Online Real Estate Marketing - 3 Pieces of the Puzzle

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by Brandon Cornett

As consumers increasingly turn to the Internet for real estate research, more and more real estate agents engage in online real estate marketing. It only makes sense. As a marketer, you go where your audience is, right? Right!

But these days, online real estate marketing requires an entirely different mindset than it did just a few years ago. Today, there are a lot more real estate websites and blogs than in the past. There's also an explosion of real estate "self help" websites, such as Zillow.com, HouseValues.com and dozens more.

On top of that, consumers today are inundated with information and advertising, coming at them from all sides online and off. As a result, consumers are much more selective of the material the read, the websites they visit, and the information they trust.

What does this mean for real estate agents?

Well, it means a lot more than I could possibly cover in one article. For one thing, it means the modern real estate must take a broader approach to online real estate marketing. A basic real estate website, by itself, is no longer enough. The modern consumer expects more. They want an agent who is "plugged into" the Internet, because this type of Internet savvy helps agents better serve their clients (to find listings, to market properties, etc.).

So, the first step to online real estate marketing success is to have a broad web presence. This will make it easier for people to find you online when searching relevant phrases and topics. It will also demonstrate your technical / online savvy to an audience that expects it.

Here are the three parts of such a web presence I feel are the most important for real estate agents. Each of these "ingredients" can be learned about in more detail at the website listed below.

The Real Estate Website - Think of the real estate website as "Internet marketing central." Sure, you can market yourself in many other ways online (as evidenced by the other items on this list). But your main website often serves as the focal point of your larger online marketing efforts. For this reason, you need to develop a professional website that offers great information and focuses on lead generation.

The Real Estate Blog - A blog is a great tool for online real estate marketing. Basically, a real estate blog makes it a lot easier to grow your web presence steadily over time, while positioning yourself as an authority in your area. These two things combined will ensure that both people and search engines visit your blog often, which is a big first step to online marketing success.

Outward Publishing - By outward publishing, I am referring to the act of publishing content beyond your own website or blog. In my book about the "Real Estate Web Presence," I explain why modern real estate agents need to think like publishers when it comes to online marketing. By looking outward and publishing content beyond your own website, you increase the number of ways people can find you online. You also further position yourself as an authority.

Online articles and press releases are two excellent examples of outward publishing, or publishing beyond your website. You can use these channels to broaden your web presence, reinforce the search engine visibility of your main website, further position yourself as an authority, and much more.

Conclusion
I have some harsh truth for real estate agents. Because of the factors mentioned at the beginning of this article, online real estate marketing will only get more challenging year after year. But it will also become more important. So to ensure your success over the long run, start to think about the pieces of your online marketing puzzle:

Are you using them to their full potential? Do they reinforce one another in a way that increases your overall marketing success? Are you actively growing your web presence? I hope so ... because your future success depends on it.

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