For those agents who are just now jumping on the bandwagon to produce a Web site because they think they should, or they've heard that a Web site is a great way to build business, understanding some of the realities of Web-site marketing will help make the effort more worthwhile.

A lot of confusion exists about the Web as a marketing tool even among seasoned professionals, beginning with "What is it? How do I make an impact? How is traffic generated? What do consumers want? How much will I make? Does it add to or replace other forms of advertising?" But those questions aren't as significant as the one age-old query: How do I attract consumers? To answer those questions, the Web, for the purposes of this article, will be viewed as an advertising medium -- like TV, print, or radio.

The Web is growing by leaps and bounds, attracting new viewers every day. At this time, more than 25 percent of American households are connected to the Web, with 50 percent of households owning computer technology. Web TV and plummeting hardware prices are enticing new Internet surfers daily, and it is just a matter of time before every household is connected.

The first lesson is that the consumers are already there, making the Web a perfect medium for advertising. But there are five key areas in which the Web is different than any other form of media, and that is why it has set the advertising/marketing world on its ear. Advertising models are changing daily, as marketers struggle to place advertising dollars where they are most effective. The Web has changed the marketing paradigm. It is not only inexpensive to produce, but it also clearly reaches consumers.

1. Your marketing message is not only local; it's also worldwide. Target your pages appropriately. Most real estate advertising is localized and assumes the viewer knows all about your given area, but your market is the relocating customer. To appeal to them, you will want to emphasize the city, schools, neighborhoods, and other services, and your familiarity with all of these. To appeal to a seller, you will want to emphasize your track record of sales and your "bio." Write your copy as if you were telling complete strangers about you, your company, your listings, the area, and the community at large. Give them reasons to want to move there. Add a multilanguage link -- no one else is doing it, so you'll be the first.

2. You can target buyers, sellers, investors, lenders, title companies, and other Realtors with the same marketing tool -- your Web site and its pages. You can send the URL of any page on your site as a hot link in an e-mail message to anyone with whom you do business. If you are showing new listings, send them to your contacts. If you want to market yourself, e-mail your "bio" page to title companies and lenders. No other marketing tool offers the ability to promote yourself, showcase your listings, communicate directly with the consumer, and maintain industry contacts all at the same time.

3. Consumer traffic can be counted and qualified. The Web is the only advertising medium that can give you accurate results for your expenditures.

4. The consumer is coming to you to learn about you and your product, instead of you going to the consumer. This fact is among the most significant. The Web consumer is smart, educated, and aggressive. They comparison shop. Be ready.

5. Your content can be changed on a moment's notice. New listings, sold notices, breaking news, and general interest information may be added instantly. Remove any old features that aren't working for you.

When you purchase an advertisement in any print medium, the sales representative will tell you that your market saturation is based on the number of subscribers and editions sold to vendors such as book stores, convenience stores, and so on. If you are targeting a certain demographic, they can tell you by zip code how many people in your target market are buying the publication. Then there is "pass-along" value, which is an estimated figure of how many other hands the publication passes through in waiting rooms, at libraries, and at the doctors' office, for example.

The fact is that none of these figures can be proven. That's right -- none. There is no quantifiable method of tracking how many people actually saw, heard, or were even interested in your ad. Your advertising agency can't do it, the ad sales representative can't do it, and you probably can't, either. After placing an ad, have you ever asked every caller or open-house attendee how they heard about you? Do your employees ask? The only way you know is if you make a sale, and even then, you don't know what percentage of your sales were influenced by other factors or just plain dumb luck.

But on the Web, the dynamics are completely different. Instead of passive viewers, who may or may not be interested in your message, you have interactive participants -- consumers who are aggressively seeking products, services, and information, and they are growing all the time. No one can be enticed onto your site unless they want to be there, and if they are, they are looking for something you have to offer. This is the single most important reason to put your Web address and e-mail address on all of your printed media.

This proactive consumer trend represents a significant cultural event because it will change the way we do business in the nation and throughout the world. It means that businesses will have to compete not only for quality in product and delivery, but also in maintaining the attention and interest of the consumer. Why? Because your competition is on the Web, too. Regardless of size, assets and distribution ability, all competitors are equal on the Web, and the consumer is doing side-by-side comparisons. Your competitors can get online for the same price as you, and there is no "positioning" such as getting the inside front cover of a magazine or the front page of the newspaper's real estate section. You consumers have only to type in your URL...or your competition's.

Your Web site is essentially the creation of your own magazine. And you will have the same problems and concerns of any publication -- namely, distribution and attractive content to retain viewer interest. How to get on every newsstand (search engines) and other highly trafficked sites (related real estate sites) is your biggest concern. To put it in perspective, your magazine is now on the newsstand with millions of other publications. To stand out, you will have to perform daily maintenance and actively work at building relationships, just like the rest of your business. A Web business won't just happen.

You will need to find out which directories, such as Realty Locator, will list and link your Web site for free, and which sites will allow you to swap links or pay to link to other sites to increase traffic. These could be economic developers, chambers of commerce, home improvement sites, title companies, lenders, industry associations, past customers, and more. Your Web-site developer can see that you are placed in search engines for a fee, but you can't quit there. The chances of customers finding you through a search engine are slim. You will have to be proactive and continuously farm the Web for strategic alliances, just as you farm your local territory for referrals.

As far as interesting content goes, you want to bring as many consumers to your site and have them stay there as long as possible. And you want them to come back again and again, so don't quit with posting your current listings and your biography. What you want is for consumers to look at you as the go-to site for information on real estate. Period. One way is to develop links with content providers such as online news services, columnists, and home improvement sites. Agent News, for example, is on as many as 150 sites. Get your local MLS on your site if you can. If you are not a writer, don't worry. Find out if you can link to sites you like whose content would be helpful to your business.

Because of the mano y mano aspect of Web competition, the best sites are not limited to a one-page "online brochure." That is why Web sites are composed of multiple pages. Each page on the site serves a purpose -- whether it is a company or personal bio, new product or listing announcement, how-to/advice, or news and information -- and that is to keep the consumer interested. It is these pages that tell you the extent of the consumer's interest.

How do you find out where your traffic is going? When you create a Web site, your Web host should provide you with reports that detail your page views. Then you will know which pages are of most interest to consumers. The significance is that you can track how many people come to your site, which features they are interested in, and where they came from. Based on the information you obtain, you can improve service and product quality and delivery, consumer relations, and most of all, sales. A word of caution: Don't play the information withholding game with the consumer. Those days are over. Qualifying customers by making them fill in an e-mail reply before they can view homes will make them click you off faster than you can say "MLS."

As a marketing tool, your Web site is the most inexpensive to develop and has the potential to offer the greatest yield. But don't let the Web's relative low cost mislead you into developing a cheap-looking site. Although you can develop a complete Web site for the world to see for less than the cost of a box of business cards, your message still needs to be attractive to consumers. Put some money behind developing traffic, strategic alliances, and quality content so your Web site will stand out.

Published: April 3, 1998

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