Realtors- Are you spending your marketing budget in the wrong place?
A recent blog post on inmanNEWS suggested that the National Association of Realtors’ 2014 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends report showed that most agents are spending their marketing budget in the wrong places.
The author of the blog correctly indicated that only 4% of sellers found their listing agent from an internet site and that search engines, printed advertising and phone apps made up a combined 2% of the closed seller leads. Similar figures were reported for Buyer leads.
So are you wasting your time and money by having a website, Facebook Page, Google+ and Twitter accounts? Should you stop sending out direct mail pieces?
In my opinion NO!
The Buyer and Seller Trend report clearly showed that the majority (68-71%) of sellers and buyers found their agent from a trusted source (friend, neighbor, relative, other agents, relocation company or Agent’s sphere of influence) or face to face contact.
It is obvious from those numbers that personal connections remain king when it 
comes to generating business for Real Estate agents. Everyone knows that a personal referral is much more powerful than a Google search result.
What do you do when someone refers a person, business or product to you? You know this person well and know that she would never steer you wrong. What do you do next? If you are like me, you Google them of course!
Let’s paint a picture…
Let’s say your best friend friend told you about the most awesome place to get a massage. Oh, you so want and NEED a massage, but you’ve never never had one or been to that spa or heard of it until your friend told you what a great experience she had.
You Google XYZ Spa, pretty much nothing comes up but you do find a link to a website. You click on it and it is just one page with the hours of operation, address and phone number. Nothing else. No pictures. No list of services. No client reviews.
Would you still call and schedule a massage?
Now instead of a $100 massage, you are looking for someone to help you purchase a $400,000 home. Would you still call them if you could find nothing on the internet about them?
That same NAR report also shows
| All Buyers | 33 & younger | 34 to 48 | 49 to 58 | 59 to 67 | 68 to 88 | |
| Looked online for properties for sale | 42% | 41% | 46% | 44% | 41% | 35% |
| Contacted a real estate agent | 17 | 13 | 15 | 20 | 21 | 28 |
| Looked online for information about the home buyer process | 14 | 18 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 6 |
| Drove by home/neighborhoods | 7 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 10 |
| Contacted a bank or mortgage lender | 6 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| Talked with a friend or relative about the buying process | 5 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Visited an open house | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| Contacted a builder or visited builder models | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Looked in the newspaper, magazine or home buying guide | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Contacted the home seller directly | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Looked up information about different neighborhoods or area | 1 | 1 | 2 | * | 1 | * |
| Attended a home buying seminar | 1 | 1 | 1 | * | 1 | * |
| Read books or guides about the home buying process | * | 1 | * | * | * | * |
| Other | * | * | * | * | * | 1 |
| *= less than 1% |
Information Sources Used in the Home Search
| All Buyers | 33 & younger | 34 to 48 | 49 to 58 | 59 to 67 | 68 to 88 | |
| Online Website | 89% | 94% | 92% | 89% | 82% | 73% |
| Rea Estate agent | 89 | 90 | 88 | 89 | 86 | 89 |
| Yard sign | 51 | 50 | 51 | 56 | 49 | 52 |
| Open House | 45 | 40 | 48 | 49 | 45 | 41 |
| Mobile or Tablet Website or Application | 45 | 58 | 53 | 34 | 20 | 15 |
| Mobile or tablet search engine | 42 | 55 | 50 | 31 | 20 | 15 |
| Online Video site | 27 | 20 | 28 | 34 | 32 | 30 |
| Print newspaper advertisement | 23 | 18 | 21 | 27 | 30 | 32 |
| Home Builder | 17 | 14 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 5 |
| Home book or magazine | 15 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 17 | 17 |
| Billboard | 5 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| Television | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Relocation Company | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Other |
Clearly, having an online presence is important, if not to directly generate business but to help you build credibility and capture the business that is referred to you.
As I was in the middle of writing this blog, I received a call from a new prospect who was referred to me by her agent (who I’ve never met or spoken to) who found me through a blog post I wrote on ActiveRain Nov 2011!
So you tell me? Have I been wasting my money and time?