With the market making noise, now’s a great time to evaluate and freshen your website. Here are six strategies to hit the ground running in 2012, says Tricia Andreassen, CEO/founder of Pro Step Marketing.
1
Make sure you have a strong MLS search tool on the front page of your site. Having an interactive search tool where the visitor can choose a specific town, price range and even property type can be a powerful way to compel them to want to click-through and access listings. "Having an IDX-integrated search on the home page eliminates the need for buyers or sellers to click-through three or four levels just to view homes," said Andreassen.
2
Double-check that you are the point of contact on every listing when the visitor searches the MLS. If you are driving people to the MLS search, don’t forget that the name of the game is lead generation. Make sure they can ask for more information easily, schedule a showing or even share the listing with a friend in a matter of seconds, all while positioning yourself as the point of contact and keeping an eye on the activity.
3
Build specialized buttons right on the front page so that visitors to your site can get information for what specifically interests them. For example, create buttons dedicated to "one-level living" or for "properties close to downtown."
4
Consider a built-in blog within your site. This way your website has components for lead capture through search engines and your blog is working to add content and build relevance for the search engines. Do so, however, only if you feel you have the time and inclination to make the blog interesting and to keep it updated. "Make sure your visitors have the ability to retweet your information as well as share it in Facebook and other social media channels," said Andreassen.
5
Incorporate social media-share features onto every page in your website. People want to see information and then they want to "like" it or share it on their Facebook wall or on their Twitter account.
6
Use built-in email campaigns so you can easily send specific emails to targeted groups. For example, let’s say you come across a great foreclosure deal and you want to let your foreclosure buyer pipeline know about it. "Have the tools so that you can email the entire group within moments to let them know about the new listing," Andreassen said.
Thank you to Old Republic Readers Digest, March 2012 edition for this article.
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