Real Estate Strategies for Minnesota

It’s interesting to see how many expensive full−page real estate ads featuring homes and agents in any newspaper fully miss the
golden opportunity to go beyond the basic marketing effort. By offering a simple line of text to capture the attention of the
reader, the results from the ad would yield stronger results, maximizing the effectiveness of the investment.
Major franchises spend thousands of dollars on full color pages featuring the photos of agents, their production volume,
sprinkled with a few select housing opportunities. The costs of these major print media extravaganzas have continued to be
high and remain impossible to track direct business leads from. This traditional format probably will not end anytime soon,
however, the effectiveness and profitability factors will soon be hard to ignore as the baby boomers children come of buying
age…and go to the Internet before reading a newspaper.
So, why don’t our newspaper ads offer a compelling reason to go to our websites for service and information? In many cases
the only attempt to offer web information is a solitary URL under the company’s name and phone number. Although this is a
step in the right direction, it is often not inviting or enticing enough to prompt a reason to visit the website.
Today’s Internet empowered consumer is seeking information on their own terms, and when they want it, to get truly valuable
information specifically related to what they actually need at the moment…risk free! This is the key and only the first step to
driving activity to your website.
Capturing the actual lead, servicing the request, and using electronic follow up to maintain the relationship by offering
value−added services and information is the secret to making any printed collateral marketing or advertising programs. This is
the difference between spending a ton of money for “exposure” and translating exposure to solid prospecting opportunities.
This first step directs the prospect to your website whether the prospect is currently interested in listing or selling property.
Incorporating a unique option for information or a report that virtually anyone would find interesting makes the investment of a
printed ad, classified or otherwise, so much more valuable. We are still compelled to use traditional marketing, like ads and
direct mail, to please our customers and clients and to span the gaps between those individuals using the Web and those that
still migrate to a newspaper or magazine. The powerful difference is to offer additional information that invites the prospect or
viewer to more choices that may better suit their needs for wherever they are in the decision making process.
Offering reports like, “The 5 top ways to improve your property”, or “The 6 steps to increasing value through home
improvements”, would appeal to a spectrum of viewers, even if, at that moment, they were not in the immediate market to buy
or sell.
Once the viewer arrives at your office on the Web, the second step keeps them there to secure the myriad of additional services
and information. It is at this point that a well designed web presence can turn viewers into real leads and, finally, a
money−making experience. Your web must be equipped with a tool that will capture the prospect’s e−mail address to begin
building customer service and eventually secure a client for life. Your website should be functioning as a virtual 24−hour office
assistant working as a full−time prospecting tool. By directing prospects to your website from your printed marketing materials,
you truly begin purposeful prospecting while meeting and exceeding the new 21st century consumer requirements. Many
agents have websites, but, sadly, there are only a few really performing in a way that produces profit and service.
Check out websites that offer back end services or work stations. If you already have a website and are looking for this
additional service, check out the new product, wwwMyPro.com, which comes from the iProCenter.com Company. They have
designed a back−end web solution that “snaps” on to your present web presence to enhance and organize your communications.

Steve Hoogenakker, Showcase Landscape, MHA, CAI Minnesota, CICMidwest, MNLA, Delano Minnesota, Teri Hoogenakker is the BEST