One of the first things you learned as a REALTOR was how to use the MLS, no? And Im sure you will agree it is a huge resource for us. The challenge is that, even though it gives us all sorts of great information about sellers and their properties, it doesnt give us a lot of direct information about buyers. And in todays market, we need to know about BUYERS more than ever!
So what is the super ninja tool we can use for real estate advertising and to attract buyers to us? Well, in order to do that, we first need to know what it is buyers are looking fo, would you agree?
Well, guess what? There is a billion dollar research tool that is sitting right under our noses ” and its FREE! It has been available to us for the past eight years ” but it wasnt until the market shifted to a buyers market that weve needed to use it.
You will be surprised when I tell you what it is because its a tool that you probably use almost every day ” just like the MLS ” you just didnt know everything it was capable of doing.
Its called Google.
And the specific tool that Google gives us is Adwords. Google Adwords allows us to research all the information about what buyers are looking for ” and in our targeted market.
But wait ” it gets even better! Its way easier to learn how to use than the MLS! When you go into the MLS, you enter in various search criteria. Well, you do the same thing in Adwords. You just type in the keywords you think your buyers might use to find you and Adwords will give you suggestions.
Lets look at an example: Lets say you sell resort homes in Door County, Wisconsin. You enter resort homes, Door County in the keyword tool and it will tell us how many people are searching every month for resort homes in Door County.
I just went to Google Adwords and entered exactly those key phrases ” Resort Homes and Door County. This is what I found: Door County resorts: 2400 Door County WI: 22,200 Door County resort: 2900 Door County Wisconsin: 22,200 Door County rentals: 3600 Door Country lodging: 4,400
And when I scroll down to the bottom of the page, it suggests other ideas: Door County: 201,000 ” now were talking some volume! Sister Bay: 33,100 ” SURPRISE! Vacation homes: 301,000
(BTW ” The numbers reflect the number of searches per month.)
Google Adwords even gives you a graph alongside the key phrase showing you the trend of people looking for that phrase. As you would imagine, people looking for vacation homes in Door County is pretty much trending downward just now. (However, Door County Weddings is trending up! Wonder what I could do with THAT information?) Now that you have your keywords in hand, what do you do with them?
Well, you have several options: 1)You can advertise on Google itself using Pay Per Click advertising 2)You can optimize your website using exactly these keywords. (In our example above, you would type Door County Resort vs. Door County Resorts.)
OR – you can use free social media strategies and sprinkle these keywords liberally throughout your content so that hot prospects will find you, call you and take action!