The foundation of all your marketing is your website. After all, your website is the cornerstone of everything that you do on the internet. It needs to attract and maintain attention.
(This is part 2 of 4 - See Previous Post: Sign of No Business.)
Let’s use this as an example: I could spend all the time in the world working with traditional marketing for a local ‘Fancy Italian Restaurant’: placing 10 ads, sending out 500 postcards, developing radio copy etc. etc. I could write about fine food, beautiful music and good atmosphere… but when people actually go there, open the door and it turns out to be nothing but a biker bar with loud obnoxious southern women (serving spaghetti and beer)… those ‘visitors’ will open the door and immediately leave. Your message needs to match reality.
You are not selling real estate to robots AND you are not receiving page views for a pretty site. It is important that your website not only be visually appealing, but also be attractive to search engines. You must ensure not only that your website can be indexed accurately by robots, but that it is interesting your human visitors (the ones that are actually buying or selling a home). Search engine robots are the judges AND your human clients are the target market. How do you satisfy both?
IMPORTANT: Read also - What to expect and what to look for in an internet marketing consultant.
In much the same way a human visitor looks at your site, a search engine indexes it based on the information presented. In contrast, however, a search engine does not ‘see’ your site in the same way as a human at all. (It only ‘sees’ text, navigation, and links). In order to improve your search engine ranking (and get more human visitors) you need to improve your ‘presentation’ to search engines first with content. Then, you need to consider the eye movements and the online buying behavior of the consumer. Most consultants understand internet technology or consumer behavior. It’s extremely rare that you will find an internet marketing consultant that understands both.
Most real estate agents that approach me have what I call a ‘quick fix’ website and MLS search combination. They have an iHouseweb, z57, agent advantage or other ‘quick fix’ website. I have worked with all of these in the past and the result is always the same. A mess. They simply do not provide the tools or features that you need to be successful on the internet (and no… I don’t care that they have an ‘SEO’ button on the control panel. It’s lipstick on a frog. Period.)
Let’s look at the dynamics of this for a second. Every one of these website providers works with agents on a ‘fast food’ basis. They offer a quick, easy solution that you know deep inside is bad for you, but it does the ‘trick’ for now. They provide the same EXACT solution, the same EXACT content and the same EXACT website to hundreds of thousands of other real estate agents all over the country.
Ever heard of duplicate content? This is exactly what Google strives to deter.
I can go on and on about what is wrong with these ‘fast food’ websites, but I won’t. I will only tell you that if you wish to be successful on the internet (or with marketing in general) you need to move away from ‘me-too’ marketing. We need a solid foundation on which to build your internet presence. The advantage you now have against your competition is that you have thought about your foundation. You have built your foundation. No matter how many internet strategies they utilize in their marketing, they will never be able to maintain ground on quicksand. You have field advantage.
(This is part 2 of 4 - See Next Post: Nothing is Said Without Emotion.)
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