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7 Reasons Why Forced Registrations Will Ultimately Hurt Your Business

For a long time the standard in the RE industry has been to force website visitors to give their personal information in order to utilize features on an agent or broker site. And this actually was a really good idea… back in 1992. It is 2009 and users have different expectations about their internet experience. With search products like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and countless others, the average internet user expects to be able to utilize all of the features they want without having to give up their coveted information. Their expectations don’t change just because they are searching for properties on your site.

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Posted by David Carroll on 07/10/2009 11:19 AM

Comments (9)

forced registration, idx, lead capture

Originally posted at: My New Outside Blog: 7 Reasons Why Forced Registrations Will Ultimately Hurt Your Business

Post is included in group: Tech Corner
Post is included in group: Real Estate Technology

9 Comments on 7 Reasons Why Forced Registrations Will Ultimately Hurt Your Business

JUL

Right on David.

Seth Godin said it perfectly in "Permission Marketing", the book that opened my eyes to the internet consumer.

My preference as a consumer is to searach websites without registering. If registration is required, I just move on. For that reason, I don't require registrataion for access to IDX searches on my website or blog. Yet some people are having great success with Activerain's partner, Growth Leader. Each of us is different, and one size simply does not fit all.

The best Ah ha of the year for me. Totally contradictory to all I have been taught, yet I refused to comply with the teachers in fear of losing my reputation with my sphere. I always brought this up and the reply would be: are you capturing your sphere? I said, I don't know about the word "capture", but my sphere is listing their homes with us...buying their homes with us and referring clients to us.

All I have to say is WOW.....thank you........

Dan, thank you for pointing that out. You are spot on. For those who want a brief summary of "Permission Marketing," check out this short blog post from Seth Godin: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/permission-mark.html.

Your comment alone has prompted me to begin a new post on this topic. I'll send you an update in few.

Tim, man, you nailed it. The conventional school of thought on this is "capture." The emphasis needs to be on "engage." Don't get me wrong, I believe you have to capture the anonymous visitor first, then engage with them as people, not leads. That's how the relationship should begin. I'm working on another blog. Will post shortly.

I just posted another entry to expand on the correlation between "Permission Marketing" and "Why Forced Registration is Bad" Check it out here: http://activerain.com/blogsview/1148499/part-1-forced-registration-is-a-false-sense-of-permission-marketing-

JUL

I'm with Margaret...I actually have a throw-away e-mail that I register with if I REALLY want to visit a site; however, I use it less and less now - I just move on and the the information elsewhere!

JUL

David - I used to agree with you, but I've changed my mind. Kellr Williams has an IDX provider called Wolfnet that allows me to adjust how many times a user can view properties befor gving me an e-mail address and phone number. i make sure that the product I give them is superior to the competition, and let them use it 4 times without signing n. The 5th home they view will require a sign in. After making this change in January, I've have 246 valid phone numbers and e-mail addresses captured so far. Before requiring a sign in, I was getting less than 5 a month.

I did a lot of experimenting, and moving the number to 10 doesn't seem to capture many, and signing in before viewing anything was a disaster.

Larry -> A jump from 5 / month to an average of approx 40 / month is AWESOME!!!! I've definitely given Wolfnet credit for taking a step in the right direction with lead capture. However, it's not enough. There are still too many qualified buyers left on the table as missed opportunities? The savvy internet and qualified consumer, not yet ready to commit to potentially being spam bombed, still has the opportuntiy to circumvent this with fake information or simply leave.

But this is the best you've had to work with until now. Excitement aside, how many unique visitors per month do you get? How many of those 40 registrations / month have you qualified as ready and able buyers and how many of those have become your friends, err... um... clients ;)? These numbers are always fun to review because they create a baseline of where you are and then give you an idea of how much more you can increase your conversion of qualified visitors to clients.

Anonymous Registration gives you a lot more room to work with in your baseline by capturing 100% of your visitors. It is from this new baseline that you can begin qualifying those that are serious by their visitation activity. The qualification process evolves as you begin to engage with those more active visitors and before "they" realize it, you guys have started building a client agent relationship. Not everyone will respond or be captured. However, there is no doubt that you will cast a much wider net if you introduce Anonymous Registration to your marketing strategy.

That said, we do provide the option for agents to force registrations. We just don't recommend it ;).

All the best,

David Carroll, Founder Dude (a.k.a. CEO)

softRealty.com

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