Kate Kaye of ClickZ reports that spending for marketing budgets for real estate is waining in the regular newsprint of old. Realtors are spending more and more of their ad budgets online. Citing a study performed by Classified Intelligence she indicates:
So, if 58 percent of real estate agents surveyed are raising ad budgets this year, where is the money going? Where they are spending the bulk of the money online, in fact, is on their Web sites. Twenty-six percent spent 10 percent and 29 percent spent 20 percent of their budgets there. Just 6 percent did not spend at all on their Web sites.
Impressive numbers but where are they actually spending the money? Andy Beal believes he knows where the revenue is going and that is to blogs. In fact as Mr. Beal states:
While Realtors are reducing their offline spend, the report shows there is no clear winner for online ad spend.
But I know the answer. Want to know where real estate agents are investing their online efforts? Blogging! Yep, I lose track of the number of new blogs that I see each day that relate to the real estate industry. But don’t just take my word for it, take a look at these charts…
Andy makes a good point about the discussion of real estate, but what is interesting to find are blogs about real estate that are being tracked by Technorati have reached nearly 1000. The reason I find this interesting is because less than a few weeks ago I did the exact same search for a presentation to a real estate agent and it turned up only half that number. Real estate blogs are popping up all over the blogosphere and Google shows that over 91,000,000 search results come from searching blogs for real estate. After doing some other snooping around it looks like some in the real estate businesses are spending huge amounts on pay per click campaigns and for paid search. Of these companies I was unable to find any of them working natural search through blogs. Being the investigator type, I was curious if I could find a blogger on Google that was in the denver area. Real estate always seems to be on the rise here in Denver so a realtor can be found on every street corner. I searched Denver Realtor. At the time of this writing, I was able to find that the number 2 search result turned up Kristal Kraft. It just so happens that Kristal is a realtor in Denver that has a blog. Today she has a beautiful picture of balloons being launched in the blue Colorado sky. I’ve not personally talked with Kristal but rest assured, if I was looking for a realtor in Denver, she may get my call only because I was able to find her easily.
Realtors in the real estate business are clamoring for a piece of the online pie, but those realtors that hop on the blog bandwagon will find themselves out ahead of those still trying to attract the home buyers and sellers via that thing rolled up on the driveway. A very small investment has given one blogger a leg up on the competition.
I agree. Let other realtors battle in the PPC arena. Smart ones will start a blog, targetted to their area and provide valuable information to potential clients. If they did nothing else but upload every new listing, that would be a great start.
BTW, any chance you could link back to my original post? http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2006/08/real-estate-marketing-shifting-to.html
Thanks!
Comment by Andy Beal — August 31, 2006 @ 3:13 pm
Jim,
Great post. I think that many real estate agents see that there’s a real benefit to differentiating themselves from their competition.
They can become a valued resource by blogging about the towns they serve (school systems, politics, etc.,) and changes in the market.
In addition, as long as they don’t go overboard, they can talk to their sellers about the additional reach they have via blogs by blogging about featured properties.
Two realtors I work with have found early success with their blogs. One writes more about real estate in general (http://www.mainerealestateblog.com) and the other about day-to-day life in his region of the Maine coast (http://www.mainecoastpropertiesblog.com/)
Both blogs fit the needs of these realtors.
Comment by Rich Brooks — September 1, 2006 @ 8:51 am
Just wanted to draw your attention to Toronto @ Home.
Comment by Fraser Beach — September 1, 2006 @ 6:51 pm
One company that has been instrumental in evangelizing and creating blogs in the real estate space is Blogging Systems, where our fellow BBC blogger Paul Chaney now works.
Comment by Lee Odden — September 2, 2006 @ 4:25 pm
Lee, bloggingsystems, and their blog they point to as the BIG success is LakeCountyBlog, has done a brilliant job of getting people in the community to provide blog content.
BRILIANT! The guy behind the site, Realtor Dave Crockett, doesn’t have to do much of the posting. I saw one quote where he has done just 5 posts on the blog, but the blog has over 200 posts.
What I’m curious to see is whether this “community participation” is sustainable in the long term and the content remains compelling.
They are one model, but I think this industry is so new to blogging that there are still many innovations to occur in this space.
Comment by Tom Bailey — September 3, 2006 @ 9:13 pm
And another place for real estate professionals to blog is ActiveRain
ActiveRain provides a free blogging platform for real estate professionals and the growth rate of their “social network” is exponential.
Comment by Jay T. — September 4, 2006 @ 10:14 am
Blogging is a natural fit for real estate. Brokers and agents spend an inordinate amount of money on advertising (about $11 billion a year) and very little of that goes into online promotion.
Conversely, more than 70% of consumers start their home search online these days.
As you mention Jim, those realtors that take advantage these new platforms will see the lion’s share of any new business.
Comment by Joel Burslem — September 7, 2006 @ 6:52 pm
I sure hope real estate blogging is on the rise. My job depends on it! Thanks for the kind words about Blogging Systems.
Comment by Paul Chaney — October 18, 2006 @ 2:52 pm