Old Rule: A picture is worth a thousand words.

New Rule: A website is worth a thousand pictures.

Real estate professionals weathered more changes and challenges in the years between 1990 and 2005 than in any previous fifteen-year period. Paradoxically, the one constant in our industry during that time was change, and change continues to charge over the hill.

At the heart of this tectonic challenge were newer and better ways to manage your marketing -- both offline and online -- increase production, and deliver better service, all with the promise of earning higher profits. In the market of yesteryear we would prospect for sellers, believing in the maxim, "Control the listings and you control the market." Now top producers understand, "You keep your edge competitive by converting more buyer and seller prospects into signed contracts."

New Trends

The emergence of the Internet as a marketing tool became a new trick the old dogs had to master to survive while the impact of buyer representation in the 1990s shook up the status quo. Today, successful eRainmakers have crafted a more balanced marketing strategy designed to attract both buyers and sellers. Here are six new trends, tools and services top producers practice today:

• Most new business comes through the Internet. More and more prospects are turning to the Internet to do initial information gathering.

  According to the National Association of Realtors 2004 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, buyers who search for homes on the Internet are more likely to use a real estate professional to complete the transaction than those who don't (77 vs. 64 percent), and the median sales price for Internet home buyers was 19 percent higher than the median price for other home buyers.

• A balanced marketing strategy doubles your chances for success. Cross-marketing your services attracts buyer listings as well as seller listings. Even though web prospects typically make first contact wearing their "buyer hat," savvy eRainmakers position their full service to convert more double transactions. "Do you have a home to sell?" has become a key web form qualifier to meet the prospect's relocation timetable.

  Once a buyer-soon-to-be-seller is under buyer agreement, create a "drive-buy" list of homes for sale that matches their stated needs and preferences. They can cruise by the homes at their own convenience and call you to make arrangements for an in-house inspection. Leveraging more deals in less time is the result.

New Tools

Above all, the Internet is the most important marketing tool to join the marketing mix since television entered the nation's living rooms in the 1950s. Yet the secret to greater success in real estate marketing today lies in blending the innovative Internet tools with the time-tested offline techniques to increase your production and your profits.

• The Internet's greatest impact has been in the way agents are able to market their businesses and build prospect databases. Lead-gathering tools that will give you the competitive edge are out there in abundance.

  User-friendly websites and e-mail drip programs provide unending combinations for special offers and services such as multimedia virtual tours (see eRainmaker.com: Virtual Tours) and automated listing updates. Even the perennial CMA takes on a new spin as a "Quick Over-The Net Price Analysis" to capture seller prospects.

• The focus is always on the customer. If you know what your target customers want, you can serve it up on a referral-boosting silver platter. With today's technology, you can simultaneously answer prospect questions, survey others about current and future needs, and make specific online offers that cater to every customer's wish list from first contact through closing. When a prospect is "ready," e-contact turns to quality time with face to face service designed to buy a home not find a home.

• Real estate professionals who are on top of lead follow-up are also on top of the competition. Careful management of your prospect database is critical today. Contact management software programs make it easier with such enhancements as automatic drip marketing, automated follow-up (see eRainmaker.com: Property Updates), automated scheduled showing updates, and open house activities from automated invitations to autopilot follow-up. HTML e-mail out-pulls text and out-distances the competition with more interactive business-building response offers.

New Services

The good news is that no matter how many trends and tools there are to help build and maintain a trophy database, the real estate professional is still central to every transaction. Person-to-person, face-to-face, there is nothing that can take the place of a professional's local knowledge and negotiating skills.

• There are many up-to-the-minute free and fee-based services that will help you do what you do the best. Pay-per-click search marketing and exposure sites, such as your MLS and Realtor.com, will help you reach buyer prospects by posting every listing online, including a photo if available.

  Click-throughs produce leads and the hyperlinks from these sites to your site gives your site added weight among search engines. There are also fee-based services such as, Internet Data Exchange (IDX) for MLS searches and listing updates, and Virtual Office Website (VOW) that enables brokers to advertise each other's listings.

  Virtual tours sell your listings while you're busy elsewhere, and automated listing updates make buyer prospect follow-ups easy. Maintaining multiple websites -- all integrated into one centralized e-mail follow-up program managed by a trained virtual or on-site assistant -- frees eRainmakers to provide even better personal service -- and put more money in the bank.