from Florida Realtor Magazine, December 2008 | page 38

Web Sites
Your Internet Marketing Machine

Turn your site into a supercharged marketing tool.

Mitch Ribak credits his souped-up Web site marketing with increasing his business by 700 percent since its 2004 opening. Ribak, a broker with Tropical Realty of Suntree in Melbourne, previously worked in Internet marketing, so he handles his own online marketing, which includes search engine optimization (SEO), lead capture and lead conversion. He even co-created a program [100MPHMarketing.com] to help him track his marketing efforts.

While Ribak’s monthly expenditure of $6,000 for online marketing may seem high, consider this: It netted him $28,000 in sales just last month. “I spend the majority of my money on pay-per-click fees to a program that brings active buyers to my site,” he says.
Here’s how to boost your online presence.

Grow Your Network
It’s vital that you find an SEO program to drive buyers to your site. Good search engine placement makes a pay-per-click strategy [where you pay a fee for people who click through to your site] very worthwhile. Ribak says HomeGain’s BuyerLink [homegain.com/buyerlink], is a “great source because they do all the work. If you search for ‘Melbourne real estate,’ you’ll end up on our site [because it’s so high in the search engine rankings].” Ribak’s company hosts two Web sites: MitchRealty.com and melbourne
homesearch.com.

Track Your Leads
Use a lead-capture format, such as asking people to register or sign up for a benefit, to obtain contact information. Then, store this information in a customer relations management program. This is an “easy-to-use database that allows you to keep updated on consumers’ actions on the Web site.” Two sources are Top Producer and Microsoft Outlook. For Ribak’s two offices, the CRM is tracking 21,000 leads. During 2008, 1 in 24 of Ribak’s leads became a sale.

Develop a Lead-Conversion Strategy
This program should allow you to e-mail new listings, follow up on phone calls and develop a drip e-mail campaign.

Ribak says the software he developed “automatically assigns leads, reports to administration if the lead wasn’t worked, sends an initial list of properties to the lead, places the lead into an automatic listings-update program and sends comparable listings to the customer.”

With the right tools in place, you can keep track of Internet leads and ensure your Web site stays at the top of any search.