Use the Internet to Juice Your REALTOR® Marketing
Blair Kuhnen
Getting one more REALTOR-related sale per community per month can have a dramatic impact on your gross profit.

REALTORS can be hugely important to a builder's success, but many builders neglect to include Rthem in their Web sites and interactive marketing plans. Yet, with REALTORS involved in 30% to 50% of builders' closings, they can be a huge portion of the business. However, not all agents are created equal.

When you look at your REALTOR sales you may learn that your REALTOR business is very fragmented. You may have a hundred different agents who participated in sales, but only 5%-10% of those may have been involved in more than one transaction. Builders with effective REALTOR programs identify, nurture, and grow loyalty among these agents. One key to this development is Web technologies.

Some builders are effectively leveraging their Web sites to maintain and enhance REALTOR relations. This is one area of marketing that is largely under the competitive radar screen. However, getting one more REALTOR-related sale per community per month can have a dramatic impact on your gross profit. The Web can play an important role.

Here are a few straightforward ideas to put in place today:

1. Add a REALTOR "welcome page" to your Web site. You don't have to spell out your complete policy and incentive structure, but make it clear how agents will be treated and how much your company values their participation. Don't take the risk of turning away agents because of rumors that your company is less than REALTOR-friendly.
   
   
2. Offer an interest list on your Web site for REALTORS and encourage on-site agents to register their key agents to receive your REALTOR newsletter. Let agents know the benefits of being on your distribution list. Be explicit about what you will be sending them and allow them to sign up for other advance notification lists you may have. Also, make sure you can segment REALTORS from your main lead database. Keep it simple, as Buescher Homes does.
   
   
3. Create a regular REALTOR e-mail newsletter that is refreshed and updated religiously. A good place to start for content is your inventory and any discounts tied to inventory units. The key is to have content your top agents need and want to know. Add REALTOR incentives, consumer incentives, and other information that they may want to know. Also, be sure to have a link to the registration page within the e-mail and encourage readers to forward the e-mail to their friends. You will see your list consistently grow and you should experience extremely low opt-out rates as long as your content is up-to-date and relevant to your agents. One of my favorite examples is the weekly REALTOR e-mail newsletter sent by Centex Homes tailored to each division.
   
   You can add a link in your e-mail directly to your inventory page on your Web site just by pasting the URL in the e-mail as I have done  below:
    www.homebfc.com/inventory.aspx?MetroId=1
   
   
4. Create a REALTOR loyalty program to reward agents involved in multiple transactions and those who provide you with greater permission. What do I mean by greater permission? In your e-mail newsletter, you can offer access to the club for those who may not have made multiple transactions, but who have expressed a willingness to receive relevant communication in the hope of increasing their transaction volume with you. Make them part of your club and reward them for their loyalty and access. How to reward depends on you and your market.

Once you have this REALTOR Insider's Club, you have something that can become an important marketing tool. For example, when you have a closeout incentive, you can e-mail your club members first. In a large market you may not want to do mass mailings to your larger REALTOR database about individual lot specials, but your select REALTOR group will welcome the communication.

It's not rocket science, so give it a try.

Blair Kuhnen of Realty InfoLinks specializes in improving the effectiveness of REALTOR® marketing programs through the FOCUS Marketing System. He can be reached at 972-661-1975. The preceding article was originally published in the Oct. 5, 2005, issue of Interactive Marketing Best Practices. 

For more information about this item, e-mail Natalie Holmes at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8461. [ return to top ]