Real Estate domain names – OWN a neighborhood with a simple strategy!
Want to become a neighborhood expert immediately? A $10 or less domain name is all it takes. We are amazed at how many marketing pieces we receive in our mailboxes with no call to action on them except……”if you’re thinking about selling your home, give us a call”. Yeah, right. WHY should we call you? More importantly WHAT can you do for me? Talk about finding a needle in a haystack, trying to utilize that method. Thus the return using direct mail for real estate is historically one fraction of 1%.
The Tech Savvy Agent is not only about uncovering people ready to transact now, but also ensuring their success for the future by capturing early stage leads and setting them up on a “real” follow up plan.
Try this out for size. Let’s say we wanted to target (farm, Just listed/sold cards) a neighborhood called Radley Ridge that has about 300 homes. Go to www.godaddy.com or any other site where domains can be purchased and buy www.radleyridgehomevalues.com. This will set you back about $10.
Go Daddy is known for their great customer service!
Now we create a mailer that reads as follows:
“Attention Radley Ridge Residents!(alliteration never hurt either) Ever wonder what homes are being listed at and selling for in your neighborhood? Find out instantly on your own website! Simply go to www.radleyridgehomevalues.com to get all the info on what’s going on in your neighborhood while the market is scary.”
Let’s examine why this works so effectively:
1. there is an extremely strong call to action that addresses the concerns and fears of the home owners in Radley Ridge(the market is scary right?)
2. personalizing the domain name hits home with the residents and is a refreshing change from the www.JoeAgent.com’s of the world
3. we have a deliverable that’s of value to our client!
The key word in that call to action is the word instant. People want their info now!
Ok Mr. Tech Savvy guy, what in the world do we do with that domain name. How are we supplying that info with only our great new domain name?
Well, there are a few automated services out there that can supply the info for each neighborhood automatically but, today we are going to talk about the free method, which just cost you a little “sweat equity”. Take that domain name and forward it to a page on your website that you designated for the stats of that neighborhood.
Make sure to forward and mask
Post the most recent transactions from Radley Ridge and a market synopsis and you are almost done. We want to capture these people right? Add a lead capture form (most websites have them) and tell them that if they sign in here they will receive updated market info once a month, sent right to their email for their neighborhood specifically?
This is the data our consumers want guys, if you are not sending out regular market updates you are missing the boat! This method is a sure fire way of capturing more leads and breaking out of the stale mailers. We have had feedback from agents that this approach turned their 1% return into 10% or better with their next mailout! You just have to deliver the goods by following up with relevant data. KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
See if the neighborhood you are working in is still available in less than one minute by clicking the link or image below!
Tech Savvy Agent buys our domain names from them and know they have excellent customer support which is always important when it comes to tech companies.
GoDaddy.com
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Very helpful. thank you.
Great post & it’s really true. I’ve done that w/ each of the neighborhoods that I target. It’s working well ~ I enjoy the automatic association with the community that my domain(s) give me.
Great tips … I get all my domains from Go Daddy too as well as my e-mail handling for my domain name. One thing that I discovered is that http://www.123MainStreet.info works as well as .com — the difference is they are only $0.99 a piece. Not a huge deal for only 1 domain name … but if you’re getting 5 – $5 sounds better than $50!I do this for all my listings and my clients think I’m doing a great job and it cost me a buck!
Great idea. I’m trying to twist my mind around how I might use it. I’m an Exclusive Buyer Agent(which means I’m in search of buyers, not Listings)for a ski resort community (Steamboat Springs, CO). Any ideas?
Try home/house/property values
Great advice, what do you think about setting up a different blog for each neighborhood? Might be less than the mailers.
I would say dedicate a different subpage to your blog to each neighborhood. Mailers are optional but the hyperlocal aspect is not!
I have a few community domains and this strategy does work. It makes you look like to go to source for that community. I like the idea of the .info domains also.
Greg,
I think hyper-local blogs are an awesome idea. They definitely require a lot of continuous upkeep but would create a ton of value in showcasing yourself as a “specialist” in specific regions.
It’s all about “owning” the virtual interaction in a town.
-Ryan
It’s a great idea! People love to learn the answer to “How’s the Market” – getting market stats are one of the most requested items from my blog.
One of the commenters mentioned the $.99 info price. Great Idea! I also have a reseller’s license from GoDaddy. I pay a yearly fee and get a little discount on domain names and renewals. People who visit my site can save on the domain name cost and still get the great GoDaddy customer service and backend.
I have heard and read that Google will penalize you for having too many domain names pointed (even 301 perm redirect) to your main site? Anyone have any insight or thoughts on this?
I have over sixty domains I use in my REI Business. I use them for different markets. This works and google analytics shows me it works.
This is a fantastic idea and I’m going to start it today and have at least one sub-page on my blog by the end of the day. One thing I’d like to do that I can’t figure out how to, is to not only have the addresses and basic info of the available homes but how can I link that to the full listing? Maybe there’s an automated service for that I can find.