Getting visitors and creating a strong brand for your website is one thing. Converting those who visit your website is a different story. If you're like me or any other website owner, you probably care more about the results you get from your site than how many people visit it (unless you're monetizing your site with ads).

This week's advice will provide you with some insight into how to convert the actual individuals who are arriving at your site - assuming that people are currently getting there.

Quick Tip #2 For Real Estate Marketing

This one will require some forethought and study. Sit down and consider what you do better than everyone else in your industry or field. Make a list of roughly 10-15 items that you can give a prospective client better, faster, more effectively, and efficiently than your competition. Do you know what your competitors do? Visit their websites and see what they try to sell you. After you've completed all of this, you can go to my second advice for making your site work for you:

Plan out the top three things you want users to do once they arrive at your site and place them on it.

If you're wondering what I mean by "things for people to do," here's some clarification in the form of examples:

1) Go to your "Contact" page and enter their email address, name, and phone number.

2) Sign up for your email newsletters.

3) Contact you by phone or email for a free market study report or house evaluation.

Are You Getting The Picture?

Although the three examples above are considered quite poor these days, they do demonstrate the importance of developing a strategy of true "calls to action" to persuade visitors to submit you with their contact information. People are much more sophisticated these days and will find a way to acquire what they need somewhere else without having to supply any information, so you really need to be much more inventive to create leads from your website. This is a far stronger motivation for you to think about what you can provide individuals to encourage them to become leads for you, whether they realize it or not.

Here are some examples of "calls to action" or lead conversion strategies that I've observed that still outperform the standard "contact form" or "have questions?"

Create a prominent button on your homepage that provides people with "Automated Email Updates" of properties that match their search criteria. The hitch is that this is all automated, which means they don't have to talk to you if they don't want to. Don't be offended...you're getting what you want (their email address to add to your email marketing list), and they're getting those free email updates that save them time scouring thousands of various websites.

Provide informative content for buyers, sellers, tenants, and investors, among others. Don't promote the conventional "Tips for Buyers" or "Tips for Sellers" articles because they're uninteresting and overused. Instead, highlight some specific, helpful articles or newsletters such as "The Top 5 Things to Save You Money When Buying a Home" or "Learn How to Get $25,000 More When Selling Your Home."

Does That Make Sense?

These items should not be copied or stolen from other websites; instead, they should be unique to you and what you can actually give better and faster than anybody else. Also, do not rely on or cling to these indefinitely. Change things up, split test them, check what works, fine-tune or discard what doesn't.

Whether we prefer to think otherwise, a website is never "finished." If you leave it alone, it will do exactly that....sit and do nothing for you. So, go creative, consider your business and what you can provide, and use those to encourage visitors to visit your website. When designing these things, ask yourself if you would share your personal information in exchange for what you are offering. If not, what makes you think it will entice others to do so?

Best wishes! Please email us your suggestions, either privately or as a comment, and we will let you know if you are on the right track or not. We've seen it all and know what works and what doesn't, so give us a shot!