If you are a real estate agent, we know you are always looking for the new and best lead generation strategies. Whether it's signing up with a lead gen company or buying a list of leads, you are looking for that golden ticket to bring you more business.
What if I told you, one of the best lead generation sources is right in front of you, but often overlooked or underrated. If you saw the title of this article, you've probably guessed what I'm about to say. Yep, you got it, it's your website.
70-80% of people research a company online before visiting it or making a purchase. If you don't have a website catered for the people who are searching hot keywords for real estate in your area, it will be a lot harder for a potential customer to find you, and therefore, consider working with you.
Your website is one of the best ways to generate business and establish yourself as a reputable real estate professional. Whether you work with buyers or sellers, if your website is formulated properly, you will be generating more high-quality leads with little effort.
Not only will having a website make it easier for potential customers to find you, but it will also engage these users and covert a good percentage to viable leads.
So, how can you upgrade my website? You came to the right place. We are going to show you 11 key tools, features, and tips to add to your website to get the most bang for your buck!
1. Add a Contact Number
While it may seem very simple, this is a very important piece of information when advertising any business. A phone number is the fastest way someone can get in touch with you. This is why you want your primary phone number front and center and on multiple pages of your website.
This way, your potential clients will never grow frustrated searching endlessly for a way to get in contact with you. They will know exactly how to contact you and feel more inclined to reach out.
2. Insert Quality Images
Remember, your website is the first time a lead is meeting you. You can think of it as a first impression in the digital world. And we want your first impression to be a good one. Your website is a direct reflection of your business and the message you want to provide.
According to a NAR survey, almost 89% of buyers check website photos keenly. Investing in a photographer to produce high-quality images to host on your website is going to make your website pop!
3. Use Testimonials
Another powerful marketing tool for lead generation is making use of testimonials. Growing referrals is like building your 401(k) - the sooner you start, the more you benefit from a compounding effect. So why not include these powerful reviews on your website?
When your website has solid testimonials, it will be very supportive of your offer. Some professional agents use testimonials with black and white photos and quotes, other agents use tools such as Reach150 to gather testimonials and display them on their site for potential clients to see.
4. Offer a Piece of Value
Once a lead is browsing your website, we want them to stay there for as long as possible. We also want the lead to be engaged about the product or service you are offering. Therefore, we recommend having useful tools on your page that provide practical insight into the real estate market.
An idea of a piece of value you can add to your site is an easily accessible mortgage calculator. It will be very important to calculate all your future payments. It's also a great way to get the potential lead engaged. You can take this opportunity to gather contact information as well to build your email list.
5. Make a Website with a Unique Domain Name
No doubt, there are hundreds of domain extensions that you can use for deciding the domain name of your business. This is why we suggest keeping your domain short and simple, easy to remember, and relevant. If you have a catchphrase or a slogan, feel free to incorporate that as well.
We also suggest using a unique domain name for your every niche and community. It will appeal to more sellers and buyers to use your website for selling and buying products. If you have several domain names, use them in the marketing targeted material, ads, and campaigns to engage with niche-specific pages.
6. Use Proper Landing Pages
Whenever a visitor comes on to your website, you will not be able to know whether the buyer is a first-time buyer, military buyer, or a relocating one.
Landing pages are essential for this because realtors will be able to know more about the buyer through this. How can we do this? Well, it is because visitors usually come to websites or landing pages through a particular link. By knowing resources, you will be able to showcase the resources they want.
Tracking statistics through different landing pages is so important for digital marketing. Catering to each of your target audience's needs will absolutely increase your conversion rate, and bring each individual further down the sales funnel. And you don't necessarily need a marketing team to do this successfully. Check out this article for more information on how to track landing page metrics.
7. Making Lead Captures
One of the biggest mistakes realtors often make is demanding fulfillment of lead forms. You should absolutely have multiple forms of lead capture on your site, but amongst other valuable information, enticing them to engage further.
For example, one of the forms you can include is a sign-up for a free e-book or email marketing newsletter about weekly updates in your neighborhood.
8. Navigation Menu
In the world of the internet, convenience and speed have become king. Real estate websites need to be user-friendly and utilize proper navigation. To make your website user-friendly, agents should navigate its menu. For example, have a navigation bar where users can see the different pages on your site.
You'll want the titles of each page to be clear about what the page offers. If a page provides a free home evaluation, a good title would be "Check Your Home Value" or "Home Evaluation". For this purpose, make sure that all the menu items are direct, helpful, and clear.
9. Insert Power Keywords in the Relevant Information
Utilizing SEO in your website can you give you a competitive edge against other realtors in your area. You will definitely want to include major keywords on your website and have a relevant title.
The whole idea here is to make it clear, on your website, who and what you are and what you offer. This way you have a higher chance of ranking high in Google's (or other search engines) organic search results. Check out this article for more insight on creating a solid SEO tag on your site.
10. Run Ads for Your Website
Running PPC Google or Facebook Ads can be a great way to promote the website you have created. With Google Ads, you can ensure you are getting in front of the people searching for hot keywords for your area and business.
You can run the ads on your own, or use a real estate company to assist in running the ads for you to gain exposure via Facebook or Google.
11. Social Media
Utilizing social media platforms are a great way to expose your website. And the best part is, social media is completely free. Therefore, if you don't have the budget for ad spend right now, turn to social media to help drive traffic to your site. Of course, we don't recommend including your site on every post, but incorporating it at appropriate times is encouraged.
Overview
In short, your website is a powerful tool for real estate lead generation. You want your website to be reflective of who you are and what you offer, provide value, and engaging to your potential clients. Try incorporating one or more of these tips if you aren't already. Also, keep in mind some of these tips may work better for you than others, so try to find a happy medium that works best for you.
