How Can We Increase Our Closings From Our Sites?
January 30, 2010
By: Jeff Manson
Author's Website: http://www.adrhi.com
Aloha Tony did a survey in recent post that asked, “What percentage of your closings come from the web leads on your personal site? “. I was amazed to see the high percentage of net savvy Geek Estate agents in the 0 -25% range. I would assume that most of the people that took the survey focus a large amount of time working on and energy driving traffic to their sites. I tried to come up with a list of the various reasons why the conversion rates (closings) were so low and possible ways to increase them.
1. They focus more of their time on other ways of generating business.
This is great if you are able to have a more diversified approach mean while still converting a decent amount of business from your website. Some of the other ways of generating business (prospecting expired listings, FSBO’s, past clients and COI) are still highly effective if done consistently. If you are spending time doing any of these methods you may want to find a way to get them to start using your website as a tool. This could help convert more of those prospects.
2. They don’t have search engine traffic.
Possible Solutions: A. Educate yourself on SEO and either do it your self or hire someone to do it for you (focus on the low hanging fruit first). B. Think about doing some CPC campaigns, but only if your site is easy to use and set up to convert leads into business. C. Always promote your site through Craigslist ads, Facebook, Twitter and any other promotional stuff your are doing.
3. Their websites are too busy (noisy).
Possible Solutions: Try cleaning up your pages and not having so many widgets and clutter. You worked hard to get the user their for a reason (don’t distract them). Keep the page focused and clean. Make the property search the main focus not a hyper link to a search that is hard to locate.
4. Their sites are not easy to use.
Solutions: Make sure your IDX search is easy to use and gets the user into search results quickly. If the user has to work at it, you are definitely going to lose a high percentage. If you use a required registration make sure the user can see & knows what they are going get before you ask them to sign up.
5. Their follow up is weak.
Solutions: Follow up on email requests from the site ASAP. If you are not your competitors are 
If you require registration you should be calling them ASAP and asking them if there is anything you can do to help them. Most people really appreciate this and it will keep them using your site if it works well!
I am always looking for ways to get my conversions rates higher and new ways of generating business. Currently my team is generating about 90 – 95% of our closings from my personal site, which is well into the triple digits. We probably should be focusing a little more energy on other things as well to get a little more balanced. I would love to hear what you are doing to increase your business from your website and how others can increase their closings.
- Stumble it!
- Categories: IDX, Keyword Advertising, Lead Acquisition, Marketing, SEO, Search, Websites
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geordieromer on January 30, 2010 4:08 pm
All great points.
My website tends to be about 1/3 of my closings. Referrals – either from past clients or out of area agents, and return customers are the rest of my business. (Of course my website does a great job of helping me stay in touch with past clients and helping me impress referral agents.)
Home Mortgage Kansas on January 30, 2010 5:34 pm
Jeff,
Thanks for the post! These are some great things to keep in mind. I think number five is so underrated. It is so important to follow up with people, I have seen many potential clients walk out the door and find someone new, just because no one responded to them in a timely fashion. I appreciate this list, I'm passing this along to a few colleagues.
Jeff Manson on January 30, 2010 9:44 pm
Geordie – past clients are a great resource. I need to work a little harder getting ours to refer their friends. Could be a little more consistent following up past clients like we are with new users and prospects.
Top 10 real estate posts of the day for 2/1/2010 : Tempe real estate and free home search on February 1, 2010 7:08 am
[...] How Can We Increase Our Closings From Our Sites? – If I were a betting man (oh wait I am) I would bet the answer for most people is in the 5th [...]
2mrealty on February 1, 2010 9:50 am
We receive considerable web traffic and MLS registrations. From our experience, an Internet lead takes 2-3 months to mature versus a walk-in or phone that may be ready to look today. Most agents are looking for the quick fix and will not take the time to cultivate relationships from the web. Although …we are consistently trying to encourage the non tech-savvy agent to begin to the web as a tool and not just an online business card.
drewmeyers on February 1, 2010 10:52 am
Totally agreed — the numbers I hear in terms of how many consumer inquiries go completely unanswered by agents is staggering. It's pretty simple – answer you e-mail and your phone.
Tony on February 2, 2010 11:35 am
i'm constantly told by 'leads' that i was the only agent who called them back. i think a lot of web traffic that goes to the big broker sites gets lost. they send the leads out to their agents, who do nothing with them.
i wish Google would figure out that the big broker sites are not of any use to people. i really think the smaller guys like Jeff and I will service people better. IMHO
Craigslist on February 23, 2010 5:35 am
Craigslist makes wonderful things for sites promotion. Use it right and the results will surely surprise You.
Craigslist on February 23, 2010 1:35 pm
Craigslist makes wonderful things for sites promotion. Use it right and the results will surely surprise You.