How do YOU increase conversion?

[sebfrey]

Hey all!

Increasing conversion is something I'm very interested in. I have a decent amount of traffic to my sites, and a decent amount of leads (a couple of week, at the moment). Most of these folks are signing up to receive automated MLS listings via e-mail, and some of them (2-3 year) turn into sales. Most people don't give out their phone numbers, and most e-mails I send out go un-answered. Are there any web sites out there that deal with turning Real Estate web site leads into genuine clients?

Thanks.

[ColumbusOnline]

On my old boss' website at http://www.dennishogg.com I set it up so that it shows a lot of content available, but in order to access the content they had to register first. This includes the MLS search. By doing that he gets 5-10 leads per day, of which 1-2 / day are probably legitimate. You just have to power through the bad leads to find the good ones.

[sebfrey]

That's cool! I don't really have a problem getting leads off my web sites, I probably get an average of 1 per day. My question is how do you CONVERT these web leads into clients? What techniques work best?

[kensmith]

Response time is VERY important. Catch them before they even get off the computer and you have a chance at converting them. Anything over 24 hours is going to be a very poor conversion rate.

[San Diego Real Estate]

Ken...I totally agree...what kind of systems do you have in place to help with this! If you are getting a decent number of leads each day what would you suggest for improving conversion?

[kensmith]

Nothing special, just quick follow up whenever possible.

[sebfrey]

I've always gotten back to folks right away - generally within 24 hours, usually within several minutes of them providing me an e-mail address. Now, I have folks on an e-mail drip system where they periodically will recieve items of value from me in their e-mail. This has yet to result in any noticeable increase in conversion.

Any more ideas, anyone?

[San Diego Real Estate]

Is this a drip mail from your log in on your website or a third party system?

[skipfactor]

Catch them before they even get off the computer and you have a chance at converting them.

Well said and it works. They practically spook when you hit them 5-minutes after they mail. I'm sure those who practice this will attest to how many times we've heard, "You're the only agent that's responded". As an online shopper, personally, I'm much more apt to impulse convert if I can't find a product/service and then finally find it properly marketed on a living, breathing site.

Anything over 24 hours is going to be a very poor conversion rate.

Definitely, after 24 hours the excitement has waned and they're thinking about a new Benz instead of that second home.

How do YOU increase conversion?

First impressions are perhaps more important in email than they are in person since your potential customer has probably already emailed other agents. It’s typically your first response to that first interview question—show intelligence! If you don't shine in the interview, you never hear from them again. 99% of my 1st-time mails are from property detail pages. I like to include in my first reply links to several other very, very similar listings. I can’t tell you how many times I get, “Wow, that’s exactly what we’re looking for”. Bam, I'm hired.

edited for punctuation

[San Diego Real Estate]

Skipfactor...do you have them sign in before they can search homes?