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The Following Article examines the art of Converting website traffic into Customers.
It includes:
Tips on how to optimize individual landing pages accordingly
Different methods of landing page construction
…
SEO Ranking Isn’t Everything – What About Customer Conversion – http://www.interleado.com/blog
December 3, 2009
By: Brandon Laughridge
Author’s Website: http://www.MortgageLoanPlace.com
If you’re reading Geek Estate then I’ll assume you’re familiar with the idea of conversion rate optimization. It’s the process of turning more visitors into leads and eventually money in your pocket. Upping your conversion rate is absolutely, guaranteed the quickest business boost you can imagine. Building out a great PPC campaign or earning high organic rankings are valuable but they take time and money to implement.
Conversion rate optimization, on the other hand, is free, easy, and immediate! For some reason a lot of tech savvy people, who preach the value of online marketing at the top of their lungs, don’t actively engage in conversion testing. Something about it is just scary for newbies. Here’s 7 easy tips to get you rolling and put more dough in your pocket!
1. Always be Testing
You probably use Google Analytics on your personal site. Being the nice interweb czars that they are, the folks at Google created a free tool to help little guys like us optimize conversion rates called Google Website Optimizer. I highly recommend signing up for it and tying it to your Analytics account. Google has created tons of tutorials and here’s a little tour to give you an idea of how robust it is.
2. Make Forms EASY
DO NOT ASK FOR ANY MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU DON’T ABSOLUTELY REQUIRE! I can’t capitalize and italicize that enough. I swear I’ve seen real estate inquiry forms that ask me for three phone numbers (including a fax number), multiple email addresses, my home address, where I want to move, and so on. Visitors are going to see that form and bounce all day long. Nobody wants to write a book just to have the privilege of sending a message. Do be sure to include enough info to qualify prospects and protect yourself from wasting tons of time on poor leads.
3. Make Forms EASY to Find
What’s the point of having a website if you make it tough for potential customers to contact you? Answer: There isn’t one other than feeling cool because you own YourName.com! I’m rather proud of my buddy’s surety bond site and how we are able to funnel leads to fill out his form. Traffic numbers have stayed steady but lead volume is way up all because the form is linked to in a few different, compelling ways on every page on the site.
4. Use an Auto-responder
Research always agrees, the quicker you follow up with a lead = the more likely that person will use your services. You’re not going to make much money, or have much fun for that matter, if you sit around calling all of your leads right when they fill out the form on your website. That’s where the beauty of an auto-responder comes in. Keep leads warm by sending a nice follow up email a few minutes after they reach out to you. One of the most popular solutions is Aweber.
5. Offer Contact Options
Lots of prospects will flake out no matter how user-friendly your form is. Be sure to clearly list your phone number and email address at the top of your contact form. Making yourself available easily in the beginning will speak volumes to your potential clients about the services you will provide them in the future. ‘Nuff said!
6. “Hide” Filler Content
We’re all guilty of producing content just to make search engines happy or to get some easy links. It’s not wrong per se but it’s definitely not a long term strategy. If you have some blah content on your site but don’t want to completely remove it, try and make it so users aren’t going to find it. Obviously I’d never recommend doing anything shady that is not search engine friendly but you can hide something in plain site if it just detracts from conversion. Bottom line: leave non-essential items out of the main site navigation.
7. End Blog Posts with a Call to Action
Don’t waste prime real estate on your blog just because it’s a more colloquial communication medium than the rest of your site. I know for lots of agents, their blog is the highest traffic part of their site and all they’re doing to take advantage is linking to some about page somewhere that users will never see. I recommend slapping a big call to action right at the bottom of every post with a link to your contact form. Test different images and see what gets the best reaction. See this in action on a recent post on foreclosures affecting credit scores at the MLP blog. Even though blogs are all about content, I wouldn’t worry much about angering your readers because you have an ad on every post. Something has to pay the bills!
At present, most real estate agents have their own website and blog with which to connect to clients or potential clients online. There is, however, a huge discrepancy in the quality of realtor websites and blogs in regard to how pleasant they are to use.
The number one rule about having a blog or website or any kind is do not, under any circumstances, have music on it that plays automatically. Many people listen to music on their computer while they’re looking at websites; opening up a site that has music playing by default can just about give you a heart attack especially if it’s louder than whatever else you’re listening to. Likewise, the sound of birds chirping or water fountains or what have you are also verboten; many people will just leave a website immediately if there’s music that they can’t turn off on the page.
When considering what your site looks like, your website or blog should have eye-pleasing color combinations which make it pleasant to look at and easy to read. The color palette that you use can be striking or soothing but it shouldn’t give you an insta-headache. Don’t put blinky flashing graphics on your page, even if you’re trying to sell things. It always looks cheap and cheesy.
And to further the readability of your website or blog there are a few tips that can really help. The first is to spell check everything before you post it. Sure, spell check isn’t the pinnacle of spelling perfection, but it can help you detect typos and basic structure issues. Don’t write blog posts or listings in all capital letters; web etiquette dictates that the dreaded “all caps” is akin to shouting in text and terribly rude.
For me however, there is no bigger annoyance in the realm of basic readability than a web author writing on their own page in the third person about themselves; referring to yourself in the third person makes you sound like Tarzan.
Another big issue with weblogging is making your blog interesting. Many realtor blogs are full of nothing more than marketing graphs and numbers. While that might be useful information, no one wants to read a blog full of that. While you might be tempted to fill your blog full of breaking news about the world of housing, make sure that you understand whatever your topic is before you publish. That isn’t to say that you should only post about what you already know, just that you should do enough research to have all the facts.
Don’t fill your real estate blog full of listings. Ideally, a realtor blog should be connected to your website that will contain your listings; keep your blog for interesting reading so that it doesn’t become redundant.
The last tip for keeping your blog interesting and enjoyable for your clients is to post on it regularly. Anyone who reads a blog will quickly cease if every time they come back to it it’s not updated. Update your blog at minimum once a week to keep it fresh.
If you keep your website and blog pleasing to the eye and easy to read you’re sure to find that you cultivate regular readers and referrals with just a little effort. Starting out right is always a good bet for success!