website design

How to Create a Real Estate Website That Will Convert Leads

Feb 1, 2024

Each year, the folks at realtrends.com release their annual real estate website rankings. Those rankings, regardless of the company compiling them, are always a fun read.

Realtrend’s criteria for getting a spot on their list include websites with the “best design.” In fact, they’re looking for “show-stopping websites.”

These are not always the best-designed websites to increase organic SEO or capture leads.

Nope.

It’s not just the prettiness factor that proves a real estate website “… has what it takes.” We beg to differ. The “best” real estate websites actually work for their agent-owners.

They do this by ranking in organic searches, helping to convert leads, educating visitors about the buying and selling process, and informing them about the area and its attractions.

The Quotecard Series is shown above. To learn more, Click Here.

And they do it while not annoying the visitor, making them search for the information they need, by loading at lightning-fast speeds and more.

There’s an old Duke Ellington-composed song that says it all: “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).”

The best real estate websites are not only pretty, but they’ve also “got that swing”

A real estate website that has “that swing”:

Features responsive design (don’t yawn–we’ll explain, in plain English)
Is attractive in its simplicity
Converts visitors, or leads, into prospects
Attracts organic search engine traffic
Is user-focused

Let’s take a look at each aspect in more detail. Then, use this information when having your real estate website built.

Responsive design

This is one of those phrases that makes eyes glaze over.

What it refers to is a website that adapts its “… content based on the browser space available. This allows consistency between what a site shows on a desktop and what it shows on a handheld device,” according to Mads Soegaard at interaction-design.org.

Why is this important? Responsive websites load quicker on mobile devices. And, since 76% of homebuyers use a mobile device when searching for homes and agents, responsiveness is critical.

Attractive in its simplicity

Think “clean” when it comes to a real estate agent’s website layout. Don’t let anything detract from your branding, from your CTAs, and from the user’s experience (fluff won’t be read anyway).

Leave a lot of white space, use short sentences and paragraphs, and take advantage of bulleted and numbered lists.

“… make your website — especially your homepage — simple and clean with easy-to-navigate buttons and tabs,” suggests the pros at quicksprout.com.

Simplicity is key, they say because sites “… with simple designs have higher conversion rates.”

Check back soon for part 2 where we’ll show you how to build a website that attracts organic search engine traffic, ensures higher conversion rates, and the extra “goodies” it should offer real estate agents.

When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazin

Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct, response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts and engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you. Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here

2. The Free 6-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Planner

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 6-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

3. The Free Online Real Estate Business Plan

The Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for the year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closings, and so on are needed to reach your financial goals. – Click Here

4. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

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Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

Generate More Real Estate Listings: Tweak Your Homepage

Apr 22, 2021

Effective real estate agent websites aren’t cheap. So many agents spend a small fortune on theirs only to have it go live with no clue that their sites truly aren’t finished and need some tweaking.

By “effective,” I mean engaging to prospects, able to help you convert prospects or even get visitors to stick around long enough for you to work your magical powers of persuasion.

If you hope to rank organically for local searches, customizing your homepage is something you absolutely must do.

Your homepage is your site’s curb appeal

You have only 10 to 20 seconds to communicate your value proposition to those who land on your homepage (Nielsen Norman Group).

What problem do you solve and how do you do it better than other agents?

While your homepage represents your site’s curb appeal, your value proposition is what entices them to want to know more about your services.

Let’s take a closer look at value propositions

Here’s an example of a site that gets the value proposition out front

PetPlate makes it clear that not only does it offer fresh, healthy dog food, it customizes the meals and delivers to your door.

So, ok, it’s not a real estate site.

Although you may cringe at the thought of an iBuyer, you have to admit that they do some crazy effective marketing.

Opendoor’s value proposition is front and center. They will give an instant offer to homeowners hoping to sell. The problems they solve?

“No showings. No Stress. No surprises.”

The whole homepage is, in fact, one long value proposition. As you scroll beneath the fold, you’re shown how Offerpad will make “… selling your home easy, fast, and stress-free.”

Back up your promise of value with proof

One of the best ways to communicate value, however, is through testimonials. There’s nothing more effective than someone who has used your service singing your praises.

Kelly Soule, Lake Tahoe, NV agent, has the right idea. Notice the testimonial under the photo of the lake.

Your testimonial doesn’t need to be this long. In fact, choose your best one and get your client’s permission to edit it to make it shorter and to use their name on your website.

Where are you?

If your site is like so many other agent sites, I could land on it and not have any idea where you list and sell real estate.

Imagine you’re interested in relocating overseas, or you’re from a neighboring country and you come across this website:

It’s a gorgeous photo and one that, no doubt, locals will recognize. But what about us?

There is absolutely nothing above the homepage fold that tells us which market this brokerage serves. It turns out to be west and central London, but you’d only learn that by clicking the “Enter” button.

You’ll also have to go there to learn their value proposition. They did have the right idea about putting testimonials on the home page but they’re beneath the fold. Scooting that green box up a smidge would make all the difference.

Simple changes to your website’s homepage can be worth their weight in gold. Go take a look at yours. Is it working as hard as it can to entice visitors to stick around and is it generating more real estate listings?

If not, put some of the ideas listed above into action now.

If you’re interested in creating a buyer pool, for the new listings you’re website is going to attract, consider pursuing renters.

Did you know Renter Scheduled Campaigns are currently on sale 10% OFF the first month? But ONLY for 3 MORE DAYS! (sale ends 4/24/21).

*Renter* Scheduled Campaigns (shown above). Learn more, **HERE**

TO LAUNCH A RENTER CAMPAIGN:

Hit “CLICK HERE”, below, to get started on your Renter Scheduled Campaign (from a desktop or laptop computer).

And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY for each mailing until it actually goes out (cancel or change each mailing up until the night before it goes out. The price shown at check out is per mailing, not campaign total).

Launch a Renter Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here

3. Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

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The Real Estate Mailing List Guide outlines the top tools for generating targeted prospecting lists including Baby Boomers, Empty Nesters, Investors, Lifestyle Interests, High-Income Renters, Move-Up Markets, and more. The Guide also defines done-for-you marketing campaigns to match these markets. –Click Here

5. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

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Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

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The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted prospect list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here

The 3 Most Common Website Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Sep 9, 2020

Most agent website mistakes are easy to fix once you know how. Let’s take a look at the three most damaging agent website problems and their solutions.

1. Lack of focus

Many agent websites seem to reflect a common agent mindset: “I am a jack of all trades and master of none.” When agents are trying to reach every, last conceivable prospect, their websites end up with a vague and meaningless focus.

No, “Buyers” and “Sellers” aren’t target audiences – at least not in a way that sets you apart from every other agent in town. If you truly want these two, overly-broad groups as a target, create two websites, one for each.

Your buyer’s site can then be narrowed down even further. Are you looking to work with renters? Condo buyers? Move-up buyers? Retirement buyers? or Luxury homebuyers?

The same holds true for the seller-focused site: first-time sellers, downsizers, selling the luxury or waterfront home, for instance.

“One of the biggest marketing mistakes is to attempt to appeal to everyone at once.”

Suggests Tom Hallissey at Fat Guy Media. “The most-efficient way to reach more qualified consumers is to target smaller, more specific groups.”

We once worked with a woman who specialized in mobile home buyers. Sure, one mobile home here and there seems hardly worth the effort, but this lady specialized and marketed herself as the expert. She made a killing in the mobile home market and, her website was one of her best lead generation tools.

2. Overly-focused on the wrong things

Real estate prospecting is all about building relationships and each visitor to your site is a prospect. What happens then when visitors are immediately bombarded by how great you are, how many homes you’ve sold and how much money you make?

Is the braggadocio the person you would want to build a relationship with? Of course not. Self-important bragging is unattractive and doesn’t tell your website visitor one thing about “what is in it for them”.

So, skip the hype about you and, instead, make your website client-focused. If your ideal prospects visit your website, what do they want to know? How can you help them find it? Use your knowledge of and experience in real estate to demonstrate why you are the agent they should hire.

3. Wait … isn’t real estate all about location?

We recently read a Facebook post from an agent who was complaining that, after six months, his website just wasn’t “working.” He was blaming the website company.

Yet, one look at his site points the finger right back at the agent. The only mention of his market – his geographic location – was in his email address, posted at the bottom of the page.

He bought a template website and did nothing to customize it, except to plaster his own name all over it. This, despite there being numerous opportunities on the home page alone to stick in at least the name of his town.

His neighborhood pages consisted of his IDX for the area. That’s it.

According to NAR’s study, Real Estate in the Digital Age, nearly half of homebuyers using the internet are interested in neighborhood information.

Many agents ignore this section (if they even have one) of their websites, and it’s a pity. What’s it like living in a particular community? What are the good points? Why would I – as a first-time buyer, a move-up buyer, a commuter, retirement buyer, someone with a family or any other type of buyer want to live there?

Use your website to show pictures, discuss local news and events in your blog posts and anything else that captures why this neighborhood is a great place to live.

If your website isn’t converting as you hoped it would consider tweaking it to be more consumer-focused and offer the information they’re craving.

Send the Dream Neighborhood postcard from the Move-Up Market Series to a Move-Up Market prospect list.

Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our Demographic Search Tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy). Or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

2. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

3. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

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4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

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Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan. – Click Here

5. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”