Internet Marketing by real estate agents is often restricted to web based advertising , particularly individual agency websites and placement of property for sale on what seems like an endless supply of property portals.

Many agencies have added email marketing and e-newsletter solutions to improve their overall internet marketing results. Like other internet based marketing options, email marketing and e-newsletters are very cost effective. If done right the results can far exceed that of expensive traditional options.

Hard copy newsletters can cost thousands of dollars to print and deliver yet their effectiveness is often impossible to measure. In contrast email newsletters are extremely cheap and technology allows you to know exactly who opened their copy and exactly what they clicked on.

A recent report by a large email marketing firm MailerMailer (www.mailermailer.com) reveals some handy tips and trends when it comes to emarketing. With thousands of clients across many industry groups MailerMailer are able to analyse the results from over 300 million marketing emails sent over a 6 month period. (more…)

I know there are some vocal members of the business2.com.au community who seldom miss a chance to bash realestate.com.au. Most of you know I work at the company that runs that website. So you might be surprised that today I’m going to give you a free opportunity to take money out of our pocket. What could be better, right?

So, here it is: just visit this website (NOW CLOSED for donations), and click in the appropriate spot and we’ll donate $1 to Mission Australia to help provide Houses for the Homeless (up to a total of $100,000).

I know, I know. If you’re trying to soak us, $1 isn’t that much. But, if you pass the URL around to all your friends, then you can up the cost to us substantially.

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After posting about why real estate podcasts can be a good idea on real estate agent websites, I want to follow up with this post on how you can turn your real estate podcasts into a broader marketing tool.

Real estate marketing should be simple. The best way to keep things simple is to squeeze as much juice as possible out of whatever simple techniques you use.

Before I get to the details of how to do that with podcasting, let me say that it will take some work. It is not complex, but nor is it a once-off quick fix. Instead, it’s a strategic solution for the real estate agent or principal who is looking to make solid improvements to their market position in the medium term. (more…)

Every now and then, the internet just starts to seem too damn complicated.

You’ve got XML, search engine optimisation (SEO), search engine marketing, pay per click, pay per action, PPM, social media, semantic web, viral, web2.0, web3.0 and even some talk of web4.0.

Oh wait; Web4.0 is already dead.

For people like real estate agents and professional communicators, people like me, sometimes you just want to go out back and put a bullet in your head rather than have to keep up with all this stuff.

(Then again, there are plenty of people who don’t keep up with it but feel very happy to spout off about it anyway. Maybe I could learn from them. Maybe I already have.)

That’s why I was so relieved to read this post on online and offline marketing, by Jack Trout. The gist of it is that a marketing strategy should above all be obvious and easy to understand.

That simplicity is one reason good online marketing strategies work so well.

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Promoting your brand in a positive way in consumers’ minds is an important aspect of growing your business and understandably can stretch your marketing budget. This is a pretty obvious opening statement but, an important one to note, especially for those principles and managers who face the relentless pile of advertising invoices - which I’m certain produce offspring at any given opportunity.

Real Estate Agents obtain business through a variety of ways. Buyers who become sellers, referrals and street smart prospecting are all a part of tapping into the consumer stream and most likely potential business has arrived from your marketing dollars. Given that the majority of (potential) consumers will view your website then it should be a priority to regularly update and manage it effectively to maximise the return to your overall marketing investment. (more…)