Predictions for Online Realtor Marketing in 2006

1. Online competition will not only get stiffer by other Realtors, but also online lead companies will seek to take top search engine positions.

Do a search under any Big real estate Keyword phrase & in any given real estate market. You usually will find two or three actual Realtor websites. The remaining sites are Commercial Lead Aggregators or non-agent sites.

Most online traffic comes from search engines, with branding a distant second. There is usually only ten spots available per natural search phrase (natural meaning non-sponsored).

This will only feel more restrictive, as the Realtor Bubble swells, making the NAR Average of 6 sides per agent grow smaller over time.

2. Blogs will get even more popular. Real Estate Blogging will continue to grow in popularity. New blog directories & Engines, are popping up to index and categorize these content machines.

3. Audio/Podcasting will become mainstream as agents find ways to implement audio into blogs and websites. Adding voice to listings, and personalization will find its way into many creative web designs and blogs.

One of the reasons that blogs are so powerful is that they put a personality and voice to a business. It also adds authority over ones subject matter. Audio adds another powerful modality in the agents quest to win over his or her audience.

4. Video Casting/VBlogging- Some creative Realtors like David Weiss in Chicago are offering Video as a possible incarnation of what Virtual Tours was supposed to be.

5.Leads and Follow-up- Everyone who is a player seems to have done the website thing. And many know they need SEO or at least Pay Per Click. But 2006 will demand better lead conversion and better lead follow up by agencies.

As marketing costs escalate, the prudent real estate marketer will be forced to give ahrderlook at metrics such as cost per lead. This will force introspection on numbers like visitor to lead ratio & closure. Cherry picking phone numbers and forgetting about "email only leads" will not be acceptable as competition grows.

Without effective email follow-up and closure, costs per click & lead goes up while ROI drops.

6. Online leads will get less and less visitor phone numbers as MLS data gets freely distributed and becomes a commodity. In addition, as visitors become more sophisticated, they are less likely to be willing to provide their personal information. Especially if they see the MLS data as their given right.

This is not to say that you can't get more information, you just need to make a compelling reason for them to comply.

Learning how to run an effective follow-up drip system is mandatory. Time to learn direct response marketing folks.

7. The Bundling of Information. The web is becoming more and more difficult to get through. Visitors are tired of doing the Google Bumble to find information.

Page 1 of 2 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 | Next