RISMEDIA, November 2, 2010—A key element to any website strategy is having calls to action (engagement points) sprinkled strategically throughout your site. Your website should immediately “connect” to the people that visit so that they feel they have come to the right place. But how do you do that? Here are four steps to creating powerful engagement points that will connect with buyers and sellers.
Step 1: Understand your target. This is the key foundation to any plan of attack and marketing strategy as that marketing message needs to spill over to any marketing channel you decide to use to “get the word out.” You’ll want to create clickable buttons (“Calls to Action” or “Engagement Points” sections) that answer consumers’ questions. It’s these calls to actions that will garner responses like, “That’s what I am dying to know” or “I think I should look into that.” Use interactive buttons like:
• Facing Foreclosure? There are options
• Has the market stabilized?
• Foreclosure/Bank-owned Buys
Step 2: Focus on the homepage. Place these engagement points above the fold (where they don’t have to scroll down) to interact and click through. An interactive MLS search right on the front page of the site (for example, www.miketoste.com) will create stickiness for the consumer to want to stay on your site.
Step 3: Use that real estate on the sidebar. You know, the space below your left-side navigation or the space on the right, just below your top navigation. Once you have the calls to action on the homepage, strategically position the most important calls to action along the sidebar and create it so it’s on every single page throughout the site.
Step 4: Hook up the engagement point to an automated e-mail drip. When visitors click on these sections you’ll want to capture the lead, and then shoot them into a specific e-mail drip campaign focused on their needs. When I say an e-mail campaign, I personally believe it should be an automated campaign, meaning that when they fill out the form, they go right to your cell phone as a lead and then are dropped right into an automated follow-up system. Remember, you are busy listing and selling houses so the more you can automate this process, the better. You must be positioned in front of them and as the expert.
If you are not positioned properly, they will just move on. An automated e-mail campaign with branded e-mail stationery with a link back to your website is critical for conversion. Call to actions on that stationery will engage them even better.
Tricia Andreassen is the CEO/Founder of Pro Step Marketing, a leader in brand and Web strategy for the real estate industry. As an industry expert, speaker and author, she has over 19 years’ experience in helping Realtors grow their business.
For more information, visit www.prostepmarketing.com.
