When marketing a property, it can be very effective to combine “tried and true” methods from the past with cutting edge methods from the present. All marketing methods and theories must be tested in the marketplace to determine how well they work.
Only in the last 12 months have new approaches to Internet marketing emerged. Twitter is the most famous example, but there are others. For example, Google changed all of its rules about local search engines last summer.
With the rise of blogs, Internet directories, online forums, and free classifieds sites, there are now literally dozens of websites where you can advertise properties at little or no cost. You must learn about these if you want to effectively market your property on the Internet.
However, increasing the importance of Internet marketing does not mean throwing away everything that has been learned from the past. Classic marketing methods still work very well and can often be adapted to the Internet.
You can combine classic marketing methods with the latest Internet marketing techniques to create a powerful marketing program for your home or other property. This is true whether you have a list of realtors or not, because realtors aren’t doing these kinds of marketing programs.
Perhaps the most effective technique in internet marketing is what can be called “automatic email marketing”. This is a way to automate the important follow-up process, which is the key to making sales. If you don’t follow up on leads, you won’t make sales, period.
What we’ve discovered is that the old traditional “two-step” marketing method works very well with the new technology that enables automatic lead follow-up. You can use these methods to sell your property. This is how it would work:
- Get an interested buyer to visit your personalized home sales website.
- You offer something of value if they leave you their name and email address (a prize or a gift).
- Your automated tracking system kicks in and sends a “thank you” email to your site visitor.
- The tracking system sends an email to the visitor every other day for a while, and then only once a week.
- Eventually, one of these website visitors buys your property, because after they came to your site, you captured their information and followed up with them.
Most people wouldn’t think of combining these two great marketing methods to sell real estate. In fact, I don’t know of anyone else who is doing it. I just know that it works. Try it yourself and see.