The Secret to Internet Marketing for Realtors(R) - Part I

Every week, when I look through the list of new subscribers to my Prof-IT Real Estate Technology Newsletter, I am always most interested in reading the answers to this question:

“What is your biggest technology or marketing challenge?”

The answer I get more than any other is Internet Marketing.

Are YOU frustrated that your real estate website isn’t more successful?

Do you feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the knowledge you have to ingest when it comes to internet marketing?

You’ve got the search engines, pay-per-click ads, blogs, autoresponders, tracking systems, keywords, video… and the list goes on.

What’s worse is that all of it is in a constant state of motion. What “worked” yesterday might not “work” next week. The new systems you learn today probably won’t even be around in a year or so.

All of the internet marketing techniques can easily overwhelm even the most chronic of “multi-taskers.” Every day there are new ways being created to market your real estate business on the internet.

If you aren’t careful, you can spend all of your time chasing after the latest technique or learning the newest system and completely forget the point behind all of your actions.

It’s easy to feel like a rat caught in a wheel trying to keep up but not really making progress.

Plus, you’ve got the rest of your business to run. You’ve got clients to help, showings to do, listing presentations to make, phone calls to return, paperwork to fill-out, etc.

So what’s the answer? How can you use the internet to make your real estate business better?

The answer is to stop, take a step back and take a few moments to concentrate on answering some important questions about your business.

I call these questions “The Terrible Two,” because in my private coaching with real estate agents throughout the country, these two questions are the hardest ones to answer. They are also the most important ones to answer.

Without the answers to “The Terrible Two,” you are committing yourself to the task of competing directly with every other Realtor® in your market. That’s hard work – too hard.

By answering just these two questions, you will uncover the real secret to internet marketing – how to jump off the wheel of trying to keep up with the “technique of the week” and actually use the internet to create bigger results by working less.

Here are the questions you need to ask yourself right now:

1. Exactly who is my target market online?
2. Exactly what am I offering them that they can’t get anywhere else?

Sound familiar?

The real secret to internet marketing is to understand that it is not all that different than regular marketing.

I know it’s not a glamourous answer, but it is reality.

On a certain level, internet marketing IS a bit different because you have the added bonus of your market being able to talk back (that type of knowledge is a gold mine)... But leveraging that is a topic for another day.

So do you have good answers for the “Terrible Two” questions above?

Getting those answers will inform ALL of your marketing, especially on the internet.

Without those answers, you will be flying blind and a prime target for the “internet marketing technique of the week.”

So before you do anything else related to marketing your website, sit down in a quiet space and THINK.

Think…

• Who are the people that I can help most?
• Who do I naturally enjoy working with and who am I most effective at helping?
• To whom do I deliver the best results?
• Where do I see the most need for my help?

Those questions will help lead you to your target market.

Then, move on to question #2 and ask yourself things like:

• What makes my business different?
• What do I do that no one else can do or is willing to do?

That is the beginning of your U.S.P., or Unique Sales Position.

Stay tuned…

We’ll cover what to do with your answers (and how to deal with all of the internet marketing techniques) in the next issue.