Calls to action

[FairwayandIsle]

I am in desperate need to add calls to action on my site ... currently there are "Contact Us" links but that is about it.

My question to the "brain trust" that is REW ... What do you find to be the best calls to actions?

[Discover Davis Homes]

Besides the contact us links you can also put a contact us form on some of the pages - one of my new goals is to try and figure out how to make the site more interactive - by that I mean to make it somehow more welcoming to visitors to ask questions - don't really have a clear vision of how that would work - but that certainly could be considered a call to action.

[FairwayandIsle]

Carolyn, I guess that is where I am at as well. I was think about adding RSS links and email newsletter sign ups ...

[RESteve]

I feel that your primary focus should be to drive everyone to your property search. Statistically speaking; most consumers that visit a real estate site are going there to look at homes for sale.

If you get them to your property search and have a IDX setup that forces registration, or if open - is compelling enough to get people to contact you then "mission accomplished".

There are two types of calls to action (let's call it CTA) that I feel should be on a real estate site:

1) CTA to IDX - Different graphics and catching banners could drive traffic to your IDX. It's important to have high quality and subtle, yet eye-catching graphics in your advertisements. No flashing red/yellow neon signs, please.

2) CTA to Value Items - A CTA that guides the user to request a CMA, or get a report of some kind, also works well.

You can hire REW's awesome staff to make most of the CTAs for you.

[FairwayandIsle]

Steve you make a good point and give me a few things to think about...

However, I don't see whats wrong with flashing neon (just kidding, I think flashing neon is hideous)

[Discover Davis Homes]

Steve I agree getting them to the IDX is key - but I'm also trying to think of ways to make the site more interactive to try and build more trust with visitors. There does seem to be some consumers who like the Q&A features of sites like Trulia - why not try and replicate some of that on our local sites. Still thinking about this - but definitely the direction I'm heading.

[SLP-NYCT]

I saw a site that had an Ask an Expert box. The user/visitor could type a question into the box and get an e-mail response. Same thing as a contact us page, but seemed much less intimidating. I do like the Q&A idea too. We could do that with a Blog though, no? Otherwise you can incorporate a forum like this for people which I tried before, but it was not successful. I found that once people decide to contact you, there is no need for the Forum. I also like the idea of a searchable Q&A database.

[FairwayandIsle]

I like the Ask an Expert box idea it is a good way to capture emails as well (although you would probably have to watch out for spam rules). Q&A on a blog is a great idea. There is no shortage of topics that cold be covered.