Internet marketing or eCommerce is a — powerful tool that real estate brokerages can leverage to increase lead generation from their real estate websites. A best of all possible worlds may be all the sales agents attached to a real estate brokerage showing property and closing deals. Not spending any time finding and qualifying leads. Admittedly an unrealistic scenario, but by scientifically positioning your real estate website’s message, you can get closer to that perfect world.

Positioning #1:
Talk to each client. Traditional advertising takes the shotgun approach a blasting a general message to a general segment of the population. Internet marketing, by its nature, is one-to-one marketing. In your message use the keywords that an individual looking for a specific piece of real estate will use. Maybe only 10 people in your market use those keywords in a month, but when they contact you, they are a qualified lead looking for exactly what you have to offer.

Positioning #2:
Measure and adapt. Use your keywords in a testing of the market manner. Measure the traffic certain keywords or pages draw to your site. Tweak pages or keywords with low draw and create more pages with the keywords successfully driving real estate leads to your website.

Positioning #3:
Don’t profile. This goes against the prevalent advertising strategy of targeting demographics. Internet marketing is most successful when it targets a buyer’s or seller’s behavior or activity. For example, instead of targeting middle income, male, householders, target people looking to buy their dream home in the mountains near a skiing resort or on the waterfront near boating access ramps. No one does searches for real estate using the keywords “homes for sale for male householder”, but they do search for “Breckenridge mountain real estate near ski resort”.

Positioning #4:
Utilize the Internet’s capacity for interactivity. Your real estate website client used the mouse and keyboard to arrive at your site. The brain is in the typing, clicking mode. Make your call to action initially a call to simply type or click to request information of give contact information. Do not push them to call initially. Keep them on your real estate website. The more information a website visitor reads on your site, the more likely they will convert into a warm sales lead.

Several successful real estate companies redefined their marketing position by measuring the warm leads directed to sales. Traditional marketing that was ineffective in attracting leads fell in the category of “not doing your job”. By following these simple Internet marketing positioning steps, your brokerage office can harvest the leads generated from the site and feed them to sale agents. Real estate sales agents working on warm leads close more sales than the ones who are trying to find the leads that saw a magazine ad and are thinking of buying in the near future.

A benefit in the current real estate market correction is that there is time to check your real estate connections. Invest time and energy in your lead generation tracking and cleaning up your client database.

A good leads database is 400 contacts, give or take 100. Most agents do not have clean usable lists. With the real estate technology tools, having email addresses for all your contacts is necessary. Most real estate agents only have email addresses for 50% of their contacts. Upgrading your contacts database is key to streamlining your connecting to your active client pool. Sending monthly touch-base emails on market opportunities and trends is a way to keep the referral and connection pot simmering.

In times of down market, the tendency is to cut expenses, such as marketing expenses. However, down markets are the prime time to make sure everyone is aware of your real estate business. Try doubling the mileage on your real estate website with the following simple two step program. First step, add pages of content regarding the local real estate market and insightful entries on your real estate blog. Second step, email a list of your connections and invite them to check the new material on your real estate website, add a note of appreciation for past business and referrals and then ask them for any new referrals or to forward your website link to friends. Be specific about the material on the website so your contacts know there is “must read” content, not just something new.

Even though financial experts think that the tightening of mortgage lending standards will drop 25% of the population out of the home buying market and into the rental market, it still leaves 75% in the real estate market who can meet the tighter mortgage standards. Best of all, by getting your connections database cleaned up, you are better positioned for when the market picks back up steam as expected in the end of 2008. And more people will have your real estate website’s address.

Real estate agents and brokerages need to pull out all the stops to effectively keep their real estate websites positioned on Google and Yahoo, the two leading search engines, and to adapt to market trends in today’s slow real estate market. There is a two pronged real estate situation causing some real estate agents to get corralled into unproductive labor to secure listings.

Google and Yahoo have apparently tweaked their search algorithms to give priority in front page ranking to mega real estate websites such as Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com. The slow down and price drop in the housing market has caused 12% more of the sellers in the market to try the “for sale by owner” route, instead of listing with a real estate agent.

With listing information more available and a slow housing market, some real estate agents have taken to painting houses, doing clean up and maintenance to build relationships and win listings. While extra help, such as giving a client a lift back to work after a showing, is usual, recent efforts to secure clients has raised liability and loss of sales time concerns.

Is there a better way to roll with the internet marketing punches? Yes. Trulia has a free linking section and an Agent Feature Listing program that provides even more opportunity to funnel traffic to your personal real estate website. Realtor.com also has a feature allowing real estate agents that are MLS participants (and who’s Multiple Listing Service must be a REALTOR.com® data content provider) the ability to upgrade their listings with more photos, contact information and web links. Zillow allows real estate agents to add their picture and contact information, such as your website, to your listings for free. Top real estate companies such as RE/MAX and Prudential are actively utilizing Trulia’s additional market reach.

The Trulia Voices section allows real estate agents to further their market presence by answering questions from active buyers and sellers. In your answer, you have an opportunity to guide the reader back to your website for further information. Most effective, of course, is finding the questions from people in your market area. Trulia Voices can also serve as part of your market feedback loop. After reviewing questions posted to the site, you can create an informative blog entry on your real estate website and direct your reader to that entry in your answer.

According to Trulia, 68% of their visitors checking their website listings are not working with a real estate agent yet. By increasing your visibility on Trulia and Zillow, you can ride your part of the 10 million visitors a month wave and harness Zillow’s and Trulia’s commanding search engine presence to capture those untethered warm sales leads.

By integrating Trulia and Zillow into your internet marketing strategy, you gain exposure to a larger market that can show your listings, but better still, drive traffic to your real estate website so you can capture the leads. The greater visibility translates to the potential for a faster sale. Real estate agents now have even more to offer the “sale by owner” sellers who would willingly trade their perceived savings for the quicker sale.

When providing material for your real estate website, beware of two copywriting traps that diminish the effectiveness of your website content.

Trap #1: Writing for other real estate agents.
Every profession develops shorthand words, initials or acronyms for part of their daily process or products. Keep in mind that your new home buyers, which may be 40% of the traffic your real estate website receives, are novices. They do not necessarily understand real estate acronyms that are second nature to real estate agents. Writing over someone’s head leaves them feeling like they need to use another agent who is used to talking on an introductory level. Especially do not write as if your material is going in a classified ad where everything has been broken down into a type of classified ad shorthand.

On the other hand, if you are real estate website targeting practiced commercial and investment buyers, you can use a certain level of market specific language to prequalify your potential clients.

Trap #2: Writing page content as if it is a blog entry.
Blog entries can be written in a more conversational style. When writing content for a webpage, make sure you are using a descriptive adjectives and keyword nouns instead of pronouns. Actually, keeping this in the back of your mind will help you write better blog entries.

When reviewing client testimonials, tweak their quotes to add punch (keeping it in their style of talking/writing, of course) and get them to approve of the changes. A positive testimonial such as “He was a great guy to work with and we are very happy with our new house,” can be tweaked for the search engines with minor edits. A better testimonial would read “Seymour Lystings was a great real estate agent to work with and we are very happy with our lovely new Denver home in the Cherry Creek neighborhood.” This adds your name and three keywords: “real estate agent”, “Denver home” and “Cherry Creek neighborhood”. Hopefully your testimonials are a little longer also!

With these copywriting traps out of the way, the real estate information on your website should appeal to first time buyers as well as seasoned home buyers. Don’t worry about getting your explanations too simple, your seasoned buyers will skim over that text to find what they need.

Use the most financially rewarding ad campaign strategies on your real estate website. Writing for the mindset of a real estate client is much the same between traditional marketing and internet marketing.

Belabor the (Not So) Obvious.

Tell your real estate customers certain normal steps that you (and other real estate agents) take in the process as if it was part of your unique approach. This should be a step that they are not usually aware that you do. (Ever notice how much a buyer just expects to happen all by itself in the process?)

In your copywriting and advertising strategies, examine where you make assumptions of the buyer’s or seller’s knowledge of the transaction process. Are there areas where you always take particular care to make sure the process goes smoothly? It does not matter if everyone else does or that you have a lot riding on the line if it’s not done correctly. Educate your potential client of this aspect of the process.

A number of years ago, a middle of the pack beer company began advertising how they steam cleaned their equipment between batches because they wanted their customers to have the best taste. It didn’t matter that health regulations and everyone else in the industry took that step - customers were not aware of it. As a result of their simple educational campaign, they grabbed a larger market share.

Sell Yourself - Don’t Sell the Industry.

Always tie the benefit that a buyer or seller receives from using a real estate agent to you personally. Your real estate website is on the Internet to boost your income, not the income of all the other real estate agents.

Channel the Buying Impulse.

The real estate market is not created by real estate companies. OK that’s obvious, but write from that perspective. The real estate market is created by the hopes and dreams (and possibly some seller desperation) of people looking for new surroundings. Make sure your copywriting is capturing and channeling that desire to own the real estate that fulfills a desire already resident in your market.

Have you noticed when people appear to buy a house for a reason that has nothing to do with the house itself? Maybe the driver reason was “close to a good school” or “five minutes from work”. Keep in mind all the buying drivers that are external to the house itself as possible keys to helping home buyers fulfill their dream.

Add these three strategies into your real estate website content and track how your clients perceive more benefit from using your real estate services over anyone else’s.

To maximize the return on your real estate website investment, make sure you integrate your website’s lead generating capacity with your current customer relationship system. As businesses have found since the beginning of the computer revolution, “a new business technology changes nothing, unless it is used to remove an obstacle or limitation to achieving your business goals.”

The main reason for a real estate website is to funnel more warm sales leads to real estate agents. A major lead gathering constraint is time. Agents, no matter how much coffee they drink, have time limitations on their day. Your website technology solves the time constraint by expanding the time available to find new leads and cultivate relationships with past customers. Your website works 24 hours a day providing potential clients real estate information and your business contact information. As an interactive media, your website also requests contact information and automatically sends responder emails once contact information is received.

To integrate the lead gathering benefit of your real estate website, examine your current sales process for capturing, possibly delegating, and tracking your leads. What needs to be changed to incorporate the real estate sales leads forwarded from your website into this process?

Since people perform best at those tasks on which they are measured, a good failsafe method of integrating your real estate website leads is to make a (diplomatic) person responsible for them. Then you know that the capturing and tracking of sales leads through the sales process happens in a measurable way. By tracking your website leads, you gain the best insight on your website’s return on investment and your (or your company’s) ability to convert leads to solid sales.

The typical business mistake is adding new technology, be it more robust software, a faster computer, or the ability to text message, without rethinking the process it is meant to aid. This mistake usually leads to the innovation being underutilized or worse, with lack of integration, another impediment to the business process.

Given the real estate client testimonials Internet Marketing Consultants has received over the years, the best time to integrate your website’s increase in sales leads is before you launch or relaunch your website.

Referrals account for over 40% of a real estate agent’s clientèle of home buyers and sellers. This is a boon for established agents, who enjoy working with a partially self-filling sales pipeline.

On the other hand, this means established real estate agents as well as new agents both must overcome “change of brands” barrier to gain new business in 40% of the market. Advertisers are aware, that regardless of what market - real estate, soap, or cars, people build a brand allegiance. What advertising ingredients does your real estate website need to help you break through that barrier?

You know that your website must capture attention and offer real estate information that is of real value to buyers and sellers in a very competitive market. What elements of advertising can move someone to try your services over the company that their family has always used? When someone is emotionally attached to a brand, that brand has become a part of their identity. Your call to action needs a strong message that allows someone to shift a part of their identity. The message on your real estate website must “rings true” for them.

Your real estate website’s call to action needs to go beyond curiosity arousing headlines. It must offer a high risk/reward scenario - remember they will be moving out of their comfort zone - balanced with a safety net.

Your agent bio has to present your personal unique selling point (USP). Make it something that is worth taking the risk of forming a new professional relationship. As one salesman put it, “To sell a $450,000 house, you need to have a $450,000 relationship.” National Association of Realtors surveys have shown that integrity and trustworthiness are the top two traits looked for in real estate agents. Whether through testimonials or stories, convey your integrity and trustworthiness as a foundational strength, but also an USP that goes beyond that.

Advertising tests have found that people love to read about themselves or information directed to them personally. Real estate websites regularly convey that the agent listens to clients. Instead of making that claim, tell a story of how you helped someone buy a house that was perfect because your listened and found how they wanted to feel once they were in their new house. Your real estate website positioning may carry the message that you “put them in a house with room to grow and a yard to start a garden” versus just “put them in a 1800 square foot house with a yard.” By having website content showing how you heard a home buyer’s emotional need or dream, you better convey your ability to listen.

People buy on emotion and find reasons later to back up their decisions. The best way to convert visitors to new customers and overcome the “change of brands” barrier is to show you understand their needs and problems better than anyone else. Maybe use the headline “I will put you into the house your mother never dreamed you wanted.” A subheading of “It was over 100 miles away” may not turn a clients mother into a referral though.

Real estate website marketing is very different than traditional advertising in the print, TV and radio venues. When shifting your real estate marketing resources from traditional marketing methods to internet marketing, understanding the different marketing activities are necessary.

Traditional advertising is to a great degree directed toward a rather static audience. Advertising is purchased after matching the demographics (age, buying habits, race, sex, etc.) to a target market. Real estate companies facilitating sales of high-end homes put ads in magazines, such as Forbes, that target their demographic: successful business people looking for homes that make a statement with size and price. Traditional advertising seeks the market.

Internet marketing is directed to a constantly shifting audience. It takes the opposite approach of placing their message on the internet and the market finds them through web links or search engine results. The market seeks the advertisement.

Traditional marketing tends to attract a broader audience to make the most of the advertising dollars. Internet marketing (and a real estate website is no different) is most successful when targeting niche markets, not broad markets.

Another key marketing difference is that when someone purchases a newspaper or magazine, they get the ads whether they requested it or not. On the internet, visitors arrive at your real estate website because they bookmarked it, got a referral to it or picked it from a search engine result. There is a free will choice involved. If someone clicks on more than one or two pages of your website, you now have a target market.

With the warm lead interacting with your site, the third key marketing difference kicks in. The real estate buyer or seller on a website can send their contact information to a real estate agent or send an email requesting information or a call. This dynamic interaction can not be duplicated by newspapers, magazines, TV or radio. At best, traditional marketing interaction demands extra steps from the audience, even if that is just picking up a phone. When someone is browsing the internet, they are already using their keyboard. Contacting the real estate agent is just continuing what they were doing already.

When structuring the marketing content on your real estate website, put out the information that your target market is searching for and your market will come to you.

Real estate buyers and sellers are using the Internet in growing numbers. Besides the growing numbers, buyers and sellers are checking more pages of the real estate websites with each visit. On the average, each time a real estate website is visited, 14 pages are clicked on. Websites filled with quality real estate information score with more page hits, while “navigationally impaired” sites usually never reach as high as 14 page hits.

Reviews of last year’s trends in visitor traffic to real estate websites found that the Internet visitations mirrored the overall market trends. March was the month with the highest amount of traffic. March captured over 12 % of the annual visits with the following months gradually decreasing to July’s 8% traffic. August to February stay in the 7% range, with November dropping into the 6% range. With both traditional marketing and heavily internet based real estate selling cycles at an average of 8 weeks long, the March spike may correspond to the families trying to move between over summer vacation.

Scaling back and looking at the weekly and daily website visitation trends found by VisiStat.com, it appears that most people plan their week of real estate shopping at 9 PM on a Monday. This indicates that real estate agents definitely want to have their online MLS listings up-to-date by the end of the weekend.

Of website visitors, almost 24% arrive fresh from a search engine. Over 45% of the visitors write down the real estate website or bookmark it and pay return visits. 60% of website visitors go directly to the URL, either from bookmarking the site or from finding the address from print or radio ads or business cards. Combine this 60% figure along with the fact that Internet real estate shoppers do six weeks of research prior to contacting an agent. This may well indicate that the referral market is also using the Internet to research real estate agents, their listings or companies before making an initial live contact.

Inbound visitors coming from pay per click, directories or other websites, such as a Chamber of Commerce site only accounted for a little over 16% of the visitors. Inbound links are good, but with 7% more traffic being directed by organic search engine results, a real estate website designed with keyword rich content, search engine optimization and attractive graphics are still the best ROI approach to internet marketing.