How & Where to Market Property Websites Successfully
Property websites are a sophisticated tactic used to offer buyers a quick and easy way to look up more information about the property. QR codes are still out there and may still work just fine; property website domains are just as accessible on any mobile device with a browser. With today’s marketing automation, creating and marketing property websites can be affordable or as elaborate and expensive as you want. Read on for practical tips on how to create property websites and tactical pointers on where to market them, digitally and in print.
Full Property Website vs Domain Forwarding
There are three different ways you can create a property website – here are the pros and cons of each:
1. Full Dedicated Website. With user friendly website hosting and domain providers like Squarespace, Wix and Word Press, you or a website designer could build a beautiful, custom property website in 4 to 6 hours, or less, and host it for as little as $15/month. Make you’re your branding is prominent – don’t forget to include your logo, basic contact info, head shot and personal website. The footer is a great spot for all of that.
Suggested top navigation headers for a full dedicated website may include the following pages:
Home – homepage with snippets and links to the rest of the site’s content
Listing Info – property description, specs, features, etc.
Photos – a gallery of the property photos
Video – an embedded property video (if applicable)
3D Tour – an embedded interactive Matterport or Spinattic tour (if applicable)
The Area- a page dedicated to either the subdivision the property is in, or the surrounding area and it’s benefits and lifestyle features.
Contact – a page with your head shots, contact info and a form to request more information or schedule a showing via email
I recommend full dedicated websites for luxury properties over $5 million, or over $10 million depending on your area. A luxury property commands a higher level of marketing; an entire website dedicated to just one property provides just that. It will impress your seller too. Cost-wise, a fully dedicated website would be the biggest investment, especially if you have to hire someone else to build it.
2. Forwarded Domain. The idea behind this strategy is to drive traffic to your personal real estate website. Once they are on your site, the goal is for prospective lookers to not only see that property, but continue to look around your website at other properties you have listed or at your nomenclature and sales history.
What you do is build a property detail page on your website for the property, buy the domain and then forward the domain to that detail page URL. If you have an IDX feed to showcase your listings, you can just forward the domain to that unique listing detail page URL. Setting up the domain to forward to that page in your domain provider should be pretty easy; domain providers like Go Daddy offer instructions on how to do that.
Content-wise, the property detail page should include as much information and content as possible; all or most of what is included on a fully dedicated property website, but all on one page. Cost-wise, Forwarded domains can be used for a property of any list price. For you, this may be the cheapest option, as long as you already have a personal real estate website and creating a new property detail page is automated or easy to create.
3. Automated Website. Some real estate photographers or videographers or website developers will offer property websites as a package add-on or extra feature. In this case, the property info and photos may feed from your MLS or listings database; sometimes they are custom. In most cases, though, there is only one template and there may not be a lot of room for customization and additional/extraneous features. You may be limited to the branding you can incorporate and/or the colors/fonts may not fit your brand standards.
Cost-wise for you, this will likely be between creating a fully dedicated website and just forwarding a domain.
Where to Buy the Domain
There are plenty of domain registrars out there (like Go Daddy) that will offer a one-year domain registration for as little as $10. If applicable, consolidate all of your real estate websites and domains and keep them all in the same place. Squarespace is a perfect example: you can buy a domain with a year subscription and privacy registration for $20 and then build the fully dedicated property website in Squarespace. Or, if your personal real estate website is hosted on Squarespace, you can still register all of your property website domains in Squarespace too.
Titling the Domain
There are three different ways you can name the domain:
1. Abbreviated Street Address - such as 123RidgeRd.com
2. Abbreviated Legal Address - great for condominiums or apartments with units. Example: RiversideCondos215.com (short for Riverside Condos unit 215)
3. Lifestyle or Feature - great for luxury homes. Examples: EnglewoodEstate.com, SkiPonderosaPines.com
The key is to keep the domain as short and sweet as possible – the longer it is, the harder it is for people to remember it offhand and the more likely they’ll misspell it when typing it into their browser URL.
Custom Yard Sign Rider
Order a custom rider with the website URL and add it above or below the sign. This makes the most sense for properties that are on a street or prominent thoroughfare with foot, driving traffic, or ski traffic (if the listing is ski-in/ski-out!). Note how many riders you’ll need, especially if the property is large. You can include the “www.” in front of the URL, or not. That is up to you!
Where to Market the Property Website
Think of the property website as a way to market the property within a set of systems. Any marketing or advertising material for the property should include the new property website URL.
Here is a list:
Property Brochure
Postcards – add a line that reads: For additional information, visit www.YourListing.com
Broker to Broker Email Announcements: include it on any open house, price reduction or seller incentive notifications to your broker community
MLS – note that you may not be able to put the URL in the property description (Public Remarks), but there many be another place you can add it such as Addendum
Newspaper Ads
Magazine Ads
Social Media posts – anytime you post or advertise the property on social media, include the URL as a way for viewers to click to get more information
Email Newsletters – when featuring the property in email newsletters, include a button or text link to the URL. People are click happy, so be sure to include the URL in photos as well.
Property Videos – if you have a branded property video, include the URL at the end of the video with your head shot and contact info. You can also include the URL in the video description on Vimeo or You Tube. Make sure the URL is a live link!
3D Tours – if you have a branded Matterport tour that gives you a space for branding and text, include the URL there.
Still Need Help?
Contact Longevity Designs and we can consult or help you create the property website that best suits your property. We are happy to send you examples to help get you started - please fill out the short form below to receive a list of examples instantly: