The five must-haves for a real estate website are: who, what, when, where and why. Day five of this series on the 5Ws of Internet marketing answers the "why"-why build a community hub.

In the past four posts, topics from finding a target audience to different ways of reaching them have been offered.  The answer to "why" is "to create new business".  All of this effort is designed to help a Realtor® to transform their PropertyMinder AccelerAgent Website into a solid real estate lead generation tool.

The backbone of this transformation is the hub concept. Like spokes of a wheel going to it's central hub, the different online marketing efforts the Realtor® is participating in should go back to the real estate website making it a community hub.  This will help the Realtor® to be recognized as a community maven.

All incoming traffic from your marketing efforts should be channeled back to sections of your real estate website that have the highest probability of being useful.  This will give you the best chance of engaging your new visitor's attention.  All incoming web visitors are cataloged by the website.  Statistics of where visitors come from and which of your pages have been viewed the most should be reviewed by you often.  Use this information to make adjustments to the popular and less popular pages accordingly.  Visitors who are engaged by the real estate website's offerings are recorded into the Client Relationship Management (CRM) tool of the website.  The CRM will allow the Realtor® to see everything a visitor has done from property search requests to report requests. To save the Realtor's® time, the PropertyMinder AccelerAgent Real Estate Websites automatically send requested information to the incoming visitors.  This fast response also pleases today's online visitors who are accustom to instant information gratification.

This is not a new idea I am posting, nor is it another tired version of the axiom "If you build it, he will come".  My efforts here are to assist agents who don't have any idea how to drive traffic to their websites.  These trafficking ideas and the concept that the efforts must be focused to a central location are being implemented by many agents today.  For those Real Estate Agents who see this as a place they would like to be, but do not see the path, I suggest the PropertyMinder TECH-MAR Clinic.  PropertyMinder has helped thousands of Real Estate Agents and Brokers quickly adjust to the post-Internet reality. The TECH-MAR Clinic is the stepping stone of many agents that are uncomfortable with technology, as well as those who are already tech savvy, but want to learn new techniques in the market.

My personal thanks to Associate Broker Christina Ng who's generous input helped this series of the 5W's.

Stay inquisitive my friends.  For the lovers of technology, the best days are yet to come.

The five must-haves for a real estate website are: who, what, when, where and why. Day four of this series on the 5Ws of Internet marketing answers the "where"—where should REALTORS® invest their time.

“Should I blog?”  Associate Broker Christina Ng asked.

Should implies judgment, peer pressure.

“Between phone calls, showings and hands-on client support, I just don’t have time,” she said.

How do you invest your most valuable asset—time?  What's the ROI?

With 20 years of experience, Ng gets 80 percent of her business from referrals. So, should she blog?

My answer:  no. Don't waste your time blogging on the World Wide Web when your sphere of influence promises a better rate on return.

Bertha Sandoval, a REALTOR® with Alain Pinel in Burlingame, knows (or has been told) to update her real estate website with community news. “But am I supposed to write the articles myself?” she asked.

My answer:  no.

Rule of thumb:  bookmark articles.  You are real estate professionals, not journalists per se. There is a difference between writing articles and blogging.  A blog is a conversation-starter in real time.  An article involves journalistic inquiry, interviewing, fact checking and above all:  meaningful content.

Blogging Backlash

Newsflash:  There’s a blogging backlash going on, and it's undermining your best efforts to drive qualified traffic to your real estate website.

In his post today at TheAtlantic.com, political pundit Matt Yglesias spotlights the white elephant in chat rooms:

To gain any worthwhile information about any topic whatsoever, you need to be reading the work of someone with real expertise. To develop real expertise requires years of study, research, etc. And years of study, research, etc. can't be adequately condensed into a blog post. Thus, blog reading is a completely worthless exercise and nobody should really engage in it.

The New Republic’s political blog echoes this sentiment in "The Greatest Blog Post Ever.” The money quote (via David Appell): “It would be a full-time job to really blog about a few serious issues on a particular beat, and who can possibly attract 125,000 readers a day and support yourself doing that?”

Tormented? Driven witless by blogging? There are search engine friendly alternatives. You can reap the benefits of blogging without actually blogging.

Alternatives

First and foremost, help a local reporter out rather than trying to become one yourself. You can sign up to be a source for a journalist at HelpAReporter.com.

Secondly, join a local reporter's social network. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper invites industry leaders to contribute content in the form of reader blogs. A backlink from a newspaper to your real estate website outweighs the six to nine months of daily blogging required to see any tangible returns (i.e. leads) on your full-time investment.

Following suit, capitalize on your ability to provide a unique service that is of great value to the customer; go after a niche market and minimize short-term competition. Become the online mayor of your zip code with the help of SquidZipper: "Smart real estate agents ... know more about their neighborhoods than anyone else -- where to find the best coffee shops, what local businesses to support, where the best new homes are, which school districts to avoid, and lots more."

To increase brand awareness online, develop a relationship with influential bloggers in your niche market and post a comment on their websites. By including a link to your real estate website in your comment, you automatically drive traffic back to your site. A relevant and informative comment can be as little as 140 characters and still have the desired effect. Proactively building quality backlinks is an effective alternative to blogging.

As for Christina Ng, we’ve found a happy compromise. We’ve built an interactive newspaper that incorporates micro-blogging, social bookmarks and aggregates RSS feeds.

It’s optimized for search engine ranking. More importantly, it’s a resource that Ng actually uses herself.

“Thank you for posting the trail closures. As a matter of fact, I went to the Sawyer Camp Trail to find out that it was closed myself,” Ng said via BlackBerry today.

The final post in this five-part series answers "why"—why build a community hub.

The five must-haves for a real estate website are: who, what, when, where and why. Day three of this series on the 5Ws of Internet marketing answers the "when"— “when to update my real estate website.”

When to update your real estate website depends on your goals.  

If your goal is to get found by qualified traffic and capture more leads, then update your site with search engine friendly content regularly.

What if you’re goal is to earn more referrals?  Take Broker Christina Ng as a case in point.  With more than 20 years of field experience, Ng is well versed in what sells:  one-to-one marketing.  “I get 80 percent of my business from referrals,” Ng said.

In 2004, Ng broke a record with 36 transactions.  The average price of San Mateo County homes: $1.2 million.  

Ng’s commitment to client satisfaction means breaking her own record: working 14 months with a fickle buyer.

Put simply, she's omnipresent and onmniscient. To this end, Ng uses her real estate website to market her knowledge. Today, Internet consumers can search real estate databases for free. “To be more competitive, I have to offer more content to keep them there, keep them coming back to me, and eventually open communication,” she said.

What follows is a Q & A interview with Ng where she identifies her clients’ needs, assesses her home page, and then develops an ongoing content building strategy.  Her first step:  measuring the marketing effectiveness of her real estate website.  To evaluate site traffic and search engine optimization, Ng uses a free SEO tool.  During our brainstorming session, Ng eliminates a costly and ineffective traditional marketing practice for open houses. We encourage you to join this conversation by posting comments.

One customer at a time

PropertyMinder (PM): “What is your goal?”

Christina Ng (CN): “I don’t know where to start. Maybe we can start with my [HubSpot Website Grader] report card and how to implement their recommendations.

PM: “How do prospects use your real estate website?"

CN:  As far as my clients using my website, I told them about it and signed them up. But I’m not reaching out enough to even know what other people are looking for.  Most site visitors are looking for properties and conduct their own MLS searches.... Site visitors go to the website and find information that is of value and then start a conversation with me.  However, prospects can now do their own MLS searches for free....  To be more competitive, I have to offer more content to keep them there, keep them coming back to me, and eventually open communication.

PM:  “Why do you refer clients to your website?”

Yesterday, I got a referral from a past client.  I talked to the prospect via telephone to qualify her needs and recommended relevant properties in her price range.  Using my [PropertyMinder AccelerAgent] website, I set up an automated custom search; it automatically generates results to the prospect.  That’s how I usually do it....

If Internet consumers go into my website and conduct a search, they may not know the neighborhoods as well as I do ... and will end up picking anything in their price range.  Sometimes, for a certain client who does not know what he wants, less search restrictions are better.  Then after talking with him 3 or 4 times, I can begin to eliminate certain areas and make personal recommendations. At that point, I can modify searches... and that takes a lot of communication on an ongoing basis.

PM:  You said that schools are your primary selling point.  How can you make this information more accessible for your user?  For example, why not profile each school in your neighborhood?  How about creating an online forum for clients to rate and review their schools on your website? This information is of great value to your prospects that no one else can offer.  In doing so, you also follow up with former clients (allowing you to market to 100 percent to your referral base.)  By marketing your knowledge, you gain a competitive advantage over free search engines.  And you save your customers valuable time, which is arguably our scarcest resource in an attention economy.

CN:  At an open house, we offer a binder that includes information about the community -- such as schools, neighborhood profiles, restaurants, cleaners etc.

PM: So it’s essentially the same information you would find in your hotel room per say. And you’re a concierge of sorts....

CN:  Right.... The binder lists all the schools.... I also include some schools in a supplemental description packet. I definitely will ask sellers what school(s) their children attend. The binder lists all the schools but does not tell you the exact schools for that specific address.  API scores are already included....

[Ng hands me a 2-inch thick binder, divided into subheadings. I politely flip through the resource manual before saying, "No thank you."]

Bertha Sandoval (REALTOR® and assistant):  What I’m noticing is that people don’t want to go through a binder. When I get to open houses, I realize this and wonder why didn’t I research this and put this information into the flyer (i.e. the name of the schools, API scores, etc.).

CN:  We can create a two-sided flyer....

PM:  How about just telling me what I need to know?  What’s in it for me?  Can you shorten the description, getting rid of the “huff and puff” (e.g. floral adjectives) and provide me with just the facts? How about a one-page color PDF file or HTML-based email with 'pix appeal' (and outbound links) that I can download from your real estate website and/or automated email? Provide buyers with competitive intelligence about the feeding schools for that specific address (i.e. test scores).  Include information about the nearby private schools as points of comparison.

CN:  If we go on the website and put all that information on every listing, that would be a lot of information….

PM:  Perhaps the solution is to include a neighborhood profile for your featured listing as an entry point into that community.  By focusing on your goal (selling your feature listing quickly and at a high price), you can improve the user experience.  Why not configure your sidebar navigation around your target prospect’s needs?  I don’t recommend changing your “design” but rather optimizing your content for search engines.  Your new sidebar might look like:

1. About Me
2. Testimonials
3. Featured Listing
4. Neighborhood Profile
5. Market Snapshot
6. School Report Cards
7. San Mateo County
8. Find a Home
9. For Sellers
10. For Buyers
    

Basically, only give the user what he needs to know to get a prospect to pick up the phone.   In an attention economy, 15 seconds is the difference between capturing a lead or losing a site visitor.

CN:  Yeah, that's true. I agree.... What about a blog? Should I blog?

As a sequel to this post, we will debate the value of blogging and ROI. In summary, blogs outrank websites by directly feeding search engines new content more often -- which increases rankings on Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

The five must-haves for a real estate website are: who, what, when, where and why. Day two of this series on the 5Ws of Internet marketing answers the "what"—'what about the schools?'

“Everyone always asks the same question at open houses:  what about the schools?” said Christina Ng, a broker associate at Alain Pinel in Burlingame, CA.

“If it’s not the right school, they turn around and leave.  They don’t even come in and look at the rest of the house.”

Point of Pain

With private school tuition costing as much as $28,560 in Burlingame, young parents are willing to buy homes for more in public school districts with high state test scores. Real estate agents can benefit from taking a Pain Killer Marketing approach by aggregating test scores and parent reviews on their websites.

According to Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone, homes nearby sought-after schools are selling faster and at higher prices than similar quality homes in other districts. “There could be two districts -- one perceived as excellent, one mediocre -- divided by a street. The same hypothetical house built by the same developer on either side of that street could fetch $100,000 more if it feeds into great schools,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle.

When it comes to peninsula real estate, local schools with high state test scores drive home value.  The Academic Performance Index (API) score is key for many parents assessing schools.

“There's no question that home prices and test scores are linked," said Linda Strean, managing editor at greatschools.net in San Francisco, a nonprofit that provides information on schools nationwide.

Homework for Home Buyers

1. Academic Performance Index (API) Reports
   
2. Research & Compare Private vs. Public Schools
3. Parent Ratings
   

 

The five must-haves for a real estate website are: who, what, when, where and why. "Who's your target audience?" is day one of a series on the 5Ws of Internet marketing.

Social capital directs how we interact and consume—especially in a soft market.

Rethinking real estate websites, a blog is a conversation-starter.

By frequently providing quality content, a REALTOR® gains credibility within their community. The blog platform gives an agent a channel to market her greater knowledge base. Since potential clients prefer doing business with agents they "know" and respect as experts, blogging agents generate more leads than non-blogging competitors.

Like any exchange, there's the requisite give and take online. As interest ensues, quality interactions lead to personal relationships. Recognizing the value of these relationships is essential to your business.

Spending money on traditional marketing practices (i.e. direct mail) that yield a 2 percent return rate is not going to build your business. Your sphere of influence promises a better rate on return.

“I get over 80 percent of my business from referrals,” said Christina Ng of Alain Pinel in Burlingame, CA.

In fact, children of past clients make up Ng’s growing customer base. Drawing from over 20 years of experience, Ng helps these young adults sell their parents’ homes and/or buy their first property.

“It’s not just about your knowledge and experience—although they still are very important. It’s really about an agent’s adaptability,” Ng said.

Catering to retiring boomers as well as Generation Y techies requires an area expertise that easily translates. “The older generation wants a human touch (e.g. lots of telephone conversations) whereas the Internet home buyer asks first and foremost, ‘What’s in it for me?’”

Both require personal attention. In an automation era, replete with automated follow-up campaigns, people long for authentic communication. That's the point of need.

Stop Talking, Start Listening

“The most important question I ask is: ‘How do you want to be contacted?’”

The answer shapes Ng's marketing approach. “You really have to listen. If a client prefers email and you call too much, you lose that customer,” she said.

To close the communication gap, Ng is leveraging new technologies to exchange ideas and information, and build on common experiences that transcend cultural differences. Rather than using her real estate website as an advertising vehicle for quick sales, she’s building an online self-service station for visitors.

“You have to get more involved in finding information. You have to store info.”