Google uses digital cameras as their example in this video, but the same principles can be applied to text-based campaigns for real estate. This is what Google’s advice boils down to:

- Imagine what your audience is searching for, then use those words in your ad text. It helps to be more specific than “real estate [location]“. Even using the words “Buying a home in [location]?”, for example, tells people more about what you’re offering.

- What makes you stand out? Do you focus on a particular area, or have detailed knowledge of the local market? Mention your unique value proposition to give users a reason to click.

- Include a strong call to action in your text. Click here for a closer look at how calls to action work.

- Give people what they’re looking for after they click. If your ad is for homes for sale in a certain neighbourhood, link it to a section of your website that covers that neighbourhood. Similarly, if the ad is about you as an agent, link to a page that describes you and includes your contact details.

If you’ve never used AdWords before, spend some time on Google searching as if you were looking for real estate in your area. You’ll soon have plenty more ideas about which ads are enticing, and how you can make yours stand out from the competition.

The word “content” is used so often these days that it’s easy to let it wash over you without thinking about it what it really means. But the fact is, quality content is central to any successful online marketing strategy. In other words, good content can transform your message from general advertising noise into something people really want to find out more about.

So what exactly do we mean by “content”? The short answer is: everything you create. Everything from your company’s “about us” page to the snippets of information you publish on Twitter contributes to the way you are perceived online. Over time, the content you create builds up your brand’s individual personality, which in turn creates understanding and expectation in your audience.

The question is, does that personality engage people? Are you offering potential customers something that will entice them back again and again?

One example of a company that has content production down to a fine art is computer giant Apple. While not everyone is a convert, Apple has such a devoted fan-base that they even have their own consumer-run forum. Their content is clear, simple, and friendly without becoming too informal. It’s also seemingly endless. Everything from how-to video tutorials for their software to information on how their products impact on the environment is available to their customers.

Another aspect of Apple’s marketing strategy to consider is that the company doesn’t currently have a presence on social media. Many would argue that this is because Apple simply doesn’t need to drum up more support, but we would add that the brand often benefits from consumers not knowing what’s happening – its secrecy drives the buzz for upcoming releases to fever pitch.

As we all know, any real estate agency that tried to operate using that strategy would soon have to shut its doors. Agents benefit from being as visible as possible. But don’t make the mistake of thinking anything that puts your brand in front of potential clients is worthwhile. If the content isn’t up to scratch, you could easily be sending leads straight to your competitors.

Think about it: you might have a killer business model, a dedicated team of staff, and all the latest tech tools meant to make your everyday tasks streamlined and simple. But what is it that you’re offering people when they find you online? Is it clear? Does it offer something worthwhile? Is it part of an overall marketing plan? Ask yourself these questions before you publish something online, and you’ll be on your way to establishing a brand that’s recognised, respected, and maybe even enjoyed.

So how do you walk that fine line, outlining all the positives a property has to offer without stretching the truth, and promoting it to the right audience without leaving other buyers out?

Here are propertyadguru.com’s Top 10 Tips for Great Listing Copy:

1. Gather all the information you can about the property itself, the street it’s in, and the surrounding area. Build up a clear picture of what you’ll be promoting.

2. Use all this information to be as specific as you can. Is the property on the high or low side of the street? What will buyers see from the balcony? How is the house heated and cooled? Answering these questions up front will build trust in potential clients.

3. Avoid going overboard with the superlatives. Describing a home as “gracious” or “excellent” might sound nice, but ultimately it doesn’t give home hunters any solid information.

4. Encourage home hunters to see themselves in the property, perhaps by saying that the 10 metre pool is perfect for morning laps, or that the sunroom is ideal for lounging with the Sunday newspapers.

5. Don’t skimp on the details. If the property is in a “great location”, talk about what’s nearby that makes that statement true. Similarly, if it has “tons of extras”, give examples of what those might be.

6. Use details to attract the right buyer. Rather than say the property is perfect for a family, which may cause other buyers to switch off, focus on the large bedrooms or big back yard.

7. Can you give buyers a sense of the property’s history? Mentioning recent renovations, or the fact that it has had the same owner for 40 years, will show property hunters you know all there is to know about this place.

8. Correct grammar and spelling is crucial. If you don’t have someone who can proofread your work, try reading it aloud to spot any errors.

9. Similarly, try to stay away from slang, overuse of capitals and exclamation marks, and creative punctuation.

10. Originality will pay off. Even if true, saying a property is one buyers “can’t afford to miss” will only make their eyes glaze over. Take the time to think of a new way to describe what the property offers.

These tips really boil down to two major points: know what you’re promoting, and explain it clearly without embellishments.

Here are propertyadguru.com’s Top 10 Tips for generating online press.

1. Start your press release with a question, an intriguing quote, or a surprising statistic – something that gives people a reason to read beyond the headline. Make sure you cover your most important points first, remembering you have limited time to get your message across before readers lose interest.

2. Publish the release in a news section on your website that’s kept up to date. Optimise this section so search engines can latch on, and provide an RSS feed for updates.

3. Keep your “about us” section up to date as well, linking back to other recent releases where relevant.

4. An online press release can be a good option if you have some funds to put behind its distribution. To find out which press release service to use, try a Google News search on topic related to your release and see which brands appear first.

5. Once your press section and releases are up and running, contact local journalists with your news. Local coverage including your name and brand will help in positioning you as the go-to agent for the area.

6. Contact local websites that cover your area as well to discuss opportunities for syndication of your content.

7. Explain your news from the ground up. Not everyone will understand its context and some might puzzle over its importance.

8. Keep your tone professional, but avoid any overly formal language. Imagine what your copy would sound like if spoken aloud to a client.

9. Avoid buzz words as they generally undermine your message rather than enhance it. Readers will suspect a lack of genuine content.

10. Correct spelling and grammar is vital, of course, as is consistency throughout the document. Capitalisation as well as incorrect homonyms (there/their) can be particularly easy to miss. A second pair of eyes to look over your work is crucial before it goes online.

Of course, online promotion techniques such as blogging, social networking and video are all important when promoting your brand, but the occasional news story can also go a long way towards establishing yourself as an agent of choice.

[Image: ehow.com]

The US National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) has just released a report calling on Congress to put an end to “discriminatory” online housing advertisements by amending the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

The NFHA says the Act holds Internet advertising providers to a different standard than print media, and that while newspapers have been held liable for publishing advertisements with statements such as “no kids” or “couples only”, the publishers of similar online advertisements have not.

The NFHA’s report, titled “For Rent: No Kids! How Internet Advertisements Perpetuate Discrimination”, cites Craigslist as an example of a website that is not considered a publisher under current court decisions, and therefore cannot be prosecuted under the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race, colour, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability. The NFHA explains that because websites like Craigslist are not considered publishers, only the landlords who post the online advertisements can be held responsible.

The NFHA says more than 7,500 discriminatory advertisements were identified across the US over the past year, but that the time and resources necessary to tackle the problem on an ad-by-ad basis meant that only 1,000 complaints could be filed with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development during that time.

Shanna L. Smith, the NFHA’s president and CEO, had this to say in a statement from the organisation:

“At a time when 2 million children and their families have lost their homes to foreclosure and are desperately searching for a place to call home, these discriminatory advertisements slam the door in their face—denying them even the opportunity to apply for the apartment or home.

We must amend the Communications Decency Act so that Internet publishers are held to the same standard as newspapers under the Fair Housing Act. It is disgraceful that interactive Internet providers continue to receive a free pass to discriminate.

Every time a discriminatory housing advertisement appears online, it tells the reader that it is okay to refuse to rent to a family with a child and it turns back the progress of the Fair Housing Act. An amendment to the Communications Decency Act will rectify this injustice.”

The NFHA’s report found advertisements across all 50 states it says discriminated based on familial status, religion, disability and national origin. The report emphasised that many advertisements for larger apartments that could house families with multiple children exclude those applicants, and cited examples with statements such as: “no kids allowed”, “no children, pets ok” and “no families or anything”.

Online US real estate marketplace zillow.com has published a blog post revealing the qualities of the best-performing ads, and lowest performing ads, on its website.

Sara Bonert, Director of Broker Relations at zillow.com, writes:

“zillow.com makes money by selling ads on the site. But, to be a successful media company, we need to make sure our customers are realising success with their ads.”

The number one finding was that listing ads work better than agent head shot ads, in terms of generating good click through rates.

Other observations from the Top 50 performing ads on Zillow included:

• 100% were ads for listings
• 45 of 50 ads were an exterior home shot, 3 were interior, 2 were aerials
• 42 of the ads mentioned a specific area (neighborhood, city or addres)
• 8 central messages revolved around Short Sale, Foreclosure or price reduction
• 2 were Open House ads
• 0 photos were renderings (illustrations), all were actual photos
• 0 ads promoted a specific person, business or brand
• 22 of the ads had a specific price visible
• 7 had a phone number visible
• 50 had photos that were taken on a sunny day

And observations from the Bottom 20 performing ads on Zillow included:

• 18 of the ads promoted an agent/broker/brand
• 1 did not have a photo (and no clicks)
• 1 had some type of call-to-action on the ad

One comment posted by Al Lorenz in response to the blog, agreed with the findings, saying:

“We’ve found the same thing, by testing various ads, that advertising specific strengths, with pictures, of our client’s properties is much more productive than advertising the brokerage or brand. Our clients like it much more also!”

Read propertyadguru.com’s Top 10 Tips for Making Your Listings Stand Out.

image: flickr/tosaytheleast

Real estate professionals are constantly required to come up with snappy copy that creates intrigue in buyers and positions the property in the most favourable light, whilst holding off the competition. And they have to do it week in and out. It’s easy then to see how imaginations can wander and ads can become outlets for frustrated creative writers! But a property advertisement should never ever contain a falsehood or ‘stretched truth’ and should be very mindful of crossing into discriminatory territory.

Without meaning to, it is possible to throw words and phrases around in our descriptions that can actually get us into trouble. Comments that focus on the type of buyer may seem harmless – and indeed useful – to you, but they can be misinterpreted and upset people. Examples are:

• Perfect bachelor pad (would couples not be happy here?)
• Haven for empty-nesters (are kids not welcome?)
• Vibrant Asian community (what if I’m not Asian?)
• Family neighbourhood (if I don’t have kids will I feel left out?)

Agents are operating in an increasingly competitive market, one where time is of the essence and results are paramount. So why then do so many sales and leasing agents spend so much of their week agonising over content for advertisements? Because they have to…or at least they think they have to. Making your listing stand out from the crowd and attracting the right buyers is essential to creating a transaction. The advertisement is the key piece of the marketing campaign for selling or leasing a property and by necessity requires thought and attention. These days you need ads on the internet, on sign boards, in magazines, flyers and even on mobile phones and it can be argued that the same property requires a different ad for each of these different media. Creating and customising this many advertisements each week would be daunting. But there is another way.

Kirsty Dunphey, Australian Young Business Woman of the Year and Real Estate Entrepreneur, has created a tool that will expedite the ad writing process. www.reallysold.com is a simple program that offers three ways to generate property advertisements in a flash.

1. Create

Randomly generates headings, catchphrases and words to get your creative juices flowing. There’s thousands to choose from so you’re sure to find something that suits your listing.

2. Generate

Choose from a range of categories that suit the main feature of your particular listing and the database will return descriptive phrases that really help your ad to stand out.

3. Replace

There’s two features in this section. The first allows you to type in any letter of the alphabet and have words returned starting with that letter – great for those into alliteration! The second is the ability to type in a word and generate synonyms for that word eg. ‘house’ would return ’home’, ‘residence’, ‘dwelling’ . Again, this is a great tool for those who find they keep using the same old adjectives each week.

The concept is simple, the execution is neat and easy and there’s a 10 day trial on offer. At only A$1.95/ week it’s a steal if you want an easy way to get inspiration for your property ads.  The program doesn’t actually spit out a finished ad for you, so you still have to do some work, but it certainly could help to piece your ideas together or get you started when you have a mental block. My only criticism would be that with simplicity can come duplicity. If both you and your competitor used the tool, how could you be sure you’re not going to end up publishing the same headlines or catchphrases? Just something to be mindful of.

To finish, I thought I’d list my top five stylistic tips for writing a property ad:

1. Don’t use slang or colloquial language – remember you may be appealing to buyers/renters from all around the world so make sure they understand what you’re saying.

2. Don’t try and be too clever or funny – your sense of humour may not appeal to everyone and you don’t want to risk turning people off.

3. Don’t get too waffly or ethereal with your description – if it’s got a view describe it, but don’t ‘hint at a patchwork quilt of powdery baby blue from the upper most deck’!

4. Don’t forget to actually list the main features of the property – some agents get too caught up in the fabulous location they forget to say how many bedrooms the place has.

5. Don’t EVER mislead the reader – never write something that is blatantly untrue or could be misconstrued.

Photos

Photos are probably the most important part of the listing ad.  The more you put up there the better. They should show the home in its best light and should be professionally shot. The first photo displayed should be the hero shot as this is the photo often used in the search results page.

Heading

The heading for the advertisement should be catchy and enticing for the buyer. For example, if the house has had a price reduction, state that in the title so that the value buyer will click on the advertisement. Remember the listing ad appears as a short version on the search results page.

Description

It is important that you tell the reader as much about the listing as you can. Someone who is truly interested in the property will take the time to read the description. Make sure that you are honest in what you say and provide as much factual information as you can.

Price

Readers of the property advertisement will be looking for the price and if there is no price, they will often move on from the ad.  Therefore it is important that the reader is given clear guidance as to the price of the property.

Address

It is very important to display the address of the property. I know some agents believe that they don’t need to display the address however portal sites today use this address to plot the property on google maps and readers also want to know where the house is.

Contact Details

Finally, it is important to advertise your contact details. You should promote the email address of the office as well as the mobile phone number of the agent handling the listing. The challenge is making sure that someone answers the email or the phone call.