Capturing Leads off your website

[Paulkaplan5]

Wondering what other agents have used to successfully capture leads off your website? I get tons of hits on my site, but very few registrations.

I've seen some websites that require registration to search homes- however I'm told that many potential buyers will immediately navigate to another site if they see that.

So at what point do you try to get potential clients to fill out a registration form? What works for you?
Thanks for your advice.

[Markz]

There are lots of options what might work for one person but may not for another, most do a trial and error to see first.

Saying that if you are getting a lot of hits why not try registration after viewing a certain amount of properties or to view in more detail.

[webmaster]

Paul, if everyone left that was forced to register, then why would users still have it turned on?

I advocate forced registration via IDX for anyone who doesn't have enough leads - (If volume gets so high you can't manage it, you might think about turning it off for a while)

Check out some of our sites that will all tell you they do well with leads:
http://www.eddykicker.com
http://www.jimolenbush.com
http://www.jakemarsh.com
http://www.bellingham-realestate.net

Notice anything similar? They all use the same type of registration. You should to

[coastal]

I've given free access to all of my sites for years with great success but with the market the way it is I'm finally going to break down and create a site with forced registration to see if it makes a difference, not so much the quantity of leads but the quality of leads.

In this lousy market I still get tons of leads from my sites but most of them are just asking me time wasting questions. My thought is that if I treat them well now maybe they'll come back when they are actually ready to buy. The problem is it's very time consuming being nice and providing excellent service for 20 people a day when there is a good chance they will never buy.

[rvolk75]

You should also see how your competition has it setup. For example, the sites that I compete with, most the sites that are on the first page, don't require registration.

I do have registration setup, but I'm thinking of turning it off once I go with the new REW template and IDX. I currently average about 2 leads per day, which is not enough. I know my site sucks now and I'm getting about 60 unique visitors per day. If I'm going to compete with my competition, I think I have to turn the forced registration off.

[loudog]

I have had great success with the hybrid model.

I give free access to a limited amount of of information (One pic, beds, baths, price, etc.) then force the registration when the user wants more detail on a specific listing. I believe this to work the best for two reasons. 1. A system of "give me something and I will give you something" seems to develop rapport with the user. 2. At the point when a user has arrived at the detail of a listing (after entering search criteria) they become invested. If they abandon your site at this point they will have to re-enter their search criteria at some other site and sometimes that is more difficult then filling out a reg form. In addition, they have drilled down to a listing that they are seemingly interested in, the curiosity alone will get them to register.

The testing I have done with putting a reg form before your listing search had in increase in bounce rate.

[Michael Paul Eau Claire]

Lou, I like your philosophy on user registration. Did REW program this hybrid model for you?

[loudog]

Sure did.

[webmaster]

It's actually standard practice nothing super custom, we always enable registration that way Do a search, see a listing then if you are interested enough in a listing to click details (give us your info sucka!)

There is not a single customer I can think of that have tested both (Properly) that have ever gone back to no registration once they turned it on - and trust me I had to ARGUE with some of my customers just to get them to do what I knew was good for them

What your competition is doing is irrelevant - be the first site to build confidence and offer the right tools, and they don't mind registration at all

Lou, I like your philosophy on user registration. Did REW program this hybrid model for you?

[Joe Cline Austin]

damn. most people who voted get most of their leads from the website??? That seems pretty cool if you can strip your competitors of their main lead source as easily as stealing a higher SERP ranking. I started by learning from the folks who have farms and built a long term business. I think the web is important, but seems like having that as your largest source of leads is potentially dangerous.

Joe