“It’s an online world after all”
Print vs. Online Advertising / Surviving as an agent in an online world.
The way we advertise has clearly changed and we can no longer rely on print advertising to generate leads. It is an online world after all and the internet has become our number one source for information. When was the last time you picked up the yellow pages? Called a travel agent? Or….. ? Whether we need to get street directions, make travel arrangements or pay bills, the internet makes our life easier. We can also shop for virtually everything, including real estate.
At least 75% of today’s buyers begin their search online. Why? Because it also makes their life easier, especially when they live in another city or state. They can see photos, take virtual tours, compare prices, find out about and choose a neighborhood, and all of this without leaving their home or office.
The good news is that this makes our jobs easier. By the time they contact you, they usually know what they want and have narrowed down the list of properties to the ones they wish to see. In a way, the internet somewhat prequalifies them for you.
The bad news is that for them to reach you, they first need to find you. You need to show up on their search and you can do this in several ways. If you are spending $$ on search engine optimization, you increase the likelihood that they will find you, wither organically or as a paid placement. Ideally you show up on both, but it takes time and patience, in addition to the financial investment.
To promote our office website, www.RealLivingProperties.com, we spend over a $1000 a month, but it took around four months to finally start seeing the results. You can have a great website but if you are not doing anything to drive people there, it is simply getting lost. Then you have to decide exactly what searches you want your ad to be displayed on. This is the most important consideration and gets into the "long tail" vs. "short tail" search debate. We'll save that for another day.
While we still need to spend money on print advertising to promote listings and for branding purposes, your main focus should truly be on online advertising.
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