Internet marketing can take on many forms, many of which you won’t use as a real estate agent (unless you want to, of course!). Our definition of Internet marketing is basically doing anything on the Internet to market yourself and get leads.

People use the Internet to seek information. It is a fact that nearly 80% of consumers looking for an agent or real estate information in general will search it out online before thinking about actually contacting an agent. That’s why it’s so important to have a strong online presence, so that when people are searching for real estate information, they find you!

Another huge aspect of Internet marketing (probably the biggest, actually) is to have your own website! If 80% of consumers are searching for real estate information online, how are they supposed to find you if you don’t have a website? When deciding what kind of website to build, think about this; what kind of information are people in your area or COMING INTO your area going to want? It might even be a good idea to have two different website: one with your information, typical real estate information, listings, etc and one about your community.

Buy a website and have it dedicated to a specific community – update it often with local news, school information, crime statistics, local events, even video of the community itself. Have a forum for community members to discuss topics on, you can even have a chat room set up. Make it the kind of website people could go to find anything they need about your community. Valuable content and information on a website will cause people to link to it, thus making your website more popular over time.

If the cost throws you, team up with a local business or two who will want to target the same type of consumer as you. Split the cost of the website and allow the business to advertise on the website, send out coupons to visitors, whatever they want to do. By partnering with a business, you save money and will have more to offer your visitors.

Another idea is when a new development opens in your area, immediately buy the domain name. For example, if a new subdivision here in Lancaster opened up called “Lancaster Commons” we would purchase the domain name “www.lancastercommons.com “and start gathering community information to put it together. Then to get a bit of traffic to it, you sign up for Google Adwords (read more about it here), design a simple ad, and when somebody searches Google.com for that subdivision name, your website will pop up in the sponsored listings. Then you simply pay per click – for every person that follows the link, you pay a small amount per each click on the ad. You can get more information on pay per click advertising Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing.

One way to market yourself and cultivate leads through the Internet is to join a lead generation company such as ours. Though it’s less work (you sign up for the service, they cultivate the leads, you work ‘em) that building a website and then trying to generate leads yourself, lead gen services can cost you, whether per month or per lead. The important thing with these services is to WORK THE LEADS. Leads do not close themselves, no matter how much you wish they did. If you sign up for a lead gen service and you don’t get listings right away, have a little patience.

As with all leads, any lead generated via the Internet needs to be consistently and persistently followed up on. Technology and the Internet today are AMAZING marketing tools for agents, but only if used effectively. Without regular follow up, an Internet lead will go the same way as a lead generated through a Homes & Land ad: that is, NOWHERE!