I’m catching up on Brandweek from a couple weeks ago (May 5th edition, page S6) and curiously, a tip in one of the ads jumped out at me. Largely because it’s not uncommon for us to hear from people in the real estate industry looking for a way to gain visibility online now that sales aren’t as quick and easy as they used to be.

Of course, when lots of people in any industry start moving online, sales there won’t be quick and easy either. Online is even more challenging in some ways. For example, a picture of your house isn’t going to show up in the paid search ads as it does in many newspaper ads. You’ve only got words to set your property apart, so choose them carefully! Otherwise your ad will sound just like the next one, you’ll have terrible conversion rates, and you’ll be complaining about how real estate won’t sell online before you can say “recession”.

I’m bullish about real estate online because, frankly, I don’t see much imaginative advertising going on there. The Brandweek ad caught my eye because it was imaginative, listing ideas to help make properties distinctive. Here’s a quick excerpt:

Amid the rubble of the housing downturn, advertising executive Bob Posner sees a golden opportunity. Home builders and real estate agents have taken a mass-market approach, but they should be increasingly segmenting their efforts toward women, he says.

‘Women are buying properties and making the buying decisions, but we’re not seeing messages or products catering to women,’ says Posner, principal of Posner Advertising.

Developers could offer on-site hair and nail salon, catering kitchens and meal delivery services. A townhouse complex or rental community could offer a staffed daycare center next to the fitness room, or baby-sitting services. Most important, developers should geotarget on women’s Web sites and in magazines.

‘Ninety percent of the industry is run by men, and they’re not familiar with women’s media habits,’ Posener says. ‘If they went on Allure.com, they wouldn’t find a real estate ad. But when they start seeing that women are responding because the feel they are being catered to, those builders are going to have a competitive advantage.’

Certainly, building with certain niches in mind offers competitive advantage. But what can you do if your condo development doesn’t already have a nail spa built in? Turn your online advertising into a competitive advantage. There’s a lot of room out there for some creative thinking!

A huge percentage of what we do is helping people focus in on their key differentiating factors and in turn, surfacing those differentiators online. It’s simple, really:

• We’ll challenge you to think about what makes what you sell unique
• We’ll help you make it really, really obvious
• Then we’ll help you make it really, really easy for that person you just got interested to get through to you in a meaningful way

Of course, that’s not all quite so simple. You’ll have to stop and think to identify what makes you world-class about what you do. You’ll have to generate content that fits that picture. You’ll have to invest in your website to make the changes to surface that content, etc. Surprisingly few companies in ANY industry do all that. Those who do win the competitive advantage, hands down.

Got any other good real estate marketing tidbits? We’d love to hear your experiences selling homes online!