When a developer plans a new luxury high-rise in downtown San Diego, such as the Electra, you better believe they have worked out a thorough marketing scheme up front. It usually starts with signage at the building site, showing architectural renderings of the finished building and surrounds. It is usually accompanied by some pompous text relating the world-unique features that the new property will offer. At the same time, a classy website is usually set up to accommodate Internet searchers. The website is crucial to the marketing plan, as it is the principal way potential buyers first learn the details of your property, It is a good Idea to work with professionals to set up your website, and here are a few tips:
- Webmaster: Hire a webmaster who has previous experience with marketing-type websites. He will usually start with hosting a WordPress website as the platform for the site, as it is the No. 1 software for websites and blogs. Work out the overall structure of the site with the webmaster, including blogs, FAQs, history of the project, description of the neighborhood, price list and availabilities, and a contact form where potential buyers can set up viewings.
- Professional Writer: It goes without saying that the content of your site must be perfect, written in perfect English. No errors of grammar, punctuation, or usage are permitted – they are the fastest way to discourage a potential buyer. Pick a writer who is comfortable with advertising copy and who can apply a light touch to the marketing focus. Heavy-handed warnings to “buy now before it’s too late” won’t cut it, especially in the luxury market segment to which you are appealing. You want your content to express sophistication and taste, so choose a writer with both.
- SEO Professional: Search engine optimization is how you get high visibility for your website when Internet searchers enter certain keywords, like “San Diego condos”, into a search engine such as Google. You would like to be on Page One of the search results, since 85 percent of searchers never go beyond the first page. Now, you can buy a high placement through programs such as Google Adwords, but you will find that eating up your marketing budget quickly. Better to establish a first page presence using organic techniques which don’t rely on paying a small king’s ransom to a search engine provider. To do this, you can buy paid links from a trustworthy source. These are much more cost-effective and the results are lasting. The basic technique is to plant links to your website on topical, authoritative pages that will do two things:
- Drive traffic directly to your site
- Increase your PageRank, a metric used to place your listing within search engine results pages.
A well-conceived marketing plan for your website should make a decisive difference in your efforts to successfully sell out your property – it sure did with the Electra!