Greg Newell's Blog

Why most real estate websites don't work...and what to do about it.

Greg Newell (Business Improvement Technology Inc.) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:12:46 -0700

Aside from being one of the most competitive fields online, real estate agents have an interesting problem that set's them apart from other web marketing clients. Some of the reasons why web marketing channels are so challenging include:

Your prospects are searching LONG BEFORE they plan on buying. You can't waste a lot of time until they are ready to buy. Most agents hesitate to admit this but really you want your clients to fall in your lap with their checkbook out. You need to set up a communications dialog with these folks as soon as possible and stay in touch. The agents that LOOK like they're spending the time are the ones that the client will end up calling.
Your company is selling the same houses that everyone else is selling. So it doesn't matter what website the buyer lands on so long as he/she can access the MLS. Your service is your differentiator. That's why this is such a referral based business.
It cost more money than what most agents are willing to spend to increase the visibility of the website for common (and competitive) searches (exactly because of how competitive it is). And I would argue that traffic alone is not the answer.

Most agents know that getting more traffic means more business. At face value this is true. But by my observation, brochure oriented websites that say the same thing that every other website says will just lump your company in with that list of I'll call 'em when I need 'em and I don't need 'em yet. Yeah! get more traffic means getting more business but let me ask you two questions...

Do you know how much traffic you had last month? Most website owners can say yes to this. At the very least, they know how to get that information.
OK good. You know how many people hit your site. NEXT QUESTION: WHO WERE THEY?

Question two is where you get caught. Unless they filled out the contact us form, you don't have a clue! That is a very typical issue with most sites, real estate websites included.

The number one thing you can do to increase the value of your website is to improve its ability to interact with visitors. Your goal is a first name and an email address. Then you set up your drip campaigns and let your web communications programs do the work AUTOMAGICALLY! When the client is ready to commit, who is he/she most likely to call?

Most Real Estate agents understand the value of drip campaigns BUT many stop there. What other communication channels do you think you could establish? Blogging is one. Forums with open Q&A. How about webinars? How about "chat now" website features. There's a common trait among these channels that you don't have with the telephone. The client, the buyer, the lister still controls the flow. He's not being sold because he can simply go somewhere else. He is a communicating but not-yet-committed visitor. If you don't open these channels, then you don't get to have a conversation with him.

So back to your website. If you're still relying on front-page or coded websites - STOP. Today's technology allows you to set up a complete web application with all the components required to establish a communication dialog with your visitors. Have a look at www.wsiefusion.net . It's not the only web application out there but it is well suited for Real Estate agents. In a followup blog to this, I'll highlight all the features that this web marketing application has (because you really can't call it just a website).

Trends in online marketing - Look who's talking (everyone!)

Greg Newell (Business Improvement Technology Inc.) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:39:24 -0700

There is no question in my mind that the online market is changing. I read The Cluetrain Manifesto nine years ago. I'm reading it again with the exact same awestruck feeling as if it were the first time I've ever read it but with one huge difference. The first time I read this book, I felt: "WOW! These guys are right!". This time, I'm thinking "WOW! These guys WERE right!" The basic premise of that book is that "Market's are conversations" and the internet is giving people a new voice. How that plays out in your business is truly amazing ... and frightening to some.

I don't want this blog to be a book report, so go read this book! It's not too late. And since you know how to interact with ActiveRain, I'm assuming that you know also how to interact with FaceBook, LinkIn and some of the other major social media sites. How's that working for you? My guess is that's it's only working for a relatively small percentage of you master bloggers. The rest of you are wallowing in social media madness. And you're in good company. Some six million people use twitter and it seems that nobody can figure out the attraction.

So just when you think you've got Google down and Craigslist, the whole thing is changing AGAIN. What an opportunity for Real Estate agents to be part of the whole conversation going on right now. What conversation? Haven't you heard about the whole housing crunch? Well of course...but who are you talking TO? A few people in my neighborhood are all talking about how they hate the idea of paying for someone elses mistakes. Why did the banks give out all these loans, were they coerced by the government? Why should I pay to fix someone elses failure to act responsibly? Don't get me started on the bank bailouts! It actually would be nice if we had someone in the housing market in the middle of this conversation. But alas! we don't! But the conversation must (and will) go on.

As we move forward, wouldn't it be cool if we could jump on the next bandwagon before it got moving too fast to catch. I'm not saying the Google train has ended. Nope: there's a market there if you know how to use it. You can also lose your butt on Google especially if you're trying to pay-per-click your way to fame and fortune. The one thing Google has done right is to find good content for people that are looking for it. And they did that primarily by focusing on sites that had a lot of inbound links - the proverbial internet referral. That's worked well but now we have SEO companies who make a living generating links (my company included). Long term, commercially generated links has got to have the opposite of what Google intended. Google wants people to link to good sites because they have good content, not because they have a lot of money to pay for inbound links. So is it a shock to you that Google is taking a strong look at social networking venues?

The next trend is coming and by virtue of the fact that you're on Active Rain, you get it (hopefully). The next bandwagon isn't something you jump on. It will be something you jump in...and it's something you already know how to do. It's called a conversation! Go ahead, start one! I dare you.

Automatic follow-up

Greg Newell (Business Improvement Technology Inc.) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:43:11 -0800

The number one question I get from clients is "How do I get more traffic to my site?" The general idea is that the more the better. I don't deny that generally, in the case of the web, more visits means more business. However, did you ever consider the possibility that more visits means more losses?

When you designed your website, your web designer failed to ask you a key question. He didn't ask you this question because he is a web developer, not a consultant or marketing person (typically). The question you should have considered when you built your website is "What if you knew that every single person in your target market were going to be on your site."

It's February 16th. EVERY POTENTIAL CLIENT IS GOING TO SHOW UP ON YOUR WEBSITE'S DOORSTEP ON MARCH 1ST. If you were to take that seriously, you would be panicing. OMG - how am I going to deal with all those people? See how your mindset changes? And that is how I highlight the problem. How many people that visit your site fall through the cracks? Do you really want to increase traffic or do you want to make sure you capture and respond to everyone that does visit.

You need something more enticing than newsletters. You need to put your marketing hat on and figure out what exactly people in your target market are looking for. BUT...you don't just give it to them. You TRADE for their first name and email address. Then you let your drip campaigns do the rest. I've seen very creative use of MLS. But beyond that, how about sitting down and really coming up with some truly responsive campaigns. How about school district comparisons. How about actual neighborhood surveys.

To give you an example of what I'm talking about, go to www.webresponsetools.com and act like you're interested. You will notice all of the opportunities on this website to ask for information. You will get it (and most of it is pretty good). The cool thing is that as long as you have edit access to your own site, these types of tools are available to anyone. It's a tragedy that they are not already built into your site. This particular site uses not only email as a response but also voice broadcast, snail mail and fax. There is an appropriate use for each. As you bounce around this site, you may in fact get a follow-up phone call from one of the sites sales reps. I will tell you ahead of time that very likely he/she knows what pages you spent time on, if you looked at the demo and the myriad of other things you may have done on the site. All of that information goes into your CRM tools so the salesperson knows what his client is interested. This is amazing to me to have this kind of tracking and followup capability. It seems ideal for real estate agents.

Marketing studies have shown that the average person follows up with prospect 3-4 times if that prospect doesn't respond. Similar studies also show that a prospects needs 7-9 contacts to feel comfortable enough to call or respond back. If you don't have a system in place to help you develop these prospects, it is entirely possible that they are going to someone else. So yeah! Optimize your website. Get more traffic. But make absolutely sure you are responding to the traffic you're getting. Otherwise, you're just another real estate website. Nobody wins in mediocrity.

Getting more traffic to your site.

Greg Newell (Business Improvement Technology Inc.) — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:34:45 -0700

If you do a little research, you'll discover that your site is not showing up for some of the search terms that it should be. Your clients, like me, will use the search engines to find your website. The better you place in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs for short), the more TARGETED traffic you will get to your website. If you think that just because you show up on the first page you're OK, consider this research.

Richard Hearne studied the "Click-Through" percentage vs. SERPs position (click the chart to see the article) . He discovered that the FIRST position receives 42% click through. Position two drops off to 12%. Position three is 8%. If your website is not represented in the first position, the number one slot is getting 4-15 times more traffic than you are are EVEN IF YOU ARE ON THE FIRST PAGE. What do you think that means in terms of revenue for the top position?

That's only part of this story. The other part is the intentional and conscientious effort on the part of some businesses to dominate this position for as many relevant search terms as possible. The results that can be achieved are absolutely staggering.

Consider this case study. WSI added 100 WSI WebWords pages to www.truckdrivertraining.com. Our client thought he was doing "OK but could be doing better". The results achieved after WSI Created 100 WebWords pages speak for themselves. Traffic jumped from less than 1000 hits per month to 30,000 hits per month!

We have hundreds of stories just like this. WSI WebWords has been delivered to some of the biggest sites on the net...Ebay, Amazon and NewEgg to name three. We've written over 700,000 pages.

This is an affordable and results driven program you need to consider for your business. We'll help you determine the return on investment before you invest a single penny. Give us a call and lets see how results like this can help your business.

Greg Newell
WSI - We Simplify the Internet
www.wsiNetReturns.com
614-456-9115

Oh where oh where have the yellow pages gone?

Greg Newell (Business Improvement Technology Inc.) — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:24:53 -0700

Online marketing for local businesses.

In this day and age, every business needs to have a website. Anymore, this is NOT arguable. A business presence on the web is as ubiquitous as having the business name in the yellow pages USE TO BE. Your clients expect it. If you want to be taken seriously, you need a website. More importantly, the web WILL BE the yellow pages of the future, if it isn't already.

If you want an example of why you need to have a website. If you need to convince yourself that even your little mom and pop shop around the corner could use some web saavy, you need not look any further than Google. Google has become the defacto standard for how you find something on the web...anything. This one fact may surprise you though: over 60% of the searches done on Google are done by people who are looking for something LOCAL; either a business, a service, a bank, a plumber or even that mom and pop that you didn't think needed to be there. And if you're not there when they're looking for you, you're missing what has and will become the new yellow page paradigm. Heck...even Yellow Pages has missed this transition.

You may be surprised to know that there are three places you can show up in a Google search. The first is known as pay-per-click. These are the text ads shown as "sponsored links". Any busiiness can show up on the first page of search results just by placing these ads. The ad can be geographically placed meaning it will only show up in your local market. Businesses literally bid on search terms relative to the business products and services. The bid represents what the business is willing to pay Google every time someone clicks on that ad, which in turn links to the website. Bids can range from $.10 to $50.00 PER CLICK. Yup, some injury law offices will pay $50 per click just to get a potential lawsuit client to consider their services. That may sound like a lot, but this is a very market driven process and businesses usually won't bid more than the business will sustain. That said, if you do this and your website was built by your cousin Jimmy, don't expect a lot of conversions. Too many businesses make the mistake of thinking anybody with a copy of Front Page understands the marketing nuances of presenting your business online. Big mistake!

The second place you can find your website in the search results is the place you are normally looking for down the left hand side of the page. Getting to the top of the "organic" search results is the holy grail of business. This has in fact launched many businesses into stardom. 80% of searchers will select at least one of the top three organic results if it looks like the answer to what they are looking for. Owning this position for highly competitive terms is not a random occurance. Google is very specific about the pages it places in the search results. Businesses who understand the value of this position will seek guidance to make sure their website can at least find its way to the first page of results. Gaining a top three position is not luck anymore. Its intentional and its big business.

The third place you can find your website in the search results is in the "local" listings. Google tries very had to place businesses GEOGRAPHICALLY in the list based on the location of the searcher (determine by his IP address) or the location specificed by zip code. If you ever wondered why Google has MAPS...now you know. If you want an example of how this works, type your business category (where you might be found in the yellow pages for example) and add your zip code to the search. You should see above the organic listings, the "local" listings and if you have a website with your address published, you SHOULD see your business in the listings. WELCOME TO THE NEW YELLOW PAGES! By the way, if you're not there, Google will let you add and edit your listing free of charge.

Want a peek at the future? Want to know how Google can connect to just about every person on the planet (at least every person with a cell phone)? You may have heard that Google is developing and buying cell phone technologies. They've been pretty quiet about it. Get your cell phone out and if you have text messaging: do this. Type the same business category you used for your business in the above example, followed by the same zip code and send the text message to 466453 (spells "GOOGLE"). If you just want a general example: type "tow truck" and a zip code and send to 466453. Within 20 seconds, you will recieve one or two text messages identifying businesses in that zip code. Say good bye to "411"! Say goodbye to 555-1212. Say goodbye to Yellow Pages. This is just too darn convenient! Say hello to your future. Don't miss it.

Contributed by Greg Newell

WSI

We deliver complete web marketing solutions for $999

www.wsiNetReturns.com

614-456-9115

Dominating the Search Engines - RESULTS...just a short list.

Greg Newell (Business Improvement Technology Inc.) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:38:37 -0700

A strategy focused on your market can deliver results just like these:

INSURANCE AGENT RESULTS
I just ran a web ranking report for an insurance agency client of hours. We delivered 30 pages of WSI WebWords premium, search engine optimized content. They now rank in the top three for MORE than 30 highly sought after search terms in their market! I don't need to tell you what this has done for their business.

LAW FIRM RESULTS
I have an 84 page web ranking report for an ERISA law firm in Chicago. Each page shows 5-10 search terms for which they are ranking in the top ten and most of those are in the top three. They have purchased over 300 WSI WebWords pages. They continue to dominate the Chicago market and are starting to move into the national market for highly competitive search terms. (search "chicago ERISA attorneys" - DDBChicago.com is our client.)

REAL ESTATE RESULTS
Type "hamptons waterfront homes" and our client is likely to come up first in Google search engine results pages (knows as the SERPS). Kerrigan Country Realty has been able to eliminate their other online paid marketing campaigns and continue to dominate their real estate market. They have written a nice testimonial (click to see it and others).

TRUCK DRIVER TRAINING COMPANY RESULTS
WSI installed 100 pages of WSI WebWords. Traffic immediately jumped from 300-400 hits per day to 1000-2000 PER DAY!

Just so you guys know that this isn't "THEORY". We've put this into play for major retailers like Ebay, Amazon etc. Obviously, if you pick your markets you won't have to spend nearly as much as they are but you can literally own your place on the web.

Dominating the search engines - It can happen to you

Greg Newell (Business Improvement Technology Inc.) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:26:47 -0700

I know, I know, everyone says there are no promises. Well I can promise you this. If you feed the search engines what they want, they will reward you with hits to your website.

I own a webservices business serving the Dayton and Cincinnati region. You can see my website at www.wsiNetReturns.com . We have a new service that can help your company truly achieve the search engine results you want to achieve with your website. Please read on.

Jupiter research found that six out of seven sales resulting from search engines originated in the organic search listings. Statistically, if your website does not land on the first page of search results, less than 20% of searchers even see the link to your website. The viewership of the sponsored listings is even less.

Here's the issue. Search Engine Optimization service providers typically focus on Site SEO and Inbound Links. To worsen the situation, recently Google has demoted sites with reciprocal links. Most SEO service firms ignore the most obvious component to results. In order to get great exposure in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages), this formula works best:

Content (75%) + Links (20%) + Site SEO (5%) = SUCCESS!

So LET'S FIX THE PROBLEM. WSI WebWords (www.wsiWebWords.com ) is an affordable service that will greatly increase the exposure your business website on the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN by adding relavent content. Sites that are capitalized with this product will receive the following benefits:

• An increase in relevant visitors
• Higher conversion rates
• A Measureable growth in ROI
• In Increase in the value of your website to your business
• Sustainable website results

The number one reason that you are not showing up high in the search results is CONTENT. For most web service companies, this is NOT an easy problem to resolve. Normally, the business owner must produce that content because web firms don't have the knowledge. NOT SO with WSI WebWords! WSI WebWords in a network of hundreds of copywriters covering all areas of industry and business. Our content is unique and relavent to your business and your website. Please check our testimonials to discover the results that we've been able to achieve. www.wsiWebWords.com/testimonials (Notice the Real Estate Testimonial in particular).

Best Regards,
Greg Newell
WSI - www.wsiNetReturns.com
937-319-4419