Marketers of properties in the Middle Eastern country of Jordan have always relied on traditional marketing techniques. In most cases, sellers and buyers of land, residential, and commercial properties rely on brokers and their agents to facilitate the process. Property owners who have the time and stamina, in an attempt to save on commissions, resort to other means such as placing print ads on local newspapers and real estate specialty magazines, or simply use for-sale-by-owner signs to showcase their properties and attract buyers.
Recently, the ubiquity of computers coupled with the availability of broadband internet access in major metropolitan areas such as the capital Amman, Zarqa, Irbid, and Aqaba is slowly changing the way Jordanians carry out their real estate marketing transactions. New real estate listing and marketing websites servicing the Middle Eastern markets are popping up on the internet at an unprecedented pace. Owners of these websites are trying to walk in the footsteps of highly successful western website operators who have achieved a good level of success serving their local markets. Nowadays, it is possible to find advertisements for all types of properties such as land, apartments, villas, and condominiums on such websites in Jordan.
Email usage by Jordanian is also on the rise. In fact, the growth has been exponential and unprecedented in the last two years. Some brokers and their agents are finding new and exciting marketing opportunities in this new communications medium. It is not uncommon for an average email user to receive two or three email blasts from real estate agents on daily basis.
Marketing real estate through the internet in Jordan is still in its nascency though. With the absence of accurate official research on its efficacy, its hard to tell at this stage if it is worthwhile for the traditional Jordanian advertiser to jump on the e-marketing band wagon. This dearth of information and lack of credible third-party research is forcing some website operators and young e-marketing companies to conduct direct customer surveys on their own in an effort to validate their e-services to the distrustful public.
A recent customer survey conducted by "Nizah for eMarketing," a startup firm specializing in e-marketing services in Amman, Jordan concluded that most customers still preferred the more traditional advertising means such as print advertising over placing property ads on websites. Additionally, according to the survey, some were suspicious of the effectiveness of mass email campaigns as well. However, the majority of the people surveyed expected the situation to change in the near future as the cost of connecting to broadband internet becomes within the reach of most middle-class Jordaninas.
So, is there hope for e-marketing to enjoy any level of success in Jordan any time soon? Well, Jordanian have in the past welcomed and embraced technology as an enabler in all facets of their daily lives; it is just a matter of time before e-marketing garners enough trust and gains the required credibility to take its rightful place alongside other more traditional marketing media.
