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A Lead-Producing Real Estate Website - 3 Ingredients
by Brandon Cornett
These days, the majority of real estate agents have websites as part of their overall marketing plan. But only a small minority of these webmasters have cracked the "code" of producing leads through their websites.
In this article, I'll show you how to join the successful minority by increasing the number of leads you produce through your website. We will also talk about what to do with those leads when they do come in.
You need three primary ingredients in order to have a lead-producing real estate website. You need a steady stream of traffic, a lead-generation system of some kind, and a way to manage those leads once they start coming in. You need traffic that you convert into leads, and you then need to follow up to turn those real estate leads into actual clients.
To put it more simply:
- Website traffic only equals traffic
- Traffic + lead generation techniques = website leads
- Traffic + lead generation + follow up = clients
Of course, many of the people you follow up with won't become clients. Only a certain percentage will actually need your services. It's a numbers game. But with that being said, it's important to understand these basic ingredients of a lead-producing real estate website ... so let's talk about each one in turn.
The Website Traffic Factor
Before you can convert your website visitors into leads, inquiries, subscribers or clients, you obviously need traffic. More specifically, you need qualified traffic — the kinds of people who are looking for the services you provide.
One of the keys to increasing your website traffic is to increase your online activity. If you "sit still" online, you are not going to generate much traffic to your real estate website. And without traffic, you have no chance of obtaining the ultimate goal of this article — a website that produces leads on a regular basis.
Here's some good news for you. In my experience, increasing website traffic is the easier part of this equation. Sure, it takes some time and effort, but the process is pretty straightforward. Take search engine optimization for example. If you work hard to improve your rankings in the major search engines, your traffic levels will increase in response.
You can also increase traffic to your real estate website by starting an article marketing campaign (distributing articles online), by starting a real estate blog and publishing often, and many other techniques. Traffic is the first step to having a lead-producing real estate website ... so you must address this issue first.
A Lead Generation System
Refer back to the bullet points above, where I listed the fundamental "equations" of real estate lead generation. The first equation states that web traffic only equals traffic. If you succeed in getting people to your real estate website but do nothing to move them forward, you will not generate many leads through the website. In marketing vernacular, this is known as a conversion — you must convert your website visitors into something else. In this case, leads.
I've written an entire book on generating real estate leads through your website. So I'm not going to belabor the point here. But if you're serious about creating a lead-producing real estate website you really should get the book. It will open your eyes to a lot of techniques you've never thought of before.
Following Up With Leads
If you have the two ingredients listed above, you are well on your way to having a lead-producing real estate website to help grow your business. But remember, leads are not the ultimate goal. They represent potential clients, but not actual clients. How you handle those leads produced by your website is equally important.
Now, this might seem like a no-brainer. Of course, you should follow up on leads that come through your website. It's common sense, right? Yes and no. While most agents understand the importance of prompt and professional follow-up on all qualified leads, you'd be surprised by how many drop the ball.
The reasons vary. Some agents have the "problem" of too many website leads, so a portion of them fall the cracks and get lost. When this happens, there's a good chance that your next one or two clients were in the lost lot. That's like throwing business down the drain.
My advice is to use some kind of contact management system, so that everyone who contacts you through your website gets logged in some form or fashion. This could be as fancy as software program, or as simple as a clipboard log. As long as you prevent those precious leads from falling through the cracks. After all, you worked hard to get them, didn't you?
Other agents follow up on website leads, but they overwhelm the person on the other end and scare them away. When somebody contacts you through your website for the first time, that is NOT the time to try and put a contract in front of them. They just want to talk to you, ask you questions about your services, tell you their plans, etc. Paperwork comes later.
About the author - Brandon Cornett is an Internet marketing veteran and the creator of several resource websites for real estate agents, including AdviceForAgents.com, ArmingYourFarming.com, and TopTenAgent.com. Visit the author's website at www.AdviceForAgents.com.