Sunday, September 14, 2008

What's working with your company in terms of establishing an Internet presence?

While at least eighty percent or more of today's buyers begin their search on the Web. These prospective buyers expect their agents to provide them with accurate data consistently and quickly apart from their ability to email. When an agent ignores this pool of buyers he/she will have a difficult time in the business1.
Everyone is recommending an improved presence of the agents in the Internet. Mr. Taverner says. "you are what you Web." People are going to look at websites and select an agent by what they see as their virtual brochure on the Internet"2.

All agents must remember that real estate, like most other sales positions, is a numbers game. You need to contact enough people that want what you have to offer, enough times, and you will make sales1.Exposure is the most important factor to remember when marketing your listing online. Post multiple images of your listing everywhere you can. Put them on your website, your MLS, Yahoo!, Google, etc. Any good virtual tour provider will distribute your images to the major real estate websites for you3.
To transform online traffic into foot traffic, you could announce your open houses on your virtual tour and website. Doing this will make your open houses more effective since you are driving qualified foot traffic right to your doorstep3.
Virtual Florida Tours will provide you with a complete statistics of who and from where they are viewing your tour. Knowing this will allow you to decide which are the marketing tools that are working for you increasing your return on investment.. The data obtained will allow you to show your clients what you are doing to market their home and use it in your listing presentations3.

Remember that today's customer is becoming an expert in almost every field. This false confidence on their Internet acquired knowledge, these prospects lack trust on professional services and they have a big desire to cut out the middleman. So in this times of Internet informed customers you need to offer your client more than they can easily obtain or secure on their own through the Internet4.
Also the existence of a second domain name that is related to the city or region to which you provide your service and is not so evident that it is your own website will help bring traffic to your site, This second website has to be branded for legal reasons and should contain full disclosure about the fact that the site is yours must be easy to find, but it will not be placed in the first page. You may place all your information in the contact us page5.

Reference:
•1. Nelson Nancy ; Why-do-Some-Agents-Succeed-in-any-Market-and-Others-Falter-3 ; Retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-13/viewpoints-why-do-some-agents-succeed-in-any-market-and-others-falter-3/
•2. Tavener ,Mike; "The-Right-Tools-for-Success"; retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-13/the-right-tools-for-success/
•3. Roberts , Tyler;" Why Do Some Agents Succeed in Any Market and Others Falter?"; retrieved from the Internet at:, http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-06/viewpoints-why-do-some-agents-succeed-in-any-market-and-others-falter-2/
•4. Wester , Fayette; "‘Prosumerism' and Your Business - Friend or Foe?"; Retrieved from the Internet at:http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-10/%e2%80%98prosumerism-and-your-business-friend-or-foe/
•5. Proctor, Craig; "How to Generate More Leads and Track Your Ads with Multiple Domain Names"; Retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-09/how-to-generate-more-leads-and-track-your-ads-with-multiple-domain-names/