Hobbs Herder

[HHI Golf Guy]

My wife just attended a real estate marketing and training seminar and one of the speakers was from Hobbs Herder. I know that this company does some fine work, but I couldn't believe what they said about web sites.

In their expert opinion, search engines do not provide prospects or leads. Their advice was to invest in banner advertising and passive real estate internet marketing strategies (http://www.thekosloffgroup.com/marketing-strategy-passive.htm) only!

[sdloanbroker]

Speaking of generating quality leads from your website. have you guys had much success from your site?

I generate about 3-5 leads/week from my website and so far I have not done as well as I had hoped as far as converting leads to closed deals goes..

I find that most internet users #1 don't give you accurate info and #2 are 6-12 months out from really doing anything..

have you had different experiences?

[frobn]

My wife just attended a real estate marketing and training seminar and one of the speakers was from Hobbs Herder. I know that this company does some fine work, but I couldn't believe what they said about web sites.

In their expert opinion, search engines do not provide prospects or leads. Their advice was to invest in banner advertising and passive real estate internet marketing strategies (http://www.thekosloffgroup.com/marketing-strategy-passive.htm) only!

Then the NRA's statement that 2/3 of buyers make their first contact with an agent via the internet must have come from Alice In Wonderland. Kidding aside, if Hobbs Herder is accurate then we have been spinning our wheels and should look for other gainful activity.

[HHI Golf Guy]

Speaking of generating quality leads from your website. have you guys had much success from your site?

I won't give away any secrets, but I will tell you this: I am pulling back on my own SEO business, obtained my RE license, and opening a new real estate brokerage at the end of May or early June. All based upon my ability to generate leads on the internet.

There are ways to engineer a real estate web site to cultivate the trust of web surfers, and turn those surfers into prospects. After that, there are certain steps to be taken to turn prospects into leads, and leads into buyers.

That's why most real estate web sites - even sites that do receive decent traffic - don't generate any sales.

[HMiller]

I have to say that even without yet being able to crack into the top of the G serps, my Yahoo and MSN traffic is generating 8-10 leads/week.

In their expert opinion, search engines do not provide prospects or leads. Their advice was to invest in banner advertising and passive real estate internet marketing strategies (http://www.thekosloffgroup.com/marketing-strategy-passive.htm) only!

I hope many Realtors in my area take this advice :D . In the meantime I'll continue to work with the customers who found my site through a search engine.

I find that most internet users #1 don't give you accurate info and #2 are 6-12 months out from really doing anything..

I seem to get accurate info, but often that info is not complete ie. only an email address and no phone #. It does seem as though roughly 30% are 3 months or more from actively buying or selling, 60% are just surfing and are "tire kickers" and maybe 10% are serious and ready to get started.

[VegasMack]

There are ways to engineer a real estate web site to cultivate the trust of web surfers, and turn those surfers into prospects. After that, there are certain steps to be taken to turn prospects into leads, and leads into buyers.

That's why most real estate web sites - even sites that do receive decent traffic - don't generate any sales.In order to convert visitors into buyers you MUST have a good follow up procedure. If your conversion rates are not acceptable, then you need to look at how to revise and improve your follow up system.

Your website is just another tool. If you use your pistol as a nail driver you can’t complain about what a poor hammer it makes.

If your sign out in front of your business brings in walk-in traffic that is great, but you can’t just leave them standing in the receptionist area and put them on ignore. If no one greets the potential customer and attempts to assist them, they will just walk out and go down the street to your competition.

Your website works the same way IMHO.

~VegasMack

[San Diego Real Estate]

I couldn't agree more Mack! Proper conversion and follow up are very important to doing business on the web! ;)

[HHI Golf Guy]

In order to convert visitors into buyers you MUST have a good follow up procedure. If your conversion rates are not acceptable, then you need to look at how to revise and improve your follow up system.

WHOA! Do you mean that I cannot just load a web site and expect to make millions of dollars? LOL! :D :D

[VegasMack]

WHOA! Do you mean that I cannot just load a web site and expect to make millions of dollars? LOL! :D :Dahhh. errrr, ahhhh.... Yup!

You can’t put it on auto pilot LOL.

~VegasMack

[sdloanbroker]

This is great advice - I agree completely..I have tried several different strategies to convert internet leads to business. I have had the best results when there is something relatively personal I can share with the prospect - for example if I am familiar with the area near them - I might mention a restaurant I really like..

Do you guys have any tricks that you find more useful than others?

[San Diego Real Estate]

Conversion is a lot like SEO ranking what works today may not tomorrow! Or the best method today may not be tomorrow! ;)

[MaxSinclair]

good idea, sdloan. I agree that people want to know more personal things. There was an agent in my area who get his family to pose in farming postcard series. It was getting good results because people feel that they know you and are more willing to do business with you. For me, I won't go to the extent of putting my family in the marketing though.

Max

[Duncan Pollock]

The problem -- as I see it anyway -- is that in most cases a real estate website is a real estate website is a real estate website is a ....
In other words, what's missing, all too often, is the one thing that will lead to sales and that's what the marketing gurus call a Unique Selling Proposition. You need to stand out from the crowd, to do or say what no one else does or says -- or at least to do or say it in a way that's noticably different from everyone else's way of doing or saying it.
This isn't easy, of course, because we're all trying to sell listings and a listing is a listing is a listing is a listing is a ....
But one of the keys to success does seem to be a website with a personality, some kind of personal touch in which you and your abilities, knowledge, and experience jump off the page and trigger the thought in a visitor's mind that "Hey, I gotta get in touch with this guy/gal." It can be more than one thing, but it can include (without any inference that you're boasting about it) I know Condos / This area / This (high/low) price range / This whatever it is that's put you head and shoulders above your competitors.
And then you need to encourage people to contact you. Make it easy (probably best of all by a click to e-mail me) or an 800 phone number, backed up by an immediate response or certainly one that happens well within 24 hours.
Like every other way of drumming up business (cold calls, Just Listed/Sold cards, phone canvassing, etc., etc.) it will work EXCEPT that, in the same vein, you do have to work at it!

Duncan :D

[frobn]

The problem -- as I see it anyway -- is that in most cases a real estate website is a real estate website is a real estate website is a ....
In other words, what's missing, all too often, is the one thing that will lead to sales and that's what the marketing gurus call a Unique Selling Proposition. You need to stand out from the crowd, to do or say what no one else does or says -- or at least to do or say it in a way that's noticably different from everyone else's way of doing or saying it.
This isn't easy, of course, because we're all trying to sell listings and a listing is a listing is a listing is a listing is a ....
But one of the keys to success does seem to be a website with a personality, some kind of personal touch in which you and your abilities, knowledge, and experience jump off the page and trigger the thought in a visitor's mind that "Hey, I gotta get in touch with this guy/gal." It can be more than one thing, but it can include (without any inference that you're boasting about it) I know Condos / This area / This (high/low) price range / This whatever it is that's put you head and shoulders above your competitors.
And then you need to encourage people to contact you. Make it easy (probably best of all by a click to e-mail me) or an 800 phone number, backed up by an immediate response or certainly one that happens well within 24 hours.
Like every other way of drumming up business (cold calls, Just Listed/Sold cards, phone canvassing, etc., etc.) it will work EXCEPT that, in the same vein, you do have to work at it!

Duncan :D

You are absolutly right, for a conversion the something personal has to jump out at you. But first you have to get visitors to your site, then have them stay long enough to find something of interest. What I find over and over are realty web sites that look like 7th grade school projects. No attention to detail and certainly none to having a professional look and feel. How many web pages hide behind frames, or are coded for IE only, or spend hundreds of dollars for flash for navigation and not a dollar for an IDX. With over a million REALTORS in the US there must be somewhere around a half million web sites yet I bet less then 1% ever get a conversion.

[Duncan Pollock]

frobn: Amen to that, too, although I think the two go hand in hand. In creating a website that's altogether different from the visitor's viewpoint, you need to have the same effect on Google et al -- even though this is also easier said than done.
Much of it is basic SEO stuff, but it does not mean "Look at all my listings" kind of content. In other words -- although it isn't a perfect analogy -- it needs to follow the longtime advice to would-be film makers: "You gotta grab people with one sentence!" In effect, you have to decide what your Unique Selling Proposition is and then use H1s, meta descriptions, keywords, etc., that identify and confirm it.
Get it right, though, and you will convert.
In NAR's 2004 Profile of home buyers and sellers, two statements are well worth noting. One finding says that "in 2004, 65 percent of agent-assisted buyers used the first agent they interviewed." The other points out that "69% of recent homebuyers ...... found the Internet to be helpful in their home search."
Admittedly both references are talking about buyers, but there's no good reason why the aim cannot also be at potential sellers. Look, for example at some of the CYBERSTARS websites (see http://www.cyberstars.net/index.htm ) and you'll realize that you'd just have to contact one of them if you had something to sell in their area.
And we're talking money? Perhaps, but there's nothing to stop you from absorbing all the info, tips, ideas, etc., from the gurus in this and other web forums (and not necessarily confined to a real estate membership). The one requirement then is time (which is still money, except that you don't have to raid the bank account for it) and a willingness (and ability) to learn.
But again, get it right and you will convert. Better still, you'll be among what may well be only 1%, but this also means that you're going to be "the first agent they talk to" and thereby beat 99% of your competitors to the punch.
What more could you ask for?!!

Duncan :D

[lovethecoast]

Most important thing I can think of is to followup with an email reply or phone call *within 24 hours* (12 if possible). We get 2-3 dozen leads for our agents every day and the biggest problem with them is getting them to follow up!

It's so bad I've considered getting my own brokers license!

[Duncan Pollock]

lovethecoast: Amen yet again. (And no, I haven't gone back to being religious!)
But if you are to be the first, it's vital that enquiries are at least acknowledged pronto and, in this regard, one answer is some form of auto response message. It can simply say "Thank you for getting in touch with us. It's much appreciated. We've asked our (named representaive) to follow up with a detailed response. Warmest regards." And if needs be this can simply be a copied and pasted message (perhaps with cc to the rep).
As a one man operation, things do swamp me from time to time, but I always reply to an e-mail as soon as I read it. No one minds if you say something like "Sorry, it's running me this week instead of the other way round. But I will get a detailed answer to you by (no later than) this weekend (or whenever)."
All the gurus give this advice, but, as you say, there's an abysmal lack of agents who abide by it.

Duncan :mad:

[frobn]

I came across an interesting statistic at the Real Estate Apprentice Foundation:

The National Association of REALTORS® reports that 7% of REALTORS® do 93% of the real estate transactions.

I tried tracting the original source but came up empty.

[Duncan Pollock]

It may apply in one or two cases, but I think it's an overstatement.
According to several reports, the ratio is more like 20:80 or, as some authorities are starting to claim, 10:90. In any case, though, there's certainly little doubt that only a handful of agents account for the greater part of the volume.
However, I can't help thinking that the figures are skewed by the fact that they refer to SOLDs with no allowance for the fact that a great number of them involve both a listing and selling agent. Thus, perhaps what we need to determine is the ratio in terms of ends -- and neither NAR nor CREA show much interest (or maybe ability) in gathering and reporting statistics this way. And in this regard, I'm fairly sure that the TopNotch listers (who report 100, 200, 300 ... sales in the year) rely on other agents to come up with the buyers and double end very few of their properties. Indeed, isn't this one of the objectives that Floyd Wickman (The Sweathogs guy) is fond of promoting?

Duncan :D