Your Web Site, Ideas or suggestions for mine

[GRIDcorp]

I am building a web site and would like to see yours. Does anyone have any advice on what to do and not to do?

[fadi]

What is the website for? what do you plan to accomplish from it, and how will people get to it?

[GRIDcorp]

1. The website will be GRIDPittsburgh.com

2. My main objective is to give sellers another way to get in touch with me and leave informatin to get in touch with them if they do not want to call. Also I would like to build credibility.

3. I plan to Rehab properties, or wholesale to buyers if I can't get to it right away or finances do not allow. Also to let buyers see the property online.

4. I also plan to do before and after photos of a rehab or two a virtual tour if you will for invetors looking for turn key rental units.

5. I plan to market aggressivley using Direct Mail, Bandit Signs, Print, and maybe a billboard. I want to really saturate the market with my name from the start, I am trading construction work to a printer for design and printing. I was also a member of a business to business trade group and was thinking of getting back into that work and build up some trade credits through the slow months. This will pay for the billboard(s), as well as the dirct mail along with my own cash.

6. The site will also be listed with search engines, and looking into that more. I also plan to create a myspace page, facebook, and youtube. Myspace for testimonials and such and you tube for some how to stuff of remodeling and rehabbing.

[fadi]

Too many things to cover in a post... I will just summorize some points...

1. The website name is ok for corporate website, should communicate to the seller what you do... fastcash.com, getyourcashfast.com kind of name

2. So you need a website for sellers to read about you, and submit their properties online. I would highly recommend having a sales letter type of site. Something along the lines of this site, although I am not a huge fan of it http://www.abuyer4you.com/

3. There is so much stated here, you want a seperate website for buyers, and a 3rd site for investors if you want to do it right... I am not sure I like the idea of regular buyers seeing the pricing for investors... but that is your call and highly depend on what you want to do with it.

4. So you need the capability to list houses, how do you plan to do this? buy readg made website or custom build it?

5. You are going to waste so much money. DO NOT SPEND MONEY on branding. Branding is a byproduct of your marketing. Start small and test different direct marketing concepts till you find the one that works. By the way, you are going to ignore this advice and you will start big and try to brand and waste so much money

6. You will not get much traction from Search engines unless you give them content to index. Expect to take a year or two to publicize your site. For now, you need to rely on your direct marketing. Don't emphesize your website though. You're in the business of buying and selling, not promoting a website. The website is just a tool.

Hope this helps

[nsu1997]

Agreeing with everything fadi said!

One other suggestion - you may want your site to point directly to a form to capture seller info. I configured my site to do just that, and so far it's working great. I figure hey they already know they want to sell their house, I don't need to convince them any further - just provide the means to do so. Totally up to you. See www.NeedOutASAP.com

Pointing your URL to a good sales letter like fadi said is great as well. Just make sure it's a direct-response oriented sales letter that talks about THEM, THEIR problems, and how YOU are their solution. And make sure there's a form at the bottom for the seller to fill out.

Oh and please take fadi's advice - do NOT focus on branding. Nobody cares about that stuff. Instead, develop a "unique selling proposition" that states how you can solve a homeseller's problems and put it in all your marketing. The media formats you listed are fine, just make sure the message is direct-response oriented.

Good luck!

[fadi]

I agree with nsu as well, my website has the form on every page running down the left side of the pages so they can contact me directly. This gives them the psychological direction to contact me right away.

[RealEstateBlackBook]

One other thing I would suggest. 

When asking people to fill out a form on the site, I would suggest to ask them only for their name and email address as opppose to asking them for their entire house data. 

I don't know about others, but I don't like giving my mortgage payment, location, and other information on a website I have never been to before or have never had a contact with the owner before.

That way, when you ask just for a name and email, the owner can start receiving emails from you and you start building relationship with him/her. 

Then, after few emails, you can direct them to the form that asks for everything.  I think you'll end up getting higher response and better quality info.

Peter

[fadi]

I ask few main questions to help me determine if I want to pursue and call. I get house stats and other data from county records online and zillow

Name
Phone
Best time to call

Address
Zip

How soon you want to sell

House Value
Asking Price

Comment

[RealEstateBlackBook]

have you tested it out to see if your form converts better at asking just name and email or with the items you have right now? 

if now, I would split test your form to see which one will convert better.  Who knows, maybe asking just name and email address will convert higher for you and then you can contact them via email.  That way, your prospect can see that he/she is talking to an ACTUAL person and they'll be more inclined to give you their info.

Peter

[fadi]

also I am all for testing, my logic has been that if the prospect wants to talk to real person, they can call me. I do display it multiple times throughout my main site and in big letters. The form is an alternative way if they choose not to call, not the primary contact method.

Once they fill out the form, I do ask them again to call me if they like to talk to me right away.

The idea here is that if they wanted to talk to someone, they would have done so already. They chose that method because they felt more comfortable doing it online.

Now, I must add... I do fool them into thinking they will be getting an instant offer on their house if they choose by filling out the form, but I don't tell them the offer will be done by me calling them and not automated so they have a reason to fill out the address and information.

from your testing, have you noticed higher conversion rate or higher contact volume?

[GRIDcorp]

Again thanks, I will be setting up 2 sites one o use to market properties and another to gather leads. Very good advice that I will follow. Also thanks for the idas on the form data I will route it to my iphone and get them instantly. Look for the site here in a few days to let me know what you think.

[RealEstateBlackBook]

Now, I must add... I do fool them into thinking they will be getting an instant offer on their house if they choose by filling out the form, but I don't tell them the offer will be done by me calling them and not automated so they have a reason to fill out the address and information.

from your testing, have you noticed higher conversion rate or higher contact volume?

Fadi,

Just be careful not to fool them too much, if you know what I mean.  These days, especially with what is going on in the mortgage industry, (mortgage crisis, mortgage fraud, Government taking over Freddie Mac and Fennie Mae,) people are very skeptical about giving out their info. 

Just make sure that you invoke trust and empathy into your relationship with your prospects, that's all.  It's harder to do it online so you need to be extra careful.

As for conversion rates, I found out that I get much higher conversion when asking them just for their name and email.  I also give them a little bribe, a free gift, when they give me their email. 

On my lead generation site for real estate investors, I have received as much as 62% conversion rate.  That means, that out of 100 people showing up on my site, 62 of them gave me their email.

Testing is extremely important, I can't stress that enough.

Hope this helps.

Peter

[fadi]

Peter,

That is not conversion, that is lead generation. Conversion is the number of deals you get from these leads. I can offer customers full price and get 100% response, but that is never the point. The point is getting a deal done.

I do get what you're saying however. Rather than prescreening them at the entry point, prescreen them after you captured their information and try to sell them afterwards.

I would still capture property address along with the name and phone/email. if I am to split test it, I would drop the asking price, house value and reason for selling and moving these to a later stage in my contact. That is a good point.

By doing that however, you are trading more work for more leads. The question becomes, are the more leads worth the effort? that is where conversion rate becomes critical. If I get 300% increase in response but no increase in conversion, then it is extra work that is not rewarding. If I get more conversion/deals then absolutely.

I must say however, it all has to fit the big picture. One of the story I pride myself with when I got a call from a seller who saw my website and read my sales letter on my website (very weak one I may ad, just no time to update it).
He called his agent, CANCELLED the listing contract then called me to SELL me his house! He sounded so excited to have found me. I felt both sorry for him because I could not buy his house based on the price range, but so delighted to know my website does work.

I also get many people who will call me directly and not submit online. I find those who submit online are usually shy and do not want to initiate the contact.

I will test doing it without asking for the numbers next time I do a marketing campaign to see what my ratios will look like. It will be an interesting test.

Best Regards,

Fadi

[RealEstateBlackBook]

Peter,

That is not conversion, that is lead generation. Conversion is the number of deals you get from these leads. I can offer customers full price and get 100% response, but that is never the point. The point is getting a deal done.

Fadi,
Conversion doesn't necessarily ONLY mean that.  Conversion comes in all different sizes.  When I get a lead on my site through lead generation, let it be through online or offline marketing, and that lead gives me their name and email, the # of people who actually give me their name and email, accounts for the conversion rate. 

I can track my conversion rate for the # of people who give me their name & number, conversion rate for how many people confirm the double opt-in process, conversion rate for how many people actually sell me their house, and more.

So, there are a lot of different types of conversion tracking rates you can have. 

I do get what you're saying however. Rather than prescreening them at the entry point, prescreen them after you captured their information and try to sell them afterwards.

I would still capture property address along with the name and phone/email. if I am to split test it, I would drop the asking price, house value and reason for selling and moving these to a later stage in my contact. That is a good point.

By doing that however, you are trading more work for more leads. The question becomes, are the more leads worth the effort? that is where conversion rate becomes critical. If I get 300% increase in response but no increase in conversion, then it is extra work that is not rewarding. If I get more conversion/deals then absolutely.

That's a good point.  However, the way I see it is that it all depends on the kinds of leads you are trying to generate.  For instance, you'll need to look differently at targeting motivated sellers who need to sell their house in the next 30 days than buyers who are looking to buy a house in the next 6 months.

Either way, if you automate your system through autoresponders, list management software, etc. it shouldn't be too much extra work.

Also, you never know what the visitor really feels like.  For instance, visitor may be extremely motivated to sell the house but because of his past experience online, he doesn't feel safe giving away all of the information.  So, he leaves the site.   

I must say however, it all has to fit the big picture. One of the story I pride myself with when I got a call from a seller who saw my website and read my sales letter on my website (very weak one I may ad, just no time to update it).
He called his agent, CANCELLED the listing contract then called me to SELL me his house! He sounded so excited to have found me. I felt both sorry for him because I could not buy his house based on the price range, but so delighted to know my website does work.

I also get many people who will call me directly and not submit online. I find those who submit online are usually shy and do not want to initiate the contact.

I will test doing it without asking for the numbers next time I do a marketing campaign to see what my ratios will look like. It will be an interesting test.

Best Regards,

Fadi

Congrats Fadi.  That's great. 

Here's an idea for your testing.  Ask for name and email and add an optional field for their phone number.  Make sure you specify that the field is optional.  That way, if the person wants to leave you their number to have you call right away, they will.  Otherwise, you can contact them through email.   

[maryburton]

The question is too general... do you have the link live already?