According to Jupiter Research, the best way to get a person to visit your website is to market to them in offline media.
Mock Billboard Ad for Redfin (Glenn Kelman, send check to Sellsius)
Real estate listings will soon be so widely distributed across the internet to various portals, search engines and franchise websites, that consumers will be virtually tripping over them. And once the Department of Justice opens the floodgates, even banks will join the party (no kidding). Furthermore, there will be more duplicate listings on the net to confuse even the most tech savvy home searcher. Yikes!
So what’s an online website to do to stand out from the madding crowd? Easy– stand out WITH the crowd. Hit the streets–go offline to build awareness of your brand. How? There are many ways. Get creative.
Zestimate at the Zillow Store!
You’ve heard of Apple stores right? Get a storefront and invite consumers in. Show them how your site works– sign them up on the spot — and don’t forget to throw in a t-shirt– ” Trulian” , “Zestimate Me”, “Redfin Gave Me This T-shirt and $10,000″ . Host seminars and classes for consumers or your target market– if it’s brokers, hold classes on how they can better market using tools on your sites– it beats having them navigate your site blindly, hitting a bump and leaving. Make the storefront office a reflection of your website. Heck , you can even get your advertisers to advertise on the windows and walls.
Publish the blog offline– Zillow Real Estate News? Run broker and real estate industry ads along with real estate news. Include some featured listings (at a premium). Give them out free at places where people will read them– on the way to or from work. Maybe even in those plastic boxes on the street. In New York, AM Metro reaches hundreds of thousands of eyeballs daily, not by attracting them online, but my grabbing them offline. Create a cool billboard ad. Organize a Meet-up. Do a blog tour, if you really want to step out of the box. How about a TV or cable ad? Or an informercial? The point is– people are on the streets, watching TV, reading newspapers and magazines and interacting away from the glare of their computer. Why not engage them with your brand there?
Why online real estate search engines, portals and websites, for the most part, ignore the power of offline advertising and marketing escapes me. Granted, it’s not free like the net, but haven’t some of you big boys raised some dough? Buy a remnant ad if you have to. Glenn Kelman, put an ad on that wall, for goodness sakes. If you want to create a relationship with a consumer– do it where it has the most power– face-to-face. Then they will flock to your website already understanding what the heck you do.
OK, now for the research. I can start with the blog tour and interviews with consumers who didn’t have a clue who the online players were. But the folks who make a living doing marketing research, Jupiter Research, say the best way to get a person to your website is to market to them in offline media. Their findings show that 2/3 of online searchers are drawn to the websites by offline sources. Also, 68% of people who do a search use a company name– an indicator of brand awareness built offline using traditional marketing tools.
Or get an icon.
[Online website, GoDaddy’s market share before their 2005 Super Bowl commercial was 16%. A week after the ads, it shot to 25% and stayed there. After the 2006 ads it jumped to 32% and stayed there. (source)]
Source for Jupiter Research findings: RIS Media Real Estate, January 2008
Related Posts:
Advertising Your Online Brand Offline: Why Marketing Shouldn’t Suck
Real Estate Myths, or What I Did on My Summer Vacation.
We are doing the same deal with T-shirts for only $5000 flat fee
You’ve nailed it. I keep thinking about that local NYC ad(top of cab) you had featured some weeks back. A national brand on a local NYC cab. What does this ad say to the guy on the street? Brand awareness OK, but what brand? Where is my point of reference? Is this a sports team or a new game show? And what does it have to do with NYC? Not to pick on these guys for their main competition is probably worse. If the guy on the street confuses your message with a dance, how can real estate agents tout use of your services? Sellers ARE the guy on the street. “..Are you saying that you’re going to advertise my home on a dance website? How is that going to help you sell my house?…. / ..no,no,no…you don’t understand Mr. Jones..you see…”
>>>So what’s an online website to do to stand out from the madding crowd?<<<
As you pointed out RE information is becoming more ubiquitous everyday and I agree the differentiation will ultimately be the strength of brand. If real estate is primarily about location, does not a local brand most often better represent the consumer need? And if your core brand defines your purpose, the consumer will translate your taxi cab advertisement as a solution to his/her need. (the location of real estate within a desired geography).
Most offline ads are allotted a single moment. Both purpose(real estate) and relevance(location) must be defined within that moment. This is tough to achieve on a national scale if one wants to also leverage size (reach) as granted by a single cohesive brand. To create a local website of specific purpose that is reinforced by a cohesive national network. This is my philosophy.
Anthony, I can see your billboard ad now
(you can leave the cash in a brown paper bag)
All good solid points Joe VideoHomes. How to leverage national and local reach is a challenge, but a necessity, which should involve tactical use of offline marketing strategies. My oft cited local success story is BlueRoof in Salt Lake City. Greg Tracy and his team created an AWESOME online real estate site and used traditional advertising (and creative marketing I’ll let Greg reveal if he wants) to take market share away from the big national franchise player in town. Next thing you know, the national brand wants a piece of BlueRoof.
The message is simple: it is the rare online company that can thrive on the net alone– big money, influencers, first mover (ok maybe) or a Blue Ocean. For the rest of those battling online, offline marketing strategies must be adopted to drive traffic to your website and to build brand awareness. The temptation is that since the net is free or low cost, companies should cut back on traditional media. Big mistake IMO. The challenge is to be economically creative offline.
Joe: I saw a car in Greenville (NC) while coming home from school today.
The car was Carolina blue and had some kind of insurance sticker on the back windshield and on the bumper advertising their insurance firm. The license plate was even better. It said: GOOGLEUS.
I tried to take a picture of it will my cellphone but the car started forward at the light and I couldn’t ever get close enough to try again.
Being out in the county, I thought it was kind of unique. It would have been even cooler if the car had been a color other than Carolina Blue. That’s kind of a no-no here in Pirate Country. It’s like wearing Duke junk to a Carolina game!
Thanks for the ideas. The most traffic we get comes from the days our radio ad plays.
Derek– I like it.
Alfie– old school is not dumb.
I am starting thinking with the focus so high on the internet and search realtors have been forgetting about traditional media which is still pretty vibrant. People are looking online but a lot of them are using people they see and meet in the real world.
So true Late Night. The key is to explore inexpensive offline marketing strategies that will draw people to your website. But nothing beats a warm handshake.