Help me to expand my business.

I'm sorry I have no advice on getting your business online for more exposure, however, it has been my experience that the strongest form of advertising is word of mouth. My partner is in real estate and primarily gets new clients using this method. At an estimate 75% of his business comes from referrals as well as the signage he has on his vehicle. Online is great and its certainly helpful to expand your advertising to different mediums – my thoughts are that it would be beneficial to also put effort into existing methods.

Sementha,

Look at what your main competitor is doing and copy what you can within reason.
For example if they advertise in the yellow pages then put place your advert on same page either beside, below or underneath and make it slightly bigger.

Depending on your location, city size, what your market is the internet may not help as much especially in smaller towns or rural areas as your local paper will.

Linking is one of the best ways but make sure the links are relevant.  Find other businesses in your area that have web sites, like plumbers, electricians, handy men professional services and try to link with them.  You can also do a similar situation with yellow pages etc and local directories by approaching other business owners and offering to put their businesses and phone number in your advert.

Search some of the inner city brisbane agents and send them an email. Try Ray White CBD and Tricity at Spring Hill. Within a few weeks of sending them an email as a potential buyer you will have thier marketing products rolling into your inbox. They all  utilise Realestate.com which makes a painful task easy. But more importantly they capture all emails into a database of non, semi and qualified buyers. They send regular market updates supplied by RP Data and Realestate.com. They provide market reports and the send new proerty listings.

I run my own business and i think the easiest thing to do that doesn't cost a lot of money and most businesses fail to do is to look at what your competitors are offering and offer the same things they are and make this the basica minimal of your business.  However, make the most important thing you are offering something that no-one else is.  I look at what they are not offering and see if it fits into my business model and how much it would cost me to promote this and make sure that everything I do, from how I decorate my shop to training my staff, our mission statement, marketing, what I say on my website, etc,  are all consistent with this one thing that I am offering the others are not.  It does take more time to build up the PR and word of mouth but I think it's worth it as after a period of time, you are no longer competing with your competitiors!  I like to think I don't have competitors because what they offer is one thing but what I give my customers is of a totally different level so when they want what I'm offering, my business is the only one to call.

Sorry that it's a bit abstruct… when I first read about this in marketing books, I understood it conceptually but it has taken a while to fully "get" it but I'm glad I stuck to my guns as crazy as everyone else in my business thinks I was, it's paying off for everyone. I think it's ok to be creative and go against the grain in business, in fact, I think it is crucial.  Don't copy what your competitors are doing, do what they do but make this an unsaid minimum, you must do what they are NOT doing.  I've stopped having to spend money advertising as the majority of my customers are referred by other customers!  I've only been in business for less than 2 years.  The only advertising are token so the public don't forget me whilst they are being drowned by expensive desperate attempts by my "competitors".  You must take time to do the thinking of this one goal/mission before getting too carried away with writing your website and having it end up like everyone elses.

I agree word of mouth is the most important thing but you must remind your customer to refer or they forget!  If you are passionate about what you do, don't be shy voicing it even if it's cringe worthy, most customers appreciate that you are honest and passionate.

What can your real estate agency website offer that others do not?  Off the top of my head, as I search property websites all the time, I would say maybe independent advice on investing.  Maybe you could provide a link or have a specialist hooked up live to answer property questions and advertise this.  Make sure that you add to your mailing list through your website, a good way of doing this is to provide free info guides but make it that the reader has to leave their details or join your mailing list, etc.  Spend time designing and putting a section on your website that actaully helps people without immediate financial gains for you or your company, ask them to bookmark that page and make this your most important section of your website, and this will keep people coming back and even referring it to friends.

Also I use magicdust.com.au – they are a website design company and i love it cause they produce a professional looking website but I can upload my content at any time I want.  I don't have to wait around playing phone hockey with some graphic designer which I don't have time for (too much passionate mission statements to think about ) .  They are reasonably priced as well.

Good luck!