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A New Internet Marketing Strategy
October 2006We need a new strategy for Internet real estate marketing. The most successful Realtor website designs are only achieving a 1% to 2% conversion rate between visitor traffic and inquiries and a fraction of these are converted to transactions. Our Internet marketing strategies are based upon the traditional real estate marketing theory that puts the Realtor up front and it is not working.
The Internet today is a source of information, an entertainment medium and a communications channel. It has also become a global market place. It is a part of the information age and in utilizing this technology the consumer has changed his behavior. This includes the behavior of the homebuyer.
Before the advent of the Internet a homebuyer would browse the classifieds in a newspaper and read real estate magazines. He wouldn’t contact a Realtor until such time that he was somewhat serious about purchasing a home. This traditional real estate marketing was not interactive. This was static advertising that reached out into the marketplace. The Internet has introduced a whole new concept for the real estate industry and the homebuyer as well as the home seller. The homebuyer can now go on line and learn about homes for sale anywhere in the world. He can view home listings and learn about a city while sitting at his computer at home or in the office and he can do this 24/7. Given this ability a person will “surf” the Internet as he just begins to think about making a move. He enters into an information gathering stage as he considers purchasing a new home. This might be a relocation of his principal residence or the purchase of a second home. This information gathering stage can last many months or even more than a year. Ultimately this person either becomes a serious buyer or gives up the dream.
While the homebuyer spends months gathering information when he is ready to select a Realtor it is a decision made in a matter of days. With this selection occurring within a window of just a few days it is a challenge for the Internet Realtor to position himself to capture this prospect. The ideal way for the Realtor to accomplish this is to capture the buyer’s attention while he (the buyer) is in the information gathering stage. If the Realtor can maintain the buyer’s interest during the information gathering stage then the Realtor has a good chance of capturing the buyer as a prospect.
The traditional real estate website typically presents the Realtor’s credentials and has content that attempts to encourage the buyer to contact the Realtor. The site also provides content intended to satisfy the buyer’s need for information. But, if the buyer is still in the information gathering stage he will not contact the Realtor. The buyer does not want to expose himself to a “salesperson”. In fact, ninety-five percent of homebuyers visiting real estate websites do not want to talk to a Realtor and are not ready to buy a home. Yet, website designers and the real estate industry continue to utilize a website design that puts the Realtor/Broker up front in the buyers face. The most successful of these websites are producing a 1% to 2% conversion rate between visitor traffic and inquiries. These websites really only address the buyer who is ready to buy a home. In other words, they are targeted for 5% (or less) of the Internet real estate market.
In addition to satisfying the needs of the buyers who are ready to buy, we need an Internet real estate marketing strategy that targets the 95% of the buyers that are not ready to talk to a Realtor. This strategy must include tactics that compel the buyer to provide the Realtor with not only his contact information but also his home search criteria. Additionally, the marketing package must provide an automated system that maintains contact with the buyer without harassing him, a system that addresses the buyers need for information. In this way, the Realtor is able to “be there” when the buyer switches to the “buy” mode.
We have developed a new strategy and in three months of testing it is achieving an 8% to 12% conversion rate between visitor traffic and inquiries. We have multiple sites targeted for cities across the country and they are each producing more than 100 leads a month. It is too early to tell what the ultimate conversion rate (leads to transactions) will be but, we expect it to be between 3% and 5%.
In subsequent articles we will discuss this strategy in detail and also define ways to attract the most productive visitor traffic to the website.
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