BRER Real Estate Marketing Blog

A Message from Kathleen:  If you read Sam’s last post here about how he quadrupled his Internet leads, you’ll know about the changes he made to his website that had such amazing results.  Now, he’s back to let us know how that increase in leads has translated into business.  And, you’ll see some of my comments in italics.

I put a call to action on every page of my Austin real estate website in the top right corner.  It contains a link to an MLS map search, my contact information, a link to email me, and a link to my blog.

I did that at the very end of November, and immediately started getting more calls, emails and registrations on my site than ever before.  Since I started tracking on February 1, I have received 143 phone calls and emails, and have had over 800 registrations on my site.  OK, but what about conversion? 

We all know that most Internet leads don’t convert quickly.  But, at this point, I have one listing, four homes under contract and one closing as a result of internet leads since February 1.  I am also working with four buyers who should be under contract by the end of August, and I have two $1 million+ referrals out that should close this summer.  Not bad!

For over a year, my site’s ranking on the search engines has fluctuated from #3 to #8 and everywhere in between for the term Austin real estate, #3 or #4 for Austin real estate blog, between #3 and #5 for Austin homes, #1 or #2 for Lake Travis real estate, and up there for a whole bunch of long tail results.  My short tail makes up around 15% of results. 

So part of getting the leads is a result of getting my site ranked well in the search engines, but before I made the call to action change, I wasn’t getting even 10% of what I am getting now.

• This is a great example of the power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  You’ll notice that while Sam has evidently done a lot of work to rank for his main keywords, his long tail results (ranking for terms that are related to your main keywords) are also impressive.  If the traffic from his short tail (main keywords) is only 15%, that means that 85% of his traffic comes from related keywords.  This is a situation unique to doing SEO on a site - using pay per click, for example, will produce traffic as long as you’re paying for specific keyword placement, but you’ll never get traffic from related keywords!
• Another factor to keep in mind is the fact that Sam provides a map-based MLS search provided by WolfNet.  While he had the Wolfnet search on his site long before his leads increased so dramatically, I believe that using a more sophisticated search may be contributing to his results. 
• Sam is requiring registration after the visitor views three listings.  The fact that 1) he has a map search tool, and 2) he can give his visitors some information before registration is required may have something to do with his visitors’ willingness to create an account.  When I asked him about that, he described how he gets his search to work so well:

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This is the second in a ongoing series named Insider Insight.   I’ll be publishing posts from, or conversations with, brokers and agents who are willing to share their expertise and insight into topics that are discussed on this blog.  The first post in this series was by Sam Chapman - I just hadn’t decided to create the category until today!

This is a discussion with Priscilla Allen who markets San Antonio TX real estate.  Priscilla and the Allen Realty Group team increased sales $9,000,000.00.  In 2006 hers was the 16^th top team in San Antonio, and for 2007 she was awarded the 10^th top team in San Antonio, with only three team members.  She has now added two more buyers’ agents and a full time Home Stager and decorator.

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Q: How did you manage that increase in your sales?

Priscilla:  It’s because of my website.  First, you and I worked together to update the website, then I started working with your SEO partner, Blackwater Consulting.   The results have been outstanding.

Q: You know, there are a lot of real estate professionals that aren’t getting that kind of results from their websites.  Now that you have a professional site and some traffic (thanks for the plugs!), let’s talk about how you turn the traffic into leads.

Where do most of your leads come from - are they filling out forms on your site?

Priscilla: Most of the traffic comes from being found on search engines.  Sometimes people are using the calculator or filling out a form, but 95% of the people who contact me are looking at homes or want to see a listing.

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A Message from Kathleen:  This is the first guest post on the BRER Blog.  I’m lucky that Sam Chapman agreed to contribute this post, and I look forward to his future contributions, too.  The issue of requiring registration before a visitor can search the MLS on a real estate website is a hotly contested one.  It may not work in every market as it has for Sam, but it’s certainly worth considering!

A Couple Changes Have Made a Big Difference

I made a couple of fundamental changes to my highly ranked Austin real estate website at the very end of November.  As a result, the number of leads I have generated from the website has absolutely skyrocketed.  What did I do?

First, I put a large Search Austin Homes link at the top right of every page on my website.  Right below that, I put my contact information.  My thinking was that people would be drawn to the link as they see it on every page.  My statistics also show that around 95% of visitor time is looking at listings.  Having the contact information has resulted in an average of just under one email or phone call to me per day by potential buyers.  Prior to the change, I was getting around 6 per month.  That is an enormous change!

The other significant change I made was forcing visitors to register to view listings.  On my search by map page, people get detailed views of listings that they click on.  I give one free detailed view and then ask them to register.  Of the top sites that show up on Google when searching the term Austin real estate, half force registration. 

Of those, mine is the only one that offers at least one free detailed view, the rest force registration right away.

How Things Changed

Before forcing registrations, my stats show that people were seeing around 10,000 detailed views of listings per month.  Since the changes, people are seeing almost 40,000 detailed views.  This has resulted in around 150 registrations per month.  Before the changes, I was getting around 20 per month.  Again, a huge increase in leads!

When people register, they have to enter a name, a phone number and an email.  So far I am finding that around 70% of the information is real and will actually get me in touch with someone.  Of the people my team and I are able to reach by phone or email, we’re finding that around 11% are resulting in a relationship.  By this I mean ongoing phone calls, emails, appointments or custom searches being set up.

Tracking the Bottom Line

How many of these will actually close is something that I really want to see.  As most internet leads are around 6-9 months or more before they actually start seeing properties in Austin, that is a number I won’t have for a while.  However, I am extremely encouraged with what has happened since the beginning of December and feel that I am going to see very strong sales this year and in years to come.

This post was contributed by guest author and Austin REALTOR® Sam Chapman.  Sam has lived and worked in the Austin area for almost 20 years.  Sam primarily works in the south Lake Travis area and western parts of Austin, but can refer buyers to agents who specialize in parts of the greater Austin area.