Tips from the 1st new rule of online marketing:

Old Rule: The Internet changes everything.

New Rule: The Internet changes everything except the rules of business.

Since 1997, the National Association of REALTORS® has been tracking how home buyers and sellers select their real estate agents. Year after year, survey results have confirmed this fundamental trend: More than two-thirds of consumers use the first salesperson they contact.

Here’s an even more startling fact revealed by NAR’s 2003 study: Consistently, 71 percent of those looking to buy or sell a home used the Internet to gather information, but only 6 percent of buyers and 2 percent of sellers found their agent through the Internet. How is it possible the Internet has become a widely-used resource for real estate information and, yet, has not fulfilled its potential as a lead generator?

It’s possible because, for many real estate professionals, it’s been far easier to post personal “brochureware” Websites and MLS inventory than it has been to create an online direct marketing program and nurture it with a thriving e-mail database. Simply put, consumers have handed us a huge invitation to do what we do best — serve their needs better online than the competition.

The good news is that our ultimate goals and the fundamental rules of our business have remained the same throughout the cyber explosion:

• Attract customers and keep them.

• Build a solid customer base.

• Produce measurable results that grow the business.

Only the methods by which we deliver our services and accomplish our goals have changed. The Internet is a tool – a powerful tool that can make a huge difference in your profit picture — especially after the current boom. Why not use it to your full advantage?

Consumers, too, want the same things they’ve always wanted. Except now, they want more of it, faster and easier online. The first big step is getting their electronic attention in 4 easy steps:

1. Attract customers and keep them

   First draw visitors to your website with accurate, up-to-date property information. Keep them there with rich content crafted to answer all their questions and that offers a wide variety of free e-reports and online services. Virtual tours, local school information, aerial photos, check lists, moving tips or floor plans are just a few examples. Most consumers, in the first stages of home buying or selling, tend to view all real estate professionals as pretty much the same. The secret: If you want to be the first and only agent the consumer calls, the core of your e-strategy is a website that draws prospects in and keeps them there.

2. Build a solid customer base

   Capturing leads must be a primary goal for your website. Turn visitors into prospects with consumer-centered interactive features to capture leads and send prospect information right to your database. Offer free items and services in exchange for contact information. Ask for feedback. Use a variety of interactive web forms that focus on consumers’ needs and harvest leads at the same time. Send automated follow-up e-mails to lock in satisfied prospects. The secret: Focus your site’s interactive power to capture leads and send prospect information right to your e-database.

3. Produce results that grow the business

   This is the part where you get the most for your e-marketing dollars. This is the part where your personal knowledge and expertise turn e-prospects into customers. This is the part where you do what you do so well in person – communicate, explain, negotiate, gain trust and close the sale. The secret: Implement your e-marketing properly and it will be followed by all the sales you can handle.

4. Leap-frog your competition with the new techniques

   The fundamental rule of business hasn’t changed: Anticipate change and be ready to adapt. Because market entry for new e-competition is easy, techniques that were well ahead of the pack in the 1990’s are now commonplace today.

   New solutions and new possibilities for online marketing are constantly emerging. Never has the need for effective online marketing been greater. Never has the consumer been more sophisticated or more demanding. In a competitive market filled with comparison shoppers, what is the single most important thing you must do to increase your share? The secret: Revisit your customer-centered marketing early and often, and reap the best techniques the web offers today.