Inexpensive Internet Advertising For The Real Estate Industry

Most real estate agents and mortgage brokers have heard the stories of how some of their contemporaries are making a fortune from generate leads and eventually sales produced by internet traffic. Maybe at one point or another you (agent or broker) have wanted to get involved in the internet marketing arena, but had no idea where to start. Possibly you went as far as having your friends niece design you a website…now what?



Many people are so confused about marketing their site and the fear of being ripped off that they never really do much with their site.



This is equivalent to having thousands of brochures or promotional materials created and spending hundreds to thousands of dollars on the design and creation, and then never sending them out. In its simplest form a website is just another promotional material just in a non-traditional format from print.



Your website is an interactive ad you have created, internet marketing is the distribution of advertisement (your website). Is there a point to spend time and money on an ad that hardly anyone will see?



I'm sure this is not the first time you have heard this or come to this realization.



So, now the question becomes what are some viable options to promote my website and my service? There are many ways to promote a website, but most are expensive. Whether this is an expense of your time through doing research and implementation of your learned techniques, or paying a search engine marketing professional to do this for you, it will cost you. This can be a profitable endeavor, but it can be costly and may take up to 6 months to receive any relevant performance depending on a variety of factors that we won't go into today.



So what should real estate agents do to begin gaining internet traffic that can expand their client base and increase their sales?



There are several options that will work if an agent or mortgage broker is willing to spend a fair budget on marketing themselves online, or willing to wait for their organic search engine rankings to take hold. Even if you are incorporating traditional internet marketing techniques there are several inexpensive methods to further expand your ability to market yourself online to potential clients.



Here are 3 quick and easy options that will jump-start your real estate related marketing within a month! Even if you currently have a good website and are utilizing search engine optimization techniques, these methods can still be valuable tools to improve your visibility and enhance your internet marketing.



1. Craigslist.com - If you're a real estate agent and you haven't discovered Craigslist, you are way behind the curve. Craigslist is a quick, easy and effective way to advertise your listings, your website, and business.



Agents can post on a very regular basis for free, which includes free hosting for the property photos, inclusion of links to your website.



Another valuable aspect about using Craigslist is that your listing will more than likely get picked up by the search engines, and many other sites use postings in Craigslist to populate data for their sites such as HousingMaps.com. In less than 10 minutes you can get hundreds to thousands of prospective clients to view your listing, see all of your contact information, have you ad go out on many other websites and get another page indexed in the search engines, and it doesn't cost you a dime!



2.



MyLocalProfile.com - MyLocalProfile is a fairly new product that leverages the power of several prominent data providers that the major search engines use to backfill the their local listing information on their regular search results, and on their local search listings. MylocalProfile gives any company or business that has a physical location to create and control the information that is listed in the search engines pertaining to their business. This powerful tool gives companies the ability to update and change items such as their address, phone number, website address, company products, and many other listed items from one central profile.



Another great feature about MyLocalProfile is that it creates a basic website that provides all their pertinent information. This is a valuable asset to local businesses that are not really in need of a fully functioning website such as a neighborhood coffeehouse to a local hardware store.



3. Real Estate Directories - Many real estate professionals may be unaware of this, but there are thousands of directories that will list your site absolutely free. This is beneficial for several reasons, most notably free traffic to your website, and increased links to your site (this is one element that can improve your search engine rankings).



Taking this a step further there are a decent amount of directories that are specialized towards the real estate industry only. Most of real estate directories are free or less than 20 bucks to have your site listed. Just go to the search engine of your choice and search for "real estate directories" and you will get a clearer picture of this opportunity.



Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will your internet traffic. The opportunities I've laid out are quick, effective, and moreover inexpensive methods of driving traffic to your site.



Spend even 1 hour a week implementing these quick results strategies and you'll see viable results without committing thousands of dollars towards a seo campaign, or tens of hours trying to learn and optimize your site on your own. Even if you are implementing a search engine optimization campaign utilizing the above-mentioned techniques will still benefit your hunt to gain traffic quickly as your seo campaign develops.

Real Estate and the Internet Part I: A Lucrative Match

As the real estate market continues to boom, homebuyers are looking for a simple way to answer their questions without having to do a lot of work. Since the Internet is becoming the easiest way to access information about almost anything, why not put the two together?According to a study conducted by the National Association of Realtors in 2005, the use of the Internet to search for a home has risen from 2% in 1995 to 77% in 2005. With so many buyers turning to the Internet to search for a home before they even contact an agent, it's important for the agent to have all his or her information available online, including all the local listings from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), if allowed.



This is especially true with the competitive nature of the real estate industry. If an agent doesn't have a fully equipped website, the buyer will go somewhere else for information. And they definitely have many other options.Over the past five years, says the NAR survey, the number of agents with websites has increased 129%, leaving those without a website far behind the pack. Many agents cringe at the mere thought of creating a personal website, however, but the relationship between real estate and the internet shouldn't be intimidating.



It should be intriguing. Never before have agents had direct access to so many people with whom they would not normally reach. In terms of lead generation, only referrals and repeat clients rank above the Internet as the most effective methods of gaining new business. Many have jumped at the chance to take advantage of this opportunity and are already investing heavily in internet marketing.In 2006, 56% of agents spent more than $1,000 on technology and 30% spent $2,000 or more. As so many agents are becoming technologically savvy, it is becoming a necessity to market online to level the playing field with the competition and appeal to the millions of prospective buyers seeking answers on the Internet.



However, with online marketing, you get what you pay for. It's amazing that many real estate professionals continue to produce sub-par websites without any regard to how they might be perceived online. With 77% of the potential market going online first, why would you spend the majority of your branding efforts and resources elsewhere? Gone are the days where a free website produced by "my sister's kid" will produce results online. In fact, these sites stand out like a sore thumb in the new world of online marketing.



If you don't have a professional, polished and complete site you will actually hurt your business in the long-run.However, creating your own website takes some time and effort, which many of us don't have to spare. That is why seeking some experienced help could be the ticket to successful, stress-free online marketing.To take some of the edge off, a digital marketing professional can assist you with many aspects of your website, such as helping you with your User Interface (UI) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy, and assisting you with your overall online marketing and advertising plan.



Your job is to provide the information the clients are browsing for, such as home buyer tips, recent mortgage rates, relevant articles and MLS data as well as the money to make sure it's done correctly. If the thought of paying somebody to get you online is discouraging, remember this old saying: You have to spend money to make money. Agents who have mastered this mantra are reaping the benefits.Real Estate and the Internet Part II: Get your MLS Listings OnlineForty percent of those who spent more than $5,000 on their websites showed that more than 60% of their leads came from the Internet.



Overall online marketing spending has increased as well. "Businesses are rethinking their marketing spending," said Carl Howe, a principal of Blackfriars Communications. "Online spending of all types grew to more than a quarter of marketing budgets. We could see even more growth online if executives start spending the larger budgets they have planned for the second quarter." Now there's some encouragement.Once you have a website, there are still some decisions to be made to ensure that you get the most coverage possible for your listings.



First, in order to display your listings you will need to sign up for a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and get authorized to receive the IDX data from your local MLS. IDX, or Internet Data Exchange, is the means of extracting data from the MLS and delivering it to a website for public consumption. In other words, IDX makes it much easier for potential buyers to browse your site for listings that fit their needs, giving the "little guys" some of the same marketing potential as the "big guys".



If you don't display IDX search tools on your website, potential buyers could possibly pass up your site in favor of the competition, which isn't limited to just agents and brokers. With the tightening market, it is important for those selling their home on their own to utilize the local MLS as well.A common synonym for IDX is Broker Reciprocity, so, in other words, when setting up your site you have to choose if you want your listings available on other brokers' sites and their listings available on your site.



You may be asking yourself, why would I want to display other brokers' listings on my website? When you display these listings, you give potential buyers a reason to keep coming back to your site, making you a reliable real estate resource for your area. And allowing other brokers to display your listings is basically just free advertising. The more places your listings show up, the faster they are likely to sell. What agent doesn't want the greatest possible amount of exposure for every listing?The Internet is the destination for millions of information seekers.



Never before has there been a resource that gives you access to so many people, all over the world. As the internet becomes a standard in marketing a successful business, how can you afford not to focus your efforts on this rapidly growing channel?Mary French http://www.idxbroker.comAbout IDX, Inc. IDX, Inc. creates solutions to promote and connect sellers with buyers using innovative server-side technology. Headquartered in Eugene, Oregon, IDX, Inc. specializes in advanced web-based application development for industries and businesses worldwide.



IDX Broker, the primary application developed by IDX, Inc., helps inventory and real estate professionals generate more new leads at a low cost to the client.