I have always taken a deep interest in Internet marketing since Al Gore invented the thing (it was Al, right?), and while my knowledge has matured, I don't make believe to, nor do I desire, to spend the time an expert in the subject, who does this as their vocation, could spend on it for me. But I still am fascinated by how it works, and even more fascinated by how the net is maturing, and where it can and will take the world. To me its much like the Edison's light bulb, or Bells telephone. There's no saying how far it can go eventually.
At the same time, it amazes me how so many brokers have no real web strategy, other than to build some kind of a site, get it on the net, and wait for the results. For those who are doing just that, pay attention to the activity you don't get, and start working on how to change that. For a web site to succeed, you need more than hits, you need more than leads, you need more than a lead tank, you need it all for it to work.
When you build your site, remember who is coming, the consumer, not Realtors. They arent coming to see your picture, they are coming to search for houses. Give the consumer what they want, and you've got a good beginning. Then, develop a strategy for driving APPROPRIATE traffic to your site, and monitor it to see what works and what isn't. And then monitor it again to see if what works still works, and so on.
Then, when you do that, make sure you have a mechanism that lets you get right back to the consumer. I recently heard a stunning statistic, that most Realtors take 54 hours to get back to their lead. If thats you, don't expect much. Find a way to make sure that at least 90% of the time, you or your agents get back to the seller within 12 hours, and you will convert on avg 30% of app 20-25% of your inquiries, or .6-.75 per 100. If you can do that, then find a way to get back to them in 4 hours, and then, you should convert almost 50% of the 20-25%, leading to a 1% conversion to sales. if you can do that, find a way to get back to them within the hour, and you will convert 72% of app. 20-25% of your leads. Get the picture? the leads mean nothing if we do nothing with them, and the longer it takes to get to them, the less they will mean.
Another great stat to know....60% of all Internet leads will buy from the first person to get back to them on the net, provided that person stays in touch through the incubation and sales cycle.
So, if you are developing your Internet strategy, and judging from the posts a lot of us are, make sure it includes a whole lot more pro-activity than some nice graphics and an idx platform.
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