Primary Purpose
Well, this will be another day of showings. Before I head out I want to write a little about the ongoing controversy with Trulia and links. This is one area where I will begin educating myself so that I can converse intelligently about the topic of links.
One question I have had and will raise again is if any agents are selling homes as a direct result of homes marketed through listing aggregators.
It's now clear that the primary purpose of Trulia, Zillow and the rest is nothing more than drawing traffic to sell ads. That's fine, but what is the primary purpose of agents who allow their listings to be shown on these sites?
To sell homes.
Is it working? I don't see any evidence that this marketing strategy is producing any verifiable results, so the question is -- Why use them, if all our particiation is doing is helping them place higher in search engine results?
It makes no sense to help them draw traffic if that traffic doesn't help agents sell homes.
If this marketing strategy was working -- if homes were being sold as a result of marketing them on listing aggregator sites -- then that would be a different story, but if it's not working as a marketing strategy, the strategy is useless to agents
AND, they just get in the way of direct access to buyers.
Nothing new here -- but it becomes stranger and stranger as time goes on -- why market through them?
Mike Farmer
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Reader Comments (6)
Wow, I haven't been back here in many moons. I'm glad to see you're still going strong with your blog.
Zillow and Trulia seem to be showing that they are nothing but Hype. I'm marketing listings on every available website out there. Including listings that are well underpriced. I am still yet to get a single lead from Zillow or Trulia. Craigslist, Backpage and Kijiji are giving me loads of leads. And real estate agents are selling more of my properties than anything else out there.
I suppose it's going to be a long time before the almighty Fizbo comes and knocks out all the lonely realtors.
Zillow and Trulia will need to start walking the talk. Their cheerleaders are just blowing smoke and we're seeing no real action.
Chantal! Welcome back!
Mike I am glad all this finally coming to the front of mind for realtors.
I think realtors were awed (blindsided) by all the new terms and technologies of web 2.0 and they not only tried to embrace them but they also embraced the companies that touted them. Anyone who criticized them or the technologies did'nt "get the web" and was going to become a "dinosaur"
I used to think the same way until I sold one of my listings from homes.com. That was 4 years ago and it also was the only one. But I guess it's less likely to sell that way but I guess we owe it to our clients to try everything. Sellers like to know their home is all over the internet.
I hope there is a mass movement to improve individual sites and reward companies that truly partner with agents. Until we use our power to demand marketing that works, we will be used to enrich ad sellers.
As I said the other day, the aggregators are really no more than a cyber yard for signs -- it reminds me of political signs you see in certain sections of town during an election where they are all gathered together and diluted.
I will pay for isolated exposure -- free inclusion among thousands of signs is useless. Plus there is no effort on their part at promotion -- agents are like unnecessary parts of their house picture display.
They claim they are disseminating useful information, but it's inaccurate due to no oversight and poor quality control.
Mary, I think it might be time to educate sellers regarding what works and what doesn't work.