Consumers find Realtors® in several ways: They enter key word strings such as San Clemente California Realtor® into search engines, they click on links on portal sites (major web-entry pages including Netscape.com, MSI.com, aol.com, yahoo.com, etc.) that lead to lists of Realtors and they hunt for Realtors inside MLS search sites such as Realtor.com, Homeseekers.com and Homeshark.com.

To be ready for those consumers, you simply must do all you can to come up high on search engine pages, get lots of free and paid-for links on portal sites, and buy presence in the MLS search sites. If you don’t pay attention to even one of the above, you’re losing sales to some other Realtor in your marketing area. But while you’re pondering that sage (and sadly true) advice, there is something you can do locally to drive consumers to your site. And it costs virtually nothing.

What is it? Just put your e-mail and web site addresses on every single piece of printed promotional material that has your name on it, including newspaper and magazine ads. Oops! Do you already have brochures, flyers, farm materials out there now that lack your two web addresses? Hmm. Too bad. That other web-savvy agent who farms your area likely just positioned himself above you in the minds of your farm’s residents as the Realtor who is far more technologically "with it" than are you. Gee, with whom will those sellers list their home? Hmm.

What can you do? Right now, make a list of all the printed stuff you have that ought to have your web addresses on it. Hints: Letterhead, envelopes, address stickers, brochures, flyers, door hangers, business cards, post cards, co-op mailings through your broker, yellow pages, magazine, newspaper ads, automobile, commercial lot and yard signs, ashtrays, cups, magnetic calendars, T-shirts, your Rolls-Royce, etc.

And looking ahead, whenever you reorder promo material, be sure that you don’t just tell the vendor, "Send me another 500" until you first tell him to (finally, this time) add your two web addresses.

You see, 1999 web projections call for huge additional numbers of consumers world-wide going online. (Cheap computers and Web-TV have opened up vast middle-class markets.)

Just like you, most of these web "newbies" live in homes they own. Most move every few years. Most will search for homes on the web. Then when they find that they can do no more by searching MLS data by themselves, they’ll select an online agent (by comparing web sites). Then they’ll e-mail a request to that agent to perform on-site leg-work for them long before they show up in person. It’s happening now. Fewer people, as a result, will walk in or contact a Realtor sitting at an "up desk". Thousands of Realtors are selling more and more homes from web site leads.

If you want to be one of them, you need to give yourself every break possible. And that includes driving people to your web site every single time that they see anything from or about you.

Remember how surprised you are sometimes with the weird ways that consumers hear about you? Well, here’s another such story.

While fly fishing a trout stream in Michigan, an angler grabbed my Realtor friend’s business card as it floated by. My friend’s web addresses were on the card. The consumer visited my friend’s web site, began corresponding with him, then gave him the listing for a $375,000 home. My old pal sold both sides of the deal. And is he ever glad that he had just reprinted his cards, this time, with his web addresses prominently displayed!

Published: April 2, 1999

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Bill Koelzer is a Web marketing consultant to web-proficient agents nationwide. He is co-author, with Barbara Cox, Ph.D., of the Prentice-Hall books, Internet Marketing in Real Estate and Internet Marketing. Bill is also webmaster of Orange County Real Estate, among the most-awarded known Realtor® sites. Visit his website, Koelzer.com or e-mail him at .