Training Program on Digital Marketing of Properties

NIREM is organizing a one-day training program on Digital Marketing of Properties for real estate sales and marketing professionals, property consultants, those planning to start their own property consulting business etc. The program aims to help you optimize your online lead generation and management efforts.

Date, Venue and Registration

The event is scheduled on Tuesday, 27^th Oct. 2015 at Delhi. Program details are available HERE. Interested participants may register online from the given link.

Why this Program?

With the continued growth of digital marketing landscape in real estate, especially because of the fast acceptance of the medium by potential home buyers, real estate marketing professionals and consultants are facing enhanced competition, new challenges and unique opportunities within this digital age. For many home buyers, looking online for properties has become the first step in the home buying process.

A Google study of last year attests the fact that internet influences over 50 per cent real estate buying decisions. As per the Economic Times ‘it also revealed that online influence on realty transaction value amounted to $43 billion, including $31 billion for residential properties”.

Therefore today property sales and marketing professionals as well as property consultants must be adepts at all aspects of online marketing of properties. This training program on Digital Marketing of Properties aims at educating participants in different aspects of digital marketing with a focus on lead generation and management. To know more, please visit: http://www.nirem.org/training-program-on-digital-marketing-of-properties-2/

Want to become the Property Marketing Guru?

Most of the answers would be straight forward ‘yes’. After all, who does not want to be the top professional in his or her chosen professional area?

But as the saying goes ‘first deserve then desire’, the question to you is what efforts have you put to develop your professional knowledge and skill so that you become the property marketing guru. If you are working in property sales and acquiring experience, so are others; then where is the difference between you and others?

The Reality: Gone are the days when real estate used to be a localized market, working in isolation. Now whole lots of factors affect the individual projects as well as the property market in general.

The real estate market is becoming competitive day-by-day with buyers, sellers and developers of property increasingly looking to the property sales and marketing professionals and advisors they deal with to give them expert information and advice on the many factors that influence the desirability and value of individual properties.

The Need: Therefore if you want to be the property marketing guru, you can’t achieve the objective just by chasing leads in dark and aiming to close deals anyhow. You should have comprehensive knowledge of real estate projects, property sales & marketing, clients etc. The need of the hour is to develop yourself by undergoing professional education and training in real estate marketing that can help you hone your sales & marketing skills further and develop new knowledge base. Apart from basic lead generation and management techniques, you need to know (only sample list):

• Property Market Analysis
• Analysis & Comparison of Projects
• Sales Comparison & Income Approach
• Lead Generation and Management
• Client Management and Soft Skills
• Optimizing Social Media
• Real Estate Project Marketing

The Next Step: Diploma in Real Estate Marketing, offered by NIREM Institute of Real Estate Management, is a 06 month online program that was devised to meet the needs mentioned above. This program aims at helping you understand the technical aspects of real estate marketing. A shorter version of this course is Certificate in Property Sales & Marketing, a 3-month online program.

So whether you are looking for real estate jobs or are already working in property sales & marketing area, Diploma in Real Estate Marketing from www.nirem.org will help you acquire new knowledge and enhanced skills in property sales and marketing. Proceed now to achieve your objective…!!!

Will real estate soon be sold online like a commodity?

Lani Rosales

Social commerce online and real estate

Could social commerce be coming to real estate? Could we be near the day where homes are a commodity like shoes or purses? Could the world of “I’ll only buy it if I know the seller” over-transparency make it to real estate soon?

A new startup is being announced today, Copious, which simply prompts people to “buy from and sell to people, not strangers” and after logging in with Facebook (to eliminate anonymity), users can see not only the face of the seller but how they are connected via the Facebook social graph (who they have in common) and who of their friends have bought from the seller before. This is the ultimate transparency in commerce- seller reputation is not linked to some made up name, it is their actual Facebook personal profile.

This concept is being labeled disruptive but we see it more as modern- whether we like it or not, people are looking to their social graph online to validate everything from where they eat to what they wear to where the live.

Copious will be integrating a “social pricing” option which allows sellers to give discounts and incentives for people sharing listings on Facebook and will have integration with Twitter and other marketplaces like eBay (for reviews), blogs, etc. and the site will recommend products to buyers based on their history of Facebook “likes” as well as what their friends have bought through Copious.

Facebook has a marketplace but the focus is selling between friends whereas Copious is simply designed to add a social layer to the transaction regardless of social connections (or lack thereof). It’s the ultimate empowerment for your inner creeper.

How Copious impacts real estate

Today, we introduce you to Copious as a hypothetical scenario for real estate. You as a Realtor would not post a home on Copious because (a) users expect the actual seller to be the item poster and (b) there is a 10% transaction fee which is unreasonable for a major purchase like a house (although there is no listing fee).

Copious (along with Facebook Marketplace) add an element to the world of commerce that is newly emerging- the social graph. Currently, if a buyer is really a creeper, they can search tax records for a home owner, search Facebook for their profile and creep them that way, but few buyers have thought to do this, rather startups are opening the door to that train of thought.

A consumer doesn’t need to be connected directly to a buyer, but there is a rising interest and trust being put into social connections. Consumer thought is starting to look like this: I’m looking for a couch. I see a couch for sale on Facebook by a friend of a friend, so there is accountability. If baby rats come out from inside the cushions, I can yell at my friend for having a crappy friend who sold me the sofa.

The social graph is rising in importance, but real estate should focus on how trust is being defined in modernity- it is becoming less about reputation and more about connections via the social graph. There is good and bad to this- the good is that shedding anonymity in commerce ideally leads to a cleaner transaction and gone are the days of fOakleys and Prrada bags but the bad is that the social graph can be gamed by people who spend the day adding hundreds of friends in hopes that half will friend them back, grow their social graph and who cares about reputation, they’re connected, thus stamped as trusted.

Although Facebook is expanding internationally at a rapid rate, it lost six million American users last month, the first time in over a year that the site has experienced an American user loss. Most cite privacy concerns and people we know personally that have left cite “drama.” Facebook is not the end all be all to marketing despite its behemoth size. Many are scaling back their number of connections, especially the early adopters who have tired of spam.

The takeaway

Because behavior on Facebook is just now beginning to change and go back to a more small town feel that it started with (despite how big it is), trust is important and startups like Copious will do well, but adding the “trust” between a house buyer and seller doesn’t seem realistic to us, regardless of the price.

People put more trust in the Realtors representing both sides because they handle the transaction, not the actual buyer and seller, so we reiterate as we have in years past that real estate is not a commodity, regardless of shifting trends online. There are some neat concepts to think about, but there are only so many ways to buy and sell a box/house.

About this Columnist

AgentGenius Editor-in-Chief: Lani, named one of Real Estate’s 100 Most Influencial, as well as 12 Most Influencial Women in Real Estate, is a business writer hailing from the great state of Texas in the city of Austin. As a digital native, Lani is immersed not only in advanced technologies and new media, but is also a stats nerd often burried in piles of reports. Lani is a proven leader, thoughtful speaker, and vested partner at AGBeat. You’ll often find her on Facebook and Twitter, so feel free to reach out and get to know her.

Google Tools for Real Estate Professionals

Countless home buyers use Google to browse for real estate information each month. Google offers a full suite of tools for real estate professionals that let you reach prospects in your region at all stages of their home search – while they're looking for properties, checking out locations, and selecting an agent or broker. It's how you reach more sellers, attract more buyers, and sell more homes. Here's why it pays to use Google to connect to home buyers and sellers: Google can help generate real estate referrals and leads. Google has more real estate searches than other search engines combined, and more unique visitors than all real estate specific web sites. Google is the most-used search engine for researching and purchasing real estate information and services. The Google Network reaches over 80% of worldwide Internet users. Google can help you: Drive leads AdWords Google Places Maps Connect and engage with consumers Google profile YouTube Save time & money Google Sketchup Google Apps Earth

Here's why it pays to use Google to connect to home buyers and sellers: Google can help generate real estate referrals and leads. Google has more real estate searches than other search engines combined, and more unique visitors than all real estate specific web sites.1 Google is the most-used search engine for researching and purchasing real estate information and services.2 The Google Network reaches over 80% of worldwide Internet users. What Google tools should real estate professionals consider? Google AdWords provides effective, efficient local lead generation. Google AdWords provide the most effective and efficient lead generation for real estate professionals. Google AdWords is the leader in cost-per-click keyword advertising because we offer a measurable, pay-for-performance solution that is 100% accountable. You determine your costs based on your own objectives. You pay only when a prospect clicks on your ad to visit your website. You get real time return on investment (ROI) with conversion tracking data. And you can modify or halt your campaign at any time. Google can target users by location, allowing you to reach home buyers and sellers specifically within your service area(s). Make your listings more easily searchable on Google and Google Maps Google offers a free service that lets you make your listings easier for home-buyers and real estate agents to find when they look for properties on Google.com. Over 56% of all Internet searches on "real estate" and related terms are conducted on Google and our partner sites, and the majority of those searchers are actively looking for listings or referrals to brokers and agents. You can make sure that people can find your listings by submitting them to Google. By providing your real estate listings to Google, you will broaden your distribution and receive free traffic and leads through natural search results on Google properties. Real estate search results will be displayed on Google Maps, allowing users to immediately zero in on the neighborhoods most attractive to them. By adding your listing information to Google, you can ensure that the right potential buyers will be able to find your properties when they're most actively searching for a home. Create a high performance mapping experience on your own site with the Google Maps API You can also place interactive maps on your own website using the Google Maps API. Display your listings on detailed maps and satellite imagery and give your users a visual, intuitive way to find the property that is right for them. Also, use the Google Maps API to show the location of your office and provide directions to your door. The Google Maps API allows you to display your information with minimal effort. Fly from space to your listings using Google Earth  Give your agents and clients the power of 3D satellite imagery with Google Earth Pro. Exceeding 200 million downloads, Google Earth has redefined the way people interact with real estate and property information. Publish your listings in Google Earth's KML data format to expose them to a new, sophisticated audience. Also, give your company the ability to research and present property information overlaid with school districts, parks, roads and business listings. List your business where customers are searching via Google Places Over one-third of people looking for real estate information on Google are searching for agents or brokers.4 You want your name and address to be displayed when they search. Google Places gives real estate professionals an easy way to submit business listings. Submit multiple locations with a data file and conveniently manage and control listings. Put yourself in front of your customers when they're trying to find you. Market and sell homes in 3D with Google SketchUp Google SketchUp Pro is a deceptively simple, amazingly powerful tool for creating, presenting, and modifying 3D models. Model your properties in Google SketchUp and give your clients a 3D view. Enhance your website listing by using the animation capability of Google SketchUp Pro. Allow customers to freely explore the home, community and its surroundings in 3D. You can also use Google SketchUp Pro to print to high-resolution devices, place your models in Google Earth, and post them to the 3D Warehouse. Power your business with Gmail and Google Apps  Communicating with colleagues, clients and other agents is essential to every real estate professional. Google offers a package of simple and powerful tools that you can use to communicate and collaborate more effectively, for less. Google Apps includes fully customized email addresses with plenty of storage, instant messaging, sharable calendars, tools for sharing and collaborating on documents and spreadsheets, and even collaborative wikis. What's more, you can access these services and all of your information wherever you are -- at your own desk, on other internet-connected computers, and even while you're on the road with your mobile device. Best of all, there's no special hardware or software required, so you can be up and running with Google Apps with minimal hassles. Create a Google profile to make it easier for prospects to find you When you've created a business based on your name, you want to be easily discoverable. Creating a Google profile makes it easier for prospects and partners to find you because Google profile results appear at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages. Your profile can include photos, information about your real estate business, and ways for people to contact you. Turn on the 'Send a message' feature, and anyone with a Google Account can send you a message through your profile, without having your email address revealed to them. Create a YouTube channel to showcase your listings in a dynamic format Allow your listings to sell themselves and give home buyers the ability to pre-screen potential homes before they contact you by creating a YouTube channel. YouTube actually reaches the specific audiences you are looking to reach: real estate buyers and sellers. Did you know that YouTube viewers are 90% more likely to obtain information about real estate online than the average American?(1) Tap into this audience on YouTube and actively engage with potential home buyers and sellers in this media rich environment. Source: (1) Source: Mediamark Research & Intelligence Fall 2007, Survey of the American Consumer, Base: A 25-54. YouTube user defined as "visited YouTube in last 30 days."

1 - comScore, November 2006 and March 2007 2 - 2007 U.S. Real Estate Study, conducted by Media-Screen

Online Marketing of Real Estate: Tips for Succeess Part-III

Get more bang for your buck

A host of techniques to optimize your ads and improve your ROI.

In this tips section you'll learn how to:

• Track beyond the click
• Bring in the right traffic
• Show 'em what they're searching for
• Learn how visitors interact with your website

Track beyond the click

Why is conversion tracking so important for your business? Conversion tracking helps you understand what users do once they click on your ad. AdWords isn't just about the clicks. After all, you spend money on AdWords to get users to do something specific, like view pages for certain properties or contact an agent. We call these desired actions conversions. Conversion tracking is a free tool that helps you track conversions, so you'll be able to tell which of your campaigns, ads, and keywords bring the most business. Based on these results, you'll also be able to make more informed decisions to maximize return on your AdWords investment.

Bring in the right traffic

To curb unqualified clicks and improve your return on investment, use negative keywords. Your ad won't appear when a user's search query contains one of your negative keywords. Using negative keywords can help lower your advertising costs and ensure more relevant clicks for your business. You can apply them at either the campaign or ad group level.

For example, if you are a real estate agent who lists only condos for sale, your negative keywords might include

home homes apartment apartments

townhouse for rent rent sublease

Similarly, if you aggregate real estate listings of apartments for rent, avoid potential customers who are looking for a specific agent or broker with negative keywords -broker and -agent.

Show 'em what they're searching for

Studies show that visitors decide whether to leave a website within seconds, so it's important that your landing page delivers on your ad's promise. Send your visitors right to the source: the page featuring the information, product, or service listed in the ad. If the keyword they search on is San Francisco real estate, send potential customers to a more general landing page that features the various real estate listings in San Francisco. If they type 2br apartment San Francisco, send them to a page where they can view two bedroom apartments in San Francisco.

Learn how visitors interact with your site

Your website is crucial to driving business, so chances are the following questions have kept you up at night:

Where are my visitors from, and how did they reach my site? What do people do while on my site? Where do they spend the most time? How can I generate more conversions from my landing page? Which of my AdWords keywords and ad texts are most effective?

Don't just guess. Find answers with Google Analytics, a powerful tool that integrates with AdWords and tells you everything you want to know about how visitors find and interact with your site. With a variety of useful data delivered in a number of formats, Analytics helps you focus your marketing resources, improve site navigation, and increase ROI. You can easily visualize and track the performance of all of your online advertising initiatives, including search campaigns, emails, and banner ads.


(Click on the image for a full-sized version)

You can even use the Analytics benchmarking service to compare your metrics to other websites in your industry. You can use this data to gain broader context for your site and identify areas for improvement. Available categories include:

• Property Management
• Home Inspections & Appraisal
• Rental Listings & Referrals
• Home Financing
• Real Estate Agencies

Remember that online advertising can also drive offline sales. Many real estate companies conduct much of their business on the phone. If that's the case for you, set up a unique phone number that visitors see when they click on your AdWords ads. You'll know exactly how many of your calls are coming in through Google and be able to make better-informed marketing decisions.

Online Marketing of Real Estate: Tips for Succeess Part-II

Target the right audience

Tips to help you zero in on your potential customers.

In this tips section you'll learn how to:

• Performance: Improve your clickthrough rate
• Keywords: Bold your best
• Ad appeal: Write effective ads
• Test phase: Take your ads for a spin
• Reach the browsers and buyers
• Target your audience
• Analyze the results

Performance: Improve your clickthrough rate
Why is clickthrough rate (CTR) important? Your clickthrough rate is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown (impressions). CTR helps to determine your keyword's Quality Score, which in turn factors into the minimum bid assigned to each of your keywords. If your CTR is strong, you may place higher on the page than competitors bidding just as much or even more per click.

Care for your CTR by taking a step back and thinking like a consumer searching for your real estate services. Imagine what type of ad would draw your attention. Taking the time to spruce up your ads and experiment with different approaches could make you stand out and help increase visits to your site.

Keywords: Bold your best
For each ad group, include the keyword with the highest number of clicks and impressions in your ad title or text. Users will be more likely to click on your ad if it contains the word or phrase they just typed into the search box. Remember that any keywords you include in any part of your ad text are automatically highlighted in bold type when a user enters them as part of their search query, drawing even more attention to your ad.

Seattle Condo
Free Home Listings for Seattle
Search by Bed, Bath & Price Range
www.AdWordsExample.com

Ad appeal: Write effective ads
Some ads are more effective than others, and often it can come down to style. Think about your own online experiences. Have you ever clicked on a sponsored link? If so, what drew you to that particular ad? Perhaps you recognized a brand name that convinced you of the particular seller's quality. Or maybe a well-crafted ad gave you enough confidence to click the mouse and explore a new site. Try the following to boost your ad's appeal:

• Capitalize the first letter of each word.
• Avoid excessive punctuation and incoherent abbreviations.
• Intercapitalize the Display URL (AdWordsExample.com rather than adwordsexample.com).
• Highlight free offers such as loan calculators or listings.
• Include a specific call-to-action like "Call Today For Seasonal Offers."
• Send visitors directly to the page featuring the product or service you describe in your ad.

Compose a razor sharp call-to-action message in your ad text that highlights the action you wish the reader to take. For example, a great measurable call-to-action could be "Visit Our Website for This Special Offer." Phrases that highlight special promotions or offers can be especially helpful in capturing user attention. Avoid call-to-action phrases such as "click here" that could apply to any ad, regardless of content.

Real Estate Listings

Search Listings In Your Area
View Available Homes Today!

www.AdWordsExample.com

Test phase: Take your ads for a spin
It can sometimes be hard to predict what types of messages will appeal to your target audience. The solution? Test multiple creatives within each ad group. For example, try testing out several different titles or calls-to-action. AdWords will rotate your ads, analyze their CTRs, and automatically show the highest-performing ads the most often.

Reach the browsers and buyers
A great way to expand your reach while still promoting your services to a targeted audience is with Google's content network, an extensive network of high-quality news pages, industry-specific websites, and blogs. It's a cost-effective way to show your ads on a wide variety of sites that consumers visit each day. By showing your ads on both search and content pages, you'll reach potential customers at all points of the buying cycle, from creating awareness of your services to closing the cycle with a conversion. And with the range of available ad formats' text, image, Flash, and video ' you can appeal to potential customers in a unique and eye-catching way.

It's a good idea to create a separate, content network-only campaign for the ads you want to show on the content network. This way, you can allocate your budget with more precision and test out new ideas without affecting your search campaigns. AdWords looks at the overall theme of your ad group to determine if your ad relates to a particular site, so be sure that each of your content network ad groups focuses on a specific topic and audience.

Target your audience
With a placement-targeted campaign, you can handpick your audience by selecting specific places in Google's content network to display your ads. Try showing your ads in places that will be seen by your target audience. Think about websites that your potential customers are likely to visit, such as the Real Estate sections of NYTimes.com, WashingtonPost.com, or local online news sites. Then, use the Placement Tool in your account to find available placements on similar websites and add these to your placement-targeted campaign.



Analyze the results
Use Placement Performance reports to learn where your contextually targeted ads are showing on Google's content network, and get site-by-site performance data, such as clicks, impressions, cost, and conversions, for all your ads running on the content network. Using the Report Center in your AdWords account, run a Placement Performance report to learn which individual sites generate the most conversions. You can then target these top-performing sites in a placement-targeted campaign. Source: Google

Online Marketing of Real Estate: Tips for Succeess Part-I

Start off on the right foot

Make the most of Google's powerful targeting features and draw up the blueprints for successful ad campaigns.

In this tips section you'll learn how to: Locate your customers Organize your account Choose your keywords wisely Locate your customers Whether you're a broker or aggregate real estate listings, you can adjust your targeting options to reach potential customers in the areas you serve. With Google AdWords, you can target: The entire world Specific cities, states, regions, territories, or countries A specific mileage radius around your address People using Google in the language(s) of your choice For example, local real estate agents may want to target their advertising campaigns within a 50-mile radius of actual home listings. National listing aggregators may want to expand their targeting to the entire country. If your business is international, consider targeting applicable countries, territories and languages.Learn how to edit your campaign's location targeting. Organize your account Think of your website's menu or sitemap as a blueprint for your AdWords account. If your account mirrors your website, you'll have an easier time making changes, locating specific keywords, monitoring your success, ensuring that your entire inventory is covered, and allocating your budget effectively. For example, let's say you're a local real estate agent with property listings in various cities and your site's menu looks like this:: San Jose, CA San Francisco, CA Condos Townhomes Townhomes Single-Unit Family Homes Use this menu to create a campaign for each product category and an ad group for each subcategory. Your account will be well-organized, easy to navigate, and perfectly tailored to your inventory: Choose your keywords wisely With all AdWords campaigns, the general rule of thumb is to group keywords based on the same product, service, or location into the same ad group. By tailoring your ads to the keywords that trigger them, you can increase the likelihood that users will see their search query in your ad title or text. San Jose Townhomes Browse Free Listings In San Jose Experienced Agents. Start Today! www.AdWordsExample.com Let's take a look at how we might further optimize the townhome ad group. First, consider breaking this ad group into several ad groups with highly specific themes. For example, instead of having one general ad group for townhomes, you can create separate ad groups based on the number of bedrooms. This allows you to write more targeted ad text, which makes your ads more relevant and gives you more control over your advertising budget. 2 BR San Jose Townhomes Search Free Listings In San Jose Pics & Guided Tours. Visit Today! www.AdWordsExample.com   3 BR San Jose Townhomes Search Free Listings In San Jose Pics & Guided Tours. Visit Today! www.AdWordsExample.com   4 BR San Jose Townhomes Search Free Listings In San Jose Pics & Guided Tours. Visit Today! www.AdWordsExample.com By structuring your account to this level of detail, you'll be able to pause all ads for these listings with a click of the mouse. You'll also have the opportunity to compare performance across ad groups and gain more insight into consumer behavior. You can use Google Analytics for a more detailed analysis of your customer base and how they are browsing your listings. Source: Google