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As traditional advertising fails to deliver for Estate Agents, where do they turn to get results?
With positive predictions and signs of “building momentum” within the housing market it has boosted the confidence of would-be buyers. Housing stocks look attractive and could restore returns in the long term. Once again the property market is looking a somewhat lucrative investment and the number or prospective buyers on the market is increasing. Estate agents and property services must now race to position themselves in the best possible way to profit from the upturn in sentiment. For consumers who are actively seeking to buy or lease property, they now have more choice and options available to them, as the previous drop in house prices and property sales left companies within the property market no choice but to offer cheaper rates and greater promotions to entice new business.
Property services and estate agents now have to work harder to secure sales and do so at a reduced rate to make up for the poor return in slimmer times. Estate agents have always been a hungry bunch, but with their new appetite to battle it out to give consumers the best deal and attract business, consumers will have much to consider. As a result consumers are taking more time and putting more effort into their search ethic, to ensure they are getting the best possible deal.
This has seen an influx of consumers taking to the Internet to consider all the property services available to them, and seek out the best possible deal. The reason that the internet is being increasingly used by consumers as a search tool for property related services is becauseit allows them to enter their specific requirements and quickly be presented with relevant results.
‘With 85% of all property inquiries now being done through the internet, magazine advertising is a thing of the past’
(www.courtenay.co.uk 2009)
Advertising in the shop window, local magazines, newspapers, and the familiar; “For sale” board, are no longer enough to ensure maximum exposure and secure that final sale. Therefore as competition stiffens, and promotions increase to attract the growing number of prospect buyers, estate agents are having to become more creative and use additional means to ensure that, it is their company, and their properties, which the consumer comes into contact with first. The medium which is being recognized by many as the key to achieving optimal results in this highly publicized housing market, is online marketing.
The first reason estate agents are turning to online marketing to get results, is in order to meet consumers were they are. As around 85% of consumers begin their search for property online, it is in the best interest of property companies to put their business in the field of vision of consumers searching online, for property related services. This should be done by getting their website with its service and product offerings, available and easily accessible on the web. Through having an effective online presence, estate agents are benefiting from increased brand awareness as more consumers visit their web pages therefore receiving more queries and phone calls.
Another important reason why estate agents are seeing online marketing as the best means to achieve results, relates to the cost effectiveness of online marketing techniques and technologies. For example search engine marketing (SEM) is an online marketing technique with huge cost benefits. Search engine marketing uses pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to grow business and increase the consumers awareness of the promoted products and services instantly. A key cost benefit of PPC advertising relates to the high return on investment ratio, especially applicable within the property industry, as with one sale alone estate agents could finance an entire years worth of PPC advertisements, which in turn could generate hundreds of sales per month. Another key benefit of PPC advertising is that it allows for easy measurement of ROI, as you only pay when your ad is clicked-on by a consumer.
For estate agents who are serious about getting their services seen amongst all the competition online, their aim should be to get their website listed on the 1st page of search engine results. In order to achieve this estate agents should adopt search engine optimization(SEO ). It consists of website optimization, basically optimizing your website so that it is search engine friendly (easier for search engine bots and spiders to crawl your website, understanding and indexing your sites content accurately). An integrated and comprehensive search engine optimization policy put in place, will put estate agents in poll position when it comes to getting their website listed on the 1st page of results across the major search engine networks, such as; Google, Yahoo,and MSN for property related search terms.
There are no instant and simple solutions to increase the number of customers and inquires you receive, however in this somewhat uncertain financial climate it is in the best interest of estate agents, and similarly property services to employ the best possible online marketing technologies to reach the maximum number prospect buyers and secure valuable business.
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