If you have a commercial real estate website, but it has yet to show any monetary value, consider focusing on conversions. How most designers set up a commercial real estate website isn’t necessarily the best way to turn visitors into paying clients. If you want your website to start working for its electrons, follow these steps!
1) Multiple points of contact. All your pages should end with a way to get in touch with you. Either a phone number or email form. We also want to make sure we’re offering a multitude of things to entice a visitor to fill out a form. Offer a freebie (eBook, checklist, video, podcast, online course, webinar, etc.) for those visitors who are in no hurry to buy. Offer to join a newsletter for those still on the fence. Offer a market report or industry article for someone needing more information. Along with the usual “Schedule a Consultation” offer. BTW, I suggest you use Calendy on your website and email signature so people can schedule calls with you without any admin work.
2) Short contact forms. Asking for too much information will cause visitors to opt-out from contacting you. Marketing Sherpa did a study and found adding a field can lower the entries by 11%. Before you start asking for birthdays, anniversaries, or zodiac signs, ask yourself if it’s worth lowering your conversion rates. I also want to add that all your fields should be compatible for autofill. I have rage quit out of forms that required that I type in my name myself. Who has that kind of time?!
3) Use action verbs. If you’re offering a free PDF e-book, consider using “GET PDF” or “DOWNLOAD PDF” on the submit button. An action can spur visitors into filling out their information better than plain-old “Submit.”
4) Use testimonials. If you have testimonials, use them on your website! Request permission to use your client’s logo or personal photo to give the testimonial more authority. Don’t hide them on a separate “testimonials” page, show them at the bottom of every page that explains services.
5) Clearly state services. In the 90s and early 2000s it was commonplace to use a thesaurus to bog down your mission statement to the status of “unreadable”. Today, we expect companies to stop trying to impress us with their vocabulary and start explaining their services like normal human beings. Break down your services into easy-to-understand bullet points or short paragraphs.
6) Video usage. Adding a 50-second “overview” video has been shown to double conversions on a page. Video tends to paint a clearer picture than plain images, making it easier for the visitor to understand your service offerings. I also like the idea of a video or webinar they can watch after they’ve filled out a form – just like a regular freebie. You can make this video your usual sales pitch (why they should hire you) or you could go above and beyond and do a Genius Model presentation.
7) Social media feeds. Consistently updated social media feeds will show that your company is awake and active. This is great to do two things – #1 show your business is active and #2 get better Google rankings. If you hate social media like me, you can hire this out on Fiverr.com.
9) Strong calls-to-action. A free evaluation is nice, but it’s no different than what every commercial real estate agent is offering. Consider offering an e-book or other freebie in exchange for contact information will capture the contact information of the “just browsing” traffic. You can follow up with these folks in a newsletter, keeping top-of-mind when they’re ready to buy.
10) Blog / Video / Podcasts. Writing on your target markets’ interests will not only keep them coming back, but offering free information keeps your conversion rates high. Frequent blogging proves you’re the expert you claim you are. It’s also very helpful in getting better Google rankings and can provide content for any email newsletters you create.
11) Clear value proposition. A value proposition is simply what you offer that no one else does. This can be an effective process for selling properties, expertise in a certain building type or location, or clear strategies that are effective for <insert service here>. Whatever your uniqueness – it needs to be spelled out clearly. Don’t let your website be generic in hopes that they’ll call and allow a big reveal of your “value.” That call will never come. Advertise your unique skills as much as possible.
12) Story telling. Use storytelling to get your visitors emotionally involved. Personally, I believe social media is huge because it makes the users feel connected without doing all the work of creating real relationships. Story telling does the same thing for a website. It helps website visitors become emotionally attached even when you’ve never met. Freebies do a great job of this as well.
Getting a website to do more than “look pretty” is quite a challenge! Our modern commercial real estate website design package is built around one goal – converting traffic into leads. And if you’re not quite ready for a fancy website designed by yours truly, check out Website Hero. It walks you through step-by-step how to create your own lead generating website in Squarespace.
Modern websites that act like lead generating machines is just another way, I’m taking the “broke” out of commercial real estate brokerage.
