SpencerBarron.com

Internet advertising is such a waste of money. Definitely overpriced compared to the returns I get from other types of advertising. Not so much my own websites- they have their use, it’s the Internet lead sources that will no longer be receiving checks from me. Lead sources like Justlisted.com, Realestate.com, HomeGain, and the myriad of other companies who are pawning off information that they collected at one of their many landing pages. According to the 2006 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers (pdf), three quarters of home buyers use the Internet in their home search. With this premise in mind, you would think an agent should place a large portion of his/her marketing budget into the Internet. That’s where the buyers are, right? Yes and no. They are there, but they really don’t want to be bothered.

People love the anonymity of the Internet. They don’t want to be sold. They just want something that you’ve got. They hate to leave their information, so they will not, if they can avoid it.

‘They’re not that into you’

Unfortunately for agents, real estate is rarely an impulse purchase.A person will spend a few months thinking about it before they even make a move to contact a broker. It’s far more likely to believe they already have someone in mind to use. Someone they know personally. They could easily know a friend who had mentioned someone they had worked with on the purchase of their own home. Perhaps they already have a family member who is in the business. They may just want to try to FSBO the property or work with a seller directly. Maybe they want to use the agent who’s selling their neighbor’s house. Whatever the case, everyone has a website and it’s unlikely your website sets you apart from the crowd.

It’s really about the initial contact. Where did my clients come from? I mean, there is a difference between someone hearing of your company because of your strong presence in the area, then ending up at your website, and them showing up at your website after an Internet search. Your website is a much stronger tool when it’s a landing place for interest generated by the buzz you’re creating in the neighborhood. But as far as an proactive business tool, it comes up a little weak. Relying on the Internet alone is imagining that if your client had a rolodex full of thousands of business cards, yours would somehow be pulled out consistently enough for you to make a living. Even if you’re in the front of the great Google Rolodex, that doesn’t guarantee you’re going to get more business.

How do I know?…well, I look up all the agents with top 10 listings in Google for the main keywords for Denver. I then see how much business they do. Its usually pretty average and sometimes even below average. When I look up the top producing agents, though, it’s quite common that they might not have a top website. They have no top 10 listings on Google and very little web traffic.

A website isn’t the key to an agent’s success.

Most agents will admit that there is little in the way of a positioning statement on their website. It’s likely there is nothing in the way of price mentioned there, so there is usually very little in the way of a benefit to a client mentioned there. Oh I know we all have the usuall rhetoric about how we are experts in some area, we can get top dollar and are masters of the universe. But there really isn’t that much that makes what one agent does different than the next one. People know this. To be successful, you need to sell benefits. Selling 101, right? What is the benefit to your client? Personally, I prefer, ‘I’ll save you more money’ or ‘I’ll make you more money’ as opposed to ‘I work for the largest company in Colorado’ or ‘Here’s my…

If agents want to be successful, they need to be realistic about where their leads come from and how can they get in front of more people for the least amount of money. While a website is an important tool to relay information, it will never replace the value of a face-to-face visit. The money that you could blow trying to generate leads from the Internet is phenomenal.

So, I’m sure you’re asking, why do I have a website? I still see a website as a key component of my business, but I doubt it will ever be the storefront I had hoped. It’s destined to be a card in a Rolodex. Who knows, I might get a few people that show up organically from the sea of Internet users out there looking to transact some real estate in the Denver area. Far more likely though, they may see my yard sign, postcard, door hanger, newspaper ad, my first time buyer seminar or have a friend drop my name and wonder who I am. By the time they reach my website, they’re already on their second contact. If it looks good at that point, and they’re ready, I might just get a call. But I’m not going to wait for it or rely on it.

I will try to spiff it up a little this year though; it looks pretty bad. One day, people may change. Maybe one day having a top ten listing on Yahoo or Google will be just like having a brick-n-mortar location right next to the supermarket. Just in case, I’ll keep trying to improve the website. Besides, I want to be part of the top 10 crowd on Google simply because I like to win.

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