I received an email from business parter and top agent, Deb Goetz, this morning:

Came across this article about Kentwood buying the domain name “denverhomes.com”. As the CEO of K. said, “if you are considering to move to a city, and plan to buy a home, the natural tendency is to start your Internet search by typing in the name of the city and homes.”

I am thinking I would like to brainstorm with you and buy up some domain names for the neighborhoods of Denver– CEO of K said “considering to move to a city….” well that takes care of folks moving here to Denver, say from out of state but what about the long tail? And what about folks who already live here and know where they want to live– they aren’t really typing Denver Homes or Denver Real Estate (Kentwood’s other domain name). They are probably typing neighborhood names.

Here is the link to the article:
http://insiderealestatenews.com/2010/11/kentwood-buys-denverhomes-com/

This is absolutely a great strategy… More specifically this is a great PART of a strategy. Marketing is most effective as part of a campaign: First build awareness, then build trust.

I’ve done some rather expensive research into this exact area. I bought up hundreds — literally hundreds — of domains such as “HighlandHomeValues.com” and “BakerHomes.com”. And then I did exactly what most people would do with the domains… Nothing. How could I? How am I supposed to come up with valuable unique content positioning myself as an expert of hundreds areas? Sure, I whipped up a simple page for each and changed the keywords (i.e. neighborhood names) to fit and tracked them with Google Analytics.

Results: Zero. Zilch. Nada. I received fewer than 100 visitors to each over the course of a year and of course no serious inquiries from any of them. I built it, but they did not come.

Now, during this same time I was very busy helping many other agents to incorporate a web site into a long tail marketing campaigns. Their results are fantastic! Hundreds of visitors per month and lots of real leads.

The difference? They chose a single domain name for an area where they could demonstrate that they were an expert –their “farm”. They routinely post articles of interest to people who live, or want to live, in the areas they are promoting. They also knock on doors to give out useful neighborhood info, hold open houses, and mail postcard campaigns — all promoting the “neighborhood website” they created and identifying themselves as the likable neighborhood expert.

So, are they getting business because of the website or because of all the other stuff they are also doing? Who knows? The important thing is they routinely communicate with people they would like to do business with. It doesn’t matter as much how you “touch” your target market, what matters is the consistency and frequency of the message. Since no other agent is putting forth the same targeted effort for the area, these agents have no real competition. They are the only obvious expert in their niche.

Price Po!nt: Owning a great domain will probably not bring you any new business unless it is used as part of an overall targeted and continuous marketing campaign.