I'm sure that a lot of advertising folks would disagree with this post, but I believe there is a shift taking place with Realtors who are seeing more benefit and returns from internet advertising than from print advertising.
A recent study by NAR showed,
- "Nine out of 10 home buyers use a real estate agent in the search process, but use of the Internet to search for a home has risen dramatically over time, increasing from only 2 percent of buyers in 1995 to 77 percent in 2005; it was 74 percent in 2004. The next largest source of information for buyers is a yard sign, mentioned by 71 percent of buyers.
- When asked where they first learned about the home purchased, 24 percent of buyers identified the Internet, up strongly from 15 percent in 2004 and only 2 percent in 1997. Although most buyers use an agent to complete the transaction, 36 first learn about the home they buy from a real estate agent and 15 percent from yard signs; five other categories were 7 percent or less."
So we know that nearly 4 out of 5 of your buyers are looking for their next home on the internet. Why would you focus your budget to print advertising such as local newspapers and magazines. The only print advertising we do anymore are;
- mailers to prospects (expireds, FSBO's, NOD's)
- Homes And Land (which also gives us a website and our listings in an RSS feed that we can then syndicate)
- Re/Max Catalog of Homes (Free to Re/Max Agents)
We focus the majority of our energy into just a few places. I would say that the most often overlooked is Craigslist. Cragislist generates more leads for us than any other free service. This is the first thing I will tell FSBO's when chatting with them about listing. The other place we focus a lot of energy is our own website.
Your main website has a huge responsibility if it is going to be successful. You must:
- design it to be effective in search engines
- make your website a source of information
- keep your content fresh
- differentiate from the competition
With your focus on capitalizing on free internet advertising opportunities, you are sure to see your leads increasing as your ROI increases and your overhead decreases.
Q).What do you do to be more effective with advertising dollars and give your clients the most bang for the buck?
;)
Links;)
Archives
We do exactly the same thing you do with another addition - we snail mail our database at minimum twice a month. This brings in business by the boatload - directing people to our website, calling us, etc.