The fanciest real estate website won't generate a single lead for you when you don't market it. Your website can be one of the MOST amazingly affordable lead generation machines to have in your real estate business when you use the right methods. For most real estate agents a website is no more than a fancy business, card, and that is where the first change has to happen.
What is your website really about?
Most real estate websites speak about the agent's awards, accomplishments, and how they help buyers and sellers. Often this is the entire first page of the website. It's a long drawn out discussion on the agent and means very little to anyone other than the real estate agent themselves. In fact, any stranger who lands on one of these websites is instantly turned off because they are only seeing someone bragging about awards that mean absolutely nothing to them! The first step to getting results from your website involves moving the focus away from you and to the customer.
Customer focused websites
Focusing your website on the customer means quickly providing them the information they are looking for. It may sound obvious, but there are two main types of customers that visit your real estate site. They are:
- Buyers
- Sellers
With this in mind the information you write should focus on serving these groups as quickly and easily as possible. Here are a couple of ideas on what information to provide to each of these segments.
Buyers
Yes buyers are looking for listings online, but the reality is that they can find that information anywhere! Consider providing them the information they can't find anywhere else...your knowledge. Write up information about the neighborhoods that you operate in and put that online. Sharing the smallest of details (quiet streets, popular floor plans, etc) will ensure that your website meets the buyer's needs and stands out above all others. The information that you have taken years to learn isn't easily found online and people are out there craving for it.
Sellers
Sellers are certainly looking for their home value online and yet they still need help at the end of the day to list their home. Provide sellers with more information than just a simple home valuation tool. Put together information that mentions how to prepare their home for sale to achieve maximum value. Don't use some canned information, provide your perspective and what works in your area. Writing your own words and sharing it will come across as more personal and get the sellers to really engage on your website.
Calls to Action
Even before you can think about driving some serious traffic to your real estate website, consider how you will empower people to contact you. Putting up powerful content is a good thing but you must also ensure that a visitor (remember a total stranger) feels compelled to reach out and contact you for help with their real estate needs. There are a variety of calls to action that you could use on any page of your website. Consider the following guidelines when crafting yours:
- It should be on every page (2-3 times)
- It needs to be specific
- It should be easy for the customer to act on
- It should be easy to find on any page
There are generally just 7 Calls to Action that are working at any one point in time. One that you could use for buyers would be: Get the Hottest Listings in Your Neighborhood Make that call to action a simple link that allows them to fill out a quick form to get more listings from you. When you put this on every page you will start getting leads immediately.
Submitting to the search engines
Once you have put up some great content it is essential to let the search engines know what you are up to. Submitting your website to the search engines gives you the opportunity to be found and receive a flood of traffic. Try to avoid any "automatic submission" software and simply to go to the 3 major search engines and submit your web address. For starters go to:
- Yahoo
- MSN
Submitting to each of these search engines will give you the first opportunity to start getting some great free traffic. The best part is that submitting your website address to these search engines is free.
Pay Per Click Marketing
Many people look at pay per click marketing as an expense, however it can actually be one of the best ways to get targeted traffic that generates leads that turn into clients. Pay per click marketing allows you to advertise on select keywords on different search engines so you can choose just the most targeted traffic to visit your website. Driving targeted traffic with pay per click can be done in as little as 45 minutes. When you follow some basic tips it will help you to save money and get the best traffic possible. Here are just three ways to ensure your pay per click marketing jumps off to a great start:
- Don't direct ads to your home page - Send them to a page that matches up to what they were searching for instead.
- Don't pay for the top spot - Stay away from the top position on pay per click and you will save a fortune and still get great traffic.
- Set a daily budget - When you set a monthly budget you could go through your entire budget in a matter of days. Setting a daily budget allows you to get targeted traffic each and every day.
I invite you to consider real estate website marketing as a way to get daily traffic, daily leads, and increase your business. Take some time to implement the simple methods here and you will start noticing leads pouring through your website in just a few weeks.
