Is your real estate website talking to the right audience?
When you’ve decided it’s time to start generating more leads through your website, the first question you need to ask yourself is whether your website is talking to the right audience. The majority of people looking to purchase or rent a home are not going to visit your website at any stage of their buying/renting journey. Most likely even the ones that do buy/rent through you… Why would they, when they can view all listings on one of the big portals and get instant updates when something new gets added?
If your website is focussing on your listings and not talking to homeowners, then you are talking to the wrong audience. You are losing leads and wasting your hard-earned traffic.
Let’s take a look at some steps you can take to transform your real estate website from being a traditional listing-focussed website to becoming a lead-generating machine.
Define what quality leads look like
Before you can generate quality real estate leads, you need to define what they look like for your business. We do this by breaking our leads up into 3 primary tiers, with each tier representing intent or likelihood of taking action.
For the majority of agencies this looks something like this;
- Tier 1 – A homeowner that is looking to sell or rent right now.
- Tier 2 – A homeowner that is looking to sell or rent in the next 3 months.
- Tier 3 – A homeowner that is looking to sell or rent in the next 3 + months.
This is nothing new, in most agencies each of these tiers will be identified by classifying the leads as either hot, warm or cold (or something similar). The difference here is that we are going to use these tiers to give structure to our website content.
Create content for homeowners
Produce content that talks to all of your quality lead tiers. Focus on demonstrating why your agency is the best choice for them whilst also giving them valuable content.
Points of difference
What do you do differently to your competitors? Show your points of difference in a short, sharp, easy to read format. If your budget allows it, this is a great place to produce a video that clearly relays these points of difference.
Keep it personal
Demonstrate your agency’s personality by using real images of your office, area and team. A short paragraph or quote from the Principal or including team member profiles is a great way to personalise your website.
Show off your successes/track record
Give the homeowner a snapshot of your track record by displaying recent sales and reviews by happy clients.
Try displaying some statistics to show off your business. Number of sales/rentals, years of experience, total sales value, etc are all great ways to qualify your position.
Local knowledge
Demonstrate your local knowledge by producing regular content via your blog such as market updates, local news and market tips.
Swap listings for content
Use your targeted content to start talking more to homeowners and less to buyers/tenants by prioritising listings on your website.
| Focus more on | Focus less on |
|---|---|
| Reviews and testimonials | Latest listings |
| Team members | Search forms |
| Your points off difference | Stock images |
| Recent sales |
The Avalon design is a great example of a real estate website with very clear call-to-actions.
Clear contact details
Your visitors should not have to scour your website to send you an email or make a phone call. Visitors using a mobile phone should be able to click to call from anywhere on your website and your contact page should be clean and simple.
We specialise in producing real estate websites designs that talk to the right audience. Couple this with a powerful digital marketing campaign and you have a lead generating machine. Contact us if you would like to learn more about transforming your website.
