Alexis Craig

By Alexis Craig

We all want them. We all dream about them. I’m talking about leads coming from our own websites. It’s the Holy Grail of real estate marketing—coveted by many but acquired by few. Internet leads can be more profitable and easier to convert.

Instead of running around every day chasing prospects, being rejected, or being hung up on while making a cold-call, we can turn the wheels and have prospects requesting to work with us. Unfortunately, for most of us, our website is nothing more than a digital brochure. It’s there to impress our clients and prospects but produces minimal results. For most, it’s just costing us a ton of money. We all know we should be on the internet. So, here are 3 tips that will help you generate more leads from your website.

1. Give them a good reason to become a lead. I heard this saying once: “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” Wherever it came from, the saying has shaped the way that I approach my business and marketing. I have always taken the saying to mean that strategy is more important than tactics. For example, when it comes to generating internet leads, it’s far more important to have the right offer than it is to mess around with things like button colors. All of that tactical internet marketing advice is useless without a good offer. You can’t improve your conversion rates with “hacks” if your offer stinks. Get your offer right and the tactical stuff is just icing on the cake.

@janeb13, 2016. pixabay.com

So, what makes a good offer? Get creative and think about your market. Here are some ideas:

• A Bonus Video: This could be a video that dives into more details of an article you wrote or maybe an online virtual tour. It could be anything. Video tends to be perceived as a highly value offer.
• Tools and Cheat Sheets: I love these and so do prospects. These tend to be easy to create because you can often take it from your own internal documents. For example, I have a cheat sheet that helps people write better Zillow descriptions. This guide was created from our own internal documents and standard checklist for writing listing descriptions.
• Comprehensive Guides: Avoid the “ultimate guide to selling your home.” It’s hard to compete on that offer—a lot of agents already offer that and so does Zillow. Instead, get ultra-specific. Think, “Ultimate Guide to Buying New Construction” in a specific location.
• Home Lists and Subscriptions: These are standard and they never get old.

Word of warning: I see a lot of agents creating a CMA offer. This is a great offer and should be on your website, but don’t let it be the only offer.  CMA offers tend to have low opt-in offers because (a.) every agent is offering it and (b.) Zillow has tools to let sellers determine their home price without ever having to talk to a real estate pro.

2. Dress your offer up with effective copy. There is a common assumption that writing great copy takes a lot of time. While there is some truth to it, it’s also inaccurate. The truth is that writing good copy on your website can be done in a few minutes with proven formulas. Once you learn the formula, there should be no reason I see the words “sign up to our weekly newsletter.” That’s not effective copy. When the internet was brand new and there were no other websites, this might have worked. But today, it’s going to get you a zero percent conversion rate. Here is a simple formula that I use to quickly write my opt-in copy: Have [single biggest problem your guide solves]? Get my [format of offer] and [get results] (twist — optional). Let’s look at some examples:

• Having a hard time finding any homes in this seller’s market? Get my bonus video and discover how to find your dream home before any other buyers even know about them.
• Have questions about what repairs to do before you list? Get my preparation checklist and know exactly what to repair and what you can leave alone.
• Have to downsize? Get the list of single-family homes on the market and find your next home.

3. Place your offer in the right spots The more opportunities you give your market to take advantage of your offer, the better your conversion rate is going to be. Some spots you should place your offer:

• On the sidebars of your pages and blogs.
• As a dedicated landing page that is frequently linked to in articles or where you send traffic.
• After, in the middle, or near the top of your blog posts — whatever makes the most sense for a given article.
• A pop-up. It’s been said this is likely to negatively affect SEO in the future. So, use it if it makes sense for you.

In your offers, you could ask for an email, name, and phone number. If you ask for a phone number, your conversions will be lower but the leads will be more qualified. For that reason, I tend to only ask for phone numbers on “bottom of the funnel offers,” like the “Ultimate Guide to Buying a New Construction Home.”

Conclusion. In order for any of this work, you need to drive traffic to your website. There are a ton of ways you can do this. Use a mix of social media, offline marketing, and Facebook ads to drive traffic. Once there, you should start seeing some leads that can be followed up with until an appointment can be made.

Alexis Craig, founder of Mocha Homes, leads a team of real estate rebels in Lansing, Mich. Connect with her at mochahomes.com or facebook.com/MochaHomes.