Mobile Marketing and Real Estate Go Together Like . . .
How to make the perfect PB&J
Our little magazine has always been a hyper-local, mobile-enabled advertising vehicle. We feature local homes and real estate agents and place it in targeted distribution locations all over town. Home buyers and sellers pick it up, put it in their pocket or purse, and take it with them to search for homes, and agents in the magazine and on the websites they see featured there.
We’ve been doing this for over 30 years.
This experience has been crucial in our adaption of mobile technology as part of our overall strategy.
A few things we’ve learned –
1. Home buyers and sellers are short-term customers. Once they’ve made the decision to buy or sell, there is a very short window of opportunity in which to engage them.
2. A significant percentage of the 2 million unique users who go to RealEstateBook.com and NCI’s suite of sites are new every month - not repeat visitors. High churn. Once they’ve selected a home or a real estate agent, they typically don’t buy or sell again for another 6-7 years.
3. Therefore, you have to be everywhere THEY SEARCH for real estate information.
4. And, you have to SEARCH FOR THEM through advertising. It’s not their job to find us. It’s our job to find them.
Here’s why mobile works well with real estate advertising.
- 73% of local searches are performed through mobile web browsers*
- More than 48 million mobile users accessed maps on their device in May 2011, marking an increase of 39 percent from the previous year. *
- In June of 2011, time spent on mobile apps and sites surpassed time spent surfing web sites on a laptop or desktop computer.**
- By 2013, more people will own smart phones than personal computers or laptops.**
- 14 million mobile users in the U.S. representing 6.2% of the total mobile audience, scanned a QR or bar code on their mobile device in June 2011
- The most popular source of a scanned code (49.4%) was a printed magazine or newspaper.
In other words, more and more consumers are using their phones to surf the web - and using an offline source to drive local traffic to a mobile enabled site makes perfect sense - especially in an industry like ours in which location is key.
Want to learn more about mobile marketing for real estate? Contact your local Real Estate Book representative. Enter your zip here to find yours.Our offering now includes single property mobile websites, text codes, and QR codes - at no additional cost.
Because print advertising and mobile marketing go together like . . peanut butter & jelly. Bees and honey. Bacon and eggs. Baseball and hot dogs. Football and tailgating.
Ok . . please excuse me. I’m hungry now.
*comScore, Inc. Research ** Nielson Research
The New Search
The new search happens everywhere.
Today’s multi-media multi-taskers take in print, tv, radio, mobile tools, the web and , social networks. It’s not just the Google web or even the social web. The new “search” is not just online. It’s also physical. We “search” everywhere we turn.
To reach the top of the “new search, you must integrate your media and content marketing to reach consumers in relevant ways.
An integrated strategy includes 4 types of media
1. Owned media – Your own website - information about you from you.
2. Paid media – Advertising that connects to your owned media, your brand.
When consumers conduct a Google search, they find you. When you advertise, you find them.
You must use prospect focused distribution of relevant content to interrupt your target audience - a print ad, a online banner, a postcard, a billboard.
3. Social media - Facebook, Twitter, your blog – part of the billions of conversations on social networks daily. Relevant conversations build brand awareness, loyalty, and engagement, drives traffic to owned media and creates earned media.
4. Earned media – the stuff you can’t buy. Positive reviews and voluntary distribution through networks of influencers the highest quality leads.
The Real Estate Book has spent over 30 years studying consumer habits in the real estate industry.
· We understand today’s consumer.
· We understand the tools you need to connect with them.
· We create those connections.
Based on this deep understanding, we guide leading real estate professionals through today’s marketing complexities.
It’s Just What We Do.
I was recently reminded of a story - true or not - about a visit that President John F. Kennedy made to the space center at Cape Canaveral sometime in the 1960’s. While there, JFK ran into three custodial workers. He asked all three, “What is it that you do here?”
The first replied, “Earn a livng.”
The second said, “I pick up the trash.”
The third said, “Mr. President, I am helping to put a man on the moon.”
The third understood that he played a part in a larger picture. Clearly, for effective operations at the space center, someone had to keep the facility clean and operational. And, as the facility was able to operate effectively, those who worked there also were able to accomplish their goal of sending a man to the moon.
This worker had two things - passion and a sense of purpose.
I thought about all the people here at Network Communications and our passion and purpose. On the surface, we create and publish shelter-related content. And it takes around 800 - 900 people to do that in various forms - whether they are making sales, creating web content, running a printing press, creating graphics, servicing our customers, gathering and reporting data, delivering the mail, driving a truck, or any other number of functions - including keeping the place clean and operational.
But, as an entire organization, what is that we really do? What’s our purpose? Here’s what I came up with –
We help people find their home.
They may be looking for an apartment, a first home, a next home, a second home , a retirement home, or a place to age gracefully. We will help them find that place. Then, we help make the place they live into a place they call “home” with information on decorating, repairing, or improving their space and on enjoying and becoming a member of the community around them.
And, we’re pretty darned passionate about that.
What do you do?
National Association of REALTORS 2010 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers Reveals Winning Trends.
Filed under: Consumer Resources, Real Estate Industry Research & Articles, Real Estate News
How do top agents continue to win?
What are the winning qualities home buyers and sellers look for in a real estate professional? The recent release of the National Association of REALTORS Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers for 2010 reveals that even with access to an abundance of information online, consumers still value the services offered by a full-service agents and brokers.
According to the stats - Here’s what sellers want most from a full service agent -
- Help me price the home competitively - 22%
- Help find a buyer for the home - 21%
- Help seller market the home to potential buyers - 20%
- Help sell the home in a specific time frame - 19%
In today’s market place, sellers rely even more on real estate professionals to help them price their homes as competitively and realistically as possible. Most understand that their home has most likely, lost value in the past few years and understandably, want to sell for as much as they can.
Consumers also know that exposing their home to the largest universe of buyers possible means they stand a better chance of selling quickly and for a higher price. That’s why agents who go above and beyond to actually market the home versus just posting it on the web on free sites are preferred by sellers.
Also, according to the study, buyers want a real estate professional to –
- Help them to find the right home - 51%
- Help negotiate the terms - 14%
- Help with price negotiations - 12%
- Help with the paperwork - 10%
Even though home shopping on their own has never been easier, buyers are still looking to the agent to help them find the right home and a professional agent to help them through the process. Agents who presents themselves as honest, caring, knowledgeable, and full-service stand a better chance of engaging buyers.
Even though the market has changed and technology has changed, consumers’ expectations remain consistent. Sellers still want their home priced well and marketed well with the belief that means a faster, more profitable sell and buyers are still looking for a professional agent to guide them through the process.
Top agents have always known this and they make sure they promote these qualities to both buyers and sellers. That’s why they continue to win the business and confidence of consumers.
CONFESSIONS OF A REAL ESTATE JUNKIE/TOP 5 MEDIA TRENDS FOR 2011
Filed under: About Marketing, Advertising Info, Connect, Consumer Resources, Engagement, Real Estate Industry Research & Articles, Real Estate News, Social Media
Like many of us in this business I have been awe struck by the rate of decline in almost everything related to the housing industry over the last three years; existing homes sold, new homes built and purchased, mortgages sold, real estate agent commissions and of course the one that most directly impacts me and my business, the significant drop in advertising and marketing spend. If this is any consolation, books will be written (some already have been) about this period in time and we’ll all be able to say we witnessed it first hand.
There are plenty of people better qualified than I to predict how the 2011 American housing market will play out, so I won’t try to second guess them. Their forecasts range from more of the same (4.8M to 5.0M existing homes sold) to slightly more aggressive numbers, closer to 5.5M existing homes sold. The consensus is the recovery in housing will be tepid in 2011.
But there is less consensus around real estate marketing media trends for 2011 and so I’d like to further that discussion with my own predictions for the Top 5 Media Trends we’ll see develop in the coming year.
Top 5 MEDIA TRENDS FOR 2011
1. Common sense will return to the media market. Top Agents and Brokers recognizing that real estate always has been and always will be a hyper-local business, will stop following the larger crowd and decide instead to find ways to stand out from the crowd in their very specific, very local market.
2. Local housing guides, especially color catalogs integrated with an online offering. like The Real Estate Book and its companion website http://www.realestatebook.com and other well executed products, will regain favor due to their hyper local characteristics and their ability to attract buyers and influence prospective sellers to list their home with a market leader.
3. Internet marketing will change radically. The idea that simply posting listings on large national sites is innovative marketing and that “if we post they will come” will be replaced with a smarter approach, better leveraging the real power of the internet. Large sites today like Realtor.com and other popular sites like Zillow.com and Trulia.com get anywhere from 5 to 10 million unique users every month, which is amazing considering the lackluster pace of home sales this year, but lead generation from those users is low at between 1 and 2% of traffic. These sites can be a great research tool, but for whatever reason the medium just doesn’t engage people to take action, like send an email or make a phone call, to the same degree other mediums offer.
4. Content marketing solutions, like http://www.brokersherpa.com where Agents and Brokers are able to leverage their existing digital assets, like listing data mentioned above and integrate it in a more meaningful way to intersect and engage with buyers and sellers as they are online searching in any of the major search engines or social media sites, will be a major trend for 2011.
5. Cost and return on investment will continue to be major drivers to media and marketing decisions as the housing market recovers, but at a slow pace in 2011. Commission dollars will still be tight and very precious. Every decision should have a measurable and productive outcome and top Agents and brokers will insist that the vendors they choose to work with can back up their claims with concrete results and reporting.
That’s my list for Top 5 MEDIA TRENDS for 2011. I”d love to hear your thoughts and invite you to let me know if you agree and if not, how you might modify the list.
Happy New Year!
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