Many sources tell us that the consumer is beginning their real estate search online... 90%-94% of the time. The competition for their attention is becoming more and more competitive. Not having a presence or not having enough presence online can be affecting your real estate business and success.
Today I want to share this report and trend about the online consumer and the real estate industry.
Google and NAR collaborated to share the trends of insights and digital media usage among home shoppers.
This is their cohesive story about today’s connected home shopper.
Google has created a term called ZMOT – ZERO MOMENT OF TRUTH – the moment when you actively engage the online consumer to raise their hand and ask you for more information or assistance.
Shoppers perform an average of 11 searches prior to taking action on any site. Real estate home shoppers using search engines only 9% of the time take action on a branded website. Amazing how important it is to have more than one website and having a non branded website (disclaimer: without breaking council and board rules of being a stealth or secret agent online.
69% of home shoppers that use a search engine use local terms like “Peachland homes for sale” “West Kelowna Homes For Sale” etc.
52% of lead generation on your websites has been generated by a local search term on a search engine. Most likely google being the search engine.
How do we know what local terms they are searching with? Google has a tool called the Google Keyword Planner that actually provides you with the local keywords most frequently used and how often. This is a powerful tool to look at to help make your websites more relevant for what the home shoppers are looking for.
While we're on the "Google Tools" subject I highly recommend you add Google Analytics to your site(s) and be sure to hook it up with Google Webmaster Tools... both of these are powerful tools to provide incredible insights into who is visiting your sites, what keywords they use to find you and the devices they are using to visit you.
Real Estate Shoppers Still Researching Online and Offline
Internet empowered shoppers are using multiple sources like Agents 89%, Yard Signs 53%, Open Houses 46%, Newspaper 28% and Magazine 19% of the time.
The transition to mobile friendly websites is critical to google now and here is why. 89% of shoppers use a mobile device throughout their buying process. 68% of the home shoppers actually use a mobile device their very first time for searching listings.
Here is some more powerful data to reinforce the transition from template websites to mobile device websites... searches on Tablets rose 362% in one year. Real estate brokerage searches on tablets rose 300% in a year. Home shoppers place emphasis on tablet video tours, slide shows and videos showcasing communities and listings.
How to Leverage the Zero Moment of Truth with Online Home Buyers
So what does the consumer want? What do you need to provide to capture them and the Zero Moment Of Truth? If you have a site or multiple sites the shopper is wanting this...
Here is an interesting stat on how we search for real estate on the go...
I often wondered if I was the only one to be multi tasking, using a mobile device, watching TV and eating my snacks all at the same time!? Believe it or not 1/3 of us are doing that exact thing day in and day out.
We have heard video is so important and so powerful to the empowered consumer.
What do I video?
What do they want?
Grab a pen and paper and take some notes!....
- 86% want more information about a community.
- 70% want a video tour of the inside of a home.
- 54% want just general market information.
- 44% want you to share what your company does vs. other companies and what you the agent does vs. other agents.
- 38% want to understand specific features.
- 30% want customer testimonials.
- 25% want assistance on why to choose your company?
- 24% want instructions on how to "anything" in real estate, like how to buy? Sell? The steps and tips.
- Not only is the demand for video becoming higher and higher but where they are looking and finding the video content is important too.
- Here is where you want to post your video content.
- 51% Youtube first.
- 41% brokerage or agent website second.
- 31% Google third.
- 35% Consumer review sites.
- 33% Listing websites.
There are 19,200 videos on how to find an agent on youtube, 88,400 real estate agent videos, 118,000 buying a home videos, 21,800 how to get a home loan videos.
Finding an agent and real estate agent video searches grew 44% in watched and searched in one year on You Tube.
Rising watches and searches on Youtube are in buying a house, renting, renting vs. buying, the buying process, selling process and renting process. Video open house searches on Youtube rose 23% in one year.
The lag time and pace of the online consumer is so different than what we think. 78% of them visit 3 or more sites before they raise their hand! 24% of them raise their hand the first day looking. 5% the first week. 3% in 2 weeks. 4% in three weeks. 7% in first month. 17% second month. 40% in three months looking before raising their hand and taking action on site.
So what is the message for us?
What demographic is the empowered online consumer. 18-24 only 8% and decreasing. 25-34 is 31% and rising the fastest. 25-44 is 21% and decreasing. 45-54 is 19% and rising. 55-64 is 14% and rising second fastest!
The Senior home shopper and what they search has become incredibly important with internet marketing real estate. 75% of them go online. 39% begin online. 30% learned about what they bought online first. Seniors place high value on neighborhood information and interactive maps. Top things seniors search for on google – retirement calculator, retirement homes “kelowna”, best retirement communities, retirement homes “kelowna”
Vacation and recreation shoppers are flocking to the internet. 93% go to the internet. 56% started on the internet. 20% used a search engine to find recreation property first by these keywords. Vacation rentals “kelowna”, Vacation home rentals “kelowna”, rental homes, rental vacation homes, rent vacation homes.
So now we are all completely overwhelmed. Have been totally statistic’d to death and are saying "that’s great Wade but where the heck do I start."
Well I am glad you asked... Start with these action steps...
How to Begin Creating Your Online Real Estate Business Presence
We all are familiar with sales funnels so think of this as the beginning of your online real estate funnel.
Now you know the saying "Rome wasn't built in a day" and in the same way what I am showing you now is only the first couple steps towards generating an ongoing traffic flow to your online assets. Since this post is already running long I can't get into step by step on some of these items but the "how to" is all readily available by searching Google. If there's something you would like me to go into greater detail on then leave your request in the comments below and I may do it for a later post.
STEP 1: If you don't already have one, create a profile at each of these sites.
Many of these allow you to have a vanity URL and if the option is there it is VERY helpful for branding purposes, for SEO and for gaining Google trust and authority so do an extra step or two to get the vanity URL.
For example get Twitter.com/MyCompanyName instead of a default one they give you like Twitter.com/182ed95jthds.
If this confuses you simply do a Google search for "how to create a vanity url for twitter (or Facebook or YouTube etc).
- Google Profile
- Google Plus
- YouTube
What Needs to be on Your Profile?
- Name
- Company Name
- Website(s)...
- Your Contact Info
- Links to Your social Media Profiles you created above
- Education
- Former Employment
- Real Estate Designation
- Languages You Speak
- Cities You Serve
- Specialties that You Have
This may sound like a lot but once you've done a couple profiles it begins to go quite fast. TIP: Type out all the "What needs to be in your profile" info plus the email address you will use to sign up for these accounts into a text document and then you can just copy and paste if for each of the profiles to save a ton of typing.
Another great idea is to get your assistant to do it or pay your kid $20 and be done with it.
Hopefully this helps you get going in generating more real estate business online.
Strength and Courage,
Wade
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