Single Niche Property Sites Prove That “Small is the New Big”.
Posted in Real Estate Marketing By Mark Owens, Friday, December 19, 2008.A clear message from online consumers is “show me what I want, when I want it, and with the least amount of clicks possible”. Real estate agents can capitalize on this online trend by shifting their web strategy from “all-inclusive” property sites to "Single Niche Property Sites".
A very common and costly mistake agents make is trying to be all things to all consumers. Agents often promote their website as the portal that features nearly EVERY LISTING ON EARTH. Unfortunately, build this type of site and few home shoppers will come. The “information age” is over… it is now the “recommendation age”.
If agents hope to create loyal fans, their site must provide a unique, filtered inventory of homes. In the battle for eyeballs, the more narrow your focus, the more compelling your site will be. Best selling author Seth Godin declared, “Small is the new big”. This philosophy is especially relevant when it involves home searches on the web.
If you want a “sticky” site that offers real value, Single Niche Property Sites are exactly what you need. Imagine the benefits of promoting a web site that the search for homes focused on ONE neighborhood, ONE price range or ONE style of home. Wouldn't this help you differentiate yourself from your competitors?
At first glance, agent sites that have EVERY listing, similar to Realtor.com or Trulia, are mostly redundant clones of each other. Obviously, when consumers are very early in the home buying process, these robust sites are very helpful and informative. These sites help the decision making process. However, once a consumer knows exactly what he wants, he does not want to click 7 or 8 times to drill down into the location, style, and price range of the homes that meet his criteria.
It takes only one click in a Single Niche Property Site for a consumer to find exactly the type of homes he wants. For example, if he wants a home in Wilson School District, he clicks www.OnlyWilson.com. If he wants a building lot, he clicks www.OnlyVacantLand.com. The formula for online success is speed, ease and relevance.
Crazy busy, time starved, and informed consumers prefer only seeing homes that meet their criteria. No bottomless pit of homes, no multiple clicks. Single Niche Property Sites help an agent to stand out from the crowd.
Seth Godin is right…“Small is the new big.” Single Niche Property Sites are the “new small” but they perform real big…and that’s no small task!
2009 might be the perfect time to ask your website provider to offer you filted niche micro sites to help supplement your "mega" search sites.
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Submitted by Paul Eastwood on December 26, 2008 - 7:55pm.
Mark - fascinating that you write about this!
When we launched Single Property Sites (SPS) in 2005, the very first piece we wrote to explain this new concept was exactly along these lines.
Its actually been re-posted to my new BLOG - you can see it here..
http://blog.singlepropertysites.com/2007/08/the-power-of-one-niche-marke...