Whether you get your seller leads exclusively online or if you have referrals that also make sales or bring you leads on your website, conversions are critical. No matter how much traffic you drive to your website from either of these, it won't lead to any home sales if you can't get those buyers or sellers to take desired actions, whether that means scheduling a showing, signing up for your new listing alerts, submitting your contact form, or picking up the phone.
The main purpose of your real estate company's website is to be generating leads and acting like a 24/7 salesman. The way this happens is by giving site visitors the answers to their questions or problems, building trust with them, and encouraging them to take action.
There are hundreds of reasons why websites don't convert as well as they should. In many cases, fixing these problems will take a lot of time and significant investment. If a site is doing relatively well, however, it may often just take a few small tweaks to increase the conversion rate and turn your website into a more fine-tuned lead generating machine.
For most sites, there are some simple improvements we will cover today that can turn your current amount of website traffic into a higher percentage of conversions. Read the following quick adjustments you can make to improve your conversions right away.
Keep Those Forms Short
Gathering information about potential clients on your site can be very helpful for both follow up and targeting purposes. Whether this information is gathered on a contact form, when they are signing up for your list, or at any other time, the more information you can gather, the better. The downside to this, however, is that the more information you demand from visitors, they may be less likely to complete the desired action.
Whenever you are having visitors fill out a form on your website, keep it as brief as possible. If you want them to sign up for your email list, for example, only make them enter the email address and nothing else. If they are getting a free home evaluation, only require the basic information required to complete that process like name, phone, email, and property address.
Making forms as short as possible helps to remove any obstacle that would get in the way of a visitor completing the action you desire. Once you have that initial information, you can build on that over time while working on the ongoing relationship with this new potential client. No need to ask for too much upfront and deter people from taking action!
Add Social Proof
Assuming your business is not Amazon or some other huge company that automatically has trust 'built-in' to their brand, you want to do everything you can to prove to potential customers that it is safe to do business with you. How do you show that? By generating reviews from your clients and then showcasing them on your website and social media!
Studies have shown that 92% of customers will at least hesitate if they don't see any type of customer reviews. If you have reviews from other sellers or buyers on Google, Zillow, Yelp, or other well-known platforms, make sure to add them to your website. This will add social proof that it is a good idea to work with you, which can really help to get you more leads.
Include a Live Chat Feature
One of the biggest challenges with interacting with customers through a website is that they often can't get help when they have a question. In a physical store, shoppers will walk up to an employee to get answers so they can move forward with a purchase. Adding a live chat feature to your website effectively allows this same thing. You can set up the live chat feature with automatic responses, hire a service to staff the live chat, or have any questions forwarded directly to you. There are different integrations for this with most major website CMS's (content management systems) like WordPress, WIX, etc. No matter what you choose, giving potential customers the option to reach out for assistance is a great way to encourage conversions by increasing engagement and being more transparent and responsive.
Strengthen Your Call to Action
It has been proven over and over again that telling your visitors what you want them to do - and showing them how to do it - is one of the most effective ways to make conversions.
Most websites have some type of call to action (CTA) directing visitors. Something simple like, "Why Not Sign Up for Our Listing Alerts List Now?" is better than nothing, but it certainly is not a strong CTA. Replacing weak calls to action with something strong and persuasive is a great way to boost conversion rates. Make sure to experiment with a number of options to see which ones give the best results. Make these calls to action prominent in colour and position on your page. You want these to stand out and make it so that no one could miss it as they are scrolling down your page.
Fast and Optimised for Mobile
Just about everyone uses their smartphone to browse the web, go shopping, and perform just about all other activities on the Internet. Because of this, Google is even prioritising the crawling of mobile versions of sites. Make it a priority that your real estate company's website is optimised, fast, and mobile-friendly. Fortunately, mobile optimisation is typically a very easy process now, thanks to responsive designs from most website creating platforms and forward-thinking marketing agencies.
Taking these steps on your website can make a huge difference to the amount of leads you can generate and your bottom line. Assuming you have something good to offer on your site for both buyers and sellers, it is these types of small improvements that can really take your real estate business to the next level, so make sure to give them a try right away.
