Part 2: New age of online marketing and ROI
By Glenn Roberts Jr.
Inman News
Editor’s
note: Online marketing in real estate is quickly moving forward as
brokers test new methods for reaching consumers on the Internet.
Marketing choices have grown more complicated with a larger selection
of Web sites to promote property listings and a growing list of lead
generation and management technologies to choose from. In this
three-part series, we take a look at new broker strategies and where
new partnerships are cropping up.
It's becoming increasingly clear. Brokers want control of property listings information, and they aren't waiting.
"Multiple
listing services and brokers have come around to understand that
brokers need control of their data. I believe there is a fundamental
shift going on at the MLS level to begin giving brokers access to their
data," said Luke Glass, chief financial officer and chief operating
officer for real estate technology and data company Threewide Corp.
While
brokers have traditionally supplied property listings information to
MLSs for display at Realtor.com, public MLS Web sites and MLS-member
Web sites through data-exchange agreements, their attention is turning
to their own online marketing.
The
challenge for brokers is in deciding how to use their newfound control
to market properties -- or not to market properties -- on a growing
list of consumer-facing property-search Web sites. "Brokers are really
leaning toward controlling their own marketing decisions," Glass said.
And agents, too, are seeking the best online venues to market
properties to the massive Internet audience of prospective home buyers.
These
are not easy decisions -- some brokers and agents say they want to
offer maximum exposure for properties while others say they worry that
some Web sites may get in the way of real estate professionals' direct
interaction with consumers. There is no single solution that suits
every real estate professional in every market. Brokers and agents are
working to build their own unique brand on the Internet and the
operators of property-search Web sites are working to build a brand,
too.
"The broker obviously feels that the
number one place to attract customers is his Web site," Glass said. And
many third-party Web sites, while seeking to become a search
destination, also direct Internet traffic back to the agent's or
broker's Web site when consumers at those sites seek more detailed
property information.
In response to the
demand for broker control of listings information, Threewide has
launched a data distribution product called ListHub that allows brokers
to interact with MLSs in receiving broker-specific property listings
information and in controlling where to send that information. The
product also allows brokers to monitor Web traffic generated by their
property listings information at those third-party sites, and to
eliminate the need for re-entering data numerous times at the various
sites.
Other companies, too, are offering
variations on this theme: Web-based tools that allow real estate
professionals to automate the process in sending property listings
information for display on a number of Web sites. Point2, Postlets,
SubmitYourListings and vFlyer are among the companies in this category.
Such companies can simplify the process of sending bulk data feeds or
individual property information to multiple property-search sites
simultaneously, and in updating the information displayed on those
sites.
And the list of online marketing
sites for properties is a mouthful: Craigslist, eBay, Edgeio, Google
Base, LiveDeal, Oodle, Point2NLS, Propsmart, Trulia, Vast, Yahoo and
Zillow, among others.
While agents are
also making decisions about how to market properties, Glass said that
the ListHub product gives brokers ultimate authority in deciding where
to redirect traffic from the other property-search sites. "They have to
agree to where the traffic goes," he said. Brokers within 13 MLSs are
using the ListHub product, and these MLSs represent about 100,000
agents across the country, he said.
Online
marketing should drive consumers to a physical storefront or online
storefront, Glass said. "I think the Web site itself is becoming an
online storefront. Don't let others intermediate the traffic. Your
online storefront is for your listings -- where you should feature your
listings. It's all about the data," he said.
MLSs
are generally moving away from making online marketing decisions for
brokers, though there are exceptions, he said. The Houston Association
of Realtors, as an example, has formed an agreement with its brokers to
send property listings information to the Google Base classified
listings site, while it is typically brokers or agents who are
submitting this information to the site. "For the most part MLSs don't
want to be involved with marketing decisions."
Some
MLSs maintain their own public property-search Web sites, though many
of these MLSs don't actively market the sites, Glass noted.
Mike
Montsko, president of the Weichert Lead Network, a technology division
that manages online leads for the Weichert, Realtors brokerage company,
said it is definitely difficult for real estate companies to decide
where to distribute property listings information.
"This
one keeps me up at night. There are lots of sites ... that are willing
to drive free traffic to your site," he said. "With one caveat: You
have to provide them with your listings. For now these sites are happy
to give you the free traffic because they need the content. Without the
listings they would have no product."
He
added, "I know a lot of brokers feel that by working with these sites
we may be raising an 800-pound gorilla. As these sites become more
popular consumers will demand that their homes be displayed on them.
Once this happens we could be facing the same problem we have today
with newspapers: large spends with little return."
So
why do companies decide to post property listings information at these
third-party Web sites? "Our job is to help our associates sell homes
and to ensure that our customers are getting the best service
available," Montsko said. "Putting the listings up on these sites gets
those homes more exposure, which is good for the associate and the
customer."
Joe Ballarino, president and
founder of Amerivest Realty, a Naples, Fla., real estate company, said
that online marketing decisions are complicated by the rising number of
third-party property information sites. "We now have to evaluate each
and every site to determine whether our listings should be placed on
those sites. We have to balance our sellers' needs with general
business goals when making those decisions.
"We
look at many variables when deciding which to be placed on ... the
traffic at that site, are our competitors' listings appearing, and does
the site compete with us and if so, how? We will only look at sites
where we can automate a bulk export. With over 300 agents and 1,00
listings a manual process is just not sensible," he said.
Obtaining
optimal exposure for a property does not mean pushing property
information out to every possible source on the Internet, said John
Chang, vice president of marketing and eBusiness at John L. Scott Real
Estate. Chang said the company's marketing efforts target prospects who
are most likely to purchase a home.
"This
targeted promotion does not rely on broadcasting listings to every
conceivable would-be portal in cyberspace, but rather it focuses on the
best medium through which we can manage the promotion of homes to the
best prospects," he said. "At the forefront of this marketing plan is
JohnLScott.com, where we can ensure that properties listed by (our)
agents are optimally showcased."
Chang
also noted that the company has not established a "one-size-fits-all"
policy for its brokers, and individual brokers can make their own
marketing decisions in promoting properties online.
At
Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston, a brokerage in Raleigh, N.C.,
the decision to market properties is based on a number of factors: "We
evaluate the quality of the site, what consumer marketing and promotion
they are doing for the site, what they have to offer the consumer in an
online experience, what their business plan is, and are they going to
work with us or against us," said Sean Nally, chief information officer
for the company.
"We guide our agents to
utilize the sites we have determined to be our best online marketing
partners and then encourage them to get Web exposure for all their
listings in order to increase their marketing reach and, of course,
listings and sales," Nally added. He said the company has embraced
sites like Realtor.com and Trulia.com. "Trulia has some fantastic
tools," he said, such as "Heat Maps" that offer a color-coded map
indicating market trends.
Brendan King,
chief operating officer for Point2 Technologies, a company that offers
online marketing services, said during the Real Estate Connect NYC
conference earlier this month that real estate professionals should
experiment in sharing property listings information with various Web
sites and measure what works best. "Don't be scared to set the data
free," he said. "There is a value proposition for the Realtor. Don't be
scared of Google or Yahoo or any of these search places -- put it out
there with your branding, with your contact information, and then
measure these leads that come back to you."
And
Charlie Young, senior vice president of marketing for Coldwell Banker
Real Estate Corp., said during that conference that the job of brokers
is to "put properties in front of consumers," though there is "no right
answer" in deciding where to market properties. "Every market is going
to be different. I would look at traffic. I think you need to look
within the marketplace. What are the objectives that (a Web site) has?
Are they contradictory? Put your listings where consumers get the most
value."