Online Lead Generation Strategies
With the proliferation of the web, it's a given that most real estate professionals have a web presence. What sets most real estate websites and Top Producer's websites apart, however, is the effective application of web marketing strategies. For many of you, the following may be just a helpful reminder of some of the strategies you've employed in the past. While we make these hints available to you here, also remember that Z57 has Account Managers trained to give personalized marketing recommendations for your business.
1. Spin Your Web
A website does nothing for your business if nobody visits it. The metaphor for the Internet is a "web" for a reason. Savvy producers know that their website address must be spun into this web and linked to from multiple locations. Most agents will list their website address in their traditional marketing materials, such as the following:
- letterhead
- signage
- business card
- flyers
- cards
- voice mail
- email signatures
Top Producers, however, also know how to market online. This includes listing your website in online business directories, partner websites, and search engines. (More on search engines later.) Some good places to start are the following:
One of the biggest challenges of listing your website address, either online or off, is to stand out from your competitors and convince clients to visit YOUR website instead. This brings us to tactic #2.
2. Give your clients incentives to visit your website!
Potential clients need a reason to visit your website, and it needs to be more than just an MLS listing. Everyone lists properties online. People expect that. Top Producers employ clever incentives to drive traffic to their websites.
Consider teaming up with a local eatery to distribute an online coupon of theirs. Be sure you get a site visitor's email address before you allow them to download and print the coupon! To attract sellers, try teaming up with a local moving company and offer discounts on moving trucks and supplies if they list with you. Again, whatever your tactic, it's important to require the potential client to visit your website and leave contact information prior to receiving the benefit. You don't need them to leave their life story, but you must require the minimum of a name and email address. Why?
3. Because email addresses are KEY!
You need potential clients to give you email addresses for several reasons. The most obvious is to be able to launch online marketing campaigns. These include personal email correspondence as well as newsletters. These methods allow you to keep in contact with your clients in a cost-effective, unobtrusive manner. Most clients WANT you to keep in contact with them. Email allows you to do this with the click of a button and allows them to respond at their convenience.
Secondly, with the new anti-SPAM laws, emailing clients from email addresses obtained off a list is now illegal. Clients MUST opt-in, or willingly submit their email address prior to your sending them correspondence. Using incentives to drive potential clients to your website and then gathering their email addresses via an opt-in method is the most ethical and efficient way to market online.
4. Tracking and analyzing
Now that you have people hitting your website and giving you email addresses, what else can you do to increase profitability? Top Producers know it's critical to consistently track website traffic. Tracking hits to your website and analyzing which areas site visitors are frequenting is a good way to gauge which campaigns are working and which aren't. It gives you the feedback you need to determine if a direct mail piece or other marketing campaign garnered you the response rate you expected, and adjust your strategy if necessary.
5. Search Engine Savvy
Most search engines work using keywords, which simply means the words a search engine visitor types into the search engine to find the website they are looking for. Chances are the keywords you are submitting to the search engine to pull up your site under are the same as keywords 99% of your competitors also want their websites to pull up under. When a user goes to Alta Vista and types in "real estate", Alta Vista comes up with literally hundreds of thousands of business website addresses who have been submitted and optimized for those precious two words! Many agents are disappointed to find that they aren't placing very high in the search results by simply optimizing and submitting their website alone. They're just in too big of a "pool".
Most Top Producers will employ two techniques to avoid getting lost in the crowd. A good technique is to link their website to as many other websites as possible. (Refer back to tactic #1). Many search engines, including Google, favor websites who receive large volumes of traffic from other websites. It's an internal "cue" to the search engine that a website is a popular choice and that it should be listed towards the top as the odds are higher that it would be a website that the visitor would want.
6. Websites are dynamic and interactive.
Finally, Top Producers know that websites are not simply print material posted to the Internet. They are dynamic and changing. Visitors to your site need valuable and TIMELY information that is relevant to their needs. They also need many opportunities to communicate with you. The more personal you can get, the better.
Consider seasonal themes, and think of clever ideas to tie community events into your website's offerings. One Top Producer would offer Jack-O-Lantern carving tips on her website in October and Thanksgiving recipes on her website in November. Allowing your website visitors to post their own recipes to your website after filling out a contact form would be an even better way to generate interest in current information into leads.
Remember that the difference between most agents and a Top Producer is figuring out clever ways to get your website address noticed, providing current and relevant incentives to visit, and then encouraging communication so you can begin a personal relationship with that visitor and turn them into a client.
