Marketing SEO Blog

The Inman Conference in San Francisco

Just got in from the Inman Conference which in my opinion is a must for todays online real estate agent.

The most important aspect was the networking. There were plenty of elbows to rub and lots of relationships to make.

If they gave at an award for conference networker, the statue would go to Michael Stark of PostYourProperty.com for sure. I bet that guy picked up a hundred link exchanges as well as future referrals. He is a testament at what you can do at a conference of this magnitude.

I guess I just added a one way link to his site :-)

Realty Blogs, Websites and Economists

One featured guest was a representative from Curbed.com. It was interesting, but I wish Inman would have had an actual Realtor talking about how he or she makes money from their blog.

I mean isn't this just an exercise in futility if no one make any money? It reminds me of the early net boom years when agents got a website for a websites sake.

I harken to my Golden Real Estate Rule: always ask "where is the money?"  What is the path to the dollar? That is why we all do this right? (Get the Ten Commandments of Succesful Online Real Estate )

In my mind, a blog can help an agent: get more traffic, more leads, and more authority over his or her marketplace. Blogging is easy. The aforementioned is hard. This is what we do for our clients here at Spider Juice Technologies.

Later my friend Mike Kehoe of Birdview Technologies spoke about their "4 Step System".

I really liked the fact that he actually took the time to analyze and report client results. He illustrated a results chain for conversion. From traffic --> to lead --> to sale. So in other words x% will register as a lead, y % will become a sale. He even gave average cost per click.

If you like, I can ask him to post his outline of his talk as it was most informative. Let me know thru the comments below. I am a big fan of these guys such that I now can sell their products. If you are interested, give us a call for a Free Demo. 310-533-9145

Another aspect that I liked about the show were the forecasts. Of course, the question everyone was asking was "how long can this market sustain itself?" You had an A list of major industry influentials: Earl Lee,President,Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc.,  Steve Ozonian,National Homeownership Executive,Bank of America, Stu Siegel,CEO,eNeighborhoods, Parker Kennedy,CEO,The First American Corporation,  Thomas Kunz, President and CEO, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, & Joel Singer Executive Vice President, California Assn of Realtors.  Most of the players seemed to agree that there is no reason to see a slowdown other than in heated areas such as here in California.

I think it was Parkert Kennedy who said that he believes that it was a matter of supply and demand. As long as interest rates stay favorable, at worse we will see a soft landing. Of course I have been saying this for three years now that we have real low supply in California, and an ever growing demand. But I am just an SEO/Lead Conversion strategist. He is an economist!

Overall my one day at the show made me wish I had spent all three days there in gorgeous San Francisco.

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From real estate lead to closed sale

A recently completed report on home sellers and home buyers(Hebert Research for HouseValues Inc.), shows that home sellers take on average 9.3 months from the time they begin researching until they sell.

It takes home buyers 16.7 months, on average, to research and buy their next home. 

The study aslo found that:

• First-time home buyers invest an average of 20.5 months in the entire home-buying process, the study also found.
• Before even thinking about selling, consumers can take up to four years subconsciously collecting experiences related to their home, including current and future desired requirements, features and amenities. These experiences compound to bring the home sale to the forefront of consciousness, triggering an active research phase.
• Once the research phase has been initiated, it takes sellers an average of 9.3 months to sell – 5.5 months in a pre-research phase, 1.4 months for the active research phase, and 2.4 months for the active selling phase.
• The majority of sellers – 52.1 percent – take one day to select an agent.
• Buyers, like sellers, often take up to four years collecting experiences related to their current home, and potential future needs.
• It takes buyers nearly a year and a half – 16.4 months on average – to buy from the time they begin thinking about a purchase.
• Once the research phase for buyers has been initiated, it takes an average of 16.7 months to buy – 7.1 months in the pre-research phase, 5.5 months in the active research phase, and 4.1 months in the active buying phase.
• Forty-four percent of buyers take more than six months thinking about desirable homes and neighborhoods before actually searching for listings. The average buyer then spends more than four months searching for homes.
• First-time buyers take an average of 20.5 months on the entire home-buying process.
• 61.8 percent of buyers select their real estate agent within just one to three days.

  The survey also explored the reasons why consumers choose their real estate agent:

• Consumers use agents for three main reasons: paperwork/legal work; negotiations; and access to listings.

• Buyers and sellers tend to choose an agent based on experience, honesty and past relationships.

These numbers vary greatly from other studies say such as in California which found that :

• Internet buyers spent an average of 5.8 weeks considering buying a home before contacting a Realtor®, nearly three times more than traditional buyers, who spent 2.1 weeks in this stage of the homebuying process.
• Internet buyers spend 4.7 weeks investigating homes, and neighborhoods, before contacting an agent, while traditional buyers spent 1.6 weeks.
• Internet buyers took only two weeks before selecting a home ,while traditional buyers took seven weeks.
• Because the Internet allows buyers to preview homes, a typical Internet buyer only viewed 6.2 homes with their agent, while traditional buyers visited 14.5 homes.
• Nine out of ten Internet buyers found their agents through an online real estate listing site; 60% found their agent through Internet search engines such as Yahoo! or Google. (note I am not sure that google is a real estate searchengine) 12% used agents they had worked with previously. (I would take this to mean that the online exposure buys you loyalty)
• Traditional buyers found their agents through for-sale signs (47 percent). Half (47 percent) found their agents through agent advertising. One quarter (26 percent) of agents were referred by friends and family, and 19 percent had a previous transaction with their agent.
• Internet buyers typically interviewed only one agent (71 percent) -- the first one who responded to them. Traditional buyers interviewed a median of three agents, and 37 percent interviewed four or more agents.
• A whopping 47 percent of Internet buyers said they selected their agent because of responsiveness, while only 42 percent of traditional buyers chose their agent for that reason. So half will pick you just for showing up.
• 22 percent of Internet buyers and 21 percent of traditional buyers choosing agents they felt would be the most aggressive on their behalf.
• Internet buyers are more likely to be first-time buyers, they are younger, wealthier, better educated and more likely married.
• All first-time buyers typically spent four weeks considering buying a home and four weeks investigating homes for sale before contacting a Realtor. They then spent three weeks previewing eight homes with their Realtor.
• All repeat buyers spent three weeks considering buying a home, and only two weeks investigating homes for sale on their own. They spent five weeks previewing ten homes with their Realtor.

"The Internet is enabling consumers to research and gather information well in advance of actually buying or selling," said Ian Morris, HouseValues CEO. "This research shows that real estate agents are critical to the transaction, but are chosen late in the decision-making process, and very quickly. The takeaway for real estate professionals is to be first, fast and frequent in their communication with consumers, and that often means delivering value and information many months in advance of an expected transaction."

Ian Morris says 74 percent of consumers now begin their home research online, yet only 10 percent of real estate marketing budgets have followed them there

Comments:

Being able to generate leads is not enough. Generating email campaigns that last overtime that shares your personality and stacks value on top of value will win over prospects and keep you top of mind when it comes time to choose. And according to the data they choose quick. Your job is to get out in front of the decision process early. You do this by capturing their name and courting and segmenting them until they are ready to move your relationship to the next level.

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Real Estate Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing is commonly defined as :

Marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.

Hotmail was probably one of the greatest examples of Viral Marketing.  Mega Blogger Seth Godin wrote about it in his important Book, "Unleashing the Ideavirus"

I was prompted to write this piece because of a cute Viral Marketing campaign  for the New Movie, "Wedding Crashers". It allows you to Crash the Video Trailer.

By the way, you can see my movie debut by clicking here.

Do you want to take part in this viral marketing effort? Crash your own trailer.

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Real Estate email marketing

Do you remember the old School girl/boy game of "Around the World", or "Around the Bases"? If you got a kiss you got to First Base. A french Kiss was Second Base. Read further to find out how to hit a Home Run!

Are You Trying to Hit a Home Run With Your Prospects Without Asking Them on a Date?

Most prospects are only leaving their phone number about 1/3 of the time. So 2/3 are leaving just a name and email. If you don't have a strategy to approach this group, you are losing big time because your cost per lead skyrockets.

If you invest $9,000 a year into your online real estate marketing campaign. And you get 500 leads a month, your Cost per Lead is $1.50*. But if you aren't touching your email only leads, then you are affectively only getting 165. Your Cost Per Click jumps over three times to $4.55!
*$9000 a year/12=$750 a month. $750/500 leads=$1.50;$750/165=$4.55)

Email marketing is the most important part of online marketing. Yet, I find that it is the least understood, and least time spent by Online Realty professionals. Some agents will spend all day on their website. They will effort on SEO to capture a real estate lead. Yet, they never spend the time to strategize on how to court the opt in subscriber.

Marketing your real estate services thru email is about getting to the first date. Then the second, and then third. Until there is a marriage whereby you both swear allegiance to one another. And of course like many modern day relationships, this guy or gal will break this allegiance as soon as the scent of the next "hottie" walks past.

You may not even get to First Base let alone hit a home run. And your prospect may not even let you go on a second date. But one thing is for sure you will never get to a sale unless you start at the beginning. Then you can get to First Base....and second and so on. But most agents try to steal a kiss, without even asking the prospect out!

Instead of being "easy", think of your prospect as that guy or gal you have to beg and beg to go out out with you. And then after all that finessing she only agrees to go to breakfast! You have to strategize to win her over. You bring flowers.  You do apparant random acts of kindness just to get to a second date and maybe first base. Before Free Love, this was called Courting.

Your prospect is not a product of the 60's. They believe that their loyalty comes with a cost. They want to be courted and you to prove yourself worthy. And making your listings available or offering a free report is a nice olive branch, but this frigid Diva expects some major courting. Do you really want this gal? Are you going to take care of her in good times and bad? Then you gotta pah-roove it. 

The fact is that the vast amount of your prospects will not leave a phone number, and most won't take any serious action for several weeks. As I explained in one of my Ten Commandments of Online Marketing, people typically come to a real estate website to compare property. And they just do not know what they do not know.

At this point there is very little or no loyalty to you or your website. As long as the info flows, and they can get your MLS listings they will be happy enough to revisit your site, if for only the new home listings.

So in order to breed loyalty and afinity you must do a few specific actions.

1. Get yourself an Autoreponder/Drip Email system.

These automatic email systems communicate with your prospect while you sleep. You write your letters and articles once. And the system will send a mailer on pre-programmed days for ever. Until your prospect raises their hand and says I am interested to take this relationship to the next level.

2. Take your list and segment them.

   Why would you segment your visitors? Because they think they are the most important person in the world. And if you want them to think you are the most important Realtor in the world, you have to make them important first.

   This goes eons beyond dividing your prospects into buyers and sellers, and hot, medium and cold. Your email communications to a 30 year Vet at IBM should convey a unique tone and context diferent than your typical communication with say a self employed-entreupreneiral Contractor.

3. Educate & Interact

   When you can get someone to have an "aha" experience, you often times will etch out a piece of their brain for you. Congratulations! You have now risen above just Real Estate agent. You are above the rest because you have become not just someone who sells real estate. But someone who cares enough to take the time to care for this person who is the most important person in the world.

   How? Teach them and get them to move along the sales funnel by bringing them to your site to learn and or get valuable and free reports.

   I am not talking about the typical pre-written Real Estate articles and newsletters. You need to pour blood and write from your experience, from your heart. Would you send the object of your affection a templated love letter from a book? What would her reaction be? Thats the same reaction you will get from your prospect.

Your personality and expertise will shine thru and you will seperate yourself from all the others whom are too lazy to prove that they are an expert. Which is why when you do it, you will profit handsomely.

As you get your real estate prospect to interact with you and your site. You can ask them to reveal more and more until you have enough information to segment them, and take them to the next level of your relationship. And then perhaps they will want to do more than just "go out with you".

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Tim O'Keefe is President of Spider Juice Technologies and is an expert at all phases of online marketing from Search Engine Optimization, Lead Capture and Converting Leads to Sales.
Tim O'Keefe
Spider Juice Technologies
Real Estate Marketing
310-533-9145

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Real Estate Market Conditions

Current Market conditions to consider when marketing real estate on the net.

• +/- 70% of your potential clients are on net
• If you plan on doing this business for longer than the next 5 years, understand that the next generation is extremely impatient and has higher demands than what you are currently used to.
• Corporate domination-The big boys are spending huge dollar to dominate the major real estate related positions in the engines. They are driving up the cost of the real estate agency and agent to compete in organic search and sponsored listings.

This is why it is extremely important that if you are going to do your own real estate seo and marketing that you make sure you have keep yourself out of low result tasks. For example, ongoing link exchanges are not only time consumptive, they are hard to maintain over time.  Ask yourself, what is your time really worth? Is is worth doing $5 an hour work to do something that require ferocious activity?

What can one do? Either get trained and delegate low skill work (in house), or outsource it to a trusted SEO and Lead Conversion firm like Spider Juice Technologies.

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