Kim’s Tips and Tricks for Real Estate Marketing Online
For most real estate professionals the market has changed dramatically. Several years ago, a simple presence in the field was enough to be successful and earn a good living; but today a much better strategy needs to be utilized, just to stay on the playing field.
The most critical objective of a Real Estate website is to capture the contact information from a visitor so that a pipeline of prospects can be developed.
Additionally, web leads then need to be worked effectively and in a time-sensitive manner, to see a successful ROI.
Building a pipeline begins with attaining contact information (email, phone, what they are looking for/what they are selling). [If you have a traditional direct mail program in place, then a street address is vital as well. While direct mail can still be of value, e-mails can be powerful, better targeted and less expensive.]
For example, by grouping your prospect base into categories (like single family vs. condo buyers or buyers vs. sellers), you can send out e-mails that are tightly aligned with someone's interests. You will experience a much better response rate by segmenting in this manner.
Here are some ideas to boost the effectiveness of your Website and online lead generation efforts.
1. Take advantage of the opportunities of online marketing: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing. 
- SEO, also know as Organic or Natural Search is the process by which a site is designed to get good placement in the search engine results, for the keywords that you are targeting.
Key ingredients of SEO include having interesting and unique content on your pages, search engine friendly website design and effective back-linking and reciprocal linking (getting other websites to link to you).
- Each major search engine has a paid component to its search results as well. This involves paying for site visitors on a per click basis (pay-per-click or PPC).
There are a series of variables that need to be considered when starting a campaign. These include keyword selection, geography (where do you want your listing to show up) and bid strategy (how aggressive do you want to be? What is your budget? etc.).
While a PPC program can be a good way to drive traffic to a site, the average agent doesn’t have the time to manage such a campaign on their own.
When free-time is limited, I suggest that the agent use our Buyerlink program instead of PPC, to drive targeted buyer traffic to their site by city of interest. Buyerlink is similar to search engine PPC, but it does the work of finding the buyers for you (through PPC, organic placement in the search engines, and web ads) and it allows you to simply sit back and let the buyer leads roll in.
2. Keep the content on your site fresh, accurate and specific to your targeted market and area.
For example, it's a big turn-off to arrive at a site with inaccurate information, generic text, or links that don't work. Additionally, people want to work with someone that they see as an expert in what they need. Create a compelling reason for someone to search for properties on your site, rather that just going to realtor.com. [Check out the article Keep Web Visitors Coming Back For More for more information about creating good content]
3. Make it as easy for someone to contact you via e-mail as by telephone. Prompt follow-up is also critical. The statistics tell us that most web visitors expect a response within an hour from a web inquiry, and that they will end up working with the first realtor that they come in contact with, so make sure you get back to them before they have a chance to reach out to a competitor.
And as already mentioned, make sure you get complete information from each person, as you personally communicate with them, so that you can maintain multiple contact points.
4. Utilize a contact management program. There are a number of these programs on the market today that will allow you to keep in close contact with those who warrant it, schedule others for contact later on, and also segment the database for mailings (as described above).
5. Study your competitors’ sites and learn from their mistakes. Although most sites have similar attributes, others are unique with varying degrees of success. Look at other agents’ sites as if you were the client, and see what you like and don’t like.
Also, many Realtors have sites through the companies that they are representing (Prudential, Century 21, etc.) and think that this is enough of a web presence. The truth is that unless you have your own personal site, most people will never find you online [try trying to find yourself without searching for your name on your broker’s site, or Realtor.com]. A personal site allows greater flexibility, and will help to increase your online visibility and number of leads.
If you are just relying on a page on your broker’s site, you will get lost in the dust, and will miss out on leads. Having a site of your own is essential for both creating your own personal brand and funneling leads into your pipeline.
The conclusion: Lead generation is in your control. Hard work, strong organizational skills and a willingness to embrace e-mail/the Internet, are important ingredients to attaining impressive results in a tougher marketplace.
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