Real Estate Leads Search Engine
Placement Lead Generation
Visitor Traffic
Lead Generation
A New Internet Marketing Strategy, Update
March 2007Realtors need a new strategy for Internet marketing. The most successful real estate websites today are only achieving a 1% to 2% conversion rate between visitor traffic and inquiries. The subsequent conversion rate to transactions is just a fraction of this. Realtors need to convert a larger volume of their visitor traffic. We need a marketing strategy that connects with the homebuyers during their information gathering stage and positions the Realtor to capture the buyer when he shifts to the buying mode. The strategy must have tactical elements that accomplish the following:
1) Capture the buyers contact information
2) Capture the Buyers home search criteria
3) Provide a means to maintain the buyer interest
A homebuyer spends months surfing real estate websites and gathering information. His first priority is home listings and secondary to that is information about the city and it’s communities. Since a buyer can find info on cities and local communities everywhere we cannot use this information to capture him. The only information that changes with regularity and that is valuable to the buyer is information on home listings. So, this is the area that we must focus on.
Many real estate websites offer the ability to search the local MLS. Some sites require registration for access to the MLS but these sites do not capture anything more than the buyers name and e-mail address and the Realtor is not able to track the buyers activity in the MLS. Using an IDX system only slightly improves the situation. The IDX systems offer a voluntary subscription and only a very limited number of buyers subscribe. If a buyer is not subscribed the Realtor cannot track the buyers activity.
The challenge we all face is that of compelling the buyers to give not only their name and contact information but also their home search criteria. The vast majority of homebuyers are reluctant to provide this information. The homebuyer does not want to be harassed by a salesperson and will avoid giving his contact information for this reason. So, the marketing approach must address this issue.
Two years ago we developed an experimental marketing concept based upon these “must haves”. It utilizes a website that offers the homebuyer access to MLS home listings in a non-threatening way and utilizes an IDX system. The website content literally says “we will not contact you unless you request information”. The site does not broadcast a Realtor’s name or have a Realtor’s photo on it. The e-mail address offered on the site is a “support” address that is non-threatening. We are all accustomed to dealing with “support” people on our computers and don’t feel threatened by a support person.
In order to expedite the visitor traffic activity on these new sites we put them up in the pay per click engines and got immediate visitor traffic. Every site we put up has produced leads on day one and almost every day since. Each of these sites is targeted for a different city from Florida to Colorado to Chicago and the Mid-Atlantic states. These sites are producing a 10% to 15% conversion ratio between visitor traffic and leads. This compares to 1% to 2% for a successful traditional website. More importantly, the Realtor is capturing complete information on each buyer and the Realtor is in total control. The Realtor subscribes the buyer into the IDX program and sets up the automatic e-mail system to send the buyer new listings as they are added to the database. He is not allowing the buyer the option of not subscribing. The first of these websites has already built a list of more than 350 buyers in just three months. This count is after buyers have unsubscribed to the service. The Realtors with these sites have built “Internet farms” of more than 100 serious buyers within six months and then have worked this farm producing active buyers every month.
The Realtor is able to see which buyers are active. He can see which listings each of the buyers have viewed and from this information can determine who are the serious buyers. At any time the Realtor can instantly export the entire subscriber list to Excel and sort the list according the parameters in any of the fields. The IDX program automates all of the data collection, the e-mailing of new listings and provides instantaneous reports.
In the first month, each of the sites that we have set up has had active buyers requesting additional information on listings and most of the sites have produced requests for viewing appointments.
In ten years of Internet real estate marketing we have never had a marketing program produce results like this concept. It is a simple concept and anyone can do it.
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