In the first part of our saga, “Creating a Real Estate Website to Sell Your House,” I discussed how I created two websites to market my house. With the foundation built, now it was time to roll out an online marketing campaign for www.531CumberlandSt.com and answer the question “Can you sell your house using online real estate marketing?”
The first thing I did was list the house myself with an online MLS listing service. For $195, I got the same exposure that my real estate agent did. (Believe me, I checked all the top rated sites before and after. I can verify my MLS listing was everywhere my agent’s MLS listing was.) I researched the top real estate websites and the top for sale by owner websites and started placing ads. Many of these sites don’t charge for the listings. In fact, I only paid for two of them. In addition to the more traditional real estate websites, I also placed ads on Ebay Classifieds and Craig’s List.
Then, I took my keyword research and created a Google Adwords Pay Per Click campaign. I ran two nationwide campaigns with keyword terms very specific to my area. One targeted to PCs and one targeted to mobile devices. I also ran two local campaigns that were geotargeted within a 30 mile radius of my house with keyword terms that were very general to anyone looking for a house for sale. Again, I had one targeted to PCs and one targeted to mobile devices. The traffic for the mobile device campaigns was sent to the mobile website that I designed with Toor.me.
Since I was offering a commission to any agent who brought me a buyer, I wanted to inform the real estate professionals in the area about my home. I sent an email to around 125 agents with information on the house and how they could schedule a showing for their clients. To add a bit of incentive, I offered an iPad, in addition to the regular commission, if anyone brought me a buyer within 30 days.
All the online marketing is being tracked through Google Analytics. This way I can see where visitors to the site are coming from, track what keywords brought them to the site, and calculate a true return on investment by seeing whether or not they filled out an online request showing form. I’ve also asked anyone that called where they found the house.
In our next installment, we’ll discuss how I used social networking to increase the reach of my online marketing campaign. Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what online marketing techniques you’ve used to sell real estate online.
