Thailand Real Estate & Property News - Updated from sources around the net
Bricks, mortar and online marketing
The Nation: 22 August 2009
By: Srettha Thavisin Marketers have only recently begun to learn and understand the field of online marketing. From my understanding of it, there is no single discipline known as \"online marketing\". Rather, it is a collection of different disciplines, including e-mail marketing, blogging, search engine marketing, online retailing and so on. I strongly believe that to succeed in the online world, there needs to be a really close integration between the techies, the artists and the marketers who understand usability and online marketing. What about the real-estate industry and online marketing? How can we market \"bricks and mortar\", as well as our services, online? Websites are a first consideration, and of course the talents of the techies, the artists and the graphic people are a valuable part of the development of websites. However, we should never lose sight of the main objective of a website. For any business, but particularly for real estate, a good website is not about art or technology, but rather about providing consumers with as much information and as many services as possible, in order to assist their decision-making. With their interest captured by messages in conventional media, consumers want to do their research before visiting actual locations. Where else can they get the most detailed and thorough information than on a company\'s website? We have tracked inquires from customers over recent years and have found that references to conventional media like print advertising have shrunk, while references to our website have grown substantially. From this, we can assume customers decide to approach us after their interaction with our website, and not after reading print advertising. So don\'t try to cut back on information on the website in hopes that customers will call up for more information. Just put as much information there as you can, and if they are satisfied with the product, they will visit the locations. Another trend I wish to share is e-mail marketing and social networking. Businesses are used to e-mail marketing - sending out e-mails to thousands of customers and focusing on a reach and frequency model. That is what I call using mass-marketing tactics with a new medium. E-mail marketing is so inexpensive that marketers keep sending them out, but they don\'t consider the feedback. What they should be doing is listening and paying attention. If recipients are not opening the e-mails; if you are not engaging with them, then I think you\'d better slow down the frequency and think about why that is happening. Marketers must test and find out how to keep consumers engaged before e-mails are deleted and brands are devalued. That is why we are seeing a rise in the popularity of blogs and social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Marketing online now boils down to who I like and trust, and the people with whom I want to have a relationship. It\'s moving beyond \"one-to-mass\" communications toward \"one-to-one\", but in an open environment. In a world of social networks and blogs, it\'s important to stay transparent. If you are using these things for marketing purposes, don\'t try to change anyone\'s opinion or make your company seem to be what it is not. If you do that, you will fail. If your content is sufficiently interesting, these social network sites can be used as an \"acquisition mechanism\" to recruit like-minded people and followers, then e-mails can be used as a means of maintaining a relationship with them. For some people, the online world and the real-estate industry may seem to be poles apart, but we should be exploring and finding ways to embrace this phenomenon. In time, people will be more \"connected\" than ever, and the earlier we adopt these media, the sooner we will be able to expand our horizons and communicate, engage and learn from our customers.
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