Profitable Real Estate Internet Marketing
More and more people are turning to the Internet to find local
resources. At the top of the list is the search for real estate
and agents.
The experts predict the next wave of the Internet will be local
marketing. Currently the real estate industry is leading the way
with estimated online marketing expenditures exceeding $1
billions for 2005. That amount is expected to grow substantially
over the next few years.
There are those realtors who have figured out how to
successfully market online, and are reaping the rewards. What
are those rewards? A source of new customers at a much lower
cost per acquisition.
As a realtor here are some facts that you simply can't ignore:
More then half (56 percent) of all consumers now use the
Internet when buying real estate, which is up from 28
percent in 2000. When asked where they first learned about the
home they purchased, 24% of buyers identified the Internet. That
is an increase from 15% in 2004.
Buyers who initially do their research online tend to be better
informed. Equipped with their knowledge gathered from the
Internet, they spend significantly less time with their realtor,
and preview fewer houses then traditional buyers. In other
words, you get an ideal buyer that requires less of your time
and resources in making a purchase.
What is required to profit on the Internet?
In addition to having a functional and effective web site,
realtors need to aggressively market their business on the
Internet. You must have a presence where your customers are
searching.
One of the most effective methods for marketing online is Pay
Per Click advertising. The two major players of PPC are
Google and Yahoo. It works as follows:
1. A person searches on a keyword or phrase like, "Evanston
Illinois Real Estate."
2. As an advertiser you bid for ad positioning on that term
(1st, 2nd, 3rd position, etc). Obviously you bid on terms that
are relevant to your business and would be used by potential
real estate buyers in your area. There is no limit to the number
of keywords or phrases that you can bid on.
3. When the search results appear your ad is displayed at the
top or right hand side of the page. These ads are often referred
to as "Sponsored" links. If a person clicks on your ad and goes
to your site, you pay a price per click that you designated. The
appeal of PPC is that you control your costs by specifying a
cost per click and a daily expenditure. In addition, you are
only paying for performance. You only pay when there is a
click to your site.
What makes PPC so appealing is the fact that it is so targeted.
If you select the right terms to bid on, you end up with
prospects coming to your site that are actively pursuing your
services. That is the primarily reason it is much more
cost-effective than offline advertising.
I recently set up a PPC campaign for a realtor in my area. It
took a couple of hours. The Google ads went live immediately,
and the Yahoo ads started two days later. In about a week I got
a call from the Realtor. She said, "I don't know what you
did, but we are suddenly swamped with leads." It is that
simple if done right.