Generating Leads With a Real Estate Landing Page

Landing pages are a great way to generate real estate leads through your website. But many agents don't know (A) what a landing page is to begin with, and (B) how to use them to produce leads. In today's lesson, I'll talk about each of these things. I'll also give you a sample landing page to reinforce the lesson, and to get your marketing wheels turning.

What is a Landing Page Anyway?

Within the context of Internet marketing, a landing page is where a person "lands" upon reaching a certain website. So in a sense, every page of your real estate website could be a landing page, because you never know where somebody will land upon finding the site.

But you can also create specific landing pages for specific purposes. For example, people who use sponsored search / pay-per-click marketing in Google and Yahoo usually have landing pages as part of that program. Or at least they should. So when the search engine user clicks on a sponsored ad, they are sent to a specific landing page that is relevant to their search and the overall ad campaign (as opposed to sending them to the website's home page, which is just plain silly).

Using Them to Generate Real Estate Leads

Let's say that Jane Doe (a hypothetical real estate agent) specializes in short sales to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Home foreclosures have reached record levels this year, so can see the relevance and timeliness of this approach. Jane has worked hard to create a homeowners guide to foreclosure avoidance in her city.

Here's how I would present this on a landing page in order to generate leads from it. I've stripped away the other website elements to focus your attention on the page itself:

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The job of this particular landing page is simple. It must be designed to (A) increase the visitor's desire for the booklet and (B) make it really easy for them to request the item.

Analyzing the Landing Page

Landing pages will vary based on the offer, the marketing strategy, the product or service, etc. But they all have certain traits in common. Or at least they should have these traits. Here are some things to notice about Jane's landing page, as well as the lead-generation strategy she is using.

The page's headline identifies the audience and subject matter, using straightforward language. This tells impatient readers what the page is about within seconds.
The introductory statement (in italics) reinforces the headline and expands on the promise made by the headline. It also includes a call-to-action hyperlink.
A "virtual cover" image is used for visual enticement. This technique has been proven to increase conversion rates, when compared to a text-only description.
The key selling points of this booklet are featured in bullet points.
The last bullet point is a hyperlink that repeats the call to action. By offering multiple links (and even a button), Jane is increasing the likelihood of a click-through.
In case the reader skims past the first two hyperlinks / calls to action, there is a gigantic button at the bottom that they cannot miss.
The copy is also keyword-rich for various "San Diego foreclosure" types of phrases. This will help with search engine visibility. It's not a lead generation technique, but it's worth mentioning here. You need traffic before you can get leads!

Logistical Odds & Ends

So what happens when somebody clicks one of the hyperlinks or the button? Well, this is up to you. There are several things you could do here. But the important thing is that you either (A) capture the lead for eventual follow-up or (B) get the reader to contact you directly. Based on your preference, you could then do one of the following:

Use a form with a thank-you page. With this option, the reader would fill out a brief form to the request the booklet. The form would ask for only basic contact information, such as name and email address. Once the reader completes the form, they would be sent to a thank-you page where they download the PDF booklet.
Use a form with an auto-responder. This is similar to the last option, only here the booklet (or a link to download it) would be sent to the person by an auto-responder email. This is a good way to encourage people to subscribe to a newsletter, as well. The benefit is that the person has to use a legitimate email address to get the booklet.
Have people email you for the booklet. This is an easier strategy to put in place, but it may work just as well as the other two. Here, the reader simply emails you to request the free booklet. It's a low-tech approach, but the end result is the same.

Driving Traffic to the Page

This is not a lesson on increasing your website traffic, but on generating leads from the traffic you already have. However, this is a great opportunity to offer some traffic-generating techniques that our fictitious Jane Doe might use to get people to her landing page. If I were Jane, I would do the following things for starters:

Submit a press release online to announce the booklet.
Submit the same press release to local news outlets.
Optimize the landing page for good search-engine rankings.
Experiment with pay-per-click marketing, such as Google AdWords.
Put a prominent link to this page on the home page and elsewhere.
Mention the booklet in a newsletter blast, if such a program is used.

I would also do anything else I could think of to drive traffic to this page. The search engine optimization / SEO strategy is especially useful, because it provides lasting benefits. It's a great way to get a steady amount of qualified traffic to this landing page, which will directly relate to an increase in leads generated.

P.S. -- If you want to learn more about generating traffic through search engine optimization, you might want to check out my book on that subject. You can find it at www.TopTenAgent.com.

Labels: Lead Generation

SEO Strategy - How to Get Hundreds of Quality Real Estate Links

In this real estate SEO tutorial, I'll explain a proven strategy for link building success. Inbound links (from other websites to your website) will improve your search engine rankings, and thus your web traffic in general. Links from quality and relevant websites will get you the best results.

Anyone can buy their way into a link-building scheme and pick up a bunch of links. But these links will mostly come from low-quality websites that have nothing to do with your real estate niche. The key to SEO success is to attract links from strong sites that can pass authority along to your own site, and to do this naturally without buying your way in.

Quick story. I had a former client who, out of desperation, signed up with some link-building network. Within a month, he had thousands of new links ... but they were from some pretty sketchy websites. Before long, his Google rankings had plummeted. Why? Because Google has sophisticated algorithms that can spot this kind of thing.

My former client emailed me in a panic and asked what might have happened. It took me about three minutes of research (using Yahoo Site Explorer) to realize he was mixed up in a link-building scheme. He had links from some highly unusual websites, including a Pakistani "celebrity watch" blog. What does this have to do with Austin real estate? Absolutely nothing. It took me a couple of minutes to spot this trend, and it takes Google's search engine only a few seconds.

You can go this route if you want to, trying to buy your way to link-building success. But you've been warned. Sooner or later, it's going to hurt your search engine rankings. Oh sure, you'll coast along with some good results for a while. But then ... slam ... your rankings will crash overnight. It has happened so many times, to so many real estate agents, that it's not speculation at all. It's only a matter of time.

Professional Grade Link-Building Techniques

Unskilled, fly-by-night SEO companies will often use the kind of linking schemes mentioned above.

Reputable SEO firms, on the other hand, (and there aren't that many of them) use long-term strategies for link-building success. They use search engine optimization techniques that fall within these guidelines. The reputable firms do this, because they understand the value of consistently good rankings over the long term.

I'm no longer in the SEO business, because it reached the point where I no longer enjoyed the work. It's tedious, time consuming and repetitive, to say the least. But let's assume I still offered search engine optimization services. What would you get for the money if you hired me? In particular, what would I do to improve your link popularity, and thus your search engine rankings?

Here's what I would do, for starters:

Evaluate your website to make sure it's worth linking to in the first place. Does it offer plenty of useful and original content? Does it offer helpful tools and resources for local buyers? Is it unique in some way, or just another agent website? If a website is not worth linking to, then there's no point in launching a link-building campaign. Until you make the site "link worthy" in some way, you'll be restricted to the kinds of linking schemes mentioned earlier.
If your website lacked content, I would start with that. Writing website content is not as hard as you might think. But if you absolutely detest writing, you can hire a writer through a service like Elance. At a minimum, I would create some pages for every major subdivision in your area of operation, information about local builders, etc. Here are some more content ideas to get you started.
Here's a link building "secret" that SEO people have been using for years. Webmasters love to link to helpful lists. So if you can create such a list relevant to your city or town, you'll pick up some good links over time. For example, you could create a list of home builders in your area, with detailed information about each one. Or a list of neighborhoods. Or a list of good restaurants. Or ... you get the idea. The more work you put into it, the more links you'll pick up later on.
Steps 1 - 3 above will make your website more link worthy. Once that stage is complete, I would start an outward campaign to promote the new content. Here are some of the steps I would take...
I would send emails to every webmaster in your city who offers information to local residents -- the kinds of websites that would link to your new and helpful resources.
If there was something truly unique and useful on your site, I would send out a press release through PRWeb.com and several other distribution channels. I would send the same release to all of the local news channels in your city or town. Each press release would link back to your real estate website from the company profile.
I would start an article marketing campaign to pick up additional links over time. This would include two phases. The first phase would be to publish the articles through various distribution websites designed for that purpose (like EzineArticles.com). The second phase would include a few "handpicked" websites that allow guest articles. Each article would link back to your site, as the citation source.
If you weren't already blogging, I would set up a blog for you and help you devise a blogging strategy. Publishing new information on a regular basis is a solid link-building strategy, and blogs make it easy to do.
I would "rinse and repeat" by reiterating the strategies that worked best. If we had some good success with the neighborhood profiles, I would create more of those. If the lists turned out to be popular, I would double up on that front. You get the idea.
It's a never-ending strategy, but the results will compound over time. More links = better rankings and more web traffic. This gives you better exposure to your key audience. And, if you have some kind of lead-generation system in place, you'll get a lot more clients via the Internet.

The Problem With SEO Companies

The list above is only a snapshot of a proper link-building program. It takes time and effort over a sustained period. But it all revolves around two things -- quality content and proactive networking. This is where most real estate SEO firms fall on their faces, and it's why I recommend avoiding them altogether.

The work I've outlined above requires time and personal attention, and these are two things most SEO companies cannot provide. They take on too many clients, so they have to cut corners to save time. So instead of using the professional-grade link strategies listed above, they'll resort to linking schemes and other risky strategies.

At some point, you just have to ask yourself the tough questions: How much are search engine rankings worth to me? Do I have the patience and determination to do it right? How bad would it hurt my business if my search engine rankings plummeted one day, out of the clear blue sky? How much trust am I willing to place into the hands of a total stranger (SEO firm)?

Labels: Real Estate SEO

Flipping a Real Estate Blog - A Lead Generation Makeover

In the past, I've often written about lead generation techniques that you can apply to your real estate blog. Now it's time for a visual demonstration. Below, I've "flipped" a blog to demonstrate just how easy it is to add lead generators to it. First, we will start with the before-and-after images of the blog, and then I'll explain the changes I've made.

Before — A Basic Real Estate Blog

This is a blog I designed, based on an actual real estate agent's blog. I changed the city and the title of the blog so there wouldn't be any copyright issues. But aside from that, this is a common layout that I've seen on dozens of real estate blogs.

Click here to enlarge the image

From a design standpoint, there's nothing wrong with this blog. It's very easy to read with a nice, clean layout. But it doesn't work hard enough to generate leads, so I added some lead-generation techniques to it (see "after" image below).

After — Same Blog with Lead Generators

In the image below, I have added several features that will help this real estate agent generate more leads through the blog. The overall design and layout is the same, but I've added (1) a chat box to the sidebar area, (2) a Q&A feature above the blog entry itself, and (3) a toll-free number in the header area.

Click here to enlarge the image

Lead Generation Techniques - A Closer Look

The changes I've implemented above could be done on any blog. It would probably be easiest if you were using the Wordpress platform, but it could be accomplished with any blogging program. Best of all, it would be a one-time change to the blog template. After that, the lead-generation items would appear on all of the posts / entries, without any effort from you.

In order to generate more leads, I made three specific changes to this real estate agent's blog. Here's a brief discussion of each one.

Toll-free number -- A lot of people researching real estate in a given city will actually live somewhere else, in another city or state. I'm talking, of course, about relocation people. By adding a toll-free number to the blog (and putting it in a high-visibility area as I've done above), you'll get more calls from local buyers and relocation folks alike. This technique for lead generation has been proven time and time again.
Chat box -- There are dozens of free chat programs you can install onto your web server. Once the program is installed, you can easily add a chat box to the sidebar area of your blog, like I've done above. Granted, somebody has to be around a computer throughout the business day (like a customer service person or an office manager). But it can be highly effective under the right circumstances. It's a good way to get people talking to you in the spur of the moment.
Q&A form -- The box you see above the article itself is just a simple HTML form. You can code it into your blog template so it appears above each entry, as shown in the picture above. This is a great way to generate leads, because it prompts people to ask a specific question about a specific page they are reading. And (most importantly) it makes it really easy for them to contact you in the moment. They submit their email address and their question, and the information is then sent to you by email. You've just captured a new lead.

All of these changes are fairly simple to make. The phone number is the easiest, of course. The Q&A box shown above the article is second-easiest. And the chat box is slightly more tricky (but still easy). If you would like to learn more about real estate lead generation tactics like the ones shown above, check out my e-book on the topic.

Some Helpful Tools & Websites

If you would like to create a simple form to add to your blog pages, like I've done in the "After" version above, you have a fairly simple task ahead of you. Anyone familiar with basic HTML code can create one for you. There are also some pretty slick websites online that will generate HTML forms for you, such as PHPform.org.

You can also generate HTML forms online through these websites:

Emailmeform.com
Wufoo.com
Formsite.com

You might also want to check with your current web hosting provider. They often have forms that you can install on your website quickly and easily. Creating the HTML form itself is simple, but you'll also need a script that tells the form what to do when people click on "submit" (i.e., send the information to you by email). Some of the form-generator websites listed above will handle this for you.

As for the online chat programs, there are plenty of those available too. Check out any of the websites below to see some of these programs. Some can be installed onto your own web server, while others are hosted remotely (though the chat box still launches from your site).

Boldchat.com
Volusion.com
ProvideSupport.com

There are dozens of other products like these, so you'll have no trouble finding more of them for comparison purposes. I hope you've enjoyed this lesson on lead generation with real estate blogs, and I wish you well in your implementation of these techniques. Good luck!