A Bird’s Eye View

So I’ve been out of the brokerage world for a little less than a month now and I’m seeing the world from a much different perspective since taking my position with Roost.com. In my current role, I’m communicating with a plethora (I really like that word) of real estate brokers, owners, marketing professionals and technology gurus.

What I can really relate to in these conversations is the frustration that most, not all, are experiencing with the tracking of their online efforts. Back in the good old days, there were a handful of marketing channels that included newspaper, magazines, outdoor, radio, TV and maybe some direct mail. In today’s world of real estate marketing, people are overwhelmed with the amount of online channels they must deal with in addition to the above mentioned traditional outlets.

Online marketing efforts include “cost per click” (CPC) advertising (i.e. Google, Yahoo!, Roost.com, etc.); lead generation websites (i.e. HomeGain, Reply!, HouseValues, etc.); online communities (i.e. ActiveRain, RealTown, etc.); real estate blogs (blog.roost.com, http://www.inman.com/blog, etc.); social networking sites (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.); video sites (i.e. Seesmic, YouTube, Revver, etc.); video tour platforms (i.e. TourFactory, Obeo, CirclePix, etc.); banner advertising; email campaigns and many, many more.

The good thing about all of these online marketing efforts is that they can be tracked. You heard me right, they CAN be tracked. Unlike a newspaper ad that would have to use a special phone number or URL address to track a user, your efforts online can be measured, evaluated and tailored in real time to help you accurately manage your online marketing spend.

(You knew this was going to come in somewhere) BUT, you have to be ABLE to track it on your website to fully evaluate your efforts. Before 2006 it was enough to just drive traffic to your website and hope that the increased volume would equate to more closed transactions. Today with online marketing spends on the rise, brokerages and agents need the ability to compare and contrast what is working and what is not.

This goes deeper than basic analytic tools such as Google Analytics, WebTrends or VisiStat but involves applying a tracking pixel to each user session to let you know where they go once they make it to your site. Combining the tracking pixel with your website analytics will now provide you the ability to not only see where the clicks are coming from and how many clicks from each source but what they do once they get there (i.e. fill out a lead capture form or leave your site after a few page views).

The outcome from these efforts will provide you with vital information to help you market your business more effectively. You can now have empirical data to compare and contrast the online sources you are using and let your marketing budget generate the most positive results possible.

If you are interested in learning more or discussing options to help you track better, please don’t hesitate to email me.

Derek Overbey
Sr. Director of Partnership Strategy
derek.overbey@roost.com