Real Estate Marketing: How to Get the Most Out of Hyper-Local Marketing

Can you find a flaw in the following statement:

More visitors to your website = more business = more money

If you found the flaw, you’re a marketing genius and don’t need to read this post.

For everyone else, read on.  The information in this post may dramatically change your thoughts on how to successfully market your properties.

The flaw is…

…in the term “visitors.”  In the world of internet marketing, getting any eyeballs on a website is not enough.  It must be the right type of eyeballs.  Example: Pretend you’re selling lawnmowers online.  Certainly, it makes no sense to try to sell lawnmowers to apartment dwellers.  You need to attract people with lawns to your site.

For real estate investors, the same marketing principals apply.  If you’re selling a property in Virginia, you shouldn’t waste your time trying to find just “any” retail end-buyers.  You should focus all energies and marketing dollars towards finding Virginia buyers (and lovers, I presume) and, preferably, to buyers in the exact county and zip code where your property is located.

This is known as hyper-local marketing.  Today, Google, Yahoo, etc., all allow you to drive internet traffic to a geo-targeted area based upon criteria set up by you, and you should take advantage of this.

There is a Realtor in my area of the Country, Karen Kruschka, who is a big proponent of hyper-local marketing.  She sets up compelling hyper-local sales pages for properties she lists for her clients.  A sample link to one of her posts is at the bottom of this page.  Wanting some more detail about how to do this, I called her and asked her to reveal some of her secrets on making hyper-local marketing work for investors.  She gracefully shared some ideas, and here they are:

Captivate Them:  Karen believes you must capture a visitor’s attention in 3” of text and by using a compelling headline and video.  She also uses large font and color.  In today’s world, people have very short attention spans, especially when surfing the net.  If you can’t gobble their brains up quickly, they’re gone.

Keep it Interesting:  Karen doesn’t just tell her visitors about bedroom counts and square footage.  Zzzzzzzzz.  She includes detailed information about County music & art festivals, local wildlife, and proximity to the nearest Starbucks – stuff people love to read about if they’re thinking of moving into the area.

Be Specific:  Your keywords must be highly targeted.  Karen gave me the example of a buyer who was simply searching online with the term “eagles nest,” because it was a subdivision she was interested in.  Karen’s blog had all those keywords in it.  Although Karen ultimately found the buyer a home in another area, she would have never gotten that buyer without those highly targeted, hyper-local keywords.

Work it Every Day:  Karen works her blogs daily.  She’s constantly updating it with information, keywords and properties.  This is a big reason she continues to drive traffic and get leads.

I am a big fan of hyper-local marketing.  I’ll take 10 targeted, interested buyers over 50 tire-kickers any day of the week.  If you want to increase your chances of finding qualified local buyers, follow Karen’s lead.

One caveat:  It does take time, energy and effort to create a successful hyper-local presence.  If you are unable or unwilling to put the energy into this, find a real estate professional that can.  For those in NOVA, Karen can list your properties, give it a heavy dose of video and web presence, and find those hyper-local buyers for you.

http://activerain.com/blogsview/2522391/making-money-with-hyper-local-posts

Thanks to Karen Kruschka for taking her valuable time to help our readers succeed in real estate!

 

Til’ next time, Jeff