Losing a listing to "website exposure" marketing: Both of the brokers had recently lost a listing in the presentation phase. They both indicated that the brokerage that got the listing had done so because the client was impressed by the web "exposure" of that brokerage's website. One of these winning listers even advertises on the radio that their site offers the greatest "web exposure" for their listing clients. I know these brokerages, and they both are touting their position in the search engine for local keywords. It's unfortunate that these sellers did not know that it isn't how many visitors the local Realtor's site gets. It is all about syndication and exposure all around the web.
Sellers are learning, are you? As the sellers of the world get more savvy in the ways that marketing is successfully implemented on the web, they'll be less likely to list with a brokerage for the wrong reasons. Will you be there with the right reasons? Both losing brokers could have defused the "exposure" bomb in five minutes by educating their potential client.
Your site is a tiny piece of the web puzzle: Even the best-positioned local real estate sites get a minuscule portion of the search traffic for real estate key phrases. With sites like Trulia, Zillow, Point2 NLS, GoogleBase and many more national mega-sites serving millions of visitors every day, any individual local real estate site is just a showplace for the Realtor. And that's a perfectly acceptable situation. We should get leads and business from promoting our sites. The problem is the client who believes they are receiving the "best web exposure" in the area just due to the local site's search engine positioning.
Where you syndicate their listing is the key: The "web exposure" bomb wouldn't have blown up these brokers' presentations if they had been ready for it. In fact, if it were a key factor in the prospect's decision, they would have taken the listing. Showing the prospects a list of sites to which these brokers would syndicate their listing would have been the way to go. And everybody has Realtor.com, so that one isn't a big gun. My list shows more than 60 sites in the two largest cities in the state where I'm not competing (Point2Agent Handshake Listings), and a list of other nationally advertised sites like Trulia and GoogleBase. All totaled, it's almost one hundred sites. Total traffic to all the local real estate brokerage sites is a tiny fraction of the real estate search traffic to the mega-sites.
The beauty of syndication is that most of the sites are absolutely free. They want the listings. If you do not want to list on a site that sells leads, you don't have to. There are plenty that do not. Trulia points them back to you. Their traffic is growing rapidly. Don't let a broker take a listing from you because of their ignorance or a lack of understanding on the part of the prospect. Syndicate your real estate website.
