Trulia, Alain Pinel Realtors, and VisiStat...a winning combination...

Back in, must have been 2003, I was a newbie Realtor at Alain Pinel, based out of the corporate headquarters in Saratoga, CA. Ginny Cain McMurtrie, the head of Marketing, announced at a weekly office meeting that they were taking a chance on a start-up company called Trulia. She believed they had what it would take to become market leader for real estate searches. (Way to go Ginny, you hit the nail on the head with this one!)

By late 2005, Alain Pinel was also taking a chance on a start up called VisiStat. Bingo with this one too! By plugging into VisiStat's real-time Web analytics, APR knew exactly the impact Trulia was having on their Website traffic.

Since then, Trulia has grown to be the single most referring Website to apr.com. Check out these stats:

• 2006: Referral Links from Trulia.com to apr.com= 19.2%


• 2007: Referral Links from Trulia.com to apr.com= 40.7%


• 2008: Referral Links from Trulia.com to apr.com= 55.3%

In mid 2006, APR wanted to extend their relationship with VisiStat and Trulia. Knowing the power of both their platforms, they wanted to be able to deliver this same exposure to their agents. That's when they delivered each agent their own individual VisiStat reporting from their stats on www.apr.com. Then, they embarked on a Trulia banner ad campaign that featured Alain Pinel agents in their cities of specialty. Each time a search was performed on Trulia.com for a particular city, an Alain Pinel agent appeared. More than 600 agents participated in this paid advertising. [See case study]

With the advanced use of VisiStat's AdCaM® technology, agents are able to identify daily click-throughs and conversions from their Trulia campaigns, thereby monetizing their investment.

With VisiStat intelligence in place, agents can also experience the power of Trulia's massive Web presence = increased Website traffic. And as a whole, Alain Pinel is able to understand agent visibility and listing traction on their Website. Sounds like a win-win all around. [Read more here]

To learn more about how your company can benefit from measuring banner advertising or monitoring traffic from Trulia.com, contact me (Tina Bean) directly. Tina (at) Visistat.com, or call 408-725-9377.

Website User Trends for the Real Estate Sector in 2007

Happy New Year!

I'm in New York right now, at the Inman News Real Estate Connect conference, and it's pretty exciting! And I wanted to drop you all a quick note about our new Real Estate Web Trends Report, released here at the conference.

It's getting quite a buzz, because VisiStat's reporting data has revealed some interesting figures about how consumers used real estate Websites in 2007. [Click here to see the 2007 Real Estate Web Trends Report]

I've got to get back to the event, but here is a copy of the press release we sent out about it. Hope you find the report as helpful and interesting as these New York real estate pros do!

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PRESS RELEASE

Consumer Use of Online Real Estate Websites Proven Strong in 2007

VisiStat.com released their year overview of Real Estate Web traffic stats, which shows home buyers are increasingly turning to online listings and resources

Campbell, CA – January 8, 2008 – A general report compiled from analytics and user statistics for the Real Estate market was announced at the Inman News 2008 Real Estate Connect conference. VisiStat, a provider of real-time Website visitor statistics, released the report. VisiStat has a large real estate user base and works closely with brokers and agents nationwide.

“We provide data for thousands of brokerages and agents across the country, and because of this, I have been working closely with brokers and agents for some time. It’s no surprise that the figures in this report coincide exactly with what I have been hearing from them, and that is, home buyers are using the Internet to educate themselves and find properties, often long before they engage an agent,” said Tina Bean, Director of Sales and Marketing for VisiStat.

The statistics compiled by VisiStat reinforce the fact that the real estate consumer is moving increasingly toward real estate Websites as their source for listings and industry information. Supporting indicators include:

• Overall traffic growth for 2007 (over 2006) was 36.8%
• Return visitors made up 47% of all Website visits
• The average visitor clicked through 14 site pages during each visit
• Monday and Tuesday were the most trafficked days of the week, with the highest activity in the 9 p.m. hour
• March received the most visitor traffic of any month of the year

The VisiStat Real Estate Trends report is now available online. Read the full report or call 408-725-9377 to speak with a VisiStat real estate analyst.

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About VisiStat®

VisiStat, Inc. is the first on-demand Web analytics provider to focus on complete Website management and online marketing performance. VisiStat continues to be the price-performance leader in real-time site management tools, providing intuitive visual reports specifically designed for Web 2.0 business applications, marketing and Website productivity. VisiStat.com turns Website visitor tracking into actionable business intelligence. A privately held company founded in 2005, VisiStat, Inc., is based in Campbell, CA. Learn more at www.visistat.com or call 888-820-9866.

My Interview with RealEstateBlogsites.com: The Role of Web Analytics in Today's Real Estate ROI

Readers and friends know my love and dedication for our real estate industry. You also should know my devotion and passion for online tracking and Web analytics. What would, to some, appear to be very incompatible industries, have actually melded beautifully...and very successfully.

As a matter of fact, Web analytics and online Website management (which is what VisiStat believes Web analytics should be about) are incredibly powerful tools for the real estate agent, and more importantly, becoming unavoidable for brokers. Real estate is evolving, moving from print ads to the digital world. As realty movers and shakers, we are bringing our industry to the Internet...where our buyers and customers are looking for us! And because of going online, we have a fantastic opportunity to track, gauge, evaluate, watch, monitor, convert, and measure ROI, like never before.

This is an exciting development for real estate and Web analytics both, and I was very happy to sit down for an interview alongside my business partner at VisiStat, Stephen Oachs (major tech guru!), and talk about Analytics and the Real Estate community, and how to get on board with the digital age. I hope you'll enjoy reading the full interview, and get some helpful hints for your businesses! Below is an excerpt of the interview posted at RealEstateBlogsites.com. Read the full interview here.

I was invited to participate because I come from two arenas, real estate and Web analytics. Having been an active REALTOR® with Alain Pinel Realtors in Saratoga, CA, for years, I have personally experienced the benefits and success of merging online technology with real estate business models for the agent and brokerage. Web management and data tracking (analytics) are undeniably a real value proposition.

The discussion on the panel centered on being a visionary. Agents can't be complacent, and brokers need to align their agents with great search tools like Trulia® and Zillow™, and powerful tracking tools like VisiStat™, in order to effectively create measurable ROI. [more...].