Although the real estate market may not be a bubble about to burst, it definitely is slowing down.  Now is the time for REALTORS to position themselves to be competitive in a market that has lower prices, fewer buyers and longer sales cycles.

The hot real estate market attracted thousands of new agents.  And business has been good as long as the interest rates remained low.  Now the times are changing, and many new agents will be washed out of the profession as the market slows down.  

Those that intend to survive must leverage online marketing tools for maximum competitiveness. This means learning how to drive prospective buyers and sellers to your Website and then capturing them as clients. Here are some suggestions that will help real estate agents succeed in a fiercely competitive market: 

1. To be credible in today's real estate world, you must have your own Website to promote yourself and your listings.  Make sure you have your own domain name (i.e., Website address).  If your "Website" is just a page on your broker's or an association's site, then any money you spend promoting yourself online is really promoting that site, not yours.  There are low-cost solutions that allow you to have your own site for just pennies a day, so immediately take advantage of these.  Don't dilute your promotion dollars and time by filtering them through a parent site.

2. Recognize that just having a Website is not enough.  You must promote your Website to be successful!  Fortunately, there are several ways to do this without having to spend a lot of money:
1. Obtain local Google and Yahoo listings that come up when someone does a search for real estate agents in your locale.
2. Get a listing in the online Yellow Pages or Verizon SuperPages.
3. Use local pay-per-click advertising that only displays when someone in your target marketplace performs an online search.  Better yet, you are only charged when they actually click on your ad to go to your Website!
4. Gain new clients by offering a MLS feed on your Website that allows visitors to peruse local listings AFTER they first register on your site.
5. Offer promotions on your Website, such as a free neighborhood pricing analysis for prospective sellers.
6. Refresh your Website content regularly with new information of interest to buyers and sellers to keep them coming back.  Use RSS feeds to get up-to-date, free information displayed on your site.
7. Do an inexpensive online press release.
8. Start a blog on your site – they work!

3. Increase your search engine ranking by optimizing your Website for a few keywords that relate to your local real estate market.  With just a few changes, your Website can become visible to buyers in other cities who are moving to your area.

4. Build a mail list and send out a monthly email newsletter to nurture your clients and gain new customers through "viral" marketing, which is what occurs when interesting newsletters get "forwarded" to friends and relatives.

5. Promote your Website offline too.  Be sure your Website address is on everything you distribute – business cards, flyers….everything!  Consider running a small ad in local newspapers too, pointing readers to your Website.  Write a short press release too and send it to your local papers.

The real estate marketing landscape has changed dramatically in the past few years.  Success today depends heavily on levering an online presence.  Those that survive and flourish in a tighter, more competitive market will be the ones who proactively embrace this virtual medium and learn how to use it to their full advantage.

About the Author

Al Kernek is a real estate broker and author of "Creating E-Mail Newsletters – A Practical Guide for the Real Estate Community" and "Put Your Business Online."  To learn more about increasing real estate sales using low-cost Internet marketing techniques, visit http://www.renewsletter.com

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