Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Google offers tools to every online business that are especially well suited to online real estate investors. Google offers everything from interactive maps displaying your many different listings to AdWords for inexpensive advertising to a highly targeted market.
Google AdWords is the pay per click (PPC) method of delivering your advertising at the top of search results in the form of 'sponsored results'. Several things make PPC work well for real estate investors. First, you can closely target your audience by geographically limiting your ads to people in your service area. That further cuts down your advertising costs because you have fewer people competing for your key search phases.
You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, assuring you are reaching a highly targeted audience. You are in complete control. You decide how much to pay for each click (although this does affect your listing position). You can start or stop a PPC campaign at any time. Additionally, Google provides real time conversion tracking data to help you determine which PPC campaigns are the most effective.
If you don't yet have a website, Google Places is a great place to create one. Even seasoned online pros may not be aware of this tool that Google provides. It's another free Google tool helping buyers and sellers find you easily on the internet. You can list yourself in multiple categories to be assessable to different target markets. You can include YouTube videos to create a professional appearance yet delivering a personal message.
For a very simple version of a website, use Google Profile to get information about yourself and your business out on the web where people can find it.
If you already have a website, use Google Maps to display your properties free on an interactive map appearing on your webpage. Include satellite images to give your clients a bird's eye view of the property and surrounding area.
Make your investment business stand out from others with Google Sketchup - a 3-D modeling tool. Use it to show customers different properties side by side or show how a room will look with furniture of their choice. Or use it to view how a non-existent house will look on a vacant piece of land.
Finally, use Google Apps to collaborate with clients and associates. Share and access spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents. You can access your web-based information anytime from anywhere you log onto the internet, including on your mobile devise. Your information remains completely secure and only available to those that you grant access to.
The internet is interwoven in our daily lives. Be sure you are using it to its fullest potential in your professional real estate business.
Please leave a comment if this article was helpful or if you have a question.
Photo Credit: via geralt pixabay.com
Author bio: Brian Kline has been investing in real estate for more than 35 years and writing about real estate investing for seven years. He also draws upon 30 plus years of business experience including 12 years as a manager at Boeing Aircraft Company. Brian currently lives at Lake Cushman, Washington. A vacation destination, a few short miles from a national forest. in the Olympic Mountains with the Pacific Ocean a couple of miles in the opposite direction.
Brian thank you for good article.Do you write for biggerpocket also?
Sohail,
Thank you for your comment. I read BiggerPocket but seldom write for it.
Brian Kline