We covered a lot of ground, however, I thought I’d also cover of items that we did not go over in too much detail, but I felt it is worth reiterating.

1. Agents need to focus on a market. I covered this in a  recent post, but it is clear to me that most don’t.  Instead they want to sell it all and service everyone. Not practical and not logical. People are looking for the knowledgeable expert – time to become one, time to have some focus.
2. Blogging is a great way to let people know what’s going on in your town or neighborhood. My favorite is WordPress and Google will rank yours higher if updated frequently with relevant content. Again you need to become the go to person for information. Be the expert, be the one that everyone turns to for the answer and, above all, provide value. So share what you know, but remember to just be yourself!
3. Single Property Blogs are a completely different way of showing a property online.  Unlike regular websites, blogs are easy to update, are very flexible and most importantly allow you to enter into a conversation with your visitors. Blogs allow you to tell a story about the property, it’s history etc. and it is simple to add an update for upcoming events such as open homes, or when the property is sold.  Furthermore, once sold, these end up being an online advertisement for you and a way to continually drive traffic to your main site.  You can see what I mean by visiting this single property site where links also drive traffic back to the main blog under the links section.
4. Use YouTube to your advantage. Not only can a video present a colorful story and be far more interesting, but it also allows you to introduce your own personality. Whether it’s simple a home tour, a short video of an interesting aspect of your community or even a testimonial from a happy customer, it is easy to create and simple to post to your blog or property listing. My favorite way to do this is with  The Flip camera – you can easily create a video with good enough quality and post on YouTube in no time flat.

I hope you like the article – feel free to let me know what you think.

This might be obvious to some but it’s worth pointing out that since most people searching for properties online will be using keywords such as “bay area condos” or “new home in fremont” or whatever they are looking for and, as a result, domain names should reflect the keyword phrase versus a vanity domain.

Focusing on a target market is a fundamental principle of marketing and essential in any go-to-market strategy. It will force an agent to know who their prospects are as well as those that are not.

As an agent, you will use this as a guide for all of your branding, domain name, collateral and will ultimately help position you as the expert.

The reason you need to focus on a market is to:

• Have a compelling sales message (this is your message to market)
• Stand out from other agents in the area
• Know that prospects will continue to narrow down their search until they find what they are looking for in an agent or a property

As it relates to your online presence, I recommend a top level URL as your domain name. By this I mean something like www.bestsiliconvalleyrealestate.com and not just your name or a page buried deep down in a broker site.

In order best determine your domain name you need to focus on a set of keywords that pertain to your market focus.

Take the time to answer these questions as they will help you to come up with a relevant focus and possible domain name:

• Do you serve people in a specific area only?
  • i.e. bay area or silicon valley
• What type of properties do you specialize in?
  • luxury homes
  • waterfront or mountain properties
  • farms
  • income producing
  • condos or town homes
  • etc.
• Do you target a specific demographic?
  • first time home buyers
  • senior citizens
  • investors or hedge fund managers
  • empty nesters
  • spanish speakers
  • etc.

I would use the answers to these questions to start forming the foundation of your domain name.

There are plenty of places to research but a simple one to get started is Nameboy to  and enter in a couple of keywords and see what comes up – you might be surprised.