It doesn’t matter if you’re a real estate agent, mortgage broker, loan officer, or have some other major job in the real estate market, you need people – potential clients – to know you exist. Half the battle of earning commissions, closing deals, and selling homes or mortgages is finding people to buy them and that’s where marketing comes in.
Marketing has no borders
You may not consider yourself a marketing expert and scoff at the notion of some of its methods, but the bottom line is that if you want to succeed – at any level – in the modern business structure, you have to market yourself and you have to be somewhat aggressive in your marketing approach. And while much of what this industry does happens on a visceral, real-time, in-person level, the internet is becoming increasingly important to the success of any businessperson.
Internet marketing strategies aren’t just for ambitious young kids – though some would say misguided – looking to get rich through affiliate programs. They are for anyone who wants to establish a meaningful online presence, whether for personal or professional reasons. Internet marketing strategies have a multitude of options and benefits for those willing to put in the effort.
What can a successful Internet presence do for you?
One of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to Internet marketing strategies, especially those in this field, is what can the Internet do for them that traditional marketing cannot? The simplest answer is that every year more and more people are turning to the internet for almost all of their consumer needs. This includes finding accommodation.
No, that doesn’t mean those same people will buy a home online, take a few “virtual” tours of the homes they’re interested in, and then make an offer. Much of the real estate process is still handled face-to-face, person-to-person, but the initial phases of this research usually begin on the internet. So, logic dictates that if more and more people turn to the Internet for their first research, to sharpen their palette or test the waters, they will also find the agents to represent them via the Internet.
If you have a web presence but don’t market it through a number of internet marketing strategies, your presence on the World Wide Web will go largely unnoticed. People will find you through search engines, most likely, like Google or Bing or Yahoo.
How to market effectively on the Internet?
There are many internet marketing strategies that you can use. Many are free, but will require time and effort on your part, or you can hire someone to do it for you. Others cost money and may be more effective. A combination of several different methods is usually the most effective and will drive the most traffic to your website, webpage, or web presence.
Social media has quickly become one of the most common and popular marketing methods on the web. Facebook and Twitter are becoming extremely important for web-based businesses as they allow these businesses to connect directly with customers and potential customers, keeping them up to date with offers, special events, news and information that you create.
Blogging is also a key to success. Through blogs, we share more specific information about sales, changes in law or government programs, and any topic that should be important to a homebuyer, whether new to the prospect. With blogs, you can also add targeted keywords to the text, which will help improve the blog page’s ranking based on those keywords. For example, if you write about “making an offer on a house”, that could be your keyword and if someone searches for that phrase on Google, your page will come up higher in the rankings, increasing the chance that the person find and read your blog.
The final result
When people are surfing a page you created and marketed, you’ve won half the battle. They found you. If the information you provide is professional, insightful, or meets their needs across the board, they are more likely to contact you to represent them in their important home buying or selling process. If people are looking for reps on the web, it stands to reason that it’s time to have a web presence and invest in internet marketing strategies so those customers can find you.
David