Online Marketing vs. "Traditional" Marketing

[John Steele]

I will be getting my real estate license very soon (approximately 2 weeks). I currently work full time in the RE industry (not as an agent) but will probably start out as a part time agent on the side doing open houses on the weekend and stuff like that.

I've been starting to develop ideas and strategies for how I want to run my business and was hoping to get some insight from people with experience.

My current plan is to go very heavy with online marketing. I plan to create a website, do SEO, PPC ads, blog, tons of social media marketing, email list, etc. My thought process behind this is that more and more people are and will be using the internet to search for homes, especially as my generation enters the first time home buyer market. This generation is the first generation to have grown up online.

I am only 25 so I'm sure that my age has something to do with it, but I'm having a hard time justifying traditional marketing such as door knocking, mail campaigns, etc. I know that these strategies do work as I have seen them work first hand with the companies that I work for. The thing with these is that they are either costly, time consuming, or both. With all of the new technology and apps there are so many free or very cost effective ways to market compared to these "old-school" marketing tactics.

So I guess what I'm wondering is, am I crazy to think that I can be successful using this online strategy vs. going the traditional route?

[Luis Toledo]

You might try not to think of it as "traditional vs. online," because honestly, that doesn't matter. Instead, try "what works vs. what doesn't" and by "work," I mean methods that make you much more money than they cost you. Last time I checked, PPC wasn't free. Neither are websites, hosting (the good type that you can run analytical on." Also, people your age don't usually have equity in their homes. So, as far as the near future is concerned, you're probably going to need to target baby boomers. Direct mail works because everyone checks their mailbox with a certain frequency. PPC and SEO strategies work if you know how to capture leads and convert them into clients.

What I'm trying to say is that I know traditional marketing techniques work because their effects can be proven and tracked. Social media and online efforts are just another medium and the same campaign tracking that one would use for direct mail or telemarketing can also work for online campaigns with the right techniques. Marketing isn't rocket science, it's mostly common sense... benchmarked, tracked and ruthlessly evolved. Be careful of "new marketing" that emphasizes branding and intangible benefits over ROI. It's not that the benefits can't be measured, it's that the metrics never look good when translated into dollars. Small businesses can't afford that and would likely do better focusing on proven techniques that pay for themselves and folding branding themselves through those same efforts as a secondary benefit.

Checkout books by Seth Godin, Dan S. Kennedy and Zig Ziglar if you want a good background on marketing and sales.