The real estate market has seen some dramatic shifts recently and two things have happened.  The market crashed and real estate professionals and companies are taking their businesses online!  The online process began before the bubble burst, but the stormy housing market further proved the need for more targeted and cost effective real estate marketing.

To succeed in today’s real estate industry, you have to be actively engaging the online community.  The days of thinking that your buyers or renters are not online or that your “demographic” doesn’t use the web to find a home are OVER.  Here are some important facts from the 2008 NAR Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers:

87% of homebuyers used the Internet as an information source

77% of Internet homebuyers drove by or viewed a home they saw online

32% of buyers first found their home on the Internet

25% of FSBOs used the Internet to help sell their home

So how do real estate companies large and small answer this direct need to be egaging potential buyers and renters online?  The answer is through comprehensive integrated Internet marketing strategies.  This may sounds more complicated than it really is.  It all starts with the website which is the foundation of any sound online marketing plan.  You must have an interesting and informative user experience by offering loads of unique content, rich media like video and virtual tours, blogs, forums, etc.  Real estate, like most other businesses, have the need to embrace the Web 2.0 world of customer interaction. 

Once the website is in order and you have a great interactive platform, you need to make sure people can find you.  Yes, your buyers and renters are online looking for you (as stated in the facts above)!  Of course, organic search engine optimization (SEO) is the best long term investment you can make in your real estate company.  Homebuilders and apartment development/management companies across the country are making this investment and saving tons of money in other marketing mediums.  Let’s face it…print isn’t going to get the job done anymore.  Sure, its important for branding and can be effctive for promoting grand openings but its not interactive, nor is it cost effective or measurable. 

People want the facts and they want them fast.  Buyers and renters are online because its convenient anf there is a wealth of transparent information out there.  Consumers can do weeks of research and make informed decisions before ever picking up the phone to call a property or speak to an agent (though the important role of an agent or leasing representative will never be obsolete!).  Having first page organic rankings for your relevant keywords will drive higher volumes of quality traffic to your real estaet site than most other outlets.  Real estate is very competitive online so it must be viewed as a long term investment.  Once you have the rankings, then investment will pay off tenfold.

In the short term, pay per click advertising (PPC) (when managed properly) is a great way to drive targeted traffic to your pages.  Google Adwords has developed over the past year and their algorithms are now more sophisticated.  You must approach paid search campaigns in similar ways you do with basic SEO – you must have a thoughtful keyword strategy with good title and descriptions, and use solid landing pages with unique conent.  Google now uses what they call “Quality Score” to ensure that campaigns are well managed and providing value to the user.  The Quality Score process ranks your campaigns from 0 to 10 (10 being the best) and makes judgements based on title, descriptions, and landing page quality.  Google will also now take into account the overall value your website has to offer.  This is were many real estate sites can hit a road block. So many sites out there now just aggregate MSL listings and property listings from all over the web without providing unique content and information.  Without offering the user unique content found nowhere else on the web, Google may not give a good Quality Score when running PPC campaigns.  So now its not just about outbidding competitors for terms, its about value. 

The fastest growing marketing phenomenon is social media.  All types of companies in all kinds of industries are embracing the ability to interact with their customers in an open transparent forum.  Social media is actually very simple (though it can take a lot of time and energy to run a successful campaign).  Its about finding your target audience in social networks, blogs, forums, etc. and listening to what they have to say.  Once you have a loyal following and are offering value to the community (Free information, advice, knowledge, etc.) you can start communicating your more “commercial” messages.  From a real estate perspective this is very important.  Buyers and renters are seeking value and real information now more than ever.  Additionally, once you have a robust online presence in the social media world, you can simply use it as a communication platform – announce grand openings, share videos, pictures, special incentives, etc.  Always remember though, you should lean more heavily to the “value” offering to maintain a trusting and loyal following.

One very simple and effective compliment to both SEO and social media, is regular blogging.  Blogging used to be quite foreign to real estate professionals and now it is very mainstream.  You just have to find the time to do it!  To use blogging effective for real estate, it should be approached in two ways.  (1) Have a blog on your own website and write on it regularly.  Send out links to your articles through your social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.  (2) Get out there and write blogs on other sites.  Once you become a regular on some sites you can start providing links back to your site.  This is a great way to get traffic and very powerful for your inbound link building campaign (the most crucial element to orgainc SEO).

Regardless of the economy, people still need homes and they are looking for them online.  Make sure you are where they are looking!

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Social Media Circle

With the way outlook has been like since the financial meltdown, companies are looking for ways to cut costs by any means available to them.  They are looking to survive, meaning the days of wanting to be the best are becoming a faded memory.  If your company is in such a pit as most companies are, you do not have to despair – but only if you take the right steps towards survival, and thriving.

Recently on Yahoo! News, there was a story featured about a London bakery that is thriving.  But, they are not thriving through traditional means of radio, television, or print ads.  Instead, they have decided to embrace social media technologies at their disposal.  They are using Twitter to inform their Twitter followers when they are serving fresh bread.  They are a small business who have embraced social media for their sales purposes.  Large companies are also following suit.  They are building what is called “engagement marketing” by allowing consumers to be actively engaged in the branding, products, and more that companies sell or offer.  Online users are no longer restricted to the high schoolers, college students, or simply tech savvy people.  Instead it has become successful in attracting people from all ages and background – this is why companies are now not only following suit temporarily to save money, but because social media is here to stay.

Advertising online, appearing in organic listings, being talked about online in forums, social networks, discussion boards and more is what is now considered the norm for online marketing.  Additionally it also is how companies such as Dell convert disgruntled customers become happy ones through Twitter.

When creating a Paid Search Strategy Campaign, there are few factors you must always consider. I have listed some basic questions you should ask yourself before creating a paid search campaign.

1. How competitive are the keywords my business is competing for in the Paid Search landscape?
2. Have I created relevant ads and Ad groups associated with my keywords?
3. Should I Geo-target my ads for specific states, cities, etc..?
4. Have I created ads that really call out some quick features or deals  I am offering consumers for my product or service?
5. Do I have a specific landing page that I am sending my paid search ads to that highlights my ad offerings?
6. Do I have conversion tracking in place to monitor my campaigns success?

By answering the above questions you will be on your way to creating a more successful Paid search campaign.

Social Marketing has become the latest buzz word in the internet marketing industry.  Organizations, companies, and bloggers are now using this method to convey their messages to their intended audiences effectively and quickly.  There are many tools, perhaps too many tools at their disposal to be able to create effective messages.

Some of these tools include the ever growing FaceBook, a social networking site that has grown from being exclusive to college students, to an internet marketing vehicle for companies, bloggers, and yes, even celebrities.  There are many other social networking sites besides FaceBook such as MySpace, Bebo, Xanga, and even Ning which allows you as a user to custom create your own little social network.

In addition to social networking sites there are also micro blogging sites.  These micro blogging sites such as twitter, tumblr, and Pownce (now Six Apart), have been great vehicles for launching the latest news, keeping tabs on the recent elections, and simply updating your friends and followers alike of your daily activities.  All of these tools, from social networking sites, blogging, microblogging, and doing search optimization, can become rather overwhelming for most companies, and surely so for people.  All of these tools have gotten a term coined by the marketing industry, called social marketing.  If you have a business, a blog, are a celebrity, or a large corporation, it becomes more and more important to hire professionals to do social marketing for you.

The days of getting the message out via static images in newspapers and magazines are over.  Television ads are also not as effective as before as more and more people have turned into engaged consumers, instead of passive consumers.  Consumers want to choose what to view, what to buy, and what to admire.  To become successful and get  your message out there, you need to be actively involved in all of these social marketing tools.  However, if you dedicate your time to that, you may not have the time of day to effectively run your business.  Perhaps now is the time for you to think about social media marketing by talking to people and see what they think about it, as well as do some research on your own.

Google is a dynamic anmial that we will always be chasing but may never catch up to completely.  Both Google search engine optimization and Google AdWords are always updating algorithms, strategy and requirements.  Its like having a boss that you are always trying to figure out and impress.  As soon as you think you have figured him/her out are in their good graces, they all of a sudden no longer care about that particular skill you may have acquired (just to impress them).  It can be a frustrating path, but like anything else…all we can do is persevere!

First, lets define what the Quality Score is in reference to Google AdWords (PPC).  The Quality Score is a dynamic metric or calculation that assigns a score or rank to each keyword in your ad group.  The score is calculated to display how Google thinks that particular keyword fits within your ad group and the user’s search queries.  Basically, the higher the Quality Score is for a particular keyword, the lower the cost per click (CPC) and the higher the ad position will be on the page.  The Quality Score is yet another effort by Google to improve the quality and relevance of ads and results that appear in their SERPs.

With Google’s latest updates, it no longer uses the “inactive” classification for keywords in your ad group that have a maximum bid below what is required for first page placement.  Now Google assigns those keywords using the “first page bid” qualifier.  Before you could still tell when your keywords were not appearing on the first page but this defines it more clearly and puts it right there in front of your face.

So why does Google do this?  In my opinion it is largely revenue based.  This shows Pay Per Click advertisers how much they have to increase the bid to appear on the first page.  Once you do, very soon others will follow.  By doing this, Google is creating a new sense of urgency among the bidders.  Previously, when you saw the inactive classification you might delete that keyword from your ad group.  Now, the ads are actually active but simply assigned a classification as “not being on the first page”.  This causes PPC bidders, Internet marketing firms, and PPC management companies to increase bids more frequently and sooner than they would have in the recent past.

So keeping all this in mind what can we do to “impress” Google now and make sure our keywords and ad groups are assigned good Quality Scores?

The best thing to do is always stick to the basics:

(1) Do some keyword house cleaning.  You don’t need your Quality Score to tell you a keyword is not working well within your ad group.  You can simply look at click through rates, bounce rates, and conversion rates to see what is going on.  Sometimes you may have keywords that are assigned a “Poor” Quality Score but actually have decent conversions rates.  However, the click through rates are propbably so low that it may not be relevant enough to keep in the ad group.

(2) Look at your ad groups and make sure there is not too much redundancy in the keywords.  Naturally, you will want to have a bunch of different variations in keywords but consider separating them into different ad groups as Google might penalize you if you do not.

(3) Always make sure your ads are targeted to the pages that are as relevant to the ad as possible.  Ideally, we would all be creating a landing page for every keyword but that of course is not at all realistic.  Laning pages are not just important anymore for conversion rates.  Google will take into consideration the pages that your ads are directed to.  Make sure those pages have the keywords at least once or twice in the meta tags and content.

Pay Per Click advertising is of course one of the fastest ways to achieve quick results in the search engines.  Natually, we all want our sites to be number one in Google organic rankings for all our most popular search terms but that just isn’t realistic.  PPC campaigns are a great way to bridge that gap while waiting for more natural rankings (assuming your are properly optimizing your site with SEO) or to launch a specific online ad campaign centered around a specific product launch, event, etc.

Part of the job of a qualified Internet marketing company is to educate the client on how their PPC campaign should be run, what keywords will be most effective, and how to acheive the best ROI.  Yes, we all want the best ROI possible but there are many subtle variations in every campaign that can save (or waste) tons of money.  Here are a few tips on how to put together a reasonable campaign with a limited budget in a highly competitive industry.  Keep in mind, these days, the more competitive the industry is out in the “real” world, the more competitive it usually is in the “virtual” world.

Don’t Be Unrealistic: This is where the education piece comes into play.  The first part of putting together an effective PPC campaign within a given daily/monthly/weekly budget is to research and analyze the industry and keywords associated.  The keywords searched the most each month will usually have the highest cost per click.  If you are in fact in a very competitive industry with terms running at $3 per click and up, you may want to consider starting with broader “long tail” keywords that focus on a specific niche within your industry.  Long tail keywords are generally searched less but are more specific and can actually result in a better conversion.  The keywords searched the most may drive tons of traffic but you have to then have the ability to maintain visibility for your listings and convert what traffic you do get to decrease the overall cost per conversion.

For example, if you only set a budget of $20 per day for a popular key term your campaign might reach its limit by 10 am and then you are done for the day!  Another aspect to consider is that if you are a little fish in a big pond, and your product does not compare well with the giants in the industry you may want to take that into consideration.  I am not saying don’t go for it, because I am extremely competitive by nature.  However, research where your competition falls short (and you excell) and consider starting there first.

So the bottom line is to be realistic in your choices of keywords at first.  Go after ones you can afford and follow some of the additional steps in order to use those less expensive key words to generate conversions (sales) and use that revenue to go after some of the more expensive terms.

Create a Budget and Stay Committed to it: If you are not the one directly handling the campaign, you may have hired a PPC management company or Internet marketing firm to do the job.  But you should know the details so you can plan accordingly.  If you are in a competitive industry with expensive keywords you need to consider what budget you allocate to the PPC effort.  Sometimes people are just way too unrealistic and commit only a small amount of money.  This is important to note because you need to consider all the aspects of a good PPC camapign:  research, website preparation (landing pages), implementation, analysis, adjustments, and more analysis.

If you are bidding $3 per click but selling a $5 item, it may not be worth it.  Ongoing analysis of the bounce rates and conversion rates will help with this process.  Additionally, continually monitoring your titles and descriptions is important for seeing which keywords are giving you the best return.  Sticking to the budget can be difficult if you are not seeing the ROI you want immediately but it takes some time to analyze the results before you can make adjustments that will improve those results.

The Six P’s: I am prior military and this might not be a common saying among civilians, but I know some of you have heard it.  Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.  It can never be more true than when spending money on PPC.  Let’s face it, organic SEO is much more of an “investment” as it takes time to see results.  PPC may take time to assess conversions and increased revenue but the visibiltiy in the SERPs happens at the flip of a swicth.

When I refer to planning I am really referring to the development of solid landing pages that will help convert that user who clicked on your PPC ad into a sale.  A landing page is basically a page on your site that is very specific to the ad and has very ovbious calls to action.  For example, if your ad appears for the term “Wedding Invitations” then your landing page should be specific ONLY to your wedding invitation products and services with calls to action like “BUY NOW”…you get the idea.  Sending specific PPC ads to your home page (especially the long tail terms mentioned above) will not result in good conversions as it requires too much extra effort for the user to find what you want them to find.

Timing is Everything: During the research process and throughout the whole campaign you need to research the best times of day for when people are searching for your product or service.  You may notice for example during the campaign that your click through rates are higher from 11 am to 2 pm and then pick up again at 7 PM.  Whatever it turns out to be, turn off the campaigns during the dead times so your visibiltiy will be more prominent during the more active hours.

Location, Location, Location: The great thing about Internet marketing using PPC is that you can further dial down on your target audience and stretch your budget using GEO-targeting.  For example, if you are a flower shop in downtown Chicago and only targeting people who live and work in the city, you probably do not want to run a competitive national campaign for “flowers”.  You can GEO-target the campaign so that only people within a given mile radius see the ads.  That way you are not wasting clicks on people who will most likely not be your customers.

All of these tips can be useful for any campaign…but are most useful when launching a campaign in a competitive industry.  Keep in mind for the most part pay per click marketing will only get more expensive, so plan accordingly.  Happy bidding!