Real Estate Websites Don’t Generate Leads… Marketing Does
Your Website Can Assist You In Converting Your Marketing Efforts into Leads
[click_to_tweet tweet=”‘I would like my new website to generate leads’ ~ 90% of my Real Estate Clients #ThingsRealtorsSay” quote=”‘I would like my new website to generate leads’ ~ 90% of my Real Estate Clients” theme=”style3″]
When my partner and I hear this comment we generally utter out a collectively sigh of confusion. Why do people think that their website will generate leads? Who started this horrifying rumor?
Oh I know… Website builders that want to sell websites. SEO Gurus that want to sell SEO. And maybe a little left over from the first wave of IDX powered, IDX Page building maniacs of the early 2000’s.
A website is basically just a sheet of paper, with your branding, hanging from the clouds. How could it possibly do these magical things?
In order for your website to aid you in generating leads… there has to be people that visit the website.
Those people do not show up to your website uninvited. They need you to send them an invitation.
Real Estate Websites Don’t Generate Leads
Real Estate Websites are amazing feature rich and powerful marketing tools. They can and will aid you in converting your website visitors into leads.
But you need to have visitors to your site to convert into leads. Just because you hang that branded sheet in the clouds does not mean that anybody has any interest in visiting it.
Here is a sad but true dose of reality:
Your Real Estate Website Will Never Be As Good As Redfin or Zillow! Those are multi Million $$ websites that have a team of developers, marketers, and management personal constantly working on their websites.
Then why even bother:
- Your Referrals are looking for you and they don’t care that your website is not the best
- Those are Corporations, you are a person. You can bring something to the table that they can not. Your personality and that is worth more that millions of $$’s
- You can use your real estate website as a tool, or more accurately, the center of all your Marketing efforts.
Marketing Generates Leads
In order to really understand why your Real Estate Website can not generate leads we need to
- Have a strong understanding of what Marketing and Lead Generation is.
- The difference between Marketing and a Website.
- How your website can help you with your marketing and lead generation.
1. Marketing and Lead Generation
Marketing:
“The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually helpful exchange or transfer of products.”
Laura Lake (about.com)
In marketing, lead generation:
The generation of consumer interest or inquiry into products or services of a business. Leads can be created for purposes such as list building, e-newsletter list acquisition or for sales leads.
Lead generation – Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_generation
2. Marketing Vs. Website
Marketing is active and your website is idle… Marketing is the activities that give your website the opportunity to do its job.
Marketing Activities or Website Invitations:
-
- Content Marketing or Blogging
- Social Media Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Email Marketing
- Direct Mail
- Signs
- Flyers
- Business Cards
- Listing Syndication or IDX
- Digital Advertising
- Native Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Google/Bing Ads
- Video Marketing
- Youtube
- Reviews
- Zillow
- Yelp
- Business Citations
- YP
- Manta
- CitySearch
- Farming
- Word of Mouth
The job of your website is to aid you in completing the above activities. I summarize the job of the website with the acronym:
G.L.A.M.R.
G
Generate: To have many forms, landing pages, and contact information to make it easy for people to connect with you.
L
Legitimize: Simply to make you look good. When people find your website we want them to instantly think… this is a legitimate Real Estate Business.
A
Authoritize: To have the information on your website that people would expect from a local real estate authority.
M
Multiply: To make it easy to spread your website all over the internet.
R
Residence: To be the focal point of your Marketing Activities.
3. Website Assistance
Your website can help your marketing efforts and lead generation. We can build an amazing website but without marketing it is just a space on the internet.
Think of Zillow. It is one of the best real estate websites on the internet, that should be enough to generate leads… right? Wrong. They market the crud out of that website. I just heard a Zillow ad on my Pandora radio station. (yes, I use the free version of Pandora)
They have a blog, social media, email marketing… etc.
You see if they stopped marketing their website it would no longer be one of the best websites on the internet.
Once you get to Zillow.com their website offers a ton of cool stuff to look at, and it assists in Generating Leads.
How Websites Assist Lead Generation
Ok… so we know that your website can not generate leads all by itself, but it can be your best lead generation alley.
For example;
If you decide that you want to run a direct mailing campaign you will want to direct people to your website, also asking them to call you.
If you want to start a Content Marketing campaign you will need a blog to post your content.
If you want to run some digital advertising campaigns you will need a landing page to direct people to.
If you want to promote a listing you will want to have your website tuned up to display your listing as a single property website.
If you send out Email’s to your clients you will want to direct them back to your website.
When we get people to your website with our marketing efforts we want them to:
-
- Call Us
- Email Us
- Fill out our Contact Form
- Subscribe to our Blog
- Download Our e-Books or Guides
- Sign Up to Our IDX Accounts
- Share our content on Social Media
- Become a Social Media contact
- Request More Information on a Listing
- Sign Up For Email Alerts
- Request a Home Valuation
Your Real Estate Website should aid you in making this easy for the people you are marketing to! These are called calls to action. Because if you get people to your website but they do not end up contacting you then you are not maximizing your efforts.
While real estate branding is important, the main objective is to have real estate related conversations.
Summary
Your real estate website does not automatically and independently generate leads.
Lead generation requires a combination of a strong Marketing effort and a well constructed website to generate leads.
post contents
Your Website Can Assist You In Converting Your Marketing Efforts into Leads
[click_to_tweet tweet=”‘I would like my new website to generate leads’ ~ 90% of my Real Estate Clients #ThingsRealtorsSay” quote=”‘I would like my new website to generate leads’ ~ 90% of my Real Estate Clients” theme=”style3″]
When my partner and I hear this comment we generally utter out a collectively sigh of confusion. Why do people think that their website will generate leads? Who started this horrifying rumor?
Oh I know… Website builders that want to sell websites. SEO Gurus that want to sell SEO. And maybe a little left over from the first wave of IDX powered, IDX Page building maniacs of the early 2000’s.
A website is basically just a sheet of paper, with your branding, hanging from the clouds. How could it possibly do these magical things?
In order for your website to aid you in generating leads… there has to be people that visit the website.
Those people do not show up to your website uninvited. They need you to send them an invitation.
Real Estate Websites Don’t Generate Leads
Real Estate Websites are amazing feature rich and powerful marketing tools. They can and will aid you in converting your website visitors into leads.
But you need to have visitors to your site to convert into leads. Just because you hang that branded sheet in the clouds does not mean that anybody has any interest in visiting it.
Here is a sad but true dose of reality:
Your Real Estate Website Will Never Be As Good As Redfin or Zillow! Those are multi Million $$ websites that have a team of developers, marketers, and management personal constantly working on their websites.
Then why even bother:
- Your Referrals are looking for you and they don’t care that your website is not the best
- Those are Corporations, you are a person. You can bring something to the table that they can not. Your personality and that is worth more that millions of $$’s
- You can use your real estate website as a tool, or more accurately, the center of all your Marketing efforts.
Marketing Generates Leads
In order to really understand why your Real Estate Website can not generate leads we need to
- Have a strong understanding of what Marketing and Lead Generation is.
- The difference between Marketing and a Website.
- How your website can help you with your marketing and lead generation.
1. Marketing and Lead Generation
Marketing:
“The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually helpful exchange or transfer of products.”
Laura Lake (about.com)
In marketing, lead generation:
The generation of consumer interest or inquiry into products or services of a business. Leads can be created for purposes such as list building, e-newsletter list acquisition or for sales leads.
Lead generation – Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_generation
2. Marketing Vs. Website
Marketing is active and your website is idle… Marketing is the activities that give your website the opportunity to do its job.
Marketing Activities or Website Invitations:
-
- Content Marketing or Blogging
- Social Media Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Email Marketing
- Direct Mail
- Signs
- Flyers
- Business Cards
- Listing Syndication or IDX
- Digital Advertising
- Native Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Google/Bing Ads
- Video Marketing
- Youtube
- Reviews
- Zillow
- Yelp
- Business Citations
- YP
- Manta
- CitySearch
- Farming
- Word of Mouth
The job of your website is to aid you in completing the above activities. I summarize the job of the website with the acronym:
G.L.A.M.R.
G
Generate: To have many forms, landing pages, and contact information to make it easy for people to connect with you.
L
Legitimize: Simply to make you look good. When people find your website we want them to instantly think… this is a legitimate Real Estate Business.
A
Authoritize: To have the information on your website that people would expect from a local real estate authority.
M
Multiply: To make it easy to spread your website all over the internet.
R
Residence: To be the focal point of your Marketing Activities.
3. Website Assistance
Your website can help your marketing efforts and lead generation. We can build an amazing website but without marketing it is just a space on the internet.
Think of Zillow. It is one of the best real estate websites on the internet, that should be enough to generate leads… right? Wrong. They market the crud out of that website. I just heard a Zillow ad on my Pandora radio station. (yes, I use the free version of Pandora)
They have a blog, social media, email marketing… etc.
You see if they stopped marketing their website it would no longer be one of the best websites on the internet.
Once you get to Zillow.com their website offers a ton of cool stuff to look at, and it assists in Generating Leads.
How Websites Assist Lead Generation
Ok… so we know that your website can not generate leads all by itself, but it can be your best lead generation alley.
For example;
If you decide that you want to run a direct mailing campaign you will want to direct people to your website, also asking them to call you.
If you want to start a Content Marketing campaign you will need a blog to post your content.
If you want to run some digital advertising campaigns you will need a landing page to direct people to.
If you want to promote a listing you will want to have your website tuned up to display your listing as a single property website.
If you send out Email’s to your clients you will want to direct them back to your website.
When we get people to your website with our marketing efforts we want them to:
-
- Call Us
- Email Us
- Fill out our Contact Form
- Subscribe to our Blog
- Download Our e-Books or Guides
- Sign Up to Our IDX Accounts
- Share our content on Social Media
- Become a Social Media contact
- Request More Information on a Listing
- Sign Up For Email Alerts
- Request a Home Valuation
Your Real Estate Website should aid you in making this easy for the people you are marketing to! These are called calls to action. Because if you get people to your website but they do not end up contacting you then you are not maximizing your efforts.
While real estate branding is important, the main objective is to have real estate related conversations.
Summary
Your real estate website does not automatically and independently generate leads.
Lead generation requires a combination of a strong Marketing effort and a well constructed website to generate leads.
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Written by : jasonfox
Jason Fox - Real Estate Marketing
Business: We build WordPress Real Estate Websites with IDX
Me: #GoHawks, #BringBackTheSonics, #MaybeNextYearMariners, #ILoveMyKids #SeattleSunLover #SeattleWaterLover #BFF
Blog: Focuses on Wordpress Websites, Content Management, SEO Services, SEM Campaigns, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Beautiful Design, IDX, and more.
Great article! Some believe they can just create an awesome looking website and then the leads will just roll in. I wish this were true but as you noted it takes “Marketing” to actually get potential customers to your site. One question in reference to creating a Realtor website…in your opinion, who are some of the best companies out their to assist Realtors in creating their own website very quickly. For example companies such as Placester who have ready made templates to help a Realtor get up and running quickly. Thanks so much!
Kelly, thank you for visiting and your kind words. There really is nothing else like Placester. There are many reputable real estate web designers out there. But none that are that inexpensive, fast, and still look nice and operate well. Of course Placester does those things because they offer little to no customization. Zillow offers something similar. Website Box is super cheap and fast, but I do not think they look that great. Otherwise, you can up the budget and go with Boomtown or Real Estate Webmasters. And then many companies that are somewhere in between.