If you are reading this article, it is because you are looking for a real estate website that does more than just exist. Real Estate agents today have more options than ever to build a website. But, the differences between them are vast and most of the time… unclear.
Most real estate agents start by setting up a website to make them look good online. A virtual business card per se. Others get hooked on the bells and whistles that tech companies have to offer. But how do you balance both worlds? In other words, how do you develop a real estate website that looks awesome and has a powerful integrated marketing platform that generates business for you? Most often, individuals sacrifice one or the other to obtain what’s most important to them at the time. What really matters today is the return on investment available through the relevant products and/or services on offer. In order to capitalize on that, one must be able to balance one’s options and appreciate how just complex technology has become.
It is vital to have a real estate website that showcases who you are and what you can offer that the competition doesn’t. The best performing websites promote the agent, group or agency culture; not just the available listings on the market. Nowadays, one can virtually acquire a template for cents on the dollar from thousands of faceless online providers. But, will that do the trick? Launching a template that is used by hundreds of people and is not targeted to one’s specific market and target audience can lead one’s website to get lost in the sea of available options, as opposed to generating the type of traffic needed to get one’s business off the ground. In addition, expediting a quadrillion dollars on design customizations that are not targeted to promote your business or bring in new prospects, is a needless investment. Your real estate website should bring value at the local level, as well as showcase the true nature of your business and culture. It should be a balanced equation between web design process, user experience and smart marketing tactics.
Creating a real estate website for lead generation is a beast of its own. There are really just a few industry standards, not followed by most, although they do make sense when brought up in discussion. Your website should include key elements to perform at the basic level, as well as other techniques covered in this article to make a tangible difference in your online success.
Real Estate Website for Lead Generation Design
Let’s start by covering the best practices in real estate website design specifically for lead generation purposes. Your website should be very intuitive of the type of products and areas you are targeting. Your personal desire to conquer the real estate world might tell you to build a site with 300 neighborhoods or 10,000 condo buildings, but in the world of real estate lead generation, that can work against you. For example, when you build your site for the purpose of bringing new prospects, you will most likely be attached to a paid media budget, be it Google
Pay Per Click, FaceBook ads and so on. This means that unless you are Scrooge McDuck, you won’t be able to place a budget into all those pages. A website that is too broad will sometimes frustrate users with too many options and complicate navigation. The trick is to be hyper-niche; meaning, to invest resources only after you know what type of business you want to invest in.
Let’s say you have been farming in the downtown area for some time now. Perhaps you already have a few transactions under your wing, and maybe even a few listings. You could build a microsite just for the downtown area. In doing so, you are able to minimize your content responsibilities and maximize your online exposure. Now all your efforts can be directed online, just as much as offline. You are now a resource for the local community. People can use this site to see a focused inventory of where they already want to live. You can target your content, ads and efforts into this niche area. The results will include a higher level in quality of online leads, while showcasing you as the authority in your market. Keep this in mind when designing your next real estate lead generation website. You can design it to target a neighborhood in a specific community, a group of 3 or 4 adjacent neighborhoods, or even a particular condo building that you may want to do more business with. Below you can find a few examples of hyper-niche real estate websites designed for lead generation.
Technology For Real Estate Lead Generation Websites
What bells and whistles do you really need to make your website perform in the lead generation realm? Of course we all want a robot closing deals and bringing in suitcases full of money to our door, but we are far from that at the time being. For now, we can rely on the tools available to streamline one’s business. It’s paramount to understand that websites, like clients, require time and nurturing in order to achieve their maximum potential. When developing a real estate lead generation website, it is important to utilize widgets to bring in actual leads; everything else is smoke and mirrors. What would you prefer? Having 200 new visits to your website without any interaction, or 50 solid leads who have provided contact details? The answer is easy! While social media likes, sharing and follows make our hearts warm and cozy, the real business is in user data. It’s also a more profitable way to indulge your dopamine levels. Your tech should always include the right CTA (Call To Action) and relevant registration forms. These should be as user friendly as possible.
Your real estate website technology should also be fast. What some entities ignore is the actual UX, which stands for “User Experience.” This is the term given to how your user interacts with your website. It should be easy to find the properties, and a site map is a MUST. Applying these elements, your tech can be more targeted, giving you more to offer the local market. Using these tools can transform you into David when facing Goliath. While they bring the brute force, you bring a well-oiled sniper rifle. Online users will value the accurate data and the extra local resources. Below is the case study of a real estate website with 3,000 monthly organic visitors. The old version had NEVER generated an online lead. Following the first month of updating the technology, which included conversion optimization, the website received 150 leads. Within 6 months, the website now averages 250 leads per month.
Lead Generation for Real Estate
You have finally arrived at the stage where you can start attracting new business to your website. Here is where you have to be the most strategic about how you are going to accomplish this goal. Two aspects to take into consideration are to evaluate the competition and to truly understand your target audience. Being niche in your ads is as important as the site those ads will lead to. You want your marketing dollar to bring you the best leads possible. To achieve this, you must understand that there are different buying cycles people go through while searching for a property to invest in. The majority of buyers are not buying the same day they register with your website. A buyer’s window could range anywhere from a few months to a year, or more. The closer they are to buying, the closer they are to working with an agent; and you want that agent to be you!
So, how do you engage with these prospective clients before they are approached by another agent? You target your ads and landing pages right. Instead of using broad keywords such as, “Los Angeles Homes for Sale,” which will return an infinite amount of search results, try focusing on specific keywords such as, “Brentwood Homes for Sale,” instead. The closer your landing property results match the keyword/s, the more likely the user is to visit your site to view listings. In applying this technique, you are also providing the user a more curated experience, enabling them to find what the property they’re looking for in a quick and efficient manner, converting more leads into actual sales.