More Proof You Need to be Marketing Online
Yahoo! Inc., just released the results of a study they did on how the Internet influences home buyers and sellers and specifically how it influences consumers when it comes to selecting a real estate agent.
No great surprises in the results (which were tabulated from a survey of 500 participants)… Yahoo’s found that… Yes… the Internet plays a “pivotal role in the selection process and was central in helping consumers identify agents”.
The numbers are good brain fodder though.. here’s what Yahoo! found:
- Home buyers and sellers consider approximately two agents on average before making a final decision.
- The Internet impacts consumer trust. Forty percent of respondents credited a site in increasing their trust in the agent.
- 74 percent of people who accessed an agent Web site got there with the help of a search engine. [emphasis mine]
- The online research process is quick and intense: consumers spent an average of 12 hours online researching agents and 75 percent selected an agent within one week of starting their search.
- 45 percent of respondents used the Internet to learn about agents they didn’t know existed.
- 41 percent discovered special deals and promotions offered from an agent through the Internet.
Struck me that maintaining a blog might still be the best way for Realtors to deal with the discovery and introduction process.
But the biggest find reinforces what many of the online search sites are banking on (see Trulia Gets Beaucoup Bucks) - there is still a massive disconnect between Realtor’s advertising budgets and where consumers are looking for information. According to Yahoo! (bias noted) 77 percent of respondents searched the Internet for information during their research process compared to 34 percent for print.
And guess where Realtors are still spending the most of their money? A Borrell Associates report quoted by Yahoo says that newspapers continue to get biggest share of Realtor advertising dollars at 40 percent (though online is catching up - and now stands at 32 percent).
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But wow, 40% is still put into print? I mean, I read in the numbers in a book that the only reason why agents use print is to appease the client. Man, shouldn't we get off the train that's going towards the brick wall? I can't really remember the last time I opened up a newspaper, even Yellow Pages!
And 74% of searchers finding their agent thru search engines. Profound, I must say.
-Ron
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Realtors do what other Realtors do. . advertise in magazines, newspapers and they don't realize the big boys have left them years ago. The Internet is the number one place where I advertise my practice in Real Estate in Short Sales for Maryland.I would not think of spending a single dollar in the clasiffieds ads in the Washington Post.
Fernando Herboso
www.ReallyNiceHomes.com
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I said it before and I'll say it again, real estate agents and investors who do not embrace the internet for their real estate business will be left behind. The future is here and Web 2.0 is changing it all.
This is one of those posts that need to be printed out. Thanks,
Peter
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Online/search marketing is the place to be IF buyers/sellers know to look "realtor in New York." But, what if part of one's marketing includes evangelizing the merits of a destination/community? (Think about trying to convince people to vacation in Key West instead of Hawaii.)
Yes, print absolutely makes no sense anymore. For us, it's expensive, doesn't deliver leads, and we can't measure it at all. The rule today - if you can't measure it, don't use it.
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Having just crossed the bridge from the brokerage world to a real estate technology startup, I can tell you first hand that even with knock you over the head statistics like these, it is very hard to convince some real estate agents what is REALLY going on out there.
Even while working at Intero Real Estate in the heart of Silicon Valley, I had to pull teeth to convince agents that the newspaper was a dead medium. They would always tell me that in their town or neighborhood the newspaper was still used almost exclusively by the seller, which was probably true.
But agents have to be able to get beyond the objections and use the before mentioned information to convince their potential clients that online marketing really works. It is a process that will take time to get over this objection but if you are passionate and truly believe it yourself, it becomes a lot easier to point them in the right direction.
Derek Overbey
Sr. Director of Partnership Strategy
Roost.com
http://www.roost.com
http://blog.roost.com
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Michael Zenga
www.zncustombuilding.com
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Have you seen some of the agent sites out there? I think that buyers are able to quickly credit and discredit others with a few clicks. Fortunately, the web is not an interactive billboard, but some agents are still treating it as such.
BTW -- Adam your rule is one to live by...
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steamboat
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