Web Lead Generation Overview
The number one goal of your real estate website is to generate leads. It won't matter if your website is at the top of Google & Yahoo for all your keyword phrases, if your website can't convert your web site visitors from anonymous surfer's to legitimate leads.
What is a lead?
Your website visitors become a lead when they fill out a form on your website or provide information requested from you on your site with the expectation that you will contact them sometime in the future. Here are a few ways to generate leads on your website, courtesy of ClickZ.
- Request more information forms or email
- Apply online
- Sign up for a newsletter
- Register to download product or information
- Get referral to partner site
Once your website starts generating leads, there are several things to consider such as Web Analytics, Web Conversion and Web Lead Management.
Web Analytics
Web Analytics - It's crucial that you track the behavior of users on your website to determine what factors cause them to become leads. There are tools to help you in this analysis, such as
- Google Analytics: Free website tracking. Provides a tremendous amount of information, but does not provide IP addresses of visitors.
- Opentracker.net: Provides IP addresses of visitors which aids in tracking and analysis.
- Website Statistics: Most websites come with general statistics tracking that can be helpful, but don't provide enough information to truly analysis the leads you're getting.
- Server Logs: You can go through the server logs of your website to determine activity effecting your website and bandwidth.
Web Lead Conversion
Once your web site is up and running and showing up on top of Google, much but not all of the work is behind you. Now it is necessary to drill down and ask my six Ws of Web Lead Generation: When, What, Where & Who, Why and Which.
When?
When are most of your leads being generated? Are you getting more traffic and leads on your website after you send out a neighborhood mailer, or are you getting more results from your email newsletters? This will help you decide where to focus your energy and marketing dollars in the future.
What?
What content pages generate the most leads? Is it your home builder pages that are doing the trick? Is there a pattern people display on your site before becoming a lead? You need to know what people are doing so that you can funnel your resources in the right direction.
Where?
Where are the leads you're getting coming from? Are they mostly from other states? Are your prospects in your farm neighborhoods? Figuring out where your leads live will help you to structure the content of your site to more effectively target those who fill out forms on your web site.
Who?
Who fills out your lead forms? You can only know this by contacting the leads directly and asking the right questions. Even if the person doesn't want to buy a house right away, getting information from them is crucial to the future success of your web strategy. When you think of it this way, you can't lose. Every lead is a great source of information to help you market more effectively. Find out your lead demographics, it may open new doors you never imagined and help you close a few you thought you wanted.
Why?
You need to know why people are filling out the forms on your website and analyze this reason to maximize your website and provide information targeted to your web prospects. Are folks seeking to relocate to your area? Are more people wanting to sell their homes or buy new homes? Why are they online? Do they have a realtor? You amass loads of information for making wise marketing decisions in the future.
Which?
Which forms are generating the most leads? Are people filling out your Mortgage Approval lead form or your contact form. Do they tend to request information on specific properties from your MLS feature, or are they requesting a relocation package? This information is telling and can help you beef up the under-performing forms and capitalize on the best performers.
Web Lead Management
Once a lead becomes yours by filling out a form on your website, the battle is still not over. On you must go to follow-up with the lead and track the lead for future reference. There are many tools for this process and it warrants an article all its own, but we'll discuss a few tools briefly here:
Web Lead Management Tools
- Lead Management System (Lead Engine)
- Email Drip Campaigns (Lead Engine)
- Email Newsletters (The Marketing Shop.com)
Real Estate Web Statistics
79% of real estate buyers and sellers begin their search ONLINE. (NAR. Source: Real Estate Blog).
Today - 24,180,000 (that's right - 24 million) people are researching their next home purchase on the Internet. Right now, only 43% of realtors have websites. This means that 24 million homebuyers are gathering information from roughly 200,000 realtor websites. (Source: Stan Smith, Internet-World-Stats)
These days, more than 70% of homebuyers shop online before linking a deal, up from 41% in 2001. (Source: Business week magazine).
The California Association of Realtors also found that Internet real estate leads are the best source of real estate overall, second only to yard signs. (Source: Real Estate Blog).
