Since 2004 I've been almost exclusively a buyer's agent and have obtained most of my leads and sales through the internet. I've been using the internet marketing experience I obtained previously to set up a marketing machine and have averaged over a 10 times return on advertising dollars spent each year even with a month off in both 2005 and 2006 due to a dying parent.
The total I spent in 2004 was $4995.75 and I earned $55,474.50 in commissions from these leads or referrals from these leads (most of this was directly from the leads). In 2005 I spent $7201.05 and earned $84,031 and in 2006 I spent $6970.99 and earned $74,008.75. This did not include any sales that were generated from personal contact or referrals from family, friends or personal contact. All but one of these sales were buyers.
So far this year I've spent $1219.82 and closed $18,655.00 with another sale set to close at the end of this month that will be $5900 bringing the total this year through the end of March to $24,555 which is about a 20 to 1 ratio for this year so far. It wouldn't be accurate to try and use that short of a time period for an accurate ratio since some of these clients came to me as leads last year.
But overall since I began this marketing setup the return has been over 10 to 1.
And this was using HomeGain exclusively up until April of 2006, then adding in Google in May 2006 and then switching over to only Google in January of 2007. I have spreadsheets showing conversion rates, cost per lead, etc. that lets me track all of this.
I'm thinking about writing up the marketing method I'm using as an ebook and was curious if there is enough interest out there for me to spend the time doing so. It would be something I would sell to other realtors that are interested so I'm curious if there is any interest out there and, if there is, how much potential buyers would consider this to be worth.
You can see from the above about how much money would have to be spent monthly on advertising (this would probably vary depending on the cost for your area) but there is time involved too. The cost per lead has doubled in the last year but due to the long-term buildup of now 6000 prospects I email every month, the return has stayed in the same range. I've set things up to do as much in an automated way as possible but there are some time-intensive tasks due to the fact that I try to personalize a lot of what I send out and do have to reply to clients. So it will involve 10-12 hours a week of time to use this method.
I've also attempted to use some of the other, more expensive, lead programs and found out quickly that the ones I had attempted to try out were not what they presented themselves as being.
Let me know what you think.