Top 7 Real Estate Online Marketing Mistakes/Myths!

Welcome to the first Z57 Marketing Insider post! Z57 has been around for over 8 years now, and during this time we have spoken to tens of thousands of Real Estate Agents. During this time, we have seen many interesting mistakes and heard some very interesting myths from Real Estate Agents. Here are the top 7... make sure you aren't making these mistakes too!

1. "Trust me, newspaper advertising works great!" Mistake! Newspaper 'used to' work great, but rarely anymore. Why spend ridiculous money in a dying medium that has little return on investment? Over 77% of homebuyers now start their home search online. Not by looking in a newspaper.
2. Bad website color schemes. Yes, you know who you are. We have seen so many instances of simply HORRIBLE color combinations, especially text that is too hard to read because it's on the bad color background. You have to catch a website visitor's eye within seconds - even if you have fabulous content and lead capture, they still won't stick around to use it if your website looks like an 8 year old designed the color scheme. Get advice on your color scheme!
3. "All I need is a website and some traffic and I'm golden". Myth. Lead capture tools are essential to any Realtor's online success. If you have no way to capture visitors contact details, then you can't follow up with them, and chances are they will just go to one of your competitors' websites instead. Not good.
4. "My animated flash intro page is great!" Myth. Not only is this bad for search engines, but its also bad for your web visitors. Why make the visitor wait - they just want to see what content you have and what home listings you have. And most of these look plain horrible too. Our advice? Don't use them.
5. "A good domain name is all I need for good search engine results." Myth. Yes, picking a good domain is important, but you need to do so much more. You need your content to be optimized for your chosen keywords and you need many GOOD relevant links from other websites pointing to your website. Get some SEO advice!
6. Bus benches without the Agents' website address. Mistake. A personal favorite of ours. The times we have drove by bus bench ads and seen a great looking Realtor ad, but no mention of their website address. Its way easier to remember a catchy website address and type it in when you get home, than remembering a random phone number.
7. "Winning the listing is winning the sale". Myth. Sadly, there are still way too many Realtor's that believe this. It's no longer good enough to just use signage, newspaper ads and printed flyers. You need to promote your lisings online using popular real estate search websites like Oodle and Trulia - way more effective! Ask someone at Z57 to learn about our online listings promotions.

So. Hopefully you aren't making too many of these mistakes and myths. Feel free to let us know what you think - maybe you have some personal favorites! The best will be listed here - just simply post a reply using the form below!