There’s nothing more painful than working hard to increase your web traffic, only to succeed then sit there waiting while nobody actually contacts you. Every day you see dozens or even hundreds of people visiting your site, but your blackberry stays tragically silent, no rings, beeps, chimes or anything.
The problem is that most agents spend all their time generating great content and focusing on attracting visitors, without thinking about how to convert those visitors into actual leads.
The secret is to make it easy and natural for your visitors to contact you:
Tip #1: Put a contact form at the bottom of every page on your site.
Type “WordPress contact form” into Google, and the first result is a simple plugin for your WordPress blog.
Make one simple contact form, and then you can start making more custom versions for different pages. On your “selling” page, for example, put a form where sellers can request a seller’s guide and enter basic property info in exchange for an estimate of their home’s value. See an example of forms on every page on these single property websites.
Without a form, visitors aren’t going to take the initiative to send you a detailed email requesting a price estimate… it’s just not going to happen.
Tip #2: Include a call to action at the end of every post.
A call to action means telling your visitors exactly what to do next. The more specific and personal, the better. For example, “you should follow me on twitter” has been proven to be dramatically better than “follow me on twitter”. It’s hard to believe, but we all have a natural tendency to simply go with the flow and do what we’re told.
This doesn’t mean be pushy or overly sales-y, it just means make it easy for a busy, tired visitor to cruise through your site and go on to the next step — in this case, the next step is filling out a simple form for more information.
After that, the next step is up to you!
I purchased a new but slightly older model, which I would strongly recommend as the newest version can be in the $400′s, which was more than I needed to spend for a camera. So far, I’ve been very happy with it, and it’s small enough that I can take it pretty unobtrusively when I’m with clients, to snap photos for them in case they want them later and also to kill two birds with one stone by taking photos for my local real estate blog.
