Whether you’re a beginner or veteran in the real estate business, and regardless of how much knowledge or experience you have in marketing your business online, it’s helpful to put things in perspective and clearly understand that there are 6 interrelated steps for building your business online.  They are:

-    Your Real Estate Website
-    Driving Traffic To Your Website
-    Building Your Email Database
-    Email Marketing
-    Listings Presentations and Technology – Best Practices
-    Negotiating

Your Real Estate Website

The hub, centerpiece and pillar of all your online marketing efforts is your real estate website.  It’s the place where you direct all prospects to, regardless of where these prospects come from.  Your real estate website is where prospects see the full scope of your real estate knowledge and your overall knowledge of the farm areas you seek buyers and sellers from.  Ultimately, your real estate website will be the reason a buyer or seller chooses to work with you.

Driving Traffic To Your Website

There are a number of ways you can drive qualified prospects to your website and all fall under the category of pull marketing IE you are attracting or ‘pulling’ prospects towards your business.  Some of these methods are free while others are not.  Some will take time to deliver results while some can start driving traffic immediately.  Here is a breakdown of the various online sources where prospects are looking for you:

Search Engines
-    Organic Search Results
-    Pay Per Click Ads (Sponsored Advertisements)

Classified Sites
-    Real Estate For Sale sections
-    Housing Wanted sections (Buyers, Sellers and Renters)
-    Sublets/Temporary (Renters)
-    Real Estate Services section

Social Media
-    Facebook
-    Twitter
-    LinkedIn

Pay Per Click (PPC)
-    Search Engines Under Sponsored Ads sections (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask)
-    Real Estate Related Websites (Banner Ads, Sponsored Ads)
-    Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn)

Part 2 available here