In a previous post, I spoke of single property websites as an innovative means of marketing a property or listing. In this post, I’d like to return to that discussion and provide some tips for maximizing the impact of your single property websites and more importantly, provide strategies for effectively marketing them. 

Simply having a single property website for your property or listing won’t instantly increase your exposure or sell the property. The critical thing to remember with any initiative – and single property websites are no different – is that the onus is on you to market the service effectively.

To assist you in maximizing the impact of your single property websites and more importantly, effectively marketing them, deploy these strategies:

Tips for Maximizing Your Single Property Website

1. Photo Resolution: Get the most out of your images. Take your photos at an 800X600 resolution, or higher. Take as many photos. The more images a potential buyer or renter can see the better they can envision themselves in the space or spot potential.
2. Accurate Mapping: Be sure that the address details you provide for the property are 100% accurate to ensure the location displays correctly on the map.
3. Details, Details: The more details you provide the better. Your potential buyer or renter will want to know everything, so don’t be afraid to go into a lot of detail. Informed buyers and renters translate into less ‘dead end’ showings.
4. Print the Feature Sheet: Most services generate a printer-friendly PDF feature sheet for your property that you can print and have on hand for open houses and showings. This is a valuable ‘take-away’ the potential buyers will appreciate – and, it provides them with all the pertinent contact details and link to your website.
5. Be Visible and Available: Ensure that you provide pertinent contact information for potential buyers and renters to reach you, book appointments, and get more details. Ensure the information is accurate and make a point of checking messages and responding promptly to inquiries and requests.
6. Don’t worry about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for single property sites! It’s just not a realistic means of measuring their effectiveness. Search engine submissions take months and additionally, these sites are meant to be targeted and specific. Instead, think of them as an open house without the open house.

Effectively Marketing Single Property Websites:

1. Replace your personal website link on the MLS listing with the link to the listing website – give buyers one-click access to the information they want – THE LISTING!
2. Re-think your personal website and position your single property sites as the gateway to your site. The listing is what buyers are looking for anyway, so give them what they want first, then position yourself as the one to call.
3. Get your single property websites onto your personal site as your feature listings to provide additional exposure to the listing and your seller, which will translate into more exposure for you!
4. Cut down the word count for your print (newspaper) ads – add the property site URL and get people going to the site for details.
5. Add the property site URL to all your direct marketing material – could be as simple as adding a sticker with the URL to the back of your business cards.
6. Make sure your sign riders prominently display the URL for the property website. Get your signs up! If you already have a sign, make sure you order sign riders to attach to your For Sale or For Rent sign. Sign riders are a cheap, yet very effective way of advertising the site. Many people find the homes they like driving through their desired neighbourhoods. Then, they go home to search MLS for the property. Avoid the MLS step, give them the website URL and you’ve got them!
7. Get Your Site Out There: Add the property (and link to your website) to online classifieds like Kijiji, Craigsllist (some single property website services provide simple code to integrate your ad in Craigslist) etc. Look for other local directories in which you can advertise for free and post the website address.
8. Use your social networking accounts (Facebook, etc.) to drive traffic to your listing sites and send the website URL through these avenues. Single property websites are integrated with one-click access to the most popular social networking tools. Additionally, use Facebook to keep your buyers and sellers informed and get up-to-the-minute information out to them.
9. Link to Your Personal Website. Don’t be afraid to market yourself while you market your client’s property. Make yourself available to buyers and sellers alike.
10. Integrate Technology. When you create a single property website you can also integrate virtual tours, show videos, and links to community resources and points of interest. Starting with the single property website, you can employ a full range of multimedia tools to convey the appeal of the property and the strength of your services.

In my last blog post, I discussed the merits and the pitfalls of using social networking sites like Facebook to sell real estate. This week’s blog focuses on another form of social networking, Twitter. As with Facebook, many people are using ‘Twitter’ not out of a firm belief that it presents positive networking and business building opportunities, but out of the pressure to be ‘hip’. There is a real danger in all this scrambling about to stay on top of the latest thing. The key is to make sure that you enter into these arenas with clear goals and the right intentions.

What the Tweet is Twitter?

Twitter is an increasingly popular social networking tool. Some are even using this chat tool to market homes. But, is all this ‘tweeting’ paying off? (Twitter posts are called Tweets.) Meaning, are you gaining relevant followers or alienating the people you want to reach? The point is to tweet carefully and wisely…

Pros of Twitter

1. You can focus your account to exchange relevant information targeted at a specific audience. Write about your community, the neighbourhoods, and features of the home.
2. Use Twitter to talk about homes before they officially go on the market. This technique can drive people to your website where they can see the home as soon as it’s posted. (It’s difficult to know whether Twitter results in more showings or contracts, but you can discern if more traffic is on your website.) Homeowners selling on their own homes can use Twitter to get the word out.

Cons of Twitter

1. Limits. Twitter has a 140 character limitation, so you have to be good at making a point. Not everyone is…
2. Too Fast. Posting a tweet takes seconds, which is why so many get posted without careful consideration. Realistically, are your prospective clients interested in tweets about your family or where you had lunch?
3. Followers see it all. Each time you post, your comment is added to your followers Twitter page. If you’re using your Twitter account to reach all your potential buyers, existing clients, and prospective sellers (and possibly family and friends), there will be a lot of posts landing on your followers pages that are probably not relevant to each individual. That’s a lot of noise for your followers to weed through to get to the content that matters to them. As a result, they may drop you and go follow someone else.
4. Loss of personal touch. Granted – you are busy, but your clients and prospects still want that personal connection and to know that you are working specifically for them. When a listing comes up that meets your client’s criteria, wouldn’t a phone call or a personal email directed to that individual alone be more appropriate than a publicly broadcasted ‘tweet’?
5. Making every post relevant. Is that much happening in your market with your listings to warrant minute-by-minute tweets? If not, have you signed yourself up for something that you will not be able to deliver upon? Meaning, if your followers are expecting constant contact with relevant information about your market, is it realistic that you’ll have the goods?
6. Demographic. Who’s using Twitter? Who’s your demographic? Do they match?

What Might Be More Effective?

Focus Your Efforts – Devote your time and efforts to your website. At the end of the day, that’s where people will look for you first. If you keep your site up-to-date, provide relevant information, and funnel your marketing efforts to drive traffic to your site, not only will new prospects find you, but existing clients will continue to visit.

Develop a Blog – Perhaps a more effective way (than Twitter or Facebook) of staying in touch with existing and prospective clients is to build a blog on your personal website. Updating your blog regularly with informative posts will attract more visitors to your site and enable you to focus your content on a specific audience. You can even categorize your blog posts between buyers and sellers. By continuously updating your blog with information, you can tap into the interests of your members. If they find your services beneficial, they will also refer people they know to become your visitors as well. This strategy gives you the chance to increase the traffic to your website and those visitors may be your prospect clients. (If you still want to engage in social networking sites, use them as a way to drive traffic to your own site.) If you can get people accessing your personal website for information about listings, community information, schools, events, market information, etc. then you’ve established yourself as a resource and people will return to your site again and again.

So, to answer the original question: Can Facebook and Twitter Sell Real Estate? Perhaps. But, it’s going to take serious commitment and a thoughtful approach. You will only be successful in using social networking if you put in a lot of effort. You have to continuously update your Facebook account with relevant information and focus the content of your tweets on a specific audience.

And, like I mentioned in the previous article, social networking sites are by nature fleeting and fickle. If you’re already stretched in your efforts to provide the best service to the clients you have and securing new prospects, why not focus on something that is not going away? Instead of trying to tap into all the existing and emerging technologies, choose one. Better yet, make sure your website is a destination and really work to get people there. Your website is not going away, but can you say the same thing about Twitter in six months? Who knows…?

There’s a lot of pressure these days to be a part of the social networking phenomenon. Beyond social networking as a means of staying in touch with family/friends and reconnecting with old friends (as it was intended), there is the concept of social networking as a business need. In a business like real estate where networking means so much, this pressure is intensified. However, as with everything, there is a right way and a wrong way to use this technology – and if you don’t think you can play by the rules, you need to evaluate whether you should engage at all…

Should Realtors Participate in the Social Media?

Online business is the norm nowadays, so should you be making use of social media as a marketing strategy? It is one way of making your business known to the general public and it brings your target audience to your site in a cost effective (free!) way. Increasing site traffic is a great way to gain clients and referrals. Unfortunately, due to the fleeting nature of social networking sites, the trick is going to be to stay on top of it all.

How do you know if you should enter the social media space? Ask your clients and prospects. Are they Tweeting? Have they ever set up a profile in MySpace? Chances are, if they are anywhere – it’s Facebook. But, they are not searching for real estate – they’re reconnecting with old friends. Look at your target market. What are they doing? Yes, millions of people are on Facebook, but of those millions, how many are part of the demographic buying and selling homes?

Knowing this, decide if you want to try and engage your target market in this space. If the decision is yes, keep the following in mind:

1. Don’t Be a Bore: Beyond your name, where you are located, and how to get a hold of you. Tell them you’re a real estate professional and set up the Info page with a clear description of your services. Be professional but also try and convey some personality. This is where your marketing skills can really shine.
2. Get The Word Out: Use Facebook to spread out and join related groups. Who knows who you will meet or how many people you will find that want your services.
3. Create Groups: This is the most obvious way to use the site. Create a “Collingwood Homebuyers” group for example and help first time buyers with their questions. Leverage your expertise to become the group ‘expert’. Keep in touch with networking contacts you meet at a local event/meeting and engage in post meeting/event discussions.
4. Send Updates Not Spam: Update your status with something that people want to read about. (For example, the latest mortgage rates.)This will get your updates to all of your friends and potentially your friends’ friends. Don’t post just to post. No one wants that.
5. Link: If you have a personal website, single property websites, or a blog, provide those links on your Info page. Include links to points of interest related to your market area.
6. Share: Use Facebook to market properties to a select group or share properties with other agents. Use One-Click sharing to Bookmark any page (for example, single property website) with Facebook. You could also have an exclusive Group of Realtors in your market to share listings before they hit MLS.
7. Drop the Hard Sell: If you want social networking to work for you, keep it interesting and stop selling. No heavy-handed hard sell. Social networking works on a subtle level.
8. Don’t Disappear: Don’t just create the page and then vanish. Log in often and post something of interest. People will like the fact that you play an active role in your community. If they have any community-related questions, who better to ask than you?

Can Homeowners Take Advantage of Facebook?

Perhaps Facebook is most relevant and useful to homeowners trying to sell on their own property. After all, the more people that know you are selling your home, the better. Since you are limited in your marketing sphere (i.e. you’re not on MLS), you need to tap into other means of getting your home noticed. Facebook just might be a clever option for you. Use your social network to let people know you’re home is for sale.

And, once people know that you’re selling, you can take advantage of the additional marketing tools out there to showcase your home. For example, create a single property website that links from your Facebook account. Populate the website with details, features, and photos of your home to provide potential buyers with everything they need to know – and more.

If you’re in the market for a home or vacation rental, you may be one of the multitudes interested in exploring increasingly popular options like online classified sites. And, since just about everyone seems to be selling something on craigslist or kijiji these days, real estate professionals, do-it-yourself homeowners, and property managers are smart to take advantage of this trend. If you’re among those ’smart ones’, you are already using online classifieds as another means of marketing your or your client’s property.

So, why are classified sites important to your advertising campaign and why should you use them? Well to start with, classified sites can bring in direct traffic. They place your free ads in front of millions of eyes instantly! Sites that provide direct traffic are probably the fastest way to get people to recognize that your site exists. And, because posting ads to free classified sites takes a short amount of time (for the most part), they put your ad in front of thousands of people very quickly.

Yet, like everything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to utilize these sites. If you have a truly fabulous home in a sought-after neighbourhood, but are not getting the response you’d hoped for, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate your particular strategy and recognize where you might be going wrong. Odds are, it’s not the home, but your marketing strategy…

If you’re posting on online classifieds like craigslist or kijiji, you do need to be aware of and remember one crucial thing…when someone is looking to buy from one of these sites, they are not looking to pay full price. Yep, that goes for real estate too. Let’s face it, when you go looking on craigslist, kijiji, or local classified sites, it’s because you want a deal. When it comes to real estate, not only are you looking to make a deal, but you may be also looking to cut out the ‘middle man’ and deal directly with the owner, hence, striking a mutually beneficial deal. So, if you plan to ask for top dollar, maybe you should rethink your strategy. Buyers looking on internet classifieds have usually done their homework and they know fair market value. They want to do one better. It’s important to recognize what these free online classifieds are intended to achieve and be realistic. If you’re not priced to sell quickly or strike a deal, then there are probably more appropriate avenues to promote your property than online classifieds. The same holds true for real estate professionals. If all an agent’s listings automatically get posted to an online classified site, regardless of the seller’s requirements, the listings may not be getting the response or ‘movement’ the agent anticipated or expected.

The other issue with sites like craigslist and kijiji is that all the postings look the same. Of all those ads, why would a buyer be motivated to act on your particular posting? Good point.

Okay so, how do you make your posting stand out and stick in the minds of the masses surfing through the overwhelming number of posts? For starters, make your ad tantalizing! (Yes, I did just say tantalizing). Use a catchy heading, limited amount of text (just the facts), and stick to a couple of choice photos. Then, lead them off of these sites, right away! Use online classified sites as a means of driving traffic to your own site – be it your personal site or a single property website specifically created for the property. Once you get them to your site, the possibilities are endless. You can elaborate on your description, mirror MLS by providing detailed house ‘stats’, upload a dazzling array of high-quality photos, and attach links to area amenities, schools, etc. The sky’s the limit. The equation is simple: Giving your property more consideration, equals giving your property more exposure.

Incidentally, many single property website services provide their clients with simple code to quickly and easily post aesthetically pleasing ads in traditionally text-heavy sites typical of free online classifieds. It may sound complicated, but it’s not. And, it means that their client’s ads stand out amongst the text-heavy (a.k.a, boring) ads that pervade the free online classified sites.

As you may have guessed from this article, there are some pitfalls to using online classified sites. To be successful, you need to make sure you’ve carefully considered your marketing strategy and understand how to use these sites to your advantage. Here are some tips for using internet classifieds effectively:

1. Liven it up! Content is limited (especially photos) on the free classified sites, so to really capture buyer’s attention, augment your listing with high-quality colour photos and a compelling description. Better yet, tempt them with more by providing a link to your personal website or website dedicated to your property. 
2. Drive traffic from the online classified site to your site. Try setting up a website dedicated to your property alone. Single property websites are cheap and easy to create and manage. (Interested in exploring the single property website option? A local company is now offering this service. Visit www.123propertylisting.com to learn more.)
3. Don’t use an online classified site if you’re not looking to strike a deal. People don’t go on these sites to pay full price. They want to get a ‘good deal’.
4. The goal when marketing a property is to drive as many buyers as possible to your ad, so make sure you choose a site with a lot of traffic and post to the appropriate section.
5. Manage your posting. Repost often to keep on top of the list and get creative in your ad title too.
6. Don’t try and post to several sites. Limit your coordination and management to two main ones. If you start going beyond that number, managing your ads can become a nightmare!

Over 80% of people use the Internet to search for a property these days. That’s a lot of potential buyers and renters that you can easily reach. The trick is to know how to reach them effectively. So, before you post, carefully consider your marketing strategy and put some of these tips to the test. Chances are, you’ll be successful…

You may have noticed those little sign riders, displaying a website address matching the property address, swinging in the breeze at the bottom of For Sale signs these days. If you’re in the market for a home, you may have even entered one of these URLs in your browser – and found a detail-rich website dedicated to that property alone. Cool.

In this competitive market of home selling (and in this region – renting vacation properties), real estate professionals, property managers, and homeowners are increasingly turning to the Internet for innovative ways to market a property. And, many are determining that a service for creating a dedicated website for their property will give them a decided edge.

In the past, buyers perusing their desired neighbourhoods for the perfect home were limited to searching MLS to get the details on the homes they spotted. Aside from the limited details available on MLS, an additional downside was that the home the buyer originally searched on often got lost in the fray. Single property websites seek to change all that. Offering unlimited details and images for the property these websites provide a wealth of information to capture and keep the interest of potential buyers.

The idea is simple you make the website address (URL) the same as the property address. Potential buyers driving by can easily remember the website address when they access their computers. Or, they can whip out their mobiles and view the website from the car. Within minutes, buyers can easily get enough information to decide if this is a property worth considering, contact the agent, and arrange a showing.

Property managers and owners renting out second or vacation properties see the single property website as an effective marketing strategy too. Individuals with vacation properties like that potential renters can go to their property site and get all the details they need before they call. As a result, a lot less time is spent on the management and coordination of the rental process.

But what is most refreshing about the single property website is the value received for a minimal investment. For less than the price of typical monthly hosting plans you can get a full-featured website, hosted for an entire year, registered with an easy-to-remember domain name. The end result, a professionally designed website dedicated to your property – giving you increased exposure to your target audience.

Savvy agents and property owners know that it’s the combination of web and print marketing strategies that sell homes in today’s technological age. By embracing the possibilities a dedicated website provides for creating a captive audience, these individuals have learned how to use single property websites to compliment their traditional print ads and direct marketing campaigns. For example, many real estate professionals now focus their print campaigns to direct traffic to the property website – with fewer words and less money.

Sensing the opportunities that an ever-expanding and popular region like the Georgian Triangle affords, a Collingwood web design company has developed their own single property website concept that they are now offering to agents, brokers, homeowners, and property managers alike. Geoff Jones, partner and lead web designer/developer at 123propertylisting.com, is steadfast in his claim: “If you’re not maximizing on the Internet’s marketing opportunities, you’re not reaching a considerable chunk of the buyers out there.”