Web Strategies

What makes for a successful web strategy? Well, it’s not just a website, that’s for sure. There are tons of real estate websites online and most of them are not very successful. Ever wonder why?

Most sites fail because most real estate websites:

• Fail to engage consumers (no, having inventory does not make it consumer friendly!)
• Feature overly complicated searches (do you know that Baby Boomers hate search boxes?)
• Have poor data (like listings with no photos and agent pages with no information about them)
• Fail to educate (a few paragraphs about selling or buying doesn’t really help anyone)
• Rarely respond to consumers in real-time (getting back to an email in 2 days isn’t fast)

Think about Generation X and Y. They search for property, not agents. They want dozens of photos (there are at least 7 photos per pair of shoes on Zappos.com) and they want to see real videos (ever hear of YouTube?). Gen X expects to get an email in an hour; Gen Y wants to talk to you by IM, not email or phone.

If your web strategy isn’t hitting these consumer-driven benchmarks, then you’re still focused on having a website, not a web strategy.

And let’s not mention: SEO, PPC, Banner and network advertising. Blogs. Podcasts, Co-browsing. And leads management.

This is NOT an effective way to market listings on REALTOR.COM

Modern online e-commerce is about consumer first, vendor second. Every element of the process - from attracting consumers to engaging them to responding and interacting with them - has to be about them. That’s what a web strategy is all about. Every department: marketing, sales, content, management working together through the web with the consumer.

Find out how to make the web work better for your company (and your customers) by calling 1-800-253-2350 or email us today.