The secret to success of one of the fastest growing real estate companies in the US.

Posted on 18. Aug, 2009 by VivaReal Team in Marketing Tips

The current advertising panorama is not the same for each industry, but clearly the internet revolution has brought with it dramatic changes (positive) in the way that we promote products and services. The real estate sector is no exception. Real estate companies have jumped online at an aggressive pace in recent years due to the fact that it is an opportunity to reduce costs and strengthen your brand.

Tom Tognoli, the founder of the real estate enterprise Intero Real Estate Services with operations in the United States recently shared that in 2004 the company spent $3.2 million on real estate advertising. In 2009 they are on track to invest $500,000, a huge cost reduction mainly resulting from shifting offline advertising to the internet. The transition has helped them do a better job at reaching their target audience whilst spending less money.

Tom attributes a large part of the company’s success to having the foresight to take advantage of emerging opportunities, especially the services offered by real estate portals to massively publish their database of properties, a practice not very common at the time. Additionally, he talked about the importance of having a professionally designed corporate website.

However, Tognoli recommends that the decision to migrate your advertising budget online should be done gradually with a watchful eye on the numbers. It is not recommended that you totally abandon your previous strategy before you have a carefully designed alternative strategy. You should be testing and measuring the success of each campaign and start to ramp up what’s most effective.

The evolution of the real estate market in Latin America

Many companies focused on the US Hispanic market or with offices in Latin America are either in this transition or are planning the transition. Some have already made the plunge. The companies in Latin America that tailor their services to the expat and retiree communities already have a pretty good understanding of the importance of this. If you client is an expat there is not question that they are going online to do their research. To help you better define a clear strategy and of where to put your money, you should read the article “4 questions to help you determine where you should publish your properties“.