I’m sure you know that you need something on your website that will motivate visitors to contact you.  Otherwise, you end up with a pretty website that may even have a fair number of visitors, but does nothing for you in terms of lead generation.

This post will address the first two things you need to do to provide strong motivation for your real estate website visitors to contact you:

1. Identify a unique, valuable and attention-grabbing offer.
2. Create the offer.
3. Promote the offer.

The best way to set up a real estate website (and your marketing plan) is to identify a niche market.  And, if you do that, identifying compelling propositions is much easier.  For example:

First-Time Homebuyers

If this is your niche, think about the questions that first-time homebuyers ask you.  Is there a way you can put together a booklet to answer those questions?  It could be a booklet that explains the buying process, and perhaps most especially, how to avoid the traps first-timers often fall into.  To identify the traps, just think of all the things you tell your first-timers as opposed to the questions they ask you.

Think about presentation, too.  A booklet called “First-Time Homebuyers Guide” isn’t going to be compelling.  Give the offer a strong name to create an individual identity for it.  How does “Staying Out of Court When Buying Your First Home”.  Maybe a bit strong, but you get the idea.

And, when you put that booklet together, don’t prepare it on plain paper.  Create a letterhead-looking template for the pages that contains your logo and contact information – and don’t forget your web address!

If you’re very creative, you could turn the booklet into a video with you and some of your first-time buyers as the stars. 

Since your goal is to generate leads, set up the offer page to require some contact information before the visitor can access the information.  Don’t make too much information required – you don’t want to scare the prospect.  And, make sure you display  a privacy statement with the form to ensure your visitors that you won’t be selling their contact information, etc.

But, how would you provide a video online?  If you have the ability to put a registration form in front of a page on your site, or before a visitor has access to the offer, that’s great.  If you don’t, you can always use a regular contact form, then send email replies (an auto-responder would be best) that contain a link to the page containing the offer.

Second Home Buyers

Would second home buyers in your area be interested in finding out how to get their second home to pay for itself by renting it when it isn’t being used by the owner?  Put something together that illustrates the feasibility of that happening.  For example home prices/money down/interest rates, calculate the scenarios considering typical rental rates in the area, typical occupancy percentages, etc.

Neighborhoods

If you’re focusing on specific neighborhoods, take the time to meet some of the local business people.  Put together a coupon book for discounts on dining, cleaning, hardware making the local merchants your partners.  It could be you’ll only be out the price of printing the coupons if you play your cards right.

None of these compelling propositions can be identified and developed overnight.  But, let’s say it takes 6 months.  You’ll still be in business — won’t you?  If so, you’ll be in business with a compelling offer or not.  But, you’ll probably enjoy the business more if you have one. . . or two.