I’ve been building custom real estate websites for many years now, and my clients know that I focus heavily on search engine performance. A lot of my job involves educating clients on the role that graphic design does – or does not – play in the overall success of their site. A wonderful graphic design is great once you have visitors to look at it, but the most beautiful site in the world doesn’t produce leads if no one finds it.

More times than I can count, I’ve had to tell an unhappy real estate agent that the website company they just hired for thousands of dollars to do a beautiful real estate website produced a site that was virtually invisible to the search engines. I’ve seen tens of thousands of dollars wasted on bad sites that could never rank well on the search engines–sites where SEO was never on the list of design considerations.

That’s because many graphic designers are not necessarily trained in search engine optimization, sales, and marketing. That said, everyone likes a nice looking site, and the pride of ownership factor should keep us all striving to produce visually compelling websites and blogs.

For the novice real estate agent/blogger, there is no easier way to spice of a real estate site than with some well-placed real state stock photos. To that end, I encourage all of my Real Estate Marketing Tips newsletter subscribers to invest in a small library of real estate stock photography.

In fact, it might surprise some to find out that studies have shown that relevant stock photography can improve the conversion rate of a site. As an author, you can hold the attention of your readership longer with some graphics to break up the text.

As a writer, I prefer more text than rather than less, but that’s not the norm. The right amount of graphics can dramatically increase the professionalism of your site and conversion rate.

You should experiment with what works in your market for your site. You may find that stock photos of homes get better response, or you may find that stock photos of smiling happy couples standing in front of their house work better. There is no single rule. That’s why it’s best to have a variety of stock photos to choose from.

The way I personally manage my stock photo collection is I subscribe to a monthly service that allows me to download 750 photos per month. I subscribe for one month at a time when I want to expand my collection, then I have them on hand for future website, blog posts, flyers, and other marketing materials.

Kevin Harper is an experienced web developer and real estate SEO consultant who builds Realtor websites utilizing real estate stock photos. He publishes a free Real Estate Marketing Tips Newsletter and has a press release copywriting service delivering maximum SEO and media impact. Kevin can be reached at 208-249-8893.

One of the best technologies to come down the pike in recent years has been call capture, a system by which you can buy 800 numbers to track the source of your lead generation. This is a growth industry, with many technology companies vying for the lead spot in providing call capture software and systems to customers in many different vertical markets.

Some of the markets where the technology is increasingly producing stunning results for those willing to apply it are:

• Real estate marketing
• Mortgage origination
• Online marketing and coaching
• Any marketing campaign that uses phone-generated leads

How it works

Without getting into the technical details of how a typical system works, the outcome is something like the following:

1. The marketer purchases or subscribes to call capture software, usually a hosted web application that acts as a control panel for the marketing campaigns set up to use the system.

2. In the best systems, the marketer can buy phone numbers like web marketers buy domains. Ideally, each phone number will only appear in one advertisement venue, so the performance of that campaign can be tracked closely. The cost for phone numbers varies from $5 to $20 per month, depending on the company and the volume of calls.

3. Next, the marketer advertises in several publications using different call capture phone numbers. For instance, one number may be used for Craigslist ads, another for a particular print publication, and another on the company website.

4. Then you sit back and watch the results to measure performance and collect leads from each source.

Information collected in call capture

Different call capture systems collect varying amounts of sales intelligence and contact information from a lead. Most provide the number the lead called from, even if their number is normally blocked. Most also provide systems for requesting specific information, often in return for free downloads, website access, or other goodies you want to provide.

You can offer free access to search your MLS listings if they go to a specific extension and say their name. Or you can offer a free home valuation in return for leaving their email address with you. There are as many ways to collect valuable marketing intelligence as there are marketers to think of them.

That’s the great thing about a good call capture system. It allows you to apply your own marketing creativity to your own business. You get the ability to measure the effectiveness of your marketing dollars and funnel your resources only into the campaigns that are working for you.

Kevin Harper is a writer, web developer, and SEO specialist covering real estate marketing and real estate call capture systems and software.

If you are in real estate marketing and sales, you have probably heard the term Real Estate CRM. Do you know what a CRM is and how to use one to make your business more profitable?

A CRM is simply a piece of software that is designed specifically for Customer Relationship Management. CRM software made for realty professionals usually includes a heavy reliance on email autoresponder marketing techniques to keep in touch and nurture your relationship with leads, clients, and potential return clients.

Using a CRM package usually starts with a lead capture website. While there is an art and science to lead capture, the basic process consists of offering a website visitor something of value in return for their contact information. The item of value may be a free report such as a digital download, a book, or access to an MLS home search tool so buyers can search for properties.

Once a lead makes contact with an agent, the CRM is configured to keep in touch using autoresponders, also called email drip campaigns. A series of emails can be written in advance and sent to leads in a fixed sequence to nurture their relationship with the agent and build trust.

At some point during the process, calls to action are conveyed to the lead to help convert their email contact, which is less personal, into a phone call, which is more likely to result in a sale. Agents who receive a phone call from such a qualified lead should be able to escalate the relationship into a face to face meeting and/or buyers agreement to begin the real estate search process.

From the agent’s perspective, a real estate CRM consists of not only the software to automate the lead nurturing process, but the content in the emails that does the heavy lifting of developing the relationship. The agent typically receives regular updates from the software about the leads being captured into the system, as well as tasks that need to be performed by the agent that cannot be automated.

For example, studies have shown that a phone call during the process (perhaps one that comes after an automated email message that tells a lead to expect a call the next day) greatly enhance the lead conversion rates. The bottom line is that the success rate of marketing using a CRM always comes from blend of sales automations technology, human-written content, and well-placed follow-ups and calls to action during the sales process. A well-designed real estate CRM can boost the conversion rates and sales numbers for real estate agents dramatically.

Kevin Harper is a writer and web developer specializing in Oklahoma City real estate and other locations nationwide. He provides real estate SEO and real estate CRM consulting to agents wanting to automate their sales process.