Happy New Year! Here’s to 2008 being the year for taking your business and personal life to their highest level. The need for people to connect and exchange goods and services has been one of civilization’s ongoing themes. Now, the need for people to get on the internet and search for real estate information is going to increase exponentially. The big question is, not how technology will advance the real estate industry, but rather how will you use it.
2008 poses many challenges for the real estate industry and its irrevocable relationship with the internet. How are you positioned to garner your share of targeted real estate leads and marketing potential of the internet? Are you investing in old traditional training techniques of sending out post cards, fancy listing presentation displays and a clever tag line? You already know that marketing to your sphere of influence and past clients is essential. But what other business systems have you implemented for seller or buyer leads?
How are you spending your education dollars and time? Now is the time to take action.
Search engine optimization and online lead generation is a competitive game, and it is growing more competitive by the day. You’ve read the articles, watched it on the news and read all the press releases. The biggest companies in real estate are investing the lion share of their resources to the internet. No more old traditional training, old school marketing or ideas. Major corporations are dumping money into their internet business in order to compete in the networked society we live in. What are you doing now to further your education and online real estate lead generation business? That’s your challenge in 2008 and beyond.
As I’ve stated before, you can still create a very successful online real estate lead-generation business. However, these days are numbered.
The Web is big, but it’s a finite resource. Well, more accurately said, cyberspace is infinite, but people will only dig so deep. Real estate Web sites that capture the top spots in the search engines are garnering high quality leads and massive lists of interested buyers and sellers. But, as more and more big-brand companies compete and figure out how to grab high ranking search engine positions, they will slowly but surely elbow out the little guy. It’s the nature of an industry to be “open” to early adopters at the beginning and then slowly close to only those that can afford the great investment of time and money needed to stay competitive. As more and more buyers and sellers use the Internet for real estate research, the “evening and weekend traditional real estate agent marketing model” is fast becoming extinct.
If you want to stay competitive in the period ahead, you will need to grab a piece of the Internet action, and now is the time to establish your foothold. You CAN still create a successful real estate online lead-generating business. You CAN still get top spots in the search engines. It’s not too late, but I guarantee if you wait, it soon will be.
More and more, I get calls from companies selling real estate leads. They notice I’m everywhere on the internet. My sites rank very high organically for specific real estate search terms and cpc. I also own the right spots on other real estate portals that drive targeted traffic to my listings, my sites and yes…..generate high quality, exclusive leads.
I just received a call from a company selling real estate leads. As published in my book, Internet Real Estate Agent: A Guide To Dominating Internet Real Estate Leads and Marketing, there are specific questions you must ask to avoid wasting money and time. After going back and forth with the skilled sales rep., I was able to hone down the basics of how the program works.
Here’s how their lead program works:
1. A person is watching television, listening to the radio or sees a banner ad online. The add is asking the person to call a phone number to learn about a real estate tax advantage and commission rebate back to them if they buy or sell real estate.kassia