Commission Escrow Act Reintroduced in NYS Senate - LIRealtor.com

THE REALTOR ® ● January/February 2005 ● 14
TECHNOLOGY
Techno-Bits
What Agents Need to Know:
Why the Advertising Game is
Different on the Web
By Blanche Evans
For those agents who are just now jumping
on the bandwagon to produce a Web
site because they think they should, or
they've heard that a Web site is a great way
to build business, understanding some of
the realities of Web-site marketing will
help make the effort more worthwhile.
A lot of confusion exists about the Web
as a marketing tool even among seasoned
professionals, beginning with "What is it
How do I make an impact How is traffic
generated What do consumers want
How much will I make Does it add to or
replace other forms of advertising" But
those questions aren't as significant as the
one age-old query: How do I attract consumers
To answer those questions, the
Web, for the purposes of this article, will
be viewed as an advertising medium --
like TV, print, or radio.
The Web is growing by leaps and bounds,
attracting new viewers every day. At this
time, more than 25 percent of American
households are connected to the Web, with
50 percent of households owning computer
technology. Web TV and plummeting hardware
prices are enticing new Internet surfers
daily, and it is just a matter of time before
every household is connected.
The first lesson is that the consumers are
already there, making the Web a perfect
medium for advertising. But there are five
key areas in which the Web is different than
any other form of media, and that is why it
has set the advertising/marketing world on
its ear. Advertising models are changing
daily, as marketers struggle to place advertising
dollars where they are most effective.
The Web has changed the marketing paradigm.
It is not only inexpensive to produce,
but it also clearly reaches consumers.
1. Your marketing message is not only
local; it's also worldwide. Target your
pages appropriately. Most real estate
advertising is localized and assumes the
viewer knows all about your given area,
but your market is the relocating customer.
To appeal to them, you will want to
emphasize the city, schools, neighborhoods,
and other services, and your familiarity
with all of these. To appeal to a seller,
you will want to emphasize your track
record of sales and your "bio." Write your
copy as if you were telling complete
strangers about you, your company, your
listings, the area, and the community at
large. Give them reasons to want to move
there. Add a multilanguage link -- no one
else is doing it, so you'll be the first.
2. You can target buyers, sellers, investors,
lenders, title companies, and other Realtors
with the same marketing tool -- your Web
site and its pages. You can send the URL of
any page on your site as a hot link in an e-
mail message to anyone with whom you do
business. If you are showing new listings,
send them to your contacts. If you want to
market yourself, e-mail your "bio" page to
title companies and lenders. No other marketing
tool offers the ability to promote
yourself, showcase your listings, communicate
directly with the consumer, and maintain
industry contacts all at the same time.
3. Consumer traffic can be counted and
qualified. The Web is the only advertising
medium that can give you accurate results
for your expenditures.
4. The consumer is coming to you to
learn about you and your product, instead
of you going to the consumer. This fact is
among the most significant. The Web consumer
is smart, educated, and aggressive.
They comparison shop. Be ready.
5. Your content can be changed on a
moment's notice. New listings, sold notices,
breaking news, and general interest information
may be added instantly. Remove
any old features that aren't working for you.
When you purchase an advertisement in
any print medium, the sales representative
will tell you that your market saturation is
based on the number of subscribers and
editions sold to vendors such as book
stores, convenience stores, and so on. If
you are targeting a certain demographic,
they can tell you by zip code how many
people in your target market are buying
the publication. Then there is "pass-along"
value, which is an estimated figure of how
many other hands the publication passes
through in waiting rooms, at libraries, and
at the doctors' office, for example.
The fact is that none of these figures can
be proven. That's right -- none. There is no
quantifiable method of tracking how
many people actually saw, heard, or were
even interested in your ad. Your advertising
agency can't do it, the ad sales representative
can't do it, and you probably
can't, either. After placing an ad, have you
ever asked every caller or open-house
attendee how they heard about you Do
your employees ask The only way you
know is if you make a sale, and even then,
you don't know what percentage of your
sales were influenced by other factors or
just plain dumb luck.
But on the Web, the dynamics are completely
different. Instead of passive viewers,
who may or may not be interested in
your message, you have interactive participants
-- consumers who are aggressively
seeking products, services, and information,
and they are growing all the time. No
one can be enticed onto your site unless
they want to be there, and if they are, they
are looking for something you have to
offer. This is the single most important
reason to put your Web address and e-mail
address on all of your printed media.
This proactive consumer trend represents
a significant cultural event because it will
change the way we do business in the nation
and throughout the world. It means that
businesses will have to compete not only for
quality in product and delivery, but also in
maintaining the attention and interest of the
consumer. Why Because your competition
is on the Web, too. Regardless of size, assets
and distribution ability, all competitors are
equal on the Web, and the consumer is
doing side-by-side comparisons. Your competitors
can get online for the same price as
you, and there is no "positioning" such as
getting the inside front cover of a magazine
or the front page of the newspaper's real
estate section. You consumers have only to
type in your URL...or your competition's.
Your Web site is essentially the creation
of your own magazine. And you will have
the same problems and concerns of any
publication — namely, distribution and
attractive content to retain viewer interest.
How to get on every newsstand (search
engines) and other highly trafficked sites
(related real estate sites) is your biggest
concern. To put it in perspective, your
magazine is now on the newsstand with
millions of other publications. To stand
out, you will have to perform daily maintenance
and actively work at building relationships,
just like the rest of your business.
A Web business won't just happen.
As far as interesting content goes, you
want to bring as many consumers to your
site and have them stay there as long as
possible. And you want them to come
back again and again, so don't quit with
posting your current listings and your
biography. What you want is for consumers
to look at you as the go-to site for
information on real estate. Period. One
way is to develop links with content
providers such as online news services,
columnists, and home improvement sites.
Agent News, for example, is on as many
as 150 sites. Get your local MLS on your
site if you can. If you are not a writer, don't
worry. Find out if you can link to sites you
like whose content would be helpful to
your business.
Because of the mano y mano aspect of
Web competition, the best sites are not limited
to a one-page "online brochure." That
is why Web sites are composed of multiple
pages. Each page on the site serves a purpose
-- whether it is a company or personal
bio, new product or listing announcement,
how-to/advice, or news and information
-- and that is to keep the consumer
interested. It is these pages that tell you the
extent of the consumer's interest.
How do you find out where your traffic is
going When you create a Web site, your
Web host should provide you with reports
that detail your page views. Then you will
know which pages are of most interest to
consumers. The significance is that you can
track how many people come to your site,
which features they are interested in, and
where they came from. Based on the information
you obtain, you can improve service
and product quality and delivery, consumer
relations, and most of all, sales. A word of
caution: Don't play the information withholding
game with the consumer. Those
days are over. Qualifying customers by
making them fill in an e-mail reply before
they can view homes will make them click
you off faster than you can say "MLS."
As a marketing tool, your Web site is
the most inexpensive to develop and has
the potential to offer the greatest yield. But
don't let the Web's relative low cost mislead
you into developing a cheap-looking
site. Although you can develop a complete
Web site for the world to see for less than
the cost of a box of business cards, your
message still needs to be attractive to consumers.
Put some money behind developing
traffic, strategic alliances, and quality
content so your Web site will stand out.
SITES TO SEE
Sometimes the best real estate investments
are the ones that need a little — or a
lot — of work. If you or your clients are
brave buyers who see fixer-uppers as
exciting challenges to tackle on your own
or simply want to try your hand at a
remodeling project instead of hiring someone
else to do it, here are three Web sites
full of home improvement tips, design
tools, and articles that will keep you on the
right track.
BobVila.com. Ultimate handyman Bob
Vila has found a home on the Web, offering
advice on all sorts of home improvement
projects. The site has easy-to-use
search functions that help you wade
through the vast amount of information to
zero in on your topic of interest. The
Home Improvement Library provides
everything you need to tackle a project,
including articles, tips, and videos. The
library lets you browse by subject, task, or
location in the home where your project is
based. If you need more guidance on home
repairs, check out the step-by-step illustrated
Fix-It Club, which explains how to
diagnose problems and fix almost everything,
from a toilet to a garbage disposal.
The site also has a page devoted to online
Design Tools to help plan out your new
kitchen, patio, or garden. You can register
on the site to save your designs and access
them later.
HGTV.com. The Internet home of the
Home & Garden Television Network has
free resources for decorating, remodeling,
and gardening. The strength of this site is
its interactive tools and online demos. In
the section devoted to Decorating, for
example, before-and-after slide shows
provide ideas about how to spruce up two
of the home's most important rooms:
Kitchens and Bathrooms. Or you can use
the Room Planner to create a customized
floor plan for any room in your home and
experiment with different furniture
arrangements before trying it out for real.
The Remodeling section of the site provides
online How-
To Demos that walk
you through projects like installing a
handrail or decorating with wallpaper.
HGTV.com's Gardening section, meanwhile,
teaches gardening enthusiasts about
using the right Gardening Tools and provides
tips for executing various
Landscaping/Design projects.
HomeTime.com. HomeTime is a longrunning,
home-improvement television
show syndicated on public television networks.
The show's Internet site doesn't
have the depth of information as the other
two sites above but still offers good nofrills
information for weekend warriors.