This spring, Inman is obsessing over helping you to tune-up your listings business, with actionable insights, the best advice from top agents and hundreds of helpful stories from all over the world. Interested in sharing your advice and insights with us? Reach out to me at matthew@sandbox.inman.com.
Don’t forget that we’ll also be focusing on how agents and brokerages can all move Faster, Better, Together this July at Inman Connect San Francisco. Not got your ticket yet? Buy it here, and remember that Select members get a $100 discount. Thinking of bringing your team? There are special onsite perks and discounts when you buy those tickets together too. Just contact us to find out more.
When most real estate agents make business-related posts on their website or social media, they do so with the expectation that their site will attract customers for their business. Although the number of unique visitors to your site is important, creating a “sticky” site or post is one of the most powerful ways to build your business.
Whether you’re posting on your website, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, one of the most important metrics is stickiness.
“Stickiness” refers to how long visitors spend on your site and whether they interact by commenting on your post, sharing it with others or contacting you to download a report or make an appointment.
Don’t create non-stick posts
If your posts are merely an infomercial for you, you’ve created Teflon, not stickiness. In fact, research dating back as far as 2005 has shown that having your picture on the homepage of your website or on your print marketing materials can cause up to 50 percent of your web visitors to leave.
The reason? You’ve made it about you rather than them.
As one irritated consumer observed, “Who do these agents think they are — movie stars?”
In contrast, a well-constructed post that focuses on the consumer and the local lifestyle is the formula for being sticky. Here are nine ways to have your clients stick with you.
1. You must have a call to action
If you have a website or you’re using Facebook ads, it’s important to have a call to action where your web visitor obtains something of value for providing their contact information. My personal favorite is an “equity-checkup,” which combines a comparative market analysis (CMA), an area report from NARRPR.com and a HomeDisclosure report on the property.
Other suggestions include links to utility or energy-saving appliance rebates and credits, discount coupons from local restaurants and other vendors or an invitation to a first-time buyer seminar where buyers can learn how to obtain down payment assistance (check out DownPaymentResource.com)
2. Make your website interactive rather than static
A static website, no matter how attractive, is nothing more than a digital billboard. Visitors read it once and then move on to the next website.
In contrast, interactive websites engage your web visitors and increase the probability that they will return. You can make your site more interactive by including mortgage calculators, rent versus buy calculators, maps or any other application that invites your web visitor to interact with your site.
3. Update your content often
There are numerous ways to make your content fresh. You can do this with a blog, or you can also provide links that track such things as “today’s interest rates,” “upcoming neighborhood events” or “recent sales.”
If you set up your website properly, the visitor links to the resource while still staying on your site.
4. Be a community resource
Provide lists of service providers that you trust. You can also provide entertainment information including phone numbers and addresses of restaurants, theaters and museums as well as contact information for schools, places of worship, public parks, police, fire, etc.
5. Be prepared
One of the best ways to make your website or Facebook business page stickier is to share emergency preparedness posts. This can rotate based on the types of issues you face in your region.
For example, if you live in an area with earthquakes, every time there is a major quake, you can use your newsletter, blog or social media to direct people to your site for more information.
If you live in an area where there are tornados, floods or blizzards, you can post tips on how to be best prepared.
6. Use quizzes and self-tests
People love quick inventories that test their knowledge. These are especially effective for Facebook and other social media sites. For example, create a weekly quiz using real estate information from previous eras.
A great place to gather this information is from old newspapers. You can view them at your local library or research them online. These old photos can also make for a great post on Instagram or even possibly a video.
Some sample questions include:
- What trendy restaurant used to be a service station?
- In 1950, how much would a typical three-bedroom, two-bath on Maple Street cost?
- (a) $5,000
- (b) 8,000
- (c) $15,000
- Which president’s mother was born in our town?
This type of local color greatly adds to your reputation as being the expert in the area. It also keeps people returning to your site.
7. Use technologies that increase stickiness
There are a variety of tech tools that you can either embed into your website or that you can link to that will increase your site’s stickiness.
For example, if you live in an urban area, you may want to put a link to Walk Score, which scores the walkability of a neighborhood.
Tools such as Matterport’s 3D house or virtual reality open house allow your website visitors to “walk through” your listings, decorate the property online and save their work as photo-realistic pictures. These tools increase stickiness while also strengthening your lead conversion.
8. Use video
There are plenty of ways to integrate video into your site. Post testimonials from past clients, shoot videos of your listings, do a video tour of notable properties in your area, or interview local business owners about their businesses.
Video not only helps your search engine ranking, but it also helps you attract and keep more web visitors.
9. Invite comments
Asking for feedback about your website, your inventory or your services and then posting it to your site is a great way to hear from your community and increase your business.
Here’s the bottom line — regardless of what you post, have fun, and keep your content fresh. That’s the best way to have your digital visitors stick with you!
Bernice Ross, President and CEO of BrokerageUP (brokerageup.com) and RealEstateCoach.com, is a national speaker, author and trainer with over 1,000 published articles. Learn about her broker/manager training programs designed for women, by women, at BrokerageUp.com and her new agent sales training at RealEstateCoach.com/newagent.
