Hi Everyone!

It's been a while since I have written a blog about websits but while observing so many on here going in the wrong directions, I figured it was time.  Over the past 5 years I have built my team to 34 Agents at its peak and currently down to 25 Agents as I weed out the Agents who are there to work and those who are there to play. It's amazing to me how many Agents get into this business with no real desire to succeed.  They may want to succeed, but they certainly don't have the work ethic to succeed. I can go on about that subject for an hour or so, but we will keep this one to leads.

So what are you doing to capture leads?  Do you have forced registration?  Do you have teaser listings? Or do you just let people visit your site, use your tools and hope that they hit that "contact me" button.  If you want to see what most Agents are doing, just go to Google, type in "anytown Real Estate" as a keyword and then click on the top 3 sponsored listings.  I'll pretty much guarantee, but I could be wrong in a few areas, that the Agents listed are paying top dollar per click yet do not have a correct landing pages or capture tools. 

Recently I was doing a demo of my 100MPH Marketing Software.  We will be launching both our basic crm product and crm on Steroids in about a week.  Finally after 3 years of development and 1 year of using the software in my office, we are ready.  Anyway, I told my potential customer to pick anytown real estate which he picked Coral Gables Real Estate.  Here are the results of my findings of the top three sponsored listings.

Agent 1 - Top Sponsored Listing - We clicked on her site and it didn't open...it just kept trying to open.  We closed it down a few times and tried again with no success.  The final time we waited a full minute and yet the site didn't open.  Unfortunately for this Agent you have about 10 seconds to capture a visitors attention or they are gone.  After a minute we opened another browser and went to the next Agent site.  Once the site opened it was full of graphics.  It was nice looking, but the graphics to the site were so big it would be tough for anyone to get into this site in 10 seconds.  On top of that the landing page was her home page and there were no capture tools accept for...you guessed it, "contact me".

Agent 2 - 2nd Sponsores Listing - Not much better than the first.  This site did open quickly which was great.  I clicked on the area to search the MLS and went in and did multiple searches.  This person had an IDX solution that allows for registration, but this Agent chooses not to ask for registrations.  I'm sure if you talked with this person they would be excited about all the traffic coming to their site and maybe even about the one or two sales they received the last few months.  However, my question is not about what this Agent received, but how much business did they lose.  Just think, if you are paying on a per click basis, then wouldn't it make sense to try to capture the information of as many as possible of those who clicked?

Agent 3 - 3rd Sponsored Listing - This site was very basic, which I actually like.  It didn't have any of the bells in whistles that would distract visitors away from the IDX.  When I clicked on the IDX, it was a link to the local association IDX which has no potential means of capturing leads. 

So as I went through these sites with my newly enlightened customer, he was amazed at the difference in how much registration is important in Internet Marketing.  Now I know that some of you out there believe this is taboo and bad to do.  In reality, this is a business.  Do you market in other areas just so people can see your listings, or do you do it so the phone will ring?  The Internet is no different than print.  It's all about getting leads.  If you don't believe that, then look at your numbers.  Are you getting anything out of your website?  I'm sure many of you are getting a sale here and there because someone clicked the "contact me" button.  However, have you ever thought of how much business you are losing?

A few years back I did a test and found that my lead capture rate without any capture tool accept contact me was less than 1/2%.  Basically less than 1 person out of 200 contacted me.  I don't remember the exact numbers as this was probably 5 years ago.  We currently have about a 12% capture rate or 12 leads out of 100 visitors.  Sometimes this is as high as 15%-18%.  But let's use 12% as our example.

When we did our non registration test we receive 1 sale out of 10 leads.  Not bad.  However it took 2000 clicks (around $2,000) to get that sale.  Hmmmm...did I really make a profit.  Sure if we sold homes in California or NYC.  However, in Melbourne Florida that's our average commission check.  On top of that, most of you don't spend anywhere near that amount of money even in 6 months.  So are you getting one or two sales per 6 months.  Say you did double my numbers, that's still $1,000 cost per sale.

Let's compare that to what $2,000 in marketing does for even my average Agents who close 1 lead out of 40 leads (my best Agents close 1 out of 24 leads).  2,000 clicks equals 240 leads which equals $8.33 per lead.  This means that each sale (8.33 x 40) cost me $333.  Also, that same $2,000 spent on marketing equaled 6 sales.  Of course this get's even better for my better Agents, but I think you can see the numbers.  They don't lie. 

I have to run to get ready to drive to Atlanta.  My son is turning 30 this weekend which I can't quite fathom.  I was just 30 a few years ago wasn't I?  However, take a look at this and see if it makes sense to you.  There are definitely exceptions out there from Agents who have done well without the forced registrations or teaser listings.  However, based on the hundreds of Agents I talk to from my eHomes Realty Network, this is not the norm.  Being in Real Estate means being in business for yourself.  I can't imagine that anyone would spend a penny on marketing and not want to generate leads.  It's like throwing money away and most importantly, it certainly isn't good business.  I will hear from a few people now and then who think it is just wrong to make people sign up to use your IDX.  Those are the Agents that really need to decide why they have a website.  If it's to generate information for your visitors in the hopes that they like the info enough to contact you, then great.  If you are actually looking at your site as a potential money maker, then you need to rethink your strategy.

I hope that helps some of you in making your decisions.  Don't hesitate to contact me with any questions as I'm always available to help Realtors take their business to the next level.  I'm not just a coach, I'm an active Real Estate Brokerage that has been the number 1 Brokerage in Brevard County in Buyer Transactions for our 3rd year in a row (we have only been in business for 4 years).  A strong Internet program with strong capture and conversion programs will take you to the next level and beyond!