Internet Marketing for Real Estate Professionals
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Don't just optimize your home Page - 3 ways to capitalize on visitors from any page
Looking at just the home page of your website to ensure a user gets to the "most important" areas of your website can be a big mistake. I have seen some groups state that you MUST put a tool to search the MLS and a tool for CMA's prominent on your home page because that's what a internet buyer is looking for. While I think they are often looking for that type of information, only making tools like that easy to get to on your home page can lead to losing the visitors who enter from other pages.
For example on one of our websites dedicated to Long Beach Condos, only 14% of our visitors came in through the home page! WOW! If we only concentrated on making powerful tools available on the home page we might miss out on a some great contacts.
So what should we do instead? Here are 3 ways to ensure you capitalize on visitors coming in through any landing page:
For example on one of our websites dedicated to Long Beach Condos, only 14% of our visitors came in through the home page! WOW! If we only concentrated on making powerful tools available on the home page we might miss out on a some great contacts.
So what should we do instead? Here are 3 ways to ensure you capitalize on visitors coming in through any landing page:
- Call to Action - Have a Call to action on every page. Whether the call to action is to a buyer tool like an MLS search or a seller tool like a CMA make it easy for the visitor to see they need to go there.
- Menu Choice - If you find your MLS search tool is possible, make it a selection on the navigation of your website so regardless of the landing page a visitor can get there.
- Review your reporting tools - See which pages have become popular using your Google Analytics or other reporting tool so you can ensure people are converting from those pages.
So have fun looking at the pages on your website so you can capitalize on visitors finding your website on any page!
Labels: google analytics, landing page
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Click Through Rate - Make Sure You Check Your Cost
With all of the great tools that Google has to report to you what is going on with your ads, campaigns, and keywords it is quite easy to get soley focused on a few stats and the one that is, in my opinion, the easiest to get focused on is CTR or Click Through Rate. Now obviously this is a very important part of the Google formula. Google uses CTR to judge how effective your ad is and by that where you will place combined with your bid amount. That is not the point of this post however. Today I want to make sure you focus on your cost per conversion. This is how much you are paying to get a lead or to get a purchase. In real estate you are paying for a chance to help someone with real estate information.
So the cost you pay is very important. We find that at least 1 out of every 10 leads that we receive is ready to meet with us today. Now of course we have to ask them to meet with us but we find this to be true time and time again over the number of leads our team generates every month. Keeping an eye on the cost is key. We of course always want the lowest cost per lead possible and are always looking at our ads to drive the cost down. Currently our cost is just slightly over $10.32 per lead for our condo website. The average commission on condos we sell, we focus on the entry level, is $7,950. We know that it will take at least 10 leads or $103.20 to get 1 solid buying appointment and 25% of the time that person will buy within the next 90 days. So we pay $412.00 for each closed sale or a 19.29 times our money in return. That that is just within 90 days as we know that another 25% of those will also buy within 12 months and we just have to follow-up with them.
So with all of these numbers you want to focus on your ads and your cost per lead. Make sure that you use Googles conversion code in your website. Have your webmaster put it in for you so you can judge the ultimate success of your landing pages.
Labels: google pay per click, landing page, PPC Campaigns, real estate pay per click
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
5 tips on how you can increase the time a user spends on your website
Increasing the time that a visitor stays on your website, increases the likely hood that they will contact you! This metric has been focused on a great deal by companies that run e-commerce websites, but we should be focusing on it as well. Here are 5 tips on how you can increase the time a user spends on your website.
- Pay Per Click Campaigns - Ensure that when you a user visits the landing page, it is what was advertised in the advertisement. For example, if you are advertising "Get a Free Foreclosure List" in your ad, and then the ad takes them to your "Home Page", it is unlikely you will get that user sticking around on your website!
- Links on Every Page - The navigation menus that you have on your website should not be the only way to navigate through your website. Within every page of content you should be linking to other areas WITHIN your website that can provide additional value. This way a user can stay on your website to learn more and see that you are the expert!
- Quality Content - Getting content from your title officer or the library of sources from your template provider is nice, but it is not unique! Concentrate on writing up content about your area from the perspective that only you can provide. Help people learn about neighborhoods, condos, homes, and more through your eyes!
- Calls to Action - Providing great content is essential, but you must also give them a reason to contact you. Make appropriate calls to action like "If you like this neighborhood, get the FREE list of Homes available" or "With lovely tree lined streets here in Bixby Knolls, use our FREE Long Beach MLS to see what is available".
- Multi Media - Sounds obvious, but enrich your pages with pictures, videos, or sound. Great products, like Instant Audio, allow you to put sound on your website for Testimonials or just explaining about your area.
Concentrating on these aspects of your web presence will increase a visitors time on your website and get you more contacts out of the same number of visitors! Our websites have increased by over 1 minute per visitor in just the past month, just by updating some of our Pay Per Click campaigns! :)
Labels: anchor text links, landing page, marketing real estate web site, pay per click, PPC Campaigns, real estate internet marketing, real estate leads, real estate pay per click
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