Real Estate Marketing | Online Real Estate Marketing | Real ...

Over the past 8 years, Martin Fenton III, the founder of Real Efforts has been involved in all aspects of the online Real Estate Marketing business. Real Estate Marketing Real Efforts is not a new company, but the merging of all the online ventures whcih were established and are actively managed and grouping them under one corporate name. We all understand that the internet has fundamentally changed how we live our lives on a daily basis but the internet is still in a phase where people, businesses and governments are still trying to understand the long term affects of the internet on our society and culture. Once the technology is established, the individuals, companies or governments who maximize the implementation and utilization of the technology will be successful in the long term. In terms of the Real Estate industry, it is the individuals and companies who maximize the internet from a marketing perspective who will benefit the most. In the real estate industry, the two biggest financial costs over the years has been lead generation and office space. The integration of the internet in the real estate industry has helped reduce both of these costs and will continue to lower costs as new technologies become established and accepted in the industry. It is my belief that the growth of the internet has been driven by technology, but as certain technologies become adopted and standardized, the difference between successful companies will be in online real estate marketing. This is why I have focused my real efforts over the past years to become an expert in online real estate marketing. To achieve this knowledge, I have spent my real efforts understanding the technology so I could excel in real estate marketing. Below I have outlined the 3 areas where I have focused my real efforts. They are the building blocks any agent needs to understand to be successful on the internet. The objective of the company was not to build real estate websites, but to maximize REALTORS? and real estate agents marketing presence online. This meant that every aspect of their online marketing efforts needed to be unique. This included where you hosted your website, how you designed your website, how you coded your website and how you marketed your website. Your competition was no longer just your local real estate agent, but real estate agents and companies throughout the country. To prove this theory, we created a website focused on custom real estate web design. That is not to say there are not still some ideas yet to be developed which will change the course of how it affects our lives but industry standards are becoming more the norm than the exception. This meant that online real estate marketing and how real estate agents implemented their online marketing plan would create a bigger separation between agents who had a website and agents who marketed their websites online. To assist our clients in their endevours to succeed online, we started the real estate forum, an online forum dedicated to real estate agents and real estate related professionals to share information, experiences and create networking opportunites. Although many internet professionals attempt to make internet marketing difficult, the concepts of online marketing are the same as offline marketing. It is broken into paid advertising, public relations and networking. Most successful agents understand that real estate marketing is about generating cost effective leads and that until you talk with a prospective client it is a numbers game. The more people you are able to direct to your website, the more leads you will generate which in turn will generate more business. Paid Advertising on the internet includes buying banner ads which is similiar to buying an advertisement in a magazine. It also includes Pay Per Click advertising, which is similiar to the old form of yellow page advertising. The payment system may be different, however the concept is the same. There are other forms of paid advertising covered in our internet marketing section of the website. Public Relations is also generated on the internet in many forms, however the internet marketing equivalent of public relations is termed "viral marketing". The final method of marketing being implemented on the internet is networking which on the internet is called social marketing. This form of marketing has been the most difficult for REALTORS? and real estate agents to implement because the fundamental rules still apply in real estate. The more people you can meet face to face, the more business you are going to generate. Real Estate Agents are in the service business and that means they are confined by the basic laws of physics which means there is only 24 hours in a day and you can't be in two places at one time. Understanding these basic marketing principles are fundamental to being a successful real estate agent. In addition as internet markeitng continues to become more established, Real Estate Agents implementing a solid real estate marketing plan both offline and online will succeed. If you look at the fundamentals, the success of the internet is based on creating an additional distribution channel for business and providing consumers with easy access to information in addition to providing tools to make their lives easier. In the real estate industry, the tools agents provide to buyers are in the form of giving consumers access to an IDX system (internet data exchange) on their website and providing them with information they need when buying a home. For sellers, the internet provides an additional distribution channel in which to market their property. For example, before the success of the internet, agents in general were limited to using newspapers as their primary distribution channel to market properties. Now an agent has literally thousands of additional channels to market a sellers property on the internet. If a REALTOR® or real estate agent understands the fundamental concepts or building blocks outlined above, They have a basic knowledge they need to be successful online. If however, the information above has created more questions than it has answered, please feel free to contact me via EMAIL or PHONE 619-437-4700 for a FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION.