ads from BrokerGrow, but I'll post those to our private groups).Of all our guys currently running Facebook ads, not one is paying more than $80-90 for a conversion (not a lead, but a conversion - lower than what the shonks charge you for a dodgy lead).I don't need to tell you what's wrong with the attached stepped form. I don't normally call out real businesses (assuming this is a legit business), but it's typical of the nonsense the pretenders are selling the industry.
This is a note for clients, and it's important.As per our deprecation schedule, and in line with Telstra's own retirement timeline, we have ceased all support for V2 of their API and diverted all functionality to V3. This change introduces some significant updates and a large number of improvements.Pictured is the Voicedrop panels which have seen some updates, but we've also introduced tagging and categories for more detailed reporting, updated the SMS-to-email system to better support multiple numbers, added triggers and webhooks for incoming texts, and we've integrated sent and received texts (with attachments) into your CRM.A significant update that we hope some will use is a text-to-social module that permits incoming texts (with a secret hashtag) to a defined number thatll filter through to multiple social media accounts. We've got a large number of social tools, but this is just another that's made available for those occasions where you need something posted immediately.The forms ('Formly') module now learns on the new system exclusively, and this includes SMS verification.Our focus when building the system was around AI integration. While we can't use it just yet, the AI can record voicedrops in your own voice, create custom messages, attach documents, and (contact) vcards etc. Once we get the green light from legal we'll release it to heavy users for more testing. This same system also works really well as a Q&A service since it has access to our entire library of crawled policy content and lender resources - it's (sadly) smarter than all of us put together. We're still updating a few components but they'll be finished within a couple of days. The only feature that we'd prefer you didn't use is the sending of SMS/MMS messages to custom or Microsoft (Outlook) lists. This will be tested by the end of the day.If you're not using text messaging, we really need to talk. Results are brilliant.Apologies for the minor interruptions.
Shad(s) of the Day, 17th August 2024. If you know any of the businesses listed in the attached screenshot, let them know they're throwing money into a void - their basic subscription is broken. It's a garbage experience. BrokerGrow popped up on our radar when they started leveraging our Broker Growth program brand, and they're responsible for ongoing mediocrity every since.If you're running one of these ads, I suggest you stop doing so now.Video in our Facebook group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/financemarketing
News is reporting on yet another person led into a fraudulent transactions. The MO is typical and often involves gift cards (nobody will ever ask you to buy a gift card). We need supermarket counter staff to be better educated (they'd spot the scam in a second if they know what they are looking for), we need Virtual (VoIP) Mobile numbers flagged when they originate offshore, better inbound scammer ID (Apple is still a few years behind), and better overall consumer education. Further, we need a team of commandos to hunt these crooked charlatans and throw them into the same human meat grinder used for the boneheads that sell leads.As brokers, we have a responsibility to educate those that lean on us for all types of monetary advice. Make your social count!
There's a Facebook group called 'Mortgage Brokers Australia' that I get banned from all the time. Unlike others in my field, I don't start conversations, but I'll often call out marketing pretenders on their ubiquitous BS.One such example is 'Jessica'. I only know of her because I inherited somebody that had worked with her, so I'm familiar with her entry-level methods and poor results. Normally I'd just ignore false and/or misleading information in the group, but in this case I was directly exposed to her incompetence so I thought I'd take her to task on her porky pies. My reply got me banned (again). Her comment of ".. just continue doing what everybody else is doing and see how it goes" rubbed me the wrong way because *nothing* we do is what anybody else is doing, and her methods are literally a cut-and-paste of every other BS Facebook program in the country.I find it staggering that some weekend-educated marketing stooge will willingly engage others when they know they don't have the knowledge, skills, or expertise, and they'll knowingly introduce worst-practice methods into an operation. If the same style of deliberate misconduct and malpractice took place in the finance industry you'd end up in prison, but 'marketing experts' seemingly have a free pass.The conversation was innocent enough, but Jessica was wrong in *so many ways*. I would have though moderators would welcome and encourage competing arguments when replying to beginners, but they instead willingly allowed brokers to be led into the arms of absolute mediocrity in complete contrast to the overarching best-interest ethos that is meant to be the foundation upon which the industy operates.I understand my posts in these groups may sound a little self-serving, or maybe even a tad egocentric, but I'm also leaning on a lifetime of experience. To put it bluntly, I'm always right (except when I'm not, which is never), and to silence my expertise was a little offensive. For moderators to actively allow promotion from a charlatan is despicable.The pictured post never made it. Rant over.
This is a very important note for clients. You'll be hearing more from us via email as recent and pending Yabber changes will impact everybody. The number of brokers that use more than one CRM, or multiple pieces of software, is quite staggering, and any tool or process that duplicates data will impact productivity and potentially compromises compliance. This has to end... and we certainly can't let our own clients lean into worst practice tech stacks (this is you, James). A long time coming, we're leveraging the entire Microsoft suite (beyond the current capability) and making certain MS applications a primary source of Yabber data. For example, one should never have more than one source of contacts, so we've migrated our entire contract module into Microsoft (Outlook). This means modules such as the SMS toolkit reference Outlook Folders and Categories almost exclusively rather than any isolated Yabber list. The contacts example is a big-ticket change, but it's just one change of many. We've found that many brokers use a second CRM (a nutty concept), so we're building features into the free Microsoft Planner Kanban Board (made available with your 365 subscription). With our revised trigger module - and native connectivity with other MS apps - Planner comes alive in a way that makes it one of the best Kanban facilities on the market. Planner integrates directly with email, files, OneDrive, Tasks (ToDo), Groups,, Teams, and other apps, making it a ridiculously efficient tool.We've met every few days with top brokers in order to determine how facilities like OneNote or ToDo might be used to assist with workflow/compliance, and we think we've designed some brilliant solutions.We'll be migrating the SMS module over the next 48 hours so we ask you not create any new SMS autoresponders, voicedrops, or even send any messages, until the migration is complete.Edge (Repricing), BDMset, and Saturn (Relationship Manager) are all limited until Friday. More information to follow via email.
I saw a post on LinkedIn a few weeks back where a broker was celebrating the fact that he was working his weekend in his pyjamas. Each to their own, I guess, but the same weekend was very different for me. Starting on a Saturday morning, I supported four of my brokers and property guys with a seminar in SW Sydney. We had 400 attendees booked and expected 150-200 to turn up. Over 400 attended. The rest of the weekend followed a fairly standard pattern of meeting a few partners and attending a ton of open homes and auctions (have you ever announced yourself to a large and eager crowd once sold?). The net result: over 120-million in likely settlements and 9 properties sold (off the back of the seminar). The weekend was one of the best we've had in a long, long time (keeping in mind a second-year broker set a BM record recently with over 100m in a single day.The property world comes alive on weekends - don't waste it in front of a PC.I say it all the time: more conversions = more conversions. I even have a few brokers walking with (golfing) stroke counters in their pockets to motivate them to meet targets.Digital always plays a significant part (and we genuinely do it better than anyone else), but that doesn't diminish the value of organic funnels - they'll always return better results.If anyone wants to unplug themselves from the Matrix and join us for part of a weekend, give me a call.
I was watching a short ABC clip on Facebook and noticed that they were using a FlashMic, a product discontinued years ago by HBB - their UK and Australian distributor. It's nice to know that one of the best field microphones on the planet is still made available through YellowTec. They're crazy expensive, but they're also an excellent product.We have a large number of FlashMic units, as well as a truck load of wireless options, that are all available for loan. Let us know if you need something, or book it in via the 'Loan Hub'.
This is an important note for clients. We've updated the 'Formly' module on your website and in Yabber. We're migrating all foms manually over the next couple of days, so you might experience some minor disruptions. This major update coincides with the new Trigger and Email Marketing features, but the first step is migrating your forms.There are a large number of stylistic and functional changes in Formly, but it's the backend where you'll see the majority of updates. When building a form (now a 10-second process), you may use recycled components, such as calendar options, images, or redirect profiles. The number of changes and new features is seriously significant. We've built an alternate booking calendar in the style of Calendly (for your website appointment page), but our option is obviously far more refined with a ton of automation. More information to follow. We'll update our FAQs/BeLearn with information and videos later this week.Why? Apart from the fact new forms were required for the property module (and property modals), the new forms are completely error-resistant in that they can't be broken by configuration errors. All other forms will be integrated with the new Formly framework, such as Fact Find, Venus, Referrals, and others, and these changes will be progressively introduced over the next couple of weeks Remember, every page on your website is a potential organic entry point, so every page is a type of landing page that requires a calendar-integrated form (made easy, of course, via our one-click form assignments). The form should then conditionally redirect to that ridiculously important second page. It's such a basic high-converting concept that most businesses ignore - just crazy.Your competitors don't have a chance.
The single most significant change we've introduced to our website framework in the last few years is the inclusion of full-featured Property Listings. The module will make its way out of a lengthy Beta sometime soon and find its way into our standard website and Elementor plugins. The Property module is significant and unique in that the effectiveness of the rendered widgets are supported by around 30 of our own APIs retuning data of various types. It's *very* cool. As part of this API architecture we required the inclusion of address and spatial property data, and most of this information (around 16-million pages) was all built directly into your website.The 'Streets' module shapes itself into a property matrix that has ridiculous value when the pages are leveraged as intended. The problem is that the module is not quite ready for a true production environment. To avoid having the same conversation over and over, we've updated our website with a short introduction. In short, the pages are designed to render a page that will return an option to deliver a property report (based on data obtained via third-party sources), and it gives us scope to return property listings, analytics, historical data, and other information relevant to the address. When you understand how and why the module will be developed, the early naked framework will make a little more sense.https://www.beliefmedia.com.au/website-streets-module
Berger & Sons Paint Works, Rhodes, Sydney, 2nd August 1937.Operating since 1916, Berger was (and still is) a popular local brand (who can forget "keeps on keeping on"). In 1923 Berger Paints contributed 22,7125 litres of paint to the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protect the bridge steelwork, so they're an important part of Sydney's history. Rhodes had been part of Sydney's industrial heartland since the 1900s when it was purchased for chemical manufacturing by CSR in 1930. The following 60 years saw Allied Feeds, Berger Paints and Union Carbide operate major industrial plants in the area. As a result, the 20 hectare Rhodes Peninsula became heavily contaminated with some of the most toxic man-made chemicals on the planet, including Agent Orange.The area was developed into Rhodes Waterside by Walker Corp and is now the home to thousands of properties, commercial premises', and a shopping centre.The side-by-side comparison photo shows the broader Rhodes area in 1930 (top) and 1972 (bottom).
Australia’s first stock exchange, located at Collins Street, looking east from Queens Street, Melbourne, 1883.In the 18 October 1852 issue of the 'Argus', Edward Khull listed 14 companies in which investors could buy shares. This was the first stock listing in Australia and led to the formation of the Melbourne Brokers Association, which traded from rented space in the Hall of Commerce on Collins Street from 1859. It was Australia's first stock exchange.From The 'Argus' publication in November 1856: "It has been the subject of constant and increasing complaint that while there are recognised marts and markets for every kind of produce, imported and otherwise, there is none for a larger and more important item in the wealth of the colony … there is no recognised Stock and Share Exchange, where quotations of stocks and shares could be made to show a real market value".The Stock Exchange of Melbourne grew out of and flourished in the economically tumultuous 1870s and 1880s when a huge influx of British capital flooded into 'Marvellous Melbourne'. It codified the behaviour of brokers, company listing requirements and trading processes. These practices remained unchanged for almost a century.The market contracted during the 1890s depression but grew again with the incredible success of mining in Broken Hill. This pattern of boom and bust drove the stock exchange through the first half of the 20th century but the stock market grew exponentially with the steady growth and diversification of the Australian economy after the Second World War.In 1987 the Melbourne Stock Exchange was absorbed into the new national trading body, the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Text Source: nma.gov.au.
We uploaded videos to a client YouTube channel yesterday, and with a single block of just four hours with us the channel is now full of content and looks fantastic. We'll chop up the primary video to create a further 100 snippets or so that will eventually find their way onto social channels.Having video on a YouTube channel is obviously essential, but it's their use on your website and within your funnels where they'll deliver your business with results. Yabber is connected to YouTube, so after your videos are ingested they are optionally assigned to each and every page of your website with a simple point-and-click interface, with additional placements on your front entry page. Further, each video is sent to a dedicated video library with its own archive page (this feature gives you full control over your content and effectively creates your own self-hosted video library).Most website guys will give you a pedestrian website destined for a life filled with static mediocrity. Our broker website has over 600 dynamic features that includes around 30 big-ticket video tools (two of which are pictured). There are some 'web guys' that claim their websites convert (you've heard their pitch 100X before), but none come close to providing the array of dynamic conversion-focused features made available in our framework. When these jokers say their websites convert, we genuinely don't know what they're talking about.The opposite of extraordinary is what everybody else is doing. Simply because it's a great way of engaging with our broker clients, we'll be giving away a full session of video with the few discounted website spots we have left (we also try and record a couple of ads for use in paid promotion). You'll generally walk away with a library of around 25-30 evergreen videos. Call me on 0400 777 300.
Note to clients. We've updated the authentication system on your website as a result of some partner discussions last week (that moved the goalposts in a very beneficial direction). Yabber manages multiple groups of contacts, such as clients, partners, introducers, referrers, property groups, and so on, and the new system will update session permissions based on user groups and sub-groups. This update also allows for more effective online courses (the education module will be modified in the next plugin release to cater a new style of course content)We avoided using the default WordPress authentication because of inherit flaws, so our system is more effective for our use case. Login forms may be rendered as forms and popup modals, and content on your website may now be hidden 'inline' requiring a user to authenticate before 'member' content is returned. It's a great system that gives you far more flexibility with your online ambitions.We've also built an Elementor Widget to render the login form or login buttons/text. Pictured is a basic popup modal login on a demo website. More details to follow.
About Result: The default result shows the image, title, and description, in a vertical format. The title, introduced shortly under the title of 'Social Architecture', discusses broader Instagram features and how the title result is returned. If no title is found we'll show the date.
Instagram accounts are registered in Yabber, so we'll return all results from all Instagram accounts by default, although both the Elementor widget and shortcode provides for rendering of individual accounts. The expected usage is three panels in a vertical format, or up to two images in a horizontal format. The default usage as applied to any mortgage broker website on delivery is shown below.
Pictured: The Instagram slider as it might be shown on your website, and the default format in which the feature is provided to clients. Two or three panels are normally shown, and a single panel will normally be shown on mobile devices.
Pictured: The 'Horizontal' format shows the image to the left, and text to the right. The former version of our Instagram slider included this format so the style was carried over for compatibility.
An example slider showing just the image and panel 'frame' may be returned with the shortcode of [bm_instagram include_title="0" include_description="0" items="3"]. The result:
Pictured: Showing just an image and the image corners. The next update will show a tooltip or similar on mouseover to return the title, content, or publish date. The 'Naked' format includes only the image and removes all style - including the corners.
Note that clicking on the full screen icon () launches a modal returning more detailed post information. The nature of this modal is discussed shortly (as a 'known issue').
As you can tell, the use of shortcode can be rather clumsy - especially given there are around 30 optional attributes that alter the output - so the Elementor widget provides a more usable solution.
Elementor Widget
The Elementor Widget makes it a simple drag-and-drop experience to include the Instagram Slider onto any page. Simply select the widget, drag into your post or page, define the presentation options, and you're done.
Pictured: The Elementor Widget makes it a simple drag-and-drop experience to include the Instagram Slider onto any page. Simply select the widget, drag into your post or page, define the presentation options, and you're done. There are a large number of customisation options that allow for styling to emulate your own branding. Note that inclusion of social media accounts is via the multi-select menu. Select one or more of your Yabber-registered accounts to show that content. The 'hashtags' options is one that is currently only used by us in test, and it filters results based on the hashtags used in a post.
Social Architecture
The social media systems in Yabber are rather extensive, with the two primary posting systems being Vista and Instagratify. Vista is an Outlook calendar-based method of posting (meaning that you post articles directly from a dedicated outlook calendar), and the Instagratify tool evaluates those hashtags used in posts and filters before filtering content to assigned social networks. We generally encourage use of Instagratify since it's easy to use, and the content is broadly distributed (and content is shown on your website slider).
Part of Vista and Instagratify's distribution includes posting content to a dedicated social media archive on your website. This archival gives you complete ownership of your own content, assigns SEO value, and creates another organic resource. Since we manufacture a post from your Instagratify content, we're required to include a title in the post content, and this is the same title shown as the title in the Instagram slider. To create a title to be rendered in slider results, simply use the syntax of [title: This is a title] in your Instagram post (this content, including other content that isn't required, is removed from your Instagram post in shared content). If no title is found the posting date will be rendered instead. If you generally don't create titles you might consider removing the title option entirely.
Since the Yabber social architecture is rather extensive, and given that we provide dedicated archives for social media and your video content, we'll be creating a single slider for that combined content, with the videos returning a video link, and the social content returning content in a format not entirely dissimilar to what we've just introduced.
Known Issues
As a completely revised feature it's expected that there may be various errors these features introduce. If you encounter any bugs, please let us know. Clients can expect the feature in the next plugin updates, currently scheduled for Wednesday 18th January. Note that the styles applied in the following update will be based on client feedback.
There are certain issues that are known 'bugs'. An instagram post may contain up to 10 images and videos. At the moment these items are rendered individually. Additionally, clicking on the click returns the image in the modal as a single thumbnail. We'll obviously update this next week so there's a carousal of images within single slides, and the linked modal will show all media associated with this post. This limitation is one imposed on us simply because we're relying on some deprecated features, so an update next week will take care of this.
We're working on a more efficient way of returning videos, both from your website and the preview modal. Until then, some video results may not show.
Interactions statistics are maintained, although that data, along with customisation options, aren't available yet in Yabber. Options will be made available to create a full profile that'll negate the need for Elementor customisation, thus allowing global changes. Options will also be made available to alter the presentation of the 'Details' modal.
Because of the large number of changes that have to be made, you may choose not to include this feature for a few weeks.
Conclusion
The value of social media engagement is outside the scope of this article. However, it doesn't need to be said that you're often speaking into an echo chamber with most of your content... so we have to ensure it's found, and the slider is just another way of ensuring that happens.
Two additional sliders are forthcoming. The first slider renders videos in a slider, and the second returns content sourced from your social media and video archives.
Featured Image: E.S.& A. Bank Building, west side of King William Street, Adelaide, 1895. A single decker horse tram trundles past horse cabs standing in the centre of the street. These are wagonettes, which were popular as hire vehicles. The E.S.& A. building is in the centre, with the AMP building on the left. On the right is the premises of Robert A. Thompson & Company, Photographers. The extreme right of the photo is 22 yards south of North Terrace. [ View Image ]
