Marketing You or the Property?
“Today’s consumer doesn’t care about you. All they care about is what’s in it for me. In fact, research on Web visitor behavior consistently shows that if you put your picture on your Web site up to 50% of your visitors will leave your site. The younger the person is, the more likely he or she is to surf away if they see your face. You can use your picture…just put it on the about us page.” This was posted in a March 12th article by Bernice Ross with Inman News.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you want a choice to not have a place for your photo on your Web site? Have you had experiences where it has made a difference one way or the other?
What is the reasoning behind the thought that people will not stay on a web page if your picture is displayed?
I wonder if the issue regarding photos is due to the “anonymous” nature of the Internet. In general, the Internet is impersonal, faceless, and nameless. People have special ids instead of names. I can imagine that seeing a face on a website destroys the feeling of anonymity. People aren’t coming to a real estate site to look for a person - they are looking for a property.
That kind of flies in the face of what the Real Estate industry does. Most Realtors sell themselves as much as they sell the property. Younger buyers choose the properties first, using the Internet, and then find a Realtor to help them with the transaction. So it is not important to younger buyers what the Realtor looks like.
I love the new virtual tour!