By now we know that 80% or more of all home buyers search the Internet before they ever contact an agent. We don’t see statistics on how many sellers search the Internet looking for an agent, but we can assume that quite a few are here.

But where on the Internet are they finding you? Is it your own website that brings them, and if so, how did they get to your website?

Your own website is the one place you can track easily. You can set up a different autoresponder campaign on each page of your site – and you’ll know instantly how many people came to you from each of those pages.

You can also create different landing pages for people who come from different social media sites. If you’re writing Localism posts on Active Rain you can invite readers to opt in for a special report you’ve set up on one page, while your contacts from LinkedIn, Facebook, and other sites can be directed to different pages.

Once at your site, your autoresponder can capture the names while they deliver the promised reports. Since they’ve opted in to hear from you, you can follow up with a drip campaign designed just for that segment of your audience. Autoresponders are not expensive, and they’re not difficult to use. Get Response and Aweber both allow you to set up an almost unlimited number of autoresponders.

Then, the reporting features let you see how many people opened your message, and how many clicked on your links.

Since we don’t know how many sellers use the Internet and you don’t want to miss the 20% or so of buyers who are looking in other places,, you do need to use other media in addition to the web. On a given day you may be running an ad in a newspaper, a homes magazine, and on the radio. How will you know if those ads are working? You can’t ask people to bring in a coupon for “cents off” a house!

For these people, you simply need to remember to ask how they found you. And then write it down. Keep track of where your customers and clients are coming from.

Once you’ve seen what works, stop spending money on what doesn’t work. This can be difficult, because none of us want to “miss something.” I well remember how hard it was to finally say “no” to placing an ad in a homes magazine. We knew it wasn’t getting results, but since everyone else in town advertised there, we were afraid that if we weren’t there people might think we’d gone out of business.

But they didn’t. The only result was that we kept the $400 per month to use for other things.

So keep track – and then focus your marketing efforts in the places that bring you results.

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in writing for real estate and related industries.

She’ll help you with one letter, or an entire marketing plan. For Real Estate agents and brokers who are ready to get full value from their websites, she’ll be happy to put together an entire package – from the web copy to the lead generation packages that make an agent’s phone ring.

For busy agents on a budget, Marte offers prewritten letter sets for use in postal mail or in e-mail continuity campaigns. The current selection includes letters for FSBO’s, Expired Listings, Short Sale sellers, First Time Buyers, and a set for new agents to send to buyers. Read what’s included in these sets by visiting http://www.copybymarte.com/pro/prospecting.html

Marte’s weekly ezine for real estate professionals offers tips and hints for building a successful business. To subscribe, and to see other resources available for real estate sales professionals, visit her at http://www.copybymarte.com