Those real estate agents that understand the importance of content will sometimes go overboard writing page after page of keyword stuffed content. While at one time effective, keyword stuffing no longer works (and hasn’t for quite some time). The best way to write website copy is to write on topic but be conversational and appealing to your real estate customers. If you have researched your topic and are prepared, the keywords will flow into the writing in a way that sounds natural and not forced. If after the writing is complete you find that that are areas of the writing that can be changed to support your keywords than go back and make the edit as long as it doesn’t disrupt the flow.

Here are a couple things to remember when writing:

1. Bad grammar is bad! I am the worst when it comes to this. A lot of times, I get so lost in my ideas and concepts that I am trying to convey that the focus on grammar just flies out the window. If you are like me, you should probably hire a professional copywriter to do your editing.
2. Going off on a tangent. I am also famous for spending too much time writing (what I believe to be) supporting content that I completely go off topic. It is vitally important to get your point across quickly and add supporting content only when absolutely necessary. If the content doesn’t relate directly to the customer’s needs, they’re gone! Simple as that.
3. Write in chunks using brief paragraphs. The page content should be scannable and be able to be read quickly. Numbered lists and bulleted items work well to get information across fast as to not lose your reader.
4. Direct the reader with a strong call to action. Just like with many e-commerce websites each page should act as a funnel directing your user towards the listings. This is important because the listings are where the user is converted to a lead via the registration process

All in all try to have fun. Writing website content can be daunting and time consuming. Hiring a writer can be one way to go but is expensive and almost as time consuming given the amount of direction needed to get the writer to use the correct tone, voice and subject matter. You’ll find that after you get going it isn’t that bad.

Bad News for Old School Sales People

Traditionally, sales people are taught to spend their time on “hot leads” (ready to look) and devalue customers that take longer to buy. While working with “hot leads” is probably a good idea for commission based sales people that are looking to efficiently allocate their time.  The bad news is that this approach is leaving a good amount of business on the table. The problem is that traditional sales people will only attempt follow up directly after registration and will abandon leads after a few attempts not knowing that 7 out of 10 are not ready to be contacted (in my office it was more like 9 out of 10).  In short, it is vitally important to contact the lead as quickly as possible but it is also important to understand that most of them just aren’t ready yet.

The right way to do it

When training my agents, I continuously used the words “prompt and persistent” when referring to the follow up of real estate web leads. Even though only 3 out of 10 will responsive, you risk losing even those 3 if you don’t get to that lead before they move on to a different website. Another thing that is very important to understand is that the remaining 7 ARE NOT POOR LEADS. They are simply not ready to be contacted. You as a sales person must figure out how to be in contact with them at the point where they are ready to be contacted. There is a systematic approach to recognizing the readiness of a lead using proper lead data analysis. I will go into details of this in Part 2 of my “Analyzing Lead Data” series.

Hybrid Registration

There are a few versions of registration that I have seen to be effective. The most effective hybrid registration strategy (IMHO) allows the user to do unlimited searches without ever having to register. The searches of the unregistered user return the complete amount of listings making the results the same as if the user was registered. What makes unregistered search different is that each listing returned has a limited amount of detail. The limited amount of detail usually includes a single picture, price, bedrooms, bathrooms and acreage. Once the user registers, the full detail of the listing is revealed, displaying several pictures, virtual tours, school district, taxes, etc.

Why is this effective?

It is effective for a couple of reason. First off, it is good to develop trust and rapport with your users. A relationship of give and take is always the most effective (I give you something, you give me something). Giving the user nothing prior to registration usually ends up with the user hitting the back button and going to a different website. Secondly, allowing the user to do unlimited searches before asking them to register creates an investment made by the user. The user will sometimes search 3 and 4 times before getting the desired results. Once the user finds the perfect set of results (and looks to research the details of the listings), it is then when asking the user to register becomes most effective. The user is less likely to abandon the website at this point because he or she has dialed in the perfect search and would have to recreate the search at another website (it is easier to simply register at this point).

What to require in the registration form.

I found it to work best when the email address is the only thing that is required. The registration form should have other fields giving the user the opportunity to provide more but the email address is all I need. Any information given beyond the email address further qualifies the user as a lead but most of the information I need to know about the user is gathered by documenting the activity of the user. Knowing the detailed activity of your website users is the best way to learn about your prospective customer and increases the chance of converting the user to a lead. I will talk about user activity and tracking in a later blog.

It would be great if we as real estate agents didn’t have to require registration at all, unfortunately, we can’t afford to do that. The best thing we can do is treat our users with respect, protect their privacy and provide the best customer service we can.