I feel compelled to add my 2¢ here about advertising and target marketing when it comes to real estate and agents. A little about myself first: I've been building basic web sites since 1986 when hand coding HTML was the only way anyone could build a site. There were no Frontpage or Dreamweaver programs and certainly no "replicated" web sites back then like there are now. It's easy now! Over the years, I got pretty good at figuring out how to get a web site to rank on the first page for certiain "key word phrases" for several internet businesses I ventured into. My current real estate web site is on the first page on Yahoo.com and Google.com for several nice search terms (i.e. "homes for sale in jacksonville," "homes for sale in jacksonville fl", "jacksonville realtor") and I get about 60 to 80 UNIQUE visitors a day from my "organic" (doesn't cost me anything!) rankings. The benefit of studying Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for the last few years :) Not blowing my horn - just laying the background. ( you see how I anchored my search term for "homes for sale in jacksonville" with the URL of my web site? THAT's one major way to get your site ranked for THAT search term. It's called "anchor text" and when you link to another website, THAT's the way you should be linking!).
Lonn Dugan has doen an excellent job in offering help and advice in web site SEO. Take the time to learn from him!
- Showing your potential sellers that you have an internet presence is worth every penny you spend to get one. I print out the results for common searches and make it part of my presentation, "See! Here's my web site to THIS search term, and here's my web site for THAT search term."
I understand that 90% of us are trying to figure out HOW to drum up more business for ourselves in this stinky and slow market, and I have explored a lot of different avenues myself.
It's important to consider what your TARGET MARKET is when you start an advertising campaign, no matter what or where it may be.
In my opinion, the FIRST thing you should do is invest on getting your web site to show up on the 1st page of Yahoo (Google is a whole different story) by investing some time and money. If you're unable to do this yourself, hire a professional company to help you. In the long run, this will pay you back in spades since the internet is such a factor for people looking for homes to buy - and will only continue to grow. Another and immediate alternative is to use pay-per-click advertising.
MY web site will probably NEVER get on the 1st page of Google for "jacksonville real estate" because I'm competing with realtor.com, homegain.com and other web sites that have the SEARCH TERM as the DOMAIN NAME, i.e. jacksonvillefloridarealestate.net or they have 10,000 links pointing back to them. For high volume/common search terms, either pay a premium price for PPC ads, or ignore them and concentrate on the "long tail search."
- Try and get your web site on the 1st page of Yahoo and MSN for YOUR marketing area search terms.
If you live in Carson City, then people will search for: "homes for sale in Carson City" or something like that. Use the Google Keyword selector tool to help you find some key words for your area.
OK, enough of the internet stuff. You ALL know how important it is to have an on-line presence.
Videos on the Internet
Some agents want to try MySpace, UTube, etc. and post videos of the homes they want to sell. Cute, but is it effective? I considered it too. But, after analyzing my TARGET MARKET, I decided against it and here's why:
- My TARGET MARKET doesn't use UTube. I have two primary markets: 1st time home buyers that can afford a home around $150K - $170K ( mostly military) and established buyers/sellers over the age of about 35 that are looking for homes starting at around $250K and running to over $1 million (close to my neighborhood).
- A poorly done video (taken by me) would cause more damage than good to my presentation. Since a professional video is expensive, I ruled THAT out quickly. I stick to photos using a wide angle lens and just take a LOT if pictures to add to a virtual tour... or hire it out to a pro.
- Does YOUR target market use Utube or MySpace? No? Then why advertise there?
Then there's email advertising, direct mail advertising, magazines, posting on bulletin bords, etc.
Step back and ask yourself: "If I were looking for a home to buy, (and didn't have a relative that was an agent) where would I start to look and HOW would I look?"
Did you read the Just Listed cards that you got in your mail box (before you were an agent), did you read the newspaper, did you read Homes Magazine, etc.
Ask your friends, "What and where & HOW would you go to start looking for property to buy if you didn't know me?" And by the way - do you read those Just Listed/Just Sold cards that you get from other agents? The answers may surprise you.
Funny Fact: Notice that there are no "suggested search terms" for "sell my home in your city?" NO ONE searches the internet using those type of related terms. People DO search for "real estate agent in your city" or "real estate company in your city" though :)
Believe me - I've tried them all. I have come to realize that nothing can take the place of referrals and word-of-mouth advertising, and that takes years to build. So I need a way to speed that process up. But how? I decided that I'm going to start a direct mail campaign to the communities that are close to me. I need to establish my self as the "neighborhood expert."
After talking with a couple of advertising specialists, something was pointed out to me that made a lot of sense to me. For those of us with kids, remember when they asked for an ice cream cone, and you said "no!" Then they asked again... "PLEASE may I have an ice cream?" No! "PLEEEEEASE may I have an ice cream?" NOOO! "Ah come on.... PLEEEEEASE???? Please, please, please?"
Finally, we give in and say, OK, You can have an ice cream. (Hey it worked on my wife about putting a flat screen TV above the fireplace in our family room! I said PLEEEEASE for about 3 months and she finally gave in. <evil grin>. Just testing the theory!
The same philosophy applies with direct mailings (according to the experts) so I'm going to try it. If I send people post cards every month for 8 months asking them to call me if they want to sell or buy a home, maybe I can wear them down eventually and someone will call. If not, then at least when they see my sign on my car or a sign on someone home, they"ll think, "there's that PIA REALTOR that always sends me those post cards."
I've never done direct mailing, but MY TARGET MARKET are the local communities that are within a 2 mile radius from me, and direct mailing is what I have to do to ensure that I reach this market. And I have to provide my market with a REASON (read: BENEFIT/INCENTIVE TO CUSTOMER) to call me. It may be in the form of a buyer rebate or a lower selling commission cost. The only way to get business from people who don't know me is to save them $$$$$$. Shoot - even friends have done business with someone else because they were cheaper than me!
They guy who found me online who MAY be buying a home 6 months from now is a lead. Nothing more. I put him on an automatic home search through my MLS and hope for the best.
The point is: we all have target markets. Focus on that. Do what YOU would do.
Just food for thought and my 2¢.