Why You Should Track Internet Activity on Commercial Real Estate Listings
The internet for commercial real estate agents is becoming a busier place in so many different ways. To effectively work with exclusive listings we should now track online listing results for hits and enquiries in a constant and ongoing way.
From the tracking process we can then know what is working and what is not when it comes to property enquiry and property buyer or tenant expectations. In each period of twelve months there will be plenty of pressures and changes to the levels and type of property enquiry.
Sometimes (perhaps all too often) I see agents list and promote a property without much monitoring of online results and enquiries. After a period of weeks they soon realise that they have a problem with an evolving stale listing. At about that time same the client or owner of the property will be putting pressure on the agent to get results. Eventually the listing expires and a new agent will step in to convert the listing at a lower price and better marketing campaign.
The message is very clear; ignore the listing results at your peril and monitor your marketing constantly. The first 6 weeks of any marketing campaign are the most important for any listing. During that time the advertising should be refreshed at least twice and perhaps 3 times.
What can you ‘refresh’? Try some of these:
- Price
- Rent
- Photographs
- Advert copy
- Target market
- Property features
- Inspection strategy
So let’s go back to the fact of tracking a listing and also your online profile. These are the things that I would monitor:
- Website hits
- Website bounce rates
- Days of the week for best property enquiry
- The listings that are creating the best levels of enquiry
- Sources of enquiry by location and search engine
- Blog activity with informational articles
- Links, hits, and feeds from Newsletters
- Search engine feeds on each listing
- Google analytics for websites and property listings
- Social media feeds from websites, newsletters and blog feeds
- Keyword activity on searching for properties
From these separate pieces of information you can gauge how things are happening in commercial real estate and for what reasons. Sometimes the conversion of a property deal is more commonly driven by seeing and using the small signs and changes in the prevailing market conditions. Monitoring online and offline activity will help you greatly to see those changes.
