I'm new to the board and to the business, and I've seen alot on here about internet marketing and getting leads from the internet being the hot new thing. My question is, once you've got a great website up, then what?

How do you use your website to market yourself and generate leads besides just putting your web address on all your paper marketing materials.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Best Regards,
Will Rose

tips to make your website a lead generator at this link.

I work only with internet buyers and get them using these techniques.

Although I am trying to get started on my own web site...I am concerned that no matter what I do or how much I spend, I won't be able to crack through the noise. Frankly, I can't afford to throw good money after bad. I just sent out 2100 post cards to my three farming areas. I haven't gotten so much as one response - not even an inquiry. It's cost me over $1000.00 - and I recognize that its not giving me any return on my investment. If I had had even 2-3 inquiry's I would consider continuing the farms. But with not so much as an email or a phone call, it's time to stop this and do something else.

I know everyone says that its all the same everywhere - that there are more realtors then there is business. But my are really IS different. There are 7400 active agents in my county alone. I tend to look at things statistically. There were 9900 sales this past quarter. That's 19,800 if you add both sides of the deal. Established super-agents take about 90% of this number. But for argument's sake, let's say they take 80%. That leaves 3960 opportunities for 5920 agents to fight over in our busiest quarter of the year- giving the average agent 2.6 deals a year.

I have 6 deals done this year and that's it. No one in my office who came in the last two years has this many sales in the course of a year - and there are 23 of us. But I've been watching what others are doing with advertising. I wanted to get the lay of the land before plunking up large sums. People have resorted to internet advertising, pamphlets -either mailed or distributed by mail or displayed, print advertising and web sites with pay-per-click. NONE of these mechanisms appears to be effective. PEople are spending tons of money and getting nowhere fast.

The most famous example is the person who got "rookie of the year" award for 2005. This man has done the same total number of deals that I have. He's earned about $2000 more in gross commissions, but he's been there almost a year longer than I have. That wouldn't be so extraordinary except that he's got a ton of contacts (more than I have) has been successful in sales in another venue and most notably has set up a web site in which he spends $600 a month for pay-per-click.

I'm willing to put money into a web site, but I need to know WHY this didn't work for him. This pretty much decimated his profits since he has been up and running for over 20 months. He has more money to burn than I do. $600 a month is out of the question UNLESS it really brings in business. His experience is cautionary. Even though he has pushed himself high on Google (page 1) and spent a boat load of money, he hasn't gotten any business from it..not one sale in nearly 2 years. He appears to get very little traffic, or what traffic he gets doesn't stick around.

My question would be this: is it the web site, or is it the fact that this market is unbelievably saturated? If its the latter, what chance does any one elses web site really have a chance of being at all productive?

What's his website?

Yeah i want to see his website. I've been doing webdesign and marketing for various things for years. Obviously he's done a good job at SEO if he's page 1 on google but what is the content, layout, and offerings his site has? Is it identical to ever joe shmoes website out there? Im in the process of designing mine right now but im not throwing it up till it's perfect. Its gonna be www.jonwrightproperties.com

Your first mistake was sending out only 1 mailing and expecting to get a response from it. You need to pick a farm area - then saturate it for 6-8 weeks with some sort of 'touch' each week - be it postcard, letter, door knock, phone call, whatever. We've had success doing 8 weeks of postcards/letters. Our highest response rate is always between weeks 4 and 6.

Your area isn't different - this is the norm, has always been the norm and will always be the norm. Following Pareto's principle of 80/20 this makes sense. In our market, we researched and calculated it was closer to 93/7 - and recently, a research article just came out with national numbers at 92/8.

Actually - used correctly - all of these mechanisms do bring in money, some of them have a much better ROI than others. If your websites do not have content content content and a reason for a buyer to provide their information, then no amount of PPC or internet advertising is going to work. Print advertising works when you have a call to action and utilize some sort of lead capturing - usually the 800# call capture works great. Of course, you have to be consistent about your follow-up.

It is most likely the website. It needs to be chock full of content and have lots of capturing opportunities. Take a look at Craig Proctors website - TONS of reasons for leads to email him and ask for information.

HTH

SiberianWinter

You need to consider coming to the lonestar state! We have a much lower realtor to client ratio than any other state:

http://recenter.tamu.edu/news/22-0506.html

Also, if you have a website, publish some useful stats, news and when you mail out those cards, drive them all to the site. People get curious and WILL visit the site. Think of it as pay-per-click.

The other problem could be that your are is heavily based on who you know, and not how good you are. In that case some old fart realtor who may not be half as good as you simply knows more people by having lived there longer. If that's the case, you may end up wasting thousands on marketing and not get anywhere...people simply won't care what you have to say.

Your website at least has a chance of reaching out of state or out of town buyers who may not know any agents to work with.

But seriously, consider moving to a more cosmopolitan area like Austin or San Antonio. We have a good mix of people, many who are first time home buyers and will likely use the internet to find their agent.

Thanks for all the replies….I will try to address some of the issues raised.

1. I sent five mailings to the three areas. So – everyone in these three areas has had five mailings. Still no response at all. No email, no phone calls, no nothing. The areas were chosen for their high turnover and for the lack of domination by any one agent or agency. No one “owned” these areas, so I thought sellers would be receptive. There have been numerous listings since the mailings started. Some idiots actually listed with people who are literally a county and a suspension bridge (and a whole different market) away. Hell, to make an appointment you need to call a different area code! I don’t know WHAT is motivating these people to list with agencies that aren’t even in our county when there are 7400 agents falling all over themselves to list so much as a dog house in Westchester! Its just NUTS. I would consider these mailings to be worth continuing if there had been REPLIES…even without a closing or a listing. But to get nothing tells me this is a waste of time and money. At this point my ROI makes this senseless. One more mailing and I’d need TWO closings to break even – and since one is like digging for gold, two is almost impossible.

2. I DO have influence in the area. I’ve lived here my entire life (41 years) and am a third generation resident. My grandfather built a home here in 1932. My late mother ran for public office here, sat on numerous committees and is well remembered by a large segment of the population including the current Mayor and the previous two Mayors. Four of the six city council members know me personally. I have been so involved in local politics and issues that I got a couple of phone calls asking me if I was running for an open council seat this Nov. I’m known and (I think) well regarded….(and NO, I am NOT running for office).

3. Here is the address for the web site in question. It is tied to the office which I definitely don’t want.

http://century21wolff.com/ksposato

A little information about the area. The area has definitely been caught up in the housing boom. White Plains is about 20 miles North of Manhattan in lower Westchester and is also the county seat. Residential real estate has been on fire for almost since about 1999. It was due for a correction. Even so, land alone is selling for about $1 million/acre. Two months after I entered real estate, the doors slammed shut. One day the market was on fire, the next day the market was dead. It was amazing to watch. However, the 7400 realtors in the county combined with a slowing market has created a hungry throng of agents each fighting over every deal they can get their hands on. I feel sorry for customers and clients because they must feel they are under assault by hungry agents all trying to snatch them up. It’s really ugly.

After a little over one year, I am pretty much tapped out. I do have a sideline as an adjunct professor (which has also dried up over the past two months). I have been applying to several other colleges and universities in my area to see if I can get at least 4 classes next semester. It’s more teaching than I’d like, but it would allow me to somewhat support myself and continue some self promotion. My idea is to bide my time while the other agents implode

My big question is whether I am wasting my time altogether. Given how poorly everyone is doing . Even the top producers (Centurians) are getting about half the work they had last year. . I haven’t seen one new agent thrive who has entered within the last two years. I’ve been looking around for ONE just ONE such agent to see what they did, and I haven’t found one.

Sounds like you may be wasting your time trying to get anything going. Even if you, with your sphere of influence can even get decent referrals, I don't know what else you have to do.


Are there ANY agents doing really well? You mentioned how 80% of the business is done by 20%. Who are they? Or is this 80% also half of what it used to be.

I know I suggested you move to a market with a higher turnover, but looks like you have too many roots there and leaving isn't an option.

Siberianwinter,

Forget the masses and concentrate on the people you know and who knows you. You are very well positioned to be a huge success but you have to prove yourself. People prefer to do business with those they know, like and trust. They will refer you to their friends and rave about you if you add Value to their lives.

Keep learning the business and developing your skills so you will be valuable to your clients. Go to a Brian Buffini or Joe Stumpf seminar to learn how to network with your sphere. Start building a database of everyone you know and call them or Go See Them, shake their hands and kiss their babies and compliment the wives ... You are the Ambassador Of Real Estate, so if they need anything to do with their property they should call you... you will be their answer guy. Keep up with your political and community connections and just be visible.

You are sitting on a gold mine but you have to do the groundwork first! Do this and you will be a star in 18 to 24 months