Posted by Scott Norris on Wed, May 19, 2010 @ 09:32 AM
Buy now, I have hopefully demonstrated that home marketing today is all about the internet. In truth, the internet is just the medium that has allowed a broader form of marketing to take root - the notion of inbound marketing.
The best way to define inbound marketing is to define it's opposite - outbound marketing, also known as interruption based marketing. Outbound marketing includes avenues like direct mail, TV/radio advertising, newspaper, telemarketing, and more recently email. Your first clue that outbound marketing is dead should be the huge industry that has arisen to "protect" us from receiving the messages of outbound marketers. We now have Tivo that filters TV ads, Sirious subscriber-paid radio that eliminates most radio ads, do-not-call lists and caller id keep telemarketers off of us, and spam filters galore to keep email manageable. You can also read specific newspaper and magazine articles online and bypass all these ads.
Outbound marketing today costs a fortune and is ineffective because people go out of their way to avoid it. And when you do reach someone, they resent the fact that you found them.
Inbound marketing is based on the idea that people like to feel empowered. They like to shop and buy, not be sold to. They want to do their own research and seek advice when necessary, and then only of people they trust. The internet is what has finally given the consumer this power and has given rise to inbound marketing.
It really isn't much of change. In any marketing, you try to get your message in front of your target customer. The only caveat is now get it front of your target audience in a place where they want to see it. Yes, your customers still watch TV, still listen to radio, still read newspapers, own phones, and have email accounts, but they are going to take extraordinary measures to make sure your message doesn't get through. So why bother. Put it where they will look for it - where they want to find it.
The trouble with approach when it comes to selling real estate is that it is very passive compared to say, the 1990's approach to home marketing. Sellers that haven't sold a home in a while usually think that their agent isn't doing anything because today's marketing techniques are not "in your face" like the 1990's and earlier.
To see what your agent has done, you have to go looking for it, much like a buyer would. You aren't going to be able to pick up the newspaper every week and see an ad for your home. There won't be an open house at your home every weekend, if ever. Instead, you are going to have to rely on stats - things like page views, clicks, emails sent, emails opened, etc as proof that the marketing strategy is working.
Posted by Scott Norris on Thu, Apr 22, 2010 @ 05:58 AM
This is part 3 of a 3 part article to help Sarasota Home Sellers (or any seller really) find a buyer for their home.
We've already established the Internet's importance in finding a home, but its use and opportunities as an advertising method are actually greater than they appear. According to the NAR Study, 87% of home buyers used the internet to search for a home. Of this group, 77% drove by a house that interested them and 63% actually walked through a home they saw on line. No other form of advertising is going to get results like this.
When asked about the value of the internet, home buyers sited the following benefits as very useful:
- Photos 86%
- Detailed property information 84%
- Virtual tours 68%
When you consider alternative marketing avenues, nothing else provides an opportunity to provide this information to prospects. To get the photos and information provided by the web into a newspaper ad or a direct mail piece would be prohibitively expensive. Even then, the quality of the photos could not compare to the web.
In terms of website preferences, buyers showed a more diffused set of preferences and most used more than just one site. Those websites included:
- MLS websites (presumably those sponsored by local Realtor boards) 60%
- Realtor.com (the NAR website which is essentially the national MLS database)48%
- Websites belonging to a real estate company 46%
- Websites belonging to an agent 43%
- For Sale by Owner site 19%
- Newspaper site 11%
- Other sites with listings (Trulia, Zillow, etc) 25%
Each week, I prepare a report for each of my customers (Sellers). The report shows website hits for 4 websites, MLS agent views, MLS agent emails sent that included the customers listing, showings, sign calls, etc. My experience has been that Realtor.com gets 10 times the hits as any other website. There could be many reasons for this.
My theory is that prospects use Realtor.com until they become somewhat more knowledgeable about the area and then switch to a website with more local flavor. Many local area websites, mine included, allow for a much more granular search than is afforded by Realtor.com. For example, my site not only allows users to search by neighborhood, but provides links to specific neighborhoods or buildings. If you want to see what is for sale in Seaplace on Longboat Key for example, you just click that link on my site and all MLS listings are displayed.
The bottom line is that there is not one place called the internet. You need to have your home on a variety aof sites to achieve maximum exposure.
Posted by Scott Norris on Fri, Apr 16, 2010 @ 06:29 AM
This post is part 2 in a multi part piece on how home buyers find homes.
All of the data from the discussions below comes from the 2008 study by the National Association of Realtors, Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. I will refer to this as the Study in the subsequent discussion.
Where Homebuyers Found the Home They Purchased
The actual survey question posed to home buyers in the Study was "For the home you purchased in 2008, how did you first learn that the home was on the market?" The results were:
Real Estate Agent 34%
Internet 32%
Yard sign 15%
Friend, relative or otherwise knew seller 9%
Home builder 7%
Newspaper Ad 3%
This survey questions shows the impact that the internet has had on the industry. The Study reports historical results to the 2001 study. In 2001, real estate agent accounted for 48% of the responses. Print advertising was 9%. Knew the seller was 12% and internet was just 8%.
The responses also show that even though most home buyers use a real estate agent to purchase a home, agents don't always find the home. In fact, most don't. The internet has empowered buyers to find their own home. This suggests that marketing to both agents and buyers makes the most sense. Or in consumer marketing parlance, you should use a mix of trade (agent/broker) and consumer (home buyer) advertising.
I am going to recasts the numbers above looking at just consumer avenues for people searching for a resale (not new construction home). This will show the prominence of each method available in the typical home selling situation (ie a homeowner trying to sell their home). The consumer methods available to such a person are Internet, yard sign, friend/relative, and newspaper. Here are the percentages recast for just those categories:
Internet 54%
Yard sign 25%
Friend, relative, knew seller 15%
Newspaper ad 5%
Looking at these numbers, where would you spend your ad dollars on consumer advertising? The only real "opportunities" to spend money come down to either "Internet" or "newspaper". While a sign is important, you can only spend so much on a yard sign and you don't gain much of an advantage after you put the words "For Sale" and a phone number on the sign. Similarly, finding an acquaintance to buy the home just requires shoe leather. After you have called all your friends and relatives or maybe mailed a post card to the neighborhood, there isn't much left to do. Internet advertising out performs newspaper by a margin over nearly 11 to 1. Or said anther way, you are 11 times more likely to sell your home if you take the $100 for a weekend classified ad and put it into a Google pay-per-click ad campaign.
Back to the question from my previous post, "Should all marketing dollars be spent on marketing to real estate agents since 83% of buyers use an agent?" The answer is no, because most buyers (66% in this case) actually find the home that they eventually purchase on their own. The next obvious questions is "Why do I need a real estate agent if most home buyers find homes on their own?" More on this later.
Posted by Scott Norris on Wed, Apr 07, 2010 @ 08:25 AM
If you are thinking about selling a home, knowing how home buyers find homes is important information. It should define your marketing plan.
All of the data from the discussions below comes from the 2008 study by the National Association of Realtors, Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. I will refer to this as the Study in the subsequent discussion.
Method of Home Purchase
The best way to explain "method" in this sense is to look at the Study results:
Purchased through an Agent/Broker 83%
Purchased from a builder 8%
Directly from an owner buyer did not know 3%
Directly from an owner buyer did know 2%
Foreclosure/Trustee sale 3%
Other 1%
For 2008, 83% of home buyers purchased their home with the help of a real estate agent or broker. For resales (i.e. not new construction and not a foreclosure sale), 93% of buyers used an agent/broker.
Smart marketers know that sometimes to you don't market to the user but to the decision maker. Baby food companies market baby food to parents, not babies. Similarly, pharmaceutical companies spend most of their ad budgets marketing to physicians who prescribe the medicine to the user. If you look at this first group of statistics on home buyers, you might think that real estate is one these exceptions. Why bother with marketing your home to buyers when so many use a gate keeper? Should all of the marketing be aimed at agents/brokers? Read my next post before you decide.