- A schedule and rules for responding to inquires is a must.
- Interview local residences in a neighborhood about the reasons they love living there.
- Use Youtube -- embedding a Youtube video on each page is great.
When you started your real estate website, you probably envisioned having a site that would capture more real estate leads, and more specifically, you were ready to land more listing and buyer leads.
So today, I’ve put together a list of 50 battle-tested ways for you to get more leads from your website right now. Put them into action and let me know what worked best for you.
If you don’t have a real estate website yet, I still encourage you to read on. The web is taking over real estate, and it’s time to be proactive and change with it. These tips will show you just how powerful a real estate website can be in your lead gen arsenal.
Now, let’s get some leads.
1. Post a blog post in Facebook groups about DIY home tips or your local area.
2. Contact your favorite vendors and have them link to you on a resources page.
3. Partner with neighborhood associations, and get links on their websites.
4. Upload reviews of local attractions.
5. Write and publish posts for tourists and visitors.
6. Add testimonials to your website. Make them easy to read and easy to find.
7. Ask for comments on blog posts. The more comments you get; the better you’re doing.
[Tweet “Ask for comments on blog posts. The more comments you get; the better you’re doing.”]
8. Give away your email address readily. Yes, you might get a few more spam emails. But your visitors hate contact boxes, and easy-to-find emails improve conversion.
9. Give to get: You want to give away as much value as possible. Blog posts are a great way to give value. Write things like: “The Top 10 Ways To Sell Your Home For More,” and people will instantly trust you more.
10. Google your name, business name and any associates. Does the right address, name, phone number and image come up? Do this on Google Maps, Mapquest, Apple Maps and Yellowpages. People will research you. Control what they find.
11. Partner with local businesses and give away a prize to everyone that submits a name, address and phone number to the raffle. Place the signups in all the offices you partner with.
12. Web leads need to be called, texted or emailed ASAP. These people were probably on your website for under two minutes. Contact them right away before they forget about your site.
13. Be personal: It’s tempting to outsource blogging and to make blogs like “The Best Real Estate Tips For 2015.” Don’t be boring. Tell people your personal story. Engage them.
14. Be consistent in what you choose to do. No, you don’t have to blog or be on social media daily. But pick a schedule, and stick with it. This is the only way to get better and see results.
15. Have your face on every page. Branding and repetition matter. Make sure potential clients know who you are and what you look like.
16. Don’t add any music or weird javascript on your websites. Those are very old tactics that don’t help you convert leads at all.
17. Keep your site updated. It’s a pain, but you should update the design of your site at least every three years. That’s how quickly the internet changes. Don’t get left behind.
18. Local and specific win. Your website needs to have articles for buyers and sellers. It needs to have a local IDX search. You should write about local things. People now respond best to articles that feel like they were written just for them.
19. Be responsive within reason: It’s important to contact web leads back quickly. But you should set hours for yourself so you don’t let it run your life. A schedule and rules for responding to inquires is a must.
[Tweet “A schedule and rules for responding to inquires is a must.”]
20. Don’t want to write a blog? Not a problem! Just make videos and post them to your website. Google loves this, and your site visitors love this too!
21. There is a huge void on the web for local information. That means Google has nothing to show for very specific search results. YouTube videos show up highly on Google in a hurry. What’s that mean? Make a ton of YouTube videos for specific things in the areas you are trying to sell houses.
22. Create digital open houses for maximum exposure.
23. Create neighborhood overviews.
24. Create reviews of local attractions and the best reasons to live in an area.
25. Interview local residents in a neighborhood about the reasons they love living there.
[Tweet “Interview local residences in a neighborhood about the reasons they love living there.”]
26. Interview school employees about the various school districts.
27. Create videos about the overall city and compare and contrast the different living options.
28. Make a goal. How many blog posts do you want? Where do you want to post on social media? How many videos do you want to make? Before talking to anyone, make a goal for these numbers.
29. iWriter: This is a decent source for blanket information. iWriter will usually cost you under $8 per article and they can be of good quality. You will sacrifice a little authenticity. But it’s a good way to get content written. I write all my articles on Easy Agent Pro by hand.
30. Interns: If you have a college nearby, you can often find an intern willing to do your social media postings for you. Simply call the college, and ask around.
31. Be sure to manage your outsourced work.
32. Watch the numbers: After some time, you’ll figure out how many leads you get per article.This will help you quantify how much more to spend on marketing.
33. Canva makes great images easy. Bring on a high schooler or college freshmen to make custom images for all your website’s pages.
34. Head over to Fiverr.com and order some social media posting work. (This is the black market of the internet. So be sure not to order a crazy get-traffic-now scheme.)
35. Let people help — does your wife use Pinterest all the time? Does your admin always sit on Facebook? Empower them and give them ways they can help the business grow through short tasks.
36. Two words are all you need to know about SEO: get links. Seriously, as often as you ask for business be asking around for links.
37. Pick up the phone and call local associations or business that you work closely with. Ask them to link to your website. Links are the easiest way to rank quickly.
38. Link to your neighborhood pages, and make the text of the link “XYZ homes for sale.” This will help Google recognize what that page is about.
39. Always include five links on every blog you write. You want your website to look like a spiderweb to Google with tons of useful links on every page.
40. Use Google Maps — embedding a Google map on your “About Us” page or neighborhood pages is a great indicator to Google.
41. Use YouTube — embedding a YouTube video on each page is great.
[Tweet “Use YouTube — embedding a YouTube video on each page is great.”]
42. Update older pages. Do you have a new mission statement, agent or announcement? Update all the pages on your site frequently, and you’ll see great results from Google.
43. Facebook ads for buyers. You can also run Facebook ads for people who are about to buy.
44. Look for local websites with ad slots. You can often find blogs about your local area selling ads for cheap. I know a few in Kansas City that cost $1 per month.
45. Sponsor school activities with their own sites. Call and get an ad placed on their calendar page. It’ll help your SEO and get you in front of potential clients.
46. Donate to nonprofits, and get a link back to your website.
47. Set up an affiliate plugin on your website, and pay other businesses for traffic that they send you that ultimately signs up as a lead.
48. Run ads from the local newspaper, but only pay for the online display ads.
49. Try LinkedIn ads. They are getting more effective and have a great demographic you can reach out to.
50. Finally, remember that people don’t just give us their information. You have to ask for it. Likewise, they don’t just do business with us. You have to ask them for it. Setup a drip sequence, and stay in touch with these individuals consistently.
[Tweet “Remember that people don’t just give us their information. You have to ask for it. “]
Phew! Ready to get to work and get more leads off your real estate website? Let me know if I missed any tips, and I’d love to hear about how you’re implementing these ideas into your own site. Ask me anything below, and feel free to share your comments.
Tyler Zey is the digital marketing director and contributing editor for the Real Estate Digital Marketing blog on easyagentpro.com.
