Special offer

The power of inbound marketing with real estate

By
Real Estate Agent with eXp Realty

It has been a little bit over a year and a half since I joined my new brokerage company, eXp Realty and I have to say that the training I have received has been top notch.  I'm a bit of a techie (okay, I'm totally a techie) and I naturally gravitated towards the classes on inbound marketing and search engine optimization.

One of my best friends is a business owner and what I would consider a professional salesman.  My mother-in-law used to say that he could "talk a hungry dog off a meat wagon" and I have to say it is true.  He just has a natural gift to sell anything.

I was recently talking with him about how I have been implementing the skills I have learned from my weekly online training classes at eXp Realty on SEO and inbound marketing and he was telling me how powerful inbound marketing is for sales.  It got me thinking about my success so far and I thought I would share it here with my friends on Active Rain.

In less than a year I have positioned my local Methuen real estate blog site on the first page of google for two of my target search terms.  Here is a look at my first real estate blog's performance over the past year.

Methuen Analytics

This was my first attempt at blogging and I have to admit that I made some mistakes when setting up my first blog.  I think my site looks great now thanks to the great designers I have at my disposable here as an agent with eXp Realty (for free I might add).

Taking what I learned from my first blog I have recently started a new statewide blog targeting real estate leads throughout Massachusetts.  I am already on the second page of google for my target search terms for that site and these search terms get around 100k searches a month.  I'm looking forward to the day that I break through to the first page with those search terms!  Here are my recent google analytics for my statewide blog site from the past month.

Site 2

Notice that the Average time on this site is almost double my first site, the bounce rate is lower, and percent returning visitors is higher.  If you are new to google analytics and have questions about this data please contact me and I will try to answer any questions that you might have.

The other exciting thing about my new site is that inbound leads are starting to come in.  Inbound leads generated from organic search traffic, in my opinion, have an advantage over leads generated from other methods such as door knocking, cold calls, and leads from print, mail, or other types of advertisements.  Not that those other methods are not effective, but having a prospect coming to you to inquire about your services is always nice. 

Inbound leads on your site mean that someone found your site, saw a match in your services with their current needs and they contacted you for assistance.  It can't get much better than that (other than word of mouth leads from your previous clients).  Many of these leads inquire about specific homes that they are interested in.  I have had some of these leads turn into single showings and offers on the first showing.

My real estate consumer leads are starting to come in slowly now, but in preparation for my influx of leads that I anticipate I will be getting next year I am looking to network with other agents in Massachusetts as referral partners throughout the state.  If you are interested, please contact me to discuss any time and I will add you to my referral agent database.

In the mean time I will keep posting my referrals on the Active Rain referral network page.

I also wanted to extend this special offer out to all Massachusetts and New Hampshire real estate agents.  If you join my team here at eXp Realty this winter during the slower months I will personally help you set up your own blog, identify target keywords for your local market, optimize your site for those keywords, and show you how to get your blog ranked high in the search engines for your target keywords.

Let me know if you are interested in learning more!

Thank you,

Chris

Rosalie Evans
Meritus Group Real Estate - Sioux Falls, SD
The Evans Group, Sioux Falls, SD Homes For Sale

I am still in the process of figuring out Google Analytics! I need to get on top of that. All I know is I am trying to get my bounce rate down and it is just over 50! So much to learn!

Dec 10, 2011 05:23 PM
Carlotta Remong
Berkshire Hathaway HS N.E. Prime Properties - Newport, RI

Chris, it is a little confusing but if it is working for you that's wonderful. Good luck in your recruiting for next year. Happy Holidays!

Dec 10, 2011 06:04 PM
Chris Lefebvre
eXp Realty - Methuen, MA
Methuen MA Real Estate Pro

Rosalie, I know that the analytics dashboard can be very overwhelming at first!

For starters I recommend focussing on your number of visits, number of unique visitors (% returning visitors versus new visitors), average time on site, and bounce rate.  All of this is on the overview page.  The other page that I like to track are the keywords that your visitors are using to find your site (under Traffic Sources --> Sources --> Search --> Organic) and your most popular content (under Content --> Overview).

There is some great training on the google analytics website here:

http://www.google.com/analytics/education.html

I have another blog with a 7% bounce rate, but it is a highly focussed blog.  I think that the more variation in your site content the higher your bounce rate will be.  Bounce rate is important, but I wouldn't worry too much about it and focus more time and energy on converting visitors to leads with relavent content on your site and calls to action.  I'd be happy to talk with you more about it some time.  I love this stuff!

Dec 10, 2011 06:09 PM
Tim Lorenz
TIM LORENZ - Elite Home Sales Team - Mission Viejo, CA
949 874-2247

I agree inbound marketing is everything and is most important to success in Real Estate today.

Dec 10, 2011 06:09 PM
Chris Lefebvre
eXp Realty - Methuen, MA
Methuen MA Real Estate Pro

Thank you Carlotta!  I think that anything can be confusing until you study and learn it.  We have a weekly SEO class on Thursday afternoons. I'd be happy to get a guest pass for any agent that is interested in learning more about SEO to attend one of our weekly online classes.  I am also available for private SEO consultations.  Here is a site that I've been working on this week for one of my colleagues (this is still a work in progress and a brand new blog site):

http://westerlyseaside.com/

Happy Holidays!

Chris

Dec 10, 2011 06:17 PM
Ronald DiLalla
Century 21 Discovery DRE 01813824 - Anaheim, CA
No. Orange Cty Real Estate

Hi Chris, appears that yho are on the right track...congratulations and continued success...

Dec 10, 2011 07:07 PM