Real Estate Internet Marketing for Realtors > Locale | Best Practices Blog

I just got back from the Real Estate Connect conference in NYC. There it was reported that one of the leading technologies of 2008 will be Web Video.

As my earliest readers will remember, myself and others have been preaching this for some time now. If you haven't already adopted video into your marketing campaigns, surely this must be the year to do so. Why wait to engage, particularly as times become rough?

One way to examine when to adopt a new technology can easily be identified through a simple analogy called the technology adoption lifecycle, originally developed by Joe M. Bohlen and George M. Beal in 1957 at Iowa State College.

Bohlen and Beal break down the lifecycle into the following categories:

Innovators: Those that buy into the technology the minute it hits the shelves, long before the rest of us even have a clue.

Early Adopters: Those that see value in testing new technologies and realize that the adoption might be too early for consumers to understand the need and/or how it is best used.

Early Majority: This the most important phase of the adoption lifecycle and where you can still be at today’s date. The “early majority” category allows you to still get a first-mover advantage, learn how to utilize the technology before the general competition, and, vitally important for today’s market, possess it as a competitive advantage over those in the last two categories of adopters.

Late Majority: The copy cats, those that wait for others to show they have created value in the new technology before they themselves turn their attention to it. At this point you are way behind the eight ball and will have a hard time getting any competitive advantage out of the adoption of the new technology. At this point, the adoption is a must for you to remain in the game.

Laggards: This is how you go out of business, whether it be quickly or a slow and perhaps humiliating process. You have your head in the sand and are living on borrowed time. Be thankful mum and dad left you that trust fund of yours; and if not, better to pick up the paper and browse through those classified ads sooner rather than later. Best get a head start now: who knows what sort of 401(k) plan they have at Staples…

And now back to video being your ticket, your saving grace, for 2008:

Video is the best content tool to showcase your listings and sell people on your personality and character. You as a Realtor therefore need to put yourself out there and embrace the medium. Explore the many capabilities of video and find a way to be distinctive in your online presentations to prospective clients.

Find a local videographer and start working with them as soon as possible. My advice is to outsource the video production and do not succumb to the thought that you can do this yourself. Sure the hardware and software are now relatively cheap, yet that affords a lower cost with the videographer while allowing you to focus on creating sales momentum and securing your place within today’s troubled market.

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The NAR Web site featured an excellent press release from a recent convention held in Las Vegas. A few of its mentioned highlights include:

• According to the 2007 NAR Profile of Home Buyers andSellers, 84 percent of recent homebuyers used the Internet in their search, up from 80 percent in 2006.
• “We know from our research that, rather than displacing real estate professionals, the Internet is actually helping connect them with home buyers,” said NAR President Pat V. Combs.
• The influence of Baby Boomers on the burgeoning second-home market, the immediacy of new forms of communication such as instant and text messaging and the expectations it creates, and the continued growth of the Internet are all issues that impact today’s real estate professionals.
• Vice President of Coldwell Banker-AJS-Schmidt, also Combs, says, “Our members understand that the most effective path to today’s buyers and sellers is often through their modems.”
• Bernice Ross, CEO of RealEstateCoach.com, says “Realtors must be able to capitalize on immediacy and technological trends to better serve their clients by providing information and services home buyers and sellers want and need in real time,” said Ross. “You can make the most of this market by figuring out what it is your clients need and how to provide it.”

And now with so many reports filling the Web and the real estate industry I wonder if we’ll finally start to see a change take place. Certainly there are a few real estate professionals that have either always understood the power of the Internet or have come to adopt the powerful resource, yet it seems as though the vast majority still hold some resistance to an age and technology that has proven itself on so many occasions.

Of course all of you that are reading this blog have already done so. Yet I wonder if we should continue to encourage our colleagues to make the switch, those that are currently looking in the yellow pages of a tattered old phone book for the number of the local newspaper to place another overpriced ad. Perhaps they too should be recycled with the forgotten and ineffective approaches they so adamantly adhere to.

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I just recently came across an interesting article called “More Internet Savvy Real Estate Buyers Equals More Money and Less Work for You.” Some of the most poignant points raised about real estate buyer were:

• Internet buyers spend almost a third the amount of time working with a real estate agent compared to a traditional buyer. This means less time carting buyers around in your car!
• Internet buyers interviewed about half as many real estate agents as traditional buyers before selecting a Realtor
• Nearly three quarters of all Internet buyers first saw the home they purchased on the Internet

We know a lot of research is going on by the consumers before contacting a Realtor. Think about how you are helping those online find you and your listings. Do you have a compelling value statement that differentiates you? Do you spend time creatively describing your listings?

Get out front and be visible online. Know what your consumers are looking for and deliver. As this report and others show, to do so will only save you time and money…And couldn't use more of both?

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The 2007 National Association of REALTORS Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows yet again the importance of marketing online.

When buyers were asked where they first learned about the home they purchased:

• 34% of buyers identified a real estate agent
• 29% the Internet
• 14% yard signs
• 8% a friend, neighbor or relative
• 8% from home builders
• 3% a print or newspaper ad
• 3% directly from the seller, and
• 1% from a home book or magazine

It is fair to say that with newspapers at only 3% and home books and magazines at an even lower 1%, print has lost its value for marketing home listings and real estate.

Consumers are online and your marketing strategies need to follow. At this point in time you cannot afford to lag behind. Evaluate your marketing budgets and allocate your resources wisely!

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Despite the reports read by all of us time and again, realtors are still spending heavily on print advertising. Even as the industry continually shows the Internet is where buyers are conducting their real estate search and discovery, the majority of realtors continue to look favorably upon the old medium.

As reported in Classified Intelligence’s survey in Real Estate Advertising 2007: Print Fading But Realtors Still Use It:

“Respondents, when asked to estimate their share of ad spending at various media categories, rounding up to the nearest 10 percent, said they spend about:

• 17.2 percent of their advertising budget on their own Web sites
• 14.7 percent on fliers, yard signs and billboards12.5 percent on direct marketing
• 11.2 percent on print ads in local newspapers
• 9 percent on print ads in local niche publications
• 7 percent on local-search advertising
• 6.9 percent on ads at national or regional online services
• And the remainder on local online niche publications, online local newspapers and other ad media”

As the report states, “agents and brokers appear to be spending their advertising dollars mostly the same way and in the same forms of media as they did a year ago.” Not a smart idea right now.

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Digital marketing continues to lag behind the shift in consumer behavior, as prompted by the Internet. Recent findings indicate that while “eight in 10 Americans are now online,” and spend as much time on the Web as they do on TV, most marketers allocate “only 5%-10% of their ad budgets to digital media.”

The report was prepared by the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, in conjunction with the Association of National Advertisers. The two are meeting this week in Phoenix in a sold out event, should any of you be in the Phoenix area.

With the majority of the real estate markets taking such hard hits, the value for realtors to be “first-movers” couldn’t be more important than now. And why wait? Consumers are already trying to use your Websites, yet the majority of your spending still lies in off-line mediums. Embrace the shift and benefit now.

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The Department of Justice has recently launched a new Website intended “to educate consumers and policymakers about the potential benefits that competition can bring to consumers of real estate brokerage services and the barriers that inhibit that competition,” according to a Department of Justice announcement today.

As the ongoing litigation continues from the concerns raised by the DOJ that information of property for sale is being restricted by realtors, it is interesting that the DOJ has actually chosen to jump in and launch the aforementioned site. Obviously the fight for “transparency” of information continues between realtors and consumers, as the DOJ jumping into the fray so wonderfully demonstrates.

Check out the new Department of Justice’s Website and share your thoughts on their initiative. Good for realtors? Bad? You tell me.

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Realtors should not discount the adoption rate of mobile technologies such as text messaging and Web browsing from the Baby Boomer generation. A recent study from INSIGHTEXPRESS shows that:

• Boomers’ handsets were just as cutting edge as their younger counterparts. 75% of younger Boomers and 68% of older Boomers had phones that supported text messaging, compared to 86% and 82% of Gens Y and X, respectively.
• Some 16% of all younger Boomers and 10% of all older Boomers sent or received text messages daily.
• Within the Boomer generation, some 39% of younger Boomers and 32% of older Boomers could surf the Web on their handset.

Getting ahead of the pack is the New York Times Real Estate Web site, which recently launched its mobile version. The New York real estate metro market will obviously provide a large group of early adaptors, allowing others to understand the viability of mobile as it rolls out across the US.

For real estate buyers, mobile technology represents a great source for readily available information. Listing signs with an ID number allow buyers to automatically see the latest information on the listing that’s sparked their interest via text messaging and other forms of mobile technology. Mobile devices are, in a nutshell, incredibly helpful in sharing listing information electronically.

If the Boomer generation is your target audience, don’t make the common mistake that Boomers are disconnected from technology. Real estate buyers of all ages and generations are passionate about technologies that allow the sharing of information, and the responsible and timely realtor should enable them to do so.

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Consider what really makes a home sell in order of importance:

1) Economic Conditions
2) Location
3) Condition
4) Price
5) Market Exposure
6) Contract Negotiations and Contingency Management

“Real estate brokers have no control over the first four and most important factors,” says a recent article in the Denver Investor Real Estate News.

So this is where the role of the realtor picks up. To close the deal you’ll need to be proficient in marketing, sales, and - if you are good at the first two - contract negotiations and contingency management skills. This is the challenge realtors face.

Are you left brained? Right? Both? Can you excel at marketing, manage the sales process, and also execute the negotiations and paperwork? In most organizations these are separate departments, allowing people to specialize. Why do we in real estate tend to lump them all together?

Successful realtors understand their strengths and surround themselves with others that can assure all needed competencies for success are met. Marketing is the generally the victim, and yet is the easiest to outsource. And fortunately for realtors, in most cases can drastically improve your professional success in the business of real estate.

Take time to realize your strengths and outsource the areas that are not your strongest suite. Ensure you’re able to provide your potential clients the very best, even if that means paying for outside expertise.

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In yet another article stressing the importance of the Internet, a recent study from IBM stated that time spent online is “set to surpass time spent watching TV in the average American household.”

According to the study, “19% of respondents said they spend six or more hours on the Internet, versus 9% for TV;” in addition, “60% reported they spend one to four hours using the Internet, versus 66%…watching TV.”

Aside from the fact that consumers are spending more time than ever online, perhaps equally pertinent to realtors and online marketers is the find that “67% of consumers say they watch video on the Internet, or would like to do so.”

As this and other studies show, the momentum of online video is picking up speed at an alarming rate and real estate is a prime industry to follow the trend. Invest in short form video for your listings, agent & agency profiles, neighborhood tours, etc. – your consumers have been requesting it for some time.

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