In 1994 when I first encountered the Web, there were only a handful of real estate sites in existence. As a former REALTOR®, I realized immediately the Web's enormous potential as a vehicle for agents to market themselves, their services and their properties.
The Web has changed enormously over the past four years. It is no longer sufficient to simply have a presence, a couple of photos and standard ad copy. For success, you must have a significant presence, one which differentiates you from all the other REALTORS® in your marketplace. A successful real estate Web site in 1998 takes thought and planning.
A great site, one that makes money for you, requires that you:
- Understand the purpose of your site. What's your goal? To attract buyers, to attract sellers, to represent builders, or is it simply "institutional" advertising? Define before you start what you are trying to accomplish and remember you can never be all things to all people.
- Identify your audience. Is it first time homebuyers, luxury property sellers, relocating families, international customers, waterfront? Gear your content to your audience. For example, if you specialize in buyers and sellers of waterfront properties, know the details of sea walls and boat lifts. Explain the nuances of canal-front, river-front, lake-front, bay-front, ocean-front - and the differences in price. Be the expert for your audience!
- Implement strategies to generate leads. Don't put ALL the information on your Web site. Set up autoresponders for people to request the information they really want. An autoresponder delivers the info directly to their email box, but it also gives you the email address of the requester. This is a lead. Without autoresponders, you may never know who is visiting your site. Local school information works well as autoresponder content.
- Provide good, informative content which changes on a regular basis. You are competing for bookmarks. If visitors know that you will have new content for them next month, they are more likely to bookmark your site for a return visit. And they will tell their friends. They might not be ready to buy or sell today, but when the time comes, you want them to remember you and your site.
- Don't depend on hyperlinks for content. Your ultimate goal should be to control as much information on your site as you can. Hyperlinks, although attractive to Net Newbies as the easy road to site information, take a lot of care and feeding. Nothing screams site neglect as much as link rot - the dreaded 404 Not Found message. Plus, you may be ultimately held responsible for whatever is at the other end of that hyperlink.
- Be aware of copyright issues. Don't use material that you have no legal right to use. Almost everything is covered by copyright law - this includes 20th century music, photos on other Web sites, written material. In some cases, it even covers linking to another site within a frame.
- Don't create your site as a monument to your ego. State your credentials and experience briefly without any marketing hype. Resumes are boring. The information about you should be behind a button - at the end of the list, not at the top of the list. It's also nice to let your personality and interests show. If you have a golden retriever, display a photo of yourself with your dog. There are 50+ million households in this country with dogs. Those people generally feel an affinity for other dog owners and may make an instant connection with you.
- Offer interactivity and entertainment - things for people to do, not just information for them to read. If visitors participate in your site, they are more likely to bookmark it and/or remember it. Interactivity can take many forms: calculators, trivia quizzes, send an electronic greeting card, an Encarta search, currency conversion are a few examples.
- Don't forget your local audience. Include site content of local interest (summer concert schedules, local art fairs, etc.) and be sure to use sign riders to remind locals to visit your Web site. Sign riders are free advertising. Your riders should show your full web site address. HYPERLINK http://www.yourdomain.com should be placed on every for-sale sign you place at your properties.
- Have a system in place to follow up leads. When you get an inquiry, answer your e-mail immediately. It sounds obvious, but you'd be amazed at how many REALTORS don't check e-mail on a daily basis. Contact the people again in a week or so. Then again, two weeks later. Put them on your general e-farm list and use a mass-mailer like WorldMerge. In general, Web visitors check many different sites and send e-mail to several agents. The first response they receive in answer to their inquiry is usually the REALTOR they choose to work with.
Published: August 5, 1998
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